Gordon & Michelle - September, 2008 Wet, Wild, and Wicked®, Desire Cancun
We submitted an original review of our first two week holiday in May 2008 to the old Desire forum but as this has now gone, we thought we would re-write our review to incorporate our May trip report as newbies and also include a review of our more recent week in September 2008.
Background
to us: We do enjoy being naked on holiday
(when we do not have the children with us) which is what initially
prompted us to look at Desire for our first trip (two weeks in May 2008)
but we were curious/concerned/excited about the prospect of a CO resort
with the sort of erotic environment that Desire has. We are not a
lifestyle couple (at least we don’t think so) but are
open minded and always work hard to ensure we
do not lose the spark in our relationship.
What Desire is about for us:
Like many women, I have body issues and could stand to lose quite a few
pounds and although I know that being nekkid
(from previous holiday experiences) does have a habit of making you
forget about these issues, I was concerned that in this different sort
of environment we may be surrounded by “Ken and
Barbie” types that would make us feel a little uncomfortable….this was
just so far from the truth. We had such a great time meeting people
(mainly Americans but there were a few Brits and other Europeans) who
were in the main, respectful and non-judgemental and although there were
a few hard bodies, these really were in the minority. There were all
ages during the time we were there from 20’s to 70’s and all sizes and
body shapes and after just a few minutes you do not notice any of these
things. Age does not matter and neither does body size, skin colour,
scars or any of the other things that makes each of us unique. We were
all just nekkid people having fun in the sun
in a safe environment with our loved ones. This sounds very clichéd but
when you talk to people at Desire, age etc really does not exist (it’s
only a state of mind anyway!) We talked and mixed with people of all
ages. Desire is about re-connecting with the one you love (with or
without the involvement of others), in the company of like minded people
in a relaxed erotic environment.
The hotel itself: May 2008
was our first time to
The Rooms: These were just ok. We had a garden view room in May. The bathroom was a little dated but the fittings had obviously been replaced recently, the water pressure was good and it was very clean and spacious. The bed was only a queen (would have preferred a king) but was comfortable enough and we had plenty of storage, a safe and a fridge stocked with water, soft drinks and beer. There were also tea and coffee making facilities and flat screen TV. We were on the 1st floor and our building had a communal balcony shared with the other (5 I think) rooms on our floor. The only issue with this was that we would have enjoyed spending more time on our balcony but we were in the end room and there was no room on the balcony in front of our room for balcony furniture. The balcony widens in the middle between the middle two rooms and there was a table and 4 chairs here. Unfortunately, the people in those rooms left items on the table and clothes etc on the chairs the entire time we were there so we felt unable to have breakfast etc on the balcony which we would have liked to have done. No big deal though as we were up early each day to grab a beach bed anyway.
In our most recent trip we booked a passion suite (we were allocated one of the original older suites on the 2nd floor of 20 block – room 2011). This has a king size bed, less storage than our previous GV room, a large living area with leather sofas, two flat screen TVs, a DVD player, a large hot tub/Jacuzzi and a very large bathroom with shower and bath. We won’t dwell on this room other than to say it was very definitely not worth the money – not least of all because you spend so little time in the room anyway but also, we had issues with the alleged extras which were either not quite as they seemed or simply not received at all. This was a little disappointing but in no way impacted on the overall enjoyment of our holiday. We did also have some room keeping issues on our 2nd visit but, to be fair, we did not report these whilst we were there so did not give the resort the opportunity to correct them (mainly because we didn’t want to waste time with only being there for week this time). We will however ensure that our feedback is included in Denny’s report back to the resort.
Our preference now is to book only GV rooms (where
available and unfortunately could not get for our next trip) and save
the money for flight upgrades/longer stays or a massage etc.
The Beach: This was lovely.
It was not private and therefore you do get people from neighbouring
resorts walking across the beach but there are also security guards from
the hotel patrolling the beach and, on the rare occasion, that you do
get people from other resorts clearly walking backwards and forwards all
the time the security guards did have a word with them. We did have a
good laugh at this when you saw it – especially as it was usually men on
their own who had presumably left their wives next door whilst they went
for a “stroll”.
They have a large number of beach beds on the beach. They are connected
to one another but have curtains draped between and they are super king
size (except those in front of the passion suites) so plenty of room.
There really was nothing better than laying here naked next to your
loved one feeling the sea breeze and the sun on your naked skin (and
maybe just occasionally - if nobody was looking – doing something that
maybe you shouldn’t!).
The beach beds had to be booked with the beach concierge in the morning (he arrives at 7am) and this is an area where it looks as though they have improved since our last visit in May as we found it easier to get a beach bed this time and also found that the concierge did actually free up beds this time if they were not used for any length of time.
We were concerned about the reported increase in beach traffic before our latest visit but we actually did not notice any increase until the last couple of days. This however was really bizarre as there was so little beach (if any) available to walk across in these last couple of days. The tail end of Ike caused some high winds and tidal surge which meant that unfortunately, much of the sand that had been deposited earlier in the year courtesy of Dolly was actually removed from the beach and in fact, there was less sand left than there was pre-Dolly back in May. The tidal surge was also still evident when we left, with the tide still running under the beach beds and as far as the retaining wall. Perhaps this is why there were more beach walkers – they were forced to walker closer to our beach beds to avoid being swept away so they could get a much closer look! Anyway, there was no staring and it really was not a major issue.
Also, because of the high tides, the security
guards were not patrolling the beach so there was a little naughtiness
(allegedly!) but no tickets that we saw although my husband did appear
to be trying his hardest to get one on our last day!
Pool: The pool area was also
great and they have a lot of comfortable loungers (could still use a
little more shade). The pool area tended to play relaxing music for some
of the morning but then activity and noise levels would increase. On our
first visit we would usually leave the beach for a leisurely sit down
lunch poolside and enjoy the entertainment before either spending the
afternoon in/around the pool or grabbing a bottle of champagne (thanks
Memo!) to take back to our beach beds.
We spent less time at the pool this latest visit
but we did notice that they have covered the loungers (and in the
Jacuzzi area too) with special towelling covers which they remove and
wash – that was a good improvement on last time and they have also
removed the “hoods” from the round pool beds – they were starting to
fall apart in May but this does also mean a little less shade again
although they did seem to have a few more parasols this time (although
high winds thanks to Ike meant that they were difficult to keep
upright).
Food: We thought the food was
excellent on both visits. Yes of course we have had better – when we
have paid for it but this is an all inclusive resort and we found the
food quality to be far superior to any of any all inclusive resort we
have stayed at previously. We loved the ambience of El
Piacere but preferred the menu at
Suki (although they could do with looking at
acoustics in there as it was often far too loud to talk and be heard in
there). We were lucky enough to eat at the Hibachi grill too on both our
stays and this is always one of our favourite evenings. The buffet was
also very good with a great choice of food and much less canteen like
than your usual buffet type restaurant. The Italian was probably our
least favourite on our first visit (and we did not even try it 2nd
time) but that was just a matter of personal choice. The late night
pizzas from the lobby were always great too as was breakfast. They had
also changed the menus very slightly between our visits and served great
crème brulee for dessert!
On both visits we had the lobster and prawns in El Piacere and they were good both times but the lobster seemed much nicer (and larger) on our latest visit.
We also tried room service once on both our visits and had no problems getting what we ordered in a timely manner and the food was also very good (only issue was on 2nd visit we wanted red wine with our dinner – as we had had this delivered with our canapés and wanted to stick to red – but were told that we had to go to the bar and get individual glasses of this ourselves or pay for an expensive bottle - couldn’t buy the wine we had been drinking – just sounded a bit penny-pinching when we had paid well over double the standard room rate for a passion suite).
One of the greatest advantages to the passion suites was ordering whatever we wanted to be delivered to our balcony for breakfast every morning and this was the part that we probably enjoyed the most about our passion suite. We had a great view and a huge balcony (shared with only one other passion suite which was empty for most of the time) and had smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, champagne etc served on our balcony every morning – it was just such a great way to start each day!
We also had canapés and wine or champagne
delivered to our room every day on our 2nd visit (passion
suite).
Drinks: The drinks were great
(although I’m sure that all those mud slides were what contributed to
that additional 17lb I put on in the 2 weeks of my first visit!). There
was some variation in what you got from bar to bar and I was a little
disappointed when I could not get champagne on our last evening of our
first visit (particularly as we had ordered a lobster meal) but
generally availability was very good.
The only issue we had with drinks was those
available in our passion suite on our latest visit – they advertise that
the rooms have a fully-stocked mini bar with Tequilas 1800 and
Herradura, Whiskey:
Chivas Regal, Jack Daniels and Black Label.
Vodka Smirnoff and
Kahlua. The reality was that we had 4 miniature bottles
only of whiskey and tequila and, despite several requests, we only
managed to get one miniature bottle of vodka (between the two of us)
during the entire week which is not great when neither of us drink
whiskey or tequila. Please note that this really was only a minor
gripe/disappointment and in no way affected our enjoyment of our holiday
– it was only such a gripe because we had paid so much extra for these
“extras” which simply were not there. That said,
if we had drunk any more whilst there then I would have fallen over a
lot more than I did!
Textiles: We think there were broadly the same proportion of textiles/ partially clothed/nude on our latest visit as there was in May. Our only wish regarding this is that people would take on board what “nude Jacuzzi” means as it always stifles activity in this area when there are couples in the Jacuzzi where both partners have full swimsuits on – we only saw this happen once during this recent visit but it happened several times on our last visit and whilst it is fine anywhere else on resort, this is the one place designated as nude and, other than the playroom, the only place where unofficially anything goes.
Security: We personally had no problems with thefts etc during our two weeks in May and in fact. Struggled to get our Maid to take the money we had left her for her tip.
This time we also had no major problems. Our room safe actually stopped working and they had to fit a new one for us and we were quite impressed that they insisted that a security guard was stationed in our room (as we all one of us) the entire time it was sorted (which unfortunately took some time as the 2nd safe did not work either once fitted).
The only small issue we had was really entirely our own fault – we brought candle holders and citronella candles as well as some mosquito coils for use on our balcony. Over the course of the week, every one of these and our lighter were stolen from our balcony – our own fault and we would never have left anything valuable out there but was just a minor irritation – as was the fact that our maid this time took every bit of loose change she found in our room even when very obviously not left as a tip.
Entertainment: This was good although we
have to confess that this is usually the least important part of our
holiday. The young crew (who had changed a lot between visits) were
clearly very good at their jobs and some of the games they played around
lunchtime at the pool really were very funny to watch. We saw the
entertainment in the disco on some nights and that was also fun and
fairly raunchy most nights. We were usually still having dinner when the
bands in the lobby were playing but what we saw of them, most were very
good.
The disco was just ok on our first visit. For the most part the music
was not really to our taste and for the middle part of our stay we often
found that the DJ would be playing Latin-American type music later on in
the disco and this tended to mean that guests (other than the South
Americans) tended to drift away.
On our 2nd visit we hit the disco on 3-4 nights and actually had a much better time than the first time – we can’t decide if the music was actually better or if we were just so drunk that we’d have danced to anything – probably a little of both!
We found the playroom off the disco to be clean
and reasonably well-used whenever we were in there on both visits and we
enjoyed our time spent here.
We had noted the complaints about the smell and state of the disco. I have to confess that we had not noticed the state of the carpets etc in May and only noticed this when we were in the disco this time during the day. At night we couldn’t really see the carpets and we didn’t notice any smell either (or in the playroom which also seemed clean too).
Activity: Being there for two weeks on our first visit meant we saw lots of guests and groups coming and going and activity levels peaked and dropped at various times. Activity levels were at their highest when we first arrived and for the first few days and they seemed to be picking back up again about the time we left (although by then we were shattered and ready for a rest!). As we said earlier, most people were great and respectful and we can honestly say we only met 2 people who we subsequently avoided (you get jerks everywhere) and when you’re in any resort for 2 weeks to only come across 2 real jerks is pretty good going. Interestingly enough, one of those people only seemed to be there for one day and her behaviour was actually so offensive to so many people we wondered if she was actually asked to leave.
On our most recent visit there seemed to be very little afternoon activity on the beds by the Jacuzzi which was a little disappointing for us (we never like to be the only ones or the first!) although they were usually very well used after nightfall. That said, the Jacuzzi itself was jumping most afternoons – so much so that we couldn’t get in it on our last day without sitting on someone else’s lap (a little too adventurous for us)!
The beach beds (apart from our own) probably saw a
little less activity on our most recent visit but this could have been
down to a number of factors - the beach itself was not as busy as it had
been in May and the newly opened resorts and the fear of beach walkers
may have had an impact (I know it did with us at first).
Massages: On our first visit
we had both the couples sensual massage in
the resort and also went to visit the famous Claudia off-resort. Both
were fantastic but in completely different ways and both we would do
again in a blink. In our most recent visit we only did the resort
massage which was just as good as last time (although it was slightly
different this time) and this time we also booked their Jacuzzi for an
hour afterwards with a bottle of wine to wind down (or, in our case,
wind up again…) – that was really nice and it’s a shame they do not
advertise this a little more – expensive though!
Themes: We are your stereotypical middle-class reserved Brits – we don’t do dressing up or silliness – at least that’s what we are like back at home and that’s what we thought the first time we went and we didn’t participate at all other than watching from the back of the room! This time we did make an effort and both of us dressed in theme for most nights and we had such a laugh. It took some persuading to get my husband to dress as a pimp on my birthday for pimp’s and ho’s night but, even he will admit, he had a good time and I can’t believe that I danced with the male stripper – thanks Cooperman – someone told me that it was you pointing at him to pick me behind my back! We had a great time on Wild and Wicked night too and if my horns ever do turn up – look after them until our next visit!
There did seem to be less people dressing in theme this time than there was back in May and I have to confess that I chickened out of dressing in theme one night when I could not see anyone else dressed up.
General: We were probably worried our 2nd visit would not be as good as our first as we had such a good time the first time. It was, but it was very different. This time we felt under no personal pressure to do anything – last time we ate at every restaurant, made most of the shows etc but we also tried to burn the candle at both ends and only got disappointed with ourselves when tiredness got the better of us and we couldn’t do everything, every day. This time, we felt under no pressure to do anything. The most important thing for us is to spend some time together on our own, away from our business and 5 kids and have the most amazing s*x - and we did this so much better the 2nd time. There were plenty of great people we could chat to whenever we wanted but we found no pressure from ourselves or others this time to participate or socialise when we wanted time on our own.
We are lucky enough to go away several times a year long-haul but before going to Desire in May, we had never been to the same resort more than once. This is the first place that we had wanted to return to and in fact, as well as returning in September for a week we have already booked again next year for 8 days and we are likely to make this a regular trip.
Someone said to us before we went that going to Desire is a little like a dream – whilst you are living the dream it all seems to make sense and all seems to be perfectly normal and acceptable and when you look back in the cold light of day it’s hard to believe that all those experiences etc were all a normal part of the environment you were in at that time – and very hard to explain to someone who has not been. If you are relaxed and open-minded and want somewhere with the freedom to re-connect with your partner in a safe and erotic environment then this really is the place for you – regardless of age, size or any other distinguishing characteristic!
Thanks Denny for organising this – see you in May!