In no particular order these are the problems I had with the resort. Now I never do this, but to me I think I need to warn the masses of a rip off. We even wrote a formal complaint form with all the issues we encountered (Front and back) on the
more +second day, and still nothing changed. After we talked to the big boss of guest services Rafael Mendez, not much changed. Although he tried, to address some of our concerns his staff failed to follow through.
The Terrible Issues of My Stay at Ocean Blue and Sand:
- This resort is by no means handicap accessible. Even though they tell you that they have 24 hour shuttle service, they don't. The train or trolley circles around every 20 - 30 minutes, except at night when you have had a few drinks and have to walk 2 miles back to your room. They said that we could call 222 and get one of the premium carts to bring us, but that never happened. Unless you are a premium guest or as they call it "Privileged" guest, you are second rate.
-Terrible service at the restaurants, specifically the Italian restaurant. So for some reason there is no way to make reservations ahead of time unless it's for the steak house or seafood (the one with the RCI Voucher) So you go, wait 20 minutes to be put on a wait list, wait the prescribed time for your party, then go back and wait another 40 minutes for the staff to address the fact that you are there. They did, however, seem very busy, taking shots with the customers ate up most of their time. So yeah not sure if they know the American model of a hostess and wait staff but again under staffed and everyone is running like crazy, paying no attention to customers. Its as if they don't want money, or the tip-
-When were checked in by Carla, Very Sweet and pretty girl but neglected to mention key information and provide the basics to us, such as towel cards, and dinner reservation information.
-Every day the room had a power outage, meh no big deal, but the house keeping staff could not even give us the courtesy of setting the clock in the room when they came, however, they never neglected to take their tip.
-There is a rumor that a flyer with the next days activities would be brought to your room, never happened.
-So the resort does not have voice mail service for the room, not really a big deal, but they do have a flashing light that tells you you missed a call, from someone... Thats it...
-So not sure about the other rooms but our room had a huge gap in the door that allowed multiple insects into our room. This is apparently such a huge problem at the resort that they have scheduled pest control maintenance on the rooms. We stuffed towels under the crack in our door to insure that we were not sleeping with any creepy crawlies during the night.
-So there are 2 giant pools on the property. Said giant pools have huge swim up bars in. Said bars have tons of people around them have a good time in the sun getting drunk. Nowhere within eyesight or within a mile is there a restroom (bathroom, or water closet, toilet) everyone drinking in the pool for hours is urinating right there. You are basically swimming in other people's filth. Seems like a design flaw to me.
-The "entertainment crew" is rude, crude and a bunch of drunks. On more than one occasion the one they call "Willie Wonka" comes up to me and asks what I am drinking, I tell him, he takes my cup and downs the drink. After that I had to start double fisting (carrying 2 drinks at once) so I can have one for me and have one taken from me without permission by the "entertainment crew".
-The resort lets in local merchants onto the property to hawk their cheap nick knacks and seiners on guests. Now if they kept them in one area, and you had to go there, like a market of some sort I think that would be better, but they are just everywhere. They harass you on the way to your room, on the way to the main lobby, and on the way to dinner. They are everywhere the guests are in high traffic. And once you buy something from one, like vultures they jump all over you so you buy their cheap crap. No thank you is not understood, you literally need to scream for them to back off. This sets a great mood for the evening.
-The resort has sharks. They are on 2 legs. I am referring to the constant harassment from the resort employees that try to get you to go on a 2 hour tour so you buy into their crappy resort. After saying no 3 times in person to Paul, or sexy Paul as he calls himself, I was met with a door tag that said Paul will be at my room at 9:00am to pick me up for my tour. Needless to say by this point in the game I let him know that on my vacation, when I am a customer, no one tells me where I am going to be, I tell them when I will meet them if I feel like it.
- One of the biggest problems for my wife besides the lack of attention and terrible service was the fact a well developed 13 year old girl was allowed to drink throughout the resort. She was allowed into the Wave "disco", or club as we call them in America, and proceeded to order drinks, even after we notified the security guards that she was underage and needed to be removed. They did nothing. She then engaged herself in sexual acts with the entertainment/activities staff. My wife was completely mortified that a resort that prides itself on creating a fun family atmosphere would allow a child to act in this manner and do nothing to protect her innocence regardless of her mothers inept parenting skills.
-So if my experience seems like a good time, then by all means, go, give these people your hard earned cash. For my buck, I will stay right here and get terrible service at home, no need to travel half a continent away.
Date of Stay: 01/14/2012
Children in Party: 1
Accommodations Dining Kids Play Area Money Value Pool & Water Fun Staff
We've stayed at Ocean Sand 2x with our children. This is by far our favourite place we've been with the kids! Our son loved that the pool had the zero entry as he's nervous around the water. There's a rock climbing wall on the beach that our oldest
more +daughter did every day. They have a mini disco for the kids which we HAD to go to every night! There's a mini bowling alley, pool tables, etc which is great for the kids for something to do after dinner while waiting for the disco to start. The kids club is on the beach which I loved. The kids would go for about 1.5 to 2 hrs in the afternoon so we could have a break. It was nice to lie on the beach, yet still be close to the kids, but someone else is watching them! They loved the cotton candy machine & popcorn machine, and they would practise the dances for the mini disco. They also had sand toys that you could borrow for the kids to play with on the beach.
They have an onsite photographer, so we booked family "portraits" on the beach. they turned out amazing!! Each day they come around with a different animal to have your picture taken with, but aren't pushy about it.
Food was pretty good, all my picky eaters found stuff they liked! This isn't a 5* resort, but we all love it. When we went back the second time, it just felt like home. The staff are incredibly friendly, always smiling & talking to the kids. They have a little cafe that's close to a Starbucks or Second Cup, which was WONDERFUL!! The only reason we've been travelling to other places is just to see differnet parts of the world.
The Outback Safari trip is incredible. It's great for the kids to see the island and learn about how coffee beans, cocoa, bananas, pineapples, etc grow. Such a fun trip!! We swam with the dolphins as well, but not as enjoyable as when we did it in Cuba. I would recommend this place to anyone travelling with kids!! We truly love it. We've stayed at higher end, 5* resorts, but this is still our favourite!
Date of Stay: 12/01/2008
Children in Party: 3
Kids (3-6) Kids (7-9) Tweens (13+) Accommodations Dining Kids Play Area Money Value Pool & Water Fun Staff
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