TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Truly an amazing week. Only thing I would change is I only booked for one week ??. I would have lived another week or two here!! I will give my review on what I experienced. I did her some people make comments like “I don’t see much Canadian food” with all due respect, o am not sure what that even means because the food was incredible - this comment in particular was because they had French fries probably every second day. I didn’t go to Cuba for French fries - so I was good! ?? to each their own though. Special mention to Anisley and Miquel who went out of there way to ensure we had a great week. Miquel booked all our restaurants and had them waiting for us when we checked in. When we arrived and first got off the bus, we seen our names on the podium with Royal guest names. Within minutes our luggage was out on a cart and took us to the Royal Side check in. Where we met Miquel. He answered any questions we had and was there to book excursions, our restaurants and if we had questions etc. Anisley provided the utmost professional and personal touch to all our questions before and after arriving. Room & Pools I would ?? recommend the swim up rooms on the Royal Side. Worth every penny!! My husband and I were in 7148 and my brother and his wife were in 7150. Comfy bed and pillows, jet tub, separate AMAZING rain shower. Loved that shower. Hot water all the time and water pressure number one! Air conditioning ?? Walk right out of our room to two sun beds and maybe 10 feet or so - walk right into the pool. Very large pool! Swim up bar- with excellent bar service from 10-5 daily! Restaurants French a la carte main side We had soup, chicken salad, chicken stir fry ?? Japanese Main side Omg. This was one of my favourites- a must do!!! The food and the experience .. wow. Main Buffett on main side Best ice cream ever!! We had strawberry, French vanilla, chocolate on different nights for dessert . Many little cakes too. The food there was always choice of chicken, fish, pork and/or beef, pasta station, salad bar and some hot sides. Always soup too. Love their soup. Italian main side. Spaghetti Bolognese with Steak is what I had, so good. My husband and other couple had the pizza. It was a flatbread and was enough for two to share as an appetizer or one for a meal. My husband said it was good too. Hill Top Royal side but believe main side could book this a la Carte as well. Ambiance, ocean view, pianist playing during dinner, tomato cheese, lobster and chicken and steamed veggies. With brownie, flan or cheesecake. Cheesecake at this resort was more like a bread pudding which I live anyway lol. Husband and other couple had the brownie and said it was really good. Rockhouse on main side close to the entrance of the Royal side, Hamburgers, hotdogs daily 24 hours. There was only one afternoon they ran out of buns but shortly after had them again. Daily there are other specials like pasta, fried potato chips, French fries etc. They have mustard but the resort didn’t have ketchup. Didn’t bother me but if you love ketchup maybe bring some packets. This is a great open air cafe style restaurant/bar 24 hours. Royal side of you have the swim up you can get room service if you want from here. Mimimar on the Royal Side This was the main restaurant on Royal Side. Adjoined to the Royal lobby. I had my coffee here early morning (bar here is open 24 hours just outside restaurant). Breakfast is a la carte for egg chive and bacon, fruit, cereal, ham, cheese, and toast is all Buffett. Bacon and eggs available daily. We went around 730am not sure about if you go later. We ate lunch here, or the rock house, Port Royal, or main Buffett. Port Royal- royal side closest to the beach. Open air restaurant opened for lunch. Best Cuban soup!! Had fruit buffet, and choice of chicken, fish, beef and/or pork. Bread and pastries on all places I had them were very good. I don’t have a massage but heard they were excellent. Disco was closed for maintenance but opened once for Canadian day. Wish that had of been opened! Few tips from my experience: Do NOT change up you money for pesos on the initial bus ride to the hotel. We changed up $50 Canadian for 6000 pesos through the tour guide on the bus. Many on the bus did. Bank rate- seemed very good actually got more for our money. What they didn’t tell me was no one wants pesos. I’m the town our 50.00 (6000 pesos) was worth around 10.00. Can’t change it back. So we used it in the market. Lesson learned. ?? Canadian is widely accepted and we brought Canadian. The mall in Varadero only takes US or credit card. I have been in Varadero 20+ times and this time, like everywhere in the world, things have gone up. Like in the town a beer a few years ago was 1.00 now is 5.00 USD. But some places take CAD on par. Tips on the resort we tipped 5 or 10 Canadian. I learned the local people each time they go to the bank they pay a fee “per bill” so receiving 1.00 in US (as they can’t take any coin) they pay per bill. Some people will ask you to change it up for them like give them a 20 bill for 20 smaller bills. We did that of course to help. Also they cannot take a bill to the bank if there are any tears or tape etc on the bills so I checked all the bills at the bank before I left. The double decker bus picks you up right outside the hotel. 2 people for 10 US or 15 CAD or credit card. Keep your ticket and hop on and off as many times as you want for that day. So I could go on and on!! My review you will see is a positive one. Not only do this hotel and staff deserve that but because it is my experience. I’m a positive person most of the time lol, and I look to make the best out of everything to ensure I have the best vacation. This is not to make fun of anyone but I seen people complaining about no ketchup and getting visibly angry with staff. Can you imagine what that must look like to the staff? They go home to an actual “food shortage”. There is NO food shortage on the resort . There maybe less choices at times but who cares!!! I don’t need more than 5 choices of meat every single meal. I felt so bad for staff several times and apologized for other people. Oh flies!! The noseeems- are a thing. You cannot see these little pests. Early evening to early morning. I used a lot of fly spray before going to supper. I got 2 flies bites for the week but my brother got a few more on his legs. He said he wished he would have brought some light pants for the evenings. Pants are recommended but not enforced at a La Cartes. My husband and brother wore dress shorts. Beach was beautiful as usual in Varadero!! Minute walk from Royal side. Bit windy when we were there so spent most time by the Royal side pool. Wi-Fi on the resort - you hook up once and good to go! Only enter the password once. I found it faster though to turn off wi-fi and turn it back on daily and connect to “Varadero” and good to go again! Wi fi all over the resort. We booked Sunwing. Get Elite Plus ??. The larger seats and no lineups. The lineup on the return at the Varadero airport was long but the Elite plus had 8 people. We booked the Varadero airport VIP lounge. Again week worth it. Sit in air conditioned room with free access to food, and drinks and wi-fi. There is no smoking at all in the airport anymore except for a separate smoking room in VIP. Ok I think that is it, for now!

This is not the place for your money. You will be very disappointed. People are very nice but everything else is not good. Lots of mosquitos inside the rooms.

I would like to express my disappointment of this resort. We have had nothing but problems with the staff, we had no running water for a day so we couldn't use the toilet or shower, the bathrooms by the pool? Restaurants, and lobby were not working either. We booked reservations for dinner and was booked completely wrong so they turned us away for dinner. Our room key stopped working 4 times that we had to get a technician to come fix it. We also asked for water in our room and it took them 2 days to bring it. They ran out of food, the staff always had a different response. Lastnight I was sitting in the courtyard and I saw an altercation between 2 staff members, they had to be pulled apart and one looked intoxicated. The last but not least when we went to check out, the housekeeper accused us of steeling the beach towels, so when I went to speak to the front desk they said they could not check us out without the towel! I am now in tears as again we are being accused!! I demanded a manager, so they told us to speak to customer service. When we did and I explained again to them and told them to search our bags, they received a call from the housekeeper and they found the towel. We do not recommend this hotel to anybody! Our experience was not good at this resort and we are very upset on how we were treated! We do want to say though the excursions and the entertainment staff were amazing, but we will never come back to this resort.

We had a great time at the princessa paradisus del mar! The entertainment staff was impeccable. Rigo, Kevin, Dariel, and Carlos made our trip SO much fun with constant dancing and games. Make sure to find these guys if you are there!

Third time there, all stays were fantastic!! Staff are amazing always smiling and very helpful Rooms were clean Orestes the bartender on the royal side, very friendly and always smiling. Leo very helpful and always took time to come and talk to us. Alcides one of the grounds keeper, amazing on our second trip had some mosquito bites and Alcides offered to get some aloe, saw him this time as well, very friendly and works very hard. We will be back again this year.