This place is also called #Coralia Club Playa de Oro, Varadero, Cuba.
We just came back from a two-week holiday at Mercure Playa
de Oro in Varadero. We stayed there from March 4 to 18, 2014. Room 2119. This
was our fifth time in Cuba.
Every time we come back from Cuba
we say: Never again! But Cuba
is still the most economical place to go to, so we keep on going back.
Overall our stay was good. The beach, of course, is one of
the best. They have lots of palapas and lounge chairs, but they did run out of
lounge chairs a few times and we saw guests sitting in the sand. To get a good
spot it is wise to get up early. The beach attendants were helpful and they
work very hard to accommodate everyone. A tip goes a long way and they deserve
it. The resort is planning to add a row of palapas, which will make it better.
The lounges are hard and it helps to have a cushion. A blow-up mattress is also wonderful to have to make it more comfortable.
Here is a list of the
positive things we found:
The beach restaurant is great to have near the beach. They
serve barbequed food, mainly chicken and ribs. We did have shrimp four times in
the two weeks we were there and they keep filling the pans. Dinner is taken in
the main dining room and the selection of food items is good. Mainly pork and
beef. We did get lettuce quite a few times in both restaurants, but only oil
and vinegar for dressing. The pasta station is very good. Soup was good.
When you arrive there are eight large bottles of water in
the room. Once they are used up, they can be refilled at the bars.
There are three elevators in the building we were in and
they work.
Woollen blankets are supplied in the rooms to use at night
for sleeping.
Mattresses were not bad. We always slept well.
The entertainment was fine, especially the water ballet.
They do come and fix problems quickly. (Our safe didn’t work
at first. It was fixed within the hour).
Negative points:
The music in the lobby is too loud. You can’t spend an
evening sitting in the lobby or near the bar relaxing, unless one enjoys
ear-busting noise.
No ironing board in room.
Air conditioning in room cannot be controlled. Our room was
always freezing cold. Not comfortable. We shut off the breaker and then the
humidity was so high everything was covered with a film of dew. When we opened
the patio door to bring in warmth, mosquitoes came into the room. One night we
killed a dozen mosquitoes, and we still woke up with mosquito bites.
My wife and I both got a bad cold from the continued cold
air blowing across the room. We did hear other guests coughing also.
No king or queen size bed. The two beds we had were too
narrow for two people to sleep on. The mattresses were covered with a plastic
sleeve, which made them noisy and cold to sleep on. We put towels under the
sheet.
The shower leaked water all over the bathroom floor.
One day the maid forgot to put a pillow case over one of the
pillows. Another time we didn’t get any towels. (Even we did leave a tip every
day!)
No bathroom by the beach restaurant.
Main restaurant has bad acoustics and it is noisy. No air
conditioning. It is hot and stifling inside.
Long line-ups at the pasta station and if a person wants to
have fish or meat fried on the grill. Also long line-ups by the pool bar to get
a drink and a hamburger, same goes for the beach restaurant. The last Sunday
evening we had to wait ½ hour to get a table in the buffet restaurant, and that
was at 8 o’clock. Supper starts at 6:45.
They also ran out of plates and cutlery most of the time.
It is a family oriented resort and there were many children.
Some were well behaved and a few weren’t. We had a small group of kids running
and chasing each other in the lobby in the evening, which we found annoying.
One boy was swinging a tennis racket around, nearly hitting someone when the
racket flew out of his hand. Some people may not be bothered by this, some will
be. The resort cannot be blamed for that. It is the parents of these children
who don’t seem to care about other guests.
We went to the International à la carte restaurant twice. We
ate the shrimp dish, which was very good. The first evening a woman played
beautiful music on the piano, but after an hour she quit and a guy sang on the
stage. It was a bit loud and not as relaxing as listening to classical songs
played on the piano.
We never went to the other two à la carte restaurants. One
served only pizza and the other one was the beach restaurant, which was not
closed in and they served meat grilled on a stick. We talked to other guests
and they said it wasn’t good.
I got sick from the food I ate the last evening with a bad
case of diarrhea. I believe it was one of the fish dishes. I thought those
white pieces were scallops, because they looked kind of shiny, but it seems
they were just pieces of slimy fish. That was the only time I got sick. A
sleepless night and four Imodium pills fixed it. The next day, our day of
departure, I ate only dry bread and drank water. What a bummer!
The weather was great the whole time we were there, but on
our return flight it rained. We are very disappointed with the way our luggage
was treated at the Varadero airport. They did not use tarps to cover the
luggage, and when we got home, our clothing in both suitcases was soaking wet,
ruining some of our things. Also, one of our suitcases was damaged. The handle
can’t be pulled out anymore because of the bent rail it runs in. Now we have to
buy a new piece of luggage. We contacted Sunwing and complained. Hopefully,
they will reimburse some of the money it will cost for a new suitcase.
It was not a bad holiday for us, because the food was okay,
the weather was warm with lots of sunshine, the water was warm. The room was
not luxurious, but had it not been for the cold, it would have been fine,
because we don’t spend much time in the room anyway. We don’t even know if the
TV worked. We never turned it on. Besides, we didn’t find a remote anywhere,
but that didn’t bother us. The beach was great, the people working at the
resort were friendly and working hard to make us feel comfortable. Would we go
back to this resort? Probably not, unless we’d get a super price. Maybe next time we'll try Cayo Coco again. A bit more expensive but possibly a bit nicer.
We booked and flew with Sunwing. We flew over Thunderbay,
but we won’t do that again. Coming home, we sat for over one hour in the plane
for it to be de-iced. The flight is too long that way. We didn’t care much for
the sandwich we got on the airplane, either. I had to wait probably twenty
minutes for my drink after I got my sandwich, because the pilot was demanding
his supper. By then I was parched.
