|
Beaches Varadero 08/04/2005
Reviewers Rating:  Fair
ACCOMMODATIONS
Let us start with the room: I arrived at the reception for which I'm told that my room has been upgraded but upgraded to what? I did not request any upgrade but welcomed it nonetheless. I go up to my room and enter using the cardkey presented to me at check-in. No instructions were given as to the use of the card other than to use to open the door, so I enter the room and discover that there is no electricity. I attempt to switch circuit breakers off and on but to no avail all is dead. I call the reception to complain for which they immediately told me that the card is also used to activate electricity in the room, be it for lights, TV, and A/C. I plug in the card and everything comes to life. At first impression the room appears acceptable although I see nothing that merits the description of upgrade: A bed, a table, a TV, washroom, some chairs and seating area. From what I learned later on, all the rooms appear to be the same thing. Of what I read on the hotel web site, being on third floor includes some extras, apparently. Depending on which floor you’re on at this hotel determines what services are included. The following is a caption from their actual website:
Suites are located on the 4th and 5th floors of the main building (some with views of the ocean), offering suite concierge service. The Suite concierge service includes preferred check-in, continental breakfast, in-room bar which is restocked daily, private cocktail party and use of terry cloth robes.
Suites are located on the 3rd floor of the main building and the free-standing villas. With all the inclusions plus a fully stocked bar (stocked once a week), which includes Beers, Soft Drinks and Juices.
Suites are located on the 1st and 2nd floor of the main building, and the free-standing villas.
My room, 3231, being on the third floor, although equipped with a small fridge, did not include any of the above mentioned beverages. I inquired as to this and was told by housekeeping that they had nothing of the sort and only supplied me with bottled water. I was, however, told by some guests that along with the water, their refrigerator was restocked every day with new beverages: beer, soft drinks, etc. Why was mine only with water?
Towels: The first day only was there a sufficient amount available. On the wall was a small message relating to water/energy conservation: if you deemed it necessary to have the towels replaced or washed, just throw them in the bathtub, otherwise just re-hang them up on the rack and housekeeping would not replace them. On two occasions I deemed it necessary to replace the towels; once after I found that they were not that well cleaned (stained and a smell of “un-freshness”) and the second time when I use them to attempt to block incoming water from the hurricane rain penetrating under my door. A bathtub towel was also supplied to place on the floor to step on upon exiting the bath tub so as not to slip. I also deposited that into the tub to have it replaced but received no new one. The towels themselves were horrendous: they were harsh and abrasive to the touch and when wiping myself after shower or washing my face, the sensation was like using sandpaper or a Brillo-pad (usually used for scrubbing pots). This was not comfortable especially after getting mildly sun burnt. Do they know about fabric softeners? Upon leaving tips, then only, would the maid fully replace all towels, again, as abrasive as the previous batch. Why must my service be dependent of gratuities?
Cleaning the room was another problem: after the hurricane, for three days the room had not been swept of accumulated leaves and dirt that had flown in, that is, not until, again, leaving another tip. At worst, she entered the room, did the bed and left. At best, when leaving a substantial gratuity (three pesos: close to $5.00), the room would be completely cleaned, towels replaced, soaps & shampoos restocked and towels fully restocked. On two or three occasions she did deposit a bottle of water.
The room had a constant problem of small ants, mosquitoes and flies entering in. I realize that this is a tropical resort and that these "bugs" are common however by the end of the week’s stay I gave the appearance of someone with measles from all the bites all over my body.
After having obtained a secondary card at the reception to place in the socket that activates electricity and air conditioning, every time housekeeping would come to tend to my room, I would either find the card pulled out or the air conditioning shut off. This was extremely frustrating and aggravating as it took a full day just to bring the temperature down 1 or 2°. I knew this because I brought a small digital alarm clock with me which simultaneously displayed the surrounding temperature. I was therefore able to monitor the change (or lack of change) in temperature because after running all night, the temperature hardly changed. It does not take a genius to understand why it was left on especially if you are native to this country. The other point is that the air conditioning system was a central system which distributed cool air from one central point and in the rooms were thermostats to switch on or off the fan. Unfortunately, by the time the “cool” air reached my room it was no longer cool.
Also included in the room was a small drip coffee machine. The coffee was replenished on 1o r 2 occasions out of 7 days.
THE FOOD
I’ve had a better meal at McDonald’s in comparison to most of what was served throughout the week. As this was a buffet restaurant, food was left sitting out for people to serve themselves. Vegetables: anything that was available as salad was either half ripe, dried out, shriveled up or just simply inedible. Salad dressings were bottle products bought at some local grocery store no doubt. Side (vegetable) dishes, that were actually edible, often ran out and occasionally were refilled.
Main courses presented two or three choices; also self serve bars, selections which were either over cooked meats extremely dry or greasy enough to lubricate the engine of a car. Meats prepared on the spot were often overcooked and tough as leather making it virtually impossible to cut with a knife let alone chew. There was often only two types of rice which I must say were actually well prepared, but the meal cannot be made simply on rice alone.
Most fruits were not ripe or began to decompose in their presentation trays. Flies were always around and this was a discouraging prospect when attempting to serve myself. At breakfast fruit shakes were prepared for you upon request but had the consistency of cement. Coffee often tasted bad and had the consistency of chalk.
The service was the worst: considering that the dining hall was at 85 to 90% empty at most time it would be expected that service would be 100% impeccable. However this was not the case. Most of the time the staff could be seen chatting amongst themselves rather than circulating to see if anybody needed anything; I often find myself getting up to request either a missing utensil from the table or something to drink from the bar. Only one time out of the entire week did I get a service worthy of calling the hotel a four and a half star rating; this was after having left the waiter a 10 peso gratuity due to an initial good service. The following day he also presented a good service. I did not see him any other days after that. Service then returned back to its normal state which was lacking and poor.
During the hurricane period, the dining hall, now occupied at about 80% due to three or four hotels relocated to us, seating became a problem not because of an insufficient quantity of tables but rather because tables were not being cleaned up at an acceptable rate. On several occasions after serving myself, I found myself wandering for close to ten minutes searching for a place to sit, eventually sitting at an unclean table awaiting a waiter to at least come and re-supply me with clean cutlery and the napkin. On most occasions I received two out of three items, usually no napkin, and this after having to waive down someone or getting up and approaching them.
The A-La-Carte restaurants, although a substantial improvement in the appearance, we're not very reliable: on one night I had a lobster dish for which the main dish itself was not well prepared. The lobster was completely dried out, possibly due to overcook or poorly prepared. I attended the same restaurants twice for which often, choices from the menu were unavailable. The first night I showed up, the restaurant was ¾ empty and although I was only fifteen minutes early for my reservation the waiter refused me access to a table and requested I return 15 minutes later. The manager, fortunately close by, noticed this and quickly countermanded his subordinate and instructed him to seat me instantly. What was the point of me having to come back if many of the tables were empty?
The outdoor grill type restaurant, named Arizona, was like a pot luck meal. Every time I requested a hamburger, I received anything but a hamburger, sometimes with fries and sometimes not.
ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment, when available, was elegant but redundant. Excluding the nights of the hurricane, shows were of some type of dance performance. There was no crowd involvement in the first two nights with the exception of five minutes where the performers summoned five or six people from the crowd to participate in the dancing. Monday night, 3 days after the hurricane, the show was canceled due to “technical difficulties”. In turn, four couples were summoned to the stage for a “dance contest.” What about the rest of us? The MC, although finding himself humorous, spent more time criticizing participants. On one occasion he blurted out some comment to one of the couple's which most people found to be shockingly insulting even if it was meant in humor. Tuesday night, the last night before departure I did not bother attending as I was fed up.
During the hurricane period we were left for about three days with absolutely nothing to do. The night of the hurricane is understandable; however the following two days consisted of sitting at the bar to drink or lobby area on sometimes, wet furniture in pools of water covering the floors. I did not go down to Cuba to spend my time getting drunk. For about one hour one gentleman organized a few small games for some prizes: ring toss and bingo. Hardly what one would expect from this caliber of hotel. I spent most of those two days playing card games. The hotel should have found ways to entertain people or keep them occupied particularly during the period after the hurricane. This left me, as well as many others, extremely frustrated and angry because of sitting around and doing nothing.
As the electricity was out all over Cuba, all other broadcasting services including TV and radio were, too. The only thing we were able to obtain was the internal broadcast from the hotel displaying the same outdated message containing instructions to follow prior to the hurricane. This message went on well into the following night and no longer served any purpose. The following three days the hotel just the broadcast all their offered services & features relating to the hotel for which most were not even available because of the hurricane situation. Instead they should have hooked up a video/DVD player and broadcast recordings of movies, TV shows or any such entertainment for those who chose not to turn into couch potatoes at the bar or lobby but obviously their guests’ happiness was not a high priority.
The beach, the highlight to my vacation, although very beautiful at first glance, was often found with cigarette butts, cups, sharp shells, rocks and other garbage making it risky to walk on. I do not know if they ever cleaned the beach but I did not see any evidence of any raking by person or truck as the sand did not show any sign of any improvement at any time. After the hurricane, a lot of algae and seaweed accumulated in the water and no one bothered to try to scoop it up. On the last day, Tuesday, catamarans, kayaks and other services available to the guests, were actually starting to be used. The problem with the services was that there was no safety control between the water vehicles and the swimming area; it was a free for all for which on several occasions there were small collisions between swimmers and boats. Fortunately, no one got hurt, but the personnel in charge showed little to no sign of trying to maintain order at least to a minimum safety level. Availability was another problem: the staff in charge would show up at about 10:00 AM and disappear at around 1:30 PM or 2:00 PM. What about the rest of the day? The first time I saw that I presumed that they went off for lunch, but evidence to the contrary proved differently as no one returned for the balance of the day.
The pool was just about the only thing that appeared to be well maintained. Although highly over chlorinated, it was always clean, free of leaves or any falling debris. However, one would expect some entertainment or diversion to be offered by the hotel. On one of the days that I was present, I was in the water for about two hours playing water volleyball with about ten to fifteen other people. At some point during that period of time a member of the staff yelled out to meet at the pool as they were attempting to organize a pool volleyball tournament. Well what have we been doing for the past two hours? Actually, no one from the staff came to follow through on the claim. That was the only time I had actually heard any announcement relating to any outdoor activity organization.
MISCELLANEOUS
On the night of the hurricane, a hotel attendant circulated the hotel to distribute 1 candle to every room. 1st of all 1 candle does not last long and 2nd it serves absolutely no purpose if the hotel does not supply matches to light the candle. I circulated the hotel the next day at 2 bars, the reception, the dining hall and even the gift shop that sells cigars; NO ONE had a book of matches or a lighter!
Finally, the hotel itself did not portray the image worthy of a highly rated hotel. Many areas needed to be repainted, doors that did not close properly: I often found myself having to slam my room door violently to get it to close on multiple retries as did many others. It was easy to tell that this was a common problem as slamming doors could be heard all around at any hour of the day or night. On arrival one of the panoramic elevators was already out of order and by the third or fourth day of my stay, the second one joined it in its out of order state. The other elevators, we're always dirty, occupied by frogs, and had loose wiring exposed, something not too safe especially when water was substantially dripping in during the two days of constant rain after the hurricane. A hotel, supposedly accustomed to this weather, should take better care of the accommodations and equipment in consequence to the wear and tear it must endure. This hotel showed little sign of care or interest in its maintenance. For a country that depends highly on their tourism, their arrogance regarding service vs. tipping and their laziness towards their guests’ comfort and enjoyment is a good way of driving them away.
TMR Tour Company
On an extra matter relating to the hurricane, upon my arrival by word of mouth from other guests, I learned of the inevitable arrival of hurricane Dennis. If guests at the hotel were already aware of its arrival, why did TMR organizers not advise their clients of this danger prior to departure and offer them the opportunity to cancel the trip? Apart from the fact that the vacation may be a flop due to bad weather (which it was), there was also an extreme risk of danger to life; proof being that ten people lost their lives in Havana! This horrifies me to think that TMR has more interest in making money than the welfare of their customers’ lives.
I feel that some manner of reimbursement compensation is highly in order. There's no way I'm ever returning to the same hotel at any cost as I am disappointed in its poor service and interest in its customers’ satisfaction.
Crazy AL
|
