Hotel RIU Varadero Review - Part 1

We stayed at the Riu Varadero from July 19 to July 26. This was one of the newer-built hotels in Varadero, and it shows. All the buildings were very clean and well taken care of. The hotel staff was very friendly, and they would always greet you every time they pass you by. Check-in was very quick and one of the hotel staff took our luggage to the room. We stayed in Building 24, which was very close to the beach.

Room

The room was very clean and well-kept. The double-sized beds we had were comfortable, but there was another small mattress in the room that felt like you were sleeping on a rock. I slept on that mattress one night, and it was honestly one of the worst nights of sleep I ever had. There was something wrong with the TV, in which the colors was all messed up and couldn’t be fixed, but that was only a minor inconvenience. The mini-fridge was pretty cool, which came stoked with water, soft drinks, and beer. It was replenished every other day. The balcony was also very nice. Other than that, the room was pretty standard. The maids came by every day and did a great job in cleaning the room.

Rating: 7/10

Bathroom

Once again, pretty standard. A major problem is that there is a very high step to go in the bathtub, so young children, the elderly, or others who need assistance may find it difficult to step into the bathtub. Be sure to ask one of the hotel maids for some sort of step ladder if problems arise.

Rating: 6/10

Towels

From reading previous reviews of this hotel, there were many people who had issues with exchanging towels, so I brought my own. There were already beach towels in the room, so I used those first before I used my own. Indeed, exchanging those hotel-issued towels was a pain. The towel desk had inconsistent hours, and they always ran out of clean towels. This is something that needs to be fixed.

Food

Please note that I am a vegetarian. My review of the food may not reflect on those who are not vegetarians.

The main buffet restaurant has a wide selection of food for everyone, including pizza, pasta, stir-fry, and more. For breakfast, there’s an omelette bar for people to enjoy. Honestly, the food was not very good at all. You tend to say that when the food you eat in the resort has you running for the bathroom.

The snack bar by the main pool has your typical fast-food grub, such as hamburgers, hotdogs, and French fries. They also have a mini-buffet. The food here is slightly better than the buffet food, but not by much.

The worst (for vegetarians) is the a la carte restaurants. I went to the Creole and Oriental restaurants and they didn’t offer any vegetarian options. The Creole restaurant offered me a spaghetti (which was horrible), and I walked out of the Oriental restaurant. For a so-called Cuban 5-star resort, Riu really needs to offer vegetarian options for their a la carte restaurants. Absolutely ridiculous.

Overall, the food was pretty bad, almost terrible and inedible. Also, the food is left open, so that brings in bugs and insects toward the food. In the snack bar, I’ve seen birds fly to the open buffet food and pick at it. That is very unhygienic, if I do say so myself. My stomach was killing me at the end of the vacation.

Rating: 1/10 (seriously, it is that bad)

If you have the opportunity to eat outside the resort, please do so. I recommend the Salsa Suarez in Varadero town. Tell them Randy sent you.

Gift Shop/Vendors

The gift shop and the various vendors outside it sell various souvenirs and other products. They are a bit expensive though, so I suggest taking a taxi to the town of Varadero, where there is a lot more choice on what souvenirs to buy, and at a cheaper price.

Part 2 will come tomorrow, where I will talk about the beach, the pools, the entertainment, and give my final verdict.

What's good?

Hey, been a while since I wrote a proper post on here. Just letting you all know that I'm gonna be putting up some new stuff in the coming weeks, after I come back from Cuba. I leave tomorrow, and I am coming back on the following Friday (July 27).

Watch this blog, and I'll be back soon.

Random Thoughts 8: The “Facebook-Related Grievances” Edition

It has been a while since I did a blog entry, let alone a Random Thoughts blog. Well I am back, and madder than ever, so let’s get it. This blog is about stuff I have encountered on Facebook recently.

I have tried to get rid of my Facebook account on two separate occasions this year, but I couldn’t even last a week both times. It is pretty sad that Facebook has that kind of pull on my life, but Facebook is the only way that I can keep in contact with my extended family in other countries. Anyways, let’s get to the real gripes.

I have a few Facebook friends that do nothing but post things like inspirational quotes and messages. Now it is okay to do this once in a while, but doing this all the time is just really annoying, like those few of my Facebook friends. It comes off as a bit elitist, and that you are basically telling everyone “I’m better than you because I post these quotes and follow them and that you should follow them too”. You don’t even know if that person is actually following those quotes that they keep putting up. Nobody gives a shit about your inspirational quotes.

Next thing, and let me paint the scene for you. A girl is uploading pictures of her drunken night out with her girlfriends. You look at her pictures, typical loose women holding alcoholic drinks making drunken poses for the camera, and then, you see a picture of a certain pose that you can’t really understand. Why is it that girls have that picture of a girl kissing another girl on the cheek? For the life of me, I can never understand why (drunk) girls do this. Are they trying to do their best lesbian impression? It seems like every time someone looks at a girl’s pictures of their night out, there is always that picture of a girl kissing another girl’s cheek. Now I’m not saying this should stop, I just want to know why this always seems to happen. You don’t see a guy kissing another guy on the cheek, unless they were gay. But seriously, I want to know why this happens.

Last thing, on the subject of kissing people on the cheek, a kind of picture that pisses me off is where the guy gets one or two women to kiss him on the cheek. If you are a guy who has to get pictures of yourself with women kissing you to make yourself look like some sort of “ladies man”, then you are a fucking douche, plain and simple. The guys who have to get pictures like that are basically trying to cover up their own insecurities. They are scared guys, if you think about it. I’m not being bitter about it, but it is a fact. These are the kind of guys who deserve to have their face burned by napalm, yeah let’s see what girls would kiss you now.

Well, there are some thoughts out of my system, if you want more of the same, follow me on Twitter @Randy_Narine. Bye for now… 

My Take on the GTA V Announcement and Some Speculation

A few days after I posted my tribute article to the 10^th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar Games announced on Monday that they were developing a new Grand Theft Auto game, called “Grand Theft Auto V”. Obviously, I was very excited to hear this news, and it gave me something to look forward to. I’ve made it no secret that GTA is my favorite video game series of all time, and I cannot wait to see what direction Rockstar will be taking for this adventure.

There isn’t too much to speculate on GTA V, other than the logo. Looks like something out of a 5-dollar bill, in my opinion. That could be a clue right there, the 5-dollar bill there represents money, so money could be a bigger factor in this GTA game than in previous GTA games. I frequent the GTA forums quite a bit, and there is also speculation as to where the location will be set for this game. If the logo is anything to go by, the setting could be a place where money runs the city. My bet is on Las Vegas to be the setting of this GTA game. In fact, I will take this one step further. If anyone remembers GTA: San Andreas, the three major cities were Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). I am fairly confident that the location of this new GTA game will be in a redesigned version of one of those cities in San Andreas. How confident am I? I will say 75%, but like all speculation, I could be wrong.

Of course, a lot of the game won’t be revealed until the first trailer comes out on November 2 (Wednesday). In the trailer, we would probably get an idea on the setting of this game, the main character of the game, and also have a basic idea of the plot, among other things.

One last issue, why did Rockstar have to call this one GTA V? The transition from GTA 2 to GTA 3 and from GTA 3 to GTA IV was massive. We went from a cartoony, top-down styled GTA 2, to an open world, sandbox styled GTA 3. We also went from that same open world; sandbox styled GTA 3 to a graphically robust, beautifully atmospheric GTA IV. What I am trying to say is that the change between GTA IV and GTA V won’t be that much of a massive change as the other two transitions. Of course, I could be wrong in what I have said, or the game could be a lot like GTA IV. Who really knows?

So, let’s wait until the first trailer comes out, then the speculative fun really begins…

The 10th Anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3

This Saturday is a major milestone for one of the most influential and revolutionary games in our generation. Saturday marks the 10^th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3, a game which brought the open world sandbox genre to the forefront of video games. It was a game that sparked an absurd amount of controversy with its violence, and had parental groups clamoring for the game to be banned. It was a game that, let’s face it, changed the landscape of video games for the better.

Obviously, one of the biggest selling points of Grand Theft Auto 3 was its open world, where it gave you the freedom to do whatever you want and please. It has been done before (ex: Zelda), but what set the open world of Grand Theft Auto 3 apart was that it mimicked real life. There never was a game before GTA3 that portrayed a real life world as well as this has, and to have this world open to you for your pleasure was absolutely brilliant. Want to go steal a car? Go right ahead! Want to punch a pedestrian in his head? Who’s stopping you! Want to run over some gang members? Of course! At the time of its release, the possibilities were nearly endless.

The first time I ever played Grand Theft Auto 3 was when I was 10 years old and went to my cousin’s house to spend the night. There I saw my cousin playing Grand Theft Auto 3 and awestruck at what he was playing. So we started playing the game and doing the missions and it was all extremely fun. We were killing the gang members, running from the police, and then shooting the police. I have never been so entranced by a game like this before, and it is a direct reason why I consider the Grand Theft Auto series to be my favorite video game series of all time and the most influential series as well. The first time I ever owned a Grand Theft Auto game was back in 2003 when I bought the Grand Theft Auto Double Pack for my Xbox, which had both GTA3 and GTA: Vice City. I consider it one of my happiest video game purchases ever.

Just yesterday, I went back to play Grand Theft Auto 3 just so I could get that feeling of nostalgia from the 10 years that this game was released. Obviously, this game did not age well, because the graphics were pretty blocky (what did you expect?). Other than that, this game still continues to put a smile on my face and I still experience a thrill in going around shooting cops, running people over, and speeding down towards a ramp where I fly off into the water and drown. Grand Theft Auto 3 had an impact on my life more than any other game I have played. It is, hands down, the most influential game in my life, and the most influential game of the new millennium. 10 years on, you will always be in my heart, and you will never leave it.