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Play Pesquero 04/18/2004
Reviewers Rating:  Excellent
Our family (we are 40, daughter is 12 and my mother – 70s) went to Playa Pesquero from April 4th – 11th. We had a wonderful time and it was far better than we could have ever expected. I am looking on the site now trying to figure out when we can go back.
Flight - Yes, the seats are crowded but not any worse than US Air or Delta which we have flown with in the past. Flight was on time and we received our box lunch of a turkey sandwich.
Bus to Hotel - Very organized – all the buses for the various hotels were lined up and you were told which bus to which resort. We landed at 8:30 pm so didn’t see a lot going to the hotel. Less than a one hour ride there. Upon arrival we received our room cards – as requested our rooms were side by side, near the beach and the pool. Very organized – only issue was with other tourists fighting there way up to the front of the line – they had many people working the desk if everyone just waited it would have been a lot faster. Went to our room and then to the Beer Garden for a snack. A little difficult finding your way around at night – read the maps around the resort. Much easier in the daytime to figure out where everything is.
Rooms - We were in building 58. Our room had two double beds pushed together to look like a King size bed and my daughter had her own double bed – very large room and we just had the standard room. My mother’s room was right across from ours. Each two story building only has about 8 rooms or so. Room was very clean and the maid kept it very clean all week.
Food – The food was terrific. I took the advice from this board and the first day went to the lobby around 8:30 – nobody was in line yet but two other couples standing around. We lined up around 10 to 9 and then everyone else followed. Three computers were setup to book the restaurants. It takes long when those booking don’t know what they want. You can book 5 restaurants. I booked into the Grill Monday, Trattoria Tuesday, Wednesday left open, Thursday Seafood, Friday La Gondola and Saturday was the only day open for the Romantico. The Romantico books up from people staying two weeks so book it fast. It was the best – truly a 5 star – just beautiful, it is the only indoor restaurant, all others are open. Wonderful appetizers and a great selection of food. We all had the lobster appetizer and the lobster dinner. Anything that you wanted to drink – I went for a bottle of champagne. Very good wines also – all the restaurants had nice wines. La Gondola was my second favorite –again very nice setting and had sole with shrimp. The Seafood restaurant is on the beach and is beautiful to watch the sunset from – the seefood platter is actually a lobster and fish dinner and the grilled shrimp dinner is very tasty. Trattoria was also good – italian but again I had shrimp. Grill was good – had the mixed grill – chicken, lamb, veal, pork and steak – all tasty. Never did to the dinner buffet as we went on the lobster dinner catamaran. We heard that the Asian restaurant was very good. There was also a Cuban and Vegetarian restaurant. Biggest surprise was all the a la carte lunches – seafood one had salads, fish, hamburgers… just about everything. Trattoria had delicious wood fire pizzas – went there a few days. There was also a restaurant across from the Trattoria with ¼ chicken dinners and fries. We did go to the Grill buffet for lunch a couple of times – very very good and lots of desserts.
Can you tell that food was the most important part of this trip! Breakfast had pancakes, omelets, etc… bring your own maple syrup. The Ice cream parlor opened at 10:30 and was very good.
Drinks – Bars everywhere – swim up bar, portable poor bar, beach bar, portable beach bar, lobby bar (very strong drinks), Beer garden… and also when the Grill is open during lunch you can also get drinks there by the pool. Must try the Crazy Canadian, Bahamma Momma, Sex on the Beach, Mojito, Veradaro sunrise, Blue Champagne…. The list goes on. They will make the drinks as strong as you want. One couple filled their Tim Horton’s mugs with straight rum ! Only busy time is after the show in the lobby bar – but that is to be expected. There are premium brands and I liked ending the night with Kaluha nightcap.
Beach/Pool – The Pool is huge – acres huge. It has islands with trees to swim around – have never seen anything like it. The resort was busy but you still felt like you had the pool to yourself. It was busier and nosier by the swim up bar – the other end was quiet. They did have pool volleyball – in a separate pool, also some games and stuff by the pool. The beach is beautiful - beautiful sand, colour of water – everything. Even able to see fish in water less than knee deep. Lots of space and never a problem getting a lounge chair by a shade tree. Never went to the pool before 2:00 and always found a shade tree to bring a chair or longer over to. You do need to reserve a paddleboat early if you want one. They take reservations at the side window near the beach bar at 8:00 am – be there closer to 7:30 and line up. Its beautiful that time of the morning – you can reserve the paddleboat for 1 hour and it is great, did that twice.
Wokers – Very friendly and can’t do enough for you. You will see the same worker in the Breakfast buffet and then at the bar later – they work long shifts and are always friendly. We always left tips after our meals and also every few drinks at the bar, couple dollars for the maid each day and at the end brought shirts, toys, candy…etc around to some of the gardeners, maids, bartenders….etc. The only thing that annoyed me was at the bar if I was waiting ( and I never waited more than a few minutes for a drink) someone would butt in front and wave a dollar as if the person should come running for it.
Trips - The swim with the Dolphins was terrific, it books up quickly though. Attend the 10:00 am sunquest talk your first day and they will tell you all about the trips. The Dolphin one was booked but they were able to fit us in on Friday. You can also take a cab yourself but we didn’t want to chance it. Next time we will take a cab if it is booked. We also did the sunset Catamaran tour – again great – left the hotel at 1:30, about 45 mins to get to the catamaran and then sailed, open bar, snorkeled twice (beautiful) watched the sunset, had a lobster dinner around 8:00 or so and then back to the Hotel around 10:30 pm. Well worth the 69.00. My daughter’s was 29.00, she was the only child but still had a great time snorkeling and sailing.
Trip Home – Paid 30.00 for the late checkout at 4:00 pm and then went to the Beer Garden for a snack. Bus left for the airport at 5:30 and the plane left early around 9:10 instead of 9:30. No problem at the airport – yes a line for checking luggage and customs but less of a line than at Toronto. Maybe it was the time we left but no need for the V.I.P for 20.00.
Overall – Can’t wait to go back, yes to Cuba and yes back to the Playa. We heard people from other resorts complaining about the food, about the drinks, about their rooms….etc. We had no complaints.
Diane
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