Star class pool and bar, Fabian was a excellent waiter, he made sure our drinks kept coming and Valery the bartender was making the drinks just like we liked, had a great day with great service and will definitely come back to this pool during our stay

We just got back from a 5 day stay at this hotel. Prior to going I tried contacting the hotel twice via email (both ignored) and once via international phone call (011 506 4703 1000) for specific information: restaurant menus, spa menu, cabana info. While I did reach an staff member at the hotel on the international line they refused to e-mail the information or to make restaurant reservations for the day of our arrival. 1. Do not go for the BEACH. See pictures. It is a shallow bay with "black sand" & pebbles. Worn loungers that birds poop on and tree debris falls on are not cleaned. Rarely saw guests on the beach and never saw beach drink service. There is no "water sports hut" like at other all-inclusives. You can take out kayaks only at certain times that the resort schedules tours. No snorkeling or hobie cats or paddle boards. There are local vendors set up but they are super polite and take your firm "no thank you." That being said, we heard others at the bar saying they had amazing massages on the beach for $60, as well a good catamaran excursion that they were able to barter down the price on for their group. 2. We stayed in Star Class. Buildings #25 and #26 (and I think buildings #10 and #11 at the top of the hill near the main building) are the "upgraded" rooms. Building 26 was a perfect location! We could easily walk to the star pool, star bar. The main pool area which also has the gym, spa, Guy's Burgers, the Tex-Mex restaurant (which offers a sit down breakfast menu for star class guests), the Italian restaurant, the Kid's club & their pool and a small very expensive souvenir shop were about 2 flights of stairs down. Our ROOM was adequate, cramped, and not super clean. Do not plan for an adult to sleep on the pull out sofa. Mattress is about 2 inches thick. Cannot sleep on it like a sofa as it is love seat length and cushions are also thin. Also, if using as a bed they just make it up each day meaning your coffee table is stowed under the sidebar and you have 1 kitchen chair to sit on in the room. Our two queen beds were very firm. Beds and loveseat are all lined up in a row facing a wall with a TV. There are pocket doors on both ends. The bathroom is "galley" style on the other side of the wall with the toilet behind a frosted door at one end and the shower behind a frosted door at the other end. The mini-bar (which they kindly refilled daily with our requested non-alcoholic drinks), safe, drawers, closet, and a big dual sink area are between them. The shower is huge and has a bench to sit down on as well as a nice hand-held nozzle and a rain shower head to choose from. Weirdly it had a window that was partially frosted and always open to a screen for ventilation. We were on the ground floor and groundskeepers started mowing and blowing as early as 8am (I don't blame them it was 90-100F most days). Just felt like they could easily see in. 3. POOLS open 10am-7pm. Pretty clean and saw them shock with chlorine twice although they said it was done nightly. Activities team did a good job of trying to engage guests. Water features are nice with two "waterfalls" to massage neck & shoulders and 5 whirlpools (3 worked) attached to the main pools so they were the same temp as the pool (which was warm). Main pool swim up bar opened at 10 and closed at 3 or 4 each day meaning everyone then did mob the "Point Break 2 The Sequel" swim up bar in the smaller pool making it a bit crowded until it closed at 7. There is NO shade. There are pool umbrellas but the south side of the pool is in blazing sun until about 4. The north side of the pool was a bit shadier in the morning but got full sun 12-sundown around 6pm. Only shade in the pool is under the bar awning. The main pool does have a large "shelf" if you like to lay in 6 inches of water while you tan. My sister would stake out spots around 7 each morning but there was always a lounger available. 4. Swim up BAR ran out of coconut cream multiple days we were there. Seriously, on my tropical vacation? 5/7 of the non-alcoholic drinks on the menu need coconut cream. There were mixers of pina colada (which was also always running out) and strawberry daiquiri. If I was so inclined I could get out and climb two flights of stairs to the star bar and get my drinks but if you were not in the star class you just had to drink something else. I am attaching the Star Class bar menu, the main bars had a pared down version. The bartenders were always willing to make you any request and they were free with the pours. I did notice most people wanting a buzz were requesting 2, 3, or even 4 shots in each drink so I believe the liquor might have been watered down. I did witness one employee add water to a bottle or some blue liquor and place it back in use. Despite having trouble getting supplies, the bar tenders did an amazing job engaging with guests and keeping the drinks flowing. We especially loved Edu (who needs a raise, a lunch break, and some help after 4 pm) at Point Break 2. For some reason at the same time they closed the main swim up bar they made Edu the ONLY bartender at the one remaining swim up bar! My niece also said Alonso was good and I found Alain at the Star class bar to be wonderful. Thanks guys! You made our vacation! One more tequila sunrise please! :) 5. RESTAURANTS. Ugh. They are all hot. I don't think they air-condition them. Routinely asked for ice for my drink or a water refill 2-3 times before getting water. Only succeeded in getting ice twice all week. Also no salt and pepper. Dinner seatings are 6 pm, 7:30, and 9. Evening entertainment is at 8:30. Ask for 7:30. We had asked for 9pm. Bad idea! They want to close so at 9:30 they are asking for your dessert order. The steakhouse ran out of creme brulee! The buffet (So-Cal) was sad. Most meats were seriously over-cooked/dry. They leaned heavily on pork as is the Tico culture, but they massacred all beef by cooking it to shoe-leather. Any night I ate there I chose the grilled chicken and not much else. They did have some well-seasoned beans and rice and a nice selection of grilled vegetables. Desserts were meh. We did ask for a crepe at the crepe station one night and got an eye-roll for our trouble. I couldn't really blame her. They had one girl trying to make crepes, serve ice cream, and give out any other dessert you wanted. The had all desserts behind a glass case so you had to ask for anything you wanted. Despite their advertising I never saw a churro, or pico or guacamole here. Guy's Burger Joint is the only lunch choice near the pool. You can get a decent burger, or chicken sandwich or chicken nuggets (2 in an order, you have to specifically ask for more). All come with fries. Limited napkins (you can get paper towels in the handicapped stall at the women's restroom to the right) and no silverware. For my loaded fries with cheese, bacon, and scallions... A little secret: you can also order pizza that they make at the Italian restaurant next door. Don't plan or asking for a specific type (I asked for margarita and was told no they only had cheese and ham. Ok, I can roll with it. Give me that.) She pushed out my plate and it was cheese pizza, no ham. I asked where the ham was. She said it was cheese and ham pizza. Thought it might be a language barrier and she meant pepperoni that might be hiding under the cheese. Nope, plain cheese pizza with gargonzola (gag!) We did eat at GUSTO Italian. Had asked for spaghetti and meatballs then changed my mind to lasagna. They misunderstood and brought both. Both were inedible. Meatballs were tiny, hard, overcooked pucks. Tomato sauce tasted like hot peppers. Lasagna noodles were so overcooked they were mush, literally. Lasagna had lots of meat but no actual cheese or sauce. My family said the farfalle with snapper and the chicken with pesto were "ok". We ordered all the desserts: cheesecake, tiramisu (dry) and cannoli (wet, soaked in fruit puree). Also tried the SUNSET STRIP steakhouse. Walked out of the second meal because it was so hot and the service was so bad. Overall restaurant service was terrible. They are all overworked. We would see them at Guy's at lunch then exhausted 7 hours later serving dinner. Steaks were good but NY strip sometimes fatty and filets were small. Ask for your meat cooked one step more than you really want it here. Asked for medium rare (warm pink center). Got rare. Sent it back. Got a new only minimally less rare steak. (see photo) Also ask for 2 potatoes. They cut a regular russet in half and call it a baked potato. They top it with cream cheese. If you order fries ask them to salt them! We were not there long enough to try the Teppanyaki or Tex-Mex (although that menu did look good). My sister said the fuel cafe (only open 6-6) had good mochas and red velvet cupcakes. The yogurt parfait I got from there was warm. They had the same ice-cream bar as the buffet (picture). 6. My sister tried the GYM. Open 6-8. Must be 16 to use. About 3 treadmills that there is stiff competition for at 7am. It looked pretty clean & compact but was oddly on the second floor over the spa. You know heat rises...the spa was very cool but the gym less so and the top floor where they do morning yoga was full rooftop sun! 7. STAR CLASS. We got a butler who asked about dining reservations the first day we met him. The big benefit of this is that he is supposed to make dining reservations so you don't have to stand in line to do it each morning. Star class is supposed to get priority "when available." When we realized 9pm was too late and asked to switch to 7:30 he was only able to get us 8:30 then there was a wait at the restaurant so we were seated at 8:45. On the plus side he did blow up our pool rafts for us. The special "green room lounge" is where they check you in and out. There is a check in desk with 2 chairs in front of it and another chair or two in the room. It is dark. The food (mostly lunch meat sandwiches) sits out all day. We did grab some water from here before heading out on excursions. And check out here was fast, but your whole party has to be there so they can cut off your bracelet and staple it to some paperwork. The special star class pool is smaller than you would find in most apartment complexes. The star bar is nice and well-stocked.