Newbie Trip Report 2/18-2/22, 2013

[hedokids2]

Review

We visited Desire RM from 2/18-2/22. It was our first trip to a Desire resort. We had a really nice time and wanted to provide a trip report, so that others could benefit from our experience.

We are a married couple in our early forties. We have been to Hedonism 11 three times in the past 6 years. Other clothing optional places that we have visited include Caliente Resort in Tampa and Haulover Beach in Miami. We are not in the lifestyle, but do enjoy the erotic atmosphere of a c/o resort. Since we have been to H2 three times, we made a lot of comparisons between H2 and Desire on our trip and we will share those thoughts in this review.

Arrival: Our trip to Cancun was pretty uneventful. We booked our trip on-line via a large travel website. Since we booked the package all at once, we opted to get the airport transfer included. After speaking to many neighbors and colleagues, we learned that there were others going to Cancun at the same time, so for the privacy of not taking a chance and being in a van to a nude resort with our neighbor, we ended up booking a private coach via USA Transfers. We read that USA was a great service. It was a very good deal, $60 round trip for a private van for the two of us. They provided excellent service. They were ready at the airport, as soon as we arrived. They were also very prompt in picking us up for the return trip to the airport. It was easy to book on-line and they provided electronic confirmation and specific pick up times. We would highly recommend USA Transfers. We went through Customs very quickly and it was about a 20 minute ride to the resort.

We arrived at the resort and were checked in very quickly. We had done the pre registration on-line, and that may have made it quicker. The bellhop took our bags and we were given a glass of champagne. They gave us black bracelets and we had the choice to wear them on our wrist or ankle. I chose wrist and it was kind of uncomfortable to wear for the whole week. They also had red bracelets, if you wanted to be identified as being in the lifestyle. We didn't see many red bracelets the entire week, but there were a lot of folks in the lifestyle (more in a bit). The concierge gave us a very thorough overview of the resort, the services, the food choices, map, etc. She was very nice and helpful. She did try to get us to sign up for an info session on their premium plan. We chose not to attend, since we don't get to travel that often with younger kids at home. We were then escorted to our room by the bellhop.

Our room was on the second floor past the spa and gym. I'm told it is the quieter area of the resort. The resort is not very big, as compared to H2, probably about half the size. Our room was on the second floor. It had a nice table outside the room on a balcony. The room was pretty small, but very clean. The bed was comfortable. There was no mirror on the ceiling, which was a disappointment. There was a large floor to ceiling mirror to the side of the bed. We had a fridge that was stocked daily with water, soda, and beer. This was very nice and they did a great job a keeping it stocked. BTW, the water at the resort seems to be fine, we drank lots of water with ice an never got sick. The room had plenty of drawer space and the closet was decent. The room was a little tight in that it was hard to open the doors to the closet and still stand between the closet and the bed. We had a garden view room, which is the cheapest, so the nice rooms must have had more space. Our bathroom was clean and adequate. The shower was nice with a glass door, strong water pressure and no problem with the hot water. It was stocked well with soap, shampoo, body wash, etc. We had plenty of towels and also had two robes. We used the robes every day to go to the hot tub. Towels are not a problem at the resort. There are cubbies with towels all over the resort and there are no towel cards. We liked the towel situation at Desire much better than H2.

The pool at Desire is good size. There is a shallow area on one side and then a larger deeper area. The hot tub is not by the pool (more on that in a bit). We thought that it would have been nicer if the shallow side of the pool could have been turned into a hot tub. At H2, we liked that you could go back and forth between the pool and hot tub. The pool area has reserved seating. The process is that you find the pool guy and he finds you seats. It is first come, first serve. If you want a seat with shade, you need to get there earlier, closer to 8A. There are not a ton of seats and by late morning, it appears that almost all of the seats are gone. There is also a system where "premium" members get preferred seating. This was a little complicated and annoying, as we paid a lot to come and shouldn't have to feel like second class guests. To be honest, I don't know exactly how it works. We went to the pool on our first day at about 10-10:30 and were given great seats by the pool with an umbrella. The pool guy, Daniel, is great and super service oriented. They take your room number and the seats are yours for the day, unless you leave for a couple hours. We liked that the restaurants are right by the pool, so you don't have to go very far for food or drinks. On our last day, we went to the pool at about 11:30 and were told that they only had seats in the direct sun, so we went to the beach. The entertainment counselors have lots of energy and organize pool games and contests. We are not big into this, but we did enjoy watching others participate in some wacky competitions.

The beach is very pretty. We tend to like the beach better than the pool at most resorts. We loved at H2, the fact that you could lay in a raft and float in the bay for hours. This is not the case with the beach at Desire. The beach is rougher water with waves. The beach does have many beach beds of different types, which we enjoyed. You can reserve beach beds by paying $100 per week or $20 per day. I think you also get beach beds with the passion suite option. We did none of the above and had no problem getting beach beds on all three of the days that we chose to go to the beach. The service at the beach is great, they put fresh sheets on the beds for us and gave us towels. Almost hourly, they checked in with us, to see if we needed drinks or anything. They were in the process of building a beach bar while we were there. It was finished on our last day and was a big hit! The beach is public. There were not a lot of gawkers from the other nearby resorts, but we did see occasional guests from other resorts walking by. This didn't really bother us and the security at Desire is quite visible. We never really went in the water much at the beach. It looked nice and the water was warm. There were guests swimming in the ocean, but not a lot. We went for several walks along the beach for about a mile and walked by other resorts (clothed). We did notice that the water seemed to have some occasional debris floating by the shore (plastic containers, etc.)

The food at the resort ranges from excellent to average, depending on where and when you eat.

Breakfast was served indoors in the main dining room. The omelette station was excellent, and wait had an omelette every day. There was a nice assortment of fresh fruit, yogurt, pasteries, toast, and other traditional hot items. The service was great and we got plenty of hot coffee - our cup was never empty.

We were very disappointed with the lunch options. Lunch is served by the pool and includes a weak salad bar, warmed pizza, a grill, and various cold food items (salads, etc) and chips, salsa guacomole. I ended up eating a lot of nacho chips with salsa for lunch. Of note, they will make a grilled cheese sandwich, if you ask them. There was ice cream and cookies for dessert. We never starved, but the lunch was adequate at best. We would have liked a pasta station, like H2. A more expansive salad bar is also needed. Kudos for the staff, who were always getting us drinks, clearing tables, etc.

We had very nice dinners at Desire. We never ate at the buffet, as everybody told us that the restaurants were better. After seeing the buffet, we agreed.
We at three times at Suki, the Asian restuarant. You do not need reservations, unless you want to sit at on of the two tables where they cook in front of you. We did do this on one of the nights. We had 3 great meals, which included sushi appetizers and a delicious pad thai with shrimp. We also at at the international restaurant, which had very good food and a nice ambiance.

Service is A+ throughout the resort. This includes the bellhop, housekeeping, waitstaff in the food areas, beach/pool personal, etc. Everybody works hard and makes every effort to satisfy the guests.

The entertainment begins each night after dinner. For the most part, it is cover bands playing music. There was a 007 auction and a lingerie show. Both were ok, but nothing special. At around 10-1030, the entertainment ends and everybody heads up to the disco. The disco is great, we really like the music and lights. There is good guest participation in the disco. It has been newly remodeled. There is a good size bar, and plenty of seating around the bar. The dance floor lights up pretty cool. We enjoyed partying in the disco. There is also a playroom, which was quite popular. We tried it one night and really liked it. It has the potential to get very crowded as the night goes on.

Swingers: As I stated earlier, we are not swingers. We knew that there would be many swingers, but we didn't realize how high a percentage of guests are in the lifestyle. We like the erotic atmosphere and even got into a good discussion as to whether or not we could sneak our way into being called a soft swingers. What we didn't like was how many people introduced themselves or defined themselves by their participation in the lifestyle. We felt a little bit like it became a broken record and we were outsiders. I thought that the lifestyle percentage was going to be 30-50%. It seemed more like 75-80%. If anybody knows the actual percentage of guests that are in the lifestyle, we would be interested to know. In any event, this was not a negative, in fact we really enjoy the erotic atmosphere and entertainment that comes with the lifestyle.

The hot tub is on the roof of a bldg. There is a nice swim up bar, attached to the hot tub. It is not as large as the hot tub at H2. We found its shape and depth a bit odd. The hot tub was pretty jam packed in the later afternoon. We preferred to go later at about 6P and staying 90 minutes before going to dinner. We also went several nights after the disco. The temperature was perfect, not too hot or cold. Lots of socializing and entertainment going on in and around the hot tub. PDA was all around, in the hot tub and in the beds around it. We like this, and added to the fun! There were plenty of towels and the staff always refilled our drinks promptly.

Other random details worth mentioning:

Your bracelets allow you to visit Pearl. We didn't do this, but spoke with many guests that took a taxi over for the day. The consistent feed back was that Pearl was newer with nicer facilities. Pearl had a better beach and hot tub. Pearl was much smaller. It was said that Pearl was more low key. We also heard that the rooms are in a 5 story bldg with no elevator -- makes it hard for the ladies with their high heeled shoes.

The spa and gym are really nice. It didn't seem widely known, but the spa has really nice lockers and showers, if you arrive before your room is ready, or need a place to shower after you have checked out.

We found the guests to be more lifestyle than H2. I think they also tended to be more younger and attractive; however, there was a good age spread, prob 30-70. The average was prob 40-50.

Guests and staff were all super friendly and nice people, easy to strike up a conversation.

We decided that there were many things we liked better about H2 and other things that we liked better about Desire. We'll prob try to alternate in the future. We also want to try Pearl.

Theme nights were fun, about 50% participate. All the ladies dress skimpy and sexy.

Feel free to post any questions PM or e-mail us

We hope to return again soon!

[miranda]

What a wonderful trip report with some great comparisons! You may have stayed in the room we request when we visit DRM - we love that area of the resort, nice and quiet. Thanks for the info re Pearl. How long can you stay there if you are visiting from DRM? We have booked it and will be there in about 2 weeks and, from what you have written about it (the size and the quietness) that's exactly what we are looking for! I am looking forward to the challenge of walking up all those steps in my heels, with my husband close behind.

[Johnny60]

Great trip report.. thanks for taking the time to give the feedback.. it all helps.. glad you enjoyed your trip...

[mspete]

Excellent and thorough trip report! Thank you! We will be staying at Desire Pearl in late May (newbies to c/o and we are not in the lifestyle but also talked it over and decided we wanted to try an erotic vacation destination....still nervous, lol) and haven't decided if we'll venture to Desire RM. We'll probably do so on one of the days.

[Johnny60]

Excellent and thorough trip report! Thank you! We will be staying at Desire Pearl in late May (newbies to c/o and we are not in the lifestyle but also talked it over and decided we wanted to try an erotic vacation destination....still nervous, lol) and haven't decided if we'll venture to Desire RM. We'll probably do so on one of the days.

We would highly recommend it.. Pearl is great.. we had lunch there on our last trip to RM but RM is busier and has more of a vibe..

[hedokids2]

Miranda, I don't know how long you can stay. Most told us that they just went for the day. I don't know if you can stay through dinner. I think it is a $15 cab ride between resorts.

[Newd]

Excellent and thorough trip report! Thank you! We will be staying at Desire Pearl in late May (newbies to c/o and we are not in the lifestyle but also talked it over and decided we wanted to try an erotic vacation destination....still nervous, lol) and haven't decided if we'll venture to Desire RM. We'll probably do so on one of the days.

We were at Pearl from the 19th to the 22nd of Feb.

I'd recommend (and I think my wife would, too), taking an evening, at least, over at RM. It's different At least, it breaks up the scenery a bit. Sounds like the lunch buffet at Pearl beats the socks of anything that RM has for lunch, so you might want to take an early lunch at Pearl and then head over to RM for the afternoon.

The late night activities seemed to be better attended and higher energy at RM the night we were there for the lingerie show than what we had over at Pearl. But, to be honest, we only spent one night engaged in the activities at Pearl and the entertainment in the club was entertaining. The music at Pearl was great, too. Awesome cover band.

[allovatan]

They were in the process of building a beach bar while we were there. It was finished on our last day and was a big hit!

They were in the process of building a beach bar?? At RM?? There already was a beach bar.........did they lose it? did I miss something?

[allovatan]

Thanks for the info re Pearl. How long can you stay there if you are visiting from DRM? We have booked it and will be there in about 2 weeks and, from what you have written about it (the size and the quietness) that's exactly what we are looking for!

We went over to Pearl last October when we stayed at RM - we were told at the time its free for the day, $20 (?) if you wanted to stay for dinner though. Not sure if that was per person, or per couple. We had only intended to spend the day, so didn't ask too many questions.

Pearl was very quiet - our group of 7 couples about doubled the occupancy rate they had. I am not sure that it is smaller than RM - I believe there is actually quite a bit more land at Pearl and the set up is very different (5 story rooms at least as close together as RM - felt a bit claustrophobic). Pool/Lunch/jacuzzi area was larger & nicer. The beach, however, may appear bigger/nicer, but bring water shoes if you plan on going in the ocean - jagged rocks!!

We are glad we took the day to go to Pearl, but RM will always be our place.

[jali]

how were "theme nights"? going in 2 weeks & just trying to get info on what to pack! thx!

[cpl8386]

Thanks for sharing your experience!
We are thinking to book our first trip there.

[Ripcord]

Looking forward to that beach bar!

[bb25]

Great trip report!

Percentage of Lifestylers vs. non varies week to week. After multiple trips we can say you can't predict the ratio and we always find other couples of like-minds.

Can't agree with the buffet statement. Some nights we feel like "menu dining" but enjoy the ability to choose food the buffet offers as well. Mexican Fiesta night gives you a good exposure to real Meixcan food... not the typical Americanized versions we get at home. Tex - Mex is not what you will get... and we like it that way! Lunch at the pool side is always good.

Hope you return to Desire soon!