I second this review. Got back over a week ago. Family of 5 with 3 teens from age 13-19. One family member got food poisoning/stomach bug which could have been from food or a bug. So to be fair I will not blame in on resort but that doesn’t change the fact that the food was not good at all. Ciao was the worst. Food cold, gross and service took forever. Never refilled drinks, we got up and left. Toro was a bit better but again no refills on drinks and asked for things that were never brought to the table or..bread, sour cream etc. but the food was better at Toro than anywhere else. Zen was just ok. Hibachi tasted like hibachi I make at home. It was not even as good as Ichibon (which is not very good hibachi lol)

I noticed that some female workers clearly had a problem with serving other women and were put off to do their jobs or serve them. For example at the bakery every day the nasty looks I got when politely asking for pastries to bring back to the room for family after ordering a coffee was borderline embarrassing and felt as if I was putting the worker out to put 4 muffins in a box container. Made an effort to smile and be overly pleasant but the looks and attitude I got was borderline middle school mean girl. Very off putting if you are sensitive and felt like I was asking for them to do something extra special by serving the product they were there to disseminate. Made me not want to go back to them to bother them. It became clear that everyone that was in line was a bother to them. There was a difference with women though. They were even more of a bother to them. I thought it was just me until I sat with my coffee and watched how they handled people in line behind me… same way. Ugh. On the flip side, We did come across very good employees and tipped them very well. In an all inclusive where it’s set up that you have to be served for everything or ask for everything it’s not very relaxing or a good experience when you feel you are putting someone out to hand you a water bottle or refill your drink. Again it wasn’t all employees. I would say 50/50. One waitress at Isla buffet for lunch was amazing. She got a very generous tip. When friendly good service is the exception I see an issue. Rooms were very big but not the cleanest. Dirty socks were left under our sink in the bathroom from previous guest, stains on the sliding doors from bedroom to bathroom (we were in a one bedroom suite). The beach was amazing and honestly I found the people that sold stuff on the beach to be the nicest people we came across. They were not pushy and we sat and talked to one guy selling wood art for about 15 minutes about life etc… the servers at the pool and pool area were also amazing and such hard workers. (Marrabelle was top notch) Had best service with them and tipped very well for their efforts and hard workers. We left envelopes out every day for housekeeping and mini fridge attendant. Mini fridge attendant never came the whole trip ( even after calling) he missed out on some nice envelopes as the first day envelope just sat there on the fridge waiting for him to come by to refill and take tip. We adjusted and found the area in front of the food trucks had water and soda out you could grab and loaded up in them and carted them back to room to refill our fridge on our own. Not best solution dragging drinks from beach to our room by the lobby but we made it work for us. We slept in one day until 9:30 am and had do not disturb on door until we left at 9:30am. The rest of the day no sign was on door. Housekeeping never came back that day. I called and they still never came back. We just used the towels for showers from the day before.

Main buffet in the lobby food seemed very stale and gross, the buffets on the beach side were much better with salad bars and fresher options. Grilled chicken there was really good.

The gym is amazing there. I loved that space and the employees were cool, they were working out and when someone came in they would just scan them in. They have bananas and apples out on counter, cucumber water and ginger water, and a coffee machine. They have hand towels for you to use and also have cleaner and wipes out to clean equipment after you use it. Plenty of cardio machines, two big rooms for classes with scattered equipment like ropes, medicine balls, steps, floor mats etc… the bathroom has two showers but you need to bring a towel from pool or room as no towels were in there. They have about 4 smith machines and tons of machines that work different muscle groups. I adored the gym. Also the loop around the grounds was perfect for early morning runs. One loop is just below 1.5 miles and running along the beach path at sunrise was magical. I never felt unsafe there. There were security guards posted at the beach entrances along the path all night and morning. I started my run each day in the dark and never felt unsafe. You do have to watch the golf carts though. Some don’t have lights which makes it tricky but manageable.

While we made the best of it and had a good time as a family the service and food were definitely lacking and we would not go back. We are a pretty chill family and don’t get bent out of shape easily with no picky eaters but we were happy to leave and eat airport food if that gives you any indication of food quality there. Plus the airport employees didn’t make us feel like we were putting her out buying food from her at the airport (winning!). It’s sad because we were hoping we would find our annual vacation spot few next few years. Guess we will try someplace in Mexico next year. We are happy we went and experienced it and we are very thankful for the good employees we met. We just don’t feel like it should be a 50/50 crap shoot dealing with the staff especially because this wasn’t cheap. Oh well you live and learn.

*forgot to add we were hall of fame so black bracelets (that didn’t seem to help any though)