Wayne & Pam - August, 2008
Trip Report - Desire Cancun - Aug 4th >12th, 2008
We are regular August Desire alumni –
this trip was our 14th to Desire
Travel
On this trip we decided to move off the
usual Sat or Sunday travel times and by doing so got better
flight deals and other benefits. We used Delta with a connection
in Atlanta to Cancun – tight connection time of 40 min to get
from Terminal B to Terminal E, but all went smoothly. Arrived in
Cancun @ 11:30 am in the new Terminal 3 on Monday Aug 4th
Here is the other benefit of non weekend
travel – we cleared thru Immigration in less than 5
minutes(there was only one couple ahead of us in the line when
we got there) – proceeded to the luggage pickup and yes, our
bags where just coming out on the carousel !! Next
hit the button at Customs – bingo – Green Light, went over to
the Gray line counter & paid for a private taxi – walked out of
the building got into the first taxi in the line up and was
actually at Desire by 12:05 virtually 30 minutes after the
flight touched down – Unbelievable !!!!
Homebound was just as great – direct taxi
from Desire to terminal 3, checked in @ 11:40 am on Tuesday Aug
12 for a 1:30 flight - only 2 couples in front of us in the
Delta line, so total check in time was all of 10 min – LOL -
managed to spend the remaining time waiting in the airport
Margaritaville………
Attendance & Misc
- no large groups while we where there
but occupancy for the time we were there was 80+ %
- extremely high percentage of newbie’s
- virtually no beach bed action - thus we
did not observe that any tickets where issued the whole 8 days
we were there
- the most guests wearing textiles(part
or whole) we have ever seen both at the pool and the beach
during the days
Grounds
- excellent condition - probably as good,
if not better, than pre Wilma days
Beach
- better than ever – tropical storm Dolly
passed over the area two weeks before we arrived and washed in
huge amounts of sand, a returned the beach to almost pristine
condition covering all the rocks and adding another 10 to 15 ft
of unable beach depth - the only downside was the constant wash
up of weeds for the first couple of days we were there – the
weed wash in/up decreased daily and was very minimal by the end
of our trip.
Beach Traffic from other resorts
- probably the highest I have ever seen,
even with the signs at both the north and south ends of the
Desire property warning that beach walkers will encounter nude
people I never saw one person read this and turn back – LOL !!
FYI - SilverSands to the south of Desire
is now open and there is also a new Azul property being built to
the north of SilverSands (which will open by early next year) so
I would expect that the levels of textile beach walkers to
consistently increase over the next year.
Claudia
- our best massage ever - August bookings
for her were very low so we had a good chance to visit and talk
before and after and since we were the only appt for the day,
she was rested and performed at her peak level.
Staff
- many of the regular crew still there,
but also large numbers of new waiters
- downside - we felt as if we were being
ambushed each morning by some of the regulars and some of the
new staff in the bid for tips - none of those that did the
ambushing received any tips from us on this trip.
Food
Breakfasts
– uniformly consistent and good – thanks
Matilda !!
Lunches
- uniformly consistent and good – service
and selections even better that in previous trips
Dinners
– SUKI - rating (B+) we experienced much
slower service than in the past and still way, way too noisy
(this area has needed serious acoustic treatment from day one)
– EL ARRECIFE (the dinner buffet) -
rating (B-) we experienced that the selections appeared to be
much less varied and overall food quality was lower on this trip
than our previous May trip
– IL PIACERE (the french<white>place) -
rating (A+ ) we experienced the usual great service and top
quality food, preparation and presentation that has been the
hallmark of this area from the time that we first started going
to Desire
– TENTAZIONE (the Italian place) ) -
rating ( F ) – honestly we gave it a fair shot and tried it on 3
different evenings – it was truly consistently bad, every
selection we tried was overcooked to the extent of being dried
out and the overall quality of the food was the worst of any of
the areas – the service in this area also unfortunately for us,
and other dinners, matched the food prep - consistently bad –
they really need to consider that if this is to be offered as
one of the specialty restaurants then it should have proper
service levels and food quality !!!
Pre Disco Lobby Entertainment
- they have added the body painter as a
regular on both Monday and Thursday evenings
- they have added a stage based dance
routine show (with performers from Cancun) in the lobby area to
replace the fashion show night - it was excellent.
Disco
- we again tried but at this point the
Disco has become our least favorite part of Desire – our main
reasons are that the DJ music mix is not really designed to get
and keep people up dancing, and even worse it tends to be the
same repetitive crap trip after trip – the disco is really
starting to look old and shabby and frankly on this trip smelled
moldy and musty – not a place we were willing to spend any time
in
Summary
This trip was great in many ways, perfect
weather every day, met up with many old friends that we have
spent every August with for the last four years and celebrated
another anniversary in one of the most romantic and special
places that we have ever found
Wayne and Pam