Desire Resort Forums

Once upon the time we had a beautiful Caribbean beach at DP. Sand was yellow and soft, water was clean and warm and walking into the sea was delightful. But nature and DP maintenance made their work: first was the seaweed that, fortunately, seems to withdraw but left the water very dirty. Then was the DP maintenance with their lack of work that left a zone inside the sea plagued of rocks and stones most of them with dangerous edges. It is very difficult to enter the water without special shoes.
We were also at Riu Hotel the last journey, not far from DP, and the water was absolutely clean. I hope the water at DP will be clean again in short time.
What about the rocks and stones? Will DP maintenance do their job?

It’s my understanding that a massive tropical storm heavily damaged the beach and ate away a good portion of it. On our last visit, we were shocked to see how little of the beach is left. The edge of the volleyball court is practically in the water now.

Well, I was there last week and I confirm that the sea invaded part of the beach but not so dramatically. There was still a good area of sand between the volleyball and the water.

We were there right after the storm. It washed out one of the poles for the volleyball court. So they moved it up closer to the pool.

We're VERY worried about Desire and it's long-term health. We love going and want to make it a yearly tradition, but this last trip in July was very disturbing between the seaweed, sewer brown water, and matching smell. Since then we've heard and seen serious beach erosion. It seems the seaweed will be an every summer infestation now. Can Desire survive this environmental disaster? Nobody's going to a beach resort with no beach or water you can't get into. It all makes us very sad... One for us, but mostly for the awesome folks who work there. We'd like to think Mexico, Cancun, and/or Desire have a plan to combat this, but watching their response this summer, I'm not holding my breath.

I cannot speak for Pearl because we did not go by there, but we just returned from RM and the beach was very clean. It was high tide, so the water was close to the beach bar, but there was at least 12' of clean beach between the row of chairs and the water. It was at least 22' from the beds to the water, except for the area right at the beach bar.
There is a large floating berm that keeps all but the smallest particles from reaching the beach. The water was too cold for me to do anything more that wade around (I am a sissy for cold water), but there was a lot of swimming and paddle boarding in the water. We noticed no smell at all and there was no one even needing to clean the beach of seaweed, as so little got past the berm.
And as a kind of secondary advantage of the floating berm, it sort of impedes the beach walkers from the family resorts from walking by. In the 6 days we were there we saw no families at all, and only occasionally adults from the next door resort walked by. The berm plus the high tide makes if very difficult to walk the beach from other resorts.

Yes... The seaweed has cleared out because of season/tidal shifts. So it's naturally moving to other places for the winner. But history and forecasts say it'll be back this summer. So again, can Desire survive if it takes a huge dip in attendance during the summer months. We sure hope so. Better yet, we hope there's a better plan to combat it this coming summer.

For me, the quintessential crystal blue water and white sand beach experience isn't high on the list of reasons that I choose to vacation at Desire. That's not to disparage anyone else's reasons and priorities at all of course. I know that many people really like the beach experience in general and problems such as seaweed and erosion really do lessen the fun of their visit.

Admittedly, if the smell of rotting sargasso seaweed was prevalent it would seriously impact my enjoyment of the reasons I *do* go to Desire but so far, that has not been the case. Maybe I've been lucky but I've stepped over (and in) mounds of seaweed while fetching the volleyball and I have not noticed any strong smell. In contrast, I've seen and smelled huge piles of seaweed on St. Martin and St. Barts so pretty much anywhere you go, it's a problem.

I lament the beach erosion but it is what it is. Climate change effects notwithstanding, the beach changes all the time and we have to adapt and enjoy what we can.

TandD wrote:For me, the quintessential crystal blue water and white sand beach experience isn't high on the list of reasons that I choose to vacation at Desire. That's not to disparage anyone else's reasons and priorities at all of course. I know that many people really like the beach experience in general and problems such as seaweed and erosion really do lessen the fun of their visit.

Admittedly, if the smell of rotting sargasso seaweed was prevalent it would seriously impact my enjoyment of the reasons I *do* go to Desire but so far, that has not been the case. Maybe I've been lucky but I've stepped over (and in) mounds of seaweed while fetching the volleyball and I have not noticed any strong smell. In contrast, I've seen and smelled huge piles of seaweed on St. Martin and St. Barts so pretty much anywhere you go, it's a problem.

I lament the beach erosion but it is what it is. Climate change effects notwithstanding, the beach changes all the time and we have to adapt and enjoy what we can.

Agree... We've never minded the seaweed on the beach. That's part of the deal and not a big deal. But... Sewer lagoon water and smells that permeate the resort is a whole different issue. I'd share an image of I could figure out how to.

Wow, this isn't news I'm to exited to get. I wondering now if we should go somewhere else. We don't want to travel all the way to Mexico and not be able to enjoy a beautiful beach where we can lay around in our birthday suits. I read another post that stated the mosquitos were bad . It seems the seaweed is still a problem. We have been to Cancun twice and never experienced these problems. Going to a nude resort is on our bucket list, should we think about going somewhere different. Any ideas?

Yes the beach has eroded some, We were there in Oct, the water was clearing up, the barrier kept out the majority of the sargassum, folks were in the water. I did not notice any bad smells around the beach. Have not had any problems with mosquitoes. I got eaten up one night when we went into PM for a dinner. we were on the street cafe.

Sounds like your visit wasn't to bad, don't know what to do.

Frosty82 wrote:Sounds like your visit wasn't to bad, don't know what to do.

Why don't you just stay home girly, if you worry so much?

A little seaweed and a few mosquitoes should not deter you from enjoying the fantastic sexually charged atmosphere that Pearl has to offer.