Newbie (yellow band) trip report – Sept 2022

[travelncpl]

I’m a little late posting this, but I figure better late than never.

The wife and I (late 40’s, early 50’s couple) went on our first (but hopefully not last) trip to Pearl in September 2022. For context and background purposes, we had never been to a resort like this before, nor are we in the lifestyle. However, we did do a LOT of reading on this site in preparation for the trip, and we have been to a nude beach and a few swinger clubs in the past (didn’t play with anyone else but do enjoy the voyeur/exhibitionist aspect of the clubs).

Before I go any further, let me just say that this site was EXTREMELY helpful with our preparation, knowing what to expect, what to bring, how to plan our days, etc. I definitely arrived feeling like an experienced newbie, if there is such a thing. Lol

Having said all that, here’s a few select categories and my thoughts/feedback on each:

ARRIVAL AT THE AIRPORT / TRANSPORTATION TO THE RESORT: We breezed through customs and went right outside to our ground transportation. I was a little curious how this would work out because, from my research, I noticed that most people seem to use USA Transfers. However, ours was arranged through another company called Xtra Services, which I could find very little information on. Fortunately, they were awesome. No hiccups at all, and they got us to the resort in under half an hour.

ARRIVAL AT THE RESORT: The place was clean, smelled great, and we were promptly greeted by friendly staff with smiling faces and helped with our bags. Off to a great start. We had originally booked a master suite. However, during the check-in process, we were offered the option to upgrade to a master suite with plunge pool (for an added cost of course). They first took us to view both rooms in person, and we ultimately decided to upgrade to the plunge pool. (Note: I know not everyone cares for the plunge pools, but I thoroughly enjoyed relaxing in it each evening while the wife was inside getting ready for dinner and/or the disco.)

THE ROOM: Our room was quite large with a pretty big inside seating area, two large bathrooms (a nice amenity if you ask me), a small patio with an outdoor dining table, and another larger patio with the plunge pool (covered) and additional outdoor seating/lounge chair area. We didn’t plan to spend a lot of time in this room, so the room was more than enough to meet our needs during our stay.

THE RESORT / GROUNDS / POOL: Beautiful. The grounds are obviously well-kept. The pool area is large with the more “active” side (near the bar), and the more “quiet” side on the opposite end. For those wondering the difference, the active side is where the bar is (easier to get drinks), where more people hang out (easier to socialize), where more activities are held by the playmakers and games are conducted in the pool (basketball, etc). So whether you want to participate or watch, the active side is (in my opinion) a little more conducive for doing so. On the other hand, if you’d rather just relax in peace and read a book, the quiet side may be better suited. Either way, you can’t go wrong. I did notice that most of the beds around the pool were reserved by members. However, we didn’t have a problem going down each morning and getting loungers in our preferred area (the active side).

HOT TUB: This was probably my favorite area. It’s quite large for a hot tub, and also has its own bar. It’s hardly, if at all, used during the day. However, starting at about 4pm each day, people would start to make their way over there. We would too (at least until it was time to get ready for dinner). Then we’d dutifully return each night again after the disco when it seemed to get a little more lively. We’d spend the first part of our time there at night having a couple drinks (well I did, the wife doesn’t drink) and chatting with the other people around us. Then the wife and I always ended the night naked on one of the beds around the hot tub, enjoying each other under the stars.

NUDITY: Yes, there is nudity here. Lol. In reading other reviews, I noticed some people have complained about too many men (and some women) wearing swimsuits (versus going naked). I can tell you I saw: lots of fully naked people, some men with swimsuits, some men with swimsuits one day that had them off the second day (so I’m guessing they just needed to build up the courage), fully naked women, and half naked women (just wearing bottoms). Pretty much anything goes here. I can’t tell you any percentages of each because I wasn’t paying that close of attention. I can tell you from the minute I first hit the pool, I was fully naked and never put my swim trunks on except when I had to (go to the restaurant to eat). But that’s just me. The wife wore her bottoms at the pool, and would end up fully naked at the hot tub bed each night. That’s how she was comfortable, and there was no way I was saying anything about it. She’s beautiful to me no matter how she’s dressed and honestly I’m just happy she’s the type of woman who’s adventurous enough to come to a place like this. If you’re worried about how you’re dressed or your body type, I can tell you I really don’t think anyone else cares. I never heard anyone say anything about how someone else was dressed. There were also very fit people, and very out of shape people, both of whom went fully nude. As well as men with big penises (rare), and very small ones (common), who went nude, and women with big and small breasts all around. No matter what you look like, there’s a good chance there will be someone else there that looks similar to you.

PEOPLE: They’re really what makes this resort special. It’s weird how stripping away the clothes seems to also strip away any barriers and makes people more friendly/social. When my wife and I go to regular/vanilla resorts, we never talk to as many people as we did here. It’s just something about the atmosphere because the people are, for the most part, just normal everyday people. In fact, if you walked into one of the Pearl restaurants at night and looked around the room, you’d think you were just in any other normal/vanilla restaurant (except for a maybe a few risqué outfits you might spot in Pearl’s restaurants).

STAFF / PLAYMAKERS: The resort staff and playmakers are all amazing. They seem to truly enjoy their jobs and to be there to serve. I like that the playmakers would come around and talk to you and try to get people to engage in the activities, but were not overly pushy if you didn’t want to participate. (We liked to participate but not necessarily in every game, every day.) We also had butler service for our room, and the two of them were great about taking care of whatever we needed (breakfast brought to us each morning, extra waters when we needed them, etc). *Note: We learned that butlers come with plunge pool rooms and above. Also, even though the restaurants recently stopped allowing you to make dinner reservations unless you’re a member, we learned a butler can make them for you even if you’re not a member.

TIPPING: It’s not required but obviously very much appreciated. We tipped everyone. Our baggage handlers, butlers, bartenders, waitstaff, pool guys who reserved our loungers for us, massage people, even a landscaper who saw my wife and I eating breakfast on the patio one morning and cut down a coconut and brought it to us along with two straws for us to have fresh coconut juice with our breakfast. Everyone we encountered was amazing and helped contribute to our overall great trip, so we wanted to show our appreciation with tips. My suggestions is to just factor that into the cost of the trip and bring plenty of small bills with you.

FOOD / RESTAURANTS: My wife and I are self-described “foodies”. We love to eat. It’s one of the things we enjoy doing when we go on vacation, whether it be to a new city, or a new state, or another country. We love to try new foods. I’d say the food at Pearl was good. It’s not fantastic, but it’s definitely not bad. In all honesty, we’ve had better food at other restaurants and even other resorts in Mexico. However, in fairness, I want to point out two things: 1) I may have higher standards than most, and 2) I did not come here for the food. So ultimately, the food was perfectly fine for what it needed to be. (For what it’s worth, my wife and I both liked Suki restaurant the best.)

ACTIVITIES: Upon check-in, they hand you a weekly itinerary of activities. There is also a board (located behind the hot tub) that is updated each morning with that day’s activities. We made an effort to participate in the daily activities, and did things like: meet & greet in the hot tub, yoga on the pier, foam party (so much fun!), water volleyball, etc. We also went to the disco EVERY night, and the show after. The wife and I BOTH dressed up, and – let me tell you – I LOVED seeing the wife’s themed outfits. She looked so sexy. Pro tip for the ladies: The wife found lots of sexy stuff to wear at the following places: yandy.com, wickedtemptations.com, fashionnova.com, and spicylingerie.com/festivalwear.html.

PUERTO MORELOS: One day we decided to take a walk into town along the beach. The plan was to walk around town a little bit and grab lunch. We left the resort in the morning and it took us about half an hour to get into town. Once we got into town, it was quite hot and we found the restaurant we wanted to eat at (Punta Corcho – recommended on this site) didn’t open until later in the afternoon (1pm). Quite a few restaurants open even later, so – if you decide to walk into town for lunch – plan your trip accordingly. We ended up just walking around town for a while, until the restaurant finally opened. Not a big deal, but had we known that we would have left the resort an hour or two later than we did. By the time we were done with lunch, it was so hot out and the wife was a little worn out and didn’t feel like walking back, so we took a cab back to the resort. Totally worth it. Happy wife, happy life.

SPA / MASSAGE: The wife and I both love massages, and did two of them during our trip. One was a relaxing couples massage, and the other was the infamous erotic seduction massage. I noticed that the latter is a topic of great interest, and debate, in some forum postings. We thoroughly enjoyed both, but the erotic massage was my favorite and that’s what I’ll comment about (since no one wants to hear about a boring relaxation massage). For the erotic massage, the wife had Jesus and I had Elodia. I should note that when I did my research about this massage, every single forum post I read about it said that prior to the massage we would each be presented with a form where we would have the option to cross off any body parts we did not want touched. That did not happen. We were presented with a form; however, the only question it asked us similar to that was whether there were any body parts we wanted them to FOCUS on. (I think we were supposed to circle any body parts we wanted them to focus on, but neither of us had anywhere specific we wanted them to focus on so we just left that part blank. I should note that we also would not have X-ed out any parts not to touch had we been presented with the other form. However, if you do have body parts you don’t want touched, I guess you’ll have to find a way to communicate that to them. I’m not sure if this was an oversight on their part, or just how they’re doing it now. But something to be aware of.) Anyway, the fact that I even got my wife to agree to this was a major accomplishment in my eyes because, as I said before, we are not in the lifestyle. I know others may say just grab another couple to do the massage for you for free, but for us at least, that wasn’t going to happen. So doing the spa’s erotic massage, in a more or less “professional” setting, was the next best thing. And it was well worth it. Both Jesus and Elodia did a fantastic job. Elodia did an amazing job on me, and from the sounds of it, Jesus made my wife feel very good (a few times). The last thing I’ll say is that I’ve read other forum posts where people say you can’t take the eye coverings off during the massage (and one forum post where someone actually said the forum post was “bogus” simply because the original poster said they did take their eye coverings off). I can confirm that I took my eye coverings off to watch my wife enjoy her massage. At one point, I put it back on myself to relax and enjoy my own massage. And a little while later, when my wife was audibly enjoying herself again, my masseuse actually removed my eye covering and prompted me to look over at my wife again. I guess she sensed that I like to watch my wife! (Which I do.) Lol. Trust me, you can do it. And hopefully you can tell from this long review, this is not bogus.

TRANSPORTATION BACK TO THE AIRPORT / DEPARTURE: I was a little worried about the drive back to the airport since I’d read the other posts on here about all the delays due to heavy traffic caused by road construction. However, our transportation company (Xtra Services again) assured us they would get us to the airport in time. The scheduled pickup time was 1pm, and they arrived to get us at 12:53pm. True to their word, they had us standing at the airport 25 minutes later! Getting through customs was also a breeze, and before we knew it we were on our plane and headed back home.

With all the positive that we experienced during our trip, you might be wondering if there was anything negative. Well, there were a few things I’d classify as “not-so-positives”. Just to be fully transparent, I’ll list them here:

THE “NOT-SO-POSITIVES”: First, the smell along the beach was not pleasant. It smelled like rotten eggs. In fairness, this isn’t the resort’s fault. It’s due to the sargassum (seaweed). However, I just wanted to point it out because it was very prevalent along the beach and even up into the resort. Second, there were some small issues in our room. We had a toilet that leaked water all over the bathroom, and one of our two AC’s didn’t work. The toilet was fixed promptly and the AC was attended to (but never actually fixed) promptly. But honestly, these things didn’t really bother me. As I said previously, I didn’t come here for the room. I came here for the experience/environment/people. I’m only mentioning these things because they happened and to be fully transparent by mentioning both the good and the not-so-good. Lastly, cell phone use. It was rampant. People using cell phones at the pool, and – even worse – at the hot tub area. I don’t mean just holding the phone up to their ear while engaged in a call. I mean pointing the phone at the crowd of naked people (with the camera end facing the crowd) as if reading the news, taking pictures/video, or doing who knows what. I saw this every day and nobody who was doing it even hid it, and no one (including staff) ever said anything to them. Only once did I see a staff member ever go up to one of these people, and I thought to myself “Oh I guess they are finally going to address it.” But that staff member just engaged the guest in conversation for a minute or so, and then walked away. (The guest didn’t even try to hide his phone during this encounter.) What I guessed surprised me (the yellow band newbie member) the most about seeing all this cell phone use, was that everyone I saw do it was a black band member. So one would think they’d have been around the block enough to know that this behavior is (or should be) frowned upon. But perhaps I’m wrong about that since I’m the one that’s new and no one ever corrected them.

Anyway, none of these “not-so-positives” ruined our trip, or even took away from it. We had a fabulous time, met some amazing people, and can’t wait to go back.

Sorry if my review is too long. However, I learned so much from reading the reviews of others and I just wanted to contribute back to the forum and also write a thorough review that hopefully will cover enough aspects of our trip to help some other new person who is considering (or on their way to) an inaugural trip of their own!

[SusanAndDavid]

Sounds like all of your readings prepped you for a very successful trip! Glad you shared your insights.

[livelearn131]

We were yellows in November - and this pretty much matches our experience entirely, word for word. Except the negatives - we didn't have those, and I didn't notice rampant cell phone use. But all the rest, pretty much the same, and for the same reasons. Glad you enjoyed it.

[ninaandfrank]

Hi thank you for that wonderful and detailed trip report. It was fun to read. As to cell phone use when Nina & I were at RM this past September we only once saw someone with their head in their cell phone. However we did see much more phone/tablet/laptop use at Pearl in December. However, where I differ is that we never got the impression that folks were taking pictures or videos. I think most folks were communicating with their butlers; which would account for the folks with the black bands. With all that said I hope folks remember they are on vacation and to put the phone/tablet/laptop down and rediscover the lost art of face to face communication.

[Siren]

That was a wonderful trip report and I truly enjoyed reading it!

[tikihutguy]

Thanks, great report! One of those that conjures up the warm Pearl feelings and helps us as we wait for the next trip

[mastersoil]

Thank you for your detailed explanation. We are newbies and it helped us a lot to understand how our first trip will be.