El Dorado Casitas Royale by Karisma

Cannot comprehend the great reviews. The location is lovely and the grounds are beautiful. Casita is clean. But very dated. Arrived to caution tape on the stairway because the railing had been replaced and held together with wire. The palapa was disintegrating so the deck was dirty all the time. Arrival information was so poor it took three days to figure out food options. The food, another story all together. It was awful at every location. And the service was rude several times. No fruit at a late breakfast and refused request for a second tea bag. Santa Fe was particularly bad both breakfast and dinner. Ordered picahana steak. Unsure what it was. So tough and dry. Breakfast Buffet was not replenished so after 10 it was poor. Fuentes was enjoyable but again the steak was cooked to death. Chefs Market at Generation was also inedible. Shuttle service was quite slow. Drivers were rude to a guest one evening. Booked an excursion w Lomas. The driver never showed up. We were unable to get a refund because it needed to be “investigated” and could only be refunded by the person who sold it, and he wasn’t there. We enjoyed the pool, pool bar service was great. Food at lunch there was pretty good. Check in was chaotic, concierge was not very informative. Checkout was much better. I could have done without the sales pitch at the end. We enjoyed the vacation but felt this resort was sorely lacking.

Another amazing trip to Mexico. Casitas did not disappoint. Our butler and friends butler Ruth and Hugo were 5 star the entire week. Clemente was our daily bartender mixing excellente cocktails by the dozens was also 5 star. The entire staff left us wanting for nothing. Going back in April and can’t wait.

Overall/TLDR: • Overall feels like a higher end 4 star hotel, however rated a 3 overall due to lack of value for money. • Might be worth it if you find a deal but otherwise you are better off at another resort or a standard Dorado room. Resort: • The El Dorado Casitas Royale is badged as a separate resort to El Dorado Royale but in reality it isn't - it's essentially an upgraded room, you get nothing extra over those at the normal Dorado resort • The resort complex includes the Generations resort (not adults only), and is large - would probably take 30 mins to walk end to end but easy to navigate. • Beach isn't great - other than some smaller sections the majority is inaccessible due to rocks and the wave breakers. • There are plenty of deck chairs and Bali beds (free to use) and there was no issue with people claiming these early • There are plenty of bars but not much in the way of pool/beach drinks service Rooms: • Rooms are nice but dated in places and could do with refreshing and infrastructure upgrading - regular issues with toilets flushing and one occurrence of shower not getting hot for 20 minutes. • Outdoor shower is a bit of a gimmick - would be better served incorporating that within the indoor footprint and making the bathroom larger. • A lot of the 'space' is actually just from the high ceilings - you don't actually get much more floor space than a typical junior suite at other places Food - unfortunately where the resort falls down: • There is no dinner or lunch buffet at the El Dorado, there is one at the Generations resort but the offering is limited • There is a breakfast buffet at El Dorado but it gets very busy with long wait times - the offering is limited and they regularly ran out of popular items which sometimes weren't replenished quickly. • There are a few other restaurants that are open for breakfast on select days where the food is better and you don't need to book for these. • There are various lunch spots across the resort which don't require reservation - we generally found these to be better than the evening dinner options. • There is a range of evening restaurants but availability is an issue - reservations must be made in person (no app) and not every restaurant is open everyday. We stayed for 10 nights and could only get into the popular Italian restaurant on our last night having made the booking on our 2nd day. Value for money - another area this resort falls down on • This holiday cost us considerably more than our past trips to Mexico and underdelivered - having received a similar experience from Bahia Principe and Dreams Jade for 1/3 of the price. • The vibe I got is that they have historically benefitted long term repeat custom and are basically pricing high to take advantage of those that return our of habit or without putting much thought into looking elsewhere • Bottom line is if I had to spend this amount of money again I would not choose to stay here and would go somewhere else • Wife was quoted $230 USD for a 50 minute body massage and the same again for a facial - these were apparently the discounted prices.

I went with a friend for 4 nights and it was so much fun. The food was delicious, the staff so kind, and the amenities amazing. The room was very clean and the grounds so well kept! Leticia was our concierge and was so friendly and made our stay so much better! We will be back!

We are currently on resort now. We arrived yesterday from Toronto with an all inclusive package booked through Air Canada. Wanted to pre warn all Canadians that might have booked this package if the hotel scam to try and get you to attend a high pressure presentation for time share. To keep it brief … our flight home leaves on Sunday Dec 14th at 22.10. Our airport pick up arranged through Air Canada is 7pm. We asked today about paying for a room extension or even to pay to be swapped to another room or to use a courtesy room as check out is 4pm. Here are the options given - 1) We must check out at 12 noon as hotel is full (it is not so many empty rooms). And stay on resort until 4pm after which time we must leave despite our transfer being at 7pm. We must pay for our own taxi to airport, despite having bought an all inclusive package with Air Canada. No room extension available even if we want to pay 2.) We can pay $400 usd for a room in the El dorado royale ( Oh I thought there were no rooms available) 3) We can pay $130 usd night fee to stay on resort from 4pm to 7pm 4.) OR we can attend a time share presentation for 2 hours at breakfast and then we can stay in our own casita room until 5pm free of charges. Plus we can have complimentary massages plus our dinner at Fuentes which is an extra cost would also be free. Hmmmm scam ??? In collusion with Air Canada? Not our fault our all inclusive flight is 22.10 ?? We have phoned air canada and they have said they cannot throw us off resort at 4pm. They are contacting an Air Canada Rep on resort for us. Hoping someone can help !! And no we don’t want to attend a presentation to just get a room extension until 5pm. We are prepared to pay. They were lying that there was no availability. And top it all I couldn’t get on Trip Advisor on the hotels wifi. I had to use a VPN. Beware all Air Canada passengers that have booked the same package with a late flight.