Iberostar Costa Dorada May 18th – May 25th
We flew out of Toronto on Skyservice 757 in Row 2, lots of leg room. Uneventful smooth flight, arrived ahead of schedule time at 8:20 pm, customs was very quick, luggage quick and onto bus to resort with Grande Presidente in hand within about 20 minutes of arrival.
Check in was very efficient with welcome drink handed out and directed to room within 25 minutes we were back at the lobby for the evening. I previously emailed resort requesting a room overlooking the pool on the second floor with two beds. We got exactly what we requested,
Room was decent with a king bed and a single bed. There are lots of lots of shelf space and hangers in closet with an electronic safe available for $2US per day. The bathroom was rather small size but clean and it included shower caps, sewing kit, face cloths, lots of towels, body lotion, bath gel (as well as dispensers in shower/bathtub for shampoo and bath gel).
The balcony was a good size with two chairs and round table as well as rack for wet bathing suits. Maid service was good—usually cleaned by noon. My son mistakenly left US$ on the TV and it was gone that day, nice tip for the maid so she was basically looked after for the week on the first day.
Resort is very nice, but needs to be maintained with a bit more TLC as there seemed to be a lot of bird poop in certain area due to the large numbers of purple martins and swallows. Buildings are nicely painted but someone should show the maintenance workers what masking tape is, there was a lot of paint on the door frames and even glass block windows. As far as layout the resort is very easy to get around. Grounds are lovely and have some beautiful foliage and plants with a family of peacocks and flamingo’s wandering around.
The beach is better than I anticipated but there is a lot of coral and seaweed area.
Lots of loungers were available at the beach and the pool with adequate shade available.
The beach has the seaweed raked regularly, but more time should be spent on the amount of debris left around the loungers. Beautiful there in the morning but wind does get very strong in the afternoon and can be tough for lounging in the blowing sand.
Pool is quite large with lots of palapas and loungers. No problems with the towel game being played as there are plenty of lounges available. The pool was definitely in need of a refurbishment as there were lots of spots where the paint was gone from the bottom and near the sides also. The pool was a popular spot in the afternoon especially when the sand started to blow but it was very hot and one had to avail themselves of the water frequently to stay cool. Temperatures for the week ranged between 32C and 35C.
Food was fine. Tried the Brazilian and Mexican restaurants and preferred Brazilian. The Mercado buffet always had something to suit everyone’s palate but was consistently the same everyday even though the menu showed different things on it. From 11 pm to 7 am, Mexican restaurant becomes the place to get freshly-cooked food for a snack or early morning continental breakfast.
Entertainment in the evening didn’t really impress us it also started at 9:30 pm. Lobby bar and court yard was the place to gather/hang in the evenings, the wait staff to orders and efficiently delivered your drinks, as well live entertainment was provided on a couple of evenings.
The resort while listed by most operators as a 4.5 star in my opinion doesn’t meet those standards, but was a solid 3.5 that could be improved with the TLC that I mentioned previously.
We would return if the price was right and I was traveling to the North Coast.
Hlywud/the Warden
Ontario Canada
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