Melia Tropical/Carib Punta Cana, Dominica Republic April 27 - May 4, 2001 This was going to be a report on our trip to the Barcelo Bravo Palace resort at Punta Cana, but three days before departure, we were notified by our travel agent (Carson Wagonlit and Vacation Express) that the Palace was overbooked and we had been moved to the Melia Tropical. Since we had specifically requested the Palace, based largely on their water sports offerings, we objected. To no avail, however... They said they were equivalent resorts and gave us a small rebate and a upgrade package (which is generally considered worthless). Getting there Transportation was via UPS charter from Atlanta. Two days before our departure, UPS announced that they would discontinue these charters by year-end. Too bad, because this was one of the better flights I've been on lately. It was on time, and the service was excellent (although the meal was just average). I expected the crew to be a bit 'down' after the announcement that they would be losing their jobs, but not at all... they were very cheerful and upbeat. Arrival was fine, airport customs and immigration was routine, and baggage was delivered promptly. The one time we were not treated well by the local people was when I declined the porters offer to carry our bags; one of the porters pushed his baggage cart in front of my feet. I doubt that it was an accident. We were directed toward the bus to the Melia Tropical (that was it's only destination, and ours was the only flight it was waiting for, so the service was reasonably quick). Only problem was that the A/C on the bus was "kaput". It was stifling hot while sitting and waiting for all passengers. Once we got underway and opened some windows, it was not bad at all. It took about 20 minutes to get to the resort. On the return to the airport, the porters already had their hands on the bags before we were let out of the bus, so there was no choice but to let them take the bags. The return flight was also on time and very comfortable and efficient. The resort: The Melia Tropical and Melia Carib are 'sister resorts' adjacent to each other. For most practical purposes, you can consider them as one large resort. Although we were told we would be in the Tropical, we were actually placed in the Carib... no problem. Check in was quick and simple. We did get the king bed we had requested. Our 'upgrade package' was supposed to give us an ocean view, Jr. Suite. It was a "Jr. Suite', but I believe all rooms are "Jr. Suites", and it certainly does not have an ocean view; but I suspect only about 10 or 20 of the over 1000 units would have an ocean view. It was a reasonably convenient location, closer to the beach than to the common areas and restaurants. The resort grounds are very extensively landscaped and maintained. Lots of flowers, shrubbery, coconut palms, and such, and lots of workers keeping it under control. I'd guess that the resort was probably about 75% full while we were there, with about 50-60% Spanish speaking, probably 20-30% American/Canadian and the rest German, French, and Italian. The Room The room itself is nice, reasonably large (larger than average motel room). Small closet, with safe, remote TV, stocked mini-bar, and a sitting area. Bath area is nice, although not well laid out... very easy to flood the floor while showering. Lots of marble... all floors, some walls; largely well done, but detail work (corners, trim, etc.) is not 'craftsman' level work. Four poster king bed, ceiling fan, and effective (and quiet) A/C made for a nice overall package. Maid service was good.... towels were refreshed when needed, although, as usual in the Caribbean, wash cloths were 'occasional', rather than normal. As described in the material we received, the mini-bar was stocked (several bottles of water, two beers and two Pepsi's) when we arrived and was not restocked during our stay. Very few bugs, but we did dispatch one cricket and one roach while there. Since we grew up in Fla, this was no surprise or problem. Beach towels were readily available (via cards, one towel per person). Bottled water was also readily available, and we had no sickness problems. (We did talk to others on the same flight who did have some stomach problems.) General Layout There are two main areas of the resort: 1.) The common areas, most restaurants, reception, meeting rooms, Casino, bars, theaters, etc... All open air (except the casino and some restaurants.) All were very nicely decorated with lots of marble and decorative touches. The main restrooms are worth a visit just to see the decorations and statuary. 2.) Beach area: pools, beach, watersports, and two restaurants (these restaurants are open for breakfast and lunch). Some units are up by the front/common area, and some are closer to the beach. It's about a 10-minute walk from one area to the other (beach to reception, for example), or you can wait for a shuttle train that runs about every 15 minutes. Normally we would enjoy walks like this, but my blisters (see below) occasionally made it inconvenient. There are several pools at the Carib, including one very large 'meandering' one and several smaller and special purpose ones. The large one had a swim-up bar, and was where most of the pool activity was located. Most of the non-beach oriented public areas are up by the registration area and most restaurants. The theaters. casino, and main bars are all there. Bar service is good, and drinks reasonably made. It did tend to get warm in the evening if there was not a good breeze blowing. We watched parts of a couple of the evening entertainment shows, but since they start at 10:00 or 10:15, they are a little late for our schedule, plus we were not impressed by what we saw... it was not hard to leave in the middle of a show. The Beach The beach is generally excellent. Wide sandy beach, white sand, constant breeze blowing. The beach faces northeast, and the trade winds blow east to west, so the prevailing wind is a quartering on-shore breeze. It was generally 10-15 mph while we were there. There is a large area roped off as a swimming area, which was very little used. The area for launching water sports (sailboats, paddleboats, windsurfers, and snorkel trips, etc.) was compressed into a too small space, sometimes making it difficult to get through the congested area... There was a lot of seaweed/grass in the area, and it did wash up on the beach. It was raked every morning and we didn't think it a problem. There were plenty of lounges and enough shade that everyone was comfortable. Great place for most beach walkers.... you can walk miles in either direction on your choice of hard packed sand or loose fine sand. (Unfortunately, the hard packed sand did not agree with my bare feet and I developed very bad blisters on the first day when we took a 3-mile walk. I've had this problem at a couple of other beaches, but not most, and my wife had no such problem.) We tested our snorkel gear just off the beach and were a bit surprised at how much trash and garbage was in the water just off the beach. One day, while sailing, we picked up several empty water bottles and four empty 2-cycle oilcans; not the kind of thing that would have been thrown away by a tourist. There was an occasional vendor, but never a problem or inconvenient. The Sports: As I implied earlier, we go to resorts for the watersports activities. We care little about alcoholic drinks or amenities many vacationers worry about, but are very sensitive to availability of quality equipment and good conditions. This is one reason we generally prefer Club Med; we have found them to provide consistently good equipment and knowledgeable and helpful staff who are glad to assist. We had chosen the Barcelo Palace largely because of their apparent variety of sailing and windsurfing equipment. On arriving at the Melia we did discover that they had recently added Hobie Wave catamarans, in addition to the Sunfish/Aqua Finn sailboats. Considering the condition of the Sunfishes, this addition was a good thing. The water sports were apparently provided by an independent, contracted firm, Scuba Carib. The watersports people were apparently not employees of the Melia resorts. This may be part of the problem. We found two general problems which impacted our enjoyment of our vacation: The reservation system and the poorly equipped/maintained equipment.. Reservation System: Theoretically, everything had to be reserved in advance. You go to a 'office' to make a reservation, then you go there to get a slip of paper that you take to the beach team who then provides the equipment. Practically, the only thing that really needed reservations were the Hobie Waves. They did usually have to be reserved a day in advance, although they were sometimes available when there was a no-show. The inconvience of this two-step system and the need to reserve a day in advance destroyed much of the spontaneity of a good vacation. Poor equipment: The Hobie Waves were still fairly new, so they were in reasonable (not great) shape. They did have a couple of rudders that would not stay locked down and lines were frequently twisted and fouled, but generally OK. The Sunfish, on the other hand, were poorly equipped.... The homemade replacement daggerboards were about half the proper size; there were no tiller extensions or hiking straps; the sheet just came from the boom, with no pulley or cleat on the hull, making it very tiring to hold the sheet tight on a close reach. There was no apparent testing or verification of abilities before people were sent out on the Hobies or Sunfish, leading to frequent knock-downs and rescues. Training sessions were available, at $15 per hour, but few people seemed to do this. Oh, and the Windsurfers... They had about 4 decent boards (Bic 320s) and several small (3 - 4.2M training sails. There was one 5.2M sail that was very heavy, such that it was difficult for me (6'2", 195lbs, weightlifter) to uphaul. So, in effect, a 5.0 M sail was the largest alternative. I used this combination several times, but on Tuesday (on a Fri-Fri schedule) all the boards lost their fins. Windsurfers are basically unusable without a fin (although I did try). I asked the beach team (who suddenly could speak less English than I could speak Spanish) and the 'office staff', but one knew, or would tell me, why the fins had been removed. So now we were limited to one hour a day on the Hobies (reserved a day in advance), or poorly equipped and maintained Sunfishes, or unsailable windsurfers. The next day, when I asked about windsurfer fins, they announced that they had new fins. Turns out that they only had one new fin that would fit the boards they had. So now we had one useable board and one decent sail. Oh, and you have to sign a waiver that says you will not hold SucbaCarib responsible for any problems and that you will pay for any damages to the equipment. (The only damaging behavior I observed was the staff ramming a Hobie into sightseeing powerboat, at good speed, while they were attempting to retrieve a Hobie they had left unsecured on the water.) They did offer beach volleyball, normal pool games and there were several tennis courts. Obviously, we were not real happy with the watersports. Oh yes, and when we walked by the Barcelo resorts, we saw a decent variety of windsurfers (with fins), sails of decent sizes, Hobies, Sunfish, and Lazer class dingies. Restaurants There are a combination of non-reservation buffet restaurants and reservation required ala-carte restaurants. The first night we did not have a reservation so we went to the only open buffet restaurant, Los Ponchos, a Mexican themed restaurant. It reminded me of some Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings I've seen... Great architecture and design, but the construction/implementation was not up to the task. Most dishes were bland, all chips were stale (actually, beyond stale to tough), hot dishes were lukewarm, cold dishes were lukewarm. Nothing that could not be fixed with a little attention to detail, but it needs that attention. The La Masion was the French Style reservation restaurant and it was probably our favorite. Very good and attentive service, yet very friendly and personable. My wife has studied a little Spanish and knew enough to make the waiters happy and we had a good time learning more Spanish. We ate there twice and by the time we left the second time, the staff shook our hands and actually seemed sorry to see us leave. Oh yes, the food was very good also... The steak was cooked perfectly and the grouper filet was delivered still piping hot. Full courses.. Appetizer, soup, entree, desert, coffee, after dinner cocktail, all with good (not great) choice of wine. In a normal restaurant, I would expect to pay about $75-100 for this meal for two (in Atlanta area). The Carib (reservation only) is a Seafood/Mediterranean style restaurant. Service was good, but not up to La Masion standard. The food and service were both good, but nothing outstanding. The Le Gourmet: Very similar to La Masion, billed as a "Contential" restaurant, with a seafood oriented menu. The food and presentation were excellent, although service was not quite as good as La Masion Alhambra: Another evening we didn't have reservations so we went to the Alhambra restaurant, a Spanish teamed one. The specialty here was Paella, and we like Paella! There were several varieties, all good. Somehow we attracted the attention of an assistant manager and received very good service, especially for a buffet style restaurant. Hoddaka: A Japanese restaurant in the Bennihana style. Food was cooked on a on a hibachi grill with 12 people seated around it. The chef was effective, but the cooking required only relatively basic skills at the table; the meats and shrimp were cut and prepared ahead of time, so there was a minimum of knife skills required. Everything was properly cooked but without much imagination or unusual spices. Breakfast and lunch were available at several restaurants, and we generally went to the one closest to the beach as it was more convenient. We never had a problem finding plenty to eat, although many of the dishes did seen to be rather bland and lightly seasoned. The beach restaurant also had a 'snack grill' where they had grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken and other daily specials.. Some of these specials (ka-bobs, sausages, etc.) were some of the better choices. Most of the desserts were mediocre, but the ice creams were flavorful, if much too soft. Breakfast offered made-to-order eggs, and plenty of fruits and breads. Excursions and activities: There are a number of other activities available, from horseback riding, to 4-wheelers, to city tours, to deep-sea fishing. We talked to several people who had generally good experiences (except for the deep sea fishing in 8-10 ft seas with some people who had weak stomachs). The reef off the resorts, where most of the snorkel trips go, are OK, but the coral is dead and not nearly as nice for snorkeling as numerous other islands. Several people played golf and we heard good reports, although one of the courses is still a 'work in progress'. The people: Almost without exception, all the resort workers were pleasant and cooperative and tried hard to do whatever you asked. If you made a reasonable attempt to learn and use some Spanish, they were delighted and even more willing to help you. Sure, at peak times you may have to wait a couple of minutes to get something to drink, but nothing unreasonable. Grounds keepers, maids, restaurant workers, all were pleasant and did a reasonable to very good job. The one sore point was some of the Scuba Carib beach team.. some of them were fine, but some were not anxious to help (although I was told that a healthy tip/bribe could change that). Checkout: Most of the checkout and departure process went well. The exception, experienced by many of the people on our flight, was poor baggage pickup. We were told to call the hotel operator when our bags were ready to be picked up and they would have someone there in 5 minutes. I figured 5 minutes was optimistic, but after 25 minutes we began to get concerned. Another traveler in our building had already been waiting 45 minutes. After more phone calls and some scouting for a baggage truck, ours as picked up after 45 minutes. One couple almost missed our bus when they had to wait two hours for baggage pickup. Overall: If you're looking for a great beach to lay on and a great pool and grounds to sit around and relax with a drink in your hands, this would make an excellent destination, If you want to do some serious sailing or windsurfing or snorkeling, go somewhere else.