My wife & I chose this result because my cousins were staying here. They are members of the Park Royal vacation club. Unfortunately, we booked before we read the reviews here. Most of the negative reviews turned out to be true. First the positives, for the most part, the resort was very clean. Now the negatives. The rooms: The beds are awful. Not just hard but generally uncomfortable. Don't expect to sleep well here. Hot water never happened but the water got warm enough to not be uncomfortable, There are only 3 small drawers in the dresser and a small closet. Expect to leave many of yours clothes in your luggage. We saw very small bugs, the size of a pin head, regularly on the dresser and the countertop of the sink area. Disturbing but didn't have a serious problem. The doors don't seal so expect noise. There is about a one inch gap under the door so you will hear any rowdy people who happen to be in the hall. We were close to the entertainment area so we heard the shows (not worth going to) when we tried to sleep. They give you two bottles of water each day and tell you if you want more to go to the deli and but more (All Inclusive??). There are no clocks in the room and no coffee makers. The television gets very few channels and only 2 in English. Fitness Club: small, with limited machines. They charge $8 a day to use it (who said this place was all inclusive??). The Pool and Beach: Yes it is very hard to get chairs unless you get down there early and save them which enough people do that you can't expect to get one after 9am. They also are cheap and uncomfortable. The ones by the beach are worse as they are the cheap plastic slat variety. I say beach loosely, it is maybe 200ft wide. The pool chairs are more comfortable as they are plastic but the sitting area is fabric. The pool water was very cold. Hard to figure out how that can be with 80 degree days but you will fine that hardly any one uses the pool because of the temperature. Time Share push: We got called in our room shortly after getting there saying to come down for our welcome gift and presentation. We declined. The next morning at 7:30 they called again and I told them to leave us alone. Two days later they stuck a letter in our door saying it was urgent for us to come down for the presentation. Restaurants and food: Ranged from awful to ok, mostly awful. The buffet had themes each night (Tex Mex, Oriental, Italian, etc.) but was 90% the same every night. On Italian night they added, pasta, replaced it with ribs (very fatty) on Tex Mex night, and has sushi on Oriental night (scary on a buffet). Breakfast was the same thing but added eggs and sausage. No bacon unless you ask a waiter for it. Except for a few items, breakfast, lunch and dinner were the same food items, and not good food at that. If you prefer quantity over quality, you'll be OK. If you like good food, don't even think about staying here. Our best meals were off site. I had a "hamburger" at the beach area. I don't know what kind of meat that was but it was one of the most awful things I ever ate. The "pizza" was a joke. It might have been a tortilla with cheese on it. But then again I'm used to good pizza in Chicago. Shopping Area: There is what looks like a nice shopping area right next to the resort which includes a Hard Rock but it is more than half empty. That may be related to the economy but with 4 cruise ships docked across the street, there must be a reason why it wasn't crowded (high prices?). The internet was spotty at best with the best reception in the main lobby area. Summary: The best thing here was the weather and obviously the resort had nothing to do with that. We read reviews as bad as mine before we got here and found them to be mostly true. That tells me that the resort is not interested and making things better. If you work hard all year to take a vacation and want to have a nice resort with good food, don't stay here. You get the feeling that the majority of people staying here are brainwashed time share and vacation owners who don't want to admit they made a mistake by investing thousands and thousands of dollars plus yearly fees to be a part of this. Budget right, stay at a nicer hotel and research and go to restaurants in and around town. At least that way you won't feel like you wasted your money and vacation time on this place. A Comfort Inn would seem like a 5 star resort to this. If you regularly stay at a Hilton. Marriott, Hyatt or better. you will be severely disappointed.
