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1274 reviews
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Dec 19, 20244* for the resort overall, 10** for food and service in Market Cafe
Stayed for 5 nights in the "preferred" section for the first half of our trip, then moved to Zilara Cancun for the 2nd half. We have been coming to Caribbean for many years in December and March and stayed at many AI resorts, but it is just our 2nd Secrets and 2nd Zilara (last year we split our December stay between Secrets and Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana, which were pretty good, so we decided to have the same approach here - split our time between Secrets and Zilara Cancun, which is also adults-only). We booked our transfers with USA Transfers, which went smoothly and took exactly 50 min from the airport to the resort. The room was very clean, good size with nice bathroom area and sitting area. This Secrets resort is bigger than Secrets Cap Cana, but not too big as some mega resorts. The size is perfect in my opinion. They have 4 big pools - the preferred, social, activity and jungle pool. I personally have not been to any AI resort that had so many pools and all of them so big. The best part is that the water in the pools is heated. The beach is gorgeous with the powdery white sand (SO different from the Cap Cana complex, where the sand is not good at all - very rocky and not pleasant to walk without shoes in some areas). There are 3 rows of palapas on the preferred beach - the first row is closest to the sea and in front of the dunes and the other 2 rows are behind(!) the dunes. I do understand resort's wish to not destroy those dunes, but there is absolutely no view of the sea from the 2nd and 3rd row of palapas because they are behind the dunes. We sometimes did see some people sitting under those palapas behind the dunes (which can actually protect you from the wind, which is often very strong), but most of the time we did not see anybody there. Palapas in the front row are very limited but spaced out very nicely. So, if you are lucky to reserve loungers in one of those palapas early in the morning, you may have a wonderful relaxing experience because you will not have anybody close to you. Most people sit around the pools, which was good for us because we are "beach" people and sit at the beach, not around the pools. We did go to swim in the pools because the sea was un-swimmable for all 5 days we were there because of the very big waves and then also some strange grass in the water for 2 days (I am saying strange because it did not look like true sargassum, it looked like a cut grass from somebody's lawn, but it was lots and lots of it in the water; still not sure what it was). Needless to say, this was a huge disappointment because we go to Caribbean to swim in the sea, not in the pools. There are also cabanas for rent at the pools and the beach, but they did not work well for us because they do not provide true protection from the sun (light white cloth, that is not too protective). The star of the food show for us at this resort was their buffet Market Cafe. The overall interior very spacious, seating areas are beautiful (in fact, I would say that this is the most beautifully decorated buffet out of all AI buffets that I can remember), tables are nicely spaced out and the food is beautifully presented. The buffet food was really great for both lunch and breakfast with lunch being our favorite meal of the day at this resort because of the variety and quality of food at the Market Cafe and great attentive service. I love my fruit, but not just any fruit. This resort was absolutely the best in the variety and quality of fruit they provided - from your usual suspects like melons, watermelons and pineapple, to more rare fruit that not many resorts provide - like papaya and mango, to the even rarest at the AI resorts - raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. All fruit was excellent quality, but their mangos and papaya just blew us away. My husband said he got high on their mangos and papaya, that is how delicious they were! To hear this from my husband who is not even as much into fruit as I am? Enough said. Desserts were outstanding and very creative, such a great variety - from macaroons to chocolate mousse cakes to delicious chocolate truffles, etc, etc - absolutely the best desserts of any recently visited hotel/resort. They have stations to grill a variety of seafood and meats personally for you the way you like it ((I am still salivating when I remember shrimp grilled to perfection for me exactly the way I like it) and big variety of already prepared tasty dishes. Just do not rush, look carefully, ask questions if unsure and you will definitely find the food you like. For those who like it simple - burgers and pizzas are readily available too. But the best part was when we met Carlos - the manager in the Market Cafe, who not only fixed and quickly rectified some issue we had during our first breakfast there to our satisfaction, but truly went above and beyond during the rest of our stay to help us enjoy all of our meals at the buffet as much as possible. He is truly leading by example - he is serving food and drinks himself when needed, he introduced us to and provided some interesting details about the new food and drinks they are experimenting with to see what customers like. He is incredible and memorable host and truly elevated our meal experience there to the new highs. We feel lucky to have met Carlos and are truly grateful to him and his team members, many of whom really impressed us too. The set up for the evening restaurants - Bordeaux, Portofino and Himitsu - is much better than in Secrets Cap Cana - I would say they are bigger overall and have much more romantic and plentiful sitting inside and also outside - among beautiful foliage and some looking at the fountains. The Mexican restaurant El Patio is next to and kind of a part of the buffet Market Cafe, but also has plenty of sitting outside. These restaurants do not require any reservations, with the exception of Himitsu Teppanyaki tables. Our favorite in terms of both food and service was Bordeaux, where our server was exceptional Francisco. Portofino was OK, the server was grumpy; El Patio was just OK from both food and service perspective - I hope they will get better with time. We did encounter issues, which took some time and effort to resolve; our check-in in the preferred area took more than 1 hour, which is definitely the longest of all AI resorts we visited. They also did not acknowledge my Hyatt Explorist status and did not originally reserve the room in the building I requested (building 3). There were some other issues, for example, when we asked the lady who escorted us to our room for the iron and ironing board, she said sure, we will bring it asap, but it never arrived. Our butlers did not impress us and did not do anything special for us ((this is where by comparison, the butler we had in Secrets Cap Cana truly shined and was very helpful). Yes, their butlers are very friendly, they smile and say they are there for us, but then fall short on the execution of our ASKs and communication, leaving us no option other than do the things that we asked for ourselves to make sure that it actually happens, which negates the "butler experience". Entertainment at night was great - there was live music around the pools and other areas in late afternoons, shows at the theater every day at 8:30pm - many talented dancers, singers, acrobats -- I hope you enjoy the way we did. We loved Mexican Fiesta night in the courtyard - great Mexican food and Mexican singers/dancers - memorable! After the shows, there is usually a band playing at the Rendezvous bar or silent party at the Desires bar; you will NOT be bored. Overall, good stay despite some issues.
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Dec 19, 2024Playa Blanca: beautiful and great staff!
Playa Blanca is beautiful, so clean, and has an excellent staff. Our butler. Gloria, was so sweet and helpful (she brought Dr Pepper to me from her grocery store!). Our other butler, Alejandro, was so friendly, too, but we just didn't need any help on his shift. PB had some fun activities planned (we liked painting hats the best) and it was nice to have the choice of the louder social/activites pool, or retreat to the quieter preferred pool. You do have to go out early to get the best chairs, but it would be nice if the staff would clear out chairs that haven't been used in a few hours (does any place do that?). It's a bummer to see saved chairs that no one uses all day. (Also, we were told a towel doesn't save it, it has to have a personal item on it, so don't think it's saved with just a towel. Staff puts those out, I think.) We were there in December- preferred pool was perfect temp (could use one more wait staff there to get drinks faster- its a big assignment), infinity pool was a little cold. No mosquitos. Hot tub was great at around 100 degrees each day. Asian restaurant was our favorite meal, and breakfast buffet was really good. Would return!
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Dec 19, 2024
Eduardo and Eddy were excellent and very attentive butlers.
We had a great time, especially due to a great staff. Our butlers Eddy and Eduardo took care of all of our needs, even getting some pharmacy items from off resort. We found that pork and chicken were their strengths and fould something worth returning for at every meal. The resort needs to work out the pool seating as you need to reserve your seat by about 8am every day in order to have a place near the main pools.
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Dec 19, 2024
Fantastic resort
We had a fantastic time at the resort. The resort has beautiful grounds, a good selection of pools and the preferred upgrade for us was well worth it. The preferred pool was great and so was the lounge area and bar. The coffee cafe had great choices and the staff were fantastic in there especially Miguel. The staff in the whole resort were fantastic, our butlers Stelian and Rafa, Ranato and Leonardo at the Market and at the preferred lounge and pool Daniel, Victor, Anthony, Jeyson and Alejandro. Thank you for a fantastic stay. We hope to be back.
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Dec 19, 2024An Exquisite Property but A Work In Progress
This is a beautiful property and our room was fantastic as well as sparkling clean. The service is very friendly although frequently quite slow. Housekeeping definitely is the best trained department. We paid for the preferred club and found it to be substandard. Check in was a bad experience. Several times we were not able to find a place to sit at the preferred pool and had to go elsewhere to be outside. We are not sure how the butler is supposed to add to the experience; they did very little to enhance our stay. We had a wonderful experience in "El Patio" with our delightful server ENDY. Also after another frustrating experience trying to access the Preferred pool, concierge CARLOS really went out of his way to help us find a place and make things right. Our server ANTHONY at the pool was great. Service at the beach was very slow. The food in the specialty restaurants is very good but not superior in any way. All in all it's an exquisite property with very friendly and nice people but it falls short in a number of ways for the price.
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