We stayed at The Fives for six days. It was our first time here and is a very large compound. We had some good things and some not so good things.
A special shout out to Alejandro at the pool as he kept our drinks refreshed constantly. Sheila and Suemmi gave us amazing massages since we had a couples massage. Aguilar and Juanito Tony were great porters. My husband is having his knee replaced, and we told them it was hard to get around. When we walked to the lobby, they often grabbed a golf cart to help us get to the pool at the ocean, so he didn’t have to wait. Oemi, Carlos and Perez were great, too. They helped us book attractions and listened when we had issues.
The food was good, and the staff were very nice and helpful. The restaurants rotated as to what was open. If you use the app from the map, it was easy to figure out what was open, when, etc. When we went for French food, we were also offered the Mexican food options so that was an extra bonus to be able to order from both. Our favorite restaurant was the Italian, though. We ate right when the restaurants opened so we didn’t have any issues with waiting.
We participated in the cooking class at Casa Rosa. It was so much fun! The ladies kept us on our toes and the food was amazing! It was worth the extra cost for a fun night with our family.
We traveled with eight of us in four separate rooms. Check-in was easy, and the staff was very friendly. Three out of four rooms were upgraded. We booked a one-bedroom penthouse. When we arrived at our room, it was a swim up residence. Nice, but not what we booked. The driver took us back to the lobby, so we could get our penthouse (which we did).
Unfortunately, the elevator did not work in our villa. With my husband’s bad knee, it was tough going up three flights of stairs multiple times a day. Our room was clean and the layout was nice. It was a little disappointing that the hot tub on the patio was empty. There were also no towels or cushions for us to use up there.
When visiting our other family members’ rooms, we realized everyone else had been upgraded, except us. The next morning, we brought our comments to the staff. Carlos worked very hard to find us another room. We toured two other rooms immediately, but they were all the same as ours (broken elevator included). Carlos later came and found us at the pool and had two more rooms to look at. We also realized our sister got a very special upgrade for her one bedroom (2.5 bathrooms and a wraparound balcony), and that is why our room seemed worse. However, one of the rooms we toured had a working elevator, so we moved rooms. We appreciated the team trying very hard to help us find a better room.
On our second day in the new room, we came back from the pool while cleaning was working. We went up to the penthouse to give her space. She came up and we thought she asked if we wanted her to clean the patio and we said no thank you. There was a language barrier because she stopped cleaning. This was 100% our fault. However, when we went downstairs, the sheet on the top of the bed had stains all over it. It looked like blood spatter. We immediately contacted guest services via WhatsApp and they promised to send someone over. We waited for almost two hours, and no one arrived. We were not comfortable laying on the bed with the stained sheets. We later learned that they sent someone to our son’s room to change the sheets. It was odd because we were on completely separate reservations, so we were not sure how that got confused other than we have the same last name. When I texted WhatsApp again to explain cleaning went to the incorrect room, they came over while we were at dinner and fixed the issue.
We liked the fact that you could reserve Bali beds. Yes, there is a cost involved, but it was nice to ensure everyone had space for our larger party. We learned on the first day that the 15 minute rule of saving a seat was not enforced which is disappointing. Being a larger group, we didn’t expect to find 8 chairs together, but if everything is taken by 9:00 AM with people reserving with their towels, you are out of luck to get even four chairs together.
While it is all-inclusive, tipping was super appreciated. We only saw a few others tipping. A few dollars here and there go a long way to help the people who took care of us all week. It was never expected and always much appreciated.
