7/18/04
We just returned from our first trip to Desire. Just for the sake of perspective I want to mention that we have been to Hedo III, Couples, Grand Lido Negril & Braco, St. Martin and Aventura Palace. It seemed that most of the couples at Desire had been to one or more of these places so comparisons are inevitable.
Our arrival and departure rate an A+ and couldn’t have been smoother. DennyP arranged for Expo Cancun transportation to Desire. Both directions the driver was early and waiting for us and gave us a short pleasant ride. Perfection! Enough about the boring travel details.
On the positive side:
In spite of the fact that we don’t swap, the play room was a blast. Sometimes it was full and you had to wait your turn. Other times nobody was in there. I think that some of the swappers were disappointed that most of the couples didn’t swing but that was no concern of ours.
The disco was much better than Hedo III because there were places to sit and of course the playroom. Hedo has no place near the disco to get nasty. The DJ mixed up the music styles throughout the evening. As a professional musician I’d like to point out that he should have broken up his sets better. He would sometimes get on a techno groove and let it go too long. With the mixture of ages there, no one type of music should go for longer than 20 minutes before trying to appeal to a different group. At times, people were leaving in droves. While I’m not making this sound like a positive, I would like to say that the disco music was still much better than at Hedo III or either Grand Lido.
The music by the pool and other locations was also far superior to Hedo III.
Speaking of the Jacuzzi Lounge, this was also a major plus. There is a great view from up there. The beds in that area were much better than playing around on the uncomfortable lounge chairs at Hedo III.
The staff was also outstanding for friendliness. Sometimes drink or other requests were messed up because of communication difficulties but they always cheerfully fixed whatever was wrong. I am allergic to Garlic and always have problems at these resorts because apparently their idea of gourmet cooking is to take anything and smother it with Garlic, onions and peppers (Hedo III was much worse about this). I spoke with the chefs, Rodriguez and Felipe and they went to much trouble to see to it that I had things to eat in the two restaurants. The help was very willing to try to please people and always had a smile. The waiter Norberto was always right there to help translate my dietary needs. He also put on a spectacular show with preparing our flaming coffee.
The grounds as others have mentioned, were beautiful and well cared for.
Our maid Bernice also did an excellent job with our room and left us extra water each day as we requested.
The pool was superior to Hedo III because there was more room to maneuver and float. Grand Lido Braco or Aventurra Palace of course, wins the best pool by a mile.
Negatives:
Our first room below the Jacuzzi (1004- first floor) had mold so strong in the air conditioning system that you could smell it from outside the room. My wife couldn’t breathe and was trying to sleep with a washcloth over her head. The room also had mosquitoes. I called the front desk at 2 in the morning and told them that we needed a different room. The next morning they showed us 2 other rooms and moved our luggage. Our new room (2503) also had some mold on the walls but didn’t stink nearly as bad. We both came down with coughs by the time we left that may have been a result of the mold (that happened at St. Martin). I washed the a/c filters when we got in the room but I couldn’t spray the fins because American Airlines took away my Lysol spray at the airport (a trick I learned on Dennyp’s site that worked well at Hedo III and cleaned up a horribly moldy a/c). Where the Freon lines run through a raceway above the bathroom there is condensation that is running out of a crack in the wall so the room never quite dehumidifies. The walls in the bathroom and bedroom had lots of mildew visible. They need to clean this up with bleach and insulate the Freon lines.
The outlets were single and far between. They could replace the singles with duplex receptacles and add combination switch/receptacle where the bed lights turn on for very little cost.
Even though they added more loungers to the pool area, shaded spots were hard to get. They could fill in the area between the sidewalks and the pool area to achieve more space with some shade -again the cost would not be that great.
The ocean is just there for looks. We and everyone that we talked to had bites of some kind. We were covered with bites from sand fleas and my wife was stung by a small jellyfish. Obviously they can’t do anything about critters in the ocean but is it impractical to treat the beach chair areas for the fleas? This may not be possible but we never had that problem at Grand Lido Braco or Negril.
The number one negative is, like the rest of Mexico, you have to be so paranoid about the water. I wear contacts that I would normally rinse with tap water, brushing teeth, shaving, etc. How dry do you have to be after a shower before it’s o.k. to lick body parts? I have never heard why Jamaica has desalinization plants to produce good water, but Mexico doesn’t. Is it the high water table in Mexico that causes the problem? Is the cost of water treatment prohibitively expensive?
Someone from Jamaica needs to teach the Mexican bartenders how to make a good mudslide.
Before everyone jumps on me for being negative let me just say that there’s a good chance that we may return to Desire. We had a good time and I really enjoyed the sexual atmosphere. Thanks to Salm and Cat for helping us to feel welcome amongst the swingers in spite of our preference for monogamy.
Sorry about the length,