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Barcelo Solymar 09/14/2004
Reviewers Rating:  Great
We returned from Barcelo Solymar on Friday Sept. 10/04 evacuated due to Hurricane Ivan. We have travelled to this hotel 3 years in a row and at the same time every year (during the Labour Day holiday). We flew with Skyservice through Conquest vacations. The flight was on time from Toronto and it was a very uneventful flight. Dinner was a boxed lunch (not too good). I had been to Cuba in March of this year and flew with Kelowna Airlines--excellent hot meal with wine with dinner and a lot better service.
We arrived in Varadero on time and breezed through customs. We got to the hotel and were first in line. There were not that many of us so check in went pretty quickly. We had just enough time to get to the buffet for dinner.
There have been some changes to this hotel but nothing too different. There were a lot of staff changes and not too many faces we recognized. Our friend who worked there would not go into detail but there was a major employee shuffle apparently. The food was good. We always had something to eat although this year we really did not go to the buffet restaurant as much. We usually ate at the pool snack bars. At one there were hamburgers and at the other the most delicious beef stir fry and breaded fish fillets that my children actually loved. We ventured out to town and ate at one of the restaurants. I can't remember the name but it is next to the cigar shop just past the hotel. Awesome lobster tails that would put the ones they serve at Red Lobster to shame. $13.00 U.S. for one. There were 6 of us--4 adults and two children who ate and drank to the point where we thought we would roll out of the restaurant and it cost us $72.00 U.S. In all, not bad in my opion. I was a little disappointed in the hotel this year. There were only 2 a la carte restaurants. One had mostly seafood and one, Italian. The seafood we did on Tuesday and we were almost turned away. Apparently we were not on the list but I had my slip of paper with the date and time on it. However, the gentleman insisted that there was nothing he could do and showed us to the door.
I did not think that was fair and went back to him and told him that it was 9:15 and that we had reservations and we did not think it was fair to be turned away.
Well there was a table made up for us and we were served but he was not a very happy fellow all night and it sort of made us feel uncomfortable. But we ate anyway and made the best of it. The food was not as good as we had the previous years. The lobster was overcooked and, otherwise, not too much of a selection.
The Italian restaurant was not too bad again not too much of a selection. I had the steak which was actually pretty good.
I had emailed the hotel before we left to let them know we were coming as they had instructed me to do last year and the funny thing is that I got a reply the evening I returned. They did come to our door on Wednesday with a bottle of rum and a fruit basket to follow but it never did (the same as last year).
We had the two-storey bungalows facing the beach with a second bedroom on the first floor.
We love the accomodations as they suit us perfectly. The bedroom is upstairs (king size bed), t.v., bathroom and balcony. On the first floor is the dining table, another washroom and t.v. and couch. This year on the first floor there was a separate room (with its own key) with 2 double beds and a washroom. My niece and her boyfriend stayed there and my husband and two children and I stayed upstairs. The beds are not very comfortable to me but by the end of the day I was so tired I never felt a thing.
We basically sat around the pools all day, drank ,ate and walked down to the beach to swim all week long. There were quite large waves the first three days but hurricane Frances had just past so it was expected. The waves had calmed down by Wednesday. No peddle boats, catamarans or canoes were ever taken out that week. Yellow flags for the first three days but warm, warm water.
Now for the evacuation! It was quite sudden to be honest. Most people knew about the hurricane but nobody seemed too worried. There were all kinds of rumours flying around the hotel Thursday night so we went to the front desk to ask. We were told to stay in our rooms all day Friday just in case somebody had to get in touch with us. Thursday night we went to town to see what was open because we had not gotten all the souvenirs we wanted and found alot of people doing the same. One family we met from the year before and they frantically told us they were leaving in an hour (9:00 pm)
They had arrived in Cuba on Sunday evening the 5th of Sept. They had been given 1 1/2 hrs notice. We went back to the hotel and were told again to stay in our rooms for any news by a notice posted on the front desk. We went home, packed our bags and basically kept checking the lobby for more news. Finally at around 11:00 pm the notice read that we were leaving Friday morning and that the bus would pick us up at 7:30 am. The evacuation was just for the Canadians and to be honest some of the Italians, Brazilians and other guests were making fun of the Canadians and our "paranoia".
The funny thing was that the weather was great lots of sunshine and we could not believe we had to leave. At the airport there were more people than usual. Longer lines than usual but generally calm. Our friends who had left the night before at 9:00 endured a terrible night. They checked in their bags and waited until 4:00 a.m. for their flight to arrive. Then they were told to reclaim their luggage and they would be taken to another hotel (Arenas Blancas) only to stay there for 2 hours and then return to the airport to recheck in their luggage and wait for their flight. We found them at the airport when we arrived in the morning and they finally left at 11:00 a.m. on that day. Needless to say they were not pleased. I was not too satisfied with the hotel this time and it didn't have anything to do with hurricane Ivan. I am grateful we had our 5 days in Cuba even though it was cut short but after all we can't mess with Mother Nature! Would I go back again? I probably will only because I'm a creature of habit and my children know the place inside out and they feel comfortable there.
Hope this helped !
FE
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