azepine00

Restaurant. Rather depressing - pretty much what you find at some generic airport HRs. I was happy to have McDonalds breakfast the day i had tour booked and left early. Ask for table in the covered area - better protection from sun and birds.

I liked the location relatively close to Fajardo and Ceiba marinas for activities/ferries/tours. Had great meals outside at Ekelekua and Rincon del Sabor.

Learned that one should not stop at red light in the middle of the night when roads are empty - noone does and i almost got run over by a large truck when i hit the breaks on red. Kids told everyone at school afterwards that red means go - not sure what life lessons that produced...

Robert

I concur with you, Braswch. We were assigned room 2017, categorized as “Ocean Front Club Access” (although the club remains closed) and loved the room. Building 20 is closest to the private pool area so it was great to come and go from the beach or pool to the room with ease. Below are a few pictures of the lanai and views of the beach:







The Regency Suites appeared to be vacant and not bookable from what I could tell but look amazing. Here is a picture of what those look like:

MSPeconomist

Yes, it's a possession of the USA, but when I went there, the airline advised me to bring my passport. Moreover I remember doing customs/agricultural inspection before my flight home. I'd rather ask people who have been here and can tell me what actually happened.

platbrownguy

I've been twice during covid. PCR test, uploaded in advance to get a QR code, is still required: https://www.discoverpuertorico.com/i...vel-guidelines

As for federalism concerns, PR can require covid tests and restrict entry and exit even though it is part of the US. Hawaii has done just that as most people who pay attention to FT surely know. Passport is irrelevant, no passport is required and any airline who advised otherwise is incorrect.

MSPeconomist

Thank you.

For the record, the airline didn't say that a passport was required, just that I was advised to bring my (USA) passport with me, since I obviously had one.

nas6034

Years ago as I was boarding flight back to the states there were CBP officials checking people and providing them with state ID/drivers license was sufficient.

soy

Are they offering Globalists anything such as a F&B credit, on account of the lounge being closed?

beofotch

Does the hotel still have the "floating water park" still up? What are some of the daily on-site activities? Also - does the hotel have a kiosk where they provide sand pails, buckets, toys for kids or does one need to bring those?

azepine00

No

Floating thing is very bizarre - it was only open on saturday and required reservations. The rest of the week people were chased away from it and noone knew when it was going to open (my experience is from back in april). Some kids (including mine) occasionally sneaked in and mentioned it was quite fun.

No activities on site; there are nice tennis and pickleball courts but it's miserably hot during daytime and at night gear rental kiosk is closed.

Same kiosk rents out some water toys but IMO you are better off just stopping by walmart to buy whatever you want.

Hotel beach and water are not too appealing in general. Take ferry and head out to islands for that or book various tours from nearby marinas. Ferry needs to be reserved a couple weeks (?) in advance by tourists - most were sold out online and in person buying onsite is reportedly a crazy mess.

On a shopping related topic - local Costco is crowded and boring - no unusual local items (like you see in Hawaii Costcos for example)

beofotch

Thank you azepine00 for your thoughts.

I just checked tripadvisor - the most recent views look bad. Like INCREDIBLY BAD. Almost all 1 or 2 stars out of 5. All around the same theme of basic service failures. If I had to guess they are incredibly short staffed with no end in sight.

Some TripAdvisor headline excerpts of the last 10 days:
​​​​​​​Any other recent Flyertalker experiences?

hotelfanatic

I just came back and you are right, the place is short of staff. Especially the restaurants and front desk. I will post review of the hotel (and how to get tickets to rain forest, beautiful beach, and where to snorkel at the resort to see fish) once i get a breather....

But I am going to give a BIG shout out for waitress at Water's Edge... Arianna F.
She was very friendly and helpful!!! I can tell she will have a successful career in the hospitality industry if that is what she wants.

hotelfanatic

Stayed 3 nights last week and have mix feelings about the resort. There are many pluses and minus to this place as stated by prior reviews here and TA.

The hard product is excellent as shown in these pictures. But there are 2 things that can be improved.
1) The AC is very loud so that may be an issue with sleep.
2) the hot water in the shower is weird. Frist day we did not have an issue. But the 2nd day the water coming from the shower head was cold. Got hold of engineering and they came to inspect and said I needed to run it for a while as they showed me - running the tub faucet on hot setting. Oddly that was what needed when we took a shower, run the hot water in the tub simultaneously.

The grounds are not as clean as it can be. They need to pick up the dead leaves/palms and dredge the sand of the many broken shells. I also saw lounge chairs in the water.

The biggest issue I found are with the FD and restaurants. They don't seem to have enough trained people to man these 2 areas.
When I checked in, there was no mention of my Glob status and no explanation of Glob benefits at this resort (i.e., breakfast benefits). I was assigned a ground floor garden view room, I asked if they have a ocean view room or at a minimum a 2nd floor garden view. After going back a forth a few times, she went back to the office and emerged a couple minutes later and surprised me with a ocean view room. So as the resort gets more crowded, getting a ocean view room upgrade may be slim to none.

As for the restaurants:
Breakfast at Water's edge was fine. Not sure why ppl are complaining about the Glob benefits. Is either the buffet (with OJ and coffee w/ free refills) or 1 item from the menu and 1 drink of any kind. For the buffet, they will fill your plate upon your request from the bar. Again props to Arianna F.
Dinner was another story. We ate at Nori Hibachi Grill and Mercado Bistro. The show at Nori was fine but the food was terrible - too salty and even the fried rice was bad. At Mercado Bistro we had pizza. it tasted like cardboard to me and our dinner took 2 hours from start to finish because of slow service. I do not recommend neither. But here is the problem, where else can you go if you do not have a car. Luckily I had a car and I recommend trying the pizza at KoKo near route 3. Pizzas are huge and at a reasonable price. The medium is all you need for 2 adults. We got the large and was only able to finish 1/2. But if you don't have a car, i think you can call them to order delivery.

For those who want to snorkel on premise, there is a spot in front of the coconut tree closes to the water (its roots are shown - pic below). There is a patch of rocks where you can see many fishes and i even saw a small lobster. If you walk out further you can find many live conch. Bring your water shoes. If you have a car and want to explore afar, drive to Seven Seas beach (about 22 miles) and walk to Playa Escondida beach. Is about a 30 min walk through tropic jungle (from the end of Seven Seas beach) and worth it. Water was clear but beware of strong currents. We stuck very close to the shore. I included QR codes for most the the dine in places at the resort also. I will update this report from time to time with new photos and how to reserve tickets for the rain forest which is a must if you have a car. Is only $2 to get the tickets the day before.





snorkel spot in front of this tree with exposed roots (tree is at the end of the beach, in front building of the last bungalow). Please do not lift rocks as I saw this little girl was doing.

QR code for the restaurants






Playa Escondida beach

9volt

Anyone have any updates on the suites situation? Reading the various reviews online, it seems none are available due to still being under construction? I even read one review where the guest spoke to the GM and the GM estimated none would be ready until 2022 at the earliest.

MSPeconomist

This seems strange as I would think that such a hotel would hope to be able to sell some suites to its intended clientele.

platbrownguy

I think there are some problems with the 6 suites. Not sure what, but my hunch is that some substantial remediation is required before they will be able to sell them for the desired rates.