Our trip was Oct. 20 to Oct 27, 2009. We had a wonderful time. It is a beautiful hotel. The lobby is gorgeous. The grounds are beautiful and well kept.

Rooms
We booked a Jr. Suite Ocean View. We were more than happy with the room and location. We were on the 7th floor. The view couldn’t have been better. The tile work is lovely. The bathroom was large and there was lots of closet space. The room had a nice love seat and was kept immaculate. The fan above the bed was a nice touch.

Pools
The big pool in the center of the hotel was not used much. There are no lounge chairs; instead, there are about a dozen of those beds that are popular at some hotels. Those beds are not my thing.
Most hotel guests used the other pool. There was a bar at one end that had some tables and chairs but no bar stools. I think they should add some bar stools to this bar. The swim up bar was at the opposite end. This was the bar of our choice.

Lounge chairs
Yes, they can get filled up early on certain days like Friday and Saturday. At 7:30 AM you will see a lot of chairs reserved with towels and books. I believe this is a fact of life in all resorts.

Pool Activities
There was volleyball twice a day and an assortment of other games. The staff was great getting people involved.

Beach
I have seen better beaches but I saw pictures prior to my trip and I did not have any great expectations. It looked better than I thought it would. The staff cleaned the beach every morning. There were plenty of lounge chairs available on the beach. There was also bar/drink service.

Service
The service could not have been better. In all the restaurants, each bar, the pool areas and any area you sat the service was top notch.

Drinks
The drinks were good. You could have as much liquor as you wanted in the Foo Foo drinks and any other drinks you ordered.
There were 4 bottles of liquor in the room, vodka, tequila, rum, and brandy. There was beer, soda and bottled water in the refrigerator that was restocked every day.




Wine
I am no connoisseur of wine but all the wine I sampled was good. We had wine with dinner every night.

Food
Please keep in mind food is objective. Last year we had a day pass to the Riu Palace in Aruba. We sampled the lunch and dinner buffets. They were fabulous. This was one reason we booked the RPLA. The buffets at the RPLA were a big disappointment.

Breakfast was ok.
The usual was available, pancakes, omelets, bacon, sausage, pastries, different breads, bagels, an assortment of cold cuts, and Mexican food.

Buffet Lunch needs improvement.
There were hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, cold cuts, some hot dishes and Mexican food. Some of the dishes were the same as what was served in the dinner buffet the night before. A couple of people we met in the pool mentioned they thought the buffet was terrible and they went next door to the Riu Cancun and said it was wonderful so on day 3 I walked over. They were more than correct. It was like night and day. The Riu Cancun was 100% better. There were so many more choices. For example there were 5 to 6 different pasta dishes served between the two restaurants at RC. At the RPLA I saw only one and it was pasta in dried up red sauce. . There were 4 fish choices at the RC and 1 at the RPLA. There was BBQ chicken and fried chicken available every day at the RC. I never saw any at the RPLA when I checked. There were many different types of vegetables available at the RC. RPLA stuck to broccoli.

Buffet Dinner was the worst.
We ate at the buffet twice. The buffet was much smaller than the one in Aruba. The first night didn’t seem to have many choices and I thought it was Mexican night (I was wrong) since the majority of the food was Mexican. I had pan-fried fish. It was ok. The second night was worse! It was Mexican night and all I could find was french fries and the same fish I had the night before and pork. (This was the same fish served at lunch.) I know, I was in Mexico but I thought the selections should have been better.

Reservations Only Restaurants were excellent with the exception of the Steak House. We ate in each one. In all but the Steak House you were greeted with a special drink when you entered.
You got to choose your entrée and desert. There were 2 starters in each restaurant. Some of the starters were standard and you received what was on the menu and some you got to choose. They were good in all the restaurants.

Steak House 3 Stars
Our expectations were a good steak. My husband ordered the rib eye. It was very, very thin. He said it was just ok. I had the Land and Sea entree. The waiter told me there was a skewer with shrimp and muscles for the sea portion and tenderloin. I am not sure what it really was but it was a piece of beef and nothing to rave about but still a lot better than the buffet. The skewer did not have any shrimp or muscles, just fish with green peppers and onions. It was good but I would have liked it better with shrimp and muscles. The Caesar salad and appetizer were very good. The appetizer had crab claws, muscles and shrimp.
Dessert was strange. I had the baked Alaska, which was very good, and my husband ordered a Three Chocolate Cake. We weren’t sure what the cake really was. It was more like custard with maybe a very thin layer of something on the bottom that could have been cake.

Krystal - 5 Stars
It was my favorite restaurant. We both had the filet mignon. I don’t remember the name of the dessert but it was similar to a chocolate volcano cake.

Tio Peppe – Tappas
A plate of assorted tappas was served as a starter. I had the paella and my husband had a steak dish that he thought was even better than the filet at Krystal. An assortment of desserts was served as tappas. The sangria was excellent.


Sakura – Japanese 5 Stars
I know little about Japanese food but we both loved the food. Sushi was served as one of the starters. I had tempura as a starter. It had shrimp, zucchini and an onion ring. My husband had some kind of noodles dish that he said was good. My entrée was shrimp tamarind and my husband had a chicken entrée. We both had the tempura ice cream for dessert.

Rodezio – Brazilian 5 Stars
You have to like meat to enjoy this restaurant. They serve different types of meat from a sword/skewer. They go around with each type separately. The seasoning used on the different meats was excellent. This might not be for everyone but we both thought it was very good. The only negative was the lack of air conditioning. It was so hot my husband had to change his shirt after dinner.
This restaurant doubles as an Italian restaurant for lunch. We had lunch twice at the Italian restaurant. It was excellent. We had a bottle of wine with lunch each time. When I think Italian I think of red sauce, lasagna and stuff like that. This wasn't like that. They had sea bass, a fettuccini with shrimp and muscles, a beef dish, and I think a chicken dish, also pizza.

People
There were people of all ages at the RPLA. Not many children, 10 at the most. People were from all over, UK, Canada, Poland, Mexico, and the USA.