This review
will be a bit different as this time I (Derek) will write the bulk of it while
Geri will add her thoughts here and there in italics.
We won’t be
covering everything in a lot of detail.
We’ll just note the things that are new (to us at least;). It has been a
few years since we have stayed at the Melia, (though we have spent a day or two
there whilst registered elsewhere) and those things that have changed, those
things that have not changed but which we think should or shouldn’t - if that
makes any sense.
The trip was
a portent of things to come: it was by far the best travel day(s) we have had
in a long time, perhaps ever. We booked
though our local CAA agency and as a result had a night at the Sheraton on
Dixon Road near Toronto Pearson (not the one built into Terminal 3) and free
parking for the whole trip included. We
avoided rush hour on the way into Toronto, had no trouble getting to sleep
early, caught the shuttle in leisurely fashion, enjoyed our (paid-for) priority
check-in and had a fine flight down.
Airport in
Cuba as always, save for the near-complete expansion of the parking lot bar.
Geri: They had a temporary bar set up
and luckily it was set up in front of our bus.
No chance of missing that bus.
This time
(unlike our last trip to CubaJ) we managed to catch the right bus and were
established by 14:00, glasses of champers (OK, sparkling wine, leave me with my
holiday illusions).
Geri- ‘established’ means slightly
unpacked, long pants shed, and back to the lobby bar.
Speaking of
champagne, there’s an alcove off the lobby bar that has champagne and fresh
orange juice available all morning.
There’s the same in the buffet restaurant, but it only goes into the ice
about the time the restaurant opens and so it can be warmish, depending on your
eating time.
Geri:
Our reservations for the 1st week were in the registration
package we received by the airport. It also included room number and bracelet. It
is my preferred way. No lineups.
The room was
as always. Showed a bit of wear here and
there but nothing serious. From our
first stay back the year the resort opened we’ve always thought it odd that a
high-end resort like the Melia doesn’t provide facecloths and facial tissues in
the rooms.
We were in
1722. Building 17, as far as we can
recall, has been the only building we’ve ever stayed in. We like it and will request it again. Close to the beach (right across the walkway from
the Ranchon restaurant) and pools and most importantly, the poolside grill.
Geri: The towel and book exchange is
also right there.
The
important stuff first: all the bars we tried, and I think we tried them all
save for the one in the waiting room outside the French and Japanese
reataurants, make pina coladas from scratch, not from mix. Yum.
Not so the margarita mix unfortunately.
Margaritas have also been a problem for us in Cuba going back to the
early 90’s when we were served them in glasses rimmed with sugar. :-)
We expected
the restaurants to be pretty empty given that the hotel was less than half full
while we were there. But even so, few
people seem to have figured out that the pool grill served great a la carte
breakfasts. We had it to ourselves most
mornings. We did eat at the breakfast
buffet a couple of times (once to test and once while on a bacon safari) and it
was fine. Much improved really. They have removed or cut down much of the
wall between the serving and eating areas and that has done a great deal to
improve traffic flow. Of course the
resort was nowhere near full, but still we think it is much better.
The Ranchon
serves as the beach grill at lunch, no change there. The food was quite good by any standard I
think. A charcoal BBQ cooked meats and
veg while the fish was done in the kitchen.
I’m no fan of their little buffet hot table.
Geri: there is also a buffet with a
salad bar and various hot dishes, including poutine. They always had 2 or 3
choices of potatoes incl sweet potatoes.
I have to
say that each time we visit the Mediterranean restaurant the menu has gone
downhill. When it first opened I thought
it was one of the best if not the best a la carte at any of the Cuban resorts
we’ve visited. Now it’s a spot I would avoid.
It is also
showing some wear and could use some ceiling repairs.
At the other
end of the spectrum was the Japanese restaurant. It was quite good with a pretty good show put
on by the chefs at each of the tables.
The sushi was even real sushi, not some concoction made of canned
tuna. The soy sauce way salty: of the VH
variety rather than the brewed kind (Kikkoman et al).
In between
are the Italian and the French. The
Italian isn’t as good as it was in the days when you got a really nice beef carpaccio
with olive oil (which then evolved into carpaccio with mayo masquerading as
aioli and thence off the menu entirely) and you had a choice of pasta and a
choice of perhaps 5 different sauces, but it was otherwise acceptable.
Better than
the Italian, the French had an acceptable chateaubriand and a choice of wines. The veg overcooked.
A nice
feature is the waiting room/bar that serves the Japanese and French
restaurants. Up to about 20 people can
wait in a lounge area for their service time to come up.
There’s a bar and bartender who will announce
when each restaurant is ready to receive guests. Wine, beer, liquor.
Because (we
think) the hotel had so few quests the buffet was open every second night, the
a la carte spots the other days. And the
Mediterranean restaurant had a fixed menu the even we ate there, no
options. Dinner at the buffet was pretty
standard. I found it easy to make up a
light mean of cold cuts, olives, cheese etc.
Regardless
which restaurant we ate in, we were always grateful for having remembered to
bring our humidity-proof travel salt and pepper shaker (from Lee Valley). As is now my habit I brought along a bottle
of hot sauce. Though, on a visit to the
Sol we noticed a bottle at each table at the beach grill.
What we
didn’t remember to bring were our coffee mugs.
And we only had one water bottle for beach bar use. The latter a special pain as the plastic
glasses used at the pool bar and the beach are not only wasteful but tiny. And seemingly getting smaller every
year. We have some Cristal plastic beer
glasses at home from years ago that we use for the odd BBQ at our place. They’ll hold a full 330ml bottle of
beer. Five years from now thimbles? :-)
For morning
cappuccinos I would use the ceramic mugs that sat next to the room’s coffee
machine. Refills not problem given how
close we were to the snack bar.
Bars all
good, as always. Beach and pool bars
offer chair service. Order 4-5 of
whatever you drink would be our advice unless you remember to bring your own
insulated mugs or cups. There’s only the
one server at each and so it can be a while between tours and these plastic
cups are near thimble-sized. :-)
The bank
service was unchanged. 200CAD got us
196CUC.
A new (to
us) development was the number of guests from Latin America. Canadians were a majority, but there were
also folks from Germany and Spain and Russia.
Staff and regulars report that the summer is busy with an increasing
number of Cubans using the resorts.
The beach
was as always for the most part, though on the day we walked down to Memories
Azul we noticed (couldn’t help it really) that was no real beach at the
Barcelo. Instead there was a 3-4m
limestone cliff dropped straight down to the sand. There was literally no way to get the beach
there unless you brought your own ladder.
Clearly Sandy was responsible.
See some photos I took for details.
There were
afternoon and evening entertainments of course.
Around 4 there were fashion shows, trick bike demonstrations, music etc
by the pool. Music and one night a
magician in the lobby bar leading into the evening stage show. The show was a cut-down edition as the resort
was so empty. ‘Black and White’ were
part of it. Bit disappointing as their
usual humour-and-music approach was directed out (though it was back when we
saw them at the Ranchon at lunch one day).
The
animation staff was blessedly quiet for most of our stay. Though if I could find the person (I use the
term loosely) who set up both the beach and poolside playlists to blare out
‘The Big Bamboo’ every twenty minutes or so I would happily strangle them.
Week 2 of
our stay we refer to as The Week the Yobs Arrived. They calmed down after a day or two, but a
bunch of boys from Toronto spent their first week out from under their mothers
doing things like having contests to see if they could jump in the pool after
downing one drink while not spilling another in the other hand.
The one real
downer was four days with little or no hot water. It was fixed before we left after a team of
plumbers went close to 48 hours straight.
No great crisis however: even ‘cold’ the water was warm enough to shower
in, if a bit bracing.
Otherwise
the worst I can say about the place is that the new bits of the resort (the French and Japanese restaurants for
example) or a visit to the Las Dunas next door make parts of the Melia,
especially the lobby bar, look a little in need of some freshening.
Misc:
My standard
leave-me-alone-I-don’t-want-to-talk bar ploy by leading the person approaching
me to think I am a cricket fan, fell down badly when it was a Windy supporter
who sat down next to me. Works well in
Canadian hotel bars though. “Sorry, am
not a hockey fan, but did you see the latest India-England test?” usually gets
me back to my book pretty quick. :-)
Ernesto from
the animacion staff held tai chi classes on the beach every morning. 20+ participants not unusual. I like this not because I participated, but
because a tai chi class is a lot quieter and easier to deal with when you’re
trying to read than are dance classes, aquafit etc.
The nude
beach at the far west end of the Sol’s section of the beach was fine. And for a change the bar service extends to
that area.
Sol Visit:
Lots of old
friends to see. We’ve heard people talk
about how, though it is technically not as highly-rated (3.5 stars I think,
compared to the Melia’s 4 or even 4.5 rating), the Sol remains busy full
year-round and has way more regulars than the other hotels on CSM. The ‘atmosphere’ is what does it. The lack of staff turnover is both an
indicator of this as well as a reason for it.
The dialectical nature of the hospitality biz? J:-) Anyway, the Sol was clearly busier than the Melia.
One
important note to regulars: Elsie at the pizza restaurant is retiring in May.
Each time we
pop into the Sol, whether to stay or just to visit, we are struck by the more
‘wild’ approach to landscaping there.
And by the quality and variety of the food at the buffet restaurant –
which now offers pogos!!!
A sign of
age: I can remember when the beach grill at the Sol was a bunch of stumps and
palapas. Now the last of the stumps are
gone, replaced with decking and picnic tables.
News of
Other Resorts:
We ran into
two couples who had stayed at the Buenavista.
One couple loved it, especially for the snorkelling nearby. The other complained about weedy beaches and
the food not being as good as the other resorts. Both mentioned being outside having a shower
when the bug sprayer went past.
The Memories
resorts continue to get decent reviews, especially with regard to food.
Las Dunas
was as always. We were again impressed
by the lobby bar and the buffet’s food.
But a word of warning: it was almost as empty of guests as the
Melia. When packed, as it was when we
last stayed there, things move slower and can be more complicated. We’re talking about perhaps going again,
despite its size, and trying for a slow period.
The Return:
Mostly went
well, but there was much-heightened security entering the departures area. Geri had to dump her water and lost a
lighter. I lost a jeweller’s screwdriver.
No biggy but it was as tight as at home, which is to say a little
tighter than normal for Cuba. I mention
it only because repeat travellers might want to be a little more careful about
what they pack where.
The best
part of the last day? After 14 days of
perfect weather, about an hour before we got onto the bus for the airport it
started to rain. Makes leaving a little
more bearable. :-)
Happy to
answer questions. Look for some further
comments from Geri below.
