New beach bed assignments

[2naked]

We just arrived yesterday to find all of the white beach beds are now only for passion suite and jacuzzi suite guests. The 8 or 9 beds on either side of CiCi's beach bar are now for Premier Members only and the remaing beds North of the large tiki gazebo are for all other guests. A little different than in the past.

Also they have added a row of new beds along the glass wall that separates the pool from the beach so many less lounge chairs at the pool than normal. Only the row of chairs in front of those new beds can be reserved for more than one day by members only. All other chairs are first come first served day to day, no reservations.

[bb25]

Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Is this permanent?

[co_chicago]

I hate when all-inclusive resorts do this sort of thing. It's not really all-inclusive anymore, is it?

[JandF]

Agree on the not reading all inclusive.....

Totally understand the "well we paid for it" thought process but at the same time it definitely does appear to be segregation-sorry folks, we all see and believe what we want and this is my view from my chair.
Lets talk Dr Seuiss' Sneetches, remember that story? (read up if you'd like... http://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs2604/Summer2 ... etches.txt) Its one of my favorite childhood stories and one hell of a lesson that I keep close to my heart.
Anyway....
Are we really going to battle over who's better because of their "stars"? And then what if all of us bought into the membership....er "stars"? Will they come up with something else for more money? Absolutely!!!! And will people buy into it?? You betcha!!!! We all go there for the same reason, the only difference between me and you is our looks and nothing more, theres really no reason to place one group above another but they do, and people fall for it; sadly its something we all have to deal with. Frankly its tactics like this that keep me from buying into "memberships" (sorry Desire you lost my dollar). Im coming to Desire to enjoy myself, my husband and anyone else that wants to join us, and in no way am I going to bump myself up for a bed, or a chair or a towel. Just not my cup of tea. Thanks Desire, but yeah, Im gunna hafta pass on their "star"......

Sigh..... so wonderful society is that nobody can ever be on the same plane.... someone always has to rise to the top regardless if they want to on not.

And for the record.... Id rather have a membership that gave me discounts than perks.

[WellInever]

We have found that one of the great things about CO resorts is they tend to be less class ridden and hierarchical than traditional resorts. Nakedness tends to remove barriers and perhaps the type of people who feel comfortable naked and in an environment where nudity is common tend to be less judgemental, less inclined to make divisions. So it is very disappointing to read that the resort itself is tending to encourage this type of segregation. I quite understand if you have paid for Premiership membership you might expect a few perks but where the provision of those perks might prevent people rubbing along with each other that seems misguided...

As Norman Mailer wrote... 'his shit don't smell like ice cream either'

[canuck63]

I don't understand why everyone gets all wound up about the chairs and the memberships. There is no real difference in the way you get treated with membership and for one I would rather sit on the other side of the pool anyways so you can see the ocean, the beach and the entertainment. Why have your back to it, isn't that part of what you flew to Cancun for? Seems like the non members get the better view if you ask me, unless of course you prefer staring at buildings, so why complain? As far as beach beds go, it always seems there are plenty to go around, you get served at your bed so why worry about how close you are to the bar you still see the ocean and beach in front of you.

[RandB69]

6 sleeps to go! We'll see what happens when we get there. We go on vacation to relax, not rush around in hopes to get a stupid beach bed. I really hate it when resorts do shit like this. We all work very hard for our money (some have to scrimp and save every penny to be able to afford a holiday like this). When you pay 4 & 5 star prices EVERYTHING SHOULD BE AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE!
That's my 2 cents.

[co_chicago]

If the resort wants to give people extra stuff for those paying a premium I have no problem with that. But don't do it at the expense of others. If you are taking something away from me to reward higher paying guests, well.. that concept just seems wrong. If people want to pay more for a nicer room, or butler service, or massages or floral scented toilet paper, go for it. That doesn't impact me.

And I don't want to get into a nitpicky debate about which poolside chairs are the good ones. Sometimes those chairs nearer the beach are only ones in the sun later in the day. Everyone will have a different opinion about what aspects of the resort and beach they prefer. Let's just keep the common areas of the resort open to all.

[tommer]

BRAVO to the comments by co_chicago .............. Let's hope that the resort will be kind and considerate to us "common folk" that deserved availability to beds/chairs on the beach and other property assets.

[rawhidexx]

Have never been to a Desire Resort so visit to Pearl will be our first. We are very excited to visit. With that said, we are hoping that there aren't issues where we are somehow denied chairs or access because we haven't paid a premium. Let's face it -- the Desire Resorts are at least twice as much as almost any other 4-5 star resort for the same time frame so I already feel like we are paying a premium. All of the reviews and the guests who return year after year make it clear that these resorts are special places in many ways so we will just relax and enjoy. Vacation is always better when you don't sweat the small stuff and in reality it's pretty much all small stuff!

[northernlightscpl]

This issue was on this forum about a year ago in respect to membership perks. Nearly every airplane everyone traveled on has 'business class' with more space and/or several rows of seating that have more leg room for guys like be. In both cases, these seats cost more for the 'extra's that come along with them. No one complains because some have chosen to pay the extra cost when they are flying economy. That is only one example. There are many, many memberships out there from golf to hotel perks, all because someone wanted to pay for them and other chose not to pay and get the perks. This is call a democracy to choose what you want and don't want, not socialism where everyone gets the same. It is not 2 tiered service, because everyone gets the same drinks, meals, pool service. At Desire some of the perks are there for membership because they choose to be members and spend the extra money. Why, because they wanted it and paid for those perks. An option everyone has if they want it. We can make disgruntled remarks about membership perks about anything and anywhere, but at the end of the day the reality is, if you didn't pay to sit in business class, you have to accept there are some who wanted to and be satisfied to sit in economy with less leg room and more money in your pocket.
We have never seen any issues while staying at Desire with members and non members over 'perks'. In fact, we have shared out lobster dinners twice with non member friends and several reservations with us for dinner through our butler. We are planning to rent the yacht with a group of non member friends. So go easy on members who seen the benefits of membership and paid for it. As mentioned, there is lots of everything to go around for everyone.

[CokeMann]

Just as an FYI - currently Desire RM has just over 50 beds available on the beach.

If you take away the ones that are reserved for those who pay extra and book in a Passion Suite(10) or a Jacuzzi Suite(6) that is a total of 16

Also for those who paid extra (ie members) they reserve about another 8

So therefore there appears to be about 26 available to those that book GV and OV rooms.

[desireaddict]

Just as an FYI - currently Desire RM has just over 50 beds available on the beach.
If you take away the ones that are reserved for those who pay extra and book in a Passion Suite(10) or a Jacuzzi Suite(6) that is a total of 16
Also for those who paid extra (ie members) they reserve about another 8
So therefore there appears to be about 26 available to those that book GV and OV rooms.

So basically, with 114 rooms at 80%-90% average occupancy, about 1/2 of guests will be able to get a bed.
Some probably won't really want one or won't really care. Some will be disappointed. (Esp if you aren't early risers.)

[TandD]

This is a tough one for me. I certainly don't begrudge members who want to pay more to get more. If they get better towels, better booze, access to the yacht, that's fine with me. I think the business class analogy is a good one - to a point.

If I can't get a lounge chair by the pool because they are all reserved by members, now I've gotten bumped out of my economy class seat by a business class traveler because the airline wants his money more than mine. I know that's not a perfect analogy but it's like you are starting to take away stuff that I would expect to get when I booked my vacation.

This happened to us - I went to get a couple of lounge chairs from Victor (Pearl) and they were all reserved. Of course I have no idea how many were reserved for members and how many were for people who happened to get there before me. It was a little disappointing but extremely minor compared to everything that's great about the place and it all worked out in the end anyway. We went over to the pool bar and wound up learning all about Tequila from Alejandro and Roger, which loosened up my wife, which led to...well, that's another post.

So, I'm not sure how to handle this. It's a fine line for Desire - irritating a larger number of lower paying guests in exchange for a higher margin on a few members. In then end, it's a business and they have to make that call. I just hope they make the right one and stay in business.

[BigB&CrazyK]

This topic seems quite trivial, really. We're members, regularly stay in the Suites, and we've never gotten preferential treatment for reserving chairs/beds/etc. A logo'd towel every once and a while is about as preferential as it gets. And, quite honestly, we could care less. If we were that concerned about beach/pool seating we'd go to Sandals....

Get naked! Have fun!