Hotel Riu Palace Paradise Island

Just came back from a 5-day Anniversary Couples celebration. This hotel is about 45 mins away from airport. Arranged direct (round trip) transportation from Godel Transportation; our driver, Delano was AMAZING! He gave us a tour throughout the cities telling us all of the historical places on the way and even gave us food and entertainment suggestions. A true gem of the island. He was also the one who came and picked us up from the hotel for our return ride home- early and very pleasant. Inbox me and I will give you his direct contact information. Arrived at the hotel. Check-in was a breeze; we upgraded our room for an additional fee. We heard multiple horror stories about the AC not working properly from about 15 guests. Ours on the 14th floor worked fine after changing rooms. This resort is the smallest Riu we have stayed at. It is nice but def a 3 star at best. The pool area--easy to find chairs without having to put towels down early. The pool with the swim up bar needs major work. Aside from fighting off the kazillion bees at the bar the tiles are falling apart and we picked up several sharp edged tiles during our stay. There is also a huge square filter at the bottom of pool near the entrance the top kept coming off making it a huge safety hazard; several people hit their toes unknowingly. The drinks--I am not a picky drinker by far..But the service at the bar was slow and a-lot of times left unattended. Every drink i tasted from the swim up bar either tasted like pure alcohol or pure thick syrup sugar--There was no in between for me when David made my drinks. So i tried my best to let anyone BUT him make my drinks. When he made them they were always left to the side. And he had the actual nerve to be cocky with his drink making comments--No sir..I dont like weak drinks I like drinks that actually taste good. Next! What i did like about this resort is that they allow you to play your own speaker cause the music was at times horrible or not loud enough. This resort activites were sup-par and not the least bit entertaining starting off to them NOT having a actual club. Zero night life. They do have a 24 hour bar where the drinks are made way better. But again, you will have to go to the neighboring resort of Atlantis for $100 pp or Baha Mar $50 pp night club. FYI, if you do visit the Casino at the Atlantis they only take American money, and it is a $5 pp cab ride there and back. I would not suggest walking. Let's talk food. I would give this resort a 6/10 in terms of food. None of the restaurants were good to me. We did Tengoku first night after being disappointed with the buffet. Not good. The mystery fried item plate was mediocre. Did the Steakhouse the second night-This place can not get steak and lobster temperature correct to save their life. They gave two lobster tails cut in four pieces and looked amazing! Pure mush on the insides and overcooked severely. 1 was edible and at the correct temp. The steak was overcooked and tough. Tried Krystal --I got the Lobster rice. It was like a mushy fried rice with no lobster in sight. My husband's medium steak came out rare. We had the best food AND DRINKS off of the resort. Went to Twin Brothers at The Fish Fry..The Bahama Mama was made right and the lobster and chicken pasta was the best food we had on the island. Also went to Viola's near the hotel; the food and drinks were better there. And I definitely can't forget at The Atlantis Marina Pizzaria --Went here twice--The best pizza hands down--The best food in the resort would be the Jerk Chicken station outside by the pool, AND the lunch Buffet Chicken Wings were great. My husband loved the burgers and breakfast omelets; can't go wrong with that. The beach was perfect. The water sports in front of Riu let a pretty woman negotiate prices with no man in sight, then have him come over after the fact. Same deal for a couple: 1 jet ski $120 for half hour for two. Single woman: two jet skis for 4 $100. Never pay online. Negotiate on site. It rained every day of vacation, and their streets flood horribly after 30 mins of rain. I asked the front desk lady for a late checkout; she said it was $20 per hour per person. I have never had that type of nickel-and-dime service at any other Riu properties, and we visit Riu's at least 4-5 times a year. Overall, I would NOT come back to this particular resort.

We arrived for our 4 night stay and were greeted with a glass of sparkling wine at check-in which was nice. We were told right away that we have to wait 48 hrs before we could book a reservation at the premium restaurants so we had to eat at the buffets only for 2 days. After the 48 hr wait period we couldn't get in to a premium restaurant as they were full so we were only able to eat at the buffet for our entire vacation. We were told on day 2 that the $635 credit on our room was for certain discounts such as $15 off at the spa which was very misleading. We went to the Renovation Spa and booked two 90 mins Stress Cure massages which were supposed to be deep tissue and were barely Swedish massage technique. They just rubbed oil on us no deep tissue massage techniques were used. On day 3 we had a flood in our room. Water started coming down from the ceiling and flooded the floor. I called the front desk and no one came, my husband had to go to the front desk and show a video of the flood before they would do anything. After 2 hours we were finally moved to another room. On our last day we asked if we could get a 30 mins late check out to be closer to our departure time and were told that there would be a charge of $20 per person per hour. After experiencing a Superior ocean view room with a view of the trash below on the beach and a view of exhaust fans that constantly ran and losing 2 hours on our vacaction due to a flood in our room and paying $400 for two subpar massages we weren't allowed 30 extra mins free of charge. My husband and I have both worked in hospitality and were treated so poorly by Hotel Riu that we will never come back and do not recommend this hotel chain!!! They do not care about their guests.