This was our first trip to Desires Resort and Spa. We have vacationed in the Cancun area three times staying twice at Caribbean Reef Club and once at Hidden Beaches. We enjoyed our stay at Desires and would definitely return. We found Desires most comparable to Hedo3 of all the resorts we have visited. If you do not like the atmosphere at Hedo3, you would not like Desires. We booked a Jacuzzi suite, which was well worth the extra money. We found the food ran from good to mediocre. The staff was very good, however we felt service could have been better by adding a few additional people. When you consider the relatively low cost of this resort, it represents an excellent bargain for your vacation dollar.
We flew charter from St. Louis (Champion Air) to Cancun. Our flight left at 6:00 AM, we arrived in Cancun at 9:00 AM. Olympus tours transported us to the resort as included in our package. We were at the resort before 10:00 AM. We booked a Jacuzzi suite, requesting an ocean view room. We thought this meant we would get an ocean view room if available. We were told that we could get an ocean view Jacuzzi suite at an additional cost. We were surprised that they wanted to charge extra since an ocean view request was on our travel papers. We were in room 1201, which is the building in between the disco and the building with the hot tub. We actually found this to be a convenient location, albeit a little noisy at night. We could see the ocean from our room although this was a garden view room. The room had a queen size bed with concrete pillars and a sheer canopy over it. The bath area had two rooms, one containing a four person Jacuzzi and a double sink. The other room had the commode and a bidet and a small shower. I have to admit the room looked more impressive on the Desire web site, but after seeing several standard rooms, we were very happy we opted to upgrade. The maid service was very good. The shower always had plenty of hot water and great water pressure. The only complaint we had was the smell of sulfur and the roughness of the towels.
The clothing optional pool is about the size of the one at Caribbean Reef Club. This is a good size pool for a small resort like CRC, but a little small for Desires. There are lots of chairs but most are staked out early in the morning and there is very little shade. Towels are plentiful and huge but they sure could use some fabric softener. There is not a swim up bar at the pool but there is the coconut bar and grill nearby with one bartender and it needs two. There is also a small topless pool in front of the main lobby that seemed to be seldom used. The main bar is also located there with one bartender and it needed two, especially when at 5 p.m. the coconut bar and grilled closed. The hot tub is located on top of one of the guest accommodations buildings and it opens at 1 p.m. It is a nice hot tub with a swim up bar but only one bar tender and it certainly could use two. One side of the hot tub has a Plexiglas wall overlooking the resort and the view is breathtaking. There are also several beds in the hot tub area and lounge chairs to sun in but the heat is so intense they were seldom used during the day. We found the hot tub often too hot to really sit in. We enjoyed going to the hot tub bar in the afternoon for a drink. The bar has a cover so you had a nice shady area to enjoy the view of the ocean and resort. There are several small tables and chairs and rest rooms
The main restaurant is a buffet. We do not like buffets, and this one proved to be no exception. The breakfast buffet was fine, although less choice than comparable resorts. They had omelets, eggs and waffles to order at the grill. We ate lunch everyday at the pool bar. They had a nice selection of mostly Mexican specialties and would make burgers, hot dogs, club sandwiches, etc to order. They also had another small grill going by the Mexican restaurant that made chicken, beef and a few other dishes. Every evening the buffet would have a different theme night; international, Italian, oriental, grill, etc. We found the food at the evening buffet to be mediocre. They had a grill each evening that made beef, fish, and pork to order. There did not seem to be much difference in the grill offerings from night to night. Desires also have an International Restaurant and a Mexican Restaurant. Both the International and Mexican Restaurants require reservations and slacks for men. You are given two coupons upon check-in to use for reservations. You can use both coupons on a single restaurant of your choice or use one for each. We ended up eating at the International restaurant twice (money talks) and the Mexican Restaurant once. The first night we ate at the International it was very good. It was a five course dinner that took a full two hours. The second night the food, even some of the same dishes were not as good. The Mexican restaurant consists of a few tables located in an outside pavilion next to the pool bar. Overall, over the course of the week, we found the food quality to be inconsistent.
The resort had many activities and there was good participation. During the day, pool and beach volleyball was popular. At night the disco had a different theme each night. The disco was well attended compared to other resorts discos. Only about half the people seemed to really dress for the theme nights though. They had a toga night at the hot tub area instead of the disco on Wednesday. The resort provided the sheets for the togas. There was also always something going on at the hot tub area each evening. We are early birds and only stayed up late a couple of evenings though. The mosquitoes are horrible at night. The resort is in the middle of a swamp.
The beach at Desires is very nice, especially when compared to CRC or Hidden Beaches. It is a long fine sand beach. The water is calm with a nice sandy bottom. The only complaint about the beach is the seaweed. The staff sometimes seemed to rake at the beach, but never really cleaned it up. There are plenty of chairs and palapas for shade. The resort offers a snorkeling trip to the reef for $25 per person. I found the snorkeling to be excellent and well worth the time and money.
Overall this is a very nice resort and we had a great time. When you consider the cost of this resort compared to other all inclusives, it is a real bargain.