We have just returned from this very nice
looking hotel. Much of what we read online on the various Playa boards was
completely correct, but there was some important information that was not
mentioned that I would like to share with you.
We had emailed the hotel in advance,
requesting a second floor room in building 11 so that we would be near the
beach area. We had read that we should definitely take a room on that floor.
Unfortunately, they did exactly as I asked, except that the second floor is
called the third floor there. (Ground, 1st, 2nd).
In any case, since the fault was mine, I said nothing. As it turned out, since
we arrived early, the room that they had allocated for us in building 11 was
not yet empty. She apologized to me and offered me a room in building 12, which
faced the rear pathway. I was in room 1248, and would suggest that you all take
a room facing the rear as it is somewhat quieter than one facing the pool. You
will also not have to worry about a monkey knocking on your window or visiting
you! The top floor also had good points too, and we liked it. It might be
hotter though, as you are higher up and possibly warmer.
I did not want to wait for their guys to
bring my suitcases. Some folks had said that they had to wait for a while. We
wheeled our bags to the building, and I dragged them up the three floors
(heavy, but good exercise for the arm muscles). On first entry, the room felt
very warm, but I figured that it had not been used for a while, and had not had
a chance to cool down. I later found out different - all the electricity (and
air conditioning) in the room is shut off the moment you leave. It comes back
on when you return, with the lights, etc starting up as you open the door.
Perhaps the folks who have been there did not realize this. They might have
assumed that the hot room was due to their sun burns. There is also another
problem for any of you that want an air conditioned room. They have the
thermostat set to go no lower than 23C, so it can never really get very cool.
Now, not everyone wants a cool room, but I sure expect it. They sent a repair
man to check it out when I complained, but he said that he was not able to
change it as the entire place was set that way. I accepted that and was too
warm for the first week.
The second week our daughter and husband
arrived for their vacation. In my email to the hotel, I had asked for them to
get a room very close to ours. I checked with the front desk the night before
and they assured me that it was all arranged which it was. They were put right
across the hall from us in 1252. When I went in their room that night, it
seemed much cooler than ours and their electricity seemed to have stayed on. I
went to the front desk and asked that they fix our room to stay on all the time
as well. I said that it was obvious I had been told a fib. That night it was
fixed properly, the room eventually went down to 20C and stayed there. I
suggest that you do the same, and when they say that it can’t be done, you will
know that they are lying to you. Don’t bother doing this though if 23C is OK
for you and you like a warm room. Oh, and don’t bother to try to plug in a
clock, it will never keep the right time without electricity.
I had also asked the repair man why the
fridge did not seem to work; nothing seemed to be getting colder either. He
told me that it was on some sort of power saver and that it would eventually go
down which it did in a few days.
The room itself was sparse, but attractive,
just as it had been described. The bed was rock hard (a mattress on a slab of
concrete). I personally found it very comfortable, as I like a harder bed. Our
son in law had to put an air mattress on it for sleeping, as he found it very
difficult. There was not much storage space, just a few shelves in the closet,
but I guess it was enough as we managed fine. There are not a lot of electric
plugs in the room, so if you need to charge batteries all the time (like I did
for my MP3 player), plug it into the TV’s socket, the electricity stays on at
this plug. I did not initially have a smell of smoke in the room. There is no
bathtub, but that information is disclosed in their pamphlet. There was
certainly a shortage of hot water. Most of the time, it was barely warm and
without much pressure. There is a safe in the room, so you can keep your
wallet, etc protected. The TV does not have many channels; don’t look for much
except some cartoons and CNN. You are not there to watch TV, but some like to
keep up with the news.
The maid in our building was not all that
good; she came very late in the day every day and did not always put towels to
replace those she took. I think that they had changed maids. The first day, I
chatted with the lady doing the work. She knew no English, but we chatted in
Spanish about her family and she was nice. After that, it was another woman,
who did not seem as nice. It was not only our room; the whole building seemed
to be done in an odd way and late.
The grounds of the resort were quite
beautiful, among the nicest that we had seen. We were happy to see that there
were a lot of palapas (huts) on the beach and also at
the pool (something that you don’t see very often - almost no shade at the pool
in most hotels). The place was very large and we got a bit lost the first
night. Bring your map for the first days. The lobby is attractive, but
un-air-conditioned and very smoky from all the people’s cigarettes.
You can eat in any one of three restaurants
for lunch and two for supper (plus the four reservation-only places for suppers
where you can eat twice each week). I will come back to the food later in this
review.
There is a jungle walk going through the
middle of the property to get you from top to bottom. You will see all sorts of
wild-life in your travels here. We waited a whole week to see the monkeys that
everyone talks about. I was able to get some photos of them close up, although
they are grainy. They were high up in the trees, hidden in the branches and
without a lot of light. Not easy for photos. There was also this rat-looking animal,
that I photographed but still do not know the name of.
The beach was a pleasure in some ways. In
many of the hotels there, we had to get up before dawn to be assured of getting
a shady palapa. Here,
You will get a
The Star friends are nice; we did not have
any real contact with them though, as we do not participate in the pool games
or other activities. You will have a group of mariachi musicians wandering
around the pool twice a week. The drink lady wanders around all the time with a
tray full to keep you wet inside. Many folks on the net had complained that
they put very little booze in the drinks. I guess that is so, they seemed weak,
but again, that was fine with us, we wanted them that way anyway. I prefer to
get my liquor pure and unmixed. I tried Mezcal for
the first time. I am a great lover of tequila straight. The Mezcal
was really nice; I suggest that you try it out if you have never had the
pleasure, although watch out for the worm!. I brought
a big bottle home to enjoy. They will also mix a few specialty dinks in the bar
too for you. Try the Mayan Sacrifice, and the tequila drink that had the three
colors, (can’t think of the name). My wife loved the fantasia, tasted great.
Some folks complained that it was very far
from the beach to the lobby. They felt that it was too much exercise. We found
it nothing; in fact, we walked to Playa del Carmen about 8 times in the two
weeks, walked around there and then back before supper. A
nice 35 minute walk each way. (That helps you come home without too many
extra pounds). By
The buffet restaurants were very attractive
looking, with a number of selections for each meal. I personally found the food
only average tasting. I don’t like vegetarian or seafood dishes, so the
selection was not always very interesting to me. My wife liked it more than I
did. There was an espresso machine there and I had one for many of the meals.
Other than that, there was no real American coffee. It was way too strong and
bitter for most folks I would imagine. When I drank it, I used about a third
hot milk to two thirds coffee and it was OK, but more designed for the Euros,
Russians, and Poles that were there. They had little steaks one night each
week. I took some each week, and each time they were red and practically raw.
Not my taste. I had a lot of pasta meals, but they also did not seem to put
meat and noodles together enough. They were served the Italian way, with mostly
a tomato sauce or white sauce. There was still lots to eat, even for those that
are, like me, more fussy eaters.
I was surprised that you cannot get any
coffee at the Tucan side of the beach before
The deserts were quite good, and probably
contributed to most of the extra weight we gained there. The ice cream was
tasty as well. Loved it!
We ate in the Tropical and Steak specialty restaurants.
I was not all that impressed with the steak house, especially the last time,
when I ordered the beef ribs. It appeared as if they had been taken out of the
fridge and put on the grill for only a couple of minutes. They were still cold.
I complained and they brought another rack back, not much warmer and also full
of a lot of fat. I just left the whole plate and ate in the buffet restaurant.
The theatre offers a show each night, but
personally, I found the place totally unusable for anyone who needs to breathe.
The smoke from the cigars and cigarettes was intense, and you could not sit
anywhere clear. About 70% of the non North Americans who were there smoked, and
they did it EVERYWHERE. The two main restaurants, to their credit, had a lot of
non-smoking tables, more than I had seen anywhere, but it was still pretty bad
for a non-smoker, with second-hand smoke and stench. I also found that the
music that they played in the restaurants was way too LOUD. If I want to visit
a disco, I will go there, but I would prefer to eat in a quieter atmosphere,
where I can chat with nice people that we met.
A lot of folks were sick there, for
whatever reason, including my wife. In speaking to others, we heard similar
stories from many. These were not folks who were drinking the water in their
room. It must have been the food. For the first time, I also felt a bit queasy
and have not as yet recovered (as of Dec 7th). We have been to
Anyway, that is about all that I have to
say. I won’t bother to give you the day to day, mostly we got done to the beach
at about 8AM and spent the day relaxing, swimming in the ocean, reading and
then later in the day walking either to town or to the Plaza Playacar, a cute shopping center about 8 minutes from the
hotel.
On the whole, I would give this resort about
7 out of 10. We had a nice time there, even though the weather was on the
whole, kind of poor very often. Oh, and by the way, watch out for the tiles on
the floor when it rains, they can be very slippery. After the fact, I read
other reports about this resort who said pretty much the same thing about the
food, which seems to have slipped in quality over the last year.
Please visit my webshots
photo page where you can find some of the 200 photos that I took on this trip.
Enjoy yourself; the Mexican people are very nice, wonderful folks. If you have
any Spanish from school, try it out. I use it all the time there, and it makes
things go even more enjoyable. I always feel very much at home there.
