First Time Visit to Pearl - May, 2017

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First Time Visit to Pearl - May, 2017

Postby D&G-in-love » Sun Jun 04, 2017 5:16 pm

My husband and I went to Desire Pearl for a four night stay at the end of May, 2017. As way of background, we are not in the lifestyle but are not opposed to it, either. We have vacationed at many C/O resorts and nude resorts in the past so being nude and around other nude people is not an issue for us. We are vegetarians who like to work out, and we will only go to resorts that can accommodate our vegetarian diet. The new marketing material that Desire produced which publicizes their new vegetarian menu choices was key in our decision to visit Desire.

The synopsis of our trip report is that it started out very, very badly but ended just the opposite, with us absolutely loving the resort and vowing to come back!

Our first night at Desire was horrible. We were tired and hungry when we arrived. When we went to dinner at Aphrodite on our first night at the resort we were shocked to find that the only vegetarian item on the menu was an appetizer of roasted, cold, peppers. Really? Really! I told my husband that I guess we were supposed to be satisfied eating just a cold appetizer for dinner. He was not pleased, nor was I. When we told the waiter that we were vegetarians and asked if the chef could make something special for us, he acted annoyed and said he would have to go and see. He came back a few minutes later and said that the chef could make us a vegetarian burrito. That was it. No other choices were offered to us. We could take the veggie burrito or go hungry. We said we’d take the veggie burrito.

Our meal came out fairly quickly, and to be fair it was quite tasty. However, the waiter continued to act annoyed and gave us very poor service. I was still eating my entrée when my husband finished his and the waiter came to take his plate away. I was shocked at the rudeness of the waiter, since it is customary and polite for the waitstaff to wait until all the diners at the table are done eating before they clear away any plates. However, even more rude was when the waiter brought my husband the menu again and asked what he wanted for dessert, while I was STILL EATING my main course. My husband was shocked and didn’t know what to do, and since the waiter was standing there almost demanding his dessert order my husband went ahead and ordered. “I guess the waiter wants us to leave as quickly as possible, and I’m eating too slowly for him” I told my husband. My husband’s dessert was brought just as I was finishing up my main course, and the waiter then demanded what I wanted for dessert. I asked for a menu so I could see what the choices were and he acted annoyed again, but he went to get a menu for me. I ordered and a few minutes later my dessert was brought out to me (my husband was just finishing up his). It was shocking to me that the waiter was rushing us, and that he insisted on bringing out my husband’s dessert while I was still eating my main course. I ate my dessert as quickly as I could. That wasn't hard, since I found it absolutely tasteless, dry, and almost inedible. In fact, I left most of it uneaten. As my husband and I got up to go we were both in shock at the completely horrid service, the inadequate menu for vegetarians, and the poor quality of the dessert.

At this point I was almost in tears. I thought that I had made the biggest vacation mistake of my life when I selected Desire. I wondered how I was going to make it through four nights and five days there. I knew there was no chance of a refund, but if a refund was even a remote possibility I would have left immediately. However, since I knew that there was no chance of getting our money back, I resolved to make the best of the next four nights and five days.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast, and were fairly pleased with the vegetarian options. Not a surprise, though, since breakfast is probably the easiest meal for vegetarians to have in a restaurant. After breakfast wee spent some time on a beach bed, then went to lunch. I was fairly pleased with the lunch offerings and was able to find a few cooked veggies and other items that I could eat. I was starting to think that maybe I could survive on eating a lot for breakfast and lunch, and that dinner would be the only meal where I would have to go hungry. Before leaving Aphrodite after lunch we asked to see the Unik restaurant’s dinner menu, and were delighted to see a Portabello Mushroom Burger on the menu. We immediately made reservations for Unik for that night.

We then went to the gym and found it adequate. I wasn't the best resort gym I've ever seen, but it was satisfactory. My biggest complaint about the gym is that the room with the cardio equipment is horribly hot. It appears that the A/C in that room is not working. However, the room with the weights is cool. There's a big difference in the temps between the two rooms, and I strongly recommend that the Desire management do something about the lack of cooling in the room containing the treadmills and ellipticals.

That night we went to Unik for dinner, and were completely blown away by the awesome service and our delicious Portabella Burger entrées. The waitstaff gave us wonderful service, didn’t rush us at all (like the waiter the night before had done), and we felt comfortable in taking our time to enjoy our food and the wonderful view of the ocean. We really appreciate Paco and the other waitstaff. They were there if you needed anything, but didn’t rush us through our meal. My husband ordered the Baked Alaska for dessert, and the waitstaff’s production in presenting it was fabulous! My husband and I decided that the Unik restaurant would be our go-to restaurant for dinner.

The next morning we were supposed to go to the timeshare sales talk, but we were still thinking that Desire was not someplace we wanted to return to so we went down to Guest Services at the time of our appointment and spoke to Sophie, who appears to be the head of Guest Services. We told her that we didn’t think we’d be returning to Desire and we didn’t want to waste any of the salespeople’s time by listening to their sales pitch. She asked us what was wrong and we described how we felt misled by the Desire marketing materials regarding the vegetarian menu options. We explained how our first night at dinner there had been only one vegetarian item listed on the menu, and it was a cold appetizer. She said she was sorry and that she would see what she could do about making the rest of our stay enjoyable. We thanked her but privately we thought that there wasn’t much she could do. Wow, were we wrong.

From that point forward, every single waiter we encountered knew in advance that we were vegetarians and took great care to offer us a vegetarian main course item. If there was already a vegetarian main course listed on the menu the waiters would point it out to us, and if there wasn’t a vegetarian main course item listed on the menu the waiters assured us that the chef would be happy to make something special for us. I never got the feeling that they were annoyed by our “special” requests like the waiter was on our first night. None of the waitstaff ever rushed us like the first night's waiter did, and we enjoyed all our other meals at Desire. In fact, that night at dinner at Aphrodite (we had forgotten to make a reservation at Unik so we had to eat at Aphrodite) chef Daniel came out to meet us and tell his how it would be his pleasure to make a vegetarian main course item for us. Later in our stay the second chef, Enrique, also came out to meet us and also made us feel very welcome.

For the rest of our stay we had excellent service and we were never made to feel uncomfortable if we had to order a special. Special thanks to the waitstaff, to the chefs, and to Sophie for turning our experience around 180 degrees. We went from hating Desire to absolutely LOVING it! In retrospect, I think that first night at Aphrodite was an anomaly. That waiter was probably the one bad apple in a bunch of really good waiters at Desire. The one suggestion that I have for Desire management is to put at least one vegetarian main course item on EVERY menu. The Desire resort management has produced a wonderful marketing campaign aimed at highlighting their vegetarian cuisine, so it’s a big let down when you arrive to see that there is only one vegetarian item listed on the menu, and it's a cold appetizer. I hate to ask for something “special” to be made for me, but if all the main courses contain chicken, meat, or fish then I am forced to ask for something special. Please, Desire Management, don’t put me or other vegetarians in the position of having to ask for something special.

Since I don’t want to go on too much longer in this review, I will touch on some of the other aspects of Desire that we both really liked.

First, the quiet side of the pool was wonderful. We were close enough to hear a little bit of what was going on down at the active side but far enough away to read or snooze without the sound bothering us. We also enjoyed the time we spent at the active side of the pool. The people there were having fun but we didn’t encounter any obnoxious drunk guests like we sometimes do at other resorts. Everyone was having fun and enjoying being there but nobody was out of control I also liked that the DJ at the pool took requests. Great idea!

The Entertainment Staff was terrific. I talked my husband into doing the water aerobics with me and he had a good time despite himself. Michael took us through a fun yet vigorous workout and entertained us with his sexy demonstrations of the moves. Fun, fun, fun!

My husband and I also participated in the foam party, and it was a blast! I expected it to be fun, but it was more fun than I even thought it would be! My suggestion to others would be to wear sunglasses (which is a common suggestion) but to wear a cap or visor, too. I wore a visor during the foam party and it really helped protect my face and eyes from the foam. For the women – don’t worry about gratuitous groping by strangers in the foam. My experience was that you are only going to get touched if you are giving off the vibe that it’s OK to be touched. I highly recommend participating in the foam party!!

We aren’t super social people but we did meet a few couples at Desire that we really liked. As many other reviewers have said, the people that come to Desire are some of the nicest people you could hope to meet.

We decided to drop by the Jacuzzi on our last night at the resort. I was a little hesitant, not sure if it was going to be a big orgy and if we were going to get hit-on relentlessly. There was no need for me to worry. The people in the Jacuzzi were nice and respectful, and we didn’t get hit on at all. In fact, at first, there was no sexual activity taking place, either. I was secretly a little disappointed! However, after about an hour I noticed two lovely women giving a very handsome man some oral pleasure in the middle of the Jacuzzi. A little while later I observed a couple on one of the beds enjoying themselves. All of the sexual activity seemed was subtle enough so that I felt comfortable, but it was still visible enough that I started feeling frisky myself. I had had a couple of drinks by that time so my nervousness had died away, and I suggested to my husband that we occupy a vacant bed. He gladly agreed, and we had some sexy fun ourselves there on the bed. Afterwards I wished we had visited the Jacuzzi earlier in our stay, since I had REALLY enjoyed my time there. Well, there’s always next time!

As I stated at the beginning of the review, my visit to Desire started out badly but by the time we left I was a complete Desire convert! I cannot wait to return. I will finish this review with a word of advice to the vegetarians who will be going to Desire in the future: Be aware that some menus won’t have anything vegetarian listed (other than a cold appetizer). Do not be discouraged! The chefs honestly do not mind making a special vegetarian entrée. The waitstaff don’t mind either (well, with one notable exception). Really, all the staff at Desire Pearl (again, with one exception) seems to be genuinely interested in your having the best vacation possible, and they will do whatever they need to do to ensure that you do have the best vacation ever. We are going back as soon as we can!
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D&G-in-love
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Re: First Time Visit to Pearl - May, 2017

Postby red88vette » Mon Jun 05, 2017 4:00 pm

Great trip report and glad things improved after the first night. We were there May 13 for 5 nights also for the first time. We fell in love with everyone, the atmosphere and the place. We were never pressured into the time share discussion. We initiated the discussion ourselves after the 3rd day so we could see what it was about, and because we wanted to return, and understand the benefits. Well we signed up and have booked stays for Dec this year and Mar, May next year. A couple more trips in fall to be planned. We look forward to returning, letting go more as we get more comfortable. We are converts.
2022-Aug, Oct, Dec,
Total-30
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Re: First Time Visit to Pearl - May, 2017

Postby Explorer79 » Mon Jun 05, 2017 7:04 pm

That speaks volumes as to the excellent service provided at Desire.

red88vette wrote:Great trip report and glad things improved after the first night. We were there May 13 for 5 nights also for the first time. We fell in love with everyone, the atmosphere and the place. We were never pressured into the time share discussion. We initiated the discussion ourselves after the 3rd day so we could see what it was about, and because we wanted to return, and understand the benefits. Well we signed up and have booked stays for Dec this year and Mar, May next year. A couple more trips in fall to be planned. We look forward to returning, letting go more as we get more comfortable. We are converts.


Welcome fellow addict, welcome :D
\m/
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