Aquarius Vacation Club at Dorado del Mar — Attraction in Dorado

This resort is conjoined with Embassy Suites which has some perks and some drawbacks. Looks like they used to be a single hotel but split off at some point. They still share a lot of the same amenities which can get confusing the more you uncover what's included and what's not. Read on for details.

LOCATION (4/5): This is located in a well-off area tucked behind various middle class neighborhoods with a golf course. Parking is gated which is nice and felt secure. There's a nearby plaza with CVS, Baskin Robbins, fast food among other things so it made it easy to shop when we needed something. It's right on a beach with a beautiful reef located on the eastern side with plenty of chairs for sunbathing. However if you want to go to a decent restaurant along the beach, you have to do a bit of driving since this is quite secluded.

ROOM (3/5): The room we got had a kitchenette with a mini fridge, microwave, silverware and plates which made it easy to heat up any leftovers. The A/C can be adjusted and can be turned down quite cold to cool off from the hot Puerto Rican sun. The beds had spring mattresses so weren't that comfortable. It took a long time for housekeeping to clean the rooms. The smoke detectors have this annoying, bright, constant blinking light which continues through the night and had to cover it with a towel to be able to sleep at night. There's also no hotel guide or anything in the room to get more info on room service, amenities etc. Was really odd so it was hard to understand what the hotel offered. This becomes important later on.

SERVICE (2/5): The check-in and check-out process had redundancies which made no sense. I booked the reservation online which already contained my contact info and then had to enter all the same info again when I checked in and when I checked out! Really pointless.

We tried ordering food and drinks outside at the bar and they really lacked organization and a sense of urgency to serve their customers. Took an hour and a half to get 3 drinks and 3 food orders done. Had to constantly remind the waiters to check on the status. When we finally got our food, the burgers were overcooked. We actively avoided this bar the rest of the trip.

We went into the Embassy Suites part of the hotel and they have a small convenience store/cafe which was awesome. They sold beer, coffee, sandwiches, pizza and some bakery items. Much faster, cheaper and better service so mostly went there instead. We also got breakfast on the Embassy Suites side and it was really good buffet with freshly made eggs, hash browns, pancakes, omelets, coffee and fruit.

Embassy Suites also has a complementary drinks event that we attended and got several free drinks which was awesome. We also ate at the hotel's restaurant for dinner and it was very good. The Mofongo was delicious as well as the appetizer sampler.

At this point, we had thought that Aquarius and Embassy Suites were more or less the same hotel since they share the same pool, outside bar, beach, convenience store, restaurant, etc. However that all soon changed. For the second night of complementary drinks, there was a different bartender there than from the day before. He asked me for my room number and I told him it and he said "Oh that's an Aquarius room number which isn't eligible for this drink event." I was stunned and told him how I was here yesterday without any issues but he didn't seem to care and insisted they are different hotels and told me I had to pay for any drinks from the bar. What a really awkward user experience!

The other awkward thing was the process for getting beach towels. We were able to get beach towels freely on the first day but then on the second day apparently you have to turn in some card to keep record of the towels and if you don't return it, you get charged $20 a towel.

Anyways, I place a lot of weight on the service of a hotel and the overall user experience of the hotel was just not that great but the beach, convenience store and restaurant at Embassy Suites helped make up for the shortfalls of...

The pictures and reviews do not reflect the condition of this property. If you are thinking resort lower your expectations to roadside motel! The "resort" is run down, and the staff are not friendly. For reference I have lived in Hawaii and stayed in many different hotels across the country. There is a difference between run down and just needs some updating When I tried to check in no one was at the front desk, but I could hear a woman talking in the back. I then looked thru the open door and said hello. The front desk employee looked right at me ,and continued gossiping with her co worker. When she was good and ready came up front and continued to talk while I stood there with my CC and ID in hand. Then when she was ready looked up said Senora and that was it! No smile no welcome nothing horrible start. She did not tell me that although the room started with a 2 it was actually on the 4th floor. After going to the 2nd floor and not finding my room I came back down to ask. She told me well it on the 4th floor as I should have known that. The staff here could not be bothered. Most of them are on their phones either watching, scrolling, or on personal phone calls. I choose this hotel because of the reviews about the staff and amenities which neither are true. The lobby is nice and clean but not the case on the room floors. Only one working elevator. (The next day both elevators were out of order and everyone had to use service elevator during check out:/) When you step off elevator you are hit with the smell of wet carpet and mold covered mixed cleaning products. Chipping paint and mold on doors. The room was any better stained tub, cracked chaulk, rust on toilet, vents full of dust, cracked walls , broken coffee maker , broken phone cord, only one bedside lamp worked, the standing lamp not working. :/ Def not a 3 star hotel The next day both elevators were out of order during checkout and everyone had to use the service elevator which the area was dirty full of trash and the elevator smelled. The pool area was not any better broken pavement , beat up chairs with broken seats. The beach is private but no one takes care of it. The beach was dirty full of trash and chairs with broken seats just thrown around. How is it that 2 hotels Embassy Suites and Aquarius share this space and it looks like this. They could have had the beach attendant that was sitting there on her phone clean this up. Not sure what her job was. Some effort and a rake to open up the entrance to the beach that was full of dried up seaweed. The rocky area full of drink cups and water bottles. Just ridiculous. While we tried to find an empty seat which shouldn't have been hard since there weren't many people at the pool. Why is that? Not enough seating for guest. I ordered a couple drinks and had to stand there waiting while the bartender filled up the beach attendants water bottle and other staff members. Again just gossiping:/ hmm I guess they really don't want customers. Im sure the staff are great tippers.lol When I get back to my chair and try to relax someone is talking loudly its a stay members "cleaning " the pool area with ear buds in on a Personal phone call. You look around the pool the staff members were all on their phones. The only helpful person was the male attendant with the colored contacts and ear gauges. This was not a case of language barrier I am Puerto Rican and speak Spanish. It was a lack of customer service and a expected beachfront experience. I tried calling the front desk several times and they didn't answer. When I went down there were 2 people at the front desk just gossiping while the phone rang. I did not want to deal with the front desk face to face since I was...

I had my wedding at the adjacent hotel Embassy Suites. So myself and some of my guest stayed at the Aquarius Vacation Club as they share the same amenities (pool, bar, restaurants. Etc) with Embassy Suites. Aquarius Vacation Club's rooms were cheaper than Embassy Suites. And they offer a one bedroom suite, so that was nice. However, I will say that they had really bad customer service. Or maybe I shouldn't say "they" as there was just one specific person who treated me poorly and very unprofessionally. The lady named "Jahasanyas" at the front desk had a very big attitude when I asked her if I can check out one hour later than their normal checkout hours since the front desk who gave me a late check in said that they would compensate by giving me a complimentary late check out. This woman told me that there was nothing that states in the notes about my free late checkout so she had to charge me $80  to give me a late check out. I was quite upset by this given that their normal check in hour is 4pm and a lot of my guests including myself two days prior had to wait past 4pm to check  since the rooms were not ready when we arrived. I explained this to her and instead of giving me good customer service, Jahasanyas gave me an attitude stating "I am too pregnant to deal with you!" And  "this is how we handle it in Puerto Rico!" I asked for her manager, and she said she was it for the day and her manager cannot be reached. Charging $80 for an extra hour to stay seems quite unreasonable especially when they couldn't be on time with check-in. Then you add a person at the front desk who yells at the customer for being upset and using her pregnancy as an excuse to her lack of customer service skills. Imagine planning your wedding for a few months and then flying to Puerto Rico, and getting there, and bringing all yours guests from the states, and then that's how you get treated. Whatever I was telling her, she continuously argued with me to the point of her sounding like a child.

Well, anyways, I will say that the two gentlemen working at the front desk on Mar 10 were very kind and understanding. Upon checking in, I told them that I was the bride, and that a few of my guests have been waiting a few hours for their rooms to be ready. They made things happen right away and also gave us a complimentary Champagne.

In the end, I will say that staying here is a gamble. There's a lot of mixed reviews for this place. And yes there is a beach access but it's actually not private. Other people can go there if you paid for parking. You will never know if you will get good customer service. The rooms not being ready by their check-in time at 4pm seems to be a trend. The rooms are outdated but honestly that didn't bother me. I liked that you had an option for a suite with a kitchen. Or just a double room, or combine them both to have two bedrooms. If you do stay here, just don't expect too much in terms of customer service. Good luck with...