I will start my review my admitting that we did not do our usual share of research for this trip as it was a last minute decision to meet family members at the Tryp Peninsula resort. Some of my review lean towards some situations that we would have been aware of had we done more research.
Check In - People should be aware that it does not matter what time you arrive on resort, check in is 4pm. Whether your room is ready or not. This is what we were told. It is difficult to get a trolley to help get luggage to your room. We carted ours, both coming and going. We did call for the trolley, none showed. Other than that, check in was efficient enough.
Cadeca - right beside check in. The line up for money conversion is long, and moves slow. We spent 2 hours in line. Do yourself a favor and read the sign for hours of operation, because they adhere to it to the second. They close at meal times, rather than switch off with another staff. Judge how far in line you are from the wicket, as they will close the person in front of you. This did happen! We waited for 2 hours. The people behind us had the window closed on them. Needless to say, not happy customers.
ALACARTES - They say you are allowed 2 per week stay. We booked 4. No problem. THe Japanese is the only one that we could recommend. It was excellent in our opinion. Long pants were not enforced for the men. Our group wore them the first night, only to see plenty of shorts, so switched up after that with no grievance from the staff.
Buffet - very busy. The line ups for the eggs, meat carving station, pasta station were crazy long. We tended to miss out on these items, as did not want to bother with the wait. There is not alot of fruit or produce in the buffet, but people could pretty much find something to eat. There did seem to be a lot of "mystery" meats that our group avoided. But there were alot of freshly cooked options to choose from if one was willing to wait. The service was fine in the buffet.
Snack Bar - by the pool. Open 24 hours. Our group had lots of fries, pizza, burgers there. Nice option if one did not want to go to the buffet.
Pools - there really is only one big pool, and it is not deep at all. Waist deep. ANd it was cold in January, making sitting at the swim up bar very difficult unless one no longer cared due to indulgence. We sat there once or twice! there is a second pool, but it is a kiddy pool and we did not go there.
Rooms - decent enough. We asked for king size bed. Hubby is large man. We did not get that. We got 2 3/4 size beds that did not even push together. Little different, but not a deal breaker. Towels, TP, and water left only when tips were left. We tipped daily, but forgot one morning in our haste to meet our excursion, and nothing was left in our room. Not even the little towel art that we had received daily. Kind of funny, but did not consider the lack of TP very humorous. We had brought our own and would suggest this to anyone travelling off resort to do so as well.
Mobility Challenged - A member of our group has a severely damaged leg. This resort was far to laid out for him to get around comfortably. Regardless what block your room is in, there are long walks to get to everything. If you are close to lobby/buffet, you are far from ocean. If you are close to ocean, you are far from lobby etc.....They have a trolley, but it does not seem to be in place for carting passengers as we are accustomed to at other resorts. We never had use of it once. It passed us lots, but only seemed to be carrying staff, or equipment from place to place. For this reason alone, we would not return to this resort.
Service - Tipping does seem important. But in fairness, we recieved good to excellent service everywhere we went. THe buffet bar gets very busy, and always seemed to have good service there. Swim up bar guy could have been a little friendlier.....
SuperPlus - Coffee Bar. Specialty coffees served right outside the buffet. These boys, Michel and Abel, do a fantastic job. IT is very busy as everyone knows it is good. But there is only one worker for daytime, and one for evening. Do be prepared to wait. But they are awesome guys, and when you see how hard they work, you will want to tip them.
Beach - excellent. Very windy the week we went, Some locals mentioned that it is often windy at the Tryp because it is located right on the tip of the peninsula. Makes sense. Beach bar had some pretty long lines, and they do not have blender for mixed frozen drinks. Vendors are definitely present, but seriously do not bother you the way we have experienced elsewhere. A polite no thank you definitley does work.
Drinks - We brought travel mugs, but did not use them nearly as much as we have elsewhere. Kind of had a slight problem finding drinks that we liked actually. They all had different names, but kind of tasted the same? Except in the coffee bar. They made great frozen drinks there too by the way!
Travel - the hop on hop off bus is awesome. We did choose to leave the resort a little more than we normally do. We loved downtown Varadero and found some great places to eat and buy great drinks. The 5$ fee to ride all day long was too irresistable. Where else could you find this? We did the catamaran excursion as well which was great.
Entertainment - we felt the resort was lacking here. Although we dont like an entertainment crew in our face all day long, they were practically invisible here. Part of our group were younger and asked incessantly where the entertainment crew was as they had fond memories of that aspect on past trips. Disco, not sure how some could say it was rocking because every time we went in, it was empty. Or closed. We just felt there was not alot to do on resort, especially when weather was not cooperating. Which is why we probably chose to leave more often.
Cleanliness - no complaints there at all. Very clean, grounds well manicured. THere are people continuously upkeeping the property. The lobby area and bathrooms are very clean. Good job to the resort on the upkeep.
In closing, this is a good resort. Just not the resort for us. It is too laid out, and quite simply, really lacked in the regular activities we are accustomed to on a resort. We just found it ok. If one is looking for beach only, this may be the place for them. If one is looking for a little more upbeat, they may be disappointed here.
Room Tip: Blocks 25 / 26 / 27 are close to the ocean.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
