Decameron Aquarium — Hotel in Saint Andrew

I stayed at this hotel for a total of 5 days 4 nights. THE Good The rooms have beautiful views and the rooms are spacious. However my room had a musty smell that lingered during the visit. In the room you will find a safe deposit box, a small fridge and a bottle of water which is refilled daily. I was travelling with a baby and they setup a playpan so my baby could sleep. The hotel is very close to a public beach and shopping area for those of you looking for those experiences.

The bad: there are no elevators in the towers so if you have mobility issues request a room on the first floor. The hotel doesn't have a beach. Instead there are steps from the dock which lead you to the ocean. This may be an issue for some guests. The drinks are served in small paper cups ( I'm guessing because of COVID) but the cups basically dissolve in your hand which prompts you to drink faster. The drinks are however well made and have plenty of alcohol. The a la carte restaurants are hard to reserve particularly because it must be done online and using their network which is only available in the common areas and it's not very good. There are 4 a la carte restaurants for dinner, Italian seafood, Thai and international. I didn't try the Italian but all the other restaurants were just okay. I was disappointed because many of the dishes served are the same as the lunch buffet. I would say this is the main are of improvement needed at this hotel.

I realize the following point is not important to some but it was a huge inconvenience during my visit. I am used to having a buffet dinner option at all inclusive resorts. Currently this hotel doesn't offer one, instead everyone must reserve at one of the restaurants. I was travelling with a baby that goes to bed at 7 pm so it was impossible for me to even complete the earliest sitting which is 630pm. I asked if I could take food to my room and was denied . If I wanted to eat I had to leave my baby with someone else and hope she didn't wake up. More flexibility is needed in this regard. I was not asking for room service I was asking to take my own food to my room.

The service was inconsistent, sometimes good and at times rude. There is also a lack of attention to detail for example they consistently served us tintos with sugar yet no stirstick. Details like this are frustrating. For bfast we were often sat at a table setup for 4 when there were 5 of us yet we had to always ask for the extra utensils everyday. In summary I would not return I would try another resort because nothing at this place was...

Check-in: The check-in starts at 3 but that doesn’t mean you get your room at 3. The window for the room is anywhere between 3-5:30. There is only a snack bar open from 3-6:30 so there isn’t much to eat while you wait. Snack bar was not good at all (hot dogs and dry burgers)

Rooms: Rooms need to be refurbished. The window blinds in the room were broken. Tiles were cracked. The floor boards on the balcony are loose and the metal is rusted. The bathroom was in terrible condition. It was full of rust and not well maintained. Shower didn’t have good pressure either. The toiletries were good and they offered some complementary travel size sunscreen. There is no counter space in the bathroom. The safe was broken.

Cleanliness: The rooms are not cleaned well. We saw hair outside of the rooms and all over our floor. However, they put a lot of effort in the gardens - way more than the rooms. Resort outside was very clean.

“All-inclusiveness” This was probably the worst thing for us. We couldn’t enjoy any of the “all inclusive” restaurants as part or the resort. It’s near impossible to reserve a restaurant as they only have 40 slots available for 288 rooms (16 towers x 18 rooms per tower). Reservations can only be made same day. People queue from 7:30 am in the mornings for this. It’s horribly managed! We paid a lot of money to stay here but we still had to go out to eat since we couldn’t reserve spots.

General: No wifi in rooms and no elevators so good luck carrying a big suitcase up to 3 flights up. Staff is generally nice but had an uncomfortable experience when getting a drink at the bar with a bartender. Location is really good though. Buffet food was decent. This hotel is definitely OVERPRICED - there are better options...

Our experience here was very bad. Upon arriving we were greeted by a room with a broken A/C. After calling reception and waiting an hour they finally sent a technician. The only thing the technician did was turn the unit off and instructed us to turn it on in 5 minutes and if it didn’t work to call back again. Sure as rain, it didn’t work. We called again and had to wait another hour. Eventually we walked our selves to the front desk and demanded they give us another room. We were met with a very bad and inexperienced staff that did very little to help our predicament. They kept saying we just had to be patient for them to fix the ac. We wasted our first day in all this nonsense until they finally caved and gave us another room. Upon receiving that room we realized that the hot water did not work. Since we were only staying for 2 nights we decided to just leave things be. The restaurants in the resort were never available to reserve. You had to scan a QR code and wake up at 8am, this never worked. The staff never informed us how to use or if WiFi was even available. All of the drinks are served on small paper coffee cups. Not all of the staff was rude. We met a few that were very nice and welcoming. Others unfortunately were not. This resort has a lot of potential. The location is super nice and it could be something very nice yet still attainable for the mass and sustainable for the environment. Unfortunately you have to maintain and replace things as they age and they have let this place age very badly. I would not recommend this resort. The prospect of all inclusive is not worth the hassle of staying here. Decameron has a lot to work on before they can compare themselves with all other all inclusive...