We went to Pearl twice some years ago but then shifted to RM, which we liked more. But we became less than enthusiastic at RM due to the change to a more “Temptation” feel, and slipping standards in food and service. We were on the verge of writing off Desire completely, but decided to give Pearl another try to see the comparison, and it did not disappoint.
Here is my summary -
- Overall resort condition - very good
- Food - excellent choice and presentation, consistently good and easily the best we have had ever at either Desire resort, ……and several other vanilla all-inclusives.
- Service- outstanding
- Beach - clear of any Sargassum and water crystal clear.
- Evening entertainment - very good,… stripper show was a blast. Strippers only went topless but made up for it by pulling audience members - men and women - onto the stage, interacting with them and in the process generally stripping them naked!
- Daytime entertainment - a bit weak, do people really go to Desire to play water polo and water basketball? Or is it that the young male playmakers just think they should?
- Nudity - very high level of participation, definitely more like the way both resorts were years ago. That’s a huge plus for us, made the wife much more comfortable than having more than half the men in cargo shorts - which was the way RM had gone.
- Theme night participation - excellent ….by both sexes.
- PDS around hot tub - just one comment …..WOW.
Couple of negative comments -
Asian restaurant AC is poorly designed and resulted in an icy blast from the overhead vents for many tables. Women typically go there in flimsy, nearly nothing dresses, and they were freezing to death, asking for shawls, getting the men’s to fetch jackets. But the staff who are running about in long sleeve jackets seemed oblivious to it. My wife has returned home with a stinking cold and I’m sure it was the cause. They need to address this.
A couple of people we met expressed disappointment in the standard of their rooms, for the price. I have to say I thought our master suite with plunge pool was fine, although very pricey and a bit dated. One surprise was that the plunge pool was kept really hot. We never expected to use the plunge pool, and had only chosen it because it guarantees you to be on the ground floor. But because it was so hot, we did use it several times.
