First off: Prior to our vacation I read some reviews that got me a bit worried, but luckily there were also plenty of positive reviews and some useful tips. With my/our review I would like to ‘give something back’.

Our stay: 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years 2012
Room: Privileged Suite (booked from the start)

In overall this is a lovely resort, spacious, well-maintained public spaces/areas, superb entertainment team (fun and not pushy), offers lots of activities (snorkeling, diving, tennis courts, spa, etc), gym and group exercise/classes, great activities at the mini club and a decent variety of meals/restaurants.

The room: The privileged suites are very spacious and almost a ‘must have’ when travelling with small children. There’s plenty of room in the bathroom and a lovely patio (we had ground floor). The oversized bathtub there was a big hit with our kids. The built in safe was spacious enough to hold all major (expensive) electronics and passports (we never left the room without putting those things away).
Minor drawback: the pullout couch is of very poor quality and cannot be recommended for adults/teens. They are very ‘bent’ and the mattresses too thin. Luckily our kids are small and light and they didn’t care.

Christmas/New Years:
We booked this holiday to ‘escape’ the crazy Christmas buzz for just one year and really enjoyed it. We weren’t expecting much of a celebration and definitely no Christmas tree etc. In our opinion they did a very good job at doing some Christmas celebration. The buffets were decorated very nicely, the animation team was dressed up in funny Christmas costumes, activities were with a Christmas theme, there was a Christmas menu at the a-la-carte restaurants and Santa Claus even arrived at the beach and had a small present for all the kids!
New Years was also a very great experience. They set up a gigantic stage at the beach, had some really good music, a very good DJ and a fun live show. We opted to pre-buy a bottle of ‘sparkly’ for $35 to secure a spot at a VIP table close to the dance’floor’ in the front. This was well worth it!

The Resort:
It is really very well maintained. The pool areas get cleaned every evening and the pools as well. When you look closely they offer a great variety of activities, such as snorkeling, (trial) scuba diving lessons, group exercise, biking trips to the nearby Marina. The entertainment team is very active and offers activities for almost anybody, from Spanish lessons to archery. They do the daily pool fitness, silly and fun activities, sometimes bingo, etc.
The buffets: The quality of the food at the buffets is good. There is a good amount of choice and the food was quite fresh.
A-la-Carte: There is a good variety of a-la-carte restaurants with a good choices on their menus. Mikado (Japanese) was a really memorable experience ☺.

Some ‘minor things’:
Check-in: Our check in was not (as claimed) at a ‘Privileged check-in area’ and was rather ‘sloppy’. We didn’t get all the vouchers we were entitled to (and wouldn’t have known if our friends wouldn’t have told us about it), there was no introduction to all the possibilities and extra’s we were entitled to, such as a complimentary use of the spa facilities. An overview of what is all available, when, where, how would have been nice (such as the group exercise classes at the gym, the snorkeling ‘expeditions’, etc)
Overall service: Generally the service was great but somewhat inconsistent. Specially with cleaning of the rooms that sometimes happened a bit late, which is not handy with small children.

More tips:
- The prices for massages at the spa are way over the top. I’ve heard people talk about the massage place right at the beach (by the Lagoon) and they are apparently superb. Not part of the resort though
- Get friendly with a waiter at the buffet and leave some tips, it will make a big difference on your breakfast and lunch experience (you’ll keep getting your favorite spot, special requests/drinks and quicker service)
- We recommend a privileged room that faces to the rear (outward) of the resort. Evenings with live bands can get rather noisy until very late. It also gives you more privacy with the tub, but no evening sun.
- Take a stroll to the nearby Marina and watch the Manatees, Dolphins and Seals.
- Swim with the Dolphins at the Marina: if you have never done this and always wanted to, it is definitely worth the ‘splurge’!

A pre cursor rating to what I know will be another great stay. If not, I know management will make it right. As they do i you ever have a problem. We cant wait til March 2 when we arrive to our suite. Back to see the great staff and Gregorio! Relax and eat great food. Hopefully we get the star treatment this time with a special champagne dinner as others have posted. This is our anniversary too. We went here on our honeymoon the first visit in 2008. Been going here ever since. Why look for something better when we found what makes us happy....each other and, Catalonia!!!!

Arrived at this hotel on New Year's Eve, sadly we were too tired to stay awake to celebrate. We were in room 1021 - it was kept very clean during our 2 week holiday and it was great to see the different designs made from our towels! Loved the swans! Buffet restaurants were good standard, didn't have to queue so not sure what other guests had experienced. The a la carte restaurants were nice, Show cooking in the Japanese was fun, also enjoyed the Tapas and Italian restaurants. Bars were ok, enjoyed the daily special cocktails too. We've travelled quite a bit in the Caribbean and this was one of the nicest and cleanest hotels we've stayed in. Yes there were small things that annoyed us, but nothing that merits a bad review. We will be back!!

spent christmas and new year 2012/13 at tha catalonia and were given a standard room which believe me it is but its only for a shower and somewhere to sleep in ..the staff were very friendly and extremely hard working and the hotel in general is spotless, drinks at the bambolea snack bar were in constant supply with rafael never stopping all day replenishing your drinks while you are on your sunbed and if you did go to the bar leonardo had your drinks there in seconds ..Now the bad points ....the animation during the day was average but not great but when it came to the evening unless you were french forget it they put on quizzes etc in the theatre bar but only for the french we as brits and the rest of the english speaking world weren't really invited , so basically had to make our own entertainment ,the lion king show however is a must its brilliant ..the staff at the tequila bar were very rude and obviously wanted to serve the people who had tipped them and would ignore the rest of us ..getting up early every day to get a sunbed became very tiresome as there was not enough sunbeds for the amount of guests (saw some people on their towels on the floor ) the rooms are very noisy with doors slamming and people shouting and running around all the time (some silence signs might work)
The new years eve party was absolutely fantastic ..how they trnasformed the beach into a stage and set out all the tables was amazing with a live band ,dancers and then a disco till 2am it truly was brilliant (thank you catalonia) best new year ever !!!!
A 5 minute walk out of the hotel puts you in the marina with dolphins ,sea lions ,manatiis and i even swam with rays and sharks and the people were so friendly it was great
All in all it was a fantastic holiday with just the noise and animation letting it down everything else ticked all the boxes all the mexican staff were great