My oh my where to begin? First let me give any of you with a short attention span (because this is a long report) the cliff notes version: If you’re thinking about a trip to desire but you’re just not sure, my advice to you: JUST DO IT!!!! If you have never been to Desire, it may very well change your perspective on life. Whatever your worries are, release them. Whatever your fears, forget them! If you are fortunate enough to be in a relationship with someone who is open to the opportunity to share this experience with you, TAKE IT! Don’t get me wrong, Desire won’t fix and isn’t meant for troubled relationships. However, if you have a strong relationship with your partner, a trip to desire may very well make it stronger.
For those of you who don’t mind reading and are looking for more detail, let me get into the nitty-gritty by sharing what we learned about what I previously referred to as our biggest mysteries of Desire in my “Pre-Newbie” report:
1) Am I really going to be able to walk around naked in public?
We arrived at Desire on a Friday around lunch time. We had a room overlooking the hot tub, and my girl recalls one of my first comments when we entered our room and went out on our little balcony: “yep, there are naked people out there.” Little did we know what the next 6 days had in store for us. We went down to get some lunch (I’ll comment on the food a little later) and then it was to the pool. At this point we are both still in our bathing suits. We wandered over to the swim up bar and met nice gentleman who noticed we still had our clothes on. He correctly concluded that we must be new, and his comment was “by this time tomorrow you won’t feel like you need them.” Now, I think it natural for anyone to be nervous with that first “public strip” and let me tell you nervous we were. It might be logical to surmise that if you know your eventually gonna do it, why not just do it and get it over with. But each person probably needs to build up to that moment of being ready to make that leap. For us, that didn’t happen the first night. We simply enjoyed our first day of vacation in this paradise with our clothes on, certainly being in the minority but also not made to feel like outsiders in anyway. Also, there were a few others guests in various forms of dress, including several women who were just topless and a few guys still wearing trunks. So, there are definitely other people around to make you not feel like a freak if you’re not quite ready to go completely au naturel. For us, as circumstance would have it, the next day we were introduced to our very first foam party. As an aside, if you have the chance to coordinate your trip such that you’re at Desire on a Saturday, DO NOT MISS THE FOAM PARTY!! That alone is worth the price of admission. The foam was the perfect catalyst to help us finally shed those bathing suits as it somehow felt like we were still wearing something (and we were, we were wearing the foam!). So for us that first strip actually happened in the pool in the shelter of the foam, and once the foam was gone we just never got dressed again. And guess what, nobody cared! So, our gentleman friend was right. We made the transition from conservative to liberal in just 1 day! Too bad all political issues couldn’t be so easily resolved with just a little bit of foam.
2) I think my girl is beautiful, and apparently so do others. Your trip reports have been great in helping to alleviate my concern of a constant bombardment of relentless advances, but I’d be lying to say there wasn’t still a little bit of anxiety floating around regarding this concern.
I’ve heard people mention this being a problem at other resorts such as Hedonism or other clothing optional places. As a first timer it this was something I was really nervous about. All I can say, at Desire, this was not an issue. Not even once. I think the difference is with Desire being couples only, that entire element didn’t seem to exist here. The only time “we” were ever even approached by anyone along these lines was late on our last night when an attractive couple we were sharing the hot tub with politely invited us back to their room for a drink. Had it not been our last night enjoying ourselves under the stars, by that point we might have been brave enough to take them up on their offer. Maybe this depends on the crowd you happen to be there with, but again, it was never an issue here.
3) So if we do actually find the courage to get, what’s up with this hot tub and will passion really trump performance anxiety (cuz hey, the audience maybe more than one at that point):
First let me say, the hot tub is the place where fantasies come to life! Imagine this: you’re meandering through a comfortably crowded hot tub larger than most swimming pools, carrying drinks you’ve ordered from the poolside bar, the ambient noise a mixture of lighthearted conversations of new friends meeting, old friends reuniting, and oh yes, couples engaged in various stages of sexual activity, and it all SEEMS NORMAL! To say that makes this a surreal experience would be the understatement of the year, yet this is again the magic of Desire and specifically the inviting allure of the hot tub. Interestingly enough, while it took a day for us to get comfortable shedding our clothes, we were somehow able to more quickly adopt the “when in Rome” attitude of the hot tub, and to some degree we were able to explore our passion in public. I will say, while I enjoyed this very much, whether it was some difficulty in keeping our footing our maybe some lingering nervousness to our surroundings, I was never completely at my best in the hot tub, and only after retreating to the comfort of the surrounding outdoor beds were we able to really fully enjoy ourselves. We found the hot tub to me amenable to certain activities very well (guy or girl sitting up on the ledge with their partner slightly submerged in the water before them), but was very slippery or hard on the knees for other things. The irony is not lost on me that here I am, the one who was nervous about even taking off my clothes, talking to you about this. Even if you don’t yourself feel comfortable taking part in acts of extreme PDA, there is an energy and liveliness that permeates through the air just being in an environment that feels so alive. Yes, again, the magic of Desire. The time in the hot tub really does become almost the focal point around which the rest of the day is built. There is a natural transition that others have explained when the pool bar closes at 4pm and pool, there the hot tub bar is open that couples make this migration. Of course you can still use the just isn’t any service available any longer.
4) Playroom? WTF ?!?!?!?!?!
Ah yes, the playroom. If you hadn’t done your homework and already knew it existed, it would be easy to miss the playroom. Discretely tucked away in the back of the disco (off to the right as your standing on the dance floor looking towards the bar), the playroom is a smallish room with an extra deep comfortably padded couch like-unit built in on three walls (a sort of “U”-shape) with a “couples” swing dangling right in the middle of the room. This is an area where couples can retreat to if they want to engage in public sexual activity in an indoor, climate controlled environment either alone or with other couples. Having done our homework, we were aware of the playroom and kept a curious but distant eye on it during the early nights of our trip. Somewhere midway we got adventurous and poked our heads in there and even got brave enough to sit on the swing to see if it could truly hold our weight (it could). It seemed that midweek, the playroom got very little use, but come the weekend (maybe when the census was higher), the playroom became a very popular place to be. While unfortunately we were never really comfortable using the swing (it seemed to be to low to the ground to work for us), I will say towards the end of our trip we did make use of the playroom and enjoyed ourselves surrounded by other couples doing the same. And while the room looks small at first appearance, it can accommodate a deceptively high body count such that we were able to enjoy ourselves but not encroach on anyone else’s space (meaning you can do whatever you want in this room and not have other peoples body parts hanging all over you, if you want). The play room was a been-there, done-activity for us, and while it was fun, was not an area we felt compelled to go back to. We much preferred the hot tub.
5) Not that this one is a big deal, but after reading numerous reports, I still have no idea what we should expect regarding quality of the food, at least the evening meals… good… Bad… somewhere in between?
The food, simply put, was awesome. And while there was food-o-plenty, it seemed to me that unlike, say a cruise, many of which in my experience seem to be themed around eating, a vacation a Desire did not equal a “gorge-yourself till the point of exploding and then eat a little more” fest. We split our dinners up between the two restaurants, Aphrodite and Pearl, and the food was equally good. Pearl is the fancier get dressed up type restaurant, while Aphrodite is the same restaurant you’ll eat breakfast and lunch in, albeit with a little ‘face-lift’ to spruce it up a bit each night. We did notice that the wait for Pearl was longer than Aphrodite in as much as we did have to wait each night to eat at Pearl whereas we never had to wait at Aphrodite. One night we were getting so hungry while waiting at Pearl we just decided to walk down to Aphrodite and we got right in. People do still get dressed up to eat at Aphrodite, but you’ll definitely fit in a little better there if you don’t. We got a free lobster dinner for two as part of our booking package, and while I was not expecting much, I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it was. I share that because I think that is an upgrade you can purchase that I would consider doing again in a future to make an already special dinner even a little more special. One thing I would point out, while not specifically related to the food, is the curious things about this being an all-inclusive yet there are still things to buy. This mostly relates to “upgraded” alcohol. I will tell you, other than one round of special tequila shots, we never found the need to purchase any alcohol upgrades, as what they offered “standard” was pretty amazing. Although I’m not a big beer drinker, I was surprised by the somewhat limited beer selection. You essentially just had to decide if you wanted regular or diet beer. Finally, while breakfast and lunch are served each day “buffet” style (lunch has both indoor and outdoor options and the food off the grill at lunch was awesome as well as the little outdoor kiosk that had something yummy and different each day), they also do have an actual menu you can order off of. I knew you could get eggs to order, but again, I didn’t realize until the last day that they had an actual menu to order off of. I guess because I always may a B-line straight to the food I never gave anyone a chance to bring me a menu!
6) Cherries to Strawberries, Heavenly White, Lust in the Dark… Is this really Halloween for adults or is somebody just trying to punk me as “the new guy” making me feel about as out of place as someone showing up to Fenway in a Yankees uniform?
This of course refers to theme nights. While my response may generate a little controversy amongst my male counterparts, I say do it! Participate! I will tell you one of the highlights for us was dressing up each night in tune with the evening’s theme. While it is absolutely true that many guys don’t dress up to the theme, there are still several who do. Most ladies, however, did seem to choose their evening attire to somehow go along with the theme, and one of the biggest treats was seeing all the beautiful woman dressed up in their gorgeous costumes. I also think that shopping and coordinating for the theme nights ahead of time was a special bonding experience for us and helped amp up the excitement level so that when we first arrived at Desire we were already heavily invested in our adventure! It’s all about the foreplay anyway, right?? So my advice, prepare a little and get into it! Hey, if you’re gonna be brave enough to hang out naked, are you really gonna get hung up on getting a little dressed up?
7) Fantasy menu? Really? No, really???
If you’ve been doing any kind of research at all preparing for a trip to Desire, you’ve undoubtedly come across the fantasy menu. The fantasy menu to us seemed like a way to guaranty certain experiences without really knowing what you were going to be getting into otherwise. We considered several of the options, and in the end we booked the Sensual Couples Massage and my girl also did the Shake It which was a pole dancing lesson taught by the resorts own local Hot Body Jessica. They have also added Oh Snap which was not part of the fantasy menu previously but still something you could book with the on premise photography group. We met with several people who did this photo shoot session, so we decided to give it a try. Let me tell you, it became another high light of the trip, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. The photographers have an amazing knack of making you feel not only comfortable being photographed in various stages of undress, but also a flare for putting you in just the right oh-so-sexy pose. Prepare to spend several hours as you travel to different areas of the resort capturing some amazing stills. I don’t know if they changed it, but when we did it there was no cost for the photo session and the only thing you paid for was what ever photo package you choose (you could simply pay per photo or select from a variety of packages). This could get very pricey if you bought all the images, but they had a package that was $400 for 35 images. The hardest part was narrowing it down to only 35! As far as the couples massage, it was a little different than what we were expecting. First you have to choose whether or not you want the staff to leave the room at the end or stay in with you. We figured we’d probably want to be alone at the end, and I sure am glad we did. Not meaning any disrespect to the masseuse (there were two) as they were extremely friendly, but the massage was really more of a very light body rubbing with a lot of moaning/heavy breathing in your ear. They definitely touch you everywhere, and for my girl it was the first time she experienced another woman touching her in an intimate way, but by the end we were ready to just be alone and do our own thing. Perhaps this would be right up some folks alley, but if you’re expecting an actual massage in the mix, you will be disappointed. The spa was very nice though, and after we were left alone and spent some time together on the massages tables that they had pushed together to make a quasi-bed, there was a nice, private outdoor Jacuzzi attached to our spa suite and they had champagne and treats waiting for us out there. You are given ample time and can hang out for as long as you’d like. There are other items on the fantasy menu that we might try on a future visit, including some newer ones that weren’t available during our trip. We saw them setting up the area for the Moonlight Special for another couple and it looked nice. What I would say if you see something on the menu that interests you, go for it. Whatever it is, no matter how bizarre it might sound sitting there reading about it at your desk at home, when you are at Desire it will probably seem as right as rain! My only strong recommendation, really consider getting your pictures taken!
And Finally:
We truly believe in showing appreciation for good service, which by all accounts stands to be exceptional (we appreciate the previously posted suggested tipping recommendations). However, what I have yet to figure out is HOW, with all this nudity going on, will we be able to carry money to tip ANYONE (at least with money they would want to take ????This was obviously a light hearted joke as much as anything, yet with just enough practically that maybe some of you have been thinking the same thing. With that being said, I cannot say enough about how good the service was, and you will likely want to show your appreciation. As others have said in their reports, we never got the sense there was any expectation of tipping and certainly never any pressure to do so. During meals it was easy because you had to have clothes on. During the day at the pool, you’ll likely have your little beach bag you will bring down with you which you’ll keep your cash in and you can simply tip the servers as they deliver your drinks. If you’re going to spend time at the swim up bar (you will), just grab a couple of bucks to take with you, give it all to them with your first drink and then don’t worry about it. If you leave and come back you can bring more if you want. It was a bit more challenging at the hot tub, because you are a little more removed from your belongings because everyone is hanging out IN the hot tub, not around it on beach chairs. I would suggest doing the same thing. Bring some cash with you on your first trip to the bar, give it all to them at once and then don’t worry about it. You will be treated like a rock star regardless. The bartenders will learn your drink preferences really quickly and will often have your next one waiting for you or, at least they will already get working on it when they see you coming (so much so that if you plan on trying a bunch of different drinks you’ll constantly be double fisting it because they will likely already have a drink made for you). Also, we left a gratuity for our housekeeper each day, and we always came back to interesting towel creatures or other surprises. I suspect they’d do this even if we didn’t tip. We took care of the wait staff at each lunch and dinner much like you would at any restaurant. It really isn’t so much an issue of having to tip, but believe me, you will want to, and it will make you feel good to do so! So spread the love. And at Desire, there is a lot of love to spread!
So, that’s it. For us, Desire turned out to be all that we had hope it could be, and even a little more. I suspect the type of experience any given couple has at Desire can be strongly influenced by crowd they happen to be sharing the resort with. For us, we met some great people and shared some amazing experiences with them. Likely we’ve made some new lifelong friends. Meeting people there is so easy. I guess there something about being naked that naturally makes us more social. I don’t know if we just got lucky our very first trip, but I couldn’t imagine having shared our time with a better group of people. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to travel back to Desire with some of them. If so, we’ll let you know! So good luck in your adventures, and if you do make it to Desire, be sure to let us know how it goes.
Respectfully,
Mr Blue Eyes
