Visiting the island for the first time in October... Will be staying at the Occidental. Can someone tell me and/or advise me about the food and drinks there... We purchased an "all inclusive" package?... Thanks. Bonnie

Just got back Friday. This was our second stay at the Occidental, and it has actually improved since our last visit.

The rooms were much cleaner, and not musty, like has been mentioned in the past. I have no complaints.

We predominantly ate dinner at Papaya's. The filet mignon there is incredible. I spent a lot of time at the bar, as well, as I had a broken ankle, so I couldn't do much in the way of watersports. I was a little concerned about the quality of the liquors, as I'm a bourbon drinker. The bourbon was fine. I believe it was Jim Beam, actually. (Can't be sure, as I usually had someone else get my drinks for me...)

They only have one catamaran rental, which was consistently booked up, which I considered to be kind of a bummer. But I got a few sails in. When you hit the beach, be sure to look for Norman to handle your parasailing and tubing trips. Tell him the guy on crutches sent you, hehe. He hung out with us several nights in a row, just playing pool, and generally took good care of my entire group the whole time we hung at the beach. Very nice kid.

Stay away from blackjack at the casino. I don't know anyone that won that game. They have "hard-edge" rules that really put the odds in favor of the dealer. One of my buddies told me he noticed that they shuffle the card chute regularly, as well, making it virtually impossible to "count" cards, and thereby improve your chances. Also, I don't know if it's possible to cheat at that game, but all I can say is, those dealers get exactly what they need to beat you, all the time, every time. It was really bizarre. I did well on roulette, though.

In all, I was very happy with the trip, and I will go back, hopefully next year.

P.S. I know they can be annoying, but if you can spare an hour, go talk to one of the hotel reps about the timeshares. We did it just to get the free gift. We chose a free car rental, and it was well worth an hour of our time to get it.

I was there last June. The food is excellent!

Make sure you book yourself at the Italian restraunt the first day you get there. You are only allowed to eat there once... and they get booked pretty quickly. I had the lamb chops... it was delicious.

Papays had excellent prime rib and filet mignong.

The dinner Buffet in the Theater had excellent food to! They rotate the dinner buffet each night... Saturday we at the Buffet in the theatre... the salmon was EXCELLENT...
I believe Thursday night was there Sea Food buffet... they had Alaska King Crab....

We also went into town one night to EL GAUCHO... Order the Chorosco (spelling???) BEST STEAK THAT I EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!!. It was like a giant filet mignong!! I'm a big eater... I could only eat half.

If you want to rent (FREE for all inclusive) a pink floaty... make sure you go there right when they open (9:00 am I believe). They sometimes tell you that you could only have them for 4 hours... you can have them all day. Grab the floaty... put it on a chair... then go to breakfast.

If you want to use their snorkeling gear... get there early. Sometims the gear was all rented out... other times there were flippers in my size but no mask/snorkel because people didn't return them. We ended up purchasing some at the shop and borrowing their flippers.

We purchased the all inclusive package... is there still a limit on the amount of times you can eat at the Italian Restaurant....? and why?

We purchased the all inclusive too. We when we checked in... we were told that we could only eat there once.

I could be totally wrong... when I made the reservations for the Italian restraunt... they wanted to know if I had the all inclusive package before they would let me know if they had any openings for that night. I felt like they wanted to accomodate the 'paying' customers over the all inclusive customers.

But if you book the Italian Restraunt the first day you get there, I don't think they'd give you a hard time. I spoke with some other people when we left... they never got a chance to eat there since it was always booked.

Get the lamb chops if you go there )

Patty

I have been to the Occidental many times over the past 3 years. Was there in AUgust and will be going back next month also.
THe trick with the Italian restaurant is they allow you to make one reservation, but then you can go back ANY morning and see if there are any availabilities and if so they will accomodate you. In April I ate there 4 times. During the super busy seasons this rule of one reservation per person works out quite well because it is a small restaurant and everyone should have a chance to dine there.
I definately agree that the filet mignon at Papayas is fabulous!!! As is the rack of lamb

Doesn't the catamaran, parasailing, and waterskiing cost extra? and approximately how much?

Are there huts on the beach to get out of the shade? Do you have to rent one? Are they hard to get? Is it tough to get a lounge chair during the holidays?

Are there huts on the beach to get out of the shade? Do you have to rent one? Are they hard to get? Is it tough to get a lounge chair during the holidays?