Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

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Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby ContentTwo » Wed Dec 12, 2018 11:20 am

It took longer to write this review than I anticipated. Once we got back from Desire, the abrupt change from paradise back to real life was harsh. As a result, I put off writing this for a while.

The background: the wife and I are mid 30s couple; kids; jobs; professionals; etc. We’re not in the lifestyle, but we like everything about the atmosphere except for the actual swapping. (We don’t judge those who do. It’s simply not for us.) We’ve been to two different lifestyle-oriented nightclubs in the US but this was our first time at a clothing optional or lifestyle-friendly resort.

I used this forum for the majority of my research about Desire. This review is my meager attempt to pay it forward to someone who might be considering Desire.

The short version of my review:

All of the other positive reviews are accurate. It really is as good as everybody says it is. The other guests are as friendly as everybody says they are. We will absolutely be back. It was amazing.

The longer version:

Getting there was uneventful. We were originally scheduled to arrive around 11 am into CUN on Wednesday morning. My goal was to be at Desire for lunch before 1 pm. In the months leading up to the trip, the airline kept changing our itinerary to the point that our new arrival time was after 1:30 pm. That was a deal breaker for me. Based on everything I had read, there was no way I was losing that much time. We had them switch our flights one day earlier (at no cost to us).

We got into CUN on Tuesday evening around 9:00. We used the online forms for immigrations and customs. We did not see anyone else using the online immigration form, but it worked fine. The customs form worked, but it almost caused a delay. The customs official looked at it and had no idea what it was. There was some back-and-forth chatter between two or three officials, and none of them seemed familiar with the online form. My wife caught most of the Spanish conversation. One of them eventually said something like, “just fold it up and put it with the others….it should be fine.” Ok, great. Push the button. Green light. We’re out.

Even though we flew in a day earlier than planned, there was no way I was going to pay for another night at Desire if we were going to arrive after 9:00 pm. Thanks to the recommendations of CokeMann and others, we made reservations at the Courtyard Marriott by the airport. Everything was perfectly fine. We had to call two or three times to get someone to answer the phone, but they sent the shuttle over once we made contact. The shuttle was quick and convenient. The hotel was clean. The food was good. The prices were very reasonable. I was more than satisfied. For our next trip we plan to fly in the day before and stay here again so we can maximize our time at Desire.

I had originally reserved USA Transfers to pick us up from the airport on Wednesday morning. After the schedule change, I arranged for USA Transfers to pick us up at 9 am from the hotel. When I made this change to our reservation, USA Transfers required me to prepay the fee to confirm it. No problem on my end, but that is different (from what I gather) than if they were picking up from the airport. Anyway, we had breakfast at the hotel (very similar to breakfast at RM). Then we sat on the bench outside the hotel after checking out. The USA Transfer dude pulled up in the van 10 – 15 minutes early. We’re off to a good start. I told him I wanted to stop by a gas station to pick up some red bull, and we were headed down the road. All the other reviews about USA Transfers are accurate also. Top notch service and extremely polite drivers. They have a very efficient operation in place. After this experience, I will never have to worry about USA Transfers losing reservations or mixing up travel plans. They’ve got it together.

We pulled into RM 30 minutes later. The first desk handled the reservation and business details. As expected, our room wasn’t ready but they did ask if we had a request. I asked for a second floor room on the “quiet side” of the resort, and I specifically named the 2300 building if possible. I also told them anything other than the jacuzzi building. Later that day, we got exactly what we requested.

The second desk was Mia. As newbies, she asked how much we already knew about the resort, and I assured her that I had researched nearly everything there was to research. I was waiting for the sales pitch, but she held off. We got the newbie intro and rundown of everything. Towards the end, in a surprisingly deferential tone, she asked if I knew what was coming up next with the membership. I assured her I did and that we were not interested. She made a half-hearted attempt to tout the coupons or vouchers, but she didn’t press it. I was impressed.

Out the lobby door. (Hello first naked person.) Change in the spa. Headed to the pool. Let’s do this.

We found one of the pool attendants (not Danny) and got two of the last chairs available. Put our stuff down. Got a drink. Then lathered on the sunscreen. It took barely 5 minutes for my shorts to come off. Likewise for my wife’s top. Her bottoms were on or off based on her personal comfort level, which was perfectly fine.

I didn’t wear a swimsuit for the remainder of the trip. My go-to clothing was a very thin white sarong. When the sun was strong (which was often), I draped it over my junk. Other than that, I only wore it when we were getting lunch or going inside somewhere. For my wife, she had very revealing bottoms, and a fishnet / skirt coverup thing. The bottoms always came off in the afternoon, and usually about halfway through the morning.

We quickly met two wonderful Canadians from farther north than most people can contemplate. She was a crazy, hot mess and we loved every bit of her. He was built like a tank and looked just as scary, but he was about the most laid back teddy bear you can imagine. They gave us the run-down of everything and were incredibly friendly and welcoming.

Lunch was good and uneventful, except for the frequent glimpses of nipples walking around. I will always consider that eventful, in a positive way.

After lunch we ventured down to get a bed on the beach. Initially we were just going to relax on the beach because we were so worn out from travelling. That only lasted for about 20 minutes before we had our first go round on the beach beds. THEN it was time to relax for a while.

After we got settled into our room, we went up to the jacuzzi. The first day was a little bit weird. Clouds had moved in and it was raining off and on. The wind had picked up and the temperature dropped significantly. As a result almost everybody was in the water and it was packed. We got in for a little while. We had a few pleasant conversations, but then another couple ended up monopolizing the entire group conversation that was near us. There was no easy way to maneuver elsewhere, and it was almost too cold to stand up and walk around. We had an early dinner reservation that night, so we pulled the plug and went back to the room.

Dinner at Sahlo was great. I’m not a foodie, so I won’t try to describe the details. Service was great. Food was great. We were very satisfied.

After dinner we made our way up to the lobby bar. The wind was still whipping and the temperature was still pretty chilly, especially compared to the day. The wild west show was meh, but not exactly cringy. Once the club opened up we took the opportunity to get out of the wind. We were too tired to really party the first night, but we did take the opportunity for a quickie in the new playroom. With that box checked, we went back up to relax in the jacuzzi for a while. Then we went to bed early.

From that point on, we got in somewhat of a routine. Reserve our chairs or bed early. Eventually go eat breakfast. Then sit by the pool and drink for the morning. At some point eat lunch. Make our way down to the beach. Have sex. Relax or take a nap on the beach. Check out the jacuzzi. Go get ready for dinner. Watch the evening show. Go the club and/or the jacuzzi. Have sex in one of those two locations. Get pizza. Pass out. Repeat the next day.

I don’t want to go through each and every day because it would be redundant. Also, it would be more of the same: everything was wonderful and we had a blast. Every. Single. Day.


Observations and a few things that standout good, bad, and indifferent:

--The weather was cooler than normal for most of our trip. The jet stream dipped right as we arrived and that brought cooler temps, steady winds, and very low humidity. Highs during the day only got above 80 degrees on our last full day. During the day with the sun, it was perfect. When the sun went down, the wind could make it feel a little bit colder than was comfortable, especially when you consider the type of clothing worn at Desire. It’s not like we could change the weather, but I wonder if it impacted the timing and amount of amorous activities at the jacuzzi.


--Even with the cooler weather, the sexy evening outfits were a common sight. My wife only wore dresses that would have been wildly inappropriate anywhere else, and I loved it.


--We didn’t actively participate in the theme nights unless it was easy (like red dress night), but there were several people that did. We will probably participate a little bit more on our next visit, as long as the themes aren’t too ridiculous.


--We ate at Sahlo twice. It was that good. Next time we will probably eat there a majority of the time to try all the different dishes.


--We did the hibachi thing at Suki, but I doubt we would do it again. The show was cute, but it wasn’t worth the trouble of getting the reservation. Also, the meat was extremely salty because the cook went way too heavy with the soy sauce. We weren’t necessarily disappointed, but it wasn’t worth going through it again.


--We met several wonderful and friendly couples. We met loads of Canadians, including the crazy hot mess and her teddy bear tank mentioned above.

We also met Explorer79 and his better half. In the jacuzzi one afternoon, I recognized his avatar that is tattooed on his arm. I made a point of thanking him for sharing his experiences on this forum. There are several couples that we met which we hope to see again on a later trip.

I am naturally introverted, and I find it trying to engage in conversation only for the sake of being “social.” My wife is appropriately social, but she needs to feel comfortable with the people and the environment. Leading up to this trip, I was curious about whether conversations would feel forced or just flow naturally. Like everything else at Desire, the conversations came so natural that it was never a concern. Literally, almost everybody we talked to was incredibly friendly and personable. Only once did we cringe away from an awkward and unwanted conversation (the first afternoon in the jacuzzi), and we never encountered that couple again.


--The new playroom is rather meh. I never experienced the old playroom, but I saw the pictures. I’m not sure the new playroom is better or worse, but I found it very blah. Just a flat gray bed area. Bodies on the bed area fill up the space quicker than you would think. Almost all the lighting comes from the porn playing on the tv on the back wall, and it is a very harsh, bright light. The room has no colors. No variety. It was very bland. We still enjoyed it on at least two occasions, but I think I may have appreciated the old playroom a little bit better.


--Security on the beach is top notch. We very much enjoyed our daily afternoon sex on the beach, and I was most impressed with the security guys. In my book, those security guards are some of the unsung heroes of the resort. If any non-guest lingered too long or got too far away from the water, those security guys were Johnny on the spot.

There were lots of vendors walking up and down the beach, but they knew to keep moving and not to harass anybody. It was not bothersome in the least for the vendors to walk by because they kept moving and didn’t approach us at all.

There were a few people from the vanilla resorts that would walk up and down the beach, but it was a non-issue. One of the security guards would usually walk about 20 yards behind them until they left the property. Most of them were too afraid to stare or gawk noticeably. For us, it was also very reassuring to know that the security guards would keep them moving if they started to linger for too long.

For what it’s worth, we never saw any children on the beach. That was something I was concerned about. I have no intention of exposing a child to public sex, even if their parents are too stupid keep them off Desire’s beach. Fortunately, that was never a problem.


--While researching for the trip, I read the posts about isolated incidents where people had money or valuable stolen from their rooms. As a precaution, we carried all of our cash and our meds with us. My wife’s daily bag was big enough, and it was very convenient. We would leave it on the chair while we were in the pool. Once or twice we left it under our towels while we were eating lunch. (I consider theft in those instances highly unlikely.) This was effective and we will do this again on our next trip.


--We may be some of the only guests to have packed too much sunscreen on our first trip. I read all of the warnings to “pack twice as much as you think you need.” I did. Turns out that we brought twice as much sunscreen as we ACTUALLY needed. Oh well.


--We try to stay low carb when possible. Our go to drink was vodka with soda water. We would then add our own water flavoring. This worked perfectly.


--While Mia didn’t give us the hard sell on the sales pitch at check-in, we did have two awkward encounters. As we were walking to breakfast (*the gold newbie wristbands made us a target) on our first morning, a different concierge lady (gray suit) approached us and asked something like, “Did they give you your bill?” We were caught off guard because there should be no “bill.” There was some very quick and hurried explanation, and it was quickly apparent that she was referring to one of the vouchers which resembles a dollar bill. We then immediately knew what she was trying to do, and we told her we’re not interested two or three times and walked off.

The next morning, my wife actually covered up her wristband while we were walking by the lobby. Here comes the same lady, she started to say something from behind us to get our attention. I never broke stride and very forcefully said over my shoulder, “Not interested!” In hindsight, I escalated the tone of my voice to be too confrontational, and I am sure that it came off as rude. At the same time, I consider it rather rude of them to pester us on our vacation. Either way, we were never bothered after that encounter. I suppose the moral of that story is that being a dick effectively solved the problem; I just don’t like doing that.


--One incident was too bizarre and funny to overlook:

We were on a beach bed one afternoon enjoying life. Another couple was on the bed next to us. Before too long, my wife and I began our afternoon sex on the beach. As soon as we began, the couple next to us began their own activities. As things progressed, we started having sex with me on top. The other couple was still doing their thing. I got to the climax of the moment when I heard some unexpected, soft-spoken voices. As I looked over, three Spa employees were asking the couple next to us if they were interested in any spa services. The woman, literally, had to take his penis out of her mouth to tell them no. At that point, I was “dismounting.” Before I could even get turned over they asked my wife and I the same question. Out of breath and caught off guard, I rolled over and gasped, “No, thanks. We’re all good here.” They giggled and moved on. My wife and I were completely dumbfounded.

I imagine that they are tasked with walking the resort to drum up business. I am fairly certain they are also instructed on when to leave guests alone. (Regardless, they should know better.)

Like I said, it was so bizarre that it’s more funny than anything else.


--The seaweed was noticeable but not bad at all. We didn’t get into the ocean anyway, but there were plenty of people who would take a dip once in a while.

The beach itself needs to be replenished with sand. This is common all over the world, and I am curious why Desire hasn’t done it yet. Barring any legal obstacles, it should be a no-brainer for a resort to hire a dredge (or similar service) to pump sand back up on the beach. At some point in the not-too-distant future, RM will be forced to replenish the beach or lose it altogether. I estimate that 15 – 20 yards of sand separate the water from the retaining wall in front of the 1100 building. Probably less on the north side of the beach. I am interested to see how this plays out over the next few years.


--I saw in another post that someone described this week at RM as one of the quietest crowds at RM they had seen. (It may have been Explorer79, but I’m not sure.) As newbies, we have no comparison. If this was an “off week” crowd, then it may be nearly impossible to have a bad trip at this place. Seriously, the crowd did not detract from our stay in the least.


I supposed those are most of the highlights. There are, of course, a thousand little details that were all wonderful which would be impossible to include in a review. As I said at the beginning, hopefully this will give someone else one more piece of information to evaluate whether Desire is right for them.

As for us, we will definitely be back. Prior to this trip, I never took seriously the various travel rewards and frequent flier programs. Within a few weeks of returning from Desire, I now have an account with AwardsWallet, a new frequent flier rewards credit card, and I’m actively searching for ways to maximize our travel rewards.

I don’t know when we will be able to make it back, but I can guarantee that we will be back.
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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby texascouple1208 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 12:10 pm

Thanks for the trip report. Glad you had a great first Desire experience. We overlapped several days with you - we were there the 15th-21st. Not sure if we met, but we might have been the couple on the beach bed next to you when the spa employees came by. We were certainly getting busy when they interrupted us. We've never seen them wandering around like that before on our previous trips. Sheesh.

Having experienced the old playroom format before, we have to agree with you. We are not big fans of the new layout. We will give it another chance on a future trip, but our first impression was that it was definitely not an improvement over the old playroom setup.

Also - thanks for giving a shout out to the security staff. We think they do a great job as well. Unobtrusive until they need to make an appearance. My wife feels completely safe being on the beach alone.
SDC and Kasidie: twofrisky
Next up: RM July 7-11
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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby Explorer79 » Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:26 pm

ContentTwo wrote: We also met Explorer79 and his better half. In the jacuzzi one afternoon, I recognized his avatar that is tattooed on his arm. I made a point of thanking him for sharing his experiences on this forum.


It was great to meet y'all, some great conversations, glad you had a great time!

--I saw in another post that someone described this week at RM as one of the quietest crowds at RM they had seen. (It may have been Explorer79, but I’m not sure.) As newbies, we have no comparison. If this was an “off week” crowd, then it may be nearly impossible to have a bad trip at this place. Seriously, the crowd did not detract from our stay in the least.


I wouldn't classify it as an off week, we've been there when the occupancy was down to around 30% during part of a trip (Mon-Tue), and that for an entire visit would be disappointing for sure, but even on that trip new folks arrived and it quickly picked back up. This time, it was a still great crowd and a great time overall but it was a different in some aspects than previous trips, basically there were more sub groups that kept to themselves as compared to normal so it wasn't quite as social as usual but it wasn't on a huge scale either, there was still plenty of fun to be had (and this really was only on the first couple of days, after that it definitely changed). Also, this may have been more noticeable for us since we had just been to RM 3 weeks earlier so that trip was still fresh in our mind and much easier to notice some subtleties. I'd say the group we were hanging out with the most (you, our Canadian friends from almost the North Pole etc...) was very representative of a typical experience for us.

Not sure when you are thinking of returning but we have already booked for next Oct 17-23 with many of the couples we've known for a few years and some new ones are all booking in that range, so maybe that's a good target for you, would love to see you again :D
\m/
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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby ContentTwo » Thu Dec 13, 2018 10:49 am

texascouple1208 wrote:...Not sure if we met, but we might have been the couple on the beach bed next to you when the spa employees came by. We were certainly getting busy when they interrupted us. We've never seen them wandering around like that before on our previous trips. Sheesh....


I would like to think this type of employee-interruption is rather uncommon, so it's a very good possibility that we were next to each other that day. As I recall, we were on some of the first beds as you turn left after you "enter" the beach from the pool. Near the swing and cornhole boards; directly in front of the 1100 building.

If it was you guys, that was a very pleasant afternoon with the exception of the interruption! If it wasn't you, I shudder to think of how often it might actually happen. Either way, I hope you guys were able to salvage the remainder of your session after the interruption!
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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby ContentTwo » Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:22 am

It was good to meet you guys also!

Explorer79 wrote:... basically there were more sub groups that kept to themselves as compared to normal so it wasn't quite as social as usual but it wasn't on a huge scale either...


While I can't compare it to any previous trips, I would agree with this description. We noticed several small groups that kept more or less to themselves. I would describe some of them as "standoffish," which would be entirely normal anywhere else, but it stood out as different at RM. Not bad, just different. They all seemed very friendly but not too interested in leaving their circles.

Explorer79 wrote: Not sure when you are thinking of returning but we have already booked for next Oct 17-23 with many of the couples we've known for a few years and some new ones are all booking in that range, so maybe that's a good target for you, would love to see you again :D


We will absolutely look around those dates. That might be a real possibility. I wish we could get back sooner. I was hoping for a trip in June, but I don't think we will be able to pull it off. Oh well. The delay will help us appreciate it that much more when we get back.
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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby JandH » Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:21 pm

Thanks for the great report. Love the detail.

We were there during that week as well and found the crowd to be fairly typical of other trips. We're booking the same week this year.

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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby ContentTwo » Fri Jan 18, 2019 4:16 pm

JandH wrote:Thanks for the great report. Love the detail.

We were there during that week as well and found the crowd to be fairly typical of other trips. We're booking the same week this year.

Harvey


We remember you very well!

“LOOK AT THAT LITTLE RASCAL!! It’s callin’ my name!!!”

We still laugh about that!

It was great meeting you and your wife! Hope you guys are doing well. We’re looking at mid / late October for our next trip. The prices are a little better than mid-November. We’ll see.
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Re: Newbie trip report 11/14 - 11/19, 2018

Postby JandH » Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:50 pm

Great meeting y'all as well. Hopefully you'll reconsider and come back the second full week of November.
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