Hotel Caribe Resort

I have been an avid fan of the theme park since my first visit 10 years ago. It's great to see how it has grown and developed. When I first went there wasn’t even a safe path up I had to push my father in law up on a dirt path along side the busy road.
So last year I was walking past the hotel and my kids kept pointing out the pirates tower by the kiddies pool so I decided to book looked up all my info up and booked. In a way I wish I didn't.
We had an early morning flight - supposed to fly out at 5.05 am it was nearer 7.35am, slept thru most of the flight. Arrived at airport, ah Reus' new terminal looked good on outside but inside looks like they where still building it.
On arrival at the hotel we where informed that our baggage would be delivered to our room (that's nice). We walked up to reception and met a nice guy called "Massi" who said jokingly what would you say if I told you your room wouldn't be ready until 3pm (the time was 1pm) - well the reply was I think you better get the manager! Manager advised could do nothing so eventually 3pm came and we got to our room. I thought great our bags should be sitting in the room when we get there nearly 2 hours later the bags arrived. So tip 1 : if the bags are too heavy take them yourself.
The grounds of the hotel are very beautiful and well maintained well at least the gardens. During the stay someone left wet towels lying on a bench, it took staff 2 days to move them - they reeked! The pools are lovely nice gradual slope into them just be careful during my hotel I must have counted at least 4 causalities of the kids pool with kids cutting themselves on the rough bottom - one of them being my own. The menu didn't vary in the restaurant chips, burgers, chick, salad, pasta and nothing had any signs on it so half the time you had to take it and like it or dump it. They had a themed Chinese dinner night - someone informed the manager that Chinese night is more than a few fans and spring rolls and prawn crackers. The pastries are always a good thing in Spain so that was good. All the products uses in the restaurant where brand names, Coke, Nestle, Nescafe and such like.
The rooms themselves where ok sized if you folded up the sofa bed if down space was limited. It was the first time in years I didn't have a bidet in the toilet - where was I going to wash my feet? They did supply a basic kit in the toilet toothbrushes, soap, shampoo etc. The kids got there own Woody Woodpecker stuff as well toothbrush, face cloth, etc (nice little kit). The room did have it's own fridge (free) which was a god send - enough room (in main part if you took out the drawers) for 2 2ltr bottles of coke and 1.5 ltr bottle of water and also trays in the door for smaller items.
We had a ground floor room which looked out to the kids pool. There is 1 entrance and exit out of the hotel so if you had to go out you had to double back on your self so if you decide request a room nearer the main entrance saves you a walk. There is a TV hidden inside a cupboard so you can watch (in Spanish) the Disney Channel. We had a problem with ants but soon managed to get rid of them when I got the cleaning Supervisor to get the room properly cleaned. It want until near the end of my holiday was the room properly cleaned as I accidentally dropped a glass on the floor and had thought I had picked up all the bits to my horror found a bit lying under the bed 4 days later!! Our patio wasn't cleaned to well either.
The park itself is super, when we booked the holiday we thought we would have the queue jump facility, but company policy had changed and all you got was a card each with 9 rides on it and once you went on the ride you couldn’t use it again, this is good if you have kids tall enough to go on the ride unfortunately my poor kids are like their parents - vertically challenged !! - so I was going on the Dragon Khan 4 times that’s ok if it's your first visit but does take the fun out of it!! There is plenty to see from the smaller kiddy rides, to Steam trains to white knuckle rollercoaster’s. Port Adventure - definitely puts Blackpool and Alton Towers in the shade just on cleanliness alone. There are various shows in the park also from magic to can, can to wild west show (my kids favourite). It definately has someone for everyone it is a bit hilly going up to certain parts so those with walking difficulties you can hire an electric scooter in the part also.
The My travel rep, Jimmy or the Scarlet Pimpernel as we had nicknamed him. If you want him get him after a welcome meeting he will be in the hotel if not you probably wont see him. We booked a trip with My Travel to Discover Barcelona - we have seen Barcelona several times but thought that it was better this time cos we had the full tour of Neu Camp, the home of Barcelona FC. The tour started at the Olympic Stadium unfortunately it looked more like a building site, if you do go on the trip avoid the toilets!
We stopped off at the usual places and then ended up at the Neu Camp so I got off and get the wheelchair for my wife and proceed to head towards the entrance this when we where informed that there was a lot of stairs and you couldn't take the wheelchair in the only options available was to avoid the full tour and go straight to the museum (which was part of the tour), go round and carry the wheelchair up and down the stairs while helping my wife and 2 children or final one dump the chair and have my wife struggle round - we chose the last option as my wife is not disabled just that she injured her back before she left for holiday and didn't want to spoil it for the kids as she wanted to see the full tour with them. The tour is great we where down on the touchline, up in the presidential box, up the commentary box and saw more of the more trophies that the team has won. Good day out except for the stairs.
Back to the hotel the mini disco was great I love to go on holiday and have my kids coming back singing song and new dances which they can show their friends also you had a character every night as well. The problem I had with it though is was held in a indoor bar which got very warm, it seemed very strange not to have it outside. They had shows like Peter Pan and Cinderella which they Animation team acted and either dubbed in English, Spanish or Catalan. For the 1st week the entertainment was up in the park so we avoided it up there and visited some of the other hotels near by. They had a boy band who seemed to sing usual stuff like tribute to Take That to El Divo there where quite good but roasted in the bar.
The water park Costa Caribe which we where allocated a day to go - very busy and take your wallet and your spare one too. You have to pay for a locker, 5 euros with 3 euros deposit, they you have sun loungers 4 euros each, if you don't want to queue for rubber rings you can hire these as well. Usual cost for food and drinks.
So summing up
Good Points
Cleanish hotel
Friendly staff
Near to Park
Characters in the hotel - plenty of foto opportunities
Bad Points
Not much a choice in the restaurant
Cleaners with something else on their mind
Having to fight to get on the "train" up to the park
Pool sponsored by Elasterplast (joke).
If I would have known that I wouldn't have enjoyed the hotel this much I would have stayed in the Saularius Palace which is down the hill from the park, better food, more fun and a lot cheaper as you can buy your tickets for the park at home a lot cheaper especially if you take the 14 day option. You may like it, to each their own. I wouldn't recommend it especially for the money they are looking for in 2007.

Went to hotel Caribe, it should be rated 5 star. Rooms were really nice and so was the food. All the staff were lovely and helpful.
You get free entry to both the theme park and the water park both are excellent. Went to both on every day of our holiday. The children aged 11, 9, 2 never got bored once. The children’s club, on site was very good as was the children’s pool.
Also had use of the gym and indoor swimming pool, at no extra cost for any facility. The food was excellent and the restaurant also had a special buffet for children. The rooms all had a queen size bed, television and toiletries. Overall a excellent holiday.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone with children of all ages. It is about 15 mins walk to the beach , but as the pool area was so good there was no need to travel down to the beach, 10 mins walk takes you to all shops, bars etc.
This was our second visit to this hotel, as we enjoyed our first trip so much. I cant disagree more with the first review as both my wife and my 5 year old daughter loved this hotel. The pool area is second to none beautiful, with lifeguards on service all day. We found that all staff could not have been more helpful than they were, especially Christine at the kids club all her team were fantastic.
We also tried the cocktails and had no complaints about the amount of alcohol in them, then again, we went out our way to be friendly with the staff, seems some people forget how to smile when there on holiday!
Food was always fantastic and always well cooked. Overall hotel was clean, friendly and I would return anytime.