We had booked this vacation through Sell Off Vacations (First Mistake), then made our way to Cuba for our yearly family vacation.
We arrived at the property around 11pm, and there was no staff welcoming us or providing us with direction to get checked in. We had purchased the Diamond Club package for this trip (Don't waste your money you get nothing different then any other guest). The front desk staff were not overly nice and struggled to communicate as they spoke very little English. We couldn't get checked in as Diamond Club (The rep had already gone home, so they just gave us what they had on hand).
The property upon arrival looked nice, little outdated but we expected this. We get to our building and like many tropical destinations the hallways are open to the elements. The building was dark as most of the hall lighting was out and or broken/missing. The room numbers are broken off, hand painted in place of the actual numbers or not there at all. There were stay cats running around everywhere on the property.
The Room(s) - We got to our 1st room, and first impression was "What have we just booked?!" The room was not clean, the phone, toilet, safe, ceiling fans and some outlets didn't work. The beds were like concrete, and stains on sheets and pillow cases. Not able to call the front desk we had to walk back to the lobby (A little ways) to speak to someone. The rooms are very aged, and poorly maintained.
After some confusing and chaotic conversations with the staff, and refusing to wait until morning; we were given another room.. 2nd room was in the same building but now on the 3rd floor vice 1st floor. It was in a better state of cleanliness but still items didn't work, aged and small.
At about 2am (After all the room problems settled), the family we were travelling with came to our room and notified us that their safe was open and money was missing.
*To be fair, the safe didn't work from the start but the couple figured that items in their room, in an semi-closed safe should be relatively secure..*
Back to the Lobby we go! After 45 minutes of Cuban/ English bantering we were still no further ahead. They were not overly concerned and appeared to brush us off. They called their security, but it may have well been the janitor and cleaning lady... The staff would not call the police, but did want to quarantine the room and have the family leave everything and relocate to another room. They explained they wanted to fingerprint all of us including the children and conduct an internal type of CSI investigation (at least that's what I got from the broken translation). We asked for the property manager to be notified but they refused because of the time. No matter how much we tried to explain our displeasure to the staff we only received shrugged shoulders and blank stares...Not a good start to this trip! We had no choice but to wait until morning.
The next morning we did get an opportunity to speak with the property manager "Pedro" who was hands down the nicest most understanding gentleman we had encountered. He launched an investigation into the room theft, he made arrangements for our two families to be relocated from the Memories property to the higher class Grande Memories property next door. He had what appeared to be firm instructions to the staff to be helpful to us and ensure we were looked after. He genuinely cared about our experience and wanted to do everything he could to assist. He made us feel welcome and took the time to listen and help.. (Thank you Pedro)
The second property was allot nicer, cleaner and more functional. Room service was no existent, but at this point we had almost given up on expectations. The food was actually decent and plentiful.
As a family we wanted to try to look past the problems we encountered and make the best of our trip..
So I leave you with this; If you are looking to be catered too, have drinks served to you on the beach or by the pool, this may not be the place for you! The property was rated as a 5 star, but in North American standards this would be a 3 at best. The property manager is what made our trip, and the beach...
We will probably not return to Cuba, but we did want to experience it...and oh did we!
I know the property has come under new ownership (at least I think that's what I was told) and from the effort and level of care that Pedro offered I am sure it may turn around in the future...