John & Stephanie
Our Desire Trip Dates: June 2-7 2004
So you’ll understand the perspective we have: we are a mid-40’s, monogamous couple who are not in the “lifestyle” but enjoy being naked and openly sexual in the company of others with similar interests. We are not hard partiers nor heavy drinkers, spend more time relaxing than playing, sometimes stay up late and sometimes quit before midnight. We do like gourmet food but do not go to resorts like this for the food. We are two-time vets of Hedo, once at II and once at III, liked II better, wanted to try somewhere new and different for our next “play naked” vacation.
Secondary perspective: we were at Desire during a quiet week with no big groups.
In a nutshell, we won’t go back to Jamaica. Desire was wonderful and just a much better fit for us.
Rather than the long, drawn-out, detailed description of our Desire experience that I first started to write, I’m just going to try to capture the aspects of the resort that particularly appealed to us.
The Location: Cancun is ridiculously easy for us to get to. 1hour 15 minutes non-stop on Spirit from Ft. Lauderdale, gorgeous view of the FL Keys. The Cancun airport is easy to get through, luggage came through fast, and our pre-arranged ground transportation (via Denny’s travel service) was right there waiting to zip us off on the 20-minute drive to Desire. I’ve heard people complain about the pushy people outside customs, but we knew where to go and what to look for and just breezed on by. There was less pressure there then we get from Jamaicans trying to sell us ganja at Montego Bay…
The People: Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE on staff at Desire was extremely friendly, cheerful, and helpful and they all went out of their way to make you happy. They could not have been more welcoming. The service was uniformly very good and you always got the impression that the staff was happy to be there.
The Setting: Puerto Morelos is flat-out gorgeous. The beach is pure white, fine, clean sand. The breeze is almost constant (of course it can get to be more than a breeze some days) so even if it’s really hot you stay comfortable. The resort is beautiful, everything is bright and cheery and they are constantly sweeping and cleaning and keeping everything nice. Pools at Desire are crystal clean and the Jacuzzi is as clean as such things get.
The Guest Mix: Most of them had not been to a Hedonism resort, and they were a similar, but different mix. Everyone was very friendly, mostly Americans but a good mix of Mexican and Europeans, too. People seemed more laid-back than at Hedo, and more refined. We did not see the major party-animal types that usually dominate Hedo, although things did wind up at night in the disco. It just never felt the same.
The Clothing Options: We had wondered if the clothing optional arrangement would work, and were surprised to find that we actually preferred it. People wore whatever they wanted, it all mixed and everyone seemed completely at ease. We really liked this, rather than the “nude and prude” attitude at Hedo. Also, the only place you really HAD to wear any clothes was in the restaurants and lobby, so you could be naked almost anywhere on the resort property. It was freer than Hedo in that respect.
The Couples-Only Requirement: This makes more of a difference than I could have imagined. We definitely considered this a plus. It changed the dynamic from a “spring break” atmosphere to something more…I can’t seem to come up with the right word or words. More adult? More sophisticated? This isn’t it, but it’s as close as I’ll get.
The Music: They had a wide variety of daytime poolside music. Not only many different selections, but different styles: oldies, current hip-hop, reggae, salsa, Jimmy Buffet, etc. The music at the bar up on the third floor Jacuzzi was distinct from the poolside music and set a completely different mood…which takes me to:
The Jacuzzi Deck: I can’t say enough about how wonderful a place that is. You’re high on the third floor, overlooking the ocean to the East and the Mayan jungle to the west (okay, so there are a few cell phone towers and some power lines out there, too), the wind cools you, the music playing at the bar is mystical and sensual, and the whole setting evokes the ancient spirit that inhabits the peninsula. We got the sense of being atop a Mayan pyramid up there on the deck. Lying naked on the mattresses on the west side of the deck, watching the sunset, bathed in the breeze and the late afternoon sun, is indescribably romantic and sexy. This was the place to be from 4:30ish on until sunset, and the mattresses were awesome for lazy playing.
The Rhythm: There was a very easy, relaxed flow to the resort that eased one part of the day into the next. Mornings were always quiet, you could start early if you wanted, but few did. Late breakfast, poolside or beach stuff all day, maybe a massage, flow up to the Jacuzzi deck for late afternoon soaks and evenings until sunset on the mattresses, late dinner, disco, late night stuff, sleep and do it again tomorrow. This rhythm was partly due to the way things open and close. The Jacuzzi bar isn’t open during the day, and the pool activities wind down at 4:00pm, so people just naturally move from one area to the next. We liked this a lot.
The Hanging Mattresses: To die for. Right in the breezeway between the beach and the lobby, next to the main pool, suspended from ropes on pole frames, hanging beads tinkling in the wind, white gauze wisps of curtain partially covering the beds and draped down each rope, these are heaven. Get comfortable, place yourselves so one of you can gently push a rope to get your mattress swinging a bit, and it’s paradise. Very nice late at night, too. Great with a book during the day, or for playing, and just the place to get away from the crowd if you’re so inclined. The music is off in the distance there, so all you hear is the beads and the breeze, and the birds.
The Spa: The spa is beautiful, very well appointed, and the staff is very good. We get regular massages at home, by someone who’s very, very good. The masseuses at Desire were very, very good. The hot stone massage was incredible, and the girls who did deep tissue were very skilled. And they do real, DEEP tissue. It helps to know “mas” and “menos” to get the pressure to what you need.
The Sports and Entertainment Team: They did a great job, and were never pushy. They were also creative about coming up with alternative activities if they couldn’t get, say, enough people for beach volleyball. And it was fun that everything was done bilingually. A great way to brush up on your Spanish.
The Activities: A lot of people won’t agree with this: we get really tired of the raunchiness of all the activities at Hedonism resorts. Yes, Desire did Naked Twister and combined it with dirty dice sometimes, but the games and sports didn’t all involve in-your-face sex the way they seem to at Hedo. It’s not that we object to the sex-oriented games at Hedo, it’s just that it gets tiresome to us when that’s all there is. Variety is nice.
The Room Shower: A great big, walk-in tiled shower so long that the towel rack at the opposite end from the shower head (a very good hand-held unit) stays dry, hot water all the time, constant temperature. What a luxury after Hedo II!
The Disco: SOOOOO much better than anything Hedo has. The dance floor isn’t huge, but the arrangement is great, with long sofas set off from the dance floor to cuddle and watch when you didn’t want to dance. We never used the back play-room, but it’s really cool if you’re into that.
No Ganja: What people want to self-medicate with is their business, but there are things I just don’t like being around. We personally found it refreshing to be pot-free.
Overall, we just found Desire a very easy, comfortable place to be. You could be active or loaf, dressed or naked, good or naughty, and it was all acceptable. It was not the hard-driving, party ‘til you drop, frat-house experience of Hedo, and for us, that was a plus. Just consider the difference in how the resorts bill themselves:
Hedo: “Be wicked for a week”;
Desire: “A deliciously erotic lifestyle experience”.
The different pictures these two phrases paint in your mind may give you a good idea of the different “feel” of the two resorts.
Some considerations I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere, and other notes:
* Getting coffee between meals (my husband drinks it all day long) is not hugely convenient. The only self-serve coffee/hot water dispenser on the property is at the main lobby bar. You cannot get coffee from the other bars. Ice tea is also limited because the bars serve bottled sweetened ice tea like what you can get out of a soda machine at home. I’ve always been resourceful about getting what I like, so I filled my giant thermal mug half full of hot water, made regular tea with a tea bag (they do have those, regular and herbal) and then had the bar tender dump ice in it: presto, ice tea!
* The snorkel trip may not be for beginners. The day I went out, our guide spoke no English, kept us in the water for almost an entire hour, swam us very far and at a surprisingly fast pace from the boat and insisted on us all staying together, and he took us into reef that was extremely shallow with wave surge. I have been swimming since 18 months old, a certified scuba diver since I was 16, have hundreds of hours of snorkel or dive experience and am in good shape: but I was tired before the end, and uncomfortable in the areas of shallow reef the guide led us into (often with surface-exposed reef on two sides of us). Another woman who was a scuba diver actually got so exhausted that she had to hang on the guides float for half the trip. The whole experience was very surprising, not especially pleasant, and they also insist on what I’m running into more and more on foreign snorkel operations: you have to wear a stupid safety vest no matter what your level of experience. This particular operation insisted on a foam flotation vest that made it impossible to free dive, which takes away more than half the experience for someone like me.
* Food: Just keep low expectations. If you like it and think it’s yummy, you’ll be so happy! And if you find it mediocre at best, you won’t be surprised and you’ll remind yourself that you didn’t come for the food!!! You can’t lose this way. My recommendations: go with what they’re grilling. It was always the best thing. Enjoy the guacamole at the pool bar grill. In Il Piacere, enjoy the beautiful décor and be satisfied with the food being just a bit better than the main dining room. Don’t order a steak. You didn’t come for the food!!!
Desire is beautiful and a very sensuous place to vacation and we recommend it highly to anyone looking for a sexy experience with considerable refinement over Hedo, and in a country where you are very welcome. I hope this view of Desire helps you.