We recently visited Caribbean Reef Club and Desire Resort. I do not propose to say much about the rooms or the beaches; these are covered very well in other peoples' reports.
We arrived at Manchester (GB) Airport with almost 3 hours to spare for the thursday 0925 Britannia flight to Cancun with the idea of having a good breakfast before the 10 hour flight. The computer which runs the baggage handling system had just broken down, however, resulting in a queue (sorry, line) of about 1000 people all waiting to check in for several flights and moving very slowly as things were all being done by hand. We had time for only a cup of pale brown liquid (coffee?) and a peice of blotting paper (croissant?).
The flight was uneventful and the food quite good. The highlight was the spell of about 10 minutes before crossing the north coast of Newfoundland as we flew over the sea ice in brilliant sunshine - quite stunning.
We arrived at Cancun a few minutes early and proceeded through the formalities at the old terminal with no problems. We found the Green Line desk easily, with no attention from touts of any kind, and within a couple of minutes were in a taxi on the way to CRC. On arrival the check in went smoothly and within 20 minutes we had showered and were sunning ourselves beside the pool with cool drinks to hand.
At dinner time we found the dining room and had the great fortune to fall in with a marvellous group of 6 people who had been going to CRC for several years and who invited us to join them for dinner. There was no problem in putting a couple of tables together. Talk about falling on your feet! This was the start of just about the most hilarious five days we have had for a long time, and you guys really made the whole holiday very special for us. (you know who you are!)
We found that the hotel staff were superb without being pushy, although sometimes the main courses at dinner could have been hotter. In hindsight I suspect that this might have been caused by the fact that we ate our starters slowly because we were having such hilarious conversations and laughing too much instead of getting on with our food like good children.
The hot tub had just had an extra water heater added and was fine. The host couples did a good job with the theme nights and most people took part.
We hired a vehicle one day to go to Tulum. The one mistake that we made was in not collecting the car the previous evening. The paper work took for ever and we didn't get on the road early enough to beat the tour buses at the ruins. Anyone else thinking of doing this, collect the car before dinner the prevous day and get going as soon after breakfast as you can. Geronimo can arrange a vehicle for you at the garage at the cross roads on the main highway.
We really had a fabulous time, partly due to the collection of mad people in the hotel at the time, but even without the great company we would have enjoyed it and may well return.
After five nights at CRC we got a taxi to Desire Resort for the remaining 9 nights of our two week holiday. (You understand that this was a S.K.I. holiday; Spending the Kids Inheritance.)
The check in was smooth and again the staff were of very high quality, however we found that some of them were much more pushy and obviously angling for tips. The food was as reported in other reports. However, even though the entertainment staff worked their socks off, the place did not have the buzz of either CRC or the Hedos. I can't quite put my finger on it; perhaps it is because the place is very "bitty". The all night bar is in one place, the hot tub another, the disco somewhere else; there isn't really a central "enertainment area"; you had to actively stop doing one thing and go away to do something else rather than drifting from one to the other.
Out biggest gripe was the water pressure and temperature in the shower in our room - come back Hedo2, all is forgiven! We did find that we were bitten by insects on a couple of occasions but not by mosquitos - the small black flies were the culprits. We have encoutered them on St. Martin at Club O and they are not dangerous, just a nusiance.
While we enjoyed Desire we do not think we will bother to go back.
One last point: our taxi to the Airport took us to terminal 2 because we did not know which was the one to go to. Make sure you know which terminal you are departing from. Although there is a free shuttle between the terminals it took us half an hour to get to the right place, and if we had been tight for time a certain degree of worry could have crept into our minds!
We hope that this is useful to someone. The Scots.