Like everyone else, I was nervous about the review of mosquitos and getting sick and musty hotel rooms and so on..... but I was pleasantly suprised to find that the Caribe Princess was even BETTER then any pictures I saw or reviews I read.
Ok.... there are some small things that a few people allow to ruin their vacation like a cold shower here and there or too many Europeans. That is why the price is so reasonable.... if you want the Plaza in NYC then you have to pay PLAZA prices.
We walked the entire hotel strip on the beach and there was not one resort that could hold a candle to the CP beach. And.... only the CP has rooms on the beach. Or on the pool. If you happen to get a bottom floor (and yes it will smell musty since you are in the Caribbean) then simply ask to be moved. The turnover is daily so another room will open up.

The staff work 14 hours a day and for 12 days on - 2 days off.
Their weekly pay equals two hours of minimum wage in the US and yet they never look tired or cranky. The only crank people I saw were guests wanting more and more and more ..........

Bottom line -- this resort blew away any other place we have stayed. We relaxed, ate, swam, watched the activities, met a few people (they are as nice to you as you are to them) and
all for a price that would not get you a weekend in NYC !

As far as mosquitos -- I think I saw two. Two.

The Caribe Club Princess is what you make it. You can pay double somewhere else but you will get the same thing.
So - trust the good reviews and ignore the bad ones.

I will be going back next year !

On arrival at the Caribe Club we were shown to our room which smelt, only had one bed (not ideal for a mother and daughter) and the patio door had obviously been broken into previously as the lock did not work and was bent. The porter rang reception and was told they would bring in a single bed. Nothing happened so we ourselves walked to reception - a ten minute walk in the wind and rain - and were told we could not change rooms as they were already overbooked and had sent another couple to an alternative hotel for the night. We were told that if we returned at 2pm the following day, we may be given a different room if there was availability. Our Thomson rep was of no help either! We went back to the room to find two maids dragging a filthy bed into the room and balancing the coffee table precariously into the wardrobe - leaving no room for hanging clothes. Not that we would have hung anything in the room anyway as the room smelt so awful.

We dragged our tired selves into the buffet restaurant, only to be seated and have to wait several minutes to be served. We asked the waiter for water and wine and when it did not arrive 10 minutes later, we asked again. And again. Oh and again. Only then to be given the impression that we were a nuisance and we were really asking too much for any amount of service. This happened repeatedly, in fact the only meal time we received service without asking for it was the last day at breakfast. Unsurprisingly, this had followed a customer satisfaction survey being passed around and I'm sure numerous complaints!

Bar the service, the buffet was exellent. The food was always fresh and varied and there really was little point in venturing into any of the a la carte restaurants as the food was nowhere near as good as in the buffet, however you were attended to far more quickly!! I can't recall seeing any flies - very impressive considering it was fairly open air - and we always thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

We managed to change rooms the next day and whilst there were two beds and no smell, there were several issues that were never really resolved. The towels were always a grey colour - a little off putting when you are jumping out of the shower! We were also only ever given one small bath towel each, with no consideration of hair or hand towels. The fan in the room continually clicked so was really unusable. The air conditioning control box had no controls on the outside so we had to remove the front panel to exposed wires, changing the temperature and switch on/off this way. Not ideal! When the repair man came to 'fix' it, he simply shook his head, pulled off the front cover and showed us how to fiddle with the controls this way. When repeating the story to the Thomson rep, she simply said 'don't go near the wires with wet hair'. Useful? Thought not.

On check out day, we phoned down to Guest Services (if that's what you can call them) and asked for a porter to collect our cases. Not an unreasonable request as their were no lifts and the rooms were a 10 minute walk from reception. Five phone calls and an hour later we were still waiting for the porter. Luckily, we saw someone walking around so he could take us and our luggage. Absolutely appalling.

After that extensive moan, we both enjoyed our holiday very much but I really feel that the service lets the Caribe Club down significantly. Many people moaned about the language barrier, I don't feel this if fair as they are a Spanish speaking island and we should not expect them to speak English. I think if the service in the restaurant had been of a higher standard, this would be a much better review. And ultimately, I think Thomson need to provide a better service in their reps. Whilst she was friendly, any problems we presented her with she did not deal with at all. Highly recommend Thomson long haul flights, planes are fantastic and far roomier than Virgin Atlantic and BA.

Hello...My friend and I stayed at this resort for one week (women ages 26 and 42). When we arrived we were given a room with one bed but had reserved a room with two double beds...it took quite abit of talking to get a double room. My friend is recovering from a car accident and is not able to walk the stairs or great distances. This hotel has NO elevator even though it is three stories. NO availibiltiy of a wheel chair for use...but they do have ramps beside the major buildings..There is alot of walking needed to get from point A to B but you can catch a mini bus if you wait long enough. There is not alot of food for the vegetarian as most dishes are meat/fish based. Most times I could not find someone in the dinning room who spoke enough english to tell me if the dish I was interested in had meat or fish..beware of the lack of labeling for the person with allergies. The pillows were absolutely terrible!!!!!!!! I think they used the old towels to make pillows as they were so lumpy. This is a difficult resort to go to if you only speak english. If your a single woman ...well thats another story!!.....the staff that work by the pool flirt and proposition you so much you are ready to scream by day 3. But overall my stay was nice...could have done without the all firting to have some peace.

Have stayed at this property on 3 different occasions, each occasion being different. 1st with hubby, 2nd with girlfriends, 3rd with my family and 2 young kids. I am convinced this is the perfect resort in it's class for different reasons. Now right off the bat again, for those who don't have time to read everything in detail, here are the highlights

clean, vibrant, casual, fun, gorgeous, good food with plenty of choices, compact in layout but not small, great for mobility reduced people, great location, tropical, great value for the money.

Now for those who have time to read this and who's brains are not super saturated by reading, trying to find the perfect resort with no negative reviews!

Ambiance: this is a heading you barely find in reviews but is a question I get over and over again and see on the forums. This is a property that is casual and fun, mix of crowd, singles, couples, families etc, vibrant and alive. But it has quiet corners if you want to find some peace and quiet. It is a 4 star not a 5 star, so be reasonable with expectations and please please please be respectful to the staff. You would be surprised how sugar gets you more than salt!

Check-in: No problems, had faxed and requested 2 of our 3 rooms to be connected and that is what we got. We asked for a 2nd floor room and ocean view. Batting 3 for 3. They ask you how many bags you have for the bellboy and give you sticker tickets to place on the handle of the bags so the gentleman can deliver them later (that in a way was a waste of time, because after you get your room key, you have to go back and wait for your bags - all guests are getting the bags at the same time) Because I had my able bodied hubby with me, he went back to the lobby got the bags, stopped at the designated room building to get the key and info package, and then brought them himself to the room. After he dropped the bags off to the room, he came back to join us. He was gone 20 mins, at least we could enjoy the rest of the day at the beach instead of waiting for the bags in the room.

Rooms on all of my visits have not been ready before 3pm, where you have to go to a building to pick up your room keys. So be prepared when you arrive so that you can take advantage the best you can of the day in the sun without access to a room. You can change in the lobby bathroom, have a drink, and make your way through the resort to the beach end of the resort.

Rooms: We had a 2nd floor Caribe Suite in the Coralillio building with 2 queen size beds, a very large closet with about 8 hangers, 4 mega shelves, the room safe, umbrella, dry cleaning bag, Ironing board and iron, a large bathroom with double vanity and bathtub/shower. Everything is tiled and clean. No Marble this and that, a bit dated, but functional and yes I will repeat, clean. There was a dresser with bench and mirror, minifridge, tv on a swivel stand, a ledge with Coffee Maker and the normal accessories, a step down to a living room area equipped with sofa, coffee table, eating table and 2 chairs. There was a patio door and then our balcony with partial ocean view and 2 chairs and little table. Clean Clean Clean.

Room Location: I have stayed in 3 different buildings, middle floor and top floor. The top floor rooms are nice because they have cathedral ceilings but as mentioned ,hard to maintain at a certain temperature or control mosquitos (no there were not that many but there are some - use Deet) and the second floor rooms are like normal hotel rooms. All rooms have balconies. All rooms are in a good location due to the layout of the resort (great planning) I would however suggest not to get a room on the buffet side and buffet end of the Lirio building because of the proximity to the Italian animation theatre off the back of the buffet building. It is very noisy til about midnight. Pity: this theatre used to show movies in the evening. I found the 3rd floor rooms to be a bit of a pain especially if you get to the bottom and realize you forgot something. Well at least it works off all that food!! 2nd floor was perfect for our family.

Food: there are 5 a la cartes in order of my preference (Brazillian, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and Dominican) one buffet with different theme night, 1 creperie, 2 beach grills, 2 gourmet restaurants ($), and a midnight buffet for latenight snacks. This trip was with 2 young kids so we found the nightly buffet to be the most practical for us in our case. Excellent choices, kids never get bored with pasta and pizza, but the adults appreciated the themes and the variety in the evenings. We had to cancel our reservation for the Italian a la carte because we ate at the Bavaro Princess Buffet (our package allowed that) So naturally we were a bit disappointed we were unable to re-book because of time issues , but the Italian theme buffet was the next night. All I have to say is WOW. You like pasta, there must have been at least 10 different pasta dishes to try. The beach grills are armed with French Fries and ketchup, but the grill at the right side of the beach when facing the ocean had the grill to cook outside. It was a bit better.

Grounds: Very manicured, clean. Staff always working on something. The hotel is compact in layout where all rooms, 3 pools, restaurants and most activities are all at the beach end of the resort. Very tropical looking. Some of the newer properties are missing the mature and natural setting that this resort has. Very cheery and colourful.

Beach: Well it doesn't get better than this. Out of my 4 visits to the area, the water has been calm once. It is not bathtub water. There are waves. It is fun to play in and body board. You have to keep your kids fairly close, and have your eye on them. White sand and turquoise water. Just pure perfection. The beach is wide also from waterline to resort edge. There are plenty of palapas, and areas without them.

Pools: there are 3 ranging in activity level. The right-most pool when facting the ocean is the one with the poolbar and activity hut nearby. This is the one that is more lively. The middle pool is the one with much less activity and ends up being fairly quiet. The third pool is used by the Italian animation team (Blu Club) is known as the island pool. My first visit did not have the Blu Club so this pool was ultra quiet, my second visit, this pool was quite loud with the Italian animation almost annoying to a fault because everyone is subjected to the Italian only Animation even though the mix of clients make the resort International. All the other animation is done in English, French, Spanish and German and geared for everyone. Anyway that is an arguement for another forum. But this third visit revealed that the Blu Club had toned it down considerably. Was it the time of year? Maybe.

Activities: We didn't do any this time because of the nature of this visit. But you can find: Darts, Ping Pong, Bocce, Shuffleboard, Archery, Mini Golf, Scuba initiation, aqua gym, funny pool games, windsurfing, hobbie cats, body boarding, soccer, volleyball (pool and beach) water polo, tennis, and others I am missing I am sure. Gym

Spa: they have one with the gym and hair dressing salon but I did not use it this time so no comment


Nightly entertainment: went only once. The usual cabaret show followed by the lobby party. I wish I could say more but I can't comment this time. Last time I went, they had the lobby party after the show with dancing and a DJ. It was just the right amount of fun if you don't want to go to the disco at the gates of the hotel.

I find this property to be a great value for the money. Everything on my 3 visits has exceeded my expectations. I am expecting decent food, clean, friendly, fun, good service. A towel art animal on my bed is not expected but a nice touch, flowers sprinkled on the bathroom vanity is not expected but nice touch, waiters knowing one of my children likes Fanta and the other cold milk is not expected but a nice touch, a polite Hola from the staff at every turn is not expected but a very nice touch.

I have been once with Hubby and had a great time , once with my girlfriends and had a great time, and once with my family and had a great time. I found this resort perfect for all of those occasions.

email me if you have questions dropusaline@hotmail.com