Fifth trip...first in August 7/30-8/6, 2024

[spanky67]

The Basics:

We’re in our mid 50’s. This was our 5th trip to Pearl. We’ve been to Grand Miches once before it closed. We’ve never been to RM.

We flew on JetBlue out of JFK.

We came in a day early, stayed at the airport Marriott. The shuttle from the airport took about 45 minutes total to show up. Pro tip…call the hotel once you get past the Mexican Shakedown (aka: secondary screening) and tell them you’re waiting for the shuttle. It supposedly runs on a loop, but I think that’s BS. Every time we call, the shuttle is there within 15 minutes.

WARNING: Re: Mexican Shakedown (secondary screening)…Our good friend was charged a $100 “tax” for items in her luggage. She decided to be anal/neat with her packing. She kept all her outfits in their original Shein bags. Customs would not accept they were for her trip. They thought they were for resale and charged her the tax. FYI…my friend speaks fluent Spanish and conversed freely in their language…it was not a “language barrier”. Her husband paid the tax via credit card, and had every intention of contesting the charge upon return.

The Marriott was fine. For those that have never been…it is very clean, secure, and well run. We’ve now stayed there 3 times and had no problem. We HIGHLY recommend it (if you have the vacay time) as we had our transport at the hotel by 8am the next morning. We were at Pearl check in by 8:30, at the gym by 8:45, and eating breakfast by 10:15. We realize many can’t burn the extra day, but it’s such a waste to travel all day and show up mid-afternoon at best…exhausted…for a pretty good chunk of change at Pearl when the Marriott is $150.

At Pearl:

Check in was super easy. We left our bags with the porter as we were so early. We kept our pre-packed 1st day “go” bag and headed to the Mansion to check in. The only problem we had was they were a little…ahem…vague about scheduling the presentation and our massage voucher. We had never been offered the voucher before. We had always heard about folks getting them. We always did the presentation (it’s really not THAT painful) and just carried on with our day. At check in, she said “we’ll give you a voucher worth “$X”, for doing the presentation. When would you like to schedule?” Fine. No biggie. Scheduled it. We had only become members within the past year, so we bought what we wanted…period…full stop. At the presentation, they tried to tell me we committed to an hour of our time for the voucher. I reminded them (while very hung over, btw) that no one ever mentioned an hour of time, and that we had just joined. They said “well, that’s the only way you get the voucher…”. I told them to tear up the voucher and choke on it. With that, we got up and headed back to the pool. We were back in our day bed in 21 minutes…including the walk to and from Suki.

We were at Pearl from 7/30 to 8/6 (Tuesday to Tuesday). Tuesday was a typically quiet Tuesday. From there forward, we would estimate the crowd doubled each day until Saturday. We were there with a group of about 15-20 friends. We all agreed that it was the youngest crowd we had ever seen at Pearl. Completely unscientific guess would say the age range was 40-50. The downside of that younger crowd was there was definitely an uptick in bathing suit usage. Whatever. We don’t care what others do and it definitely did not diminish the vibe or our trip. Most women were topless…which in a pool is fine with us.

The playmakers were great and the games pretty well participated. I still think they take waaayyy too long, but they’re fun and they break up the day.

The afternoon jacuzzi got busier each day as the crowd increased…duh! People were very friendly as we normally experience. There was a little bit of day bed action in the afternoon. Still too many idiots using the beds as places to sleep, instead of f**k…which may have prevented some from having fun.

The late night jacuzzi was pretty well attended. There was quite a bit more craziness late night. Thursday and Friday nights seemed to be the most well attended. Even Sunday and Monday nights had a good crowd. It seemed like quite a few people were on the same schedule as us, as a lot seemed to be leaving on Tuesday. As a way to measure (and people that have been will understand), just about every cubby was in use on Thursday and Friday night.

The Saturday Foam Party was it’s typical insanity. Very good crowd. Lots of people and lots of foam. There was a mind-blowing thunderstorm that rolled thru about 1pm. They eventually pulled everyone out of the pool and most retreated to safety. By 3p the sun was back out and the foam was flowing. My wife is quite short, so we avoid the middle of the mayhem. The view from the outer edge was very entertaining.

Sargassum update…It was in full bloom Tuesday to Saturday. Beach was covered and there was plenty in the water. When that storm rolled through Saturday, it all disappeared. There was a thin layer along the waters edge, but the water itself was almost clear. It stayed that way till the end of our trip. We were in room 80, so we had a great view of it everyday. I’m sure it has(or will) return quickly…but for that time it was nice. We really didn’t notice any smell.

Theme nights and shows. In general, the theme nights were well attended. Just about everyone we saw dressed for the theme. Good to see a good number of guys dressing up. For any guy questioning whether they should…they should. You’re in Mexico…dress up like a weirdo and act foolish…where else, and more importantly, when else are you going to have the opportunity. Looked like the powers that be are trying to change up the shows as some were held in the lobby as opposed to the disco. We thought it was a nice change. We thought the disco music was OK, not spectacular. Seemed like the same playlist on repeat. Might be time for a change in that department.

Food/Restaurants. Nothing new here. Food was meh! Once heard it referred to as “cruise food” and I think that’s perfect. You won’t love it, but you won’t go hungry either. It’s serves the purpose. We had great service at every restaurant. We had the big table at Suki 3 times, ate at Pearl once, and did a couple of outside barbeque/Mexican buffet type dinners. Again, our service was really good…but we were with great company so maybe we just didn’t notice 

All in all, another great Pearl trip. Met up with our great friends, and had the opportunity to meet several new ones. The pool temp was perfect (not too hot or cold) and even the bubbles at the jacuzzi we working! It was hot-as-balls (I know—August) and humid as all get out.

Looking forward to our December trip!

[SlickFox]

Thank you for the detailed report!

We leave on Sunday for our first trip, and we also had our theme night outfits packed in Shein bags! We've now moved them to ziplock baggies instead... Hopefully that doesn't attract any attention.

[spanky67]

First off, have a great trip! 2 trips ago was our first encounter with secondary screening. I too tend to be pretty anal about packing. They broke my balls 6 ways to Sunday as I had a lot of things either wrapped in paper so they didn't wrinkle or theme night stuff in bags. The biggest mistake I made was I had a bunch of stuff with tags still on, as they were new. Now I make sure to pull any price tags off new stuff before they go in the luggage. We did have our stuff this trip in Ziploc bags and had no issues

Our friends were convinced that because those Shein bags have bar codes on them, the screeners thought they were for re-sale. We did go thru that same screening the day after our friends were hassled and had no problems. They did rifle thru everything, but we just smiled and tried to be helpful by opening bags as needed

[SamAndRose]

Thanks for the report!

We were there roughly the same time, and have to agree with what you said. Quiet mid week, busier on the weekend. Felt it was a younger crowd, but that didn't stop us from having our fun (or adding to it). The Saturday storm was very powerful, but by 3 PM we were all back in the pool for the Foam Party.

We both agree with your statements about men dressing up - go for it! We were in theme outfits every night, and had a blast. It is a great way to meet new people as well; talking about where you got the idea, where you purchased the parts of the outfit.

S.