Grand Decameron Panama, A Trademark All Inclusive Resort

“All you need to know”

First impressions when getting off the bus, you have a gorgeous view out to the beach. It's really a lovely welcome. the ride from the airport (RIH) is maybe 5 minutes, super close which is a treat. The check-in process was easy but we were the first ones to the desk, everyone else had to wait i… more

First impressions when getting off the bus, you have a gorgeous view out to the beach. It's really a lovely welcome. the ride from the airport (RIH) is maybe 5 minutes, super close which is a treat. The check-in process was easy but we were the first ones to the desk, everyone else had to wait in line as there was two people checking everyone in. Now first impressions of the room? Meh. You basically have two options when booking a room; one king bed or two DOUBLE beds. When you're traveling with a family of four, you can only book double beds, and well they're SMALL. Thankfully, my kids didn't really fight at night time which was growth from the last time they had to share a bed on holiday and that was a queen, otherwise I'd make one of them sleep on the floor and the other outside LOL. The room is, as is the whole resort, tired. They can definitely use some upgrades. There were some things listed on the website about the room that weren't exactly so. When they say they have a minibar, what they mean is there is a bar fridge. empty. When you're at an all-inclusive resort where drinks are included, would it really hurt them to put some soda cans, beer, whatever in there? every other AI resort I've been to has some drink other than water in the room. There was a bottle of water, so there's that. the bathroom amenities are also lacking. everything I read online said every bathroom has a hairdryer...well they don't. all that there was was a small shampoo and a small conditioner which accompanied a square bar of soap wrapped in plastic. Nothing else, so bring your own supplied and don't rely on them having things to make your stay more comfortable. the room/bathroom was clean but could definitely use some TLC. They also don't leave enough towels, we had to call every time we needed fresh towels for them to bring more since one towel for four people wasn't going to cut it. on that front, they were fairly responsive. Let's talk about the food/buffets/restaurants. all in all, the food was pretty decent. it is, after all, an all inclusive so when you're cooking for that many people, the meats are always overcooked, but the taste and flavours were good. no complaints there. the buffets are small though so there isn't much selection, just a few different things. now I say buffets, with an "s", because technically there's three of them. now don't get excited, just because they say there's three, one of them is always closed. so really there's two, and they all serve the same food. The property is big, it's got a long beach front. the buffets are located one at each end and then one in the middle. ideally, it should be convenient to get to one from which ever area you're located. the first buffet is right near the main lobby (lobby 1). its touted as serving breakfast and lunch. for dinner it becomes one of the restaurants. it was the closest buffet to our room but whenever we tried to go for breakfast it was closed. then we had to walk to the middle buffet (#2) to eat, but since it was carrying the weight of the people who were nearest there and the overflow from buffet 1 it was often full and there was no where to sit. there would be staff standing outside telling you to go the the other buffet (#3). so you're basically walking the entire length of the property just to get an egg. it was rather annoying. Now the nice thing about buffet 3 was the service was much better. they have staff walking around to the tables serving water/coffee, getting drinks etc but the staff at buffet 2 were terrible. Even if you caught their eye to ask them to come to your table they still wouldn't. A few times, I'd get frustrated (and wanting my kids to have some water) I'd just get up and go get it myself from a water cart that they just left there with no one manning it. Well, I'll tell you, they didn't like that and it sure got their attention. Buffet 3 is quieter (obvi) and a bit cleaner too, it's just at the far end of the property depending on which end you're located at. The restaurants. There are 7. We ate at 5. Booking a reservation opens at 7 am. Hahahaha. I laugh at that, not at the time, but that reservations "open". Realistically, by the time they open, they're all gone already. So good luck. Even though there's 7 restaurants, three of them are closed daily. The people who have the all-inclusive plus are allowed to book their reservations for their whole week ahead of time. We didn't upgrade since we were quoted $850 PP to do so. No lesser rate for kids and part of the upgrade is higher end alcohol which they're not having. Us lowly regular patrons had to wait until 7 the day of. You can book your reservation in lobby1 or 3 (less busy). When you get there you take a number (from a pile of cut out pieces of paper with a number on it). try to look for the lowest number. Then wait for your number to be called and keep your fingers crossed. I did this my first morning, I was number 37 by the time I got to the lobby at 7:05 am and there was one 9pm reservation left that no one was booking. I didn't take it either cuz that's late to eat. They do have a site in which you can book a reservation on but they told me it wasn't working. I decided to be a rebel and try anyway. so the next morning I logged on and right at 7 on the dot I went in to get a reservation. Again, even though 4 of the 7 restaurants are open for business each day, usually two of them are totally booked by by the time 7 rolls around. We finally decided to succumb to the reservation trolls and just take a 9 pm booking so at least we had something ( and just hit the buffet before hand if need be). That's how we were able to try 5 of the 7 restaurants. we were on holidays, so wtf. We went buck wild and ate late. Aside from having to go to sleep with a full tummy, it was the best we could do. All-in-all, the restaurants we tried weren't terrible. Cowboy was probably our fave (the steak one), the Asian one was second to that. I'd say my least favourite one was the seafood restaurant. It's also located off a parking lot nearly outside the property. It was way past buffet 3. The other two we were able to try were the Mexican one and the Mediterranean one. Both good. The pools. There's lots. Not a lot of chairs and even less umbrellas or shade. you NEED shade. it is hot hot hot in Panama. Since it's such a long property the beach is close always. There's a good amount of shower areas to clean your feet hopefully before you get back in the pool. it's just too bad that many people don't. I'd argue there's probably more umbrellas on the beach than at the pool. Some pools are busier than others, we tended to stay to one that was a bit quieter (not the activity pool) near our room. The two big waterslides are a nice feature. I didn't go on them but my kids did. Not the smoothest ride according to them, a bit, um, painful on the seams. There are no swim up bars but there are bars at each pool. The one thing that was noticeably absent from the pool area was bar staff/waiters to come and take your drink orders and bring it to you. Whenever you want a drink, you just have to go to the bar and get it yourself. The lines were often not too bad but they usually had only one person working at a bar so if it was a busy time, it could take a while. The night life, well, I must admit with so much sun we often didn't make it up too late. they have a 7 pm movie on the beach with popcorn every night and a 9 pm movie for adults. the kids movies were things like Moana 2, Inside Out, Mario, etc. I couldn't tell you what the adult ones were since we never went but I'm sure they were in Spanish, so unless you like to read your movies (unless you speak Spanish) you might want to skip it. There is an amphitheatre where they do their shows. I found it very difficult to walk up and through the rows since there really aren't any aisles. there are just these little red plastic chairs on the concrete, its hard to explain but it wasn't easy to navigate. the Sports Bar wasn't open either, so that's one less thing to do. One last thing to note. The resort is build on a hillside. You will get in good shape. Be sure to practice your stairs before you go. If you can't do stairs, there are vans that drive around to take up you around. They drive on the walkways, when they come by you have to hop over the roadside moat to get out of their way. There were 74 stairs up to our room which was located in building 16, 63 stairs to get up to lobby 1. So ya, there's that. if you're going with small kids and strollers....have fun with that. To summarize: The resort is tired. it could definitely use some upgrades and renos. Food is decent. no one got sick. Brought Immodium but didn't need it. Get up early to secure your pool umbrella, you'll need it. Beaches are nice, sandy but it's the Pacific so the water is rough. Pools are nice. All-in-all its a nice stay, but just average.

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