The Level at Meliá Caribe Beach — Hotel in Higüey

We generally stay at Melia resorts. This was our 4th time at this resort and I believe our last. It had been so awesome previously that we had booked a trip for my birthday and brought 18 people a couple of years ago!||||We had booked adults only, but JetBlue messed up our reservation so we ended up at the family section. Ok, we will deal with it. We are brought to our room by our "concierge" who said he was there for whatever we needed all week, but was not allowed to make restaurant reservations. OK cool. He leaves and we try to lock up our valuables and the safe does not work. We try to call the front desk to get assistance and our phone does not work. We had to text our concierge and he sent someone. Also asked for someone to come fix our phone and were told they would have it resolved. Turned on the tv and there are static lines going across the screen and it was difficult to watch. It was a simple fix by replacing the frayed HDMI cord. Was told that would be fixed. Not a good start at all. All in all, we asked 6 times for the phone and tv to be fixed. We were even told twice that someone would be there at a specific time and left us sitting in our room waiting for them to arrive and they did not. ||||Many things have changed at this resort over the last couple of years. You now have to make reservations for any restaurant that is not a buffet. You have to make the reservations between 9 and 10 AM at a desk in the lobby of the Merkado buffet. Great. Made a reservation on Sunday for Sunday night for the Vietnamese restaurant that was very good. Made a reservation on Monday for the Italian restaurant, which was not great. Tried to go the next day and there were about 50 people in line. Waited. No reservations. One of the employees there said that our concierge could make reservations, but he had told us he could not. Same the next day. We gave up as people got there very early and just waited in line. Had to fight the hoards of people at the buffet. ||||Had an extremely long wait in line at the buffet so gave up and figured we would just order room service. Oh, can't! No phone! We went in to the level lounge and was able to use their phone to order pizza and then rush back to our room on the other side of this large resort. Same thing happened 2 days later. ||||My husband reached out to our conceierge and asked if he would make a reservatin for Surf & Turf for us even though we had to pay extra. We had this before and it was great. A big fat steak and some delicious lobster. He said he would try but reslly shouldn't. Ok great. NOPE! We show up to the restaurant, which is outside of the Riviera restaurant. We are told that it was being held inside because of weather. Not sure what weather as it was fine out. We were seated and ordered a drink. 15 minutes later, we get a drink and some bread. Then the server brings a small plate of chicken cesar salad. Weird, but whatever. Then he brings menus that are for plated meals at the Riviera restaurant. He finally comes back and we tell him that we were supposed to have surf & turf and he says ok and walks away. All in all, we were there for over an hour with barely any food and nobody that seemed to know why we were there. We, once again, feel defeated and get up to head over to the buffet. The hostess tells us our food is coming in a couple of minutes. I ask her what food and she doesn't know how to answer. I explain that we had a reservation for a specific dining experience and that over an hour later, we still have nothing and I did not believe anything was coming because we had not ordered anything.||||Finally on Saturday, we were going to do the same thing and leave our place in line at the buffet and order pizza. Juan, who handles reservations at the Level lounge, went out of his way for us and got a 9:30 reservation at Alma. Let's just say that we should have gone with room service. The food was awful! I got pork tenderloin and could not even cut the meat. We ate what little we could and went back to the room.||||The entire evening restaurant experience was not good. When we had been previously, the food was great! There were a couple of restaurants that you needed to make reservations for, but could do it as you walked by for the following night. ||||Now for the good parts! ||||The pool was great. If you have kids, they have fun stuff every day like paddle boarding or an obstacle course in the water. It was fun to watch the kids, and some dads, try to complete the course. The pool bar staff were awesome and always seemed to be in a good mood even though the pool bar was filled with children. There were also Zumba, yoga and spinning classes. ||||The beach was nice. The ocean has a ton of seaweed in it so it can be a little gross and the water is more green than blue. But it is perfect temp and we enjoyed it. They also have a huge obstacle course thing floating in the ocean for the kids.||||Now for some other restaurants. We had breakfast and lunch in the buffet at Merkado by the beach every day and the food was good. The first day, we recognized a server who used to work at the Palma Real next door and chatted with him a bit. He reserved a table for us at breakfast and lunch each day. When he was going for time off, he asked his co-worker to take care of us. She was awesome. One time she even made a heart out of napkins and put flowers in it to decorate the table. It was very sweet! ||||Much thanks to Roaldo and Santa at Merkado for giving us something to enjoy each day! We truly appreciated everything!||||Much thanks for Juan in the Level lounge. Even though he is responsible for reservations for guests coming and going, he went above and beyond to try to help us with our issues. It was nice to have someone care that there were problems and try to fix it. ||||Thank you to Allejandro, the manager of reservations, for taking the time to help us figure out that it was JetBlue that made the error on our booking.|||| I hope that management can see the importance and dedication of these individuals!If it was not for these folks, we seriously would have packed...

My friends and I traveled here to celebrate a milestone birthday. While the service from the staff was excellent (special thanks to Jose and Juan for taking great care of us) issues were rampant:

Room quality and property maintenance- my friends have been to this resort many years in a row which is why it was recommended, but they have had a recent management change which has led to cost cutting very apparent to guests. Rooms and the property are not at all well maintained. There is old furniture, fixtures, unsafe electrical sockets, cracked tiles, nasty bedding, dust and soot, rickety and unstable A/C units, broken lights, etc. throughout all three rooms we occupied. Cabanas around the property were coming apart and the toilets weren't working in two rooms. Trust me you will not want to step foot into any of the whirlpools in the rooms unless you're looking for a disease! All of the doors have settled so much that they have gaps at the top and bottom that are more than 3-4 inches wide allowing you to either see directly into the room or hear everything going on. The patio doors on two of the rooms didn't close/lock properly.

Wait time- they seemed to be EXTREMELY short staffed during our stay causing long lines in restaurants, transportation areas, check-in/check-out and other areas where you need service. We called for room service several times and they either took hours to arrive or never came at all. It also took hours when there were any facilities or housekeeping issues needing to be addressed. There were several times we called the front desk and no one answered so we would have to keep calling over and over again.

Food/Drinks- THE FOOD IS DISGUSTING!!!! EVERYWHERE!!! There were not as many restaurants open as advertised on the website. Many of them have been closed for months yet none of this is reflected in the price or any communications so your choices are limited- all of them serving the same subpar food. You're going to basically be eating bar food during your entire stay. Food sits out for hours. Drinks are watered down and they are inconsistent depending on the day as to whether or not premium alcohol is included- though it won't matter anyway- everything tasted like a slush.

Most disappointing is the safety/security: -One of the nights we were sitting behind building 3616 in the meeting point designated for transportation and noticed while we were talking that there was a man hiding in the bush area behind the beach bar. He was there lurking watching my friends. When we finally noticed him he lied and said he was part of the security team. We immediately went back into the room and called the front desk describing him and his clothing and were told that he was not a member of security and they would send someone to look for him. Unfortunately you must wait outside for transportation even at night so it is difficult to keep yourself safe in dim lit areas. -SEVERAL of us had our rooms/safes broken into and items stolen- in the building I was in there was theft of items in four rooms that I'm aware of. When I checked into the room the safe was broken and they had to call someone to repair it. Fast forward three days and I return to my room after we'd gone on an excursion for the day to find my safe had been broken into with cash and brand new headphones still in the box stolen. While speaking with management another couple from upstairs came down letting me know there safe had also been broken into with her husbands wedding ring, watch and an heirloom necklace gone. The room next door to me was broken into with them stealing a passport, jewelry and clothing. Then that night at dinner I learned another guest in that building had $400 worth of cigars stolen. All of us had issues with the safe needing repair during check in- all of us had gone on an excursion on the days we were robbed. Management did nothing to address this other than claiming it had never happened before, however, there are other reviews I've now read indicating other people's safes have been...

Probably won’t go back for one simple reason - all restaurants besides Mosaico (the Level Private Restaurant) were horrendous. We actually walked out of both the Italian Restaurant and the Mexican restaurants - the food was appalling. Didn’t feel well the morning after the Italian place… told the server that one item on the menu (a weird sounding pizza that I gave a shot because… why not?) was horrendous and he said he’s not sure why it’s on the menu. Only had one bite but pretty sure that’s what kept me up all night making trips to the bathroom. Hibachi was certainly not worth the $120 we paid. The options were supposed to be steak and Lobster but were told Lobster is out of season. For those that didn’t want steak, they brought out some nasty looking prawn! Not to mention, the chef did his best but was zero entertainment. Pretty sure he YouTube’s videos of how to be a hibachi chef right before the dinner and gave it a go. Was a bit scary when he mixed the raw chicken directly in with the shrimp, rice, and veggies. Recipe for disaster but neither of us got sick so that’s a plus. The steak was decent, lacked seasoning and was extremely fatty. Portions were small. For $120, I could go to a real Hibachi restaurant like a Kobe and have a tasty steak and chicken combo with amazing fried rice and a great show. But, despite the complaints it still ended up on the bill and I’m not going to argue over $120. Julio and Miguel in Mosaico were our saviors with food and service. Made sure that they were tipped because they both went above and beyond at all times.

Next up - butler service. Alejandro Estrella was great at certain things. He was always responsive and followed through on every request. However, everything had to be requested. At Royal Service Paradisus La Perla, our butler was always doing things without asking like prepping the bath or jacuzzi, bringing us gifts and surprises, etc. Alejandro was great, but maybe Cancun set the bar way too high… who knows.

The Spa - we sprang for the wellness package. We were specifically looking for 5 days of relaxation. The package didn’t disappoint, I highly recommend it actually! Can’t go wrong with some water therapy and massages literally every day. Day 1 was so great that we doubled the package which was only $60/day and completely worth every minute. This alone carried most of the 2 stars given.

The drinks - if I have The Level band on, every bar should have the correct alcohol to support your package that you paid for. Was this the case? Not at all. Had to either drink the well liquor or go specially to The Level bar to get the alcohol upgrade that was paid for. Absolute nonsense…. but we weren’t there to get drunk and party so it didn’t phase me.

Jonathan the Mixologist - if you have The Level, make sure you pay Jonathan on the rooftop bar a visit! It’s amazing watching him work, you can tell he takes a lot of passion and pride in his work. We wish we found him day 1 but wasn’t until our last 2 days. Our final night it was a game - we kept him on his toes to surprise us with entirely different cocktails until they closed and he did a phenomenal job.

TL:DR - the food leaves a LOT to be desired. Don’t waste your money on Hibachi and don’t waste your time on the Italian or Mexican restaurants. The spa is phenomenal, and hit up Jonathan on the roof top bar for some fun and delicious craft cocktails. My advice? Try a different property if the DR is where you want to visit.

Final note directed at the hotel since I see you are active on here - we were vocal about the issues we had and the staff didn’t seem surprised. We were always respectful because it’s not there issue to fix, but was a bit put off that zero effort at checkout was put forth in acknowledging the issues we had. The fact they weren’t surprised tells me it a systemic issue and no desire to fix it. Also, trying to sell your highest tier guests on timeshares is a horrible practice. I paid the highest tier I saw the option for and you have people in my...