8 Days in August (4th>12th)

[CokeMann]

We, as most of you know, are regular August Desire alumni – this trip was our 14th to Desire

<b>Travel</b>
On this trip we decided to move off the usual Sat or Sunday travel times and by doing so got better flight deals and other benefits. We used Delta with a connection in Atlanta to Cancun – tight connection time of 40 min to get from Terminal B to Terminal E, but all went smoothly. Arrived in Cancun @ 11:30 am in the new Terminal 3 on Monday Aug 4th
Here is the other benefit of non weekend travel – we cleared thru Immigration in less than 5 minutes(there was only on couple a head of us in the line when we got there) – proceeded to the luggage pickup and yes our bags where just coming out on the carousel !! Next hit the button at Customs – bingo – Green Light, when over to the Gray line counter paid for a private taxi – walked out of the building got into the first taxi in the line up and was actually at Desire by 12:05 virtually 30 minutes after the flight touched down – Unbelievable !!!!
Homebound was just as great – direct taxi from Desire to terminal 3, checked in @ 11:40 am on Tuesday Aug 12 for a 1:30 flight - only 2 couples in front of us in the Delta line, so check in total time was all of 10 min – LOL - managed to spend the remaining time waiting in the airport Margaritaville………

<b>Attendance & Misc</b>
- no large groups while we where there but occupancy for the time we were there was 80+ %
- extremely high percentage of newbie’s
- virtually no beach bed action - thus we did not observe that any tickets where issued the whole 8 days we were there
- the most textiles(part or whole) we have ever seen both at the pool and the beach during the days

<b>Grounds</b>
- excellent condition - probably as good, if not better, than pre Wilma days

<b>Beach</b>
- better than ever – tropical storm Dolly passed over the area two weeks before we arrived and washed in huge amounts of sand, a returned the beach to almost pristine condition covering all the rocks and adding another 10 to 15 ft of unable beach depth - the only downside was the constant wash up of weeds for the first couple of days we were there – the weed wash in/up decreased daily and was very minimal by the end of our trip.

<b>Beach Traffic from other resorts</b>
- probably the highest I have ever seen, even with the signs at both the north and south ends of the Desire property warning that beach walkers will encounter nude people I never saw one person read this and turn back – LOL !!
FYI - SilverSands to the south of Desire is now open and there is also a new Azul property being built to the north of SilverSands (which will open by early next year) so I would expect that the levels of textile beach walkers to consistently increase over the next year.

<b>Claudia</b>
- our best massage ever - August bookings for her were very low so we had a good chance to visit and talk before and after and since we were the only appt for the day, she was rested and performed at her peak level.

<b>Staff</b>
- many of the regular crew still there, but also large numbers of new waiters
- downside - we felt as if we were being ambushed each morning by some of the regulars and some of the new staff in the bid for tips - none of those that did the ambushing received any tips from us on this trip.

<b>Food</b>
Breakfasts
– uniformly consistent and good – thanks Matilda !!

Lunches
- uniformly consistent and good – service and selections even better that in previous trips

Dinners
– SUKI - rating (B+) we experienced much slower service than in the past and still way, way too noisy (this area has needed serious acoustic treatment from day one)
– EL ARRECIFE (the dinner buffet) - rating (B-) we experienced that the selections appeared to be much less varied and overall food quality was lower on this trip than our previous May trip
– IL PIACERE (the french<white>place) - rating (A+ ) we experienced the usual great service and top quality food, preparation and presentation that has been the hallmark of this area from the time that we first started going to Desire
– TENTAZIONE (the Italian place) ) - rating ( F ) – honestly we gave it a fair shot and tried it on 3 different evenings – it was truly consistently bad, every selection we tried was overcooked to the extent of being dried out and the overall quality of the food was the worst of any of the areas – the service in this area also unfortunately for us, and other dinners, matched the food prep - consistently bad – they really need to consider that if this is to be offered as one of the specialty restaurants then it should have proper service levels and food quality !!!

<b>Pre Disco Lobby Entertainment</b>
- they have added the body painter as a regular on both Monday and Thursday evenings
- they have added a stage based dance routine show (with performers from Cancun) in the lobby area to replace the fashion show night - it was excellent.

<b>Disco</b>
- we again tried but at this point the Disco has become our least favorite part of Desire – our main reasons are that the DJ music mix is not really designed to get and keep people up dancing, and even worse it tends to be the same repetitive crap trip after trip – the disco is really starting to look old and shabby and frankly on this trip smelled moldy and musty – not a place we were willing to spend any time in

<b>Summary</b>
This trip was great in many ways, perfect weather every day, met up with many old friends that we have spent every August with for the last four years and celebrated another anniversary in one of the most romantic and special places that we have ever found

[multiples]

Thanks for such a well written, concise report!!

Any comments regarding the rooftop?

[CokeMann]

The Jacuzzi area was almost always jumping from about 4:30 pm onwards. Plenty of towels, bartenders that could keep up with the crowds, and the perfect place to gather and watch the sunset each day

[randyandmissy]

Completely agree with you cokeman on disco. We were with fotoguy the week after you. the disco was the worst we have ever experienced. We had several friends unable to go inside because of the mold. The saturday night the owners came, {that is another story for another day by the way}, workers were burning incense in the place trying to get smell out. Wish they would have cared the other 4 nights we had to stand the smell. The music was horrendous. The Mrs was dying to get up on the pole but never could get some sultry type stuff to be played. I counted 12 straight latin or spanish speaking songs in a row, saturday night. I tried to go and ask for some different stuff and I found myself looking into the face of a kid that looked like he was 18 years old and didn't understand a word i was saying.

I emailed silvinia and she got right back ans said she had been out of town but would check into it. It needs to be gutted and totally redone. when do you think we will hear from silvinia?

[CokeMann]

Randy - I cc'd Silvina on what I posted and what I had also said on the guest comment cards - the reply from her was the usual - " I will pass your comments on to the various departments for review."

Comments about the condition of the physical parts of the resort usually do receive serious consideration and then action if required - so I would expect that we will see some action on the smells and condition of the disco

On the DJ and music selection this has been a constant issue since the place opened and I am far less hopeful that there will be any significant changes - all we can do is keep complaining or just boycott the Disco like we have started doing .......

[Ron]

Probably one of the worst things in the world you can do is "mask" the smell of mold. As the mold keeps growing the burning of incense only gives the false sense of security. Anyone know of any other C/O resorts in the general area. It's time for a stiff dose of competition. Eh?

The music situation in the disco has been from year #1 and it still goes on. But fear not the PR director is looking into it. Yep. She sure is along with the Italian restaurant food and service and other short comings.

When and only when the occupancy rate drops from the usual 80%+ down to Cabo's 50-60% than you will see the changes. Until then why should they change anything. If you build it- they will come.

[funluvincouple99]

They must have listened to your restaurant comments because TENTAZIONE was not open on any of the nights of our visit (Aug. 20-25). In our opinion, the smells in the Disco are coming from the cheap carpet. It was fraying and unraveling at the seams through the middle of the room and either needs a professional steam cleaning or should be pulled out completely.

[randyandmissy]

Does anyone know if a women can go topless at the secrets Resorts???

[Denver Duo]

It's been surprising how many improvements have been made at Desire, considering how small the resort is. But on the other hand, there are still many improvements that can be made.

A couple reading these trip reports may want to take a wait and see approach if the negatives are deal breakers for going to Desire. We found the resort just our style last year - our first trip. Then this year for our second trip, the disco was not tolerable so we won't return to Cancun until the trip reports show that the problem is fixed. Until occupancy rates decline significantly, we aren't holding our breath. And the rates keep going up. There are alternatives to the disco, as Coke mentions. If Desire converts the area by the lobby bar into alternative entertainment area (juke box, karaoke, live performers, etc.) that continues until midnight or so, then an open air alternative may solve the problem. That is a big IF.

Desire Cabo may be another alternative. Same atmosphere, same type of people, but a new location.

[eddieandjojo]

Coke, thanks for the detailed report! Glad you guys had a good time....now it's our turn, we leave tomorrow morning! I'll most likely chat with Silvina about the disco issues, if for nothing else to reinforce what we have all been saying over the past few months, etc....!

Anyway, hopefully we'll be lucky and avoid much of the rain and winds that will most likely be around on Saturday as is predicted. Our little group is very positive and we've all been saying that we'll party rain or shine! Hey, I guess naked twister or slip and slide may be in order for Sat/Sun...LOL

Eddie

[Siren]

Thanks for such a good trip report. Regarding alternatives to the disco-we host a trip each year for the website we belong to. We've grown tired of the repititiveness of the disco (haven't encountered the mold issue, but we don't spend enough time there...lol), so we spent time putting together about 35 hours of great music on our IPOD. After the pre-disco entertainment in the Melange bar area, we simply hook our IPOD up to the speakers. Viola! Great mood music that goes from cocktail to sexy and back to soft cocktail, ending at approximately 1:00am. We had many, many guests never venture to the disco at all. It made for a very sexy, sultry outdoor party each evening.

[Ron]

geeeeeeeeeze, what a great idea. OK YNOT's who got an IPOD with great sounding island Music?

[funluvincouple99]

Thanks for such a good trip report. Regarding alternatives to the disco-we host a trip each year for the website we belong to. We've grown tired of the repititiveness of the disco (haven't encountered the mold issue, but we don't spend enough time there...lol), so we spent time putting together about 35 hours of great music on our IPOD. After the pre-disco entertainment in the Melange bar area, we simply hook our IPOD up to the speakers. Viola! Great mood music that goes from cocktail to sexy and back to soft cocktail, ending at approximately 1:00am. We had many, many guests never venture to the disco at all. It made for a very sexy, sultry outdoor party each evening.

Do tell...what website do you belong to? And you didn't have any problems using Desire's speakers in the lobby bar area? Thanks.

[mfay]

Barbara and I leave tonight for 9 days at Desire. We are as excited as ever ! After a dozen trips we know what to expect in many ways. But the true excitement is in the fact that in some ways we never really know whats going to happen ! Each week and each group is different- and for us that is what keeps the Desire experience fresh and
new.
We'll be keeping an eye out for some of the problems/issues that Wayne and others have talked about here and we'll report back. Meanwhile we hope that all of you here on the forum have a great week- I can promise you we will !