Winter Sun at Riu Touareg – When the sparkle wears off

The saga of the pillowcases and the cricket in the wall

We are just over halfway through our stay and have settled into a routine. Teaching work at the weekend, filming, photography and of course relaxing in the warm, the rest of the time. It’s a good dry run for when I’m in Barbados, though I will be doing more tutor sessions there I think. I’m still having a great time but there have just been a few annoyances that we could do without.

Neighbours

We had a 5 am wake-up from a room nearby that obviously couldn’t deal with the free flowing all inclusive alcohol and sounded like they were smashing up the whole room. We rang reception and they did send security over, when speaking to the Tui rep the next day, it had been dealt with and didn’t happen again with those neighbours.

Just note your neighbours won't be as quiet as you hope they will. They will always get up earlier than you wanted or come home late when you are trying to sleep. Want a lie-in? forget about it. By 8:30 am housekeeping will start their rounds and talking and whistling or dropping of mops and moving of furniture will proceed. Sound really seems to echo around the accommodation blocks and at times voices drift through the vent system.

Housekeeping

One day this week we returned from a walk along the beach to our room which had been tidied while we were out to find they had missed putting the pillowcases back on. No problem, we thought, as it was still only 6.30 pm, I will just report it via the Riu app and they can sort it while we go and get some food. While eating the app was updated to say it had been rectified, yay nice and simple. We finished eating and returned to the room, and still no pillowcases…. Weird. Back on the app to check I hadn’t imagined it, no it definitely says it has been done. A call to reception and I was told housekeeping would be with us soon….. soon is a relative term apparently. An hour later we still hadn’t had a visit. Another call to reception. I spoke to the same person who told me it had been sorted. ‘I am in the room and can guarantee it hasn’t been, so she said she would call housekeeping again. By this time we were starting to get tired and wanted to go to sleep but didn’t want to use the pillows uncovered. Getting rather frustrated but distracted by catching all the crickets that seemed to have made out room home during the day, another half hour passed. Still nothing. Another call to the reception since it had been 3 ½ hours since the first report. Not wanting to complain or get angry but really trying to get the point across we wanted to go to bed! Finally, someone did arrive, handed over the cases and we could go to sleep and it wouldn't happen again. Or so we thought..........

Chirp chirp……..Chirp chirp WTH another cricket in the room and he obviously wanted a friend as he was chirping his little heart out. Hunting the room I followed the sound to the …..wall? Seriously how did he get in there? I’m tired and really just want to sleep but he is still chirping away. A bit of a google and some suggestions on what to do. Not unsurprising really other people had asked the same question. How do you get a cricket to shut up!? Air conditioning was a suggestion, if they get chilly they get sleepy. Well, the room was a bit warm so a little dose of air-con would be fine, but as I don’t like the cold it would probably upset me more than the cricket. Some more reading and someone suggested just switching off the lights, as they don’t chirp at night to avoid letting predators know where they are. Well, a quick listen outside made me doubt this since lots of his friends were singing too but with earphones at hand, just in case, off the lights went. He must have thought the sun went down pretty quickly that night, but he shut up until about 5 am, when the earphones came in useful.

A few days later and we were missing pillowcases again! thankfully housekeeping were still in the corridor so we went to ask for some as we didn’t trust it would be rectified without us being there. Instead of passing some from the cart, we were told it would be 5 minutes. She did turn up thankfully but on both occasions, we were missing a sorry or a gesture to apologise from the hotel, which is a shame. The experience has taken some of the sparkle off our time here.

We have also had quite a few days where the advertised 2 bottles of water that should be in the room have been missed. I'm not a big water drinker but in this heat, it is good to have on hand and if it is advertised you should get it. I'm sure the hotel description had shower gel and shampoo listed when we were choosing the rooms but we haven't had any in our room since we arrived. Thankfully I brought some with me.

Food (well desserts really)

The food has been great. The only slight annoyance is the desserts. They look AMAZING but the taste is a bit lacking and they can be a bit dry. I have done my due diligence for you, and have tried most of them and have found the special desserts in the evening are some of the best as they are prepared fresh for you. I have also found a fruit and cream roll to be really tasty and moist (sorry for those this word triggers) and the fresh fruit is a winner each time.

These are just a few things I have noticed. I don't want to make it sound like I'm not enjoying my time here, I really am, and each time something annoys me slightly I just think I could be in the cold, rain and snow in England and I feel much better. We are heading out on an evening tour this week so I'll let you know how it goes in my next update.