|
Tryp Hotel, Cayo Coco 09/03/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Fair
My husband and I are in our late 30's, early 40's and we just returned from the Tryp on September 1st after a 2 week stay. We would like to begin this review with the things we liked about our vacation and this hotel. The hotel is very large and spread out. It has the capacity to hold 1240 guests. The grounds are magnificent and very clean, as is the room. The coconut trees are tall and the gardens and landscaping are very pleasing to the eye. There were dozens of varieties of tropical flowers everywhere and we enjoyed strolls around the resort. We paid extra for an ocean view room and were very pleased we did so - we could watch the sunrise over the ocean from our third floor balcony in room 865. The room was simple but very clean. No strange creepy crawlys anywhere. The food at the main buffet was just fine for us as was the pizza hut and the grill on the beach. The variety of foods was entirely satisfactory. The beach was about 2 miles long, and you could walk out far and the water was still shallow - very pretty beach. We had great adventures exploring the island of Cayo Coco, Cayo Guillermo and the Cuban mainland on mopeds. They were a good price and it saved us a lot of money finding things on our own rather than paying for their established excursions. For $20.00US you could rent a moped for 6 hours. We rented 2 mopeds and took a trip to the mainland and visited the city of Moron. That was very eye-opening. The causway that connects the island to the mainland is very long and it was just a road that goes into the water - really cool; windy, but cool. We also rode over to the adjacent island of Cayo Guillermo twice and explored the other resorts there on our first trip and on the second trip we went to a wild beach called Pillar. The road there at the end is a bit rocky but no big deal. We parked the bikes and from the beach we paid a man $10.00US to take us to the island of Media Luna on a catamaran. Once on the island we paid a guide $6.00US to show us where the shipwreck and the reef was for snorkling. We had our own equipment. That was really great fun - it cost us a total of $56.00 for 2 mopeds, catamaran and guide, whereas the established excursions the hotel offers would have cost us $140.00US for 2 people for the same thing (plus a small lobster lunch). On our first day at the briefing the Sunquest representative told us the roads were bad and riddled with pot holes. However we believe they attempt to deter people from exploring on their own with the hope that they will purchase their expensive packages. The road to Moron is superb all the way and as we said only towards the end of the road on Cayo Guillermo, just before you hit Playa Pillar, the road is a bit rocky and rough for about 10 minutes. We saw a huge black snake crossing this road - really exciting (we like nature). On the resort they have 8 flamingos in a small pond in front of building 3 - we had fun feeding them and the smallest one will take bread right out of your hand. So I guess because we are adventurous (and careful) we had a lot of fun on our little moped excursions. We would like to add that at the hotel they sell a lot of beautiful crochet garments made by the local people for a very reasonable price. I bought several dresses and gifts of this type.
The bad things - the hotel had tons of kids. If you don't mind a lot of screaming children of all ages constantly screaming everywhere you go, then this will not bother you. The hotel has only 2 bars and not enough bartenders - long waits for beverages and the hotel was only at about half capacity. There were no face cloths in the room and the 13" T.V. had only 2 or 3 movie stations. There was no clock radio and no clock. The air conditioner had one temperature - freezing or off. You could not adjust the dial to anything above 5 degrees or it would shut off and not come back on again. We inquired at the front desk about that but they just brushed us off. The fridge in the room only had one bottle of water in it when we arrived and it is not re-stocked. You have to go to the bar and have them re-fill this bottle for the duration of your stay. The beach, which was long and beautiful was very narrow - at high tide it is entirely obliterated in a lot of places and you will find your towels and belongings in the water if you are not careful. The beach is very windy too - not good for swimming, just wading. There are not nearly enough palapas and chairs for all the guests so you have to get up early and put your towels on the chairs. Also. there is no off-shore snorkling - you must pay to go out to the nearby reef - $15.00 per person for the Hobie Cats to take you there to snorkel for about 1 hour. The 'palapas' on the beach have 2 inch gaps between the boards up top so you will get a stripey burn if you are not careful. Also, although they attempted to clean the beach of seaweed in the mornings, they didn't do a great job. Plus there are no garbage cans anywhere so tourists and natives through plastic cups, bottles and bags everywhere, which are not always cleaned up. The worst part of this vacation was the service at the hotel and the lack of spraying for mosquitos on the hotel grounds. The tourists were eaten alive in the evenings during sunset and during the nightly shows. We asked at the front desk if they sprayed and we were brushed off by the manager. We know others roughed it, as evidenced by the huge red welts all over their bodies. But my husband and I didn't like getting bitten, so after dinner we were confined to our room - some nights weren't too bad - but most were impossible. You could get them swarming all over you and we stayed in our room for most of the evenings. The evenings shows that we did see were not very entertaining. They were supposed to start every night at 9:30 but often didn't start until closer to 10:00. Also between 9 and 9:30 they had kids on stage and included them in games, which is really nice, but was not very interesting for us. There is a fairly long walk from the beach to the buffet and lunch didn't start until 1pm. The beach grill is good, but a little monotonous after a while. At the buffet the waiters and waitresses try really hard to be pleasing and they did a great job. And the buffet, although very satisfying, often quickly ran out of food items which took a long time to be replaced and sometimes were not replaced at all, even if you asked several times. There was only one chef cooking meat and fish at dinner and the line-ups were ridiculous. One night we waited 20 minutes for shrimp and when we got them they were still raw in the middle. In the morning only one chef prepared omellettes and sometimes you had 12 - 15 people in line. Often we just passed on waiting. The coffee was absolute tar, I cannot mince words there. It was gritty and black and very very strong. The tea was awful too, so bring your own. Also the milk was kept boiling in a metal pot, alongside with boiling water and hot coffee. The problem was the milk was often sour, burnt, boiling and brown due to being burnt. Some days were good, some bad - it would just depend. I'm a big tea drinker, so it kinda disappointed me. Also if they ran out of milk or boiling water it would take approximately 45 minutes to bring out more, which I couldn't understand. The plates and cutlery were dirty with food from the previous users caked on. Also so were the cotton napkins - I don't think they replaced them after every use - other people's food was fresh on my napkin many times. My husband also got flat beer twice at dinner and had to wait for some of the bubbly stuff. One of the most irritating things was the music they played at this resort. They played one CD over and over and over again for 2 weeks straight. You could hear it at breakfast, lunch and dinner, in the lobby and all other places in the main hotel area. This CD was elevator piano music which had only about 5 songs on it. The songs were the piano elevator renditions of the "Girl from Ipanema" and "I've got you under my spell" and other quirky tunes that Sinatra did well. I did think I was going to go insane - I knew every note before I left. We complained to the wait staff and they said they've gotten numerous complaints but that management just brushes these complaints off and won't add any more variety to the hotel tunes. It may sound petty just reading this but believe me, down there, listening to it constantly, it was very difficult. We also paid 3 dollars for 30 minutes of internet service which could be broken up if you didn't use all 30 minutes all at once. We used 15 minutes and several days later went to use the remainder and could not log in - had to get the technician to log us back in after a lot of insulting questions - and after he finished his break - and after we came back several times. All in all we found we spent a lot of time waiting for stuff - and the people at the reception desk and other parts of the hotel where they had access to a telephone were too busy chatting with their friends and treated us like we were interrupting their gab session.
One last thing we would like to mention is that it appears as if this hotel is being over-run by the inhabitants of this island. There were many natives on the beach beside us at the end, which is great - we love the people, but they go into the restaurants and take large amounts of food and beverages of all kinds away with them. Also they use the beach chairs and paddle boats and actually sit in the restaurants and eat - some are actual residents of the hotels and have wristbands and that's entirely different. But we noticed that they got special treatment also, even if they weren't guests and got more food at the omelette section for example and were served quicker. I can't blame people for taking home left-overs - I encourage that there should be no waste. But this was a blatant abuse of a facility which we pay for and they use at our expense. Once we were on the beach, we left for lunch and were gone about 1 hour and when we came back there was a Cuban woman laying on my husbands towel and chair, which I feel is not acceptable. When you take into account all of the above problems, I am led to believe that this hotel is suffering from an upper management problem. Whenever we needed something, we were treated like we were being irritating.
All in all we had a good time, because we loved our excursions and the use of the mopeds. We enjoyed the hotel grounds, the animals, the swimming and snorkling and the food - before it ran out. But we would not return. This place is however perfect for a family on a budget and for young teenagers who just want to party. But for the more discerning traveller, who expects a little more from their resort, you will find it wanting. It prompts us to bear in mind the immense difference between a 4 and a 5 star resort of this type.
Feel free to e-mail with questions.
Sincerely,
Sanja and Andy Geist
Sanja Geist
|
