TRIP SYNOPSIS: Sunwing Vacations, Sunwing Airlines, Fun Royale/Tropicale

VERDICT: Solid 3.5 star, basic, clean, food good, very happy, will return.

This year we flew on Sunwing Airlines. Despite their less than stellar reputation, the flight times were not changed after booking, the flights were on schedule, the in-flight food and service was good and the seating was adequate. To be fair, both flights were quite pleasant. I can't quite say the same about what happened at the airports at each end, but none of it was anything serious. On the trip down, after a three hour drive from home, we arrived at the Toronto airport early, about an hour before the checkin booths opened. There were quite a few people milling around by the time they opened, and they tried to form a queue based on the lay out of the roped guide posts, so there was some confusion when Sunwing tried to re-organize the lineup to match "today's booth configuration". It all got sorted out eventually.

It should be noted that they were very stringent on the luggage weight, and weighed both the carry on and checked luggage. I had tried to get an excess baggage allowance prior to leaving, but gave up based on the terms and conditions they sent to me. We just brought less clothes and supplies. Our friends got nicked $80 because of the school supplies they brought. This was despite the 300 lb bozo with the golf clubs that travelled at no extra charge. Thanks to my fish scale, we were bang on the limit.

Check in on the way home was an absolute zoo. They had a computer system failure and after a long delay they ended up doing it all manually. The boarding passes said 'First Choice Airlines' and were marked 'Infant No Seating'. They just used what they could find around.

It should also be noted that Sunwing still isn't precollecting the departure tax, so this has to be paid at the airport. No big issue as long as you are aware of it.

The transport to the hotel was inadequate. There weren't enough seats on the bus, without using the jump seats, and there wasn't quite enough room in the luggage trailer for all the luggage. As usual, I watched UNTIL MY LUGGAGE WAS LOADED and then I boarded the bus. About half way to the hotel they informed us that "some" of the luggage had been taken off and put on another bus. After some confusion when we arrived at the hotel, all the luggage showed up. The transport from the hotel was fine, and in fact we were the first bus to arrive at the airport. Too bad about the computer foul up. Without it we could have just walked up to the checkin, checked our luggage and got our boarding passes without any wait at all.

OK, now we're in double digits territory. This was trip number ten to this property, and it just wouldn't seem like January if we didn't go. Creatures of habit or what? This year we were accompanied by Snowbird (from Debbie's forums), plus some friends we met here several years ago. So there were eight of us to party on. And a good time was had by all.

After all these trips, it gets harder and harder to find something "NEW" to write about, but it's still possible. Is everything perfect in Paradise? Nope, not a chance and it never will be. There's always going to be a few warts. Will we return? Sure, without question. And just like last year, I may even try to find a deal for later this winter.

Actually, we had no "real" issues. There were no nasty surprises, but there were some changes. Some good and some not so good. For example, they've eliminated the fruit smoothie station in the morning (a negative). They seemed to serve bacon more often than in previous years (a positive). They have changed the french fries and are now serving the beefeater type (a positive in my opinion, but this opinion wasn't universally shared). I liked them. A lot. At the least, the larger fries were well cooked, hot and crispy and stayed hot longer. The thin fries get cold very quickly.

The new refurbished washrooms near the lobby and pool have finally been finished and they are quite nice. These changes were long overdue. They also redid the activities and tour representative area between them and the theatre. I heard that it took five months to finish this work. My only comment here is that they did a great job but they picked a floor tile that is quite slippery, especially when wet. Near a pool, wet floor, do you think? .....

Any issues we had were very minor things and certainly not enough to ruin a vacation. Most of these were "other guest" related. Sometimes you have to wonder why the hotel even bothers. It has to be quite frustrating for them. There was a constant issue with clogged toilets due to idiots flushing things that were never intended to be flushed. A pizza slice leaps immediately to mind. Maintenance was kept quite busy keeping the public toilets running well. They had expended some serious cash and workmanship on the new facilities and these were extremely well done. Then some other mental giant wads up a bunch of wet toilet paper and tosses it up to the ceiling where it stuck. Not very pretty. Again, one has to wonder why ..... Oh, and the last weekend we were there was a holiday weekend and there were a lot of locals staying at the resort. Up until now I've never had an issue with any locals staying at the hotel. In fact, I welcome them. This time, most, with the exception of this one group, were model citizens. They reminded me of spring breakers in Cancun. All you had to do was mention them in a conversation and everyone rolled their eyes and knew exactly who you were talking about. If it hadn't been for this one group, all would have been well. Fortunately they were only at the resort for one day. Enough said.

They (the hotel) market themselves as a 3.5 to 4 star property, and that rating is just about right. The food is good, the place is exceptionally clean, and the rooms are functional, although dated. Everything in our room was in good repair. Eureka, I didn't have to fix a thing this year.

In my opinion, it's still a great place for a vacation, even after being 'spoiled' by a 5 star resort in December. The 'new' beach bar is still not 100% finished. It's still missing a few light fixtures, but they aren't really necessary unless they turn the place into a specialty restaurant at night (steak and seafood maybe, hint hint). I've been working on that concept since the new place was built. But it's still very nice and we spent a lot of time there.

The other facilities may be a little dated, but they're SUPER CLEAN. We had no complaints about the food; pretty good, simple and not gourmet. The rotisserie chicken at the beach club is still excellent. At dinner there's lots of choices and I never left the table hungry. The staff is extremely friendly and obliging. Oh yes, they certainly remembered us from previous visits. After all these years, they're like family now. Management cares and responds to valid 'positive' criticism and works very hard to accommodate their guests. The entire "team" has seemed stable from year to year, but this time around there were a lot of missing faces and quite a few new faces. Some staff have been around for years, and now there's some new ones.

In addition to the main buffet, which was quite good, we also enjoyed the two specialty dining rooms (Brazilian and Italian/Mediterranean). We found the food and service were excellent in both restaurants. The only problem is that they are small and fill up rapidly. If you haven't made a reservation by 7:15 am, it's probably best to forget it. Oh, and the wine served this year is still pretty good for a house wine. You can choose from red or white. Personally I prefer the red, but I had to try the white just to compare. It's the scientific method in action.

Oh yeah, there's a new manager at the Brazilian restaurant this year. He used to be one of the best waiters at the Italian restaurant, so I guess he's made a big move up in the organization. And, he's doing a great job.

The main buffet restaurant and the Brazilian are open to the outside air, but the Italian one is closed off and air-conditioned. Warning: In the main buffet at breakfast and lunch, the black birds are pretty bold and will filch the food right off your plate if you leave it unattended. They don't seem to be around in the evening.

At breakfast, bacon was served about three or four times per week and sausage was served the other days. The smoothie station is gone. The best part about breakfast was the omelet and fried egg station. One of the other guests referred to them as killer omelets and I have to agree. They were great.

The beach club serves lunch and snacks daily. As usual, the rotisserie BBQ chicken was excellent. They also served fish, burgers, hot dogs, great fries, salads and fresh fruit every day. Lunch is also available at the main buffet, but we never ate there.

In the dining room, wine is available by the glass (red and white) and you simply help yourself to what you want. The wine wasn't vintage, but it was quite drinkable.

On the plus side, the hotel still has 24 hour all-inclusive. It's not full buffet, but you can get drink and food (burgers, hot dogs, chops, salad) at odd hours if that is your want. So this feature is obviously a success! Me, I didn't need it. As usual, I gained a few lbs.

In summary, the food was good, plain but not fancy. They did a pretty good job of avoiding repetition (exception - see note below). During our stay, we had various kinds of fish, roast suckling pork, pork chops, roast beef, lamb, veal, turkey, chicken, ham and various types of stews. The carvery seemed to be used more often than as in previous years. Interestingly enough, the carvery served up roast turkey four days in a row. Excellent turkey, but four days in a row! There must have had a surplus of turkeys approaching their best before date. However, there were lots of other choices. My wife especially enjoyed the fish entrees and the cooked-to-order pasta dishes.

As I previously mentioned, this was our tenth trip to the resort. Most of these trips have been two weeks. Obviously, the place still suits our needs and we were more than happy with what we got this time. Honestly, we know a high percentage of the staff by name and they are just like family. We missed a few of them this time because we were in a large group eating together and the larger tables were not in the areas being served by some of our favourites. They also know our wants and are eager to please. For example, you are supposed to get your own coffee, juice and wine. Let's just say that it was a rare event when I had to.

You have to remember that it's a three and a half star to four star resort, so don't expect anything fancy. The Royale section consists of hotel rooms arranged in 4 blocks (labelled A through D) while the Tropicale section consists of multi-unit villas. In case you're wondering, about 15 years ago, it used to be two separate hotels. These were rolled together under the all-inclusive plan at that time. They have a wristband system and it's easy to recognize repeat and vacation club guests. We saw a lot of repeaters, so that speaks well for the hotel. It tends to be a love it or hate it kind of place. We obviously fall into the love it category. We were in good company.

There are no marble floors or walls, and the buildings are "standard" Caribbean construction that consists of stuccoed concrete block, terra cotta tile floors, and very plain ceramic tile in the bathroom. As I've said many times before, it wouldn't have been my colour choice, but ......

We were in B wing and we had the same room as last year, by our request. It was super clean and there was lots of hot water (with the exception of one day when it was at best tepid). We were at the far end of the wing and it was a 'little' distance to the hot water tank, so it took a short while.

The room was comfortable and everything worked. Towels and bedding were changed daily (yes daily) and the floors were swept and mopped. No complaints here. We even got wash cloths; a rarity in the DR. My advice would be to take your own just in case. We did, and made sure they were a different colour so they wouldn't get mixed in with the hotel's. The bathroom was equipped with a hair dryer and had a wicker basket with shampoos, conditioners and a sewing kit.

Most rooms, say 60 per cent, have balconies or terraces while the rest don't. If it's an issue for you, yes you 'can' get a balcony, but you have to be persistent. On a previous trip to another hotel, we noted that all the rooms had balconies; they were rarely used. In our case, my wife has a sun allergy, so she spends a fair bit of time in the room. We like the balcony and we like being out in the fresh air, so it's important to us. On the plus side, if you don't get a balcony, the interior space in the room is bigger.

As I mentioned, we got the same room as in previous years. This year the trees and greenery have been trimmed back considerably. Even though we faced the pool and activity areas, it still seemed very private. Our room had two queen size beds, a bedside table between them, a phone, a large balcony, a bureau with large drawers, cable TV and a large closet. The bed mattress was nearly brand new, firm and very comfortable. Bottled water was provided. You DON'T drink the tap water; for that matter, you probably shouldn't even use the tap water to brush your teeth. This might be being over cautious, but why take the chance. The tap water is essentially untreated, so there are no guarantees as to what might be living in it.

We rarely turned on the air-conditioning, since the AC really wasn't necessary. The room remained very comfortable over the entire two week period. Frankly, the weather-person didn't really cooperate this year and we found the weather quite a bit cooler than normal. We actually used the blanket a few times.

When closed up for a while, the room seemed a little musty, especially in the dead air space by the closed door, but this cleared within minutes when the patio door was opened. Remember, this is the tropics, so the humidity is a little high. I didn't spot any mildew, and I looked.

Hydro is expensive in the DR. Like most of the hotels, you have to insert a card into a slot in the wall to enable the room power. There is also an interlock on the patio door that inhibits operation of the air conditioning if the door was open. Considering the price of power in the DR, this is a reasonable solution.

Fun Royale / Fun Tropicale is a very nice and well maintained resort. There is always someone sweeping, pruning or raking. There are three swimming pools. These are the activity pool (somewhat NOISY since this is where the activity takes place), the quiet 'adult only' pool and one near the kids club, nominally reserved for children, but generally used by anyone who just wants some peace and quiet. They appeared clean and well maintained and the water was a pleasant blue colour. The staff appear to be pretty good at picking up after guests that are too lazy to pick up after themselves and just leave their garbage.

The beach is OK, but not spectacular. Since there had been a lot of rain, this year it was pretty mucky. Except for one or two days, there was a lot of seaweed. When it did finally wash ashore, it was quickly raked and carted away. There's a "bit of coral" in the sea in front of the beach club, so some caution is required. This year the warning sign seems to have disappeared. However, a short walk in either direction leads to hazard free swimming. You don't have to swim in the hotel's area since the entire beach is public. However, if you go too far, it's a long walk back to the bar!

From the hotel gate, it's an easy and scenic 6 minute walk alongside the golf course to the beach (I timed it) and if you don't want to walk, there is a frequent tractor powered shuttle service. Something like a Caribbean hay ride. We generally take it a few times "just because".

If you want to participate, there are activities at the pool with a great activity (animacion) staff. The speakers have been aimed away from the residential areas, which helps reduce the noise level in the hotel rooms. There didn't seem to be much organized beach activities. So beach volleyball was a pick-up, do it yourself operation. Other activities with the all-inclusive package include mini golf (7 holes ???), shuffleboard, ping pong, Spanish lessons, darts, pool basketball, water polo, water aerobics. There was usually a bingo (extra cost), and there is a coin operated pool table. In the evenings, they organized tours to casinos, discos or into town (all at a nominal cost which seemed quite reasonable).

There is entertainment each night (outdoor stage, weather dependent) which varies between dance shows and some audience participation. The shows mostly consist of dancing and lip sync to recorded music, which some people would consider cheesy, but the dancers are pretty good and put a lot of effort into it. The shows were pretty much the same as previous years, so we found something else to do. From what we saw, most of the audience seemed to enjoy the performances. Vegas it's not, but it's enjoyable. The shows are all over by 11pm and that bar stays open until midnight. After that, all activity moves to the quiet pool bar which is well away from any guest accommodations, so the noise isn't an issue.

Again this year, I talked to several guests who thought that having a small local group play near the 24 hour bar in the evenings would be a great idea. Things like a piano bar alternating with a small dance band or local music would do. Personally, I too would like to see some more local entertainment. I suggested this a few years ago, but nothing came of it.

I would also like to see more use made out of the beach club in the evenings. A steak and seafood restaurant, even if it was extra cost would be nice. It seems such a waste to have that nice facility being there and not being used. It would be so nice at night.

The main dining room (buffet) is very attractive. It gives you a choice of three eating areas. The first area is well inside, but open to the air on three sides, the second area is also covered in with a translucent ceiling, and the third is outside with tables under umbrellas. These overlook the golf course and one of the ponds. Most of the tables are candlelit at night, but the number of candles seems to be diminishing due to attrition and guest filching. Several nights we took our own candle.

Oh yes, in case you get 'hungry' during the afternoon, there is a pizza place near the main pool that serves quite good pizza. The pizza is different from what you get at home, but good. Note that you don't get to order what you want; they make pretty much what they want and you take whatever slice(s) look appetizing to you.

MISC (in no particular order):

It's still a very friendly hotel. There are a lot of 'holas' from the staff. We had no real language problems with the front desk, waiters or bartenders. The grounds keepers and maids didn't speak much English, but we had no real problems communicating with them either. In a pinch, sign language works well!

The currency exchange on site is run by a real bank, not the hotel. The exchange rates were about as good as you could get in town. The posted rates while we were there were 33 pesos to the $US, 30 pesos to the $CDN - so when it comes to the $US vs $CDN debate, you do the math! The double exchange is still worth it.

The mini golf and shuffleboard equipment has seen much better days. They have restored the traditional triangular scoring area on the shuffleboard courts, but the numbering in the score boxes is wrong.

We never got around to trying the miniature golf, but the course and equipment was in poor shape. The grips on the golf clubs have been wrapped in electrical tape. They were not pleasant to touch!

I still can't believe the number of people that treat the buffet like a cafeteria. Year after year we see people who get their food, then run around looking for a table. Then they complain that the food isn't hot. Geez, get a table, then go get the food!

The cooling trays for the stuff that was supposed to be cold sometimes worked too well and the food was frozen to the serving dish. The heating trays were not quite as efficient, but kitchen staff were constantly replacing with full dishes from the kitchen. The food serving stations were all equipped with sneeze-shield, just like a buffet restaurant here. The guys on the grill all wore masks and wore rubber gloves. This seemed to me to be over cautious. There's not a bug in the world that's going to survive that grill temperature.

WHAT WE LIKED: We have no real complaints. It's a nice place and good value for the money, unless you are really fussy. The food is pretty good. It's nothing gourmet, but there's lots of choices and a good variety. All the bars are still serving Presidente beer. The house wine is OK. The rotisserie BBQ chicken at the beach bar is VERY good.

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: You know, it's the little things that get you. In previous years, we could only get one key for the room. This can turn into a major annoyance, especially if you're each doing something different, or one person retires early. This year we managed to get a second key for the room. Much more convenient.

Another annoyance was the fact that they changed the phone system recently but didn't follow through. The card on the table identifies the number for guest services, but after 2 years it is still wrong.

We never got the invitation to the repeater's party. We did get a second note about them spraying the room for insects. I think they sent the wrong note.

There was not as much bacon at breakfast as I would like, but the sausage was good. The Dominicans usually do a pretty good job on pork products. Their beef is sometimes a little chewy, but with good flavour. This year we actually got some good beef (occasionally).

There also are some little things that still need attention. There are loose taps in the public washrooms at the new beach club. There are urinals in the men's washroom near the main buffet that haven't flushed properly in the 7 years we've been going there. There's no water pressure for the flush. It would appear that the cleaners are flushing it using a bucket of water because it was always clean. The bottom step from the shower area at the beach club to the beach could be improved.

The washrooms at the main buffet restaurant should be next in line for refurbishing. The same applies for the ones at the quiet pool.

They have a weekly beach party with a bonfire on the beach. This has the potential to be a LOT OF FUN, but ..... Personally, and this isn't my opinion, I wish they would do away with the silly party games, set up a dance and sitting area, light the fire, open the bar, play some music and let the people party. Every time the dancing and partying just got started, they would stop the music and play some game. That took care of that.

Would we go back? In a word, YES! We are already planning our next trip.

Notes: The mini golf and shuffleboard equipment is way overdue for replacement. The minigolf course is in poor repair and the fountain wasn't operational. The fountain at the pizza parlour is also deceased. Let people amuse themselves at the beach party. Let the animacion staff be around as dance partners or to just get things going. Dump the silly party games. Make use of the beach club as a specialty restaurant at night. Make some sort of quiet dance area around the 24 hour bar at night.

For a virtual tour and slide show, see http://www.bobfromcanada.com and select the show. There is also a link to this year's photo set on worldisround. Select Fun Royale/Tropicale - January 2008

QUESTIONS: email bob<at>bobfromcanada.com (anti-spam change the <at> to @)

This isn't part of the hotel review, but we've been going to the DR for many years now and don't normally take any tours. I have to add that I was the high bidder for 'A Day With Martin Espinal' (Isaira Tours) in the Beyond The Beach Childrens Foundation (BTBCF) on-line auction. So, this year we toured.

BTBCF supports many charities in the DR (see www.beyondthebeach.ca), mainly schools and orphanages and I invite you to visit their website and see what they are doing. I might add that the organization is totally run by volunteers and ALL proceeds collected go straight to the charities. I'm proud to be a supporter.

We had a great day with Martin. We managed to tour the rum factory, toured through a good portion of Puerto Plata, visited the fort, drove up to Cofresi and Maimon, dropped in at Ocean World Casino and the Marina, went to Costambar for lunch and took the cable car up the mountain.

I've been recommending Martin for years now, based on other peoples reports. Now that I've met him, I can now recommend him based on personal experience. I'd also like to thank him for his generous donation to the foundation. I'd also like to thank him for a great day.

I've also added a slide show about our day with Martin. See my website at http://www.bobfromcanada.com