El Dorado Casitas Royale by Karisma

The first this everyone should know about this resort is that is that the beach sucks and it's easy to find that out but still heard people unaware of the rocks and reef and cement blocks in the ocean. Great things about the resort. Food is excellent. Every restaurant gave us amazing service Fuentes was an amazing experience and worth the price Bartender are amazing Breakfast at Santa fa restaurant is where we went every morning. Shout out to Alex. Check in and out were stress free and done very professionally Our room was clean amazing well by Hugo. He was great Our first concierge was Jorge and he was amazing. He did everything he could for us. Things we hope that could be improved - air conditioner leaked multiple times - we lost a reservation to a restaurant thought the app even thou we didn't cancel it so that sucked alot. - the dishes from room service weren't clean from our entrance for 3 days. - they didn't give us clean glasses in our room. The wine classes were just put back dirty. I feel this is an issue with restocking the bar/ clean glasses. It's not done automatically rather you have to get it restocked on your own. All in all an amazing place and will be back again.

Had a terrible experience. To start off we are members and have been to Palafitos twice in the last two years and had a wonderful experience We booked at Casitas for a group trip and did adjust our expectations slightly based on price point. Well it was far worse than our expectations. When we arrived there was confusion with our booking and they had no record of our arrival despite having paid well in advance, a confirmation and confirmed transport the week before. Somehow they had canceled our reservation. Then they stated there was no availability so we got stuck after several hours at a lesser room in Generations (being stuck with kids running around) and they acted like we were lucky to get that. The entire process was horrible. Next they had already booked dinner reservations so the only option available was the Mexican fiesta. Horrible food and environment. This started five straight days of sub standard food, service and generally a terrible experience. The beach is mostly rocky, the main pool was crowded. Generally just terrible. They couldn’t pay us to go back. We left Sunday and my GI tract is just recovering. Save your money and go somewhere else.

I just returned from my 15th trip to El Dorado Casitas and once again it was a near perfect visit! From arrival to departure, the entire El Dorado staff made it a wonderful trip. We used Lomas for our transportation to and from the resort. They are so easy to locate at the airport and were prompt in our transportation arrangements. Arriving at the resort, we were greeted by Alberto and Alberto and they made sure we didn’t have to worry about our bags as soon as we were out of the Lomas vehicle. Leo transported us down to the Exotic lounge to check-in. The El Dorado welcome committee! Check in was a breeze and we were even able to get our room key a little early which was nice as that does not usually happen! We stayed in a swim-up casita in building 31. The room was spacious and clean and Paloma in housekeeping did a fantastic job keeping it fresh and stocked with towels, etc. We had a couple issues with our toilet and the sliding door, but Ihban our 31 concierge got us fixed up immediately. The pools were also kept very clean and pristine thanks to workers like Arturo. The grounds looked amazing – we saw Rolando the groundskeeper working hard! Isac was our bartender for the week at the 31 pool and he took such great care of us and all the guests in 31. He’s one of the best at El Dorado! Ramon and Gabriel were our beach butlers in section 31 and made our time on the beach bali beds so relaxing with all the drinks and towels, etc. There was no shortage of excellent service in section 31 from these three gentlemen during our vacation. Major thank you to them!! We certainly did not go hungry this trip. The food at El Dorado is always delicious, but it seemed extra delicious this past visit. For breakfast every morning, we visited Santa Fe with our waiter Alex – he provides 5 star service! I really enjoyed the corn bread (just trust me – it is one of the best things you’ll ever eat) and chorizo quesadilla. Along with a mimosa, of course! For lunch, a few days we enjoyed Kampai (with waiter Alex again!) and Chef Cielo made the most delicious sushi dishes for us. The crab cakes were so good as well as the chicken fried rice. One day we ate at La Cabana with Yuli manager, Victor waiter, and Mariano waiter and the cheeseburger was scrumptious! Also enjoyed another cheeseburger down at Kick with Angel manager and Daniel waiter – eating on the beach is always so lovely. We also enjoyed tacos and quesadillas with Norma waitress in section 31 – didn’t have to go far for that lunch! They have opened a new coffee/ice cream shop in front of Kampai and let me tell you… that is a TREAT. Every afternoon during our walks we would stop in for a scoop of ice cream with Alejando working there… the cookie ice cream was my favorite by far! As well as the coconut. A wonderful addition to the Casitas. We made sure to tell Adriana head manager how much we thoroughly enjoyed it! Also before or after lunch we would stop for a drink at Gaviotas beach bar with bartender Ricky/Ricardo – you can tell he takes great pride in the cocktails he crafts! He made a great margarita. Our dinners were delicious and Juan head manager of the restaurants was always running around making sure all the guests were happy which it is clear he is doing a great job. We ate a few meals at D’italia Casitas with our waiter Edmar who goes above and beyond to provide the best service for every guest. He keeps you laughing and fed! Manager Nicolas was very friendly and made sure all patrons were taken care of as well. I ate entirely too much every meal we had there but no regrets. The shrimp alfredo and chicken parmesan are so delicious and for dessert I recommend the canoli! We also enjoyed dinner at Santa Fe with our waiter Wilbert and manager Alma who made us feel like VIP guests. The shrimp with garlic sauce, potato croquets, and carrot cake… SO good. No trip to El Dorado is complete without dinner at the Fuentes culinary theater – the entire Fuentes team creates such an amazing experience. The food from Chef Eduardo was incredible - the bananas foster is SO good. The wine pairing curated by Sommelier Edgar is so enjoyable with the meals - the Piper champagne is also SO good. Majo does a fantastic job of hosting the entire show. Our waiter Norberto was on point with service. Pablo the guitar man – he was the real superstar of the show this go round! He learned a new song since my last visit and it was really special! Most nights before dinner we would head up to the Bellini bar for a drink with bartender Raul and barmaids Janelli and Jocelyn. It is such a nice atmosphere there and they made a great espresso martini. Sometimes we would visit the Gaviotas beach bar for a drink from bartender Missael. After dinner, we would usually venture down for the night-time show at Guacamayas. The shows have all been revamped a little since the last few years and a few new additions like the Latin and burlesque show which we were excited to find out! In my opinion, the people that work at El Dorado are a huge part of what makes each trip so special. In addition to all of the staff mentioned above, there were additional employees we encountered during our stay that always made sure we had a drink, a cart ride, etc. Daytime - Luis bartender Spot pool, Eduardo bartender Kick bar, Clemente bartender 32 pool, Eduardo bartender 29 pool, Leybert bartender Martini bar, Cesar Santa Fe/Kampai bar, Jovanny bartender 26 pool, Julio and Julio bartenders La Isla pool, manager Carlos. Nighttime - Edgar and Edson bartenders Guacamayas, Aracelli and Daniel Guacamayas. Extra special shoutout to Gerry the nighttime cart driver – he was always ready to give a ride around the resort. There was only one hiccup this visit which we had never experienced before (and hopefully never again). One late afternoon on our second day, a massive group of guests from Generations came to the 31 pool. They were extremely loud and rowdy, and started cursing repeatedly at one of the guests staying in building 31. It was our normal bartender’s day off, so we had a fill-in bartender – I cannot remember his name but we were told he is not usually a bartender. He was not asking these rowdy guests to leave the pool and my friend asked him to call security because they were verbally assaulting people staying in building 31 (they started threatening my friend saying we know which room you are in). Unfortunately, he would not call security so my friend came back to our room. The situation escalated and this group of Generations guests started fighting each other and it got physical out on the sidewalk between the pool/beach and finally security showed up. It took security probably 10-15 minutes to get these guests to calm down and leave and stop fighting. Security ended up talking to us as we were on our patio watching all this go down. As I mentioned earlier, our sliding door had issues and would not lock. We asked security if they could send someone to fix this and she assured us they would but they never came. We called again that night and asked for them to send someone to fix and they said they’d send someone, so no luck again. Before bed, we secured the door as best we could with furniture, but it was frustrating nobody would come by even after they assured us our security was their top priority. However, the next morning once our 31 concierge was back we went to talk to Ihban and he had our door immediately looked at and fixed thankfully! This was the only negative part of our trip. I’ve visited the Casitas multiple times and never witnessed/experienced anything like this situation so hopefully it was just a one off thing. We stayed a week and never saw this group of guests again, thankfully. Aside from that one situation, our trip was so wonderful and relaxing and I cannot wait to visit again. It is such a beautiful resort and truly feels like a home away from home! Miss it already!

My husband and I enjoyed a 10 day stay this past month at the El Dorado casitas 31. We had no problems checking in with the concierges. It was a lovely spot with a swim out. Have been here a several times before and found accommodations clean, lots of hot water and lots of clean towels. These staff members went out of their way to make sure our trip was most excellent: Butlers: Johnny, Ylama, Ruban and Fernanda all went out of their way to help make sure all of our requests were met! We are not hard to please! Favourite breakfast server was Alex at Sante Fe. Norma at 31 lunch was very friendly and fun. Alberto was our pool bartender. He was so nice and always checked on us. The Gala dinner on the beach was very enjoyable and we upgraded to lobster for our Candlelight dinner on the beach and it was just excellent! We enjoyed breakfast at Sante Fe supper felt a little rushed serving entree first before soup! We did not like the new Mediterranean menu at Italian by the lobby. Way to rushed and you could tell the food was not made fresh to order and there was no consistency things cooked and uncooked. Kampai delicious great food as did the Italian restaurant in Casitas!! Great room service always arrived hot and within half an hour! It was a wonderful stay and would definitely go back! Thanks to all the wonderful staff who work so hard to make our stay excellent!!

I have mixed feelings about this resort. Mostly good but enough little things that made a big difference in my experience. I will start with the good. The resort itself is very nice. The view of the Caribbean Sea is incredible, the grounds are very well-kept, the casitas (where we stayed) were clean and nice, and the staff were very friendly. We also like the nightly entertainment when we could see it (more on this later). What we felt could be improved. The dinner reservation system. The first thing we did when we arrived (party of 6) was to make dinner reservations. We were told that there was nothing available until 8:45 pm every night at every restaurant. Because of this, we missed all of the entertainment for the first few nights until we decided to cancel almost all of our other reservations and instead just went to the buffet, which was good but not great. The "walking" path could have (and should have) been a beautiful place to take a romantic walk along the Caribbean coast but the experience was ruined by the constant flow of golf carts speeding by. You need to keep your head on a swivel because they travel fast and the path is dimly lit at night. The drivers act like you are in their way instead of the other way around. This could easily be fixed by not allowing the carts on this path as there is a parallel path that runs along the opposite side of the buildings. The "gourmet" food was not what I was hoping for (I am not a picky eater). The best restaurant in our group's opinion was D'Italia Casitas. The worst (again, in our opinion) was the Rincon Mexicano. The Sante Fe Grill only had one steak option which was a thin-cut NY strip. My wife got grilled shrimp there and there were only 4 pieces of shrimp for a main course. I can't tell you about the other restaurants because, like I said, we canceled most of our reservations. I have a few more little things but you get the idea. Bottom line: We will not go back to this resort