TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Room (Presidential Suite): 5 stars. Pics and virtual tours online are accurate. AMAZING room, excessively large, 3 bedrooms, 5 full baths, large private pool, beachfront. We spent 90% of our time at our room and loved it. Food: 2 stars. Inconsistent quality that spans from pretty good to inedible with no discernible pattern. Mostly meh. You won’t starve but you won’t enjoy this aspect of the vacation. We got all the reservations we wanted through our butler but that process really sucks for everyone else. Service: 2 stars. Again, inconsistent. Some staff are great (particularly in preferred areas) but most seem disgruntled. Cleanliness and upkeep: 4 stars. Pretty good, but a few minor details in need of maintenance (e.g. screen in theatre). Entertainment: 2 stars. Theatre shows are awful but people at the pool and beach parties seemed to be enjoying themselves. Beach: 5 stars. Wide, clean, soft sand. Pretty quiet on our end. You can walk beyond the resort for a long way. Value for money: 5 stars. I searched for months to try to find a comparable room at another resort, and the closest matches cost 3-5x what I paid at Serenade. We likely won’t be back (because of food) but would recommend to others who prioritize value and a large room over resort services.

We are very experienced travelers and I typically post reviews that assist people in making informed decisions and not focusing on a single positive/negative experience. We just returned after spending 1 week at the "Adult side". This is not a 5-star resort; however, keep in mind that all resorts have good/bad. Reception - Not overly helpful or friendly. If you arrive before 3 pm, they ask for 20 USD for early check-in, even if rooms are available. A bit of a 'voluntary' shake down, which you can decline. Lobby - very dated furniture and cosmetically could use some work. The family side is more comfortable and maintained better. The trade off is kids or no kids? Rooms - quite dated, but clean. Door locks are a bit sketchy. Double check your room locks properly. Beach - not very long. They work diligently in the morning to remove seaweed, but it really is a never ending job. They seem to try harder than other neighbouring resort. Plenty of beach chairs and umbrellas. Pools - not overly crowded, the water is a bit cool. Staff - alot of new staff and their knowledge of other entities of the resort are very low. They have a job they do a job. Communication is relatively poor, so its hard to get the answer to a simple question. The "App" - everything is done through the app and QR codes. Pretty standard wherever you go. It is 'hit' or 'miss'. Restaurants - The family side buffet seems to have a better selection than the adult side. Once again, you have an option. Kids vs no Kids. La Palapa is a good restaurant, they call it Italian, but that is a bit of a stretch. Maybe North American style Italian. Koi Asian - is a very good restaurant. Unfortunately, it is in the same location as Teppanyaki, so not a nice quiet lace - as you hear cheering from the Teppanyaki show. Steak restaurant is quite good for the meat lovers. Mediterranean restaurant on the family side is a complete disaster. Not nice atmosphere, the menu is not really Mediterranean at all. The food is mediocre. A complete fail. There are some great staff. Pabel at the main buffet (adult side) may be one of the hardest working resort staff I have ever seen. Very friendly and professional. Easy to get change (dollar bills) at the coffee shop. Reception is really not overly friendly or competent. The Elite status is not worth the extra money. There is no non-alcoholic beer. Not a show stopper for people, but like I mentioned, just giving facts to help with your decision. I would say this is a 4.2 star. Feel free to check out my other google reviews on individual restaurants - and no, I don't make any money, just like to write about my travel experiences and possibly provide assistance to others. Best of luck with your decision

I went with 2 friends for a 2 week holiday here. We absolutely loved our stay, animation team were great and staff were friendly. Everyone here is so chatty and it was great meeting people The evening shows were very entertaining, our favourite was the beach party. Definitely get a drink called ‘mudslide’ when you’re there - it was our favourite drink of the holiday! Our room was clean, there were a few stains on the bed sheets but these looked like make up stains, the bedding had clearly been washed. Our room did need a few finishing touches, paint marks still on the floor, rust ect but it was still really clean and didn’t bother us Loads of variety with the buffet, we went to the steak, sushi and Italian restaurants which were incredible. The beach was well maintained, sometimes there was seaweed but this didn’t effect us going into the sea and it was very minimumal. We also saw people always cleaning this up The only negatives I had were that I became really ill after the first week. Went to the onsite doctors who said it was gastroenteritis, no idea if this was from the food, drinks, other people but it was such a shame. Maybe a sanitary issue that needs to be looked into? It stopped me being able to enjoy all of the food they had on offer We were also locked outside of our room one day after a long excursion. We reported there was an issue with the fob, (it wasn’t the cards) that had most likely ran out of battery. It took security nearly an hour to get to us and repair it. After a long day on an excursion all we wanted to do was get into our room. Our safe battery also ran out on another day, maintenance only took around 5 minutes to get to us to sort this so this was a much better service Overall it was a fantastic stay and we didn’t want to come home.

PLEASE - PLEASE -PLEASE read this review. I am not writing it out of anger or malice; it is simply my honest assessment of this resort/hotel. Bottomline, you get what you pay for.... it is cheap for a reason. It's a large volume driven hotel NOT focused on quality of service, accommodations or food. I would have preferred to pay more and receive a higher quality experience. Facilities - The resort was probably well maintained and appealing in its earlier days but is quite rundown and not cared for. The rooms smelled musty. There was black mold on the ceiling in the large buffet style restaurant. Rooms were poorly cleaned - hair in bathrooms and on bed sheets. AC that just blew air around the room but did not cool at all. Food - the meals were quite frankly not very good. Example - Cold french fries, cold fried calamari, wilted and brown lettuce in the salads, odd tasting fruit, strange looking meats. Service - most of the employees/staff were dismissive and didn't seem to really want to work. Often they were sitting around and not interested in being helpful. There were some that were warm, friendly but I'd say that was the minority.

So! Absolute honesty. The location of the Hotel is convenient, $30 USD from the airport in a Taxi. The Atmosphere in the hotel is one of excitement at first, but that quickly wares thin after 2 to 3 days. I’ll explain later. We were taken to our room (Superior Room Jetted Tub Ocean View) and the first thing we noticed in the hallway was the smell of mould. We entered the room which was EXTREMELY clean however the general maintenance and upkeep of the balcony area was sub par to say the least. It was very dirty. Loungers stained, ripped and look like they’d never been changed. The balcony was so loose it was one heavy lean away from a 20’ fall. And the jetted tub was filthy. All the other rooms were the same after management inspected them which led to us being moved immediately (The staff here are phenomenal and work with you to make sure things are right). The next room was again EXTREMELY clean and was overall a better room, however mould and rotten tiles throughout the hotel, lights hanging off the wall with exposed wires and exposed wires on our balcony (I have photos if management want them) just put the nail in the coffin for me as far as the Hotel Quality and upkeep. The Pools on the family side are great, with the staff once again making this experience bearable. They truly are the main thing keeping this hotel together. In every pool Spanish Music, Beach Party was Spanish music and the Nightclub Spanish music, the Sports Bar was Spanish Music and Restaurants……….Spanish Music. It really wears on the nerves and lacks creativity. Changing up the music in the pools would’ve been amazing as the pools are great and we had the best times in the pools with other guests. Restaurants are great just book in advance. The buffet is ok, plenty to choose from but as I say after 3 days it really doesn’t change much. One member of staff in the Sports Bar (male) was so put out serving and very rude we only went there twice. PS. Pool tables should be free at least to offer some entertainment from the Spanish TV. The room we stayed in after being moved was up there in terms of expense. Probably the second most expensive (i’ll let you guys google that) and on the roof was the entire air handling units for the whole Preferred Club rooms. Such bad planning and lack of thought. It sounded like an Apache Helicopter was taking off throughout the night. Nevertheless still got sleep as the beds are suuuuuuuuper comfy. Do not be swayed into the “preferred club” wrist bands. ABSOLUTELY NOT worth it. As far as value for money, I wouldn’t stay here again unfortunately which is sad because the staff were amazing and I would’ve loved to see them again. TIP YOUR STAFF!!!!!!!!!! $1 if they’re making you cocktails. $1 at the buffet and $5 at the restaurants. Don’t be those people. AND LAST OF ALL, fix the wide screen in the theatre for god sake, it’s been like that for years and another example of the owners just not being bothered.