Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda

I have NO idea how anyone would call this a 5 star resort!!! Word of advice...DON’T go there!!! Predominantly Spanish speaking and very few people there speak English or understand it, making communication very difficult for English speaking guests. Employees and guests are very rude and not friendly at all. They don’t even smile. Food choices at the buffets are the same everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner except dinner when there is a minimal choice of foods based on the theme for the night. If you aren’t at the pool by 9am, there are no chairs left. People leave their towels on chairs (even when they are not suppose to) and disappear for hours preventing other guests of having a chair and enjoying the pool. Beach was loaded with seaweed that they had trucks coming in to haul it out. So much seaweed in the water that you didn’t even want to go in the ocean. There are no elevators and stairwells were dirty. We had numerous issues with our room, called numerous times and was told someone would be there shortly. No one ever came. After two days, had to go to guest services to complain and address issues....shower leaked and would flood the bathroom outside the shower and towards hall door, toilet clogged up, floor in room was never cleaned, lamps were packed with dust and worse of all...there were BED BUGS in our room!!! Yes, bed bugs!! Probably throughout the whole resort as we saw many people with bites on various parts of their body (back, stomach, arms, legs). When I came home, I called an exterminator just to make sure BED BUGS didn’t come home with us. Sure enough they DID as they got into our luggage!! I had to throw out our luggage, purchase new ones ($400) and have my house exterminated ($2500)! Not only the WORST vacation ever, but also ended up being the most expensive for 5 days ($2900 + cost of trip)!! We stayed at the Grand Bahia in Jamaica last year and it was absolutely beautiful, clean, everyone had a smile on their face and every employee you passed always said hello to you...definitely a 5star resort! Thought this resort would be the same....definitely not even close!!!

This was our 2nd visit to this resort, but first within the Esmerelda section. We were overall happy with the resort and felt the pricing was fair. Highlights were as follows: * Rodizio and Takama (restaurants) * Made restaurant reservations via email ahead of our visit -- and they did one for every night of our visit (exceeding our expectations) * Everyone on the staff was super friendly and always happy to help * Free wi-fi worked great throughout the resort * Michael Jackson show was great, but getting back is painful as everyone is fighting for limited tram space * Love the drinks at the pool bars (Coco-Loco, Bahama Mama, etc) * Love that we had a quiet, medium quiet, and loud/active pool to choose from * The AmStar airport transporation purchased during booking was awesome and fairly priced Items that were not great: * Room only gets medium cold (but bit understandable) * Beach was unusable due to sea weed (but can visit Macao Beach via taxi or excursion, which was gorgeous) * Only allowed 2 devices per room for free wi-fi (with 2 rooms and 5 people, one person didn't get to use wi-fi) * Not enough chairs with umbrellas, so you must get up early to reserve chairs -- I was out at 6:30a each morning to get 5 reserved. While reserving is not allowed, if you don't do it, you will be sitting in the sun all day (which isn't too practical). * Be prepared for Priviledge Club sales pitches -- if you say "no" to the Welcome Gift, they are not pushy -- but be prepared ;) Overall happy with the resort and trip!

This is not a five star hotel. The rooms were not comfortable, not clean either. The beach was ok.

I have spent some time considering this review, hoping as our stay progressed it would soften and get a bit more positive. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Let me start with the most positive thing that I can. The Staff is very nice, hard working and conscientious. The grounds, although a bit dated and worn is very clean and well kept. The Room: The room is dated, the bed is very hard, even for hotel standards. The mini bar is a joke, it is so poorly stocked and refrigerator works so poorly nothing it is fit to consume. The A/C in the room struggled to keep the room below 80 degrees (F). It was miserable to try to sleep. We had 3 rooms for our family and all preformed the same way so it was not just a fluke bad room. Literally nothing in the room worked properly, not the TV (circa 2001), the A/C, the mini fridge or the shower. The Food: This maybe a cultural issue, this resort is clearly not oriented toward American tastes. Our entire family struggled to find food that was edible. I have traveled to 9 Countries and 45 of the 50 States and served a tour in the Marine Corp and I have never encountered worse food anywhere. The WiFi is spotty at best and the $20 per day upgrade is a total waste of money. I have never looked forward to a vacation coming to an end until we stayed at this resort. I would not return, even if it was free.