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Has anyone been to Vida's Puerto Penasco?

rboesl

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My wife & I are Grand Mayan owners and are considering visiting Vida's Puerto Penasco location. Has anyone been there? Their site makes it look very nice. But, we wonder, is there enough to do there to keep you busy for the entire week? What was your favorite activity there?
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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My wife & I are Grand Mayan owners and are considering visiting Vida's Puerto Penasco location. Has anyone been there? Their site makes it look very nice. But, we wonder, is there enough to do there to keep you busy for the entire week? What was your favorite activity there?

Hi rboesl,
We have visited twice ( Oct 2013 & 2014 ) using our optional use Vacation Fare week . We flew (nonstop) Southwest from Buffalo to Phoenix & rented a car
(I see you live in West Seneca NY / greater Buffalo)
Since we visited they have opened the Grand Mayan . The Mayan Palace is likely 200-300 units & the GM I think may be 50 or so .
There is a great onsite golf course . There were also some 4 wheeling rental options next to the parking lot

We found mid October perfect weather . sunny 90's & low humidity
( the bell staff said - if your from snow country - don't come before then - you will find it too hot )

one reason we picked it : was a pretty low risk of storms & hurricanes in the fall

Puerto Penasco is about 50,000 pop & is a 25 minute drive .

I will try to add more -later
 
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pittle

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We have been to the Mayan Palace there several times since moving to the Phoenix area in 2007 as we can drive there in just under 4 hours. Having a car is absolutely necessary as the resort is about 15 miles from the small town. If you are a golfer, there is a great golf course. The ocean there is gentle - no rolling waves. The beach is awesome! The Grand Mayan is fairly new and we walked around on the property to see it a couple of years ago - it has a lazy river on the GM side. There are just 2 restaurants on property & the Balche pool bar/lunch area. They do have an indoor heated pool. We went to take our grandson to the beach for spring and fall breaks and he loved it. He was 8 when we first took him there.

There is not much to do there. There are quite a few high-rise condos in the Sandy Beach area and the big tourist thing is to rent 4-wheelers and ride along the sand dunes. They are building a pier and say that there will be cruise ships docking there. That is pretty hard for me to believe because the downtown area has some restaurants and a bunch of shrimp sales places. They do not many shops to by souvenirs (that doesn't bother me).

We have rented condos at Sandy Beach and have a friend that owns a house in the La Cholla sub-division and have stayed there a few times. We preferred those options because they were closer to the restaurants.

If you just want to hang out on the beach and have a low key vacation, the GM there would be great. The way it is built, you would be able to see the ocean from both sides if you are on the 3rd floor or higher.

My neighbor went in March 2015 when the GM was just about to open and took some pictures for me. The unfinished building has been that way since we first went there in the fall of 2007. They take things down and put new ones up in that building all the time. It original was going to be the GM building. Now people have said it will have some GL units. Who knows - they change things all the time.

https://pittle.smugmug.com/Timeshare/Puerto-Penasco-March-2015 GM & Lazy River construction

https://pittle.smugmug.com/Timeshare/Rocky-Point-October-2012 MP iin October 2012

We went to take our grandson to the beach for spring and fall breaks and he loved it. He was 8 when we first took him and friend there.

They own miles of land and built an International airport near the resort that had flights from Vegas one year on Fridays, but that was discontinued. So, you must drive there from Phoenix.
 

pittle

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As far as the cruise ship port goes, Vidanta bought one a few years ago and has been refurbishing it. https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/...uise-industry-with-ex-voyager-more-ships.html

I wouldn’t be surprised to see them shuttling between ports with Vidanta Resorts.

Yes - I know about the cruise ship deal, but PP is not like Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, or Cabo where there are things to see and do. It is a small town in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it could stop at Los Mochis or La Paz on the way to or from PP.
Vidanta has tried to grow it by building the airport, but no one wanted to fly there, so there are no flights in and out. Unless you rent a house, condo or stay at MP, everything else is authentic small town Mexico. They have paved most of the street now. 10 years ago, only the highway and the Malecon area had paved street. To get to Sandy Beach, you drove 2-3 miles on dirt roads.

It is great in the spring and fall, but really hot in the summer and pretty cool in the winter (that is why they have the indoor pool). Because of the tide pools and low wave action, families with small children love to go there. People from Phoenix go because it is the closest beach and is not too expensive.

In 2007, we did the update because we had never been to the property. We actually got to ride on the tarmac for the airport and the plans were to basically build an entire self-sustained community. The had dirt roads all marked out for golf course lots along a Greg Norman golf course in the works. They talked about a shopping center, etc. They built a few full ownership condos - about a mile from the beach and the MP. The airport was completed, but nothing else has been done. Riviera Maya and Nuevo took precedence, but once they are full, maybe PP will be back on the priority list..
 

rboesl

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Thanks for all the info. I was afraid there might not be much to do. We are getting older but we still like to be active when on our trips. Maybe we'll take a look at Riviera Maya instead.
 

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Thanks for all the info. I was afraid there might not be much to do. We are getting older but we still like to be active when on our trips. Maybe we'll take a look at Riviera Maya instead.

Have you ever tried Acapulco? It is still our favorite as it was our first one! The resort is amazing and there are things to see and do. You will need a good taxi driver to help you out and the Concierge and Bellmen are very helpful. Cabo is nice, but now that they have the Hakkasan group doing and day or night club, it is off our list. Riviera Maya is nice. We have stayed in the MP, GM, and GB. The GM units are the same everywhere and you will not expect the amenities for the higher levels, so it will be great. As an owner, they will probably put in in buildings 1-7 which are closer to many of the on-site activities. There are many things to see and do off-site. Mayan Palace Marina is probably the best location of all for doing things off-site. the bus is easily accessible and the Marina is a short walk..
 

rboesl

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Our first GM stay was in Cabo. But I had heard from others the Hakkasan nightclub has turned that location into a late night young crowd party spot every night. Not what I want to experience on my vacations. Nothing against the Vida Acapulco location but we've heard too much bad about the city itself. I know, any place can be unsafe and there's been a lot of bad press about Mexico cities so we take those negative statements with a grain of salt. But, needless to say, we don't think Acapulco is playground of the stars as it once was.
 

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You can go to the Acapulco Mayan World as Phyllis suggests. You don't have to go into the city itself. As she mentions, a good taxi driver will take you to see the sights, for example, the cliff divers and restaurants. The Mayan complex has a number of restaurants that you can use and the beach, pools, and lazy river are excellent.
 

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My wife & I are Grand Mayan owners and are considering visiting Vida's Puerto Penasco location.

Hi rboesi & any other Vidanta owners ,

As I mentioned earlier in this thread ; Puerto Penasco / Rocky Point generally has great weather in October .

Since the last post in this thread : Vidanta sent a promo email (Sept 4- added) that offers an $800 resort credit for any reservations - made by Sept 30 for travel by Oct 31 2018 .

I wish I had vacation left - our Mayan Palace MF is less than the resort fee credit .
 
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Eric B

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Hmmm; we didn't get that email. Already had a reservation in that timeframe, though. Oh well, that's what I get for planning in advance, especially in the off season.
 

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Hmmm; we didn't get that email. Already had a reservation in that timeframe, though. Oh well, that's what I get for planning in advance, especially in the off season.
 

rboesl

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Hi rboesi & any other Vidanta owners ,

As I mentioned earlier in this thread ; Puerto Penasco / Rocky Point generally has great weather in October .

Since the last post in this thread : Vidanta sent a promo email that offers an $800 resort credit for any reservations - made by Sept 30 for travel by Oct 31 2018 .

I wish I had vacation left - our Mayan Palace MF is less than the resort fee credit .

I did see that T-Dot-Traveller. But, the window for travel is too narrow and I'm already booked to go somewhere else the first week of November.
 

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Hmmm; we didn't get that email. Already had a reservation in that timeframe, though. Oh well, that's what I get for planning in advance, especially in the off season.

It shows as Sept 4 / check your spam - or it could have been targeted to an owner subset

if the reservation is as an owner - I would call reservations & negotiate something .
 

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Would RCI exchanges qualify for such promo?

No - it was sent to Vidanta owners .

Most Vidanta contracts have “ pay on use only” bonus weeks - that are basically for shoulder season use.
This resort credit , is a really good promo - but with a short booking & travel window .

In the past ; Vidanta occasionally ran a shoulder season promo - get 2 units for the price of 1.
( or a unit upgrade / small resort credit )

In 2013 - we did the 2 for 1 /. at Puerto Penasco in Oct.
( and had a friend join us in the 2nd unit / we split the car rental )
 

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Probably a subset; I check my spam regularly. I do plan on calling anyway, but already got a promo on this reservation, so I don’t think they’ll do anything else for us.
 

pittle

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We got that offer on August 31.
 
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