Igor Melekhin

Review of Paradisus Princesa del Mar | V...

TERRIBLE service, food and room condition - this i...

TERRIBLE service, food and room condition - this is not a five star hotel!
This hotel is a very bad choice for a nice vacation and here is why:
1. BAD FOOD. Poorly cooked and dismal selection.
2. Some ROOMS are in a very POOR CONDITION
3. Poor service. Rude, slow, UNPROFESSIONAL STAFF.

It is definitely not a 5 star hotel. I would rate it 3 stars at most. Our entire vacation was ruined because of it. Do not make the same mistake! We did our research hoping for at least a 4 star service by Cuban standards, not even close! To be objective though here is why this hotel is a dismal:

1.BAD FOOD: no fruit available which you d be able to eat and not cringe. Very poor selection and most of the time it is either not ripe or has no flavour. Very poor selection of main dishes at the main buffet. Pasta for lunch and dinner, eggs for breakfast, this will be your choice. Oh, and don t forget fries! Some questionable meats cooked on the grill but prepared very amateurishly. Even ROYAL service restaurants had mediocre food which we were able to try twice as members of general section. Same goes for the rest of the a la carte restaurants which you can reserve.

2.ROOMS REQUIRE SERIOUS MAINTENANCE: if you are not lucky you can end up in one of those rooms. We found our room in the following condition: cracked bath tub, towel hangers ripped out of the wall, bathroom ventilation broken (hence the entire room had a damp smell), missing lamps on night stands, missing chair on a balcony, old yellow curtains, rusty curtain hangers, old yellow and stained cloth hanging above the bed. An archaic hairdryer with plastic turned yellow from age which falls apart in your hands with any reasonable amount of pressure applied. The staff had the nerve to accuse us of breaking this hairdryer when we demanded to switch rooms. More on that below.

3.The staff will be nice while everything goes their way. We personally got EXTORTED BY THE STAFF (hotel manager Miguel Angel Jerardo included) to pay for the above mentioned hair dryer after we demanded to switch rooms! It even came to a point where we were told that we will not be able to leave the hotel and country if we did not pay. Do not fall for that! Do not give them a dime! Apart from that the service is just plain slow at times and you ll have to wait forever. Get ready for lineups for a mediocre cocktail or coffee which you ll most likely end up sending back with a complaint.