Nov 19-22 2013 - Pearl Vacation, Compared to RM

[ja68]

We just got home from a short four day vacation at Desire Pearl. This was our first trip to Pearl, and we have been to Desire RM two other times. We are in our early 40’s, we are not in the lifestyle, and we love everything about Desire’s sexy atmosphere. If you’re looking for a quick overview of the resort, this isn’t it! It’s long, and much of this review will be a comparison between the resorts, plus some observations on how Pearl can become even better. We LOVED the resort, and will return to Desire Pearl in the future, so take the negative feedback with a grain of sand.

Rooms: no comparison between the two resorts; the rooms at Pearl are FAR superior to those at RM – much larger, in better condition, many with two bathrooms, and most with beach views. We stayed in a master suite, which was huge and had two bathrooms – as soon as we walked in, my wife delegated one of the bathrooms to me, and I never had the impossible task of finding counter space for my toothbrush! Our room was on the 3rd floor overlooking the hot tub – the first night we went to bed early (around 11:30pm), and closing the balcony door completely shut out the hot tub noise.

Beach: while the two resorts are in close proximity to each other, for whatever reason, the beach at Pearl has a fine powdery sand you won’t find at RM – plus the beautiful, palm-tree lined beach! We also loved the pier – walked nude on it every day, and swam off the end. Yoga was held every morning at the end of the pier for those willing to work out. There were always plenty of beach chairs, even though the resort was near 100% capacity, and the chairs are very nice loungers. There aren’t too many beach beds, maybe 10 of them, which are reserved for guests of the Penthouse suites, however, on our four days we never had a problem getting one. I think the Penthouse rooms were not fully booked, and many of the Penthouse guests preferred pool seating. The beach is also much deeper than RM’s beach. The one negative is we thought there was more beach traffic than at RM. No gawkers, but quite a few people walking and jogging by throughout the day, especially in the mornings. Security, while present, never had to approach anyone and tell them to keep moving – there just seemed to be a lot of people out for walks.

Pool: again, there is no comparison between the two resorts, Pearl’s pool is what you’d expect to find when traveling to a resort in Mexico. I remember our first trip to Desire RM and seeing the pool thinking, that’s it? Where’s the swim-up bar and lazy river? But Pearl’s pool is legitimate; very large, with a quiet side and a loud, fun side, a full size swim-up bar, and lounge chairs where you can sit IN the pool. And NEVER any trouble getting chairs around the pool, even at full capacity. There are also some beds scattered throughout the pool area, however, these beds aren’t popular as they do not have a cushion to sit upright against, so they’re only good if you want to take a nap. This should be an easy fix for Pearl to make.

Food: we both agreed the food was overall very good, and much better than at RM. While there are fewer restaurants, we thought the quality was higher, and there were better selections and more variety at Pearl. One day at lunch we asked about fresh fish, and were brought a perfectly cooked ahi tuna steak served over spinach and rice – fantastic and not on the menu. They also have a BBQ outside the kitchen, cooking pork, chicken and hamburgers every day, in addition to the buffet and lunch menu. Dinners included great conversations with new friends, lots of drinking, many courses of small, very tasty dishes, and were never rushed. There was never any wait to eat and no reservations required.

Hot tub: Pearl’s hot tub is so much nicer than RM’s, this feature alone would keep us going back to Pearl over RM. Six beds, three on each side, surround the hot tub, there’s a large swim-up bar, there’s a good area for changing and clothing storage, and the tub is giant, easily allowing the entire resort to join without feeling claustrophobic. Some of the buildings surround the hot tub so it is not completely private like RM, but once it is dark, the lighting is very nice and you do feel more secluded. Water temp was good. Only negative is the bathrooms are a bit of a walk past the pool area, which isn’t great, especially when making the walk with a woody!
Lobby bar: nod definitely goes to RM here where the gathering area is really the epicenter of the resort. The lobby bar at RM is a great feature of the resort, where you meet new friends, and gather in the evenings, whereas Pearl’s lobby area is very disjointed, with a small bar, a strange area around the corner from the bar for nightly entertainment, and plenty of mosquitoes from the nearby pond. There is an easy remedy to this: filling in the pond will eliminate the mosquito problem and create an outdoor lobby area central to the entire resort.

Overall atmosphere: I think there was not much difference between RM and Pearl with regard to atmosphere and ‘vibe’. Everyone you meet at both Desires is just so nice and easy to talk to, that is the overriding point here. Average age was very similar to RM: 40-55. Regarding lifestyle vs non, difficult to say, but maybe 50/50 or 60/40 (leaning towards non)? But overall the resort definitely had a strong sexual vibe, and plenty of PDA/PDS (see next section for details). The one noticeable difference is that RM’s property is much smaller than Pearl’s, and with more people at RM, it is very easy to meet people and see them again and again, and this leads to a closer, friendlier atmosphere. Assuming you went to both Pearl and RM for four days, and both resorts were at full capacity, afterward I think you would feel like you knew everyone at RM, whereas at Pearl you may not. Regarding nudity, I would say during the day 75-85% of people were completely nude, and remaining had bottoms on, and in the hot tub maybe 95% were completely nude.

PDA/PDS: Okay I put this last so you had to read the other boring stuff… of course the pda/pds activity at the resort ALWAYS depends on the week you are there at either resort, so it’s unfair to compare the two. We have read many reviews saying the sexual vibe isn’t there at Pearl, and we couldn’t disagree more. We saw it every day and night, throughout the resort. The hot tub was active (in, and on the beds) both during happy hour and after the disco, and we saw frequent semi-discreet activity on the beach beds – there was a couple who had a beach bed each day and the woman somewhat discreetly kept her man hard for hours at a time. Also saw a couple on the beach beds around dusk (5 pm) perform a full 15-20 min porn act with a blowjob followed by girl-on-top sex and vocal orgasms – anyone sitting nearby got a sight-full, and we never saw security tell them to stop. Playroom is a little on the small side, but at least there is one.

The things I wish we could change: just a few, and these could happen at either resort, but please read!
• If you are on holiday at Desire, I assume you are escaping your normal, fast-paced, crazy lives and are looking for a place to be romantic with your partner and (re)kindle the flames of love… this is not so easy when a couple sitting next to you is constantly answering and talking on their mobile phones. I get that at work every day, and do not want that on vacation. Cell phones SHOULD BE BANNED FROM PUBLIC PLACES AT DESIRE. Put those away people!

• Smoking. We are not smokers, and loathe people who smoke and are not considerate of those around them. Attention smokers: if you are smoking at Desire, and your smoke is blowing into other people’s faces, and they are not smoking, THEY LIKELY ARE NOT LOVING YOUR SMOKE. You are not the only one on vacation - go somewhere else, preferably private, to do your smoking.

• Young people: there were a few 20-somethings at Pearl on this trip, as on our other Desire trips. As everyone says, nobody at Desire really cares about age, weight, body-types, or whether you are all natural vs ‘sculpted’, and this is all very true. However, almost every time I see 20 year-olds at Desire, they leave their clothes on all day, watch in awe at others around them, and generally don’t try too hard to ‘fit in’. I’m convinced 20’s are too young to be at Desire – and encourage you to go to Temptations. Seriously, you will be able to hang out with others your age and not be the only ones with your board shorts on all day long. Why spend $500+ a night when you can get a vacation experience you will be more comfortable with, for $150 a night at Temptations and still be able to take your top off?

• Service: this is going to sound strange, but hear me out… sometimes I think there are too many Desire employees around, and they actually take away from the romantic, erotic, and sexy atmosphere. For example, at the beach, the guys assigning beach chairs and setting up towels do a great job, but there are three of them, then there are two ladies serving drinks, there are Desire guys selling snorkeling trips, there are the two or three Desire entertainment girls getting people to play volleyball or corn-hole, and it even seemed like Desire mgmt came down to walk around… too many people milling about. When walking around the resort, you will find there are more employees than guests… I started joking there was a different employee to pick up each leaf that had fallen around the resort… There is a fine line between providing excellent service, which Desire clearly does well, and overdoing it by making employees overly noticeable when they should really be striving to be more in the background, invisible, but doing their jobs. Desire needs to work on this in my opinion.

As I said in the first paragraph, we will definitely be coming back. Nearly everyone we talked to said they were repeat RM visitors and after visiting Pearl, will be returning to Pearl as it is just so much nicer. Whether you are going to meet people and party, or have a quiet romantic vacation with your spouse, you can find both at Pearl. In our opinion, it is a beautiful resort and a step up in class from RM.

[neatfeet]

Hi

A wonderful review, full of the details that we are eager to know! We are 2 weeks out from our trip and this really helps. Once question on outdoor dining/dress code, I know that for indoor dining it is long pants and no sandals for men, but are there outdoor dinner options (weather permitting) where dressy men's shorts and nicer sandals are okay? Don't want to pack what I can't use. Again thanks and we'll post our report after our trip.

Dave & mary

[ja68]

A wonderful review, full of the details that we are eager to know! We are 2 weeks out from our trip and this really helps. Once question on outdoor dining/dress code, I know that for indoor dining it is long pants and no sandals for men, but are there outdoor dinner options (weather permitting) where dressy men's shorts and nicer sandals are okay? Don't want to pack what I can't use. Again thanks and we'll post our report after our trip.

Hi Dave and Mary-
Near the front lobby there are two dining options - one is the indoor restaurant, Pearl, and the other is the outdoor seating outside the Pearl restaurant, I think they call it Suki, where they have an Asian menu two nights of the week (I think Sundays and Wednesdays). Pearl is very nice, this is the nicest of the dining options, whereas with the outdoor option I did see some men in shorts, HOWEVER, it is right next to the pond, and while it is a great setting, there are mosquitos, so I wore pants for protection. The third dining option, Aphrodite, is down by the pool overlooking the ocean - it is also indoor but the wall nearest the sea is glass. We think they should add outdoor tables as there is a nice patio right outside the restaurant, but as yet they haven't done this. Aphrodite is where you go for breakfast and lunch (buffet and menu options); they also serve dinner there, and on some nights it is a buffet, and others they serve you a la carte. We dressed up again for this, as did almost everyone. Dress to impress! Seriously, the ladies look amazing, and the men should put in effort too. It adds to the ambiance of the resort when everyone is dressed up looking great. Go out and pick up some white linen pants and a linen shirt - you will look great and fit right in! If you have other questions you can PM me.
J&A

[wbski85]

Wow, great trip report. We arrive in just over two weeks and can't wait. We are just wondering whether theme nights were well attended and did both sexes participate in their respective attires, especially the men?

[MandD]

We loved the pool, the hot tub, the rooms, the food was comparable to RM. Unfortunately the wife and I both got Ill while at pearl. Not sure if it was food, drink, or just a virus. Our previous 2 stays at RM were more enjoyable, but between the rain and our stomach woes we can't really knock Pearl for that. My biggest complaint was STOP PLAYING TECHO 24-7 at the pool, and the god awful elevator music in the morning got annoying very fast. We also had a hard time making a real connection at pearl with others something we've never had an issue with at RM. Could have been due to us not feeling 100% the crappy weather we aren't really sure why. Next trip we'll split between the two.

[ja68]

We are just wondering whether theme nights were well attended and did both sexes participate in their respective attires, especially the men?

Of the people in attendance at the lobby bar, I'd say 70-80% of the women dressed up, and a small percent of men did, like 20%? RM has better participation in the theme nights in my opinion in large part because of the fantastic outdoor gathering area that Pearl lacks.

[SamAndRose]

We both completely agree with having a 'No Cell Phones in public' rule. And if we could ever get it to pass, the 'No Cameras - no exceptions rule'

And if it wasn't for the fact that we both have eReaders (not iPads with cameras) and both use an iTouch (not iPhone) for music when we want to turn off the world and retreat into our own worlds, I'd be perfectly happy with the 'No Electronics of any kind anywhere out it public areas' rule.

Glad to see that you two had a great trip - thanks for the report.


Sam and Rose

[Mr_big60564]

Great review ja68! We are RM vets but Pearl virgins so this provides some good perspective. On our next trip down there next year we will give strong consideration toward splitting the trip between the two resorts. Thanks again!

[eeyore]

I'd be perfectly happy with the 'No Electronics of any kind anywhere out it public areas' rule.

Of course there are some types of electronics that should be encouraged.