2 replies to this topic

[TheSassyRabbit]

Well, last week was the annual girls trip- this year it was to Ramon's Village in Ambergris Caye (San Pedro), Belize. Unfortunately I was not able to dive (since I'm STILL recovering from my broken foot and ankle), so I just played the role of beach bum really well. I do, however, have some comments about Ramon's Village.

We were excited at the apparent charm of Ramon's Village when we pulled up (it took 4 golf garts to get all of us and our luggage to the resort which luckily isn't more than 1/2 mile from the airport... er... uh... the landing strip. It's cute little rooms with the thatched roofs is just too cute to pass up. The food, service, and air conditioning, however, were! I'll definitely be going back to Belize, but not to Ramon's....

Let's start with the a/c. Before you roll your eyes and think "high maintenance" let me just say... I'm from Houston and am quite used to serious heat and humidity. I'm also a big fan of the saying "better to have air conditioning and not need it, then to need it and not have it" on vacation! It was necessary there - HOT, HOT, HOT in Belize, and quite humid! When we arrived in our rooms, we discovered that the a/c had not been turned on. Since the resort is in low season, and folks have been fearful of the tropical storms of late, the resort was less than 1/4 full, the a/c in the rooms had not been running. After 24 hours of cooling the rooms, we discovered that one of the rooms - a bigger one with a king bed and two twins - never cools down (the maintenance guy even told us that it's a common complaint about that room - it is too big for the one little tiny air conditioner overhead). The office staff was fairly rude about the situation, but did accomodate a move. We understand from several other guests that their a/c's were accumulating condensation and blowing it on them in the middle of the night!

Ramon's is building a new "wing" onto their restaurant/bar area - I think they said it would be a new lobby (right now the office is literally one of the rooms converted and is very small). They began hammering, sawing, and other related construction at 7:00 a.m. every morning. Considering that the first dive isn't until 9:00 a.m., it was quite frustrating for those who wanted (or needed) the extra hour of sleep! Speaking of restaurants - the breakfast was really good (especially the banana pancakes), but the rest of their menu (lunch and dinner) was .... NOT. If visiting the area, I do highly recommend the Victoria House restaurant, Calient's, Blue Water Grill, and moderately recommend Fido's and Caramba's. Luckily for us, we had heard that Ramon's food wasn't so great (although we tried it out twice), so we didn't buy their meal plan.

Although I didn't dive, the rest of my diving friends were less than thrilled with the dive shop crew. If you're someone who goes on vacation and expects the dive boat crew to set up your gear, be forewarned.... they expect you to do it yourself - unless you get snippy with them (in which case they will do it - while mumbling under their breathe). Also, they come back to shore to exchange tanks between dives - their boat wasn't big enough to take out two tanks for each person - some people like that, some don't. Needless to say, they don't offer snacks on board since they take you back in. The "Miss Gina" - Ramon's primary dive boat - was reported to be "okay" - but their were definitely better looking (newer) boats in other fleets! One of the girls who only purchased three days of diving got very ill on the second day and could not make the second dive (after literally getting sick on the first). The dive shop manager said to her buddy "she KNOW's she's going to lose that dive doesn't she?". We all thought that was pretty insensitive - especially since the resort was almost empty - and there was plenty of days left to make up that one dive!

And I could go on about the service and a few other incidents....

After the dive shop incident I sought out Ramon himself. I will say, on his behalf, he was very pleasant. He treated us to lobster dinner one night - a very nice gesture (although humorously, the lobster was so overcooked it was difficult to eat). Ramon said that several of his key staff (including the dive shop lead) were on vacation - and admitted that they had been having a bit of a challenge that week.

All in all, I had a great time laying on the beach (Ramon's does have the nicest beach, and it is public), relaxing. Had some terrific food at the places mentioned above, and as a bonus, it was Independence Day while we were there, so we had a really fun time in town with the locals celebrating the occasion. Now back to reality......

SR

[DandyDon]

Sorry you had a bad stay. Had you read my Belize report? Tried to warn everyone that Pro Tech is the one.

We're having a Houston Happy hour during DEMA next month. Watch for details.

[Latitude Adjustment]

Someone made simular remarks about Ramon's over on scubadiving.com, to bad because the place does look nice.