BlueBay Grand Esmeralda

There were 8 of us that travelled here for 7 days on March 7 to celebrate my 60th birthday and a retirement for another traveller with us. Pros: Nice location. Food was great including the buffets. Our favorite A La Carte was the steakhouse, the worst being the seafood. Drinks were great at all bars, long lineups at the pool/beach bar though. Rooms were very clean. Staff did a great job decorating our room for my Birthday. Stall all very friendly and always followed through with most requests. Con’s: Our fridge didn’t work all week, had to grab ice from the black and white bar which is quite a ways from building 5. Our garden view was a forest of trees with no dividers between 3 balconies (no privacy). Didn’t sit out there at all, which is not like us. Not enough chairs or shade at the beach or pool. We brought our own chairs we bought from Amazon and used the umbrellas from our rooms for shade. On vacation I am not getting up at 5 to reserve chairs, sorry. The ocean and beach was not what we were used to full of sargassum and stunk (not the resorts fault). We are Cuban travellers so this was not what we are used to. All in all we did enjoy ourselves as we are not picky people and made the most of everything. Would I return here again? Not if the price wasn’t right, if they didn’t provide more chairs and shade, and if the climate didn’t changed at the beach for less sargassum.

Be scared be very very scared One night stay courtesy of sunwing due to flight cancelation Was placed at this resort well below the standard of the the Royalton splash which we just vacated

BEWARE-MULTIPLE CASH THEFTS AT BLUEBAY . Since posting this, several other have come forward with the same experiences. Just returned from this resort on Wednesday and want to make everyone aware that I had $200 USD stolen out of my safe. We had a code set, took all proper precautions. The resort let on that they were doing an investigation but the last three days I was there they kept putting me off saying it was not completed and the super visor was always busy and unavailable to talk to me. My last day there I went down in the morning and they promised me if I came back before I left at 3pm they would have a resolution for me and shockingly when I went back at 230pm they still had not completed the investigation . Every staff member I talked to had a different story and one actually admitted that they knew someone had entered my safe Not only am I out money but I wasted a lot of time dealing with this on my vacation and not to mention the fact that I had to sit in my room for an hour and half the day it happened while security went through every inch of my room including all of my belongings making me feel like I had done something wrong. Needless to say myself and the 5 other members of my group will never return to this resort and I will never recommend it to anyone . I could get past the lack of chairs and the beach not being great but being stolen from is a deal breaker for me .Blue Bay should be ashamed of the shady ,unprofessional way they handled the entire situation.

Honestly, it’s a place that you sleep and eat and drink and lay at. Likely there are some people who paid full price and I get the frustration with that… but as a first time AI goer and known as a very unpicky person, this place was just fine. I’ll get the main best and worst parts out of the way first… The worst part: chair distribution. There are too few chairs around the pools and psychotics who wake up at 5-6 AM to save chairs with their beach towels. Likely they are actually partying til 1-3 AM and dropping towels off as they bounce on their guts to their room but that’s unconfirmed. In any case, if you want a pool chair, you have to play the game unless you are fine laying out on the beach like we did. The best part: the people. Likely other resorts have great staff I assume so maybe this is a more widespread best part. Very hardworking staff especially the direct staff such the bartenders, entertainment staff etc… Honestly nothing specific aside from honest, hard work with good attitudes but to the point that it is the stand out part of our trip. The rest: It is outdated for sure, buildings and rooms need a complete renovation BlueBay is obviously not willing to spend. Fixtures, walls in general, etc all in need of complete redo but it is clean. I know others seem to have had more challenges but for myself, everything worked minus the condensate drain for the AC was plugged so it dripped on the floor. Floors quite noisy from above if you aren’t on the top floor and wifi was hit and miss. Food was good and drinks were above boozy. The trope of watered down drinks was not found accurate here. The restaurants were good especially the French and steakhouse ones. People complained about everything under the sun at the pool from the chair types to the coatis that popped up sometimes. I loved seeing any wildlife but I realize most people visiting are 4 ply soft so things like that send them into a tizzy. Frankly, some of y’all(most) need to get a grip and re-evaluate how you treat staff, view the bad parts of life and your overall entitlement. I saw so many people bent out of shape over such menial issues and then take it a step further to take it out on the staff who have no control. Grow up. Thank you BBGE staff.

My stay has been fantastic. #1 is the staff- they are all fantastic. That always greeted us with a smile and a hand in their heart. I found that very touching. The rooms were clean and roomy, you could always could find something at the buffet to meet your needs and every restaurant was good. Yes there was the weeds at the beach but how can you fight nature. The pools were warm and inviting and the grounds were beautiful. Yes, the resort as a whole needs some maintenance but for the cost, it was great. Special accolades to Deysi- the server at the small pool who was warm, friendly, remembered your drinks and always had a smile. I loved her. Great people are the heart of every successful business. Thanks to all.