Riu Caribe

My fiancé and are avid cruisers but several friends encouraged us to give and all inclusive resort a shot. After lots of research, we decided on RIU Carrie. This trip was a celebration for my daughters graduation from high school, so it was myself and my fiancé and two 17 year olds. Upon arrival things seemed good, our transportation guy and Leonardo (excursion/transportation associate) was great, very friendly and helpful! We go to our room and are welcomed by an overwhelming mildew smell, like dirty mop water, I call the front desk who tells me they are sending someone and 2 hours later nobody has came. Ok whatever let’s go eat.....I hoped that the food was just bad at the all day outside buffet but nope, the food was horrible every where, every restaurant every day! Same unoriginal Mexican food, same nasty pizza, same crappy steak everything was horrible, the only thing remotely good was the noodles, rice and steak chunks at the Asian place!! However our service was great at all restaurants! Day two, wake up to overwhelming smell again and while getting dressed my fiancé drops his wallet and it goes under the bed, he reaches down to pick it up and grabs a dead, half decayed bird (found the smell apparently) so first of all gross but second of all clearly our room was not appropriately cleaned to begin with. I call the front desk who tells me they are sending someone immediately! Over an hour later, two woman who speak absolutely no English come to the room, sweep up the dead bird like it’s no big deal! At this point I’m furious and ask for a new room! Obviously neither can understand what I’m saying so they call “who I assume is amangement” and have me talk to her. She says “no new room we clean your room in 15 minutes” well gosh thanks so much for doing your job! Never was I offered a new room or any type of compensation or anything! I slept in my daughters room next door for the majority of our stay (oh and did I mention the air didn’t work the first two Days until they came and banged on a vent and cleaned all the dust out lol) Now let’s address this..... there was basically NO ENTERTAINMENT! They had signs posted stating they had bingo (which we tried to attend twice and both times were told “sorry bingo canceled” foam party we tried to attend “sorry it’s canceled” the 945 shows are a joke and poorly rehearsed and performed and ridiculously cheesy! Every one of us was in bed by 9pm 4/5 nights and never once got drunk or had fun because there was never any type of night life or anything to want to stay up for!!! Fast forward to the day we leave, my fiancé goes to front counter to check out and stands there for almost 20 minutes with no other customers at the counter and never even gets addressed while the workers at the counter laugh and talk amongst themselves. He pulls of his bracelet and leaves all room keys and walks away. Our transportation arrives and one of the counter clerks comes over yelling “you need take all bracelets off and check out, not realizing my daughters still had their underage bracelets on, he’s extremely rude and basically yelling and drawing attention saying, you need check out and get check out card before you can leave” my fiancé’s says “I stood at the counter for 15 minutes trying to check out while you ignored me and played around with your friends behind the counter” needless to say our final goodbyes were not great and we will never return to any RIU establishment again!

Only complaint I have is everything that they say is free to do wasn’t really free so it was very disappointing to find out. Also the beds could be bigger

This was my second visit to this resort in 6 years and I must say, it was just as fun and entertaining as I remembered. I was sad that I didn't get to bring my family and friends to dinner at the Mexican Restaurant because there had been a leak that caused part of the ceiling to collapse, but the staff was so friendly and accommodating that it made up for missing out on one of the dining experiences. I highly recommend booking a massage at the spa, WORTH every penny. The variety of food at the buffet meant there was always something for everyone. The drinks were never watered down or overly strong and the waiters by the pool were very attentive every day. The only downfall that I feel the need to comment on was the pool party. The party was a foam party and many people brought their children over to partake in the party and were busy drinking, not watching their children. As a lifeguard it was very anxiety inducing to see so many children disappearing in the foam, unattended by their parents and coming out of the pool crying or in distress because they got pushed under the water or stepped on by the adults partying.

Typical mega resort. Room was decent, had nice views. Bed awful, had to request 4 additional pillows (came with two) room was clean. My criticism comes due to the atrocities that they call bars. Horrible off brand liquor, couldn’t drink it. We went to the local liquor store and bought 5th’s of Don Julio for $18 and CASAMIGOS for $23 and made our own drinks for the last 3 days of the trip. Food is not edible, tried the “Mexican restaurant” it was awful, didn’t even eat the food. Buffet was mass produced and hard to stomach, basically ate bread the whole trip. Also big red flag to me was when the waiter told me no I could not have bottled water only tap water, that’s the biggest red flag to me especially at a mega resort in Mexico they should never deny you bottled water and I’ve never been to a resort that has ever said they don’t have bottled water for you in the dining room. They lost me for good with that one. Even in the bathroom it says “do not drink water, not for drinking” on little signs at the sinks, makes you wonder if that’s the same water they wanted us to drink.... overall will not return to this resort.