Hilton Ponce Golf & Casino Resort — Hotel in Ponce

I really wanted to LOVE this place. It would have been a great, relaxing end to our visit to lovely Puerto Rico.

I will list out HONESTLY everything we did like and did not. I am not a hater (lol) but did have a few unpleasant experiences, and so hopefully our experience can help you decide if this is the right place for you.

I'll start with the bad: The whole resort could use an uplift. Its dated, dusty and certain things that are dirty.

The room we had, was stuck on '72 degrees' as the lowest setting. I know this may sound reasonable, but when you come from 85 degrees beach, or its a hot day and sun is BAKING your room, you may want it to be cooler, but apparently (and this is from what concierge told us): 'Its centrally cooled and maybe the lowest you can go'. I did tell them it was too hot, and my kid needed to sleep and they said they'd send someone to check it out - but no one came.

Other than that room is just meh.

The toilet is not your regular resort toilets where you want to pamper yourself, or shower, or take a bath. Honestly, its super super mediocre, and you want to get out of there asap.

ANTS! There are a LOT of ants everywhere. If you don't mind them, cool. Otherwise you are sharing your room with an aramada of them. If you leave something out for a few hours (like my kids milk bottle that she takes to bed), the will crawl on the bed and go in there. I am not talking about milk spilled anywhere, but her feeder that's on the bed, closed with milk INSIDE. I had ants crawling in her little straw. Not a fun sight.

The restaurant choices are severely limited in both quantity and quality. We went to the Sushi restaurant at 8PM (we pulled our appointment back from 830 - and this is important because obviously the restaurant opens well past 830) and had the food. Food was mediocre, but as we were in the middle of the meal, everything started closing, people cleaning, lights turning off and the waiter came and asked us if we wanted to order anything else because the kitchen was closing. You can imagine how this SUCKS when you are a 'resort' and that this restaurant timing is supposed to be well well well beyond the time we were there for. All we wanted to do was have our meal, have our drinks and leave - we are actually QUICK eaters too. We were later told by one of the workers that if they are no later reservations, they all close early and go home. Just with that, you can gauge the experience you are going to receive. I will say, all the waiters and staff was INCREDIBLY nice, cordial and friendly. By no means is my frustration directed at them - they were amazing; management however should have a better standard set because this is not a mom&pop shop at the end of the block.

Do NOT go to the lunch buffet (the only buffet we tried). Honestly, it was a rip off. $25 something per person for one of the SMALLEST buffets I have seen. And maybe I would give it a pass if the food was decent - but my god, I don't want to say anything bad about food because we should be thankful for sustenance, but taste and chef do NOT live on the same block. Or planet. My advice? Just go to subway 5 minutes away from the resort and you will be better off.

Kids pool had birds playing in it. Honestly, if you are only there for pool - maybe its OK but definitely does not compare to pools from actual good resorts in the Caribbean

Parking is plenty, its a little bit of a walk depending on where you park and is around $15, but that's pretty standard for PR

Things that are good: If you are in the 'Ocean Tower' (where we stayed) and have the view of the ocean, it's nice. The view is beautiful and you can hear the waves. Staff is friendly. Kid friendly

In summary, if you are looking for a true resort experience - this is not it. This is just a big hotel with a pool and bar. If you just want to be close to the water, experience a LITTLE of the beach and are looking for an OK-priced place, this could work (you just can't be pick about anything). Staff is great though -...

It's been a few years since I've been on a genuine vacation, although this year we were making changes starting with our 12th Anniversary. My father who is a loyal Hilton member suggested Ponce Hilton Hotel Puerto Rico so we decided we would give it a chance as our first of three vacations this year. It started as soon as we arrived for check in and actually, that is not fair. The Bellhop was extremely pleasant and kind. Although the lady who checked us in was not. She seemed annoyed and bothered that we were there. She didn’t give us the run down of what to expect, what to do, or any salutations. It was pretty much here is your room key. I then moved over to my parents who were still checking in with another Hilton Employee. He was extremely pleasant, he explained how things worked, and provided their wifi password and how it would work. Something that was not done for us. It was a completely different experience than what we had received. Customer service at ALL the restaurants and bars was horrible with the exception of two nights we were there. Our first dinner there set the tempo for the rest of the trip. After sitting at a table, we literally waited 30-45 minutes for a waiter to even acknowledge us. There were plenty of waiters and a manageable number of patrons. So, I approached the bar thinking I could order a drink quicker that way. Absolutely not, but if I remember right. There were only one or two bar tenders, and they were serving drinks for everyone so I can understand their dilemma but not the waiters. I approached one of the waiters who wouldn’t even look me in the eye or acknowledge me until I finally just spoke up and politely asked for assistance. He cut me off before I could finish, “yes, yes” and then looked back down. 15 minutes later he came to our table. Quite frankly the wait was unacceptable, but had he approached our table within 15 minutes of arriving and explain whatever situation was going on, we would be a bit more understanding. We are humans as well and understand things happen but just being left in limbo was the additional aggravation. This was the case every single night. The worst night was at the Japanese restaurant in which my entire table received and finished their appetizers (egg rolls), soup, then salad, then main meal, and then a post meal snack before I ever received my meal. I waited 1.5 hours to receive my meal and it was the wrong order and looked like it had been quickly thrown together just to get out the door. The waiter and waitress seemed pleasant enough but completely oblivious or uncaring that l literally had not received my meal yet. We informed them politely several times and they would go back and say it will be here in a few minutes…1.5 hours later. The price of food and drinks was ridiculous. We were paying 5 star prices for 1 star service and 2 or 3 star food. The menu options was extremely lacking. There were very few Puerto Rican options and seemed to be more traditional American foods, ie: burgers, quesadillas, etc. Everything closed extremely early. Our first night there we had attempted to purchase last minute items we had forgotten at the on site store only to find out it was closed…it was 6pm. Had it been late or even after 9pm we totally would understand but 6pm! The same with the beach that was sealed off with a barbed wire fence. Of the few things to do there, one of the major attractions was sealed off at 6pm. There was almost nothing to do and no excursions. In past vacations at other resorts there is no shortage of excursions and tour companies and things to do. That was not the case here, the hotel staff never advised us on what there was to do in the surrounding areas. We did call the hotel in advance who provided a tour company that had a few options but that was it. That tour company was able to slot us in for one tour out of the 5 days we were there. There was no transportation...shortened due...

1st experience was asking a question of the front desk via the hilton app about amenities prior to trip and waiting nearly 24 hours for an answer. Not a huge deal but a bit of foreshadowing for sure. 2nd was arriving a couple hours early and being told the room wasn't ready. That was understandable. But I got told I'd be texted when it was ready. I grew impatient waiting and stopped to check at half hour before check in and was told it was ready. So I wondered why I never got a text. And saw a pattern starting. We got checked in and unpacked and went to enjoy the amenities (which are actually great despite my rating). When we got back to the room, the keys didn't work. I thought, "Oh, the digital key" and tried to use that. It didn't work either. I sent a message to the front desk by the app and waited around 10 minutes with no answer before I remembered experience 1. Then I decided to call. The front desk apologized and said maintenance was on the way. I also sensed a bit of attitude in response to my frustration, which only made the experience more "fun". I waited another 15 minutes for maintenance, all while my baby needed a number 2 diaper change and the wipes and diapers are in the room, so his butt is starting to burn. So I marched to the front desk to ask for a new key instead of waiting on maintenance. I got one and went back to the room and changed the baby. Then maintenance showed up and said the antenna was broken on the door and just to use my new key cuz the digital won't work, but couldn't explain why the 1st card stopped working. I then got a message from the front desk saying the digital key wouldn't work cuz there was a software update happening... hmmmm... which one is it? So we go to dinner, which was mediocre, but I'm not knocking the rating down over it. When we get back to the room, you guessed it: The new keys didn't work. So we called the front desk again and waited. The same guy with the attitude from before, I'll leave his name out as to not be petty and personal, showed up with new keys and said don't use your old keys. And I wanted to know if we were going to need new keys everytime we left the room, and he said "No these will work". And I asked how he can be sure and why the 2 rounds of keys both worked once and stopped working. He said if you use the digital key it deactivates the physical key. And I said "that's dumb, but I never used the digital key, it didn't work. I didn't even attempt to use the digital key the 2nd time cuz I knew it didn't work. And he just said, just don't use the old keys and just use the new keys, then snatched the old keys out of my wife's hands and snapped at her not to get them mixed up. That was the final straw. I told my wife to go in the room and followed her in and closed the door before I could make any bad decisions. But after all this... not just this location, but all hiltons have lost my...