We love the Palladium & TRS

[Anne]

By Page Hall

The master suite is beautiful. You walk in to a living room with a couch, table and chairs, bar area with tv above and small fridge with beer, soft drinks and snacks, two coffee makers, one is nespresso. We had three liquors on the bar, Don Julio tequila, a whiskey and Grey Goose Vodka. There is a spiral staircase leading to an atrium and the rooftop terrace with a small jetted pool, round lounger and table and chairs. The atrium also has two chairs and a small fridge with beer and soft drinks. I used the rooftop terrace every morning for my workouts. WiFi worked great so I used my Beachbody subscription for daily workouts. It was awesome to have the Caribbean Sea as my view! The rooftop was also a great place to chill in the afternoon after pool time.

The rest of the suite contained two toilets—one between the living area and the bathroom/bedroom and one in the bathroom area. The bathroom and bedroom are open concept. The shower is huge, and there is a jetted tub as well. The king size bed was very comfortable. There are mirrors EVERYWHERE in the bed and bathroom. The inside of the shower is completely mirrored as is the bathroom toilet area. Lighting is muted. There is a small balcony off the bedroom. It was ocean view and shaded in the afternoon.

I will break some of this review into pros/cons.
Pros:
Two toilets—although why not one on rooftop area instead of two within five feet of each other?
Very cool rooftop w small jetted plunge pool awesome swivel lounger and view of the sea.
Room service on tv worked awesome, and room service menues were great with prompt service.
More tv options including NBC and ABC.
Wrist bands that open door and eliminate key cards. One of my favorite new features. Never had to ask, did you bring the room keycard.
Electronic cleaning and maintenance buttons on door.
Wall socket in safe.
Two fridges one on roof top.
Butlers.
More restaurants choices for TRS.
Infinity pool with ocean right there. Pool was huge and lovely.
Travel club Amenities.
Drawer space way more than before.
Lots of golf carts.

Cons:
AC not very cool at all. We ok but never cold first four nights. Stopped cooling on 5th night. They fixed it late on 6th night.
Motor Jets in tub broken already so we could bathe but not use the jacuzzi part of the tub. My sister said it was really cool as there is a tub in a tub with a water fall type effect. We did not get to experience it. When we showed this to our butler, she stated she knew the jacuzzi was broken and had reported it when she inspected our room before we checked in. Yet they still put us in that room.
Wall socket in bathroom throwing breaker. Staff told us not to use it.
Wall socket in second bath not working.
Took a long time to get lukewarm to warm water as there is one water heater far away in the other part of the resort. It was never hot. And it is not a good use of resources to let the water run until it warms which is what we were told to do.
No ceiling fan above bed.
Weirdly high toilets—not sure what the reason is. Bad design in my opinion.
Lack of wildlife. Sad to see no Coaties.
I know things can happen and no resort is perfect, but the AC not working well the first four nights and not at all on night five, partially on night six is a real problem for me especially for the price we paid for TRS. They have been reopened and rebranded now for seven months so these types of issues should be worked out already. Also the jet motor on the tub should have been replaced and working. And the wall sockets should all work and not throw breakers. They replaced the breaker panel while we were there but did not solve the problem. We just steered clear of the wall socket in the bathroom. They did fix our AC problem. The pipe coming into our room was stopped up or broken. Maintenance was out several times, and the last time at 10 pm on night 6 they figured it out. Roxanna, TRS Management, was very responsive to us and got us a fan and the maintenance at 9 pm. Had all of the above worked I would have rated TRS at 5 stars.

Restaurants—I preface my reviews with this: Food is so subjective and based on preference. So this is all opinion.
Helios Night 1 and 1 lunch and 1 Breakfast—We ate here upon arrival as we got in after 6. It is a beautiful setting. Three of us ordered steak. My husband and sister had t bones. Both said they were ok. I had the fillet. It was ok. Our BIL got the salt shrimp. He said the shrimp were still partially raw. Lunch here has tasting stations with many options and a menu to order. The goat cheese salad was excellent. The sushi was good. The hamburger was ok according to my husband. Breakfast service was slow the day we ate there but the eggs were good. The guacamole was yummy.

TRS Italian Tetzaroni—By far the best meal we had and great service. I had risotto and added grilled chicken. It was excellent. My sister has the chicken and round pasta dish. She said it was very good. My husband had the surf and turf which was flank steak and lobster. The flank steak was ok but the lobster was excellent. The flan and tiramisu were great. The pizza was also tasty with a thin crust and just right amount of cheese.

El Gaucho —service was wonderful. We had met Jose at Caprecio as he was our server. He said he normally worked at El Gaucho and invited us to ask for him on our night there. We did, but his section was full. He did come over and greet us and he brought the chef out to meet us. The chef prepared a special family share plate for our table. This was a very nice gesture and very much appreciated. The plate had different cuts of beef and grilled vegetables. The beef had a great flavor.

La Boheme—Service was great. They surprised us with a small chocolate cake and champagne as we are celebrating our anniversary in June. Food was not so good. We ordered fondue expecting what El Jardin had before: the cool pot filled with gooey cheese and breads and veggies to dip. We got a small bowl and some cracker like breads. The fondue was really tasteless. The blue cheese appetizer that we also ordered was good. That’s what we should have ordered for the table. The French onion soup was missing the Swiss cheese and had bread baked on top. It was good. Swiss cheese would have made the dish. The chateaubriand was ok but nothing like the plate we had in the DR at The Royal Suites. My husband had the surf and turf which he said was just ok. The Creme Brûlée was very good.

Chic—The Show was entertaining. The performers were wonderful and certainly gave it their all. They were all very talented. The songs were done in English—certainly not the performers first language—and yet they got the songs done beautifully. Waitstaff service was AWESOME. They bring up courses during the show. You can choose between a vegetarian or the other menu. The courses are set though. Although our waiter let me go back and forth between the vegetarian and standard which was nice. The food was not my cup of tea although the filet of beef was the best I had while here. Drinks served were interesting. Everything was plated beautifully. I am sure others liked the food. There did seem to be a lot of food wasted though. Maybe there should be less courses? We saw a lot of uneaten food being carried off—a lot of mine for sure.

Thai—Food was good but not as good as in years past. The vegetarian spring rolls were decent but a little soggy. The mango salad was yummy. I had the red curry with fried chicken. I got it with grilled chicken instead. I think it was thigh not breast which is not my preference. The red curry sauce tasted burned. It was edible but not good. My sister had the pad Thai with chicken. She said it was good. My husband had the grilled chicken thigh. He said it was ok. My sister and I had coconut creme brûlée. I would call it coconut custard as it was not a true creme brûlée. It was good though. The best part of the meal was the soup. Sister and BIL had the chicken noodle which they both said was great. I had the coconut carrot. It was yummy.

Japanese Show Table—We did this our last night. Food was equally as good as the TRS Tetzaroni. We did the show table. Sushi was yummy. I asked for extra and got it. Waiter was great as was the chef. We lucked out and sat with the travel agent group. They thought we were with their group due to our black TRS bands. We met Zack Kline who works for Grand Palladium and TRS Hotels. He is with the North American Group. All in all a great night. We finished up at Hemingway’s for Chocolate Night.

Caprechio—We had wonderful service, and the food was good. It is made to order, and there is a small menu.

GP White Sands buffet breakfast—This buffet is smaller than before as Caprechio has half the space. It has two stations for eggs/omelets cooked to order and all the other options. The breakfast we had there was good.

GP Kantenah breakfast buffet—This buffet is larger and has a lot of options including eggs/omelets cooked to order. I liked this buffet best for breakfast.
Colonial Breakfast buffet—Much like the Kantenah. Everything was good except the bacon.
Room Service—I ordered coffee almost every morning and a late lunch several times. I placed the order on the television. Room service then calls right away to confirm. The nachos were great. The special club sandwich was good. My husband loved the hot wings and said they were the hottest ones he’s ever had. They have room service down! And it’s very convenient especially ordering on the tv.

Travel club—private transportation is awesome. The gifts were great: wide brimmed hat, selfie stick, headphones and bottle of wine. We chose the massage instead of an excursion. Massage was great. Check out was great. The manager advised us he had heard about our AC issue and would be touching base with us by email.
Arrival/departure—We arrived and were through immigrations/customs within minutes. Customs was a guy asking if we had cigarettes or liquor with us. That’s it. No red/green light or button. Waited five minutes for our ride. Departure was just as easy. Terminal 4 is awesome.

Beach—There was lots of seaweed. Water was not as pretty as in years past due to the brown seaweed. We did not hang on the beach due to this. I’m sure it will clear eventually. The staff were working very hard to clear it. I believe it was worse than it was a few years ago.

Pools—We stayed at the infinity. Although the beach there is not swimmable—too Rocky and rough—the view is spectacular. We enjoyed watching the waves and hanging there. We went to small TRS pool but did not stay as you can’t beat the view at the infinity pool.
People/staff—Everyone was so nice and tried so hard to please. We had Wonderful service.

Overall impression—we have been 14 times in the area, and this was our 8th time here at TRS/Palladium—9 times counting DR Palladium in 2013. I love the beautiful rooms and like the variety of restaurant choices in new TRS. I do miss the old Royal lobby bar and people there. The new lobby is beautiful but is so big that the quaintness is lost. The infinity pool is definitely a really great addition. In spite of the issues noted above (especially AC), we had a great time and we love The Palladium and TRS and especially enjoy the people there. Next year we may want to check out the TRS in Costa Mujares or come back to RM. Mexico is beautiful, and her people are lovely.

[Author]

Posts