by claire moore on Mon Oct 20, 2003 3:36 pm
had a great time just back Sat 18th Oct, even in garden view tho v humid and sl damp in room as we aren't used to air con in the UK and thought it was great to be that warm without any effort! Restaurants were all great, tho steak house less than impressed by vegetarian and only offered pasta in tomato sauce but hey that was at least an option,I just had the vegetable side dishes and they were great. 50% capacity at start of Oct when we wnet then big influx of USA people midway thru week for 1w which then dropped again after week, tho all casitas booked so no chance of upgrade, but they looked great (extra 30$/night for ocean view junior room when ask at desk) They were repainting/sealing the fountain waterway when we were there but v little disruption or noise and the buidling work on new reception beside our building was v quiet, 2 new restaurants being built for next yr and more casitas but don't think it will ever be much bigger. Pools apart from the main one were mostly empty along the ocean front area, beach was fine and snorkling great tho the coral is sharp if you stand on it, tho you can snorkel from within 1 metre of the beach so don't have to wade in far. Jacuzzi was great, room service good, Kampai and Italian were good and the Mexican was not Texmex style more nouvelle cuisine stylie mexican, lots of good fish for those inclined too. Alex from guest services is a bit of a sneaky timeshare bod, so beware when he's v ingratiationg as you arrive, you'll be booked in for the 1.5hrs tour and brekkie the next day b4 you know it, we just popped in before our appt and said we couldn't be bothered and there was no fuss or pressure at all, obviously looked like poor english people as we were so pale! My fair skin burned even with factor 45 the first day so be careful if you're fair. Weather was great bar the odd nighttime stonking thunder storm and tropical storm the first day,cool horizontal warm rain!!
Tours to Chchen Itza and Xel Ha would have been better if you didn't have to stop at every damn hotel on the way to pick up more people, avoid Caracol village road at all costs, you need an off roader vehicle!
Definitely would go back, and def go for casita,prob 2nd floor as more private and better view, if you plan to upgrade when you get there you might be lucky but it wasn't possible to get a casita at all when we got there so it was up to ocean view which I didn't feel was worth it really. The 'Semi-formal' dress code for the restaurants seemed to be very optional indeed, shorts and T shirts were a norm for some of the guys, which seemed a shame when most of the women had gone to loads more effort, but the restaurants weren't enforcing it