Just got back from 13 days at Royal Decameron with wife and 2 girls (age 6.5 and 11) last night (Februaty 15 through 27). We all had a great time. Did not go via charter, but completely on our own during CT February school break. Used frequent flier miles for 4 free flights from JFK to Panama City. Booked hotel through Expedia, everything very efficient and worked.

Few days before departure, called hotel to arrange for transport from airport. Upon arrival, fellow was there with our name, helped us get our luggage, and loaded us into the minivan to take us to the hotel ($36 pperson for transfer, which we charged to credit card). It's a 2 hr drive to the hotel.

The place is very large. We checked in through "lobby 3", which is the newest extension. Our room was very close to lobby 1. There really is no hierarchy of the lobbies.

yes, the place is on a hill. From our room it was 74 steps down to the beach level. We made sure not to forget things in the room! But it's hard with 2 kids, so we (I mean I) did make several back-and-forths.

Grounds are very clean, plenty of staff ensuring good landscaping and no rubbish.

Food quality- decent. Nothing close to gourmet, but plentiful and adequate. None of us ever went hungry. 2 large buffet restaurants for breakfast and lunch (they have the same food at each), and then the 2 buffets for dinner (each one has different cuisine), in addition there are 6 restaurants where you need to make the reservations. Italian, Seafood, Sushi, Crepes, Mediterranean (Greekish), Fusion, and steakhouse. All were quite good, but some serendipity if "very good" versus good. For example, steak at steakhouse was quite poor one night for 3 of us, but another night better. The Steak in the Med restaurant was excellent, as was the "moroccan chicken"- very moist. Italian restaurant service was excrutiatingly slow, we only went there once and it must have been some type of mistake for us, because we had not exsperienced anything like this at any other time. Desert at all restaurants was nothing special.

Breakfasts were plentiful and variety- egg station to make your omelettes or fried eggs, pancakes, waffles, toast, croissants, danish, lots of fruit, cold cereal, meats (salami, etc, as well as chicken wings etc).

Lunches at buffets again had great variety as well as every day some type of pasta with choice of sauces. Also there were the snack bars at the bars with hamburgers, hotdogs, and pizza (at the pool up the hill).

Beach was very clean and nice sand. Waves were never big, so really nice. Many pools, the one where all the activities are (i.e. dance lessons, waterobics, kids activities), 2 other "quiet pools" (however at one there was frequent water polo matches (adults)), and then another pool on top of the hill, which we hadn't visited at all.

Key comment that others mentioned regarding restuarnat reservations - yes, quite challenging, but I can't think of a better system. My wife got up every morning around 6:30 to take a number, and then at 7 you can start making the resrvations. When she got down to the lobby, she was typically around number 15-18 in the queue. Only once we had to make a second choice.... then, between 6:30 and 7 while waiting for the resrvations to open, she went down to the pool to stake claim to our lounge chairs under an umbrella. Again, can't think of a better way of managing this issue. And it's not typical only for here, but almost any hot weather resort.

Every monday there are 2 charter flights from Montreal and 1 flight from Toronto. Canadians were the highest group of people... very few Americans. However plenty of folks from Latin America- Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Panama.

They also have condos/villas, apparently they sell for around $250k US; but we were never approached to visit/express interest. Apparently also they are part of RCI for timeshare, but again, never was approached. In fact, I would have been curious/interested to take a tour, if someone had asked me, but since nobody did, I wasn't curious enough to go myself to ask.

We did 3 excursions- one day hired a car/driver to take us to Panama City (went to ruins, colonial/old city, causeway, Miraflores locks and driving around different communities), to Valle d'Anton to see the town, waterfall in jungle, zoo, and the town open market, and also to Embera Indian Community, where we took a longboat dugout to walk to swim under a waterfall, and then to the village. This was very interseting, thekids found all of these quite enjoyable.

For our departure, we arranged to transfer to the Radisson Decapolis hotel in Panama City (they didn't charge us for this at all). It seems that in Panama, at least, the "owners" of Radisson Hotels also "own" The Royal Decameron. Not sure if this is global, but they said that in Panama, at least, this is the case. Hotel is attached to a mall,which we walked around in , and then took the kids for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (yes, I know... but they were really good the entire trip and asked to go there)... even though the dinner at the Decapolis was included.

Every night there was a show that started at 10pm (We typically finished dinner at 9pm (with an 8pm reservation), so we had to hang for close to an hour. Kids wanted to stay up for it, but really it wasn't worth it.... We stayed for about 4 of the shows (over the course of 12 days).

Would we go back? Yup. The kids loved it, the weather was great, overall food quality was good, rooms were clean... It's not a 4 seasons or high end resort, but quite reasonable.

JAN 24-31, 2006

FLIGHT: Air Transat reminds me of the now defunct Canada 3000 or "Cattle 3000" I used to call it. The more seats they could cram in the better for them. The flight time of 5 plus hours is as expected.
Well organized and quick getting through the airport and on to the resort bus.

RESORT BUS: The trip is 2 plus hours. A little long, but no different then other resorts in other places.
Tour guide on the bus was useless. Besides the fact that since we flew out of Montreal and his entire talk was in French only. He gave no info about the resort and limited info about Panama, Panama City and the canal.

CHECK IN: It's never been as smooth or quick. Arriving at at 5pm-ish, they gave us a chit for dinner at one of the restaurants for 6:30. Picked up key, and safe lock and given directions to our building. Bags are already there when we get to the room.

RESTAURANTS: They added 3 since we read about the resort and got there. Reservations are easy, yes had to get up early. But met with the same group of guys each morning for coffee and chit-chatted, etc. Never ate at the same place expect for breakfast. Dinner was different every night. Great selection and different themes. I can't remember the count, I think it is 3 buffets and 9 ala cartes.

(Out of the resort....the little store down the beach for ice cream and further down is Pipa's. We went to Pipa's on a Friday night, the only one's there. Had shrimp, lobster & rice dish like never before).

POOLS: I think it is 9 pools now. Found the swim-up bar pool about 3 days into our stay. Water was great. Loungers did get filled fairly fast for the pools. Nice selection as you could always find swimming room in pool or another.

BEACH/OCEAN: Fanatstic. Long beach. Yes it's a liitle harder then the Caribbean sand. Watch the flags for riptide. But generally it was good, the water was warm considering it's the Pacific. No, the water isn't the Caribbean green, but it was great. No shortage of loungers.

WEATHER: Hot. In the 90's and with humidity felt like 105-110 F. Use your sun bloc. Nice breeze on some times.

ROOMS: Exceptable and usual. Nice balconies. Few rooms have direct ocean view due to the landscaping.
Wide variety of choice in rooms....ground floor, upper floors, down the hill, on top of the hill.

HILL: Oh, yes the stairs. I think it is 67 of them. But, it kept us in shape. There are a couple of palce where it is sloped ramps instead of stairs. Easier to climb when in high heels...so says my wife. There is a shullte that goes up and down. However it is not regular enough or often enough.

GENERAL : The nightly entertainment is ususal for such resorts. Disco is standard as well, but fun. Enough bars all over the place. Casino is a nice size. I found the blackjack tables and likely made back 1/2 the cost of thr trip. We didn't play golf, due to heat. But I had a good look at the course and talked to others that played. Said it was a great course. We did to any trips off the resort, though there is a wide choice of them. Our desire and sun & ocean & rum.

COMMENTS: Though this is a huge resort, 800 rooms plus, never felt overcrowded. WE have done just about all Mexico & Caribbean. I was online searching and missing for deals in Mexico & the islands. I clicked on Panama almost out of frustration. I am glad I did.
We will return to Panama & the Royal Decameron in the future sometime.

We usually book hotels and find local restaurants for variety, so the Decameron was our first visit to an all inclusive.

For those who have not been to an all inclusive like the Decameron before, the concept is pretty simple. Just as you would drop your children off at your local Play-o-Rama, they get an identifying wristband, go play, eat, sleep, etc. then when it's time to go, the wristband is cut off. The only difference is that you (the adult) check in for days of fun. Also, if you should be adventurous and wander off the property and get lost, show your wristband and most locals will help you find your way home!

The facility has beautiful lush well maintained grounds. It's even hard to find a bug on the property, which is pretty amazing considering the location. There are now three reception/check-in areas, a newly added buffet and a new restaurant (Contiki).

The newly improved computer restaurant reservation system seems to have eliminated much of the grief posted by others. I could just wake up, wander down around 8am and still get most restaurants in any of the three time slots. The only day we had trouble was when a bunch of folks were waiting to board buses for a day trip and booked restaurants while they were waiting to load. I just wandered over to one of the other reception areas and booked immediately (remember this!).

Our room was right behind reception 2 at the top of the hill. We were on the top floor. Great view of birds in trees, and some view of beach, etc.
The room was clean & pleasant, but not elegant, with a nice balcony. If for some reason you enjoy low flow showers, you will not be disappointed if your room was like ours. On the top of the hill on the top floor water pressure was pretty anemic. I think pressure would likely be better lower down, but that's our only complaint for our whole stay. The only other room comment would be that we suggest to bring your own washcloth as none are provided.

The food at the buffets were pretty good and the restaurants are very good. We couldn't understand other complaints about the buffets found on this site. Our favorite restaurant was the New Contiki with the traditional fish filet being our top pick (A poor & expensive buffet was had at Miraflores Locks, but that's another story).

If you should be adventurous and use local buses to get around rather than the expensive Decameron tours you'll be in for a treat. Round trip for 2 to El Valle was $10 & 3 different buses (this leaves lots of $ for souvenirs,etc.). While in El Valle, the local library has high speed inernet for $1/hr rather than Decamerons $7/hr.
The best part of the bus trip is the local buses play local music on their stereos and most locals are friendly & helpful if your spanish sucks like ours.

Yes the Decameron is built on a slope up from the beach, but it's all inclusive, these two can work well together for you. I only gained 1 lb.

Would we go back here again? Definitely and next time we'll bring the kids too so they can see & enjoy the big Play-o-Rama we enjoyed!

Wonderful resort, beautiful well maintained grounds and faculities, great food, lovely pools, clean nicely furnished rooms, professional style entertainment and courteous helpful staff. Even with our limited Spanish and some of the staff's limited English communicating was not a problem with a little patience.

We had no problems getting dinner reservations for the resturants. Wait until after 8:00am to make them if you don't mind the 6:15pm or 9:40pm seatings. The 7:45pm seating fills up early and you have to get a number and stand in line by 7:00am. Your on vacation it's not worth the hassle.

We have nothing negative to say about this resort it's exactly as advertised. The trip from the airport is a little long but the sight seeing along the way makes up for it. You are well looked after at the airport and on the bus. Check in is quick and easy.

The resort is very large but not crowded as there is enough room for everybody. We never had problems getting loungers around the pools after 9:00am the beach was another story. Those lounger filled up early.

We would recommend this resort to anybody but people with limited mobility due to the size of the resort and the hillside location.