We visited Desire Los Cabos for our first time from Jan 26-Feb 2 2013 and had an amazing time. It was our first visit to any adults resort, so we were a bit nervous both before and after booking the trip, but by the end of the week, we certainly had no regrets (except maybe entering Iron Man which required swimming and drinking of which he does neither)
We booked our trip through Sunwing who we've travelled with before. We had no issues on the way down (the end of the report will be a different story) and we were the first ones dropped off on our bus along with another couple. It was around 9pm when we arrived, so I don't know how many of the other people on board could see the "deliciously erotic" sign outside, but we expected that we'd be first and sat at the front so we didn't get any weird stares.
Check in was fairly un-eventful. We opted to have the bracelets on our wrists, but will probably choose the ankles for our next visit (yes, we'll be back!) Our room was on the third floor just down the hall from the disco. This meant some loud music at night but it was drowned out when the air conditioner was on. It was also nice being so close to the disco and dinner, because it was easy to run back to the room when we forgot something (or to try to change into clothes that glowed more).
We arrived on a Saturday and dinner was at Suki which was enjoyable. We ate there three times during the week, and preferred the table service to the teppanyaki. We had hoped that sitting at the teppanyaki would allow us to meet some new couples and have some pleasant conversation, but we ended up at the end, next to a couple who didn't speak English, so that backfired on us.
The first night was still part of the 50 Shades of Grey theme event, and there was a magician out at the Melange bar. That was the only night there was entertainment out at the bar, which we heard was due to the weather as they thought it was a bit chilly for outdoor entertainment. For us, a chilly night just meant we went to the hot tub after the disco.
We spent nearly all of our days by the pool, which was fun other than the sunburn we suffered on the first day there. We agreed to take part in water aerobics with April when we should have re-applied sun screen. The aerobics were much longer than we expected, with a lot of arm exercises keeping them out of the water. It was also the best gender balance we've ever seen for water aerobics, which was good as the later part had a lot of alternating boy/girl type activities. The resort wasn't that full, so while the lounge chairs filled up somewhat quickly, it was easy to get a bed, especially if you didn't mind being a bit further back by the fence where there was more shade.
Breakfasts were in the restaurant off the lobby, and had a good selection of food, plus a grill station. If you don't see bacon, try asking the grill station for it, as they sometimes keep it in the back for reasons we couldn't figure out. The wait staff was attentive, and even asked us where we were the morning we slept through breakfast. The smoothies are good, but they can take a while, so you may want to grab something to drink while you start eating.
As people say, lunches were a bit repetitive but again, the grill station made it worth while. You can ask for quesadillas, either cheese, or with chicken or the steak. The flank steak (arrachera) was a notable highlight as was the grilled fish. The day we were leaving they also had cheese sticks and taquitos, which were good but would have been nicer earlier in the week.
We found ourselves unable to say no to Foxie, Angie or April throughout the week, unless it involved volleyball. We ended up taking part in Iron Man, Iron Woman, Hula Dick, some sort of board game with large wooden penises as the pieces, corn hole, and that was just the days. On the Mexico theme night, we blindly agreed to take part in the Perfect Couple competition, only suspecting that it was some sort of Newlywed Game type of thing. That was one part of it, but it also started the first of four nights where the Mr found himself in the disco without his pants. We were surprised to find ourselves the winners, and while we don't want to spoil the prize for first time visitors, if it's the same, then it's definitely worth taking part!
Regarding the other theme nights, we didn't make it out for white night as we were still adjusting from travel the previous night. The dancers for glow in the dark night were awesome (and CLG were also quite the presence on the dance floor!) The laser harp was quite interesting as well, but some people found the tone a bit hard to handle. There were also acrobatic dancers on toga night which were quite impressive to watch. Pirate night and ABC nights were also fun, but while we took part in every theme when we went to the disco, we wouldn't worry about showing up without taking part. Also, if you get to the disco early, you may find that the staff really like watching Michael Jackson videos
We didn't make use of the playroom at the disco, but if you're curious about what it looks like, there's a set of photos from the glow night that were taken there.Late in the afternoon, around 4 or 5, people usually migrate towards the jacuzzi until they head back to get ready for dinner. This was a great time to talk and get to know other couples, and the beds in the back certainly get some use at this time. After dinner, it was hard to predict which nights the jacuzzi area would be busy and which nights would be quieter. There were a couple of evenings where we found ourselves either the only couple out there, or there were only two or three others, but other nights it was a decent crowd with which to have a night cap.
We definitely over packed for the trip, but we erred on the side of caution. The challenge is how much clothes to pack even though you might only be wearing some outfits for an hour or two around dinner time. We'd say the staff is the strictest in enforcing the dress code for men of any resort we've been to, and you rarely saw t-shirt or shorts on the gentlemen at dinner. But then you'd finish eating, and go get changed for the theme night. We also packed a bit too much lingerie, and we had such a good time at the resort that we didn't bother with any excursions, so we had a bit too much in the t-shirt/shorts category in case we needed to wear clothes.
We did head to the Mega a few times which was convenient for aloe vera, snacks, and more flavours of pop. There's a lot of people pushing time shares and excursions wandering the aisles, so be prepared. We went to the Starbucks by the Mega the first day for Wifi, but found it spotty sitting outside, and gave up on the Internet for the rest of the week. There's also a Subway, Dairy Queen, Radio Shack and McDonalds there, along with some smaller restaurant stands, but we didn't check any of them out.
One of our worries heading to Desire is that J is plus sized, and we were worried about feeling out of place. We wanted to re-assure anyone who's worrying that a) she wasn't the only one at the resort, and b) we felt totally welcome and had a great time.
So the only real issue we had on our vacation was the trip back. We received a call while we were packing that our pick-up was delayed two hours, which sounded great, because it meant a full day at the pool and even some time by the hot tub in the late afternoon. Once we made it to the airport, we started to hear the story of what caused our delay: a family who caused another Sunwing flight to be diverted which rippled through the airline and resulted in delays for our flight. We didn't make it out of our airport until around 7:30am the next day, so we barely stayed awake during the Super Bowl.
To summarize, this was by far our best vacation ever. We're looking to go back in mid-May around Victoria Day weekend if we can make it work, and will definitely consider it again for our next winter trip as well. We met a lot of fun and nice couples, and had a great time, both with the entertainment staff, and on our own.
Thanks to everyone who's posted here in the past and answered our questions in advance to make us feel comfortable before we visited. We did observe some couples who didn't do as much research, and while not all the visitors are in the lifestyle, from some stories we heard, I'd wonder if some brief information on etiquette might be a good idea for the resort to provide. We look forward to visiting Desire LC again soon!
