Will success spoil Desire

[shore128]

Coke, you raise a good point. Our "vanilla" vacations have generally not been to all-inclusives, however; the last few years we've travelled with friends to a few of the Secrets resorts. I see that Secrets Maroma Beach will be up to around $650 a night for its lower room categories during the winter season next year. It is a top notch resort and I don't feel it is overpriced, but that is $100 more a night than we paid in winter of 2013. There are great deals to be had here and there, but the better all-inclusive, adult only resorts in Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia and the Riviera Maya have prices in the range of those at Desire RM and Desire Pearl, depending upon the room category. The larger, beach front rooms at some of these resorts are in the $800 per night range and sometimes considerably more. And of course they don't offer some of the things that make Desire so special.

[olderII]

YES! If you ask the question, it means the spoilage has begun.

[bill_monica]

YES! If you ask the question, it means the spoilage has begun.

Agree. We just returned from Pearl and the signs are there. Food looks great but is no longer awesome. There are only 3 choices for beer (no Corona for example) and the rule of three applies for house wine too.
I remember couple of years ago the winner of the Chippendale contest won a free night accommodation for two, this year he got only a pair of 25 min. massages. Some of the bands playing after dinner in the lobby were below par also.
The staff is trying to do their best but with owners maximizing profit things can go south quickly...

[CokeMann]

There are only 3 choices for beer (no Corona for example)

FYI - Original Resort properties have never offered Corona since their group contract for all their resorts is with a different brewery that supplies Sol, Dos Equis(DosXX), etc

[eddieandjojo]

Maybe it's just me but this string is getting to me! IMHO, we just returned from 12 days in absolute paradise, split our time equally at both resorts and it was fantastic. This was our 22nd Desire trip and we can say there has not been any deterioration since we started going in 2006. In fact I dare say that our recent visit was one of our best in terms of overall accommodations, service and food quality. Pearl is just a gem and we hope that more hardcore RM guests give it a chance......you want to have a vibe then DO IT, we did....the guest make the vibe, not the resort. RM, well, it was just as we left it a few months prior except that Suki's host thought he owned the damn resort, he finally saw things my way after the second night of being told the restaurant was fully reserved with only 4 people actually seated when we walked in......sorry, brief rant over, all ended well, as I said he saw things my way.

Point is Desire is amazing, don't sweat the small stuff, enjoy the incredible atmosphere you traveled so far to be in and remember, it's all in YOUR attitude, enjoy time with your significant other and have no expectations other than rockin your vacation/holiday!

Respectfully submitted!

[olderII]

eddie&jojo, hope you don't mind the question. We have been going to Desire since 04, so we're not newbies. While there this past Feb, several of the beach beds had collapsed. had there been an effort to fix them or clean up the debris? It was our understanding the collapsed several weeks earlier.

[eddieandjojo]

While we are not beach peeps, we did see a few roped off and in need of repair. If memory serves me correct it appeared that work had begun to repair them......but I can't say for sure. We did notice that our rooms were renovated and the disco had been refreshed. Oh yeah, Sahlo replaced Il Piacere.....liked it but we also liked the sexy vibe of the white decor.

[olderII]

For management to allow the beach beds to remain in that condition is very sad! At least clean the debris up and haul it away. Desire management hasn't posted on the site since May 2013. They don't care!!

[BottomsUp]

We were at RM mid February and there were a couple of beach beds roped off that needed repair.
Sad....that was over two months ago and they're still not fixed?

We also did a split trip with a week at RM and three nights at Pearl. Both resorts offer something special.
However, we now prefer Pearl. True, there can be different vibes as Eddie mentioned. Our first day at Pearl
the crowd seemed a bit older/quite...... I think I was the youngest guest there, lol. But by day two the resort
livened up a lot! We had a great time and will definitely return providing we see some reasonable rates. The
last time I checked Pearl, it was $800/night Canadian....wtf? A little ridiculous if you ask me. There are other
resorts to check off on our bucket list. We'll just wait and see....

Mrs BottomsUp