Hotel Riu Palace Tropical Bay

I stayed at two resorts on this trip, one was Royalton Negril and the other was this hotel. The Royalton was the better of the hotels and I will start by saying I went to the Royalton first and maybe if I had gone to the Riu first I would have not had such negative thoughts about this resort. To start and most importantly, no elevators. We had a third floor room and walking the stairs gets old quickly. On the other side of our "villa" there was an older couple where the woman was in a wheelchair. I watched the bellhops carry her down the stairs to her wheelchair. It looked bad and it wasnt safe. Next everything in the room, lights, tv, only works if you have your key in this slot when you first walk in the room. I dont love the idea of walking into a dark room so you almost need to leave a key in the slot when you leave so that you can come back to a lit room if its late at night. The bed was not incredibly comfortable but not end of the world bad. The mini bar in the room with the actual alcohol bottles was a nice touch. I had been to a different Riu about 15 years ago and got a lot more use out of it then, now I'm in my mid 40's so although i drank a good amount it was more at bars/restaurants than the mini bar in my room. The one very nice touch I will say that they had in their rooms was every room had a full size umbrella which came in handy because it rained daily, not for long but every day. It was nice to have that. I was in villa 4309 and the toilet was not great. As soon as we walked into the room, there was only liquid in the toilet and it backed up. When we called maintenance they were on it immediately which was great but this happened 3 times which isnt fun. I'm not a big fan of all inclusives at this point in my life and one of the main reasons is the food is bland. No exception here. We did have dinner at the "steakhouse" one night that was ok. Otherwise our food was average to below average. The jerk hut, wasnt anywhere close to as good as the one that was at the Royalton. The layout of this hotel says party resort to me. The rooms are on the outside and everything else is in the middle of the resort. The restaurants, pools, and bars are all in the middle so depending on what villa you are in you may have a decent walk to get to anything. There was no pool that you could just chill at because when they were open it was only party trivia and games. Again this wouldve been great for me if I was 20 and on spring break but when you are out of that crowd and looking for a romantic time with your lady, you couldnt really find it at this resort. All in all, if you are a young person looking to party party party, this is probably the resort for you. If you are a person that is looking more for elegance I would recommend Royalton Hideaway

The hotel is about 1.5 hrs away from the airport. There is construction in 2 sections of the highway and it does cause long delays when traveling through the town of Lucea. Arriving at the hotel we proceeded to check in and were advised our room would be ready in 30 minutes (3pm). Check in was swift and there was a cold drink in my hand. From the time you check in you can use all of the resort has to offer. The lobby was neat and clean with a piano bar and coffee shop. Both serve amazing drinks and the deserts at the coffee shop where excellent. You have to try the chocolate or carrot cake in the afternoon. There is a store, spa and a gym. I did not use them so cannot provide any details. We stayed in an ocean front room. The view was excellent from our second story room in building 3. Note the buildings in Negril can only be 3 storeys and do not have elevators. The sunsets in Negril can't be beat. The rooms are nice and clean. The shower was great with a rainfall and shower wand. There was always plenty of hot water. There are 2 grab rails to aid in getting into the shower and stability if needed. The entrance to all rooms was a level surface so if you have a mobility issue you will be fine on a first floor room. The beds where 2 queen beds that had been pushed together. The sofa can pull out into a bed. There is a safe for your use that is large enough for a laptop and other valuables. If you leave the safe open the maids will exit and close your room door and call security to come and lock your safe and make a report. You will have to get security to return to help open your safe and verify the contents. There is a towel rack out on the balcony with a few chairs and a table for the late night star gazing or lazy mornings with a coffee. The rooms have a mini bar with 4 different liquors and a fridge with water, beer and pop. Only negative for the room was 3 small cockraoches we squished. Gross but not unusual for a caribbean climate. We just kept our clothes in the sealed suitcases to ensure we didn't bring home a few new pets! Food and Al A Cart resteraunts. Here is where things need a little work. The buffet was very good in the morning. The fresh baked goods and fruit are the star of the show with the omelet station being one of my daily stops. Lunch also had a buffet with plenty of options and don't forget the Jerk Hut on the beach. Enjoyed the jerk chicken, with rice an peas. As for dinner options the evening buffet is really quite good. There are many items that will be available every day with many more rotated in on a daily basis to keep things interesting. We managed to get reservations for Kristal and had a great meal. The food and atmosphere where very good. We got reservations from the manager for the steak house because all Al A Carte resteraunts where always booked. We'll that is where things went down in flames. The salad was the highlight. The crab cakes .... not so good. Then the main course. Surf and turf. The steak was 2 inches in a triangle shape. Ordered it medium rare and it was Grey and brown. Massively overcooked and I swear it was a 40 year old milking cow that got hit by a truck on the highway. The broccoli was undercooked, almost raw. The corn on the cob was left over from yesterday's buffet. Not yellow, but more like beige. It was not edible at all. Shortly after eating I fell very ill. Not sure if related! We also managed to get up at 6am and made reservations for the Japanese resteraunt. After reading the menu we decided to cancel. If you can't cook a steak I'm not trusting your chefs to make raw sushi. Just saying. If there where some cooked options we may have braved it out. Decieded to go to Margaritaville. Food there was excellent. The Riu App is useful for most things but still needs some more work. For getting room issues resolved ( soap, toilet paper, towels, ect) it was fantastic. You could not order beers for your room or request a fridge restock. The resteraunt menus were all in the app and that was a nice touch but the menu for the daily buffet was a joke. You could not read it as the text was so small. You could not expand the size on the app which is silly. The only way I could read the menu was to take 7 screen shots and use the images to expand up to a size that was readable. Riu fix this! Reservations. This is a compounded issue. The AL A Carte resteraunts are small for a resort of this size. 8 to 10 tables with 2 settings for a resort with 500+ rooms. 3 are in a dedicated spaces with the steak house using the outdoor buffet tables as the dining area and you are hot and sweaty while eating inferior food. 3 Al A Carte resteraunts are open on any particular day. What makes this system total frustrating for the guests is you can not make a reservation until after you check in and reservations are only available to book for two days in advance. They are always fully booked. They start being available at 12 pm. I was never able to make reservations at midnight, I tried at 3am with no success. 6am seemed to be a bit better but still very hit or miss. I was unable to book the Italian or the steak house through the app in 10 days at the resort. When the renovation that is rumored in the future (speculation from Facebook groups is 2028) I hope they increase the size of the Al A Carte resteraunts and add a dedicated steak house space) This would help open up more tables for reservations and hopefully help with the reservation nightmare. Bars and drinks. All 4 bars serve a wide variety of drinks. I tried many and liked them all. There where a few times that mint or limes where not available. That happens so I found some thing else to try and enjoy. The Red Stripe was always cold and free flowing. What can I say ... the beaches are amazing with plenty of chairs... so no towel game being played. We did not have any issues with mosquitoes or other pests while on the beach or around the pool, even at night. The soft white sand is cool to walk on and gentle waves that where never bigger that 6 inches. No sargasm (seaweed) at all. The water is warm, there is no rocks and the water is crystal clear when the water is chest deep. There is no coral to see while snorkeling around the property, so book an adventure to the reef to see fish and coral. There are 3 pools and a kiddie pool in the kid's club area. We didn't use any of them as we spent our time on the beach. There is drink service on the beach and around the pool as well but we often went and refilled at the beach bar. There are people walking the beach wanting to sell bracelets, hats, Marijuana, tours and trips. A no thank you and they move on. There is a vendor market down the beach that has every thing for souvenirs, weed, bracelets and also a few bars and restaurants that serve fresh lobster dinners and cold red stripe. The staff make this resort memorable with their constant attention to detail. Always a warm welcome , Irie, and a friendly smile. The entertainment team work hard to make your day exciting and help to create fond memories. Overall this resort hits big on almost all of the things that make a place great. As with every resort there is room for improvement. We enjoyed our time here.