Arrival: Jan 26 2009 - Feb 2
Flight down was great, we arrived before schedule. We flew Sunwing leaving Toronto at 7:15AM, and arrived at the resort before 12. Check in was a breeze. But things quickly went down hill.

Rooms:
I don't know what room we were originaly assigned, friends had arrived the day prior and asked reception to put us all in a block together. We were given room 676 in the south section, my mother was next door in room 677. There were a total of 7 of us staying, arriving on different days. I travelled with my husband, 7 year old son, my mother and a friend. This was our 6th trip to Cuba, but our first in Varadero. All our previous trips have been to Holguin.

Upon first glance room appeared fine, 2 double beds and a single. Upon further inspection, no fridge, no TV remote, no toilet seat, no closet doors. I called the front desk to report these things, I really didn't care about anything other than the toilet seat. Well after 2 phone calls and 2 personal visits to the front desk, we got a fridge. I checked there was no toilet seat inside. We went the week with no seat. The maid service was great, room was always cleaned, fresh sheets and towels.

Restaurants and Bars:
When we arrived, we were informed that all the ala cartes were booked through until Feb 1st. Since we were leaving on the 2nd we didn't even attempt to book one. We over heard other guests calling the buffet the "barfet", but thought nothing of at the time, everyone has there own opinion of the food in Cuba. But after having "dined" at the buffet, I can honestley call it the "barfet". Firstly it is in the basement and as you walk down the stairs to enter all you can smell is fish. I hate fish, so that was the first turn off. But getting past that, the items offered, were unappetizing in appearance, and all seemed to be swimming in liquid. The so called grill stations offered nothing but fish, chicken or pork. Maybe I was just unlucky, but they never had anything cooked when I happened to be there. I tried the pasta with what I thought was alfredo sauce one night, but it had a really bad burnt taste. On another night the buffet had mashed potaotes, my 7 year old loves potatoes of any kind, they were so bad he refused to eat them. As I mentioned there were 7 of us, one evening we went to the buffet, found a table that had been recently vacated, stood and waited, and waited, finally we cleared the table ourselves, scarpping dirty plates, and resetting the table ourselves, apprently this soooo upset the wait staff they refused to attend our table and offer beverages, we had to get these ourselves as well. Breakfast was a little better, with eggs, bacon (on a few occasions)omelet station etc. But if you went after 9AM you had to set the table yourself. I found the staff at the buffet to be very uncaring and rude.

On the south side (where we stayed) was where the 24 hour snack bar was located. They staff there were wonderful, and the food was pretty good. They had hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwichs, pasta,and fish. Thank goodness for the snack bar or my son would have starved. I would take him there before the buffet opened and get him something to eat, then go to the buffet and let him have ice cream and pasteries.

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
We basiclly hung out at the pool in the south section. It was always very quiet with plenty of charis available. The bar and the bathroom were close by and every half hour or so a waiter would come by offering to fetch drinks. The grounds were very nice and well kept, the gardeners did an excellent job.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
I persoanlly did not do any tours. My mother did the 1 day Havana tour and had a great time and loved every minute of it. Three of our party are divers, but only got one dive in due to red flag days, but they did seem to enjoy the one dive they got in, they went to The Bay of Pigs. Five of our group (my son included) booked the catamaran tour, which included a 3 hour sunset cruise the day before. Unfortunatley, a storm came along and cut the sunset cruise in half and the catamaran had to exclude snorkeling due to high winds. They had a great trip though, went to Cayo Blanco, had a lobster lunch, and after the winds died down really enjoyed it.

Other Comments:
I enjoyed my week in spite of the obvious lackings of this resort, mainly because of the people I was with and the fact I was away from Ontario for a week in January.
I will not return to this resort and I will not recommend it to anyone.
This resort is advertised as a 4*, but it is not by any stretch of the imagination a 4*.