Newbies No Longer – Our 1st Timer Review May 31-June 8, 2014

[Budlee]

Overall, we had a great vacation at Desire Pearl, May 31-June 8, 2014. We were wise to keep our expectations in check before our trip, letting the experience unfold as it would, once we were there.

Transfers from the airport, and check-in were fast and easy.

We had sent a request for an upper floor room on the quiet end of the resort, farthest away from the hot tub, pool activities, Aphrodite restaurant, etc, and that’s exactly what we got. We were assigned room #83 in the Starfish building, up two short flights of stairs. This was a basic ocean view room, with quite a nice view of the beach, sea, and quiet end of the pool. No complaints about the room, although the bathroom could use some better lighting. I’m thinking these rooms have not been refurbished since Desire took over the property, since there was nothing sexy or sensual about the décor. But, it was a very spacious room, and was kept immaculately clean by the housekeeping staff.

The weather started out pretty badly, at the beginning of the week, and I do admit to being worried and stressed that the storm sitting over the region would turn into the entire week being a washout. Fortunately, the weather improved as the week wore on. We took every opportunity to be outside if it wasn’t raining (and sometimes even if it was). We had one day of seeing some blue in the sky, here and there. For the most part, it was very overcast, but warm enough to enjoy being outside.

We are beach people, so from early morning to late afternoon, you’d find us under a palapa. Neither of us really gets why people would spend days at the pool, with a beautiful beach right there, but each to his/her own. For us, it meant a beach that was practically private, so no complaints. It’s not a very deep beach, but there’s plenty of shade from palapas and palms, and the guards do a great job moving folks along, who happen to be strolling past. Victor will make up your beach chaise each morning and then it’s yours. What a treat it was, not to have to run down to the beach @ 6:30 am to play the towel game, as you have to at other resorts and destinations in order to score a chair or two. We definitely recommend water shoes, because it’s a rocky entrance into the water. The grounds crew raked the sea grass every morning, but it’s a losing battle. Not an issue, once you’re in the water.

Of course the pool is going to be a draw – pool games, swim-up bar, etc. But, the condition of the pool was our biggest thumbs down of the week. It was really disgustingly dirty. I can’t really say how it got so out of hand, as the week progressed, but by Saturday’s foam party, it was so murky and cloudy that you could not see the bottom, and it had a visible filminess on the surface. There are two outdoor showers near the hot tub, but we did not see showers by the pool. Installing a few showers and suggesting folks use them before going in the pool might help out with the condition of the water. It got so bad, that on Saturday evening, the pool was totally roped off, in order for it to get a long overdue treatment and serious cleaning. Needless to say, we did not use the pool much.

We can’t really say if the hot tub scene was typical for Pearl, or not. It seemed to be most heavily used between 4:00-6:00 each afternoon. There was a lot of sexual tension in the area, but very little actual play that we saw. For the most part, it was simple socializing, with a little play on the beds. In one instance, a woman was laying on the bar while her new husband licked whipped cream off her – it was very cute. She was a lucky girl, receiving oral in front of everyone, and enjoying a big O. Other than that, we saw plenty of blow jobs, hand jobs, touching, kissing, girl-on-girl, etc.

One thing that wasn’t very friendly was the saving of the hot tub beds. People had towels and belongings spread out on the beds, while they were in the hot tub or elsewhere, making the beds unavailable for those wanting to use them. That was sort of disappointing. Clearly, the limited number of beds available isn’t enough for all guests to claim one as their own, so I’m not sure why some folks felt it was okay to reserve them when they weren’t actively using them.

We were very impressed overall, with the service throughout the resort. The butlers would regularly check in with us, Ebe never let us run out of drinks on the beach, the housekeeping staff made up the room nice and early, and did a great job, and the waitstaff, at both restaurants, was excellent – attentive but not overbearing. No fault to be found, as far as service goes.

Kudos to the animation team. Koko, Jess and Ana are three sexy women who have an amazing amount of energy, doing their best to get people involved in their scheduled activities. Also, one nice thing is that Pearl brings in special instructors to teach daily classes – this week, we had Della leading a daily yoga class, on the beach. She was great!

The food served at the resort blew away our expectations. I’ve been to several all-inclusives, and I’m a bit of a foodie, so my opinion is based on that. In the past, my experience with AI food has been this – very average, under-seasoned food with the occasional stand-out dish, always a wide variety of option, and you’ll never go hungry. We had eight great dinners, split between Aphrodite and Pearl. They have enough of a menu rotation that we didn’t eat off the same menu twice. One of the nights was our included lobster dinner (order off that evening’s menu for all but your main course, which was a nice sized lobster tail). Another night, they opened their Suki restaurant, on the patio outside Pearl. Aside from the mosquitoes attacking, our meal at Suki was one of the best. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to wear dresses that I’d never be able to wear out to dinner at home.

For breakfast and lunch, it’s the buffet at Aphrodite. At breakfast, you can order eggs from your waiter (omelets, scrambled, fried… any way you like them). The breakfast buffet had lots of fruit and cold items, as well as a nice selection of breakfast foods, with a Mexican twist. At lunch, there’s a menu with sandwiches, entrées, etc. to supplement the buffet. Our favorite lunch, which we discovered late in the week, was the tempura fish (or shrimp) tacos. During our week at Pearl, they only had the patio grill going on one day. Not sure if that was because of weather or occupancy, but we enjoyed it on that one day. The pizza was just awful. I’ve found this to be the case at other all-inclusives, as it was at Pearl – where they drop the ball is with bread products, pastry and desserts. They all looked great, but really lacked in flavor, consistency, etc.

Drinks were generally too sweet, and while they had some better vodkas (happy to see Grey Goose), they didn’t have much for the fine scotch/bourbon drinker. What they did have (JW Black) seemed to be watered down, as did the beer.

We made it to a handful of the evening entertainment events. The traveling troupes that the resort brings in to put on shows were pretty good, overall. We would watch the show, and then leave the disco – not our kind of music. Most of the women and some of the men got into dressing for the theme, which added a very fun, and usually very sexy element to the evening.

Pearl is an easy walk from the center of Puerto Morelos, for shopping and dining. We walked into town 3x during the week – our only exercise. We needed those walks to give our bodies a break from alcohol and food, for a few hours.

We’re in our early 50s, and felt very much in the middle, age-wise. Most guests we figured were in the 30-45 range, but there were a surprising number of much older guests at the resort. We envisioned ourselves at that age, and figured we’d still be into the clothing-optional lifestyle, so it was a nice thing to see. There were a LOT of hot bodies there, but I had to remind myself that they were 20 years younger than us… and I looked that good back then, too. But, as with any naturist/nudist environment, you’ll see the full spectrum of body types, all beautiful in their own way… one of our favorite aspects of the clothing-optional lifestyle. No judgement here… come as you are, and enjoy it.

Pearl does a good job of setting the stage for a sensual and sexually-charged vacation. What you do with it is entirely up to you. We saw many guests who never took off their bathing suits (the minority, but it’s an option, all the same – just not sure why they’d pick a clothing-optional resort?). There was some play at the hot tub, but mostly not. We got the impression that most guests were there for the no-tan-lines aspect, rather than for the swinging.

We had a great time at Pearl, and hope to return one day. But, we’re not experiencing the “we must book our next trip right now” phenomena that so many other guests describe in their reviews. And, that’s not at all because Pearl was lacking – it truly is a wonderful resort, with great people, great service, great food, etc. It’s more that there are so many other places to see, clothing-optional resorts to check out, that it would be tough not to want to try something new.

[2naked]

Thanks for the review. Sound very typical of our stays at Pearl. We usually split our trips with a few days at each since the "vibe" is quite different. Not sure why but the sexually charged energy just seems higher at RM. Maybe it's the smaller pool and jacuzzi which forces people to be closer and interact more. Don't get me wrong, I like the pool and jacuzzi better at Pearl but you can spend a day in them and not ever have to get very close to them. Still has a great sensual vibe which we love but the energy is a little better at RM for some reason. Won't stop us from going though thanks again for the accurate review.