EL Dorado Royale... Trip Report 2005

Tonys · 03-01-2005

This is a return trip for the 4 of us. We stayed here in Feb. 2004 for 11 days and had such a great time we felt for the money, we couldn’t find anything better. As the report will state we had just as good a time and the meals & service were excellent except for 1. It was still a 5 star resort!!!!

Wed. Feb. 16
We left home at 7:45 pm for a short 1 hour ride to our son’s house in London. Our son gave up his bed for us. We settled in for a short sleep.

Thurs Feb. 17
We awoke to the alarm at 3:45am. A half hour of running around and giving our son his bed back, said our good byes and we were off to the airport. A quick stop at the 24 hour Tim Horton’s and we were at the airport in 15 minutes. Our flight was for 6:00 am and here we were the only 2 people at the airport at 4:30 am, sorry there was a security guard walking around. Within a few minutes our friends Doug & Linda arrived. Within a half hour the airport began to fill up, well not really, that’s why we enjoy flying out of London. The 6:00 flight was a 50 passenger Dash 8 to Toronto. Excellent flying conditions to Toronto, took a half an hour, and cut 2 hours driving time for $30. We breezed thru lineups in Toronto, because we had already cleared security checks in London. The flight to Cancun was 15 minutes late. We boarded about 9:45 and after a short trip to the de-icing area, we were on our way. “Take your time was my thought as they de-iced our Boeing 767”. A smooth 3 ½ hr flight was the order of the day, until we hit Cancun air. We experienced a lot of turbulence landing. We breezed thru immigration and green light customs. Walked past the timeshare sharks and to the parking lot where we found our Air Canada rep and our van. All in all we were less than 90 minutes in the airport. A half hour trip to EDR and we were there. We got checked in and found out we were 8 buildings from our friends. We had requested adjoining rooms or buildings. They said they had no room. We left for drinks in the Martini bar. After getting to our rooms I decided to do some complaining. Within about an hour they had agreed to give me a new room the next day which would be in the same building, if I agreed to checkout in the morning so they could clean our room. No problem I said. More drinks and a walk around the resort to see any changes from last year. We had already made dinner reservations online and checked them. They were all in place as requested. Tonight was our chance to give the D’Italia a second chance after a poor rating last year in service. We arrived for our ritual of martinis in the bar before dinner. Dinner started good, as we were greeted and seated very quickly, We were given our menu’s and we ordered the house merlot. From that point, service went downhill. We didn’t get our wine for 45 minutes, not until we requested it again. Finally our meal order was taken. It arrived cold and very sporadic. It was tasty in most part but service definitely needed fine tuning. We left before desert was ordered and returned to the martini bar for nightcaps. We were all tired.
Went to sleep early and slept well.

Friday Feb. 18
I got up early to enjoy the sunrise, then off to get coffee and back to the room. Went to La Isla for breakfast, it was excellent. You could enjoy all the fixings and great Mexican cheese. You could order from the menu or they had a fruit & pastry buffet along with an added omelet station. Oh and don’t forget the shot of Kahlua with your coffee. The rest of the day was spent near the main pool soaking up the sun with frequent trips to the beach bar for margaritas on the rocks. Lunch at the pizza and hamburger stand at the main pool was as good as last year. More drinks and walks along the beach. Red flags posted because of the wind and surf. We met at the martini bar for drinks before dinner. Dinner tonight was at our favorite from last year, the Kampai (oriental). This place has not changed other than to get better. The meals were the best. Spring roll appetizers with chicken skewers, shrimp soup and chicken in a sweet soy and ginger sauce. The best I thought until the next trip here. We talked with the manager and he invited us back on Tuesday for a special menu. We were introduced to Carlos the chef. He was the tallest Mexican I have ever seen, about 6’ 6” at least. He agreed to do a special meal, Lamb chops was going to be the main course. I couldn’t wait. I think we went straight to bed.

sunshineinwa · 03-03-2005

Tony I have been waiting for the rest of your trip report, or is this it?? Did you only stay 3 days??? I am trying to "sell" EDR to my friends for next Februarys vacation... Thanks

Tonys · 03-03-2005

Busy at work, trying to catch up. Try to add some more tonight.

Tonys · 03-03-2005

Saturday Feb.19
I forgot to mention, Patrisia, the front desk mgr. did a fantastic job of changing our room and upgrading it also at no charge. We ended up in a beautiful ocean view room in 1600 building. Our view was looking over La Isla restaurant. The rest of Saturday was basically the same as Friday, just enjoying the R&R. The resort is a five star in my books any day of the week. We got to look at the swim up casitas which are kind of nice if you want to pay extra for that. We could of upgraded further to a casita for $100/ day, but they reduced that to $50/ day as a final offer. Too much for me. I enjoy the standard rooms. They have all the amenities you need, Jacuzzi and large marble shower & king bed. Saturday we ate lunch at JO JO’s and the chicken grille sandwich is fantastic. Dinner was at La Caratera (Mexican). The restaurant is small and intimate. The food was fantastic again. Service was also. Weather was excellent, sunny and about 87 deg.

Sunday Feb. 20
Today was Daytona 500 day. We had to find a bar in PDC that was showing the race. We left for PDC about 11:00. Taxi to PDC is $18 each way. A half hour trip that took 20 minutes. Roamed thru town and found the race at 2 places. One near the ferry docks, can’t remember the name, but we ended up at Bourbon street, Nice quiet bar with good service. No food here, so we walked around the corner and brought back some pizza. We enjoyed the race with other race fans from across NA. After the race we headed back to 5th & Constituents to catch a taxi. We negotiated a $14 ride back home. At the resort there was no negotiating unless you walked to the road (307). Dinner tonight was at JO JO’s which they referred to as the steak restaurant in the past, but today it is more Caribbean food. Salmon & fritters are good appetizers. Chicken or the chilled Avocado are excellent soup choices. Appleton chicken & the ginger salmon are real good choices for main course. This is a great restaurant because you are on the beach. This is especially romantic if there are no winds and they can open the wind shades and you can see the stars and sea. This is an open air restaurant as is the Kampai, so the ladies may want to take a sweater if the wind picks up.

Tonys · 03-03-2005

Monday Feb. 21
Today I’ll talk about the improvements to the resort since last year. The swim up casitas are all finished on the north end of the resort. They are about 4 feet deep and 4-5 feet wide. They go under foot bridges and flow along in front of each casitas with room for a couple lounges in a 1 foot deep section of water off each balcony. There is a lot of new construction going on further north of the casitas. It looks as if it is more casitas, but on the idea of joined condos, 2 storeys high with a central pool area. Supposed to be open in 2005. There are new palms planted with irrigation to each tree planted at least 1000 feet past this construction, so looks as if contruction will continue long into the future. There was no noise that was distracting coming from the site. To the South there are 3 new 3 story buildings built and completed with swim up rivers flowing in front of the units. Same idea as the casitas. There is also new construction south of this that we were told is going to be the new Presidential Suites section that is also slated to open later this year. The timeshare guys were really trying to sell up this area. A simple no is all that is required to keep them at bay. Two large buildings being built right now with individual pools for each room. Very attractive from what we could see. Also the pool next to the entertainment and disco has had a roof added to it. It will be part of a newly expanded disco and dancing area slated for completion also this year. We also heard rumors from one of the guest services personnel that plans are under way for a new resort. It will be located south of the current EDR. We were told land clearing has begun. Mr. Martinez whom we were told owns the El Dorado hotels has a lot of land here to expand. It is supposed to be on the same level as the current hotel and possibly be called Crystal Dorado with construction beginning in a year.
Tonight we ate the new La Isla reservation required restaurant. It is themed Mediterranean and they did up the menu with unlimited choices. We had the shrimp appetizers, Onion soup- Excellent. The main course goes on and on. So much to choose from and all excellent. Ribs, chicken, shrimp scampi to die for. Duck so much and all good. This is a strong second after the Kampai. We'll have to return before the week is gone.
Presidential Section

Casitas Section

03-01-2005	#1 (permalink)
Tonys way into it Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Chatham,Ontario Posts: 156	EL Dorado Royale... Trip Report 2005 This is a return trip for the 4 of us. We stayed here in Feb. 2004 for 11 days and had such a great time we felt for the money, we couldn’t find anything better. As the report will state we had just as good a time and the meals & service were excellent except for 1. It was still a 5 star resort!!!! Wed. Feb. 16 We left home at 7:45 pm for a short 1 hour ride to our son’s house in London. Our son gave up his bed for us. We settled in for a short sleep. Thurs Feb. 17 We awoke to the alarm at 3:45am. A half hour of running around and giving our son his bed back, said our good byes and we were off to the airport. A quick stop at the 24 hour Tim Horton’s and we were at the airport in 15 minutes. Our flight was for 6:00 am and here we were the only 2 people at the airport at 4:30 am, sorry there was a security guard walking around. Within a few minutes our friends Doug & Linda arrived. Within a half hour the airport began to fill up, well not really, that’s why we enjoy flying out of London. The 6:00 flight was a 50 passenger Dash 8 to Toronto. Excellent flying conditions to Toronto, took a half an hour, and cut 2 hours driving time for $30. We breezed thru lineups in Toronto, because we had already cleared security checks in London. The flight to Cancun was 15 minutes late. We boarded about 9:45 and after a short trip to the de-icing area, we were on our way. “Take your time was my thought as they de-iced our Boeing 767”. A smooth 3 ½ hr flight was the order of the day, until we hit Cancun air. We experienced a lot of turbulence landing. We breezed thru immigration and green light customs. Walked past the timeshare sharks and to the parking lot where we found our Air Canada rep and our van. All in all we were less than 90 minutes in the airport. A half hour trip to EDR and we were there. We got checked in and found out we were 8 buildings from our friends. We had requested adjoining rooms or buildings. They said they had no room. We left for drinks in the Martini bar. After getting to our rooms I decided to do some complaining. Within about an hour they had agreed to give me a new room the next day which would be in the same building, if I agreed to checkout in the morning so they could clean our room. No problem I said. More drinks and a walk around the resort to see any changes from last year. We had already made dinner reservations online and checked them. They were all in place as requested. Tonight was our chance to give the D’Italia a second chance after a poor rating last year in service. We arrived for our ritual of martinis in the bar before dinner. Dinner started good, as we were greeted and seated very quickly, We were given our menu’s and we ordered the house merlot. From that point, service went downhill. We didn’t get our wine for 45 minutes, not until we requested it again. Finally our meal order was taken. It arrived cold and very sporadic. It was tasty in most part but service definitely needed fine tuning. We left before desert was ordered and returned to the martini bar for nightcaps. We were all tired. Went to sleep early and slept well. Friday Feb. 18 I got up early to enjoy the sunrise, then off to get coffee and back to the room. Went to La Isla for breakfast, it was excellent. You could enjoy all the fixings and great Mexican cheese. You could order from the menu or they had a fruit & pastry buffet along with an added omelet station. Oh and don’t forget the shot of Kahlua with your coffee. The rest of the day was spent near the main pool soaking up the sun with frequent trips to the beach bar for margaritas on the rocks. Lunch at the pizza and hamburger stand at the main pool was as good as last year. More drinks and walks along the beach. Red flags posted because of the wind and surf. We met at the martini bar for drinks before dinner. Dinner tonight was at our favorite from last year, the Kampai (oriental). This place has not changed other than to get better. The meals were the best. Spring roll appetizers with chicken skewers, shrimp soup and chicken in a sweet soy and ginger sauce. The best I thought until the next trip here. We talked with the manager and he invited us back on Tuesday for a special menu. We were introduced to Carlos the chef. He was the tallest Mexican I have ever seen, about 6’ 6” at least. He agreed to do a special meal, Lamb chops was going to be the main course. I couldn’t wait. I think we went straight to bed. Last edited by Tonys : 03-02-2005 at 05:43 PM.

03-03-2005	#2 (permalink)
sunshineinwa toe in water Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 40	tony where are you?? Tony I have been waiting for the rest of your trip report, or is this it?? Did you only stay 3 days??? I am trying to "sell" EDR to my friends for next Februarys vacation... Thanks

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03-03-2005	#3 (permalink)
Tonys way into it Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Chatham,Ontario Posts: 156	Busy at work, trying to catch up. Try to add some more tonight.

03-03-2005	#4 (permalink)
Tonys way into it Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Chatham,Ontario Posts: 156	Saturday Feb.19 I forgot to mention, Patrisia, the front desk mgr. did a fantastic job of changing our room and upgrading it also at no charge. We ended up in a beautiful ocean view room in 1600 building. Our view was looking over La Isla restaurant. The rest of Saturday was basically the same as Friday, just enjoying the R&R. The resort is a five star in my books any day of the week. We got to look at the swim up casitas which are kind of nice if you want to pay extra for that. We could of upgraded further to a casita for $100/ day, but they reduced that to $50/ day as a final offer. Too much for me. I enjoy the standard rooms. They have all the amenities you need, Jacuzzi and large marble shower & king bed. Saturday we ate lunch at JO JO’s and the chicken grille sandwich is fantastic. Dinner was at La Caratera (Mexican). The restaurant is small and intimate. The food was fantastic again. Service was also. Weather was excellent, sunny and about 87 deg. Sunday Feb. 20 Today was Daytona 500 day. We had to find a bar in PDC that was showing the race. We left for PDC about 11:00. Taxi to PDC is $18 each way. A half hour trip that took 20 minutes. Roamed thru town and found the race at 2 places. One near the ferry docks, can’t remember the name, but we ended up at Bourbon street, Nice quiet bar with good service. No food here, so we walked around the corner and brought back some pizza. We enjoyed the race with other race fans from across NA. After the race we headed back to 5th & Constituents to catch a taxi. We negotiated a $14 ride back home. At the resort there was no negotiating unless you walked to the road (307). Dinner tonight was at JO JO’s which they referred to as the steak restaurant in the past, but today it is more Caribbean food. Salmon & fritters are good appetizers. Chicken or the chilled Avocado are excellent soup choices. Appleton chicken & the ginger salmon are real good choices for main course. This is a great restaurant because you are on the beach. This is especially romantic if there are no winds and they can open the wind shades and you can see the stars and sea. This is an open air restaurant as is the Kampai, so the ladies may want to take a sweater if the wind picks up.

03-03-2005	#5 (permalink)
Tonys way into it Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Chatham,Ontario Posts: 156	Monday Feb. 21 Today I’ll talk about the improvements to the resort since last year. The swim up casitas are all finished on the north end of the resort. They are about 4 feet deep and 4-5 feet wide. They go under foot bridges and flow along in front of each casitas with room for a couple lounges in a 1 foot deep section of water off each balcony. There is a lot of new construction going on further north of the casitas. It looks as if it is more casitas, but on the idea of joined condos, 2 storeys high with a central pool area. Supposed to be open in 2005. There are new palms planted with irrigation to each tree planted at least 1000 feet past this construction, so looks as if contruction will continue long into the future. There was no noise that was distracting coming from the site. To the South there are 3 new 3 story buildings built and completed with swim up rivers flowing in front of the units. Same idea as the casitas. There is also new construction south of this that we were told is going to be the new Presidential Suites section that is also slated to open later this year. The timeshare guys were really trying to sell up this area. A simple no is all that is required to keep them at bay. Two large buildings being built right now with individual pools for each room. Very attractive from what we could see. Also the pool next to the entertainment and disco has had a roof added to it. It will be part of a newly expanded disco and dancing area slated for completion also this year. We also heard rumors from one of the guest services personnel that plans are under way for a new resort. It will be located south of the current EDR. We were told land clearing has begun. Mr. Martinez whom we were told owns the El Dorado hotels has a lot of land here to expand. It is supposed to be on the same level as the current hotel and possibly be called Crystal Dorado with construction beginning in a year. Tonight we ate the new La Isla reservation required restaurant. It is themed Mediterranean and they did up the menu with unlimited choices. We had the shrimp appetizers, Onion soup- Excellent. The main course goes on and on. So much to choose from and all excellent. Ribs, chicken, shrimp scampi to die for. Duck so much and all good. This is a strong second after the Kampai. We'll have to return before the week is gone. Presidential Section Casitas Section

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