Dreams Curacao Review
My family just got back from Spring Break at Dreams Curacao. We were booked at Dreams Tulum, but we pivoted to Curacao once the cartel violence kicked off early last month. We have previously stayed as several Dreams and Secrets properties in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, which was part of the reason we chose to stay here. We booked the preferred club rooms.
TL/DR
This was a disappointment compared to the other Dreams and Secrets properties we have visited. It was much smaller, had only one small pool and one small beach, had fewer restaurants, and was overall in worse condition than the other properties.
Food
There were only three restaurants aside from the buffet, and one was closed each night. There was no advance notice that any of the restaurants would be closed. The food was fine, but the menus were small, and it was frustrating to have the options further limited by the closures. The preferred breakfast and lunch by the ocean were very chill and uncrowded. I did not like the buffet, which was fairly low quality food. The beach snack shack was not very good either. Room service was serviceable other than late night, when the options were very limited.
Booze
Outside of the preferred lounge, which had a good selection, there were very limited options. Much less so than at the other resorts of this brand we have visited. The only whiskey option was Dewar's scotch, and everything else was well brands I had never heard of. They had some options in the preferred lounge than we have not seen at other properties (e.g., Hennessy, Glen Fiddich 12, The 1800)
Pool
The pool was fairly small with limited seating. There was a big, but poor quality, kid's pool that we never say anyone using. There are no swim-out rooms or swim-up bar. There is also no preferred pool, so even if you pay for preferred, you can easily have trouble getting pool side seating.
Beach
The beach was a very small area with not much ocean frontage or room for swimming. The ocean area in front of the beach was about the size of a neighborhood swimming pool. There are no life guards/ Most of the resort has small cliffs ocean side. There is a preferred "beach area" that is 8 sun beds on a patch of sand near the cliffs. We spent a lot of our time there, and we were always able to get a sun bed. There were also steps down to the ocean along the cliff, where you can swim out to a concrete platform with a rusty ladder to climb up it and dive off. The kids enjoyed that. If you are into swimming in the ocean from the beach, this really is not the resort for you.
Rooms
The property looks and feels like a single, old hotel. We got the biggest, most expensive rooms, which were billed as a suite. The room was fine for us, and had a small living room area, but it was somewhat annoying that we had to book a separate room for our 13 year old. He counted as an "adult" and the room only had a king bed, so it couldn't hold three "adults." It had a separate cot that would have been fine for him, but he was in a room with another 13 year old friend, so they had a blast and it worked out fine. We had a very large balcony, but it only had two chairs, so felt very empty and like a waste of space.
Overall
**5/10--**would not return. I really liked the island itself (we went into Willemstad one day), but this resort was not up to expectations based other Dreams and Secrets properties we have visited.