I sent this to FIFTEEN people at AM RESORTS, including the CEO and NOT ONE OF THEM RESPONDED! Worst experience of my life! Booked nine rooms through RCI. According to RCI, the all-inclusive fee for a studio is $140.50 per person per day (pppd) through March 31, 2013. The fee for a hotel unit is $112.50 pppd through March 31, 2013. We checked in on Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31. Nearly everyone prepaid to get the 5% discount. Two families didn’t: Smiths (one studio and one hotel) and Joneses (hotel). Check-in took forever, making passport copies and filling out lengthy forms. When Smiths checked in they were told $180.00 pppd for all-inclusive. That’s $553.00/week MORE than amount quoted by RCI AND by OscarLopez, Dreams employee. (I wrote directly to resort to verify fees in advance.) I was at the FrontDesk when they checked in and explained that all of us paid the same, $140.50 pppd for studios and $112.50 pppd for hotel units. The gentleman at the front desk was very pleasant (Lionel), but ineffective. He just couldn’t just PULL THE TRIGGER and go with the RCI quote. He said that he had to call them but they were closed until Monday. The Smiths returned to the FrontDesk Tuesday. They had to start ALL OVER AGAIN explaining the situation as Lionel was not there. Mr. Smith came and got me and I went to the FrontDesk AGAIN. The gentleman now at the FrontDesk brought me to the VIP desk. I explained, now for the THIRD TIME, our situation. I did not have the email from Oscar Lopez with me, but the VIP employee put me in touch with him. He then forwarded the email and we printed it. He also dialed RCI and I spoke with Veronica. She, too, said the all-inclusive was $360.00 pppd (WRONG!). Since the check-in dates of March 30 & 31 had passed, the fees on the RCI website were no longer visible. I told that to Veronica and further explained that “no longer visible” did not mean vaporized and told her to contact the techies to roll back the website FIVE DAYS to see the fees. She said she had to do more research and would call me back. In the meantime, I said to the VIP employee, “Look, your employee quoted $140.50 pppd. Even if the room cost $1,000,000 per day, you have to honor THIS number!” He agreed and said, “Well, you’ve got your proof, go back the FrontDesk.” I went to the FrontDesk with my email AND the RCI reservation sheet. Once more time I got pushback. I circled the amounts on the TWO documents, but, again, pushback. I had spent over an hour with the VIP employee only to go back to square one. The FrontDesk employee said he would talk to his manager and get back to me. At this point, my husband stepped in and tried to solve the problem, but he, too, could got nowhere. CONT’D
Room Number:
745
Arrival: On Wednesday, Veronica called and said that I was correct – the all-inclusive fee for studios is $140.50 pppd. So, I went to the FrontDesk and spoke with a female manager who appeared from the offices behind the FrontDesk. She had the Smiths listed on her clipboard and said that the all-inclusive fee would be $140.50 pppd. I repeated what I said to the VIP employee about honoring the rate YOUR resort quoted and that we shouldn’t have had to go through all of this angst in order to get this resolved. OMG-finally!
Later, Mr. Smith went to the front desk to finalize the fees. Back at check-in, they made him give a credit card and sign a document with the $180.00 pppd amount on it. He did that, but circled the amount and hand-wrote the correct amount of $140.50 pppd on the document. Now he needed to void the original charge on his card and then create a new transaction for the correct charge. CONT’D
Rooms: Are you sitting down? Lionel, now back from a day off, had no idea what transpired the day before and could not correct Mr. Smith’s account. So, Mr. Smith came to get me AGAIN. I told him to ask for the manager that helped me. Finally, Mr. Smith felt that his account was correct, but wasn’t completely sure. This is now WEDNESDAY and we checked in last SATURDAY! Fast forward to Sunday at home in Minneapolis. Mr. Smith told me that BOTH charges are still on his credit card. (The one was eventually credited.) There’s another horror story about the Jones family but too long here.
Check-Out: We received a note in our door on Friday, April 5, 2013, asking us to “check out” because the front desk gets busy on Saturdays, our departure day. So, we went to the FrontDesk on Friday evening and checked out of our own room, 745, and our three kids’ rooms: 751, 725, 726. 745 had spa charges (correct) and a shop charge (correct). 751 had a shop charge (correct). Rooms 725 and 726 had no additional charges. So, we “checked out,” and the woman at the front desk (tall, red hair), waved us on and said we were all set. CONT’D
Restaurants and Bars: When the Smiths checked out on Saturday morning, they had an erroneous spa charge on their bill. The resort charged one of our spa charges to their room. Another crazy exchange ensued which delayed our departure. Finally the Smiths’ bill was resolved for the umteenth time. Before we drove off, the bell came to the van and asked for OUR checkout ticket. We checked out yesterday! What ticket? He wouldn’t let the van leave (now 20 minutes late) until we went BACK TO THE FRONTDESK to get a check-out ticket. Finally, 25 minutes late, we were all in the van and ready to leave. The bell asked me if we had other rooms and I said, “No.” Mrs. Smith corrected me, knowing that we had the three boys’ rooms, but I gave her a jab in the ribs. I yelled at the bell and said, “No. We are leaving. We have a plane to catch and you have delayed us enough.” He spoke to the driver in Spanish who jumped out of the van and slammed the door. They argued for a few minutes and then FINALLY we left. We also found the following to be unacceptable: The resort recommended Amstar for ground transportation. It, too, is owned by the parent corporation. We arrived at the resort per the arrangements we had made from Minnesota. However, when we called on Friday to confirm our pickup on Saturday, they had us listed at Dreams Cancun, NOT PA. CONT’D
Beach/Pools/Grounds: Three of our parties had to change rooms. Our room was very small (525) even though it was a studio, so we moved to 745. Another had a shower that wouldn’t drain even after maintenance “fixed” it, so they paid an upgrade fee of $25.00 per day to switch. (We are RCI platinum member, so that upgrade should have been FREE.) We had to be out of the rooms we were vacating by early morning, but our new rooms were not ready until after 3:00 p.m. with no effort on the part of the resort to get us in earlier. The resort is worn and does not have the aura of the “luxury” resort they market. Cement around the pools is stained and broken. Stairs are chipped. Seventh floor lounge chairs are wobbly or broken. Beach chairs are horribly uncomfortable and very worn. The door to 745 wouldn’t shut. We’d have to pull it hard towards the hinges close it. They finally looked at it on Friday. Water pressure / hot water in showers is hit and miss. Guests complained of same. There are two elevators (not counting the service elevator). During our stay, only one of the two was operational. Restaurants don’t take reservations. We had 23 people and wanted to dine together but none of the restaurants could accommodate us. The buffet was a bore – same thing every day.
CONT’D
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel: My husband and I frequented the Seaside Restaurant. “Fruit Plate” states that it comes with granola and cottage cheese. It’s a little thing, but when one is on vacation, little things matter. After receiving the fruit plate without granola / cottage cheese three times, I had to explain to the server that it is to be served with granola and cottage cheese. They never got it right unless I explained when ordering. Hot tub temperature varied between nearly cold and scalding hot. We had a few items laundered and had to call four times to get it picked up. Two of my husband’s white tank tops are now permanently yellow. I had food poisoning for 9 days after our stay. Had to get antibiotic. Every adult except two complained of “Montezuma’s Revenge.” Another guest (not with our party) said that $600.00 in cash was stolen from his safe. (See TripAdvisor review.) CONT’D
Other Comments:
This review is continuous because I had already written it before I posted to this site with specific boxes. DO NOT GO TO DREAMS PUERTO ADVENTURAS! YUK!