Barcelo Solymar 09/08/2003
Reviewers Rating: Excellent
My family was at the Barcelo from August 30 to Sept 6 2003. This was our second time, we visited last year in Sept also. Things have improved over last year. I know there have been alot of negative remarks about this hotel but we seem to have a good time there. They definitely take care of repeat customers. Upon check in we had requested the 2 story villas and were told they had none available but when we mentioned that we had visited last year things changed pretty quick. They were supposed to have been notified that we were repeat and we were told repeat customers get a fruit basket and bottle of rum in the room. They did bring us a bottle with a nice note the next day which we thanked them for. Our room was very nice good for a family with 2 children. Two televisions two washrooms dining room living room and the bedroom upstairs.
Now to the food ..... My opinion is that this has improved somewhat. We had lobster 3 nights and the hamburgers were actually quite tasty. Yes it seemed they did recycle the food at the buffet the next morning but there was a choice of where you could eat so that was not too bad. The new Animation leader was AWESOME! Jiovanni "chocolate" was in our opinion one of the nicest people we met there. Everybody else seemed to agree. The shows at night were actually quite good. During the day they had magic shows by the pool one day synchronized swimmers the next and even acrobats on the wednesday. The ocean was magnificent never had a problem getting a chair and never really waited in any lineups. That's why we go the first week in Sept. Wish they would put a water slide or something more for the kids, there was Miss Jenny playing games with them but we brought our own inflatable crocodile and ball as they did not have too much in that department. The staff on the whole were pleasant and very friendly. Yes there were some miserable people but we tended to stay away from them and tipped the ones who looked happy. We met alot of people on the plane again this year going to various resorts and on the way back, there were quite a few who were not very satisfied with Cuba but after being there last year we think we knew what to expect so for us it was great ! We will probably be back again next year we have made lots of friends there we do like the hotel compared to some of the others we saw. This is not a party hotel the disco was open from 11:00 to about 2:00 am but most people went to La Rumba or the Cave.

Anybody going there please say hello to "chocolate" from DORA's family

Effie Pappas

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