Trip Report Construction Update May 15, 2023

[GregandTea]

In case you are interested in the expansion status I will focus this trip report on what we observed and learned about the expansion project while we were at Desire from May 5 to May 14. This is our 9th trip to Desire. We went through a membership presentation just to get the inside view of the expansion and we weren't disappointed (the things we do for our friends). We got to see some construction drawings, new room renditions, and get a lot of questions answered, including planned room rates (breathtaking). These notes are from memory and while they may not be perfect, the presentation was early enough in the morning that I was sober. The room rates I am listing are from the Desire website for bookings in May of 2024. With that disclaimer, here we go!

As if you didn’t know, Original Resorts (OR) is developing the land north of the resort as an expansion to desire. The expansion has now been named and will be marketed as “The Eden.”

This is a significant expansion. For reference, the existing resort has about 620 feet of ocean frontage. The new property will add another 320 feet of ocean frontage. Granted, there isn’t much is “usable” beach as at the north end of the existing property the sea is now splashing against the sea wall. What used to be a double row of beach beds in that area are gone as they would now be in the water for much of the day. The beach doesn’t get any wider going north along the new property.

In terms of square footage, the current resort is about 6.5 acres total in size, but a lot of that is swamp. Only about 3.8 acres are in use. The new property is about 2.7 acres in size total, but almost all of that is buildable: 2.35 acres. That means that when completed, the new area will take up about 38 percent of the total usable space for the entire resort. Again, this is a big expansion.

Despite the size the new area will only have three new buildings for guest rooms, adding a total of 42 new rooms. For the sake of reference I will call the buildings Ocean, Garden, and Pool. Ocean will face the ocean (duh) in the far northeast corner of the property. These are the “diamond” level rooms and they will be the top scale rooms at the resort. It will be a three-story building with three rooms on each level for a total of nine rooms. The rooms are each about 925 square feet not including the terrace. Each room has its own terrace, and the terrace has its own bathroom and jacuzzi. In the room there is a dining area, bar, lounge area, and a huge bathroom. Rooms are identical except that the first floor will all be “swim-up” rooms with a good size pool between the building and the sea wall reserved for their use. I’m not sure that the building has an elevator but based on the high-end design I would assume it would.

The other two buildings run east and west and are located just west of the Ocean building. Starting with Garden, that is the building that is closest to the northern property boundary. It is also three stories tall, and also with three rooms on each floor. All of the rooms have a terrace that faces to the south and they overlook a garden and pool area that is between Garden building and Pool building. The first-floor rooms are also swim-up, with a narrow swimming pool running along the terraces. The rooms in the building all have a similar layout, but there are some differences between the first-floor swim-up rooms (officially named “seductive garden-view swim-up” and the second and third story rooms (officially named “beloved”). All of the rooms are about 600 square feet in size. Beloved rooms all have round jacuzzis in the rooms. Seductive Swim-up just get the swim-up and no jacuzzi, according to the drawings. Again, I’m not sure about an elevator in this building, but I expect it based on room rates and design.

The Pool building is just south of Garden. This is also a three-story building, but in this case there is a center hallway in the building so you have rooms that look out to the south over the main pool on the south side, and rooms that look out over the garden and toward the Garden building on the north side. Starting on the north side, there are four first-floor rooms, again with a swim-up terrace and a connecting pool as described for the first-floor Garden building rooms. In fact these rooms are identical to the seductive garden view swim-up rooms in the garden building. Effectively the swim-up rooms in both buildings and the garden area in between them form the “garden” in “garden view.” Above these four rooms are a second floor and then a third floor, each with four more rooms. Like the Garden building these rooms are the “Beloved” suites with a jacuzzi.

On the south side of the Pool building are the rooms that overlook the pool (sorry, my building naming system is very dull and predictable). Four rooms on the first floor will be swim-up, officially named “Seductive Pool View Swim-up” (The OR naming system is only slightly more creative than mine). These rooms are also about 600 square feet in size and they have a similar, but not identical, layout as the Seductive Garden View Swim-up and Beloved. There are no jacuzzis in these rooms. Rooms above these on the second and third floor are all Beloved style rooms, and these rooms are similar to the ones across the hall overlooking the garden, as well as the ones in the Garden building on the second and third floors. They do have jacuzzis in the room AND these 8 rooms overlook the main pool. Once again, I expect an elevator in this building but I can’t confirm that because I forgot to ask.

Here is the total room breakdown showing rooms in each class, with the nightly rate quoted as for two occupants in the room showing both the standard posted rate at this time as well as a discount rate currently showing on the website (12% discount) for May 2024:
3 Ocean View Swim-up rooms, 1st floor Ocean building, standard $7,014 a night, with discount $5,260 a night or $36,823 a week, two people included
6 Ocean View rooms, 2nd & 3rd floor of Ocean building, standard $5,010 a night, discount $3,757, a night or $26,302 a week, two people included
4 Pool View Swim-up rooms, 1st floor Pool building, standard $2,982 a night, discount $2,236 a night or $15,655 a week, two people included
7 Garden View Swim-up rooms, 1st floor Garden & Pool buildings, standard $2,486 a night, discount $1,864 a night or $13,051 a week, two people included
22 Beloved Jacuzzi Suites (8 are main pool view and 14 are garden view), 2nd and 3rd floor Garden and Pool buildings, standard $2,258 a night, discount $1,693 a night or $11,854 a week, two people included.

This is not the only construction related to the expansion. Here are the other changes:

There will be a new entry area. This will come off the main road running from the highway, so no more bumpy dirt road or bridge over the swamp to get to the entry.

Everything in the existing reception building (reception lobby, disco, and stores) will be moved to a new reception building adjacent to the new entrance. As is currently the case the second floor of that building is where the nightclub, nightclub bar, and playroom will be located. The current jacuzzi lounge area will relocate from the 3rd floor rooftop location of the 1000 building (present) to share the same second floor space above the lobby as the nightclub. Also, there will be an elevator serving the second floor.

Just outside of the new reception building will be a new Melange bar with a new pizza bar.

Two new restaurants, Kahlo (Mexican) and Eros (International) will be built in the area. Kahlo will serve a la carte breakfast and dinner. Eros will have an international buffet for lunch and Mediterranean/Greek fusion specialties for dinner.

There will be a new spa and gym with substantially enlarged therapy rooms (most rooms will have jacuzzis now).

Finally, a new main pool will be centered in the new area. The pool will be much larger than the current pool and will have a swim-up bar. It is designed to accommodate more people around the pool area. The existing pool will stay, but it will be designated as the “quiet” pool.

Existing garden view buildings at the far north end of the current property (building 2300 and building 2400) as well as ocean view building 2500 are drawn into the construction zone. It appears that these buildings will undergo remodel as part of the expansion although I can’t say that with certainty. While the drawings I saw showed those areas as part of the construction, it didn’t dawn on me at the time to ask about the specific plans for those buildings (of note: I also didn’t bother to ask what would become of the existing spa, reception, and Melange lounge area, but I would expect these areas would eventually be converted into new garden view buildings).

All of this work is currently scheduled to be completed with the new area ready to open on Feb 4, 2024. That is a slight push back from the original opening of December 22, 2023. Current status: lots of the first-floor work walls are up in many of the buildings, and some have second floor posts up. Will they make the February 4 opening? It can be done, but everything is going to have to line up. There is obviously a lot of work to be done and a lot of unexpected events could cause the current date to slip.

[s0up3rman]

Thank you for all this amazing information! Can anyone confirm that people staying in rooms on the original side of the resort will have access to the new pool/restaurants/play areas? It would be a shame if this split the resort up.

[nokidclub]

Thanks for all of this detail. Impressive that you remembered so many things about it!

[Don & Lizza]

Thank you!

[GregandTea]

A couple of added notes to respond to some points:

No, we didn't hear any construction noise and there were no other impacts by construction. We were in building 2200, so we were close. Granted we were up early and at the pool all day so we wouldn't have heard it. Anyone that hangs out at the beach bar or had rooms in 2300, 2400, and 2500 would be able to better speak to construction noise, but I don't think it is a problem. Perhaps late sleepers in those buildings would disagree!

Regarding separation and use of facilities between Desire and The Eden. The representation was that all guests will have access to all facilities. I think "The Eden" is just the name given to the new buildings, and I suspect that there will be some special benefits and privileges for staying in The Eden, similar to what you get with Passion Suites and Desire Suites now.

While the pool will be open to all guests, I think pool seating is going to continue to be a nagging problem. The resort currently has 112 rooms so the existing pool serves up to 224 guests. The expansion results in a max added 84 guests, or 308 people total resort wide.

The current pool has room for about 30 pairs of lounge chairs around the pool, about a dozen of the small round beds, and about 27 palapa beds. By happy coincidence that comes out to seating for 69 couples. So pool seating capacity is about 138 guests, and if the resort is full about 86 guests are without pool seating. Of course not everyone wants to be at the pool, the resort isn't always full, and a certain number of people are arriving and leaving each day. It isn't a huge problem now, but with the reduction in beach palapas over the years there is a lot more demand for pool seating, and if you aren't a member you have likely experienced not being able to get a pool spot on some days. There are just more people that want to be around the pool where all the playmaker events and resort activities are and existing seating isn't enough.

Even with a larger new main pool and more seating around the pool, I suspect there will still be a huge demand for spots around the pool where all of the activities are occurring. And if guests in "The Eden" are given pool seating priority (which I would expect given the room rates), I'm not confident that getting a spot at the main pool won't be much more difficult than it already is now when the resort is full. Same could be true for the new hot tub, even with a larger tub. I am hoping I am very wrong on this, but I think I have been pretty spoiled with getting the pool lounger I want every day (even though that means getting up at 6:00 AM each morning). If the added rooms make it impossible to get main pool seating or to squeeze into the hot tub before dinner, I'm going to be very disappointed with the expansion. Time will tell...

[eddieandjojo]

Thanks, really appreciate the reports and insight to The Eden. We'll be there in July, was planning on sitting in on the presentation....so you just saved us 1.5 hours!!

[Turk7]

Only 36,000 a week what a bargain.

[BashfulDesires]

So many thoughts, but as others have noted - the vibe will surely change for oh so many reasons!

Future Room Count:
Existing: 112
Eden: 42
Potential - New Garden View rooms to replace existing facilities:
Spa/Gym to replicate the 2100 block = 10-rooms
Lobby/Disco/Store to replicate 1000 block = 16-rooms
Melange Outdoor Bar to replicate the 1900 & 1800 blocks = 8-rooms

In theory Desire RM could have 112 + 42 + 10 + 16 + 8 = 188-rooms. A 68% increase!

What do they plan on doing with the existing Arrecife (breakfast & dinner buffet) and Tentazone (lunch buffet)? Or will they operate two breakfast & lunch buffets? Thats a lot of staff or a lot of walking!
Will be quite the long walk from Eden to Suki/Sahlo for dinner!

We're excited for the quiet pool, the incessant ET staff interactions and lengthy pool games often annoy us. It was fun our first time, not the 4th, 6th, or 8th trip.

Villa parties were super fun and easily accessible - now the Villas are no longer central to the Hot Tub, Disco, & Shows. That vibe will totally change!

[Sunfunaz]

Awesome thank you for the update and info! Excited for the changes but hoping it doesn't destroy the vibe the resort has.