First timers trip report March 1st-7th, 2013

[Caregiver0]

I'll make it short..
We are in our early 40's in decent shape an opened minded. We stayed from march 1st -7th. Had a beautiful bottom floor room by the quiet end of the pool. The best thing here is the service ! Food was average...don't go hungry or you'll be disappointed.
Entertainment staff were exceptional . The crowd : this is where we sorta didn't fit in... 95% older crowd 60+ , very polite but made my wife who is a 105 lb blonde that looks 25 not want to participate, although she did on neon night and our final evening " bikini and heels" , even made it into the playroom to put on a show. Would we go back ? Yes....but maybe during a group take over week.


Oh yeah, Montuzumas revenge didn't help start our vacation...I spent 2 days in bed but made the most of it afterwards.
Tips.....rent a car at the airport.....taxis are expensive, watch what you eat if its late in the service time ie: eating lunch at 3pm...the raw meat " grill" has been sitting there since 11am ....I believe that's what made me shoot it from both ends.

Pros: service, grounds, rooms,
Cons: food, age group , music.....music in the disco is ridiculous.... The dj plays music that 90% of the crowd has never heard or is even close to being age appropriate. The music mostly played was new dance/ techno mixes that a 50+ crowd isn't into...and the disco clears ou by 11. An hr after opening. Play some 80's n 90' dance / booth music. The only night the music was good was our last night...he dj wasn't there and the kid on the system was playing what people wanted to hear. I think dj's believe they're artists and play what they want to hear and mix

[GrandRapidscpl]

Ahhhhh theses are the reports that make my wife and I very nervous about our choice in choosing Desire( we are both 28) hopefully June has a younger crowd than 60+ avg. not worried about an avg age of 35-55 as desire advertises but I have read many reports of the avg being 60+...... Yikes we will be out of place if that is the case.

[Gunnert]

We've been to Desire annually for the past 7 years and we've never seen an average age 60+... more like 40s and 50s... We haven't seen many under 30 during our trips. It's an expensive vacation and most in the younger age range have other priorities.

[CokeMann]

Ahhhhh theses are the reports that make my wife and I very nervous about our choice in choosing Desire( we are both 28) hopefully June has a younger crowd than 60+ avg. not worried about an avg age of 35-55 as desire advertises but I have read many reports of the avg being 60+...... Yikes we will be out of place if that is the case.

Just as a FYI, if our forum members are telling the truth about their real ages in our Poll - lol

Here is the breakdown, average age wise of guests, that you should see on any given week at any Desire property

In their 20’s - 7%

In their 30’s - 18%

In their 40’s - 41%

In their 50’s - 26%

In their 60’s - 8%

[couple1018]

music in the disco is ridiculous.... The dj plays music that 90% of the crowd has never heard or is even close to being age appropriate. The music mostly played was new dance/ techno mixes that a 50+ crowd isn't into...and the disco clears ou by 11. An hr after opening. Play some 80's n 90' dance / booth music. The only night the music was good was our last night...he dj wasn't there and the kid on the system was playing what people wanted to hear. I think dj's believe they're artists and play what they want to hear and mix

Can we please this fixed!!! This was the one major flaw during our visit last year.

[neatfeet]

I agree! Does management read these posts or can it be forwarded?

Thanks!

[couple1018]

After the entertainment in the disco, the music would start and by the second or third song the disco was empty. I could save them some money on dj's, just plug in my ipod for the evening.

[tarpon47]

We went to Pearl twice last year (June and October) and on both trips the ages ranged primarily from 30's to 50's. Very few under 30, and not many over 60. It's a very fun place and age didn't seem to matter.

[Caregiver0]

We were tempted to head over to desire rm but then a group of about 12 came to pearl one day ( probably in their late 50's) , obnoxious , loud, drunk....so that stopped us from trying that resort for a night.
We will probably return to PEARL one day but we will go when there is a resort take over by a group that has a younger vibe. I know I know , one day we will be that age as well but until that time !?

Let me say this after I read my initial trip report.... My breakdown of age groups would be 35-45. 10%
45-55. 25%. 55- 65. 50%. 65-coffin 15%....... Although I still believe even with this breakdown 40-50% were ore 60 yrs.

I don't mean to offend any age group just giving my opinion as honest as possible...... Plus everyone was curteous and polite but it seemed that the 50+ crowd were a bit cliquey......never anything rude , just felt resented since we were 10-20 yrs younger .

[Caregiver0]

As far as the music goes...before heading on our trip I read the same on here.....after a few nights i spoke with Omar about the music.... He said " they take requests but can't play for every age group there" ..... I said " your age groups seem to be over 40 so some 70's 80's 90's Booty music. I think that maybe they are out of touch with what North America wants to dance to which is not their fault but again we still go to local clubs and the Dj's have all the music per mixed because they think they're artist' and refuse to play anything outside of what they listen to. So at PEARL you will hear some current music mixed with a loud Caribbean beat....then you will mostly hear music new to us ( Mexican pop?) ....with loud over bearing bass. Wife and I almost think that they do this on purpose so that the disco will clear out and the entertainment staff can go to bed......because they really do work their asses off for you all day !

[Caregiver0]

Reading Cokemans age breakdown......it could be that last week was an anomaly because 40 yr olds were definitely not the majority
Our favorite quote from a nice couple in shear dress and banana hammock " you guys are 41? We have kids your age".

[CokeMann]

Reading Cokemans age breakdown

It's not my breakdown - the numbers are a summary of the ongoing poll of members on the forum re: what is your age.

With close to 6500 members the forums don't represent everyone that vacations at the Desire properties, but they do represent a sizable and typical cross section.

Personally we have been to Desire properties 23+ times at various time of year since the original one opened in 2003 and we feel that the poll results pretty accurately represent what the age ranges to be on any random week.

On any/all of our trips we have never seen that any of the Desire properties where dominated by a specific age group(let alone where 40-50% were over 60 yrs - lol) even on group takeover weeks...........

[candtdesire07]

Now we are worried. Trying Pearl instead of our familiar RM home this year. We will be 39 & 41 when we get there in June (no longer the babies at Desire anymore). We are worried that all the fun will be at RM. My wife loves to shake her booty in the Disco so hopefully June has a RM type crowd. We like to party & have fun but the disco clearing out before it even starts sounds pretty lame. We are just getting started at 11pm, not getting ready for bed. This is the one week per year we get to let loose without kids, jobs etc... & we make it count!
Anyone going the last week of June who will shake it with my wife on the dance floor to club music?

[Powderfinger]

In our nine trips scattered over several different months, we can say that on average, the poll does fit who shows up at Desire....but we have seen some pretty big variances on occasion. One late January trip, the first couple days were true to the poll...the last five, not so much. It fit this report, where we felt we were little kids in a nursing home, and we were 39 & 41.....

[highclassinborrowedshoes]

In our nine trips scattered over several different months, we can say that on average, the poll does fit who shows up at Desire....but we have seen some pretty big variances on occasion. One late January trip, the first couple days were true to the poll...the last five, not so much. It fit this report, where we felt we were little kids in a nursing home, and we were 39 & 41.....

LOL our 19 year old daughter recently went to a resort in Dominica and had the same complaint - everyone was retirement age! I told her to relax and to sweet talk someone and try and get written into their will The better half and I will be at Pearl in less than a week and we are 52 & 50 but since we've been in 'training' for months now, we'll be acting like 39 and 37 year olds (we have too, considering all of the costumes we've bought)