El Dorado Royale

f you’re looking for an upgraded resort experience this is definitely it! I spent 5 nights here with my partner but the resort is also good for friend trips.

Check In went smoothly, we were offered an upgrade to a room near the beach and the pool, which of course we took advantage of (at no extra charge). The room was very clean and nice. For those traveling with friends, be aware there isnt much privacy (in the Jr suites) between the room and the bathroom, in fact there is a clear glass window that separates the two.

Having a small pool right at our patio was pretty amazing, the swim up room pools are salt water(maybe some health benefit?).

There are tons of restaurants, and bars and the resort its HUGE. They have a golf cart shuttle service that runs every 10-20 minutes, but if an employee sees you standing around waiting they usually radio for a ride, i dont think we waited more than 5 minutes for a shuttle. The last restaurant closes at 11pm, however there is 24 hour room service included in your package, however, it’s hit or miss on a busy night (as in the food didn’t ever show up one time).

Our personal concierge Zully was absolutely amazing. She had our room decorated for my partners birthday, complete with a happy birthday banner on the door, a cake on our table and a bottle of champagne on the jacuzzi tub. Amazing! I can’t say enough about the level of service at this resort.

We also took advantage of the Cena Romantica– Which is a dinner on the beach in the evening. Personally, I don’t think its worth the extra 200$, but it was cute and there was a man playing a saxophone, which for me was over kill but my girl loved it. We received the dinner for free because we agreed to sit through the sales presentation of their ‘loyalty program’.

In regard to the sales presentation: here is how it shakes out. They ask you a ton of questions, show you some freakin AMAZING rooms and explain all the perks of membership. You then return to the office where the manager makes you an offer. Heres the thing though, I only had to say “no, thank you” once and Geriette shook our hands and thanked us for our time. It was not a pushy sales presentation (thank god).

Now for a few of the caveats:
1. The waiter at the romantic beach dinner asked what we were celebrating. When we told him it was both of our birthdays he went away and came back and said the following: The manager would like me to give you a bottle of wine in honor of your birthdays, please pick from the wine list. We picked a bottle, drank it and were then presented with a bill for it (85USD) when we finished our meal. When I objected our server acted confused. It took over an hour at checkout to get the charge removed from our bill.
2. Premium liquor is semi-included in the experience. We did notice that the shots of don julio we ordered were pretty watered down ( which may be a good thing, haha). Be specific about how you want your drink made. Don’t just order a gin and tonic, order the premium gin you want and tonic
3. The pool bars all close at 5 but the pool is open until 8pm.
4. We ordered room service around midnight on a Friday night, I stayed up until 2 am waiting for it to arrive and it never came
5. They give you a ton of credits when you book and or check-in. I got a 90$ massage credit. A 50 minute massage was close to 200$, uh no thx
6. There are tons of “upsell” opportunities– the nicer restaurants have expensive steaks and wine lists that are not included in the all-inclusive package
7. Fuentes dinner theatre- it was cute, go to it, just know that you’re going to need to eat dinner after it, the portions are literally bite size

Overall the good definitely outweighs the bad. I’m still debating on whether I’d go back or not.