El Dorado Casitas Royale by Karisma

Great trip overall and hard to have a bad time when weather is nice on the beach/Mexico, however we all ended up having a conversation with the GM (America was her name) of the hotels at the very end of the trip. I know we were not alone on our complaints as well and there was an older couple from TX that said they had been coming for 12 years and this was the worst experience they had ever had. Also to add to that, ended up hearing that from multiple people and plenty of talks about “new management”, stuff like that. Starting with positives… 1) I would say overall the food at El Dorado was really good and definitely some of the best I’ve had at an all-inclusive. 2) Would also say the setup of the lazy river, pool, and casitas were also a great choice for a group of 4 couples. 3) The live entertainment was also pretty good. 4) Rooms were great except a few small issues with electricity and plumbing. On to the negatives…. 1) I guess I’d lead off with the service was definitely not worth the premium you’d expect at a 4 diamond hotel, arguably bad a. Concierge was worthless; never went out of their way once and most of the time didn’t give much direction at all. We didn’t get a great tour of the resort initially besides a golf ride to resorts and at the end of the trip found out a lot of stuff we had no idea about (restaurants mainly) b. Transportation around the resort was very difficult; golf carts didn’t show up and also drivers were rude so as this resort is very big it was frustrating with our group i. Also on this note….had gone to breakfast after going on walk with group in the morning, went into one breakfast spot at Generations and was told I couldn’t eat there without sleeves even though there were woman with sleeves and children running around naked …seemed silly and they made me leave without offering any alternative. I ended up talking 2-3 staff about a “to go” plate and had to eat outside while everyone else ate inside. Wanted to head back to room and get shirt but would have taken too long to walk and my cart never showed up!! c. Getting lunch was nearly impossible; waits were typically 30min-1.5 or they would refuse to even take you. We ended up skipping lunches most days or going back to room and getting room service. Kind of a big bummer with the group. d. Always were out of towels at the pools and would never go try and get us new ones—very weird experience. e. Dinner service was hit and miss. We went to one of the “nice” Italian restaurants and the service was awful. We had been spearfishing all day and wanted them to leave water at the table to drink to rehydrate but the staff told one of my guests no, myself no, and I had to go talk with his supervisor to get water bottles at the table…literally had never experienced anything like it. I think their point was they wanted to fill our glasses, but they were so slow it didn’t make sense and ended up really upsetting me. Its free table water for pete’s sake and they had no problem leaving the $$$$$ wine. f. Last night for dinner they had a Mexican Fiesta and essentially closed down all the restaurants other than the buffet style on the beach; I was on the phone for 2 hours trying to get us a spot to sit down (we had an excursion and grp didn’t want to eat cold buffet 2 hours after it started) and ended up talking to manager of Casitas (Ivan) after being told restaurants weren’t available initially by the bell boy (concierge hung up on me). Ivan said in fact restaurants WERE available and he didn’t know why concierge didn’t tell us that and set us up….we finally got in and got food, but it was a waste of time, I got hung up on twice while holding, and was overall very terrible service!! Very frustrating. 2) The beach was rocky and not well kept—I know we knew of this going in but the girls never swam in the beach as it was too rocky to get in. Beach was also overrun with seaweed (I get that to some degree but know you can run a tractor and clean too) 3) Electricity at the casitas kept going out the entire time. I know they were doing construction right across from our rooms, but also know the entire block of our casita section lights were struggling. 4) Plumbing was awful…we had 3 rooms were the toilets wouldn’t flush and ended up turning into a joke that our crap would just sit until the morning and the plumber could come get it. Yikes. Overall never have complained as you know but really felt bad as I had 1 couple that we traveled with that never been to Mexico and 1 couple that had never been to the gulf side....and really wanted to show them how cool and nice it can be. One of the guys, and I know it was a joke, even asked if I could cover the extra $$ spread between Excellence resorts which we had also looked at…which again just frustrates me as I too wish I would have spent less and gone to the Excellence for what I've heard is a great experience and resort. I’m not sure what their deal is but its apparent there is a problem going on made that very clear to America the GM. Overall want to say she was GREAT to work with and very understanding to talk with before we left. We ALL talked to her for roughly 30 minutes and she said she would try and make it right and get back to me. Bottom line, in retrospect I wish we would have gone to Excellence and will definitely plan on that direction the next time we go to Mexico and would not stay here again at that rate/at all. Hope this helps someone for the future......

Great vacation with my little sister. Rudy and Candido did a great job with working together to ensure our visit was great! Attentive, delivered and ensured all of our requests were made, and personable enough - treated us like family. Make sure to download whatsapp before arriving so that you are able to communicate with your butler when they are running around or when you arent near your room. We downloaded the app and were able to make reservations and ask for additional items without issue. I also want to thank Alexis for his help and carlos their head butler for all his support in getting request done for us. A shot ou to Yare from santa fe always so welcoming.