El Dorado Casitas Royale by Karisma

The resort is lovely, beautifully kept and spacious. But …. The restaurants are all inside except the pizza place in the evenings and the air conditioning is fierce set at 16°c. The Italian in The Royale section is probably the worst and they even offer shawls! The food is cold as a result. Sante Fe probably has the poorest food. Breakfast is limited across the resort. Overall it is very good however. If you are a group, we were a party of 6, you have to book well in advance but the booking system once you arrive at the restaurant often gets it wrong and we were turned away on more than 1 occasion. Really disappointing given the online function seems so good. The worst for us was arriving to find the 3 swim up casitas we had booked were not available at all for the duration despite booking directly and paying some 6 months before. We were offered an “upgrade” to family area which is clearly not what we wanted given we had booked an adult only resort. Long story short we had an awful first night in temporary rooms, offered an “apology voucher” which we had to spend in the hotel and given the next category of room down after arguing for hours and hours with the general manager with the promise that we could claim the room category difference back on departure. Sadly that was a lie just to keep us quiet. We were made to sign a document to accept the original apology which apparently removes their full liability despite being told the opposite. So in short, we had an OK holiday in a lovely place but are out of pocket and still being lied to today. A lovely resort, good food and the staff are friendly but approach with caution is my advice. Any issues simply aren’t dealt with openly and fairly.

We’ve been going to EDCR for New Years for the last 12 years and this was certainly one of the best trips we’ve had. Casita butlers Hector & Miriam could not have been better! They took care of our every need and went well beyond the norm to make our stay very memorable! Kudos to both! Although Karen and Claudio were not our butlers, they also helped us in every way possible because of our previous relationships with them. Section 32 bartender Alberto and beach butler Alberto were both fantastic in keeping us ‘hydrated’ every day, making sure to take orders from our room pool or wherever we were. Room service for coffee and lunch was tremendous as well. We cannot speak highly enough about the staff at EDCR, including concierge Emi. Thank you!

We spent 12 days at Casitas and absolutely loved it! We had a first floor swim up in building 32. So easy to get to the pool and into the room throughout the day. We had Alberto and Alberto as our bartender and beach butler. Both always had a smile on their face and a friendly greeting. Butlers Miriam and Hector made sure we had an amazing trip. They were super communicative and helped us with anything we needed. Which for us, wasn't very much! The food is definitely above and beyond what we've had at other resorts. We were able to do Chef's Table at Italia Casitas. It's an extra charge but well worth it. We had 5 dishes made just for us and paired perfectly by the sommelier Fabiola. We were excited to see our favorite waiter Jairo! Always great to see him. And now made a new friend in Oscar on our last night. Definitely recommend Casitas if you are looking for a relaxing vacation. Not once did we leave the resort. We were perfectly happy relaxing by the pool or on a bali bed on the beach.

The food is amazing and very quick service. Jairo was our waiter both times we went and he never failed to make it nothing less than amazing. He truly cares about his guests. He brought us dishes he loved that weren’t even on menu. Plan to be back soon.

Resort: Eldorado Casita’s Room: Beachfront Casita Booked this trip as a birthday present to my wife. This resort came as a recommendation from our travel agent who booked our destination wedding earlier this year. Our day of arrival was as about typical for any resort. The staff greets you, gets your bags, gives you a cold towel, offers you a drink. We were put into a golf cart and brought over to the Casita’s lounge to check in. Check-in was pretty normal, you meet your concierge, give the security deposit (the security deposit was $500, I feel like that was high but I couldn’t remember what we’ve paid at other resorts.) after you finish checking in, the concierge pulls out a paper map and begins to give you a quick overview of the resort circling things on the map and writing out what they are, this place is MASSIVE, bring sneakers because you will be doing a lot of walking. According to the signage on the walking path along the beach it’s over 3 miles long. After our meeting with the concierge we were brought to our room by the bell hop and settled in. The Room: I booked this stay through capital one as our travel agent didn’t have anymore “beachfront casitas” available to them to book. I really enjoyed the concept of the casitas, 10-16 rooms in a semi circle with a pool and pool bar in the middle( you can see them from Google maps) . The pool was never super crowded and allowed you to stay away from the party pool if you wanted. The room itself could use some updating (according to the internet the resort was built in 2000) the plumbing and electrical fixtures have seen their time (caulk is king in the plumbing department here) a paint job and more modern lighting would really help lighten the place up and create a more inviting space. As for cleanliness though, the room was clean, housekeeping was very good. The food: Dinner requires a reservation every night which can be made through the website they set you up with at check-in. As with a trip or a stay anywhere you have to have an expectation of what the food is going to be like. For the price point I wasn’t expecting Michelin star, but I wasn’t expecting old country buffet either but somewhere right in the middle is about par for the course at one of these resorts. Other than our first day lunch at the Thai restaurant, the rest of the food was a big disappointment. The Sante Fe Tex-Mex restaurant was subpar, the Italian restaurant was ok, not typical Italian cuisine like you would find the in US. We used the room service multiple times this trip and found it was one of the better room services. Food selection wasn’t huge but the portions were better and it came in a timely manner (usually 30-45 minutes. I’ve waited hours at some resorts) The buffets were ok, they had a smaller selection than I anticipated. The Mexican restaurants were only open for breakfast and not lunch and dinner. The only available Mexican food could be found at the small buffet all the way tucked in a corner at the end of the resort. If you plan on spending anytime at the pool or beach plan on leaving for lunch. The resort doesn’t off any to go options for when you are lounging. You have to walk to a restaurant and sit down and eat. Staying in the casitas, the closest restaurant to you is the health bar, which is decent, fresh salads and some sandwich and shake options. But you can’t take it with you. We found this inconvenient. Some days they did have a small taco cart near the main lobby which was good, but was inconsistent. In our 6 day stay it was there one of the days. Fuentes: the “culinary theater” is an add on option for dinner. Our last night there our concierge offered us a 2 for 1 deal to Fuentes, instead of $36 USD/head it was $36 USD for both of us. For the price we decided to try it. We showed up early like the concierge told us and were greeted with a small cocktail hour outside with a specialty drink being made, we got our hopes up that this dining experience was going to be better and make up for the rest of the short falls. When booking, we were shown the pre fixed menu, we both looked at it and agreed that we would eat most of the dishes being served that night. Once the show started it immediately felt gimmicky, the chef was very professional and explained the dishes in detail but was interrupted multiple times by the “host” and sommelier pushing the sale of the wine pairing. This threw me off, I wanted to hear more about the meal being made in front of me than your sales pitch. The first course was blue fin tuna with a sesame seed crust. The menu didn’t specify that the tuna would be served raw, it was not advertised as sushi (now I know tuna in sushi is usually served raw, but didn’t expect this to be served totally raw, but a light/medium sear) the second course was Miso soup, which my wife and I enjoyed. Usually not one of my favorites but to my surprise I enjoyed it. The third course was some type of hand made sushi with beef and fish (it was not advertised that way in the menu) during the serving of the third dish we were about an hour to an hour and half into the show and have been served nothing but appetizer sized portions. After the third rendition of the wine pairing sales pitch during the third course serving my wife and I decided to leave and had room service delivered to the room. Lastly, while waiting for our transfer back to the airport the morning we left, we were approached by a resort representative asking how our stay was. We were honest and told him the property was very beautiful and the beach and pool were very nice, and he proceeded to go on about emailing us a 35% off coupon so that we could return. After that I expressed my dissatisfaction with the food and beverage department and said that the F&B department needs to step their game up. The representative ended the conversation pretty quickly after that and wished us safe travels home. My next all inclusive trip I will be taking my business back to SECRETS or one of the other large hotel names.