Stayed at Hotel Almirante Cartagena during a business layover on October 2012. Upon arrival, the hotel staff helped me carry luggages to my room, very standard and smooth service. The front desk check in was easy and straightforward. Staff English knowledge were very decent as well.
I didn't get a chance to use its facilities such as breakfast, pool among others. However, the hotel looks very new, spacious and modern. The restaurant looks very nicely decorated and all the staff were very friendly.
Security is very good at Almirante, mainly because you'll need your key card to activate the elevator to your room's floor. However, you can get around this security feature by using the stairs, which kind of defeat the purpose of elevator key card activation.
At one point, I left my room slightly opened because I had to get ice, and right away within minutes, a security guard came to make sure everything is fine and that I didn't leave my room door opened by accident. Security was quite superb.
Upon check in, I was also given a voucher to the adjacent casino and since it's my first time in Cartagena, the front desk lady was very kind to suggest where to eat, drink and exchange money.
My room was very nice, located on one of the top floors. I could see the beach from the room and the view was quite magnificent. I don't know about other floors, but there were no carpet on the floor, so if you want to walk around freely, please remember to bring your own sandals.
The bed was a king size bed with very comfortable sheets. I did find the room a little cold, specially in the middle of the night.
The bathroom was spacious and clean with all the required amenities. Fortunately it was a business trip and I didn't have to pay for the room, so I can't comment on its 'value'. However, based on what I experienced, I would most likely inquire this hotel first before researching any other hotel in Cartagena.

I spent two nights in this hotel in Cartagena. It is a five star hotel with a nice pool, although the sun just show up in the pool area after 2pm.
Is is located in Casagrande a touristic area by the beach.
There many restaurants near the hotel.
The hotel restaurant it is very good.
It is 10 minutes by taxi from the Old city.

I took a short breakaway from a business trip in Bogota to this lovely town, so rich in history and culture, and the people were just so polite and gracious. However the hotel was a bit of run-down 70's concrete architectural mammoth with no foresight when constructed. First of all it was under major construction so the bottom was hollowed out - which concerned me about its structural stability. Our room was a double, and the view was ok but the shower leaked water through the cracks which were not sealed or caulked. We had water all over the concrete floor after each shower. The shower head was old and falling off. The door to the room was also funky as it does not lock when you exit, so essentially at first we left the door open and unlocked. The internet cuts you off within a half hour, so you'd have to keep signing on repeatedly - annoying when you're in the middle of typing out an email or working on something like a spreadsheet (which we tried not to do, while on the beach break). Anyway we were only there for 2 days so we did not complain - it was not worth it to change rooms or be unhappy in such a pleasant scenery. The people there were very nice, but our message here is: Stay away until they finish remodeling...

My husband and I decided to stay near the cuidad vieja for a few nights and then splurge on a hotel since we were a bit disappointed with the beaches of cartagena. We figured we could spend some time by a nice pool and avoid the constant vendors. We booked the almirante online and were really excited to spend our last few nights of our trip there. However, upon arrival we found that the hotel was outdated on many levels and the pool was the biggest disappointment. I do not understand the positive reviews here on trip advisor and wonder who is writing them. The pool is small and at this time (Nov 2012) there is no sunshine at any hour of the day. This is important to know as the pool is located on a side of the building that is shaded all day! Huge disappointment. But it didn't stop there…for $150 a night you get an old outdated bathroom, a crappy pool, weird smells in many of the halls and in the room, and to boot, a terrible breakfast. While the selection of foods was impressive the quality was not. I don't know how you can mess up eggs but they were terrible and we didn't eat them. They even serve instant coffee. Lastly, when we decided the beach was better than nothing, we found they also don't have a beach area specified for the hotel guests unlike the other hotels. I can't understand why a hotel that would classify itself as 5 stars and charge a whopping $150 a night could wrong on so many levels…
I highly recommend you look elsewhere, as we walked around, we surely wished we had done our research better.