I normally stay at Infiniti Blu but this last trip was short, so I booked at the newly renovated main AI in Sosua. Mainly because I know they renovated and there has been buzz about it. The place esthetically looks really nice. They have added more shaded areas, made more use of the front entrance. The rooms were much nicer then before – and the compliments end there…
They have cut a lot of corners which seem cost saving in nature which made the overall experience one that I wont repeat.
We paid $211USD per night for 10 days. We reconciled that by agreeing at least 2 meals per day we would eat on resort – which did not happen.
*The Buffet Situation*
The food overall was really bad – I didn’t remember it being that bad (pre-reno, I stayed there several years ago).
Lunch time they made everyone line up in an extremely hot, unshaded cement area. The people looked like a bunch of frying eggs. With a big shaded entry area I couldn’t understand why they didn’t even offer to bring those who were uncomfortable in.
Dinner time – they don’t open the buffet until 6:30pm. I think this is very late for a dinner time if you ask me (maybe others can weigh in, I don’t do AI’s much). I normally eat supper earlier. At 6:20pm we began seeing hoards of people forming a line at the buffet. By the time it opened almost every table was occupied right away (that tells me you are waiting until too late to serve dinner and you don’t have enough capacity). It was a bloody survival of the fittest in the buffet. After getting my food I couldn’t even find someone to get me a drink.
Off I went. Another 15-minute line later, got myself a coke. Then Im standing there and the guy doesn’t even ask me what I would like – just starts organizing his area like I wasn’t even standing there.
The food situation was so frustrating that we just started eating off resort.
*Cards and doors*
You would think a hotel this big would order a batch of new cards – but they seem to be using a mis mash of room cards, some all scratched up without even an arrow which way to tap. They also operate the rooms lights and AC.
In 10 day’s we had to go back to reception 4x to change our room cards not to mention going to sleep thinking devices were charging in the morning to find everything stopped charging in the middle of the night because of card issues. When you are on the 4th floor at the very back of the hotel, having to back to reception that many times to change cards is just silly. Not to mention on one instance which was very late at night the security guard had a list of rooms he had to bring keys to so clearly they should know there is a problem.
*Safety*
On my 3rd day I took a nasty fall down the ceramic stairs. I hurt my arm and shoulder bad enough to immediately grow a giant black goose egg on my forearm. It happened because someone left water on the stairs which I couldn’t see and there was no indication the floor was wet. After I got up and at the bottom of the stairs I noticed a yellow “floor wet” cone down the hallway on the next floor. But the rest of the floor didn’t appear wet so I chalked that up to a tourist not thinking and walking wet from the pool to their room. Until the next morning. Same time of morning, I start heading down the stairs – this time really paying attention. Again, I see water. When I get to the bottom I see the floor cleaner and he has the same cone at the top of the other stairs (which no one would go down anyways because he had the whole area blocked) and he made a river of water from that staircase past the next. OMG!!! Water everywhere. I explained to him the previous days incident and he didn’t care and tried to tell me the cone was at the top of my stairs (NOT). Anyway, he then directs me through the water which I proceed to drag down the next stairs which also had no cone and through the next hall. Just ridiculous. Someone could lose their life falling and hitting their head on wet ceramic. I am still hurting and it was a week ago now!
*Where you book*
If you do decide to stay here be careful booking with Hotels.com. They offered a $188 rate indicating breakfast only, or $211 for a better room and all-inclusive. We really wanted the all-inclusive so we did the $211. I thought maybe after the renovation they now offer 2 rates. When we arrived we learned they only offer all inclusive so I could have gotten the $188. I will take that up with the booking site but note that all rooms are all-inclusive.
Have any of you had experiences here yet?
They have cut a lot of corners which seem cost saving in nature which made the overall experience one that I wont repeat.
We paid $211USD per night for 10 days. We reconciled that by agreeing at least 2 meals per day we would eat on resort – which did not happen.
*The Buffet Situation*
The food overall was really bad – I didn’t remember it being that bad (pre-reno, I stayed there several years ago).
Lunch time they made everyone line up in an extremely hot, unshaded cement area. The people looked like a bunch of frying eggs. With a big shaded entry area I couldn’t understand why they didn’t even offer to bring those who were uncomfortable in.
Dinner time – they don’t open the buffet until 6:30pm. I think this is very late for a dinner time if you ask me (maybe others can weigh in, I don’t do AI’s much). I normally eat supper earlier. At 6:20pm we began seeing hoards of people forming a line at the buffet. By the time it opened almost every table was occupied right away (that tells me you are waiting until too late to serve dinner and you don’t have enough capacity). It was a bloody survival of the fittest in the buffet. After getting my food I couldn’t even find someone to get me a drink.
Off I went. Another 15-minute line later, got myself a coke. Then Im standing there and the guy doesn’t even ask me what I would like – just starts organizing his area like I wasn’t even standing there.
The food situation was so frustrating that we just started eating off resort.
*Cards and doors*
You would think a hotel this big would order a batch of new cards – but they seem to be using a mis mash of room cards, some all scratched up without even an arrow which way to tap. They also operate the rooms lights and AC.
In 10 day’s we had to go back to reception 4x to change our room cards not to mention going to sleep thinking devices were charging in the morning to find everything stopped charging in the middle of the night because of card issues. When you are on the 4th floor at the very back of the hotel, having to back to reception that many times to change cards is just silly. Not to mention on one instance which was very late at night the security guard had a list of rooms he had to bring keys to so clearly they should know there is a problem.
*Safety*
On my 3rd day I took a nasty fall down the ceramic stairs. I hurt my arm and shoulder bad enough to immediately grow a giant black goose egg on my forearm. It happened because someone left water on the stairs which I couldn’t see and there was no indication the floor was wet. After I got up and at the bottom of the stairs I noticed a yellow “floor wet” cone down the hallway on the next floor. But the rest of the floor didn’t appear wet so I chalked that up to a tourist not thinking and walking wet from the pool to their room. Until the next morning. Same time of morning, I start heading down the stairs – this time really paying attention. Again, I see water. When I get to the bottom I see the floor cleaner and he has the same cone at the top of the other stairs (which no one would go down anyways because he had the whole area blocked) and he made a river of water from that staircase past the next. OMG!!! Water everywhere. I explained to him the previous days incident and he didn’t care and tried to tell me the cone was at the top of my stairs (NOT). Anyway, he then directs me through the water which I proceed to drag down the next stairs which also had no cone and through the next hall. Just ridiculous. Someone could lose their life falling and hitting their head on wet ceramic. I am still hurting and it was a week ago now!
*Where you book*
If you do decide to stay here be careful booking with Hotels.com. They offered a $188 rate indicating breakfast only, or $211 for a better room and all-inclusive. We really wanted the all-inclusive so we did the $211. I thought maybe after the renovation they now offer 2 rates. When we arrived we learned they only offer all inclusive so I could have gotten the $188. I will take that up with the booking site but note that all rooms are all-inclusive.
Have any of you had experiences here yet?
