Casa Marina Reef |
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| Location: North Coast |
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| City: Puerto Plata |
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Value for money: Excellent |
| Food: Average |
Decor: Average |
Service: Above average |
| Comments: |
We stayed at the Casa Marina Reef 17-31 January 2007 and after a couple of hiccups had a fantastic time!
We booked through an internet travel company and flew from Manchester with Thompson. The flight facilities were not as good as expected from a long haul flight (i.e. no individual TVs).
There were 6 (3 couples) of us altogether ages from 24-44.
When we arrived at Puerto Plata Airport we were met by the VIP rep team and some locals tried to help us with our bags (expecting a tip of course). The journey to the hotel took no longer then 15 minutes.
When we got to the hotel we discovered that the company in the UK that we had booked with had not booked our rooms at the hotel, luckily we had all of our paperwork to show the hotel who said they had no rooms in the Reef so they would put us in the Beach after about 1/2 hour we got to our rooms and were not impressed. They were terrible - situated in the C block they had what looked to be mould coming out of the air con fan, the bathrooms were in desperate need of being ripped out and started again. As soon as we got in the rooms we went back to the reception to complain. At first we got told that we would have to wait a couple of days before we could be moved but after sticking to our guns we were told that we could move the next day. We think that the block we stayed in is an overflow block - only used when necessary! We met our Rep Sonya the next day who was very good, we explained what had happened and what the hotel were doing and she went to go double check everything for us so that she could send details of what had happened to the travel company in the UK. We then got moved back to the Reef in block L two couples got a pool view room and we got a garden view room which were a lot nicer. The room got cleaned each day and fresh towels if you wanted. We were welcomed into our room with a bottle of rum and fresh plate of fruit!
The hotel also provides beach towels which you can change every day at Kiko's shack.
There are lots of places to eat, 2 buffet restaurants (different theme each night), 2 snack bars (great for lunch) and 3 ala carte restaurants - Seafood, Mexican & Italian (the latter two being the best!). You are only meant to eat there once a week but we managed three visits to each in two weeks! The food did get a little boring by the end of two weeks after we had tried everything, but it was still good!
There are plenty of bars around the hotel offering a wide variety of drinks - lager, soft drinks, spirits and cocktails - I recommend the Sea Breeze! The only drawback was that the all inclusive drinks ended at 11pm so quite often we would make several visits to the bar to stock up for after 11. They do have some cash bars that sell imported spirits i.e. Jack Daniels and of course the Calypso Disco that is open until 3am. It is a good laugh down there!
The entertainment is great, lots to do during the day from funny throw the coconut games to table tennis and volleyball, the animation team are great and work really hard and long hours, you see them at breakfast, lunch, dinner and in the Calypso Disco and they are always great fun (especially Norberto!) The main evening entertainment is in the amphitheatre the stage scenery, costumes and content of the show are above average for a hotel like this and although I do not personally go out of my way to watch this type of entertainment I thought it was very good! (The Queen tribute was fantastic!)
All of the facilities, pool, Jacuzzis, beach are really good. Beware of the sea the current can be really strong and when the red flag is up the waves are spectacular to watch!
We booked our excursions through Mel, not too sure if we got the best ones though, we chose the funny buggies and horse riding (compared to the photos we saw from people who went though their reps we felt that we had gone for the cheap option and our excursions were not as good) the Jungle Safari was fantastic, we climbed up waterfalls and slid back down them - Brilliant!! A big let down was Ocean World at night. We were meant to see a Sea Lion Show (our bus was late so we missed it which was not our fault) Dolphin Show (lasted about 5 mins) Dinner with Lobster (it was a cheap buffet and some lobster was not cooked properly) A Las Vegas style show (we were really annoyed about the first part of the evening it spoilt this) and a visit to their Casino (finally good fun!) We had been told that we could have a choice of buses back at either 12,1 or 2am this was not true, we had to leave at 12am. On top of it this trip was for two birthdays in our group and we had a terrible time, we complained and each received a free Rum and Coke – No good if you don’t like that drink! If I had to go back I would go throughout the day not the night trip.
There were a few power cuts but within 20 seconds you heard the backup generator whirr into action and on the day we chose to do the funny buggies which get you really muddy (wear old clothes) the hotel had a problem with the water supply for one day and we could not shower!)
We did go out and explore using taxis (very reliable), on foot and the hotel bikes. The local shop/stall owners are quite funny at first trying to hassle you into their job and then guilt tripping you into buying things from them, remember to haggle – and don’t buy from the stall holders who come to the hotel as they are more expensive then the hotel shop!
All in all if we were the type of people who like to go back to the same country and hotel each year I would go back to Casa Marina Reef. We enjoyed ourselves and I was really sad to leave the sun and come back to cold, dark England!
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| Author: Annonymous |
Review date: 02/9/2007 |
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I have stayed there 2 times. Both were the same. Great service, good entertainment, food was OK, staff was great.
I will go back!! |
| Author: Tom Schuldner |
Posted at 22:40 10/22/2007 |
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