The Eden?

[Don & Lizza]

We just arrived today at Desire RM. 1st day's observations:The new lobby area is finished and it is nice. Lots of stairs to get to and then down to pool area. Not sure how that is going to be when they are wet. There are lots of chairs and cabanas around the new pool. No pillows or sun screens on the cabanas. People are using umbrellas and towels draped over the top of the cabana to get some relief from the sun. The old pool is dead and almost no one there. The new pool is quite large and lots of space. They said they are opening the new spa this Monday. They are still working on the new jacuzzi, no word at this point when it will open. We are eating Eros tonight, they told us it is Greek cusine. The beach is still diminished but the water looks fantastic. To us, so far seems like the same great vibe as in the past, it's just happening in new facilities. Staff is superb, as always. We are in one of the 1500 rooms and turned on the water and it smells like strong sewer water. Not sure what we are going to do about that yet. Plan on sharing realtime daily observations as long as we are here. Regardless, we love it here.

[Lkncouple]

Thanks for the update, we get there on Monday. Sucks about the water in your room, I would definitely ask the front desk about that. I would brush my teeth with bottled water. Some things I am interested in hearing about:
- Are the doing activities in the new pool like pool volleyball, foam party etc?
- Is the pool water still cold or has it warmed up?
- Do you know if they have put water in the new hot tub yet?

Excited to check it out for ourselves! next week.

[Desire_FL]

We got back on 02/23 after seven days there. Pool has warmed up a lot and regular games going on there. Water smell in the rooms seems to have improved as well. We were supposed to have stayed in one of the new Eden rooms but were able to make a last-minute change because of the reviews here.

[Nolaapples]

Did you manage to hear about the current state of the Eden rooms while you were there?

We have a swim up suite that we're pumped about and aren't going to be there until the end of March.

[Desire_FL]

Did you manage to hear about the current state of the Eden rooms while you were there?

We have a swim up suite that we're pumped about and aren't going to be there until the end of March.

That's the room we originally had reserved. Frankly, I wouldn't do that one, but it depends on what you're looking for. There is a lot of vegetation between the swim-up pool and the main pool, which I guess is ok if you want privacy, but not so great if you want to be part of the pool vibe. Just my two cents, others might disagree. We talked to several who were staying in those rooms, and as someone else mentioned, it wasn't a good experience because of ongoing construction, the sound of water going through pipes from the rooms above, etc. Construction should be sorted out by the time you get there though.

[Nolaapples]

There is a lot of vegetation between the swim-up pool and the main pool, which I guess is ok if you want privacy, but not so great if you want to be part of the pool vibe. Just my two cents, others might disagree

Interesting... it seems like an interesting splurge but maybe won't be worth it, could b really fun to be able to dip into the pool first thing in the morning with coffee. I'm happy the new pool is getting traction. This will be our second visit, we had a aecond story garden view room last year and felt it was very dark.

[CodyO]

Lobby and straight view of the pool to the ocean is well thought out and beautiful!

New hot tub is still not open
New disco still not open

New pool is warm and had alot of activity this past weekend!

Old pool is the quiet pool and more of the older crowd there.

Old lobby bar is just a coffee bar during day and food at night. That will be changing to lobby soon but hasn’t yet? I think waiting on hot tub and disco before changing over.

Construction didn’t hamper us but we didn’t stay in the new Eden side either.

It does feel spread out but we still had a great time and I’m sure once everything is open it will flow alittle better. I wish everything was open but we still had a great crowd this trip and it’s more about the people there to us! This trip was one of the best even with only half of Eden open

[Lkncouple]

We got back this Saturday. My observation is the similar to most, but here are my thoughts:

Pools:
-There is really becoming a two tiered system. They put purple premier towels on almost every bed and every chair in the new pool. I talked to the pool chair guy and he said if you are not a member and want a chair you need to be there before 7:30am. Otherwise, they will put your name on a list and if premier members don't show up by 10:30 you may get one of those chairs.
-The new pool is huge. I actually think it is too big. We were there for 5 days, and it seemed like a lot less interaction between between the guests. It seemed like a lot of couples hanging out. The only place there seemed to be a crowd was at the pool bar. It did take a while to get a drink.
-When they built the pool they have must have poured stucco or concrete over Styrofoam. There are little drains around the pool to catch overflow. When you look at the drains they have less than a half inch of stucco on top of the styrofoam. There were places around the pool where people stepped on the drains and their foot when through the concrete and stucco. My guess is they are going to have to replace all the drains.
-Definitely a younger crowd at the new pool. Just an observation, many of the younger crowd wore bathing suits.
-They installed the most slippery tile they could find for the new pool bathroom. They had a person whose full time job was to try and dry the floors in the bathrooms, but it didn't work. Someone is going to get seriously hurt.
-We ended up hanging out at the old pool. Service was awesome. They originally had "Spa" music, but our group asked them to change it to 80's-90's rock. As they changed the music, there seemed to be more people hanging out at the old pool. They really need to make the music a permanent change. The music was low enough that you could talk, and it seemed like this was a much more social atmosphere. I think there may have been a couple of complaints that it wasn't completely quiet, but the majority of the people seemed to like having some music.

Hot Tub:
-The new hot tub never opened. We snuck up and looked at it, and it is HUGE (Almost as big as the old pool. There were definitely leaks, as water was coming in to the new lobby bar. You could see where they jackhammered out the steps to look for pipes and try to find the leak.
-There will be a ton of beds around the new hot tub, and the view is fantastic.
-I wonder if having the hot tub so big if it is going to hurt to social aspect of the hot tub.
-While we were there, the original hot tub was packed. The water was not to hot. I think there were only 4 beds up there. One was broken and had caution tape around it. There were not a lot of people using the beds, like we have seen in the past, so 4 beds was plenty.

Lobby Bar:
- The new lobby bar is very nice. I think they will figure out how to properly us it. Lots of space and sitting areas.
- The nightly shows in the lobby bar seemed very lackluster. I don't think the lobby bar is the best place for the shows. In the past, they seemed to have much more acrobatic shows. I specifically remember glow night doing an amazing show with LED lights.
- They really messed up the old lobby bar. Now it is a coffee shop, but for some reason, that is were the late night Pizza, BLT's, Taco's are. So if you come down from the disco or the Hot tub and order food there is no place to get a drink. So you have to either walk up to the disco, the hot tub or walk to the other side of the resort to get a drink. I know this is temporary until the new stuff is open, but it is really poor planning.'

Service/food:
-Overall I think service is good. They definitely need help. However the people that are there, really hustle and take good care of everyone.
-At the old pool you can go into were the old lunch Buffett and order sandwiches and other lunch items. They basically have the grill running.
-The new lunch Buffet is in EROS, by the new pool. They also serve breakfast to order there. The view is great, and I think the food and selection was really good.
-Breakfast buffet was exactly the same as in the past. It did take a very long time to get an omelet. Service was stretched here. We order a soft drink for breakfast and we didn't get it until breakfast was over.
-We had dinner at Sahlo one night, it was the worst meal we had for the trip.
-I am not sure what is going on with the Spa, but there were a ton of spa people hounding you to get a massage. Everyday, multiple times a day you were asked if you wanted a massage. If you said no, they would really press you. We had people near us that said, they had a massage booked then next day, and they were pushy telling them to have one today and the next day.

Overall we had a blast. They have lots of improvements left to do, but regardless, I think if you go you will have a good time. That being said, bigger is not always better, and I think the addition will make some people very happy, we talked to a lot of people that have gone in the past were very unhappy and feel that the thing that made RM great was how it brought people together and now that is missing. I think beyond actual repairs and work that needs to be finished, I think management will be challenged to figure out how to bring some of the magic back, that promotes people to mingle. We have been to RM 8 times and after this week, we will definitely try Pearl the next time.

[Nolaapples]

The old pool felt like the perfect size but I think the hot tub could be bigger. I agree with how the intimacy of the resort forced conversation, a really big pool is gonna spread people out but then again the social people will probably go and talk and those that are hanging in the corner probably wouldn't engage much anyone. Heck, maybe some couples that would be overwhelmed by how small the old tub was may actually go in it because it's not so tightly packed!

[Hd04]

Just checked in 2 hours ago. No word on the new hot tub/ playroom. New lobbY has much better AC than the old one. The "quiet" pool is basically empty right now and there are cabanas available by the beach according to the towel guy. The new buffet next to the new pool is only open to everyone at lunch. Breakfast and dinner there are Eden only.

[willandtrina]

Can anyone post pictures inside and outside of the rooms at Eden?

[isuguy12345]

Been a fair amount of chatter of mostly clothed at the new pool. Any change in that status?

[Hd04]

Been a fair amount of chatter of mostly clothed at the new pool. Any change in that status?

Plenty of skin yesterday.

[whathappensinX]

So only Eden can eat at new restaurant but its still full every night?

Does hot tub look like its a week away or months away from being done?

[Hd04]

Not sure on the hot tub. They finished it, but then it cracked and leaked last week apparently. They have to tear up parts to fix it according to the employee we talked to. Could be days or weeks.