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Gran Caribe Puntarenas 03/28/2005
Reviewers Rating:  Great
Gran Caribe Puntarenas – Varadero, Cuba March 2005
Background: My husband and I have traveled to several countries and enjoy All-inclusives. We have always stayed at 4-5 star resorts but this came up on a great last minute deal and myself, my Mom, 18yr old daughter and 16 yr old nephew (hubby had to work) found ourselves going with only a few days notice. We only paid 750.00 pp (from MB) and had a great time.
Flights: We lucked out and got West Jet with TVs. Good flight, no complaints.
Resort: I was very nervous about going to a 3.5 star but the resort itself was lovely. This was one 9 story building (around 260 rooms) with the first 2 floors being lobby, bars and restaurants. Lots of greenery, very clean. It would easily rate 4 stars based on this alone. It used to be Breezes Superclubs but they sold the place and its now 2 different resorts. There are 2 bars inside the resort, a disco (never went), game tables (pool, air hockey, etc), lots of couches and internet for 6.00 an hour. There was a Cigar store, a small store, T-shirt place, massage shop and a beauty parlor. There are 3 elevators but only 1-2 were working. These elevators were scary. My Mom and I were trapped in one for a few min, it stopped dead and went dark, it scared the hell out of us. They really need to replace or fix these. Before I went, I was warned about strong oil smells but we only smelled this once at night so it wasn’t an issue.
Rooms: rooms are abit outdated but the sheets and bedspreads seemed new. There are extra pillows and blankets, a free safe, a mini fridge (empty), and a balcony. Water was hot and had good pressure in the shower. We bought a 2 liter coke at the store and had it refilled at the bar and kept it in the fridge. The maids were fantastic; I’ve never seen so many different designs with towels before, not even at the 5 stars. The only real problem here was that the walls are very thin and it could get noisy at night if you’re a light sleeper.
Pool: still a good size, very nice, very clean. Lots of lounge chairs; we had no problems getting one. They want a returnable deposit (10.00) for the beach towels which can be changed daily. There is a large bar at the pool area.
Beach: Not the nicest part of Varadero Beach. It was still huge but the sand had broken shells and was grittier than it is further down. It was very quiet though and we had green flags all week. The sand in the ocean was soft. Again, lots of palapas and lounge chairs. There is a bar and restaurant on the beach that was opened for lunch. Salads, burgers, hotdogs, chicken, pork chops, fish, fries and rice were the usual. Very nice to sit in, it was our favorite restaurant.
Food: There is the main buffet, 2 ala cartes, the beach restaurant and the grill. The grill was outside and just opened during the day. You could get hotdogs, burgers, ham sandwiches, fries and ice cream. We went to both ala cartes, the Italian was good, nice pizza but we thought the International was terrible. This is where this resort really falls into the 3 star category, I think. Breakfast was fine; there was someone who made fresh eggs, French toast and hotcakes and then the usual fare. There was rarely bacon or sausage. Their breads, buns, etc were awesome. We usually had lunch at the grill. The supper buffet always had lots of bread, salads, deserts, a pasta station but not enough hot items. There were always tons and tons of fish served and a few stew things that didn’t look great. We only had chicken a few times in the week and a pork roast once. I had pasta a few times as I could not find anything else that I wanted. I don’t like fish; my Mom loves it so she was happy enough with the food. You need to go early to the buffets as sometimes they ran out of certain things later.
Drinks: ok but limited. They had a drink menu and pretty much stuck to it. We found a nice cream liquor, they called Disco but they ran out twice. They made a nice rum punch.
Staff: no problems here, all very nice. The Gardiner would always bring us flowers when he saw us and would cut down coconuts and make drinks for us. Might have been because I tip but it was still nice. The front desk spoke enough English to get by.
Entertainment: This was actually some of the best I’ve seen yet on resorts. Some of it was corny but it was fun. They did something different everyday, like a take off of movies (Sister Act when we were there), Havana night (very good), brought in a band, Mr Motel, etc. I was pretty impressed for a place this size; it was a lot more entertaining then Playa Pesquero which is a 5 star.
Money: They will change your money at the resort.
General: It was about 10 min to town, around 6 pesos. The place isn’t perfect but it was fine for the price we paid. It’s a 3.5 star and I would say that is accurate. I would prefer to be closer to town next time but if another great deal came up, I would probably go again and eat in town a few times for variety, lol. The food seemed comparable to other 3 star resorts from what I’ve been told though. I got over my fear of staying in any resort under a 4 star in Cuba so that will open up a lot more great last min deals for us. I really enjoyed the size of the resort. Everything was so close by and so easy to pop back into the room for something, We usually stay at huge resorts which are beautiful but I think I enjoyed the size of this place more.
Sandy
Sandy
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