Overall we had a nice time at Villa del Palmar Flamingos. However, a couple of nuisances:
1. Expedia VIP status amenities were not granted. Only a few days in, when I had let Expedia know, the hotel offered us a room upgrade. The 'free' tour and spa service were not free but rather a 'discount'
2. Our first room had a bad smell - glad we were eventually able to get the upgrade
3. The check-in line is way too long. Even worse, the front desk put the wrong check-out date on our room key and I got locked out in the middle of the day. Had to stand in line through the check-in process again to activate the room key.
4. Staff is generally not knowledgeable but just sends you to someone else. Asking the concergie about the 'free dinner', they sent me to the restaurant hosts at dinner. They in turn sent me to the host at breakfast, who said that the VIP status 'free dinner' is not included
5. All in our group experienced issues from the food
6. They don't allow throwing balls in the pool. It's a large pool with several areas - why not allow it in one of them?
7. On several nights, there was very loud music until at least 11pm that made it hard to sleep