Ok, here's the deal. I stayed in the Grand Caribe Real in 2008 and had a fantastic time, all in all our stay was faultless - staff, accomodation, food, entertainment everything was awesome.
But here comes the however, this year we had many problems, some minor, some not so. Because of the influenza outbreak, a lot of the hotels in Cancun have taken the small number of tourists as an opportunity to do maintence work. The season has picked up much quicker than expected meaning that a lot of the hotels are now building sites and our room was no exception.
On arrival, the toilet didn't work and although this was fixed immediately, we then discovered that the shower didn't work, the sink filled up but then wouldn't empty when there was no plug in it and the toilet again didn't work. At one time, we had 8 maintenance men trying to resolve the problem and it took them a grand total of 4 hours to get things working again, during which they they flooded the bathroom and the bottom of our wardrobe.
Noise levels at times were extreme, again because of the maintenance, it was occasionally so bad that even when the TV was on full volume you still couldn't hear it. We also complained on more than one occasion about the continous smell of wet paint through the airconditioning. After complaining the work usually moved on to another area of the hotel for 24 hours, but then would return to our floor again the very next day.
The only other really big moan would be about reception staff. The majority are polite and helpful but the minority are in a whole other category. Because of the problems in our room, i asked for us to move and was offered a room on the 2nd overlooking the carpark...not quite the same as what we already had (top floor lagoon view). Whilst speaking to one reception staff, another busted across and said to the first in spanish that we either had the room on floor two or nothing at all. She didn't realise that I spoke fluent spanish!!!!
I don't want to be all negative, so here is the good stuff. The food is fantastic, not a single complaint during the two weeks. Drinks are NOT watered down and they aren't stingy on alcohol and if you are there long enough and you are pleasant enough with the staff you will get extra special treatment. Tipping isn't needed as long as you are polite and friendly with them.
Finding a single speck of dirt anywhere is hard to accomplish (even with the maintenance work) staff are cleaning 24/7 and everywhere is spotless. During the day, the sports and entertainment team work very hard to make sure that there is always something to do regardless of your age, so a special mention to Miguel, Dany, Bierley, Jesus, Alejandra, Esteban and anyone else whose name i can't remember. On a final note with staff, ladies watch out for a waiter named Diego in the Gaviotas restaurant. He likes to try and chat up a different woman each week and i was the target for the 2nd week of june! He can get very annoying, so if u think you've been targeted, give him the cold shoulder and within a day to two days he gets the message.
Would go back there again, but i would make sure that the hotel was free of renovation!!!
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