We arrived early, landing at 9am. Our booking came with free RT transportation from the resort, using a company called Original Transportation, who also went by "WW Hospitality" We knew our room wouldn't be ready so early, so we set our bags with the bellboys, grabbed our pre-packed beach bag and headed for a late breakfast. The breakfast buffet at Aphrodite was a little underwhelming, maybe because it was later in the morning. We quickly went towards the pool. Miguel and Victor helped us get great chairs and held these spots for us for the duration of our stay.
The pool was fun and flirty. Lots of people to meet casually and chat with. The music was lively and not too loud. The Playmakers were energetic. We didn't get to meet all of them, but had the pleasure of seeing Kia, Abbylicious, Matt and Tristan. I felt like I was one of the few people to leave the pool regularly to go use the restroom. Luckily the ladies rooms were not too far (one by Aphrodite, the other by the hot tub bar)
The hot tub was even more fun and flirty. We went there each night, but discovered there were a lot of people there one afternoon. Not sure if it was like this every afternoon? But we saw dozens of people there, so we left our stuff at the pool and headed there as well. I love how the hot tub is a circular shape, with the beds around it. (Unlike RM, the tub is rectangular and the beds are far off) The circular shape makes it cozier and easier to mingle. Jorge at the hot tub bar was terrific. So friendly and remembered our preferences.
The beach was full of washed up sargassum, and not much sand. We were able to trudge through the sargassum (6-10 feet of it!) The waters were nice once we got there. Too bad we couldn't spend more time there.
Aphrodite was the restaurant with buffets for breakfast and lunch, but sadly, not dinner. Their a al carte menu was quite good, though. We had one dinner at Suki, that was just OK. (Great presentation, but the food itself was so-so) We one dinner at Pearl, which was good, but the service was a bit slow. All in all, the food at the resort was good, maybe 2 meals were excellent. A bit disappointed there was no hibachi, nor dinner buffet.
Our room was spectacular. We only got a Junior Suite, but it was far better than anything we'd had at RM or Temptation. Very spacious and a phenomenal view of the beach. While the room was quite large, it only had 3 drawers for clothes. Not a big deal, as we had plenty of table/counter space to place our clothes on. We did have a few minor issues with our room; some got resolved, others didn't. Our safe stopped working. They sent over a security guard and he swapped out the battery. Our door had trouble opening. It would unlock with the wristband (light turned green with a beep/click) but the door would not physically open. It would take 3-4 attempts to get the door to open. Also the water in our shower was never consistent. It would be fine, then suddenly turn scalding hot. When we readjusted the faucet and found a good temperature, it would do the same: suddenly become very hot. They sent someone to address the door and the shower, but even after he tried, the issues still remained. We just had to deal with them as we did not want to change rooms. One other issue was the varnish on the railing of the balcony came off on our forearms as we leaned on them. It was as if the varnish were applied 5 minutes before. Not sure how that happened, but it would leave huge marks on our skin, looking like dried up chocolate syrup.
We met some great people and had good chats. I am pretty shy, antisocial and introverted, so it was nice to be able to chat casually, all while in the nude!
The theme nights were fun. Most of the nightly events were out in Melange, which is open and breezy. The disco was also very nice with mostly good music. We checked out the play room, but no one was there at the time.
We had a wonderful stay. We are not Premier members, but we still felt like VIPs. We have already booked for another stay later this year.
Thank you Desire, for being so amazing.
