RIU Bambu

Got back last Tuesday, rather unimpressed with the whole thing. Obviously, there isn't an independant resort review bureau or whatever that assigns stars to these resorts. Definately not a 5 star resort but maybe a 3 or 4. Esthetically very nice, lots of shiny stone surfaces and crystal ashtrays, but the service left a little to be desired at times. I'll agree with Rick in that the suite cleaning wasn't very consistant, and the mini-bar was only re-stocked every other day and very haphazardly at best. Nothing like checking into a resort and stepping on burrs in the rug beside the bed with your bare feet! Lack of toilet paper the first day was disconcerting as well. The food was blah. blah. blah. Would you like some grease with your meat? The food was the same day in and day out, and we started skipping breakfast because I couldn't stand any more un drained bacon and runny scrambled eggs. The lack of local food was also disappointing. It was very european, not caribbean. Found a solution to the problem of the German tourists reserving a space all day and never sitting at it by the pool. Move their towel. Snort. Plus they managed to mess up the hotel bill at the end, and we were almost charged $380 DR Pesos for phone calls to Belgium. Got that one straightened out. On the plus side, the people were very friendly and didn't laugh at how badly I spoke spanish. The resort was clean, and well laid out. I sincerely doubt I'd ever go back however. My parents are going to Melao this week, so I'm curious to see what they think. (At least they had HBO, I got caught up on my movies as 12 midnite DR time was 8pm or so on the west coast of the US and all the good movies were on!)