• Restaurants and bars

Surprised and disappointed that none of the restaurants offered any local cuisine. Didn’t try all the restaurants but here’s my overview of those we did try.

Marbella- Only ate breakfast there but very mediocre food in my opinion. The breakfast buffet was average in quality but with tax and tip comes to almost $30. A few times we ordered breakfast off the menu but it was rather uninspired and bland. Wait staff service was average to downright rude. Since it was busy with three convention groups they seemed harried and not at all friendly. One waiter complained to us that he was working so hard while the guests were having fun. One waitress was almost indignant that she had to bother with writing a bill for my breakfast (my husband had a voucher and I did not). She overcharged me and then billed me for his pot of coffee and refused to do anything about it when I questioned it. She claimed he overspent his voucher (he didn’t) put his coffee on my bill. I didn’t bother to ask for a manager (but did put it on my comment card) since we had already waited about 40 minutes just to get the check but she lost out on a tip.

Shimas- Good (not great) food. Service here was good. Large portions! I had half my lo mein put in a to-go box (love the fact that there was a small refrigerator in the room) and it was enough for both of us to have for lunch the next day.

Lobby Bar, Tapas Bar, Tiki Beach Bar - all were good with good service. We preferred the Tapas Bar (downstairs near the Palio restaurant) because it was quiet and classy with a soft live piano music. The Tiki Bar is fun for an afternoon cocktail.

Room service- this is where I thought the hotel excelled. We had pizzas and salads from room service several times. Waiters were extremely friendly and went out of their way to bring us extra items like rolls and wine glasses (for our own wine). We loved the veggie pizza and the Mediterranean salad.

• Room – The room was very spacious but the space could have been used better. The king size bed was pushed too far down towards the window, which meant the chair and ottoman, had to be squeezed into a tight space between the bed and the window. There was loads of wasted space on the other side of the bed. But that was a minor complaint. The bed was very comfortable, nice flat panel TV (with inputs so we could view our digital photos), good drawer space in the dresser (but my pet peeve, no drawer in the bedside tables). I liked the tile floors but it is time for the carpet around the bed to be replaced.

Liked the little bar area in the foyer. Coffee maker (but pretty bad tasting coffee), storage area for the ice bucket and a small drawer for our snacks and a small (empty- yeah!!!) refrigerator. I hate having to push things aside in a mini bar fridge that is pre-stocked with expensive items.

Bathroom was large enough for two people to move around. Wish the toilet was enclosed but that was a minor dislike. Good supply of bath products (even aloe gel and bubble bath) replenished daily. Soft towels. Really nice bathrobes upon request.

Didn’t have any complaints about noise. Maybe we were just lucky that people around us didn’t slam doors.

• Room views - this is where you can make or break your vacation if you like a nice view and enjoy sitting on your balcony. VERY BIG difference in room views, some can be really awful. There are six or seven floors of rooms depending on the wing. The lobby is on level three so if you don’t want to be near the noise of the lobby bar and the casino avoid 3rd floor rooms in the west wing.

Ocean views- Ocean view rooms in the west wing overlook the gardens and IMHO are in the best location (my husband had one of these on a previous stay and loved it). Ocean view rooms in the east wing overlook the family pool and can be noisy. Ocean view rooms in the middle overlook the main Marbella garden but the palm trees can obscure the view. A few of these overlook the roof of the Marbella restaurant. Lower floor rooms in any of these wings won’t have a good view of the water.

Garden view- might or might not be overlooking a garden. You might be facing the parking garage or the driveway to the valet garage.

Rain forest view - This is what we had and it was lovely, mainly because we were on a higher (5th) floor in the east wing. Below us was the lagoon where the iguanas live. Forest view rooms in the west wing are awful, probably the worst rooms in the hotel. They overlook the rooftop of the casino and parking garage and very loud air conditioner units. Forest view rooms in the middle aren’t good either because they overlook the front entrance and portico or so they have both the traffic noise and the air conditioner unit noise.

Jr. Suites - some are Ocean Suites, some are forest view. They can have the same concerns with views as the standard rooms. Our friend stayed in an “ocean view jr. suite” and had mostly a “palm tree view” overlooking the Marbella garden.

• Service Level – Very uneven. When we checked in the front desk clerk, while efficient, was not warm or welcoming. A bad impression of the hotel from the start. During the week other front desk staff were better so I learned to avoid the one male clerk who had originally checked us in. Wait staff in the restaurants were for the most part not good or friendly. However room service waiters were great.

Maids were good and friendly. Only once was there a different person who cleaned our room who did a poor job (floor wasn’t vacuumed, only partial replacement of the towels). I liked getting automatic evening maid service. Many hotels are only offering this service on-request these days. Each evening the maid would stop by and offer turn down or just towel replacement, always with a smile and good chocolates (not the yucky stuff that some hotels give out).

Service requests - We had a problem with a faulty door lock. It kept disallowing our keycard. I got three new key cards and they would work once then stop working. It took three phone calls and several hours to get security to come up and fix the lock.

• Valet and parking- not friendly but the service was efficient. We used the on-site Avis car rental and it was good. We valet parked on our first night then used the self-park thereafter. Valet was $20 plus tip, self-park was $15. They add 7% tax to these rates. The garage for self-parking was very easy access. The employee lot that others have recommended using for free was being monitored by a guy in a golf cart during our stay to be sure hotel guests weren’t using it.

• Pools - Very nice pools each with a hot tub. Enough umbrellas and trees to provide shade if you want that. Loved the fact that they have a separate adult pool. Lounge chairs at the adult pool were great with thick cushions.

• Cleanliness – Upkeep seemed good both in the hotel and around the grounds and pools. Gardens were beautiful and well maintained.

• Prices – High in the restaurants and bars as everyone says but pretty normal for a resort of this type. There are easy ways to cut costs such as keeping your own snacks, beer, wine, etc. in your room fridge. Room service pizza and salads were large enough to serve two, with our own wine and the lovely view from our balcony we preferred “eating in” to dining in restaurants with minimal atmosphere.

• Broadband Internet – $14.95 per day, free for Wyndham By Request members. Sometimes ran a little slow if the lines were busy but overall it was pretty fast.

• Noise from lobby – Some evenings there was a live band playing at the lobby bar. And when large convention groups convene at this bar it can get loud.

• The Beach – Nice soft sand with plenty of lounge chairs. Great for long walks if you turn left up the beach from the hotel grounds. We had some stormy weather a couple of nights so the red flag was up a few days. One night there was a really bad storm that washed tons of ugly debris on the beach. Clean up crews were there immediately working on it but it was a multi day process.

• Casino – Very small but nice if you want to drop a few dollars.

• Shopping - Typical resort gift shop with upscale tropical clothing, overpriced sundries, etc. Nice little kiosk outside the gift shop sold local souvenirs. Golf shop at the clubhouse had a nice selection of clothing.
• Location - 20 miles from the airport. Drive took about 45 minutes using the toll road route. Great location if you want to spend time at El Yunque (a must!). Very close to Luquillo Beach and its famous kiokos (food kiosks). The Amigo grocery store is about 5 minutes away.

• WBR perks - Enjoyed the free internet and small welcome snack.

In conclusion we ended up liking this resort after our original poor impression. We didn’t play golf or use the spa so I can’t comment on those amenities. We were there on a business trip and I’m not sure I would choose this resort for a personal vacation. It really has potential to be better if they could work out some of the problems with staff friendliness and upgrade their food. There is really nothing they can do about the layout of the buildings so it’s up to the guest to avoid rooms in poor locations.