Nov 4 2012 was the start of our excellent vacation. We were pampered by the staff at PB Blanco to the point that we thought we were on a cruise ship but it was better since we were on land and in charge of our daily schedule. What set the tone for our excellent trip was front desk manager, his name is Henoc. Henoc really pays attention to details. He made us feel welcomed and explained the layout of the resort. His goal was to make sure we had a great vacation. And that we did: the food and beverages are excellent as well were the staff. Paloma's and Cilantro restaurants staff provided excellent service. Those staff members were: Demetrio,Edgar,Azucena and Iyette. The beach waiter was named Margarito and he remembers your name a drink preferences. Margarito is the MAN. He also provides excellent service. The whole resort is very clean and well taken care of. Our room attendant, Miriam did an excellent job taking care of our room. Also we dined at the PB Rose-Nare Nostrum and received excellent service from Eduardo whom was our waiter in the evenings. The food was excellent as well. We really enjoyed the all inclusive option. We stayed on the third floor and had great views of the ocean. We plan on going back. Thank you PB Blanco for our excellent vacation. R Geigle- CA

If you are looking for a quiet and relaxing vacation, don't stay here. This is by far the noisiest hotel we have ever stayed at. There were 4 restaurants and 2 bars withing 100 feet of our room. We had a 1 bedroom suite on the 4th floor. Our bedroom window was right above the 2 Rose restaurants and their beach bar. There was so much noise coming up through our closed bedroom window (which by the way, only had single pain glass) it kept us awake till 1am every night. Only to be woken up every morning around 7am by the sound of yelling screaming kids running around by the pool at the Blanco. For some reason there was alot of people with small children staying at this hotel. And I don't mean 1 child per couple, I mean 2 or 3. Several people had new borns.
The shape of this hotel acts like an amphitheater channeling all the noise right up to your balcony and into your room. It didn't do any good to try and close the windows and turn on the air conditioning to drown out the noise because the air conditioning didn't work right. The air conditioning had 2 settings, off or freezing. It didn't matter what I set the dial at, within a half hour of turning it on the room was so cold we couldn't take it.
So we ended up only getting about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. We were so sleep deprived by the end of the week I thought I was going to have a nervous break down. The last night of our stay was the "Grand Finally". The people in the room above us had a new born baby that cried from 3am till 5am, keeping us awake. So we ended up only getting about 4 hours sleep the final night. Couldn't wait to get home and get some rest.
We have stayed at the P.B. Emerald Bay twice in the past. Where as the Emerald Bay is immaculately maintained, the Blanco seems to be neglected. A lot of the light and plug cover plates were loose and about to come off. The phone in the living room didn't work. The cabinet and furniture doors were crooked and loose. The kitchen faucet was all loose. The cabinets have about 80 coats of paint on them. This place could use a renovation.
The boat traffic off the beach of this hotel is incredible. Its like rush hour for boats all day long. Non stop bumper to bumper boat and jet ski traffic. This also adds to the noise level.

However, I will say that the service by the staff (restaurant, bar, pool side, room, maid, curb side) was excellent. Which seems to be the norm for all P.B. hotels. Also, the food at the hotel restaurants was better then we expected.
When we were 25 years old we probably would have liked this hotel. But being in our mid 50's now, we like peace and quiet. This place was the exact opposite of that.
Since there are dozens of bars and clubs with in walking distance of this hotel, the only people I would recommend this place to would be people that like to stay where all the action is or that like to stay out late clubing, partying and drinking. Then they could pass out drunk in their room every night and the noise wouldn't bother them.
Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this hotel. We will never stay here again. Or at the Rose.

There are just two Luxury Suites (one bedroom units) at the Blanco that have been updated. The front desk staff said that they hope to update more of the suites, but there aren’t any plans right now.

Instead of dark blue & yellow, the new color scheme is orange & yellow with light blue accents. Hopefully the photos I took will be attached to this review so that others can see the updates.

The biggest change is that there are flat screen televisions mounted to the wall. I don’t watch much TV, but I love this update. Now there is space on the dressers to put things!

The bedroom a new mirror on the wall and has white duvets instead of the print bedspreads. The headboard has been repainted with the new colors.

In the bathroom, the three doors have been painted a greyish white so the sink ‘room’ seems larger. The frame of the mirror has been painted gold. The shower curtain has been replaced by a half-shower door. And there is a shelf in the toilet room. But there still aren’t any towel racks, so if you want to be environmentally friendly and hang your towels to reuse, there isn’t really a place to do this.

In the kitchenette, the microwave is on a shelf over the counter. Some of the cupboard doors are the same glass as the shower door. There is also a new coffeemaker. The dining area has an updated lamp, an orange color theme table runner, and orange cushioned chairs.

The living room still has the same blue sofa but the two side chairs have new cushions. The tableside lamps are big orange fabric boxes … nothing that I’d want in my home! Since the TV is mounted to the wall, the tall entertainment center just has the bottom section (drawers & cupboards below.)

Problems to resolve: the lamps in the old bedrooms have a dark blue base which doesn’t match the new color scheme. So there weren’t any lamps in the bedroom at all. I asked for a bedside lamp which was delivered at 10 pm. (Muy tarde!)

There is one other problem that I hope they fix: the credenza (buffet / dresser) in the kitchen area is missing. So there isn’t any place to put your food, beverages, or other snack/drink items.

Overall, the resort is as fabulous as always. Yair at the front desk was especially helpful to me. Every staff member has a smile, and the resort is being cleaned or repainted all the time. I’ll happily return to the Blanco, even if I don’t get an updated suite.

Stayed 8 nights at this property Oct-Nov. Weather was great, beach perfect, could swim in the ocean at this beach. Could easily walk down the beach to party beach or to town. The property was very clean. The service in the breakfast restaurant was just OK as was the food. We missed the Sunday buffet at the Rose, but heard it was awesome. We paid for all inclusive, which I think is worth it if you are ordering drinks all day. Somethings were very good, like the hotdogs and club sandwiches you can order by the pool. The pool is where we spent most of our time and Guadalupe was the best server ever. He was so efficient- remembered room numbers and what people like to drink from day 1. On his day off we noticed quite the difference in the other servers. The property is a time share property so it has a different feel from the AI we are used to. When we arrived we were put in room 220, but promised room 510 in two days. I kept checking on this and they would say, yes you can have room 510 Tuesday. So Tuesday at 1:00 I went to get the new room and was told that it wasn't available and that they had promised room 310. This was not true. I ended up with room 421 which was higher but still not much of a view. I wouldn't really complain about the room situation since we don't hang out in our room anyway, but I didn't appreciate the runaround and not unpacking for 2 days. I would return for the location.