3/21-25, 2023

[Qaz12129]

Generally agree with the review by tj71903, so will give our view from a different perspective. This is our 6th trip to Pearl over about 10 years. We are not members, and do not stay at the Mansion. We have stayed in oceanfront rooms, junior suites and master suites. This trip we stayed in building 10 room 30. Our routine is typically breakfast around 745-8, then pool til lunch at about 1245-1, then back to room for nap and to avoid the hottest sun, back to pool by 3, and then then hot tub. We generally are back in the room 630 ish to relax, and do dinner 830 ish.

Arrival/Departure
The renovated airport definitely helps. We arrived about 1030 am and there was no line at immigration. At baggage claim in about 10 minutes, waited about 25-30 minutes for bags and then out to meet USA Transfers. We have been using USA for 10 yers, and As others have noted, their model entails waiting. We found the greeters toward the back pretty easily, but had to wait almost 30 minutes for the car to arrive. Travel to hotel was under half hour - there were no construction delays but there was an accident on 307. Super easy check in - as usual room wasn’t ready so we made massage appts at the spa, had lunch, and then massages. Note that they no longer put stickers on phone cameras. Departure from Pearl was easy, bags were picked up from room on time. We did try to change our USA Transfers pickup time early that morning when we learned our flight was delayed (ended up being 7 hour delay!) but they would not adjust the pickup time - very annoying. We might seek other car options. As usual the drivers were great, the car was clean. To airport construction made the trip longer - although there didn’t seem to be any actual construction going on, the lane closures and merges caused stop and go for about a mile or so before the airport exit. Travel time was about an hour and 20 minutes on a Saturday morning. Airport check in was very easy.

Room
Our room was very clean and housekeeping was great - our room was regularly cleaned by lunch time. We did lose all of our water 3 times - not sure if it was a room issue or a building issue but maintenance got it working quickly each time. Do note this room is on 6th floor so might not work for everyone. We generally request high floor rooms.

Food
As other have mentioned, there are no reservations for non members. We didn’t find this a problem - we ate at Pearl twice and Suki twice and never had a problem at 830pm ish. We enjoyed the food at both places - the Suki menu seemed a bit changed from what we remembered, but not at all in a bad way. We went to Pearl on Italian and French nights. We did not eat dinner at Aphrodite, but the breakfasts and lunches were as in the past. Was fun to see people like Jose in Aphrodite who I think has been there for 5-6 years. At dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine from the sommeliers list. Our experience was that there are very limited quantities of the non Mexican/Chilean wines on the lists - twice we tried to order a repeat of what we had previously and it wasn’t available. The wines are somewhat overpriced but they always have been. They did make a gentleman change from shorts to pants at Pearl dinner, and they did not allow entrance to Aphrodite lunch to a gent with no shirt.

Pool
As always Victor is the man. There were a couple of new faces as attendants, and everyone was extremely helpful and engaging. We didn’t have the “request a foxtrot” thing that others have mentioned. We’ve in the past observed that things tend to rev up as the weekend approaches, and that was again the case. A number of new male playmakers - while we don’t generally take part in the games, we do engage with them and all we’re very outgoing and a fun presence - although it was strange to not hear Charlie’s WOO WOO!

Hot Tub
The temperature issue of the past seems to be fixed - it was consistently hot without being uncomfortable. There was a difference this trip for us - while the late afternoon period was generally very crowded, the nite period was often very sparse. They now open the hot tub bar at 1pm but not sure why - the bartender said that no one is ever there til the later afternoon rush. A number of people have posted about the hot tub beds - we absolutely noticed that beds were being “reserved” in the early afternoon and even mornings by people putting bags etc on them. And in the late afternoon hot tub rush, at least half of the beds were taken by people sleeping, checking phones etc - there was one gentleman who every day would lay in the bed closest to the bar with his laptop! Not an opinion either way but there are definitely more bathing suits than there used to be, both male and female. We saw a number of couple where the female wore bottoms and the male wore a suit. (There was one man who sat at the pool every day in cargo shorts and a belt - seemed hot!). Casual observation was that a lot of the suit wearers had yellow bracelets, so perhaps just getting accustomed to something new. We spoke with a number of couples with yellow bracelets, and a number of them were first timers at Pearl, but had been to Temptations - so perhaps that influences it.

We thought the entertainment was similar to past years. Devils and angels seemed to be the most enthusiastically attended. In general would say the age range was 50-70, with it skewed toward the higher end and with a few younger exceptions. The staff across the board were fantastic, and really make Pearl what it is. We enjoy Pearl, but it will be interesting to see how the newer higher price points impact their clientele.

Hope this is helpful to some - if anyone has specific questions will try to answer as best I can.

[calinude13]

Great trip report. We were during the same time and loved all the theme nights but especially the Angels and Devils night. On our last day, the 24th. We finally got the courage to try one of the hot tub beds but they all had belongings on them and my wife wasn’t comfortable removing someone else’s property. Overall it was a great experience and looking forward to returning.

[NewCplHere]

In general would say the age range was 50-70, with it skewed toward the higher end

WOW did not realize this at all. Interesting to say the least.

[spanky67]

In general would say the age range was 50-70, with it skewed toward the higher end

WOW did not realize this at all. Interesting to say the least.

Keep in mind any generalization about an age range is simply a snapshot of one particular person/couples trip.

We were at Pearl in June and December last year. I know for a fact there were couples in their 20's both weeks (certainly more of the outlier) all the way past 70's. My completely unscientific perusal would say the median on both trips was closer to 45-50 than 70.

The crowd during your week will surprise you at every turn...no matter their age.

[Orcowboy]

The age range at both Pearl and RM has been 45-55 in all of our 200+ nights since late 2017 with it older or younger some weekends....Super Bowl and Thanksgiving crowds have been older at both....