Memories resort and Sunwing

By Urszula | Trip to Varadero, Cuba

Thank you

for booking my last vacation but, it was the vacation from HELL.  Let’s rename the resort “Nightmares” rather than “Memories”.   We arrived at the hotel to find 3 other people complaining about rooms and getting nowhere with the front desk.  This should have been my first clue that I had entered hell.  We were quickly given a room and went to see what we got.  We found the room to smell and be literally wet from humidity.  One mattress sunk in and pretty much formed a hotdog bun around you.  I have had surgery on my spine so this was completely unacceptable.  I would have slept with my daughter but the beds were maybe 2 inches larger then our single/ twin beds at home, definitely not the doubles that were advertised.  I was told that nothing could be done till morning and that there were many room problems they were dealing with.  My daughter put the single mattress from the extra bed in the room on top for the night. 

The next morning we went to the front desk to change rooms.  After putting my foot down I was given a new room, this took some time to say the least.  Once I moved more began to go wrong.  The mini bar restocked daily meant 1 bottle of water.  When I asked why the mini bar was not refilled I was told that refilling meant 1 bottle of water and that I could not get a second even though there were 2 people staying in the room.  I even explained that I took daily medication that required I drink at least 2 liters per day myself.  The towels in the room were hard and rough as rocks marked with rust stains.  We were told that nothing else was available.  We dropped our bags and ran to the meeting with sunwing.

At the meeting we were told that there was a problem with towels for the beach.  They failed to mention that it took 3 days to get a towel for many guests and that changing a towel would require you to wait like a vulture by the club house for them to arrive (a different time most days if at all), then they were gone within 10 mins as so many people were waiting.  Some guests even had there’s stolen, wonder why?  We also found out that they were over booked and had already sent people to the RUI, unfortunately this was not possible for us.

One of our friends had a son on crouches and in an air cast.  When they asked about a wheel chair as the resort was so big they were told that there was only 1 in the whole resort, and it was in use.   The carts never stopped and often almost ran people over so they were useless, and very dangerous.

After the meeting I spent the next 2 hours trying to book my Havana trip.  The sunwing person tried continuously to convince me to take the free trip as they were over booked in the hotel.  This required you to check out, sleep in Havana and return after a second day on the bus and re-check in.  I insisted on paying after 2 hours of telling them to just charge my card even after they said, it’s now 10 extra per person this week.  Our friends opted for this and ended up in rooms with no safe, missing handles, doors etc… Clearly, spare parts rooms as they classified it. This was after they were told that they had no record of them returning.

 Anyways, I returned to the room to unpack again.  It was now the afternoon of our first day and now I had to stand in line and try to book restaurants for dinner one at a time.  You had to go to each location and stand in line for each one separately.  The Japanese could only get us in after we left Cuba, how does this work we went the first day.  So we stood in line at the next two.  Later we found out from a guest that we had to go back to the front and reserve our New Year’s Eve dinner.  We ate at the Italian one after paying the girl 10 CUC to get us in.  It was horrible.  Since when is rice with white beans Italian? And not all 8 items were available (only 3 out of 4 apps and 3 out of 4 entrees).  The Mexican we didn’t show up to as we met 6 people who ate on different occasions and spent the next day sick.

The morning of the Havana trip was complete chaos in the lobby.  I asked for a manager and was told none were around and no one could call one to the front desk.  There were about 7 buses out front and no one knew where to go, people trying to get out on trips and to the airport.  The hotel was trying to get rid of as many people as possible as they had new ones arriving and clearly not enough rooms.  Finally found some managers and they knew nothing and were not even trying to help the clients in the lobby.  People were running bus to bus with luggage and children, even the bus drivers didn’t know what they were doing or what they were picking up.  Perhaps a mega phone and some knowledge of what was going on would have been in order.  The managers just stood there chatting with each other what a mess.  Once on the bus my daughter got her period unexpectedly.  We had to ask for the bathroom to be unlocked.  Well there was no toilet paper.  The people sitting next to us informed us that they were told to bring toilet paper with them unfortunately, our resort did not share that important information and not only did the bus not have any neither did Havana.  The hotel that we stopped at to change and eat (another MEMORIES) was a mess.  There was a creature on the wall so no one showered, the buffet had little not even any butter (we asked 3 servers), and we were treated like second class citizens as if to say we weren’t welcome.  On the way home from the show at about 1 am the tour guide announces that the bus bathroom was cleaned and now locked.  He then said not to worry we don’t mind to stop to let you fertilize the Cuban soil.   We thought this was a joke.  But, about 40 mins later the bus stopped in the dark on the side of the road, we all wondered what was going on.  In a few minutes we realized someone couldn’t wait another couple hours and was fertilizing the soil so that they didn’t fertilize their pants.  This was not acceptable on any level.

The food was clearly being rationed in the restaurants.  When you ordered a burger and fries you got literally 5 fries, and the burger came with nothing.  When you asked for lettuce, tomato or cheese you were told there was none.  At the buffet they ran out of everything right down to parmesan cheese.  The pasta sauces were disgusting, so the only thing to eat was cold pasta with butter. If you needed a fork or knife you needed to get it after waiting and when you approached the staff they wanted you to wait.  My dinner company had already almost finished I didn’t want to wait.  This happened often.  At breakfast you had to get your own coffee after you finished your food, and again they were upset that you didn’t want to wait for them to come to your table in a minute.  There minutes were elastic as they said so that would mean waiting 5 – 10 after already eating.  Please understand that it didn’t matter if you tipped 1,3 or 5 CUC.  I spent 200 CUC in tips alone hopping it would change something and it didn’t.

Geckos were often found in the rooms.  One night my daughter’s friend came back to her room to find a creature on the wall.  When they asked for help they were told nothing could be done so my daughter brought her girlfriend back to our room for the night as it was her last night.  They packed her luggage and showed up to have her sleep on our spare bed.  I don’t mind helping out but, it is not my job to house guests of the hotel because they can’t take care of their own problems.

The beach was so crowded that you could not even enjoy it.  It looked like there were sand flies as anyone who spent time there had terrible bits all over their legs.  We used a bottle of after bit but the welts just grew on my daughter’s legs, what a mess.

To get a chair at the pool you needed to get there around 7 in the morning, same with the beach.  This was no surprise as they were so over booked.  Then they had people jumping off the rocks into 3 ft water.  Clearly this was a problem and no one was there monitoring it.  Finally, on group got wild and someone was thrown in off the island.  The young man was drunk and cut open his head.  I guess the blood in the pool was acceptable?   No one even tried to do anything about the situation.  The kid later appeared with a bag of ice on his head.

The last day we packed our bags and called for pickup and were told that no cart was available to pick us up.  I said I could not get my bags to the lobby.  I was told to stand outside and wait.  After 2 carts drove by I stood on the road and refused to move until someone stopped.  The man was nice enough to come back and get us.  When we got to the lobby I found 6 carts parked out back and 3 more at the front.  I checked out and put luggage into storage which no one was available to help me with.  I had to ask for a ticket but, when I returned I found the room unattended and unlocked (free luggage for the taking).  When I tried to get back to the pool with my small suitcase which I needed for showering at the end of the day as we had a late flight it took almost an hour to get a cart.  There were 3 other people waiting with me with golf clubs etc… We kept being told to wait in different locations.  Finally, 3 carts pulled up in front but all the drivers left and said they weren’t going to be driving us that they were waiting for new guests not old ones.  Finally the same man that drove me there came back and gave us a drive.  In conclusion the first day was lost and last day also was lost.

I wish things ended there.  I only ate a bun in the morning as the food was horrible so I decided to eat a sandwich on the plane around midnight.  WHAT A MISTAKE!!!!  I have now got food poisoning.  I got home at about 3:30 am on Friday morning and went straight to the bathroom.  I stayed on the couch near the bathroom until Monday morning (today) when I had to go to work.  I missed a funeral on Saturday, and a planned day of skiing on Sunday.  I went to the bathroom again this morning 4 times before 11 am, so I stopped eating again.  I ate dinner this evening after not eating since yesterday and everything still ran right through me.  It is now Monday night and I am still suffering.  I can only thank my lucky stars that my daughter decided not to eat on the plane as I had to send her back to University in another city last night.  So we are all clear both my daughter and I took the Dukoral prior to going on the trip to protect us against any stomach issues, and we didn’t drink water unless bottled including bringing our bottle to the pool and restaurants.  Furthermore, during the flight home we were asked to fill out a questionnaire, when I asked for a second sheet for my 21 year old daughter I was told that we couldn’t have one.  Perhaps they knew we had nothing nice to say, or they were worried Sunwing would need to send another voucher.  Regardless if they want feedback they should allow all adults to fill out the paper.

On a side note, please advise your clients not to pay the $200 for private pick up at the airport.  One couple did that we met on the day trip and they said they got a cab with no speedometer that was falling apart.  They said they paid $200 for a $25 unsafe cab ride they could have gotten themselves.  They too have a list of complaints that they will be forwarding to Sunwing.

I can’t believe that the management was so unavailable and uninterested in helping or even listening.  I also sent an email to Sunwing with just a few of my complaints the other day and have not even received an email confirming that they received and/or were looking into it.  My last effort, shy of going to the press is writing this letter to you.  I truly hope that you don’t send anyone to this resort or use Sunwing again for your clients.  There are many other resorts and travel companies out there that care about their clients, Memories and Sunwing are not on that list.