Breezes Curacao & Casino

Not so Royal Tower

The arrival at Curacao was smooth, with the Breezes representative waiting just outside the airport arrival area. I stayed from Nov 21 -25 in Room 2313 in the Royal Tower, which is apparently an old wing. The room was supposed to be an oceanview but the only view from that room was of the top of 2 coconut trees and the back of the Japanese theme restaurant... Munasan. However, that wing is the closest to all the restaurants and the pool. The room itself was clean and comfortable with housekeeping cleaning and replenishing toiletries daily.
On the second day the elevator to the main entrance of the tower was out of service and was not repaired up to the time I left 3 days later.
Most meals were eaten at Jimmy's Buffet and some of the dishes available were quite tasty but generally the food was hit and miss, especially the pork which tended to be dried out. This also applies to Martino's, the Italian theme restaurant, where I had the pork loin. Dishes were not always replenished in a timely manner and you often have to ask a staff member before it is refilled, especially Jimmy's which has the most turnover. For the early risers like myself, there is only coffee available { which was always lukewarm } at 6:30 until the main breakfast. It occurred to me that if one was a vegetarian, there would be limited fare on the menu with the bananas, papaya and watermelon not always being the freshest.
Having said that, all the staff I interfaced with were quite friendly and helpful. Those that did not understand called one of their colleagues to complete my request.
The best feature of the resort for me was the service of the staff, to the point of being apologetic when items that should be readily available were not. Special mention to Norma at the poolside bar, whose cheerful attitude made all her customers feel welcome.
In conclusion, the ocean view was non existent, from my room anyway. The food was adequate if not to my taste at times, drinks were varied and more than adequate and the staff was generally pleasant and most helpful.

• Opinion of Price: N/A
• Related to: Beaches, Casino and Gambling, Aquarium

Breezes Curacao & Casino Photo: Royal Tower wing

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Worst hotel I´ve visited

This is the worst hotel Ive ever visited in my life!! Dirty, old, tacky and it has no beach! An artificial small beach that has no comparison to the rest of the Caribean. We were invited by an insurance company who apparently were mislead by the advertisement (in pictures it looks amazing).After entering our smelly rooms with those old dirty sofas and meretricious decoration we defenitely left the hotel and change for a Marriot. I hope other poor travelers don´t fall in this trap. Even if it was for free you would prefer staying in your house.

Unique Quality: No qualities. Curacao has many refineries throwing smoke all night all day, a nice reminder of global warming and pollution in you vacations. Curacao has no sand beaches, but rocky small places. The town is ok, just those few colonial houses you see in every picture.

Breezes

We were lucky enough to take advantage of a special and got the penthouse suite. The room had a separate bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen had a fridge/freezer, stovetop, dishwasher, and kitchenware. Could have used some dish soap. Kept everything in the fridge to avoid the small ants and did not have any problems. The view was awesome of the ocean and side view of the resort. Nice TV with several US channels, HBO, CNN. Bathroom had a tube/shower, but did not drain normally. Also the water was usually lukewarm. It was so humid, that I didn't really want a hot shower anyway. There was a separate dressing room that had the only USA style plugs, but oddly sometimes the power in this room would not come on. There is a connecting spiral staircase, and we could hear the people downstairs through this stairwell, though it was locked.

There is a free shuttle service into the Willstamd center twice a day. Onsite car rentals and tour desk.

My only real issue was a stolen cell phone. I did not leave it in the safe and it was taken from my room as the charm had been cut and left in the drawer. I have filed a compliant with the company to be resolved.

Unique Quality: The facilities are great. A very nice spa has a lot of massage packages, with US pricing. Imelda was my therapist and was great. The gift shop was just okay, but had bottled water for 2 dollars. Had postcards and stamps. The onsite jewlery shop was smallish. There is a odd gift shop selling black coral jewlery, which I thought was not good to purchase. Pools are great and very clean. The food was very nice for the buffet restaurant, lots of variety. The Italian and Japanese were also very nice. It isn't gourmet, but for the all inclusive it's fine. The beer is local Amstel, and adequate. Lots of chairs and umbrellas on the beach.

Scuba shop was great and the free shore dives are a deal. All gear is included. I took a guided shore dive. There is also a free discover scuba class. The shop takes many boat trips for fees. The shop is part of Ocean Encounters which has a shop on the island. Since the shore dives are free, you do have to set up and put away all of your gear yourself.

Curacao Great Value

Breezes Curacao is a great place for the value. It's All-Inclusive with great staff. The hotel is getting older and needs so refurbishing. The rooms have great views. The pool is jagged lanes for the kids, jacuzzi for the adults and a water game pool. The bars are great, one in the pool, the one along the beach, the one between the buildings and the one in the disco. The bar tenders are attentive and keep the drinks coming. The beach is nice white stand. It has minimal running options. They have lots of water games, hobie crafts, kayaks, paddle boats, snorkel gear etc all free. They have free scuba diving once a day. The casino is pretty small but gives some good entertainment. The spa has lots of package options with many treatments to choose from. The prices are very similar to spas in the US or even cheaper in some cases.

Overall Breezes Curacao is a great place for the money.

More Pictures of Breezes

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Breezes Curacao & Casino

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Breezes Curaçao Had a Great Time!!!

You can read a review I have I did shortly after our trip in 2002 Here:

http://www.caribline.com/cgi-bin/agnes.cgi?CuracaoAgnes+CuracaoAgnesHTMLArticle+archive+Up_to_April_26,_2002+581

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Breezes Curacao & Casino

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Great all around family resort

We arrived in Curacao late on a Thursday night and were exhausted after lugging our luggage and diving gear around the airports. We were transported to the resort promptly in a nice air conditioned bus. When we got to Breezes our check in time was minimal and finally some body else was carrying our luggage. The bellmen there were great and also when I mentioned that I payed for oceanfront accomadations but were cked in at an oceanview room he promptly got keys to about 10 different rooms in all parts of the resort and wore me out showing them to me.He had said we could pick from any of the rooms we wanted (some of which were suites with full size kitchens) all for the same price! A ten dollar tip in a no tipping resort goes a long way!! Of course by the time I returned to the first room my family were all moved in already. After considering the beautiful view and proximity to all the amenities we stayed in the first room after all.We were informed that we could switch right up until Friday evening when the resort usually gets booked up. The only drawback was that we were on the second floor of a building with no elevator. If you have bad knees like me it could be an issue but we found it worth it. They have a 5 story building that has an elevator but it is a little further away from the central area. ( closer to dive dock and disco though)

Unique Quality: The resort was clean,the food was very good and varied at Jimmy's Buffet. Our favorite of the two other eating facilities was the italian resturant. The japanese was also good. The resort was on the south side of the Island and has constant cooling trade winds. There are activities, entertainment and excursions for just about everyone. The service staff was great,attenative and friendly.They have a dive dock that gets serviced by ocean encounters that is down the road but no actual dive shop on site. They have air tanks and weights but thats it. I didn't end up diving with them because being our first dives after certification I thought it would be prudent to have a dive master with us (just me and my son) and they had none available. The all inclusive included one shore dive a day but your surface swim took you across the inlet of their lagoon which was always crowded with small sailboats and other water craft. The bouy and descent line were close to the rock jetty and while we were there the seas had a 2-3ft chop and we were concerned about being pushed against the rocks. I'm sure that if we had more dives under our belt we might not have been as intimidated. We did get 2 boat dives and 5 shore dives in at other locations.I don't know if the seas are always this choppy on the south side or if it was because of the 2 hurricanes that passed around ( not through because Curacao is out of the hurricane "belt") while we were there.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Breezes Curacao & Casino Photo: View from our balcony

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Great Family Resort

Stayed for a week. Breezes is very family-oriented. This was my first trip taking the kids and they had a ball. There is a Kid's Club so if you want to spend the day kidless, you can.
The entertainment staff was great and encouraged guest to participate. Food was OK. We ate at Jimmy's Buffet most days. The kids had pancakes and bacon every day.
There is also a Japanese and Italian restaurant (reservations needed) as well as a beach bar and grill.

Unique Quality: The pool bar was awesome.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Breezes Curacao & Casino Photo: From our Balcony

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The resort life!

This resort was really a lot of fun. Since there isn't much to do on the actual island of Curacao, this is a good comprimise. The price is amazing for what you get - not only is your food, drink, and hotel covered, but you can use their rock climing wall, volleyball facilities (beach and pool), trapeze, AND all water sports - including scuba diving. I learned how to windsurf there. They also have a tour desk, so for very little money, you can take day trips to snorkel, sight-see, etc. You can also rent a car from a rental agency in the lobby so you can go by yourself.

Unique Quality: The pools are really nice, but not very deep - but the ocean drops right off at the beach so within about 6 feet from shore, the water was over my head, so the swimming was amazing. Colder than I thought, though - much colder than the ocean around Jamaica, which is weird since Curacao is so much closer to the equator. There's also a casino on site, and the local buses go right by the resort into town. The resort also runs free shuttles into town a couple times a day.

• Opinion of Price: about average

Breezes Curacao & Casino Photo: climbing wall and beach

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