At Lagunamar right now, for our first-ever visit.
Based on the reviews and commentary here, we were incredibly excited to come.
Now that we're here, I'm disappointed.
Perhaps it's overwhelmed by massive spring break crowds, but it's just not a great experience.
Pool chair hogs were out before 7am grabbing as many chairs as they could, then scampering off. (My rant about that is in the Chair Hog thread.)
Lunch at Viento: an absolute eternity to get food. Then, two of our four entrees were ice cold. The server was a very nice guy, but - when asked why the delay and unacceptable food - explained that he just brings the food that they give him.
In the pool, a group of children laughed and giggled as they screamed "build that wall" over and over ... while their Mexican hosts working here just politely ignored it. Their parents thought it was quite funny, though. Utterly offensive.
24 hours in, and it's my only disappointing Vistana/SVN experience to date. I really hope it improves.
Sorry too you're not having as good experience . We're at WLR now too, and overall the resort and Cancun hotel zone have been great. DH usually likes where we vacation, but not enough to go back cause there's too many places in the world to see and too little time. But he said just yesterday , we'll be back. ...maybe not next year , but year after.
I was the one who posted about slow service on 1st day, both at Viento and Duna. However that was on the weekend ,and the wait staff were attentive , but obvious it was something inefficient in the kitchen. On Tuesday per DH, the service at poolside from Duna was much better, about 20 min to get food . However about 2 hrs after being served, no check. DH thought since he gave them the room number and discount card, that they'd charge to the room. Later that day, we got a phone msg that he needed to sign the bill, and a server brought the bill up to our villa. DH wanted to put a small tip on the charge , but the waitstaff guy apologized and said no tip.
We do prefer the small pool area over the main pool. My friends here too, have observed the pool staff removing chair claimers stuff after about 45 min. This was around 9:30, and the people came back within an hour of the removal. Everything cordial between the staff and guests . So good to know they are still enforcing the rules.
Sorry to hear that your first impression isn't a positive one. I would suspect that spring break is perhaps the reason being the chair hog issue. As noted, ask the staff for help, if you tip them, they will continue to be very helpful throughout your stay. I did read another mention of the delay when ordering food at Viento. Not sure what the cause of that was, Perhaps not enough staff to support it. Have you tried ordering over at the smaller pool. I believe their food comes from Duna. They may be a little faster and the pool may be quieter with fewer unruly kids.
I do agree the kids in the pool are very disrespectful. I certainly wouldn't expect the pool attendants to say anything. Really, unfortunately, other guests need to step up and tell them to knock it off. Or perhaps they can build a wall to keep those kids out of Mexico.
I agree, it's spring break and guest volumes which are contributing to the delays. We haven't seen the pool boys coming round to us, mainly cause we go down in late morning when most chairs are taken. One did try to help DH find a small table, but all were being used, so nothing he could do.
It's discouraging that those kids were disrespectful of their surroundings and location. But I blame the parents...they're likely the source of what those kids were yelling. Or maybe parents thought they didn't need to correct their kids cause they're on vacation
IMO you're never on vacation on being a parent.
DH is usually careful about talking politics with strangers , but said he had a good poolside discussion with another guest. He thought it interesting that by race, age and political party, he and the other guy, defied the usual stereotypes
.