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> Destinations > Cuba > Trip Reports > Trip Report
First I should qualify this review of the "Breezes Jibacoa (Cuba)" of 2002 as it is relative to our previous vacation experiences, which include the "Royal Uvero Alto Hotel & Spas (Dominican Republic)" in 2001 and the "Barcelo Maya Beach Resort (Mexico)" in 2000. My wife and I vacationed at these three all-inclusive resorts during March break of each year.
To lend some context to the review, my wife an I look for the following in an all inclusive;
- Comfortable, clean, quiet accommodations
- Good food, with plenty of variety
- Prompt, courteous service
- Quiet, unobtrusive pool area
High Points;
- Bus and ride to/from resort
- Signature representative was accessible
- Weather was great, warm with a nice breeze
- Picturesque resort
- Trip to Havana
- Gift shop prices
Low Points;
- Cuban security (better have your papers in order)
- Check-in was painful (we arrived around midnight)
- Booking the "a la carte" restaurants was painful
- Acquiring and exchanging beach towels was painful
- Luke warm shower water about half the time
- Little plastic glasses from the bar (bring your own mug)
- Buffet food was quite mediocre, limited in variety
- "Beach Grill" food was quite mediocre, limited in variety (hotdogs, hamburg's, pizza)
- A la carte restaurant food was adequate at best
- No wine list
- Service was quite spotty; some staff seemed to have a bit of an "attitude"
- Really thin pillows, (bring your own)
- No 110/220 adapters were available, good thing I brought some alkaline batteries for my CD
- The somewhat inferior quality toilet paper and facial tissue seem to be in short supply (bring your own)
- Pool area was frequently noisy (exercise class, volleyball, grass cutting)
- A relatively small number of sun shades on the beach (stake your claim by 0700)
- Rooms were often noisy, could hear our neighbors quite clearly
- Bicycles in total disrepair (see below)
- No iron adapter (see below)
- Could not keep room, no effective access to courtesy suite (see below)
- At no time did any resort representative ask how our stay was, even at checkout
Bicycles in total disrepair;
It took us about 15 minutes to find two bikes with at least one brake that would work (sort of), when I asked for a wrench so that I could tighten the seats and fix the brakes, I was told that there was nothing available, needless to say we did not go very far.
No iron adapter;
We didn't bring an iron, as the rooms are equipped with one. When I went to iron my shirt about 1.5 hrs prior to going to the a la carte restaurant I discovered the adapter was missing (an odd arrangement). I called the desk and was told I would need to wait until the next day at noon, I explained that I did not need the 110/220 adapter, as the iron was 220, but I needed an adapter to plug it in. Then they hung up on me, I called back and I was told that a maintenance person would come, we waited an hour, but no one came. The next day we went to the front desk, again we were told that someone would come to our room, no one came, we called the desk again and finally a maintenance person came with the adapter.
PS: they did not have any 110/220 adapters either, so bring your own.
Could not keep room, no effective access to courtesy suite;
On Monday morning at our orientation we were told that we could keep our room longer for $20, subsequently when we went to pay the $20 we were told to come back the following Sunday morning. On Sunday morning we went back (another painful encounter) and were told that we had to vacate at noon. When we asked about the courtesy suite we were told that it would be available from 1-4pm for 20 minutes/couple and we would need to come to the desk to get the key, i.e. we could not get a specific time slot. So we sat by the pool in the shade since it was apparent that we would not likely be showering before leaving.
Summary
All three resorts were about the same cost and all had a Signature four star rating at the time we booked the trips. Unfortunately, the service, food and accommodation at the Breezes did not quite measure up to the other two, plus there were numerous minor annoyances, which we did not experience elsewhere. Bottom line; we'll not be going back to Cuba any time soon.
Thanks to Ray for this trip report ...
March 2002
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