The Dominican Republic occupies half of an Island in the Caribbean called Hispaniola, the other half is Haiti.
They Say: **********
"Fun Royale - a superb three story property nestled in the Playa Dorada Complex in Puerto Plata, neighbors the challenging 18 hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones and its sister property Fun Tropicale. All facilities are shared by both hotels, which offer a wide range of activities and entertainment to our guests and just 500 meters from the golden beaches of Playa Dorada.
The complex is just a 20 minute ride from International Airport General Gregorio Luperón, and 5 minutes from the charming town of Puerto Plata.
Fun Royale boasts 168 superior rooms featuring one king size or two queen size beds. All rooms have individually controlled air conditioning, color cable television, telephone, private bath with tub and shower. "
First Impression: *******************
We booked a two week holiday at the Fun Royale Hotel via our timeshare club in May-June 2000. We had never travelled to the Caribbean before, but had been advised by the lady who took our booking that it was a beautiful island, albeit very poor. After a very long journey we arrived at the hotel just before midnight. The reception area was quite presentable, it was 'open air' and looked much as we had expected - marble floors, freshly painted walls and lots of staff milling around. It only took 10 minutes to check in and in that time we signed up for the 'all inclusive' package, which paid for all our food and drink for the fortnight. The staff seemed very friendly and a porter arrived to escort us and our luggage to our apartment on the compex. The grounds were beautifully maintained an on the whole our first impressions of the place were favourable.
Cost: ******
We had originally paid a total of £1512 for the holiday, for 2 people for 2 weeks. As I explained before, this was through our timeshare holiday club. The all-inclusive package cost a further £650, so the total cost of the holiday was £2162. Not the cheapest holiday around, but bear in mind that our holiday club had promised us "luxury 4-5 star accommodation worldwide" and I believe that most
of the time you get what you pay for. However, this was not one of those times...
Our Room: ************
We were taken to a first floor apartment by a happy, grinning little man who carried our luggage and performed a ceremonial "Ta-da!!!" as he unlocked the door for us. I walked into what can only be described as the worst 'hotel room' I have ever seen in my life. The main room was in two sections - a lliving area and a sleeping area, divided by a small wall and a screen. The living area had a sofa bed which slept 2, and so supposedly the apartment would be suitable for 4 people sharing but there would be little or no privacy. At one end of the living area was 'the kitchen'. This consisted of 2 base units, a fridge with a rusty door (Grinning Man was very proud of the fridge and opened the door to show us the inside...) an electric hob which was plugged into the wall, but the wall plug was falling off and had exposed wires. There were 3-4 eye level cupboards, 2 of which were glazed. Or rather, they had been glazed - small pieces of glass were bravely clinging on to the framework in a desperate attempt to not go the way their friends had. It looked like the local police had been engaging in riot training in the kitchen. Grinning man pointed towards a large, dirty looking bottle on the worktop, filled with what he explained was "Drinking water".
Next to the kitchen was the bathroom. Again, Grinning Man was proud of the bathroom facilities, neatly side stepping the puddle of water on the floor by the toilet (at least, we hoped it was water). The bath had several holes in it that appeared to have been filled up and painted over and the shower head was just about managing to stay on the wall.
I stood staring around the apartment, too gobsmacked for words and as soon as Grinning Man left I burst into tears. We'd just endured a tiring 23 hour journey, which included a 5 hour stop in Miami, and were looking forward to getting some sleep.
There was a 'welcome pack' in the room from a lady called Ingrid who identified herself as the "timeshare rep" who would be meeting us the next morning. We decided to try and make the best of a bad job and speak to her in the morning.
Pullng back the bed clothes, I saw that the bottom sheets were too small to cover the bottom of the bed and although it appeared to be clean, the general condition of the whole apartment had made me suspicious of everything.
By then it was getting hot in the room so my husband turned on the air conditioning unit, which was situated on the wall on his side of the bed. The unit revved into action and a blast of tepid air hit us both in the face. After a few minutes it did become colder, and a few more minutes later it was so cold that we had to turn it off...and that continued all night. My brave husband endured the air con until the left side of his face turned blue, then he turned it off. We slept, then were awoken by the heat, so he turned on the air con again until he went numb. This continued all night and so by the next morning we were ready to say hello to Ingrid and have a quiet word in her ear.
By the light of day, we walked across to the restaurant for breakfast and was impressed by the efforts made by the staff. There were several gardeners watering and tending to the vast array of plants and shrubs, all of which were very civil and said good morning to us (the gardeners, not the plants!)
Ingrid was Swedish, I think, and spent the next 2 hours explaining to a few dozen other timeshare members that she was not resonsible for the accommodation and could do nothing to help any of us. Apparently, we were not the only ones who had issues with our rooms. It appeared that her role as 'timeshare representative' consisted mainly of her trying to sell us day trips and arrange snorkelling lessons.
Over the next few days we made several attempts to communicate with the reception staff, but the people who had been so friendly and efficient whilst booking us in were suddenly unable to understand English - or my husband's basic Spanish. Talking to other guests, we were advised to complain but to not accept a change of room...the description of our room meant that ours was one of the best in the hotel! A party of 30 odd people had arrived the week before and had all complained about their rooms. They were all given a new room, but as they spoke later on it was apparent that the hotel staff had done nothing more than changed the keys around and redistributed them amongst the party! One holidaymaker showed us video footage he had taken one night from his bed. It showed a mouse running across his dressing table... now, I love animals but I'd rather not holiday with them. This same man told us that he and his wife had paid just £600 per person to Airtours for their all inclusive holiday, which was almost half what we had paid.
We tried to make the best of it, but after a further few days, workmen started to refurbish the apartment next to ours. This involved standing right outside our door with a giant circular saw and cutting marble slabs. Going in and out of our room during the day meant literally taking our lives in our hands. I had to step over this saw to get into the room, coughing and choking on the clouds of marble dust. One night, we were both woken up by the sound of running water. On investigation, we found water pouring from the door of the apartment next door. It was like a fast flowing river, but we assured by receptiion that it was 'nothing to worry about'. We had to wade out of our room the next morning. Every complaint to the reception staff was met with either a grin and a cheery "no problem" or was ignored completely.
During the second week, we had to stay out of our room one afternoon whilst the whole site was fumigated. I was told this was because many guests had complained of flea bites, obtained during the night from the beds. I was left hoping that the few bites on my ankles were the usual mosquito bites, and not that I'd been sharing my bed with hungry fleas!
The Restaurant: ******************
Well, where shall I begin?! The restaurant had a roof, but was mainly open to the elements. This is not a problem in itself, as the weather is always good (unless it's the tropical storm season...), but it did mean that as guests we had to fight to get a table that wasn't already occupied by birds. They flew around the restaurant as we were eating, pouncing on tables as soon as people vacated so they could indulge in any leftovers. I do appreciate that this is a difficult situation - the country has wild birds who are attracted to food, so I understand that there is little the staff can do to deter them. However, I feel that cleaning the bird droppiings off the plates and cutlery should be a priority. The staff, however, did not agree.
The main restaurant was 'buffet style', and we elected to have pasta dishes virtually every day as it was the only thing cooked freshly in front of us and served piping hot. The best meal of the day was breakfast and I must admit that the freshly cooked pancakes were lovely. The fresh fruit was also very tasty, but there was little else that was both safe and edible.
There was a Brazilian restaurant on site that had to be booked 5 days in advance and we managed to eat there twice in the 2 weeks. This food was a vast improvement on that served in the main restaurant, but was only available at extra charge. It consisted mainly of grilled mixed meats in various spices and marinades, rice and potatoes and a very tasty lime flavoured cocktail to drink. At the time, this food seemed wonderful but looking back it was really only average. It just seemed fantastic next to the usual offerings.
Service: *********
This was a mixed bag', really. Most of the staff were very friendly, very enthusiastic and willing to please. The reception staff were less than cooperative, and that may have been because there were so many people complaining they had just had enough. The waiters in the restaurant were friendly, as were the gardeners and the cleaning staff.
The 'Animation Team' (the staff who are responsible for daytime activities and evening entertainment) did a good job. Although some of it was a bit lame, to say the least, they were all really enthusiastic and put 100% effort into everything. They obviously worked very long hours and always seemed to be around. The quality of their 'stage shows' in the evening was debateable, but that could really be down to personal taste. You couldn't knock their enthusiasm at all.
The one thing that really bothered us were the people trying to sell timeshares. Now, this sort of thing is common in many resorts around the world, but I have never been anywhere where they are allowed to 'tout for business' on the hotel complex. One particular man hung aound early in the morning outside the entrance to the restaurant and pestered everyone continuously. Even the fact that we already owned a timeshare did not put him off and every time we changed our route to the restaurant he soon followed suit!
Facilities: ***********
There were 3 swimming pools in the hotel - a small pool, which would have been ideal for families with young children if it weren't for the ants' nests nearby. The middle sized pool was in a bad state of repair, with paint peeling from the walls and floor, but it was fairly peaceful there. The large pool was in excellent condition, having only just been retiled a few months before. However, during our stay a large, concrete open air stage was being constructed and so the noise from this was less then ideal. This stage was constructed entirely during our visit and was officially 'opened' on our final night.
So we stuck to the middle sized pool which, like the large pool, had it's own bar. This pool only had half a dozen umberellas around it, so you had to be up early in the morning to claim one!
The hotel is situated next to an 18 hole golf course and is only a few minutes walk from the beach, but there was a 'tractor and trailer' service constantly for those people who were unable or did not want to walk. This lead you down to the hotel's own section of the beach, complete with sun loungers, umberellas and a beach bar, serving hot dogs, burgers and cold drinks.
Excursions from the hotel included the obligatory scuba diving lessons, a jeep safari into the Dominican jungle and a trip to a rum factory. The trips are well organised and we had no complaint about these, or the helpfulness of the tour guides. It was also possible to go across the border into Haiti for a voodoo demonstration, something which we elected not to do. Since then, due to 'political unrest' , the border between the two halves of the island has been closed and tourists are advised not to travel to Haiti.
Climate: *********
The 'hot 'season in the Dominican Republic is roughly from May to October, with the 'cool' season from November to April.
During the 'hot' season, the average temperature is 31 degrees during the day, dropping to 22 degrees at night. the high humidity can make it feel much hotter.
During the 'cool' season, the figures are around 29 degrees during the day and 20 degrees at night.
The hurricane season lasts from June until November. The weather during our stay was beautiful with only a 30 minute shower of rain on one day, which actually did a lot to cool things down.
So what do I think? ********************* This was undoubtedly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. For the reasons given, it made our stay in what is a beautiful country absolutely awful. The local people who work in the tourist industry are eager to please and say that they want tourists to return to the country, but unfortunately hotels like the Fun Royale do nothing to help that along.
A few weeks after we returned to England, this hotel was featured on a GMTV report on 'holiday horrors' and is also mentioned on such websites. However, there are people who have given it a "thumbs up" so I suppose it's horses for courses.
I vowed never to return to the Island, yet a year or so later I was asked to go to a friend's wedding...in the hotel next to the Fun Royale!! Despite serious misgivings and because of much pleading from my friend, we went. Our experience could not have been more different. This hotel cost us around £900 each for 2 weeks all inclusive and whilst it wasn't fantastic, it was head and shoulders above the Fun Royale and the Fun Royale had cost us more. This put paid to all those friends who said, "But it's a poor country, what do you expect?" when they heard of our experiences on the first holiday.
After our stay at the Fun Royale, I complained in no uncertain terms to our timeshare club, as did others who had similar experiences in other hotels and, as a group, we started legal proceedings. Six years later, we are still in the throes of coming to an amicable agreement as to whether this is the sort of thing you should expect from a club purporting to supply 'luxury holidays'.
I'll keep you posted on the outcome!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Hi :) Fantastic review. So well written and detailed :) Sorry about the holiday though. Can't believe the room, oh and that dirty drinking water! Can't imagine wanting my kids going swimming with an ants nest nearby either! Hope your next holiday is heaven. I think you deserve it after that one. Ali :) x
torr 15.11.2006 14:13
Sorry to hear of your experience, but thanks for the warning. Duncan
alleycat01 14.10.2006 12:35
Oh dear, what a nightmare! And bird droppings on the cutlery? Eww....
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Aug 31st, 2006
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