Temptation
- Our flight was Jet Blue MCO-CUN, 1.5 hours. TSA people at MCO were courteous and professional. I managed to screw up our hotel transfer in CUN, as I had told USA Transfers that we were arriving Dec. 13, rather than Dec.14. All was worked out and went smoothly from there.
The room and facilitie
The water is drinkable – a first for us in Mexico!
We received an upgrade to a ground floor Jacuzzi room by the “Quiet pool.” The first thing we noticed is that the room was always damp, even though the A/C was running. The best thing I can figure is that they use a “swamp cooler” for A/C, rather than a refrigeration cycle A/C. A swamp cooler simply blows air over water and cools by evaporating the water, but humidifies the air, rather than drying it.
Then --- it rained! For three days! The sunken game room by the disco (two doors from our room) flooded sp much that maintenance had to use a sump pump with a two inch fire hose to pump out the water.
The rain, dampened activity at Patty O’s , which is exposed to the weather.
The disco was pretty dreary, with overamped PA and music.
A major shortcoming at Temptations is the lack of a central focus for activity and no hot tub. The pools were not heated, although the “Sexy Pool” was warmer than the rest and was tolerable.
Food/Restaurants
Food was overall quite good – significantly better than Hedo, with a main buffet and four specialty restaurants – Mexican, Oriental, seafood and Italian. The Oriental and Italian need reservations. The seafood was fresh and delicious.
One recommendation would be to set up group tables and encourage mixed dining, rather than to seat couples separately. This seems to work well at both Hedo and Club Med.
Activities
Activities were of a “Hedo Lite” type, with games to fetch articles of clothing, drinking games, etc.
Staff
Both coordinators and hotel staff were first-rate – friendly and professional and worked to assure a pleasant stay.
Guests
In keeping with the “Hedo Lite” atmosphere, many of the guests were younger interested primarily in drinking and somewhat reserved about mingling.
Net analysis
Temptation is not Hedo!
Desire Pearl
- Once again, the water is drinkable!
We were fortunate enough to get an opportunity to transfer our last three nights to Desire Pearl.
Food was a couple of steps up from Temptation. All the fish was delicious and fresh!
Facilities are a quantum step up – and with real A/C! And a beautiful hot tub!
The pool is huge, with a quiet end and a party end, but unheated. The beach is beautiful and wide, but with some foot traffic from other resorts.
Activities
The staff kept things going with various activities, including the Saturday afternoon foam party, where a foam machine blows bubble bath foam over the party end of the pool and guests frolic in it. Lots of fun!
On Sunday the coordinators brought out a huge, inflatable ball, into which a guest (or guests) would enter, have it inflated to about 7 feet in diameter, then floated in the pool. The objective is to stand up inside the ball, arms outstretched, and stand upright. A couple of people actually succeeded – one standing for more than a minute.
The same comment applies regarding encouragement of mixing during dining, as for Temptations.
Guests
Since Desire Pearl has only 88 rooms and is CO, the guests were more outgoing and self-assured than at Temptation, which has about 350 rooms.
Net Assessment
Too bad we had only three days at Pearl!
Desire Pearl blows Hedo away! Facilities are neat, modern, clean and well-maintained.
The food is a quantum step above Hedo.
