Casa Marina Reef or C.M.Beach?

Same complex.You can go as you pleased.I stayed at the Reef but the rooms seems nicer at the Beach.Try looking it up on their site to see the difference.
Mike

When I stayed (a few years back) it seemed the reef had the nicer restaurants, but the beach had the little beach (nothing to be excited about IMO) and better rooms which were OK, but nothing fancy. It's a 3 star hotel after all. Either way it is the same resort so you can go back and forth between the two.

IMO Neither

Mr Silver Fox and I stayed at the CM about three years ago. IMO I would not stay at either. Yes, the resort is advertised as a 3 star but we would say 1.5 star at best. Not everything was bad: just the food and housekeeping...rooms are old (unless they have been renovated since our disasterous stay there). We are not terribly fussy people but draw the line at mold and rot in the bathrooms.

Beaches are quite nice. Big beach has a bit of a hike, small beach is well, a small beach.

Specialty restaurants were better than the buffet offered. Only breakfast was the offering that was reasonable and edible.

It is advertised as AI, however, after 10 pm at night you will have to pay for any alcoholic beverages. Much less expensive to go into downtown...more exciting as well.

It is a nice walk into town where you can experience the local night life and find some really good restaurants to eat at.

We used the CM for two weeks when we were here villa shopping so it was very convenient. Weekends can be very busy there as they offer a weekend special to the locals.

I guess it all depends on what your expectations are but if you decide to stay there, just know that good food and drinks are a mere walk away if the offerings there don't suit you.

If you want my specifics, just send me a pm and I'll give you more.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...many people love the CM, but we didn't and always said, the only way we would recommend the CM was if we didn't like the person.

Again, this is only our opinion.

Save your money!!!! Silver fox hit the nail on the head.

It's Not That Bad

I stayed at Casa Marina a couple of years ago. If you are getting a super price (which we did) it really is not bad. The food was fine, but if you don't eat chicken you may have a problem. The rooms are dated, but how much time do you actually spend in your room? Service is lacking.

The physical beauty of the location is wonderful. I loved sitting in the hot tubs (which are actually cold) that are cut into the reef with the ocean water splashing on the sides.

And of course, the location is great.

the resort is ok, not great but i dont choose an AI to stay in the room or eat the food. it's what you make it. the topless ladies at the pool were sickening, i think they were canadian.

the best tip i got was to bring some baseballs. there's a baseball field across the street. a couple of baseballs and presidentes and you have friends for life.

Mrs Silver Fox 60 said:

It is advertised as AI, however, after 10 pm at night you will have to pay for any alcoholic beverages. Much less expensive to go into downtown...more exciting as well.

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The drinks in the disco are included which goes way past 10 PM, 1:00 AM I think.

Kyle said:

the resort is ok, not great but i dont choose an AI to stay in the room or eat the food. it's what you make it. the topless ladies at the pool were sickening, i think they were canadian.

the best tip i got was to bring some baseballs. there's a baseball field across the street. a couple of baseballs and presidentes and you have friends for life.

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Quite true...however, you do have to sleep and you do have to eat at some point so it is nice if the room is acceptable and the food somewhat consumable.

Mr Silver Fox stepped on two live coachroaches during the night one night. Yes, it is a tropical country and that kind of thing can be expected but it was still very gross. So where the dead coachroaches that I found behind the dresser when I went to retrive an earing.....

We have stayed at the Reef 3 times and had a great time on each visit, Yes the rooms could now do with upgrading I agree, but the food was generally pretty good and we found the staff to be friendly.
A holiday is what YOU make it, I have stayed in some crap places and still had a great time, have also stayed in some great places but didn't have any more fun than the crap ones. Any problem you encounter when on holiday will only spoil your holiday 'if you let it', so don't let it! By all means put your 'grizzly' head on when you get home and write to your holiday company/President/Queen or whatever but don't spoil your own holiday by letting it get you down.

Here endeth todays lesson!

A holiday is what YOU make it, right on Britcouple!

Reminds me of the one time we drove up the mountain to Torajaland in Indonesia, staid there for 4 day's and on the 5th day we were scheduled to fly down to harbor town to a connecting flight to Bali. Show up at tiny little airport up the mountain...no plane...3 hours later got the message that plane was in repair and should be fixed next day. Ok, our driver/guide for the days we were there took us back to the hotel, we checked in again for one night, had a fantastic evening chatting away and having some cold drinks and nice dinner. Next day, early show up at airport, didn't have to wait all too long to hear that plane was not ready. Ok, hmm...guide said, hey, I can drive you guy's back down, will take me 8 hours or so but I want to do it, we agreed on a price and we set off. He suddenly stops for a little house and says, since I am going to stay overnight down there, I just need a quick minute to get some clothes where I live, here with my aunt but please join me and come in. We said, no don't want to intrude but he insisted so we all go into the tiny house.
Aunty appears with a big smile on her face, honored by the visit and says in perfect Dutch, please sit down and I will get some refreshments. We compliment her on her perfect Dutch which she had not spoken for so long, say please do not let us disturb you but she insist and comes back with a delicious fruit platter which she made in a minute. We enjoy speaking somewhat more with her and she enjoys speaking in Dutch enormously and then its time to say goodbye. Lovely lady!

So we start at the trip down wards, took us about 10 hours to get there but there we were, found a little hotel near the airport so that the boy's the next day could walk to the airport to start their negotiations for the missed flight which we knew would give problems to reclaim and said goodbye to the driver.

Next day, boy's had a long negotiation with the airline but got us free tickets for the next day flight to Bali and we girls got a nice relaxing day at the pool.
Next day we sat on the plane towards Bali, three day's too late but none of the four of us had even the slightest bitter taste of the adventure, on the contrary. Its just like you want it to be but me too, if I am on holiday, NOTHING can spoil that and if there are hickups they are always compensated by other nice surprises such as the meeting with auntie...just wonderful!

That was for the entertainment, can't say much about Casa Marina because I have not visited it :ermm:

Acira

i also found the entertainment in the ampitheater to be quite decent. after the show i would hit the town.

Been to CM 3 times ... we stayed there at the end of November for 10 days and only had 5 meals on the resort.

There were major renovations going on ... normally I stick to the buffet on the beach side (a bit better than the reef side), but that was closed for renos ... the buffet on the reef side was okay, but as bland/boring as past visits, so we chose to eat out most of the time.

Many rooms on the reef side were being renovated in Nov.

We went back in April and rented a condo, which was great (got a condo again for this Nov)