There are not enough good things to say about this resort and we can't imagine ever vacationing someplace else. Upon our arrival, we were greeted with "Welcome Home!"...and that's exactly how it feels. The reception staff are always very pleasant and courteous and Renate definitely recognizes us as the couple who will NOT give in to the "timeshare" package; nevertheless, she laughs that off and wishes us a great time.
Upon our arrival, we caught up with a couple we met on our last trip (and Eddie you still owe me that deep-tissue sunscreen application!) and made some new great friends --R&S, D&C, D&J, F&D --you all rock. There's nothing like being naked to break down any barriers in meeting new people...where else can a diehard Yankees fan hang with a Red Sox fan and have a great time and be buds or enjoy the reaction of everyone else who saw it?! This is the only place where everyone is so friendly. Before we found Desire, we vacationed at "vanilla" resorts where people wouldn't even say hello. That's not the case at Desire...every trip we meet awesome people that we continue to stay in touch with and this trip will be no different.
We typically stay in the bottom level rooms in the 17, 18 or 19 buildings and have always been very happy with these. The bed and pillows were very comfortable, although we didn't spend too much time using them with our late night/early morning bedtimes! My only issue with our room is the shower...the pressure and temps change often during use; hopefully they'll address this issue when they begin renovating the rooms this fall. We also managed to blow the fuse again in our room -- don't blowdry and iron at the same time. The staff was very quick about restoring power after they understood what I was telling them (1st they made me a new room key - LOL).
I didn't experience any issues reserving a pool chair and I even stumbled out of room as late as 10 to reserve a chair; Daniel always found me a set. Truth is, in July, you don't really even need a chair because it's too freakin' hot to be out of the water! We really spent the majority of our day in the pool. Silvia is the best waitress - always keeping our glasses full and very attentive....she's an absolute sweetheart. We sure missed her on her day off...her sub couldn't measure up. My only suggestion for the pool is different music -- Buffett, Reggae, classic rock....anything except what we hear in the disco at night.
Since our last trip (Jan 2010), the restaurants have changed menus. Il Piacere was outstanding! Hands down, they have the best NE Clam Chowder I've ever had. The staff is gracious and very accomodating; the food was awesome. The lamb, snapper, duck and salmon were outstanding. They've even changed their presentation - the escargot was served in a conch shell and Coquille was in a clam shell on top of blue stones (very pretty & yummy). Suki was still awesome, but I wasn't as excited about their new entrees. The sushi is still to die for as are their spring rolls. We only ate at the buffet on Asian night and, again, got our fill of sushi. The breakfast and lunch buffets offer many excellent choices as well.
The jacuzzi at happy hour is still alot of fun and the bartenders do a fine job of keeping up. We also went up to the jacuzzi after the disco every night and it was fairly quiet, although there was definitely some activity to watch. The latenight bartender a couple nights was incredibly slow, which was fine because most of us up there weren't overly interested in drinking
. There was a lifestyle group that came in halfway through our stay. The day they arrived I felt totally invaded in the hottub -- they descended as if we weren't even there. That said, we ended up chatting with many of them the next day and they were very friendly and didn't care whether we were part of their group or not.
The remodeled disco is incredible; they did a beautiful job. I love that we can sit around the new bar or on a bed to watch the action. The dance floor is pretty small, but people were dancing around it as well so it didn't seem to matter much. They've definitely improved their music since January, however, they need more set lists! The DJ does play the same songs every night and it does get kinda old after a few nights.
Being at Desire is whatever you want it to be. We're dabblers in the lifestyle -- if that even really applies to us -- totally not hardcore, but the experiences we've had are what we wanted them to be and have only had a positive impact on us as a couple. If there's something you're looking for, you'll find it here. There's no place like it and I can't wait to go back for our annual January trip -- we'll pretty much know everyone there from previous trips!
