Name: Casa Bonita Apartment
Address: Veracruz, Balboa, Balboa, Balboa, Panama
Rating: 7

Location

Panama Pacifico Airport

Tocumen International Airport

Marcos A. Gelabert International Airport

Enrique Adolfo Jimenez Airport

Casa Bonita Apartment

Balboa

Anjimara was Excellent every time, went above and beyond for us. Well recommended her to anyone. She made our experience very great and welcoming. Our dinner, lunch and breakfast was filled with smiles and laughter. 

Excellent

The food is served lukewarm. The buffets are unhygienic and if you are not there first the food is picked over and hard to get. Our room was full of mould and we had no hot water. The pool is dirty with floating layer of brown scum and prominent algae growth. The grounds are in disrepair. You can wait up to 30 minutes at the pool bar for a drink. The wait for an al la carte restaurant was up to 90 minutes. The front desk, concierge, housekeeping and room service NEVER answer the phone. 

Run away as fast as you can from this resort

Very slow service at bars and room service, when order comes its wrong, staff do not seem to know what activities are planned, food was alright but not much selection. beach was not swimmable. staff was not rude just not helpful.

I would not stay here again

If I can stop at least One other person from coming to Dreams, that would satisfy me.   I did not do what I should have done .   READ THE REVIEWS   They mean alot. They are Real people trying to stop you from making the same mistake with the same hotel just as I am now!   Let me make this short and sweet:  RESTAURANTS/ROOMS/POOL/ ENTERTAINMENT/ that and more., they all SUCK at this location.    If you choose  to do an excursion from here, . do the 90min presentation    and tell them to put it towards that excursion ($150.00)- because the excursion is costly.

DO NOT COME HERE!

Not the best, but not bad. Melisha was the only person to greet me upon arrival & show me where to go for check in. She said hello everyday and made us feel welcome. There was no tour or explanation of amenities, only QR codes to scan. Not much to do or variety of places to eat. Too many birds disrupting your meal stealing food. The beach wasnt really swimmable nor did you see any activities being offered. The hotel itself is alittle dated. Mold in alot of places and patch work needed on walls. Bar closes too early for this to be all inclusive. The staff were nice but not very attentive. Some spoke english & others didnt even try to engage. My friend tried to book transfer back to airport & next morning they lost his info & claimed not to have any rsvp. It was still $45 even though the mistake was theirs. No point in leaving the property by foot, no where to go for miles so uber or bus tour. Pool wasnt very clean nor did i see anyone do maintenance. Room phone barely worked. Housekeeping would enter the room without knocking so had to latch the door. Met some nice people on the trip, had a few laughs. Best part of the hotel was the massage at the spa. Expensive but worth it. The gym is old but worked out fine for quick workouts. If i came back id stay on the carribean side someplace else. 

Ok i guess...

My husband and I, and my sister and brother-in-law went for the Christmas holiday.  
 
The good:
The staff was very nice and worked really hard to make our stay manageable.  Saul concierge, Eliceo Activities guy, Luis Diaz front desk and Ingrid Gomez manager.  The wait staff at the restaurants and bars were also very nice and instrumental in making a bad situation manageable.   We also liked the food.   The Christmas eve dinner was probably the meal, and the decor was nice.    The drinks were wonderful.  We also had great weather. 

The bad: 
We were so disappointed with the rooms.   We paid for a partial ocean view king room with balcony.   We were assigned to the 1st floor.  The rooms smelled of mold and all of the furniture was either torn or stained.   It looked like there was water damage on the wall and the air conditioning work sporadically.  Plus, the power kept going out multiple times a day.  In all my travels I never experienced anything like this.   Our concierge, agreed to move us at no charge to a higher floor, but we wanted to see the room first.  So, he suggested we check out the preferred room as well.  We saw both rooms decided on a 2nd floor room which was slightly better than our first room, at least the air conditioning was working and there was no visible mold.   The preferred room was on 5th floor it was also a little better, but we didn't want to chance getting stuck with the power outages.  However, nothing was up 4- or 5-star level.   The number of activities available was lacking as well.  There one guy doing everything.   
He did an amazing job very energetic and outgoing but there are only so much he could do.  
There were 3 specialty restaurants on the first day.  By the second day we were down to 2.   For breakfast we only had the Market Cafe buffet open (same menu every day), for lunch the two beach restaurants.  They had a cafe with ice cream, coffee and pastries.    For dinner the 2 specialty restaurants (They had the same menu every night) and for after 10:30 p.m.  limited room service.   

We went to the SPA, had a great massage but there again everything was old and worn.   They used a fan in our room during the massage to help with air circulation and try to keep the room cool. My husband and I changed in the women's locker room/bathroom, only 4 lockers worked and had keys.   They had to keep watch to make sure we had some privacy to change.   
Everything was just worn and in need of an upgrade.  Balcony furniture was also worn.   We never sat out on our balcony; this was a first.  Beach chairs were stained, pool walls were in need maintenance and no Hot Tub, really??    I didn't realize they accepted small dogs.   Not what you want to see on your vacation walking through restaurants, barking and pooping on the grass.   Ewww!

Dreams a big Disappointment

I actually enjoyed my stay at Dreams but was torn between 3 and 4 stars. If you are easy going and don't expect things to always work, for example, you will have a better time than someone who notices everything that's not as expected.  

Pros:  The resort itself is very pretty, the rooms overlook gorgeous pools and palapas and the ocean.  The staff is wonderful and really greets you with what seems to be a genuine smile.  The room service is fast (and included), which my kids loved.  The Pina Coladas are great, there are plenty of bars and they don't skimp on the drinks.  The rooms are big, the food is plentiful, there is a snack bar in the afternoon if you miss lunch, and a cafe that seemed to be open most of the time.  It wasn't crowded, the kids enjoyed playing pool in the game room and watching the big TV and kayaking (or was it canoing?) and archery and some putting.

The food was a mixed bag, some good, some meh, with a few very good items.

Cons:  The electricity and wifi went out many times, and the elevator frequently stopped working (difficult for us because we traveled with my 80-year-old parents).  We had to switch rooms because the air conditioning broke in 2 of our 5 rooms.  They moved us to rooms that they assured us were ready, but in fact housekeeping hadn't come and we had to move back for a few hours.  We reserved a private room in the restaurant for my mother's birthday dinner, and that morning they told us that another party had actually reserved it before us.  A few of us were covered in bug bites every morning - we did not know if they were bed bugs or not, my sister wiped things off her sheets but wasn't sure.  The hotel had warned us of sand bugs, so who knows.  

Mixed experience, overall pretty good

Recently myself and 3 other guest said the Dreams Playa Bonita in Panama City, Panama.

We were very dissatisfied with the food and a food quality. None of which stood up to the Dreams Luxury standers! Rooms were dirty and cover in mold. 

The guest staying in the 2nd room was the worse. The smell was so bad, the could not stay in the room. They would come to my room were we would sit on the balcony. They did not offer to switch rooms even after complaining the first day. One of the ladies in that room was sick the entire time because of the mold. Everything smelled of mold in my room as well, just wasn’t as bad as the 2nd room. I asked for a manager 4 times before i could speak with a female… not sure if she was a Manager. After complaining nothing was offered, but to put an air purifier in the room…

The 2nd room wasn’t giving any robes nor slippers, and minimal bathroom amenities compare to what was put in my room.

The food was terrible. The only time i truly ate was during breakfast. We went to the formal dinner restaurant for dinner where we were giving fake fish. We ordered sea bass and received a fake rubber product… I was so discussed. I didn’t trust anything else at the resort to consume.

Things at this resort need lots of improvement for future guest sake. There were other groups there who complaining of the same thing.

Do not stay here! Mold and fake sea bass

This was literally the worst place I’ve ever stayed & I’ve traveled to 23 countries. Their idea of entertainment was an old man playing “YMCA”’on a saxophone. The food was bland & the drinks were watered down. Our room had mold everywhere & there was used food and drinks in our mini fridge. THIS IS NOT WORTH $300 a night. It was so bad we left early & didn’t get a refund. I didn’t even care because anywhere was better than here. Riu in Playa Blanca is wayyy better. Further away but so worth it & half the price. Riu in Panamá City is lovely too. Please heed my warning & stay anywhere but Dreams Playa Bonita.

Dreams was a nightmare

Buffets should have a better selection of foods.  Thanksgiving buffet had only ONE turkey for its guests.
One of the restaurants had a sewage smell at the entrance.  Activities were great for all family members.    

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