Don & Ana - Dcember, 2009
This was our 7th trip to Desire.
My purpose in writing this report is to give a taste of the condition of the resort as we experienced it.
This is not a day to day blog, neither is a beginners guide to Desire.
If you're looking for more colorful day to day insights please see my daily posts to this site.
They are in the Desire forum under "Nudes from Mexico - Dec09".
I'm sure no one really cares about our flights, so I'll be brief.
We left Houston on time and landed in Cancun about an hour and a half later.
We breezed through Customs and Immigration in less than 20 minutes.
Our transportation, Epic, was ready and waiting and took us to the resort very quickly, 15 minutes or so.
The trip home was just as uneventful, which is to say, exactly the way we like it.
We booked our trip 6 months in advance and asked for any 1 or 8 different rooms.
In typical Desire fashion we didn't get any of the 8 we wanted.
I've seen the program they use to book their rooms.
There's absolutely no reason why they can't accommodate such requests, they just refuse to do it.
The front desk, staff and management, are the low point of the resort.
Too bad, since it is the guest's first impression of things to come.
The weather was amiable for December.
We had one day early in our stay that produced 2 pop up showers.
Neither lasted more than 5 minutes, but they served to clear out the pool and beach beds in short order.
Other than that, our last night saw a pretty good storm.
It hit right after dinner and turned the after dinner patio plans into chaos.
I wasn't feeling too well, so we called it night and went to bed early.
The next morning was calm, and turned out sunny and hot.
The staff worked quickly to right all that had been blown about in the previous night's storm.
The service staff, grounds keepers, housekeepers, bartenders, wait staff are all extremely good at their jobs.
It's those mid-level managers who seem to need a bit of an attitude adjustment, especially when it comes to giving honest answers.
The service we received was excellent.
The room was clean and well kept.
However, repeated calls for serving the AC and the room's mini-fridge went unanswered.
Setting the AC to its coldest setting and letting run all the time kept the room "cool enough".
But it was December, and it will have to be repaired to be tolerable in the spring and summer.
I can live without the mini-fridge, but it would have been nice to have had cold drinks.
It was simply irritating that calls for service went unheeded.
There's now a $5 charge for room service.
Perhaps if had placed the calls for repairs under the guise of room service, and paid the 5 bucks, things would have gotten fixed.
The food was all good.
It seemed better this trip than last July.
There was more variety than in July.
Still, after 7 trips since Wilma, I think they need to overhaul the menus in all the restaurants.
My thinking is that if they're going to go to the expense of printing new menus, they may as well revamp the food on those menus.
I doubt anyone would get a bad dish, not matter what they ordered.
I never have, and I've just about everything, I'd just like to see some new items being offered.
The DJs have apparently learned their lesson.
They listen to what the guests want to hear and play it.
(As opposed to what the DJ wants to hear, as loud as the DJ wants to hear it.)
We saw no improvements to the Disco or the Red Room.
The Disco toilet rooms still reek to the heavens.
Thankfully the smell doesn't make it past the outer washroom doors.
Well, not too far past those doors.
(They claim, they're going to renovate the Disco and fix the toilet plumbing.)
We like to dance, so we appreciated it when age appropriate music was played.
We've grown jaded with all the themes.
They were fun the first go around and I would not begrudge any new comers the thrill they may get from such.
We usually headed out just as the evening's contests began.
This also assured us of getting a hot tub bed and an under used bartender.
I think I mentioned, in my daily posts, that some of the poolside chaise lounges have nylon covers and some have cotton.
They really need to replace all of them with the nylon covers.
They may not be as soft, but they are cleaner and dry out very quickly after a rain.
They never have put any effort into proactively maintaining the new chaise lounges.
Most have at least on nut missing from the rear wheels.
So use caution when moving them or you may have one fall off its axel and onto your foot.
We saw that more than once.
Also, in July they had a nice fleet of umbrellas.
Not so in December.
And of the 10 that were in use around the pool, 3 had broken arms.
It’s amazing how some things are taken care of without a thought and other items never get any attention.
Members Only
This surely has the potential to do more damage and spark more criticism than anything else every has at Desire.
The lip service we got at check in was that the Premier Timeshare folks were out and the resort’s own Vacation Club is in.
As far as I could tell the only difference between the two was the new scheme does not include any Premier/RCI points.
So what do you get for your $5000 “investment”?
In my judgment, not a lot.
Here’s the list that I saw…
20% discount off rack rates if you book 120 days in advance
Transportation between the airport and the resort.
50% discount of room upgrades, if available.
A butler, well that’s what they call the guy.
He’s just a go-fer, and not a very good one at that.
Access to 6 chaise lounges and 3 beach beds located next to the volley ball court.
A gold-ish arm band that says “Blue Bay” instead of the white one that reads “Desire”.
Personally, I figure a lot of folks got shafted under the old Premier program.
And to appease them Desire came up with this “solution”.
I further estimate that if there were folks willing to buy into the old bait and switch Premier plan, then by gosh there’s probably a dollar still to be made selling even less for the same price.
Now, as it stands, I could care less if they section off a few chairs and beach beds as “Members Only”.
However, if they attempt to push it farther and try to set up some sort of elitist hierarchy, they’ll certainly lose my business.
By that I mean, I will not buy in to their “club” to get a room with a working AC and mini-fridge.
Or if they start portioning out better towels or service or food for members over non-members.
Or perhaps if their renovation plans ever do come to fruition and they build that promised new Jacuzzi, Gym and Disco and all those become Members Only locales, then we won’t go back.
Besides, I hear Hedo3 has made some nice changes and improved service levels.
There are always alternatives when it comes to spending green backs (or Euros).
A final comment about the guests this trip.
We've noticed that June tends to be dominated by early thirty-something Americans.
These are the young parents eager to blow off steam and prove how much they can drink.
In July, the age median seems to shift more towards the forty-something Americans.
These are the more settled folks, but also considerably more reserved and prudish.
Approximately half, both male and female wouldn't go nude, even in the Jacuzzi.
July also has a bit larger contingent of guests from Latin America.
In December, this was our third December trip; the age median is decidedly in the late forty early fifty ranges.
I'd guess that about half, but probably a bit less were Americans, followed by Latin Americans and Europeans.
These folks, in my judgment, were all a pleasure to be around, all were respectful and knew their own limits.
(No one threw up on the side of the hot tub or had to be bodily carried down the stairs.)
And I only ever saw swimwear worn at the grill or in the lobby, which reminded me of many of our trips to Hedo2.
Other than wishing I could tweak a few things at the resort, this was a very pleasant trip and a good time of the year to be in Mexico.
We'll probably go back next December even if renovations haven't been made.
However, we may try one of the Hedos again, if for no other reason than "for old times’ sake".
If you have specific questions, please feel free to write.