Which Grand Luxxe is Better: Riviera Maya or Nuevo Vallarta?

[RussellSun]

I know this may be hard to rank but can you vote based on the following factors from an owner's point of view? If you are not an owner, then please rate it from a non-owner perspective and identify yourself as a non-owner.

1) Customer service - treating owners like they are special

2) Room assignments - giving owners the best rooms and views and trying to fulfill owner room requests (non-owner: please rate how happy you were with your room assignments and how you got your reservation)

3) Owner update - being kind and courteous to owners at owner update meetings and not doing a hard sell on upgrades (non-owners: please rate your experience with the sales presentation)

4) Honesty in presenting upgrade prices - Giving honest prices and not presenting a fake price upfront and then forcing owners to haggle to get it down to 1/10th the original price (non-owners: please rate your experience with the sales presentation)

5) Activities and things to do at the resort

6) Quality of the resort, upkeep of facilities and condition of rooms

7) Design of rooms and concept of rooms

8) Ability to get a reservation when you want it as an owner (non-owners: please rate your experience with getting a reservation when you wanted it)

9) Which club would be better to upgrade at? Is there an advantage to upgrading at one club over the other?

10) Any other comments about the resorts if you have been to both locations and can do a direct comparison between the two?

 

[Eric B]

We own at Nuevo Vallarta, but haven't been to Riviera Maya yet; will be heading there in April and will provide a direct answer to the questions after that. I'm looking forward to seeing what results you get from this in any case, but have some perspectives on the questions to share.

Room assignments - we stayed at GL NV last September on an RCI exchange after having bought a week w/GL the prior May. The exchange was through the RCI Points Platinum Priority Access and was incredibly inexpensive, so we jumped on it when it was available rather than using one of our owned weeks, which would have cost more. (GL isn't typically available through RCI, but trades in II.) The reason I mention this experience here is because, while this did confuse them a bit, the sales staff made it clear to us that they had the first cut at room assignments; they upgraded us to a 2BR spa unit from a 2 BR suite. This was possible because it was a low season stay, but strikes me as there is more to it than fulfilling owner room requests. Haven't been there enough yet to have any sort of opinion on whether there are any suboptimal rooms/views; right now I don't believe there are any.

Owner updates - face it, this is a sales pitch for upgrades. They were kind and courteous and gave us their understanding of Vidanta's construction plans as they exist now, but the reason for it is to try and sell you something. I didn't perceive it as a hard sell, but was interested in upgrading to the penthouse lofts anyway; if you aren't interested in upgrading your ownership, just don't go. (I know, it's not a fabulous "investment" buying from the developer, but doing my due diligence by reading about Vidanta here and elsewhere it's the only way to be able to stay in the type of unit I want to stay in for the winter months and won't be available resale.)

Honesty in upgrade prices - they showed us the "list price" and went fairly quickly to what the bottom line would be. Could be wrong, but I don't believe we could have gotten it down to 1/10th the original price; something on the other side would have changed if the price went down that much. They were proposing having us promise not to use a couple of weeks for a set period of years in exchange for a lower price.

Ability to get a reservation when I want - haven't tried it yet; we've got a 12-month window, so I'll be trying it in February. My experience with GL is quite limited; I've seen them on RCI Platinum with a fair availability in the fall of this year in NV only, not in RM. I understand there's a lot of availability in II, but am not a member of II and don't think it's worth investing in another TS to get there. I'm using SFX to go to GL RM in April because I kept my other TS rather than "trading it in" with their disposal company (good trading week with a low MF/point cost that makes exchanges to Vidanta less expensive than their usage fees); SFX seems to have great availability for either in the off seasons.

Which club would be better to upgrade at - probably depends on Vidanta's current construction plans. Right now they're expanding NV with the studio lofts and penthouse lofts in building 5, with the Cirque de Soleil park going in adjacent to the resort, so there's available upgrades they want to sell. In RM, there are the new Jungle Luxxe suites that they're probably trying to sell. Considerations to think about are what the reservation window for sister resorts would be if you choose one over the other; this could be something to negotiate as a contract addendum if you pick one over the other. Somebody posted the other day that it wouldn't be possible to use a penthouse loft week from NV to stay in a Jungle Luxxe suite in RM; if that's an issue for you, negotiate to make it a possibility. The bottom line for me is that I like the flexibility to use either and recognize that if I want to do that I'll have to get it in writing that I can - the only sticky point I can see would be if your priority is wanting to go to one or the other in the high season.

 

[pittle]

Bottom line - if you own at one, you own at all. You can book into any of them on the same time frame. There are more GL units in NV. I have stayed at every Mayan Palace & Grand Mayan since we bought our first unit in 1999.

• All MP units are alike - maybe the colors scheme for the sofa covers is different.
  
• Every Grand Mayan unit is the same.We have only stayed in the NV Grand Bliss, but will be at the RM one in April. I expect it to be the same.
• The Grand Luxxe does have various levels and many more units. We own at the regular level and are not interested in the Spa units, Loft units, or 3-4 bedroom units. Therefore, we no longer go to the updates.
• The Riviera Maya units are only 3 stories high and in Nuevo and Acapulco they are 10-11 stories high,(No GL there yet) so you get a better view. Puerto Penasco has MP & GM buildings with different heights and the GM in Cabo San Jose has a nice concept of a u-shaped building that is about 7 stories high and the sides stagger down one floor until you just have the ground level unit. (All units there have an ocean view.)

Now for your Questions---

1) Customer service - treating owners like they are special - We have always felt special at every resort.

2) Room assignments - giving owners the best rooms and views and trying to fulfill owner room requests (non-owner: please rate how happy you were with your room assignments and how you got your reservation) They generally comment when we exchange instead of using our weeks, that they cannot put us in the upper level ocean view floors like we get when we use our weeks. That is fine with us. I like shade in the afternoon and can see the sunset from lots of places if that is what I want to do. We often do exchanges because we can find GM or GB extra vacations for less than our MF. We save our GL for when the family is joining us. I for one think that owners should get the best rooms. I have rad on TUG many times about people who exchange every year into GL. That is fine, but those who have been with Mayan World for years and paid MF, reno fees, etc, should get the best units.

3) Owner update - being kind and courteous to owners at owner update meetings and not doing a hard sell on upgrades (non-owners: please rate your experience with the sales presentation) They always do hard sell. We have stopped going as we have what we want and do not need large units. We like being in building 2 at GL NV.

4) Honesty in presenting upgrade prices - Giving honest prices and not presenting a fake price upfront and then forcing owners to haggle to get it down to 1/10th the original price (non-owners: please rate your experience with the sales presentation) It is just what they do. If they gave you the low ball price upfront, people would still try to haggle and get a better deal.

5) Activities and things to do at the resort There are lots of things to do - we prefer to sit on the beach and read.

6) Quality of the resort, upkeep of facilities and condition of rooms The resorts are A+++ in my opinion. They do their best to keep them up. When the High season is over, they tend to take a floor at a time to repaint, deep clean etc. I have seen this because we do not usually go in the mid-December through April season.

7) Design of rooms and concept of rooms - I would not have purchased if I had not liked it. I am not a fan of the GM pictures, but that is OK.

8) Ability to get a reservation when you want it as an owner (non-owners: please rate your experience with getting a reservation when you wanted it) I have always been able to get the week I wanted. I did spend many August 1 days trying to get February vacations for years. Once we upgraded to GM, we were able to make reservations 12 months out and had no problem.

9) Which club would be better to upgrade at? Is there an advantage to upgrading at one club over the other? We have only upgraded at NV. We did get our SR. Certificates when in RM.

10) Any other comments about the resorts if you have been to both locations and can do a direct comparison between the two? Both places have different experiences. We have not stayed at GL in Riviera Maya so I cannot compare. I do know that in Riviera Maya, the units are in a triangle shape and will not be tall enough for an ocean view with all the trees. Actually very few units in RM have ocean views because they are built perpendicular to the ocean. I think 3 GM units do face the ocean on one side, but the views are basically blocked by the huge Palapa restaurant.

Welcome to Mayan World as I call it.

 

[rpennisi]

I have stayed at both the RM and NV Grand Luxxe through II trades. The suites are identical, except for mirror images in layouts.

Whether you own or trade in, the resort staff treats you well in their restaurants, spas, gyms and activities. You have to detach your sales experiences from the resorts experiences.
Everyone is treated at the resorts with (to me, embarrassing) respect.

Whether you spend a couple hundred thousand on a resort sponsored sale, or $1 on a eBay resale and supsequent trade into GL, the staff treats you equally.

 

[richontug]

We have been to both RM and NV Vidanta resorts. Now we only go to RM as it is shortest flight from home (NJ).

 

[Eric B]

That’s why we’re heading to RM in the spring; nonstop flight from BWI instead of connecting in Houston. There’s a very nice USO in Houston, which makes up for the layover a bit, though. I do like being able to get off the resort in NV or PV fairly easily to see the surroundings and will have to see how it is in RM.

 

[pittle]

We tend to choose NV because we can fly non-stop in 2 hours 15 minutes! Cancun takes longer, but we are going there in April because we have not been there in quite a while and had 2 weeks of PBEB banked with SFX. We were willing to take a 2-bedroom in Grand Bliss or a 1-bedroom in Grand Luxxe for 2 consecutive weeks. We got Grand Bliss 2-bedroom units within a week of our request so took them. The price for both weeks was significantly less than MF for one of our GL weeks. That is one reason we like the no-pay unless you go feature!

 

[richontug]

We tend to choose NV because we can fly non-stop in 2 hours 15 minutes! Cancun takes longer, but we are going there in April because we have not been there in quite a while and had 2 weeks of PBEB banked with SFX. We were willing to take a 2-bedroom in Grand Bliss or a 1-bedroom in Grand Luxxe for 2 consecutive weeks. We got Grand Bliss 2-bedroom units within a week of our request so took them. The price for both weeks was significantly less than MF for one of our GL weeks. That is one reason we like the no-pay unless you go feature!

If you do pay MF for GL, can you book the weeks you want? At the GL pool I have heard other owners complain about availability.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

I have stayed at both the RM and NV Grand Luxxe through II trades. The suites are identical, except for mirror images in layouts.

Whether you own or trade in, the resort staff treats you well in their restaurants, spas, gyms and activities. You have to detach your sales experiences from the resorts experiences.
Everyone is treated at the resorts with (to me, embarrassing) respect.

Whether you spend a couple hundred thousand on a resort sponsored sale, or $1 on a eBay resale and supsequent trade into GL, the staff treats you equally.

IMO - this is because the resort staff all work for the "hotel side " of Vidanta which has a management hierarchy that is separate from the TS sales side .
Benny Michaud is the director or hotel operations .

FYI - front desk works for the hotel side while the folks that book presentations (after you leave the front desk check in ) work for sales .
The concierge who can answer questions , sells the meal packages vouchers ,will print boarding passes etc. works for the hotel side.

Sales is split into International ( USA , Canada etc ) and Mexican National .
Within International TS sales ( at least at NV ) there seems to be member upgrade specialists as well as (newbie) exchanger sales people and perhaps "trade in " specialists .
When we last took the stretched golf cart (2016 ) at NV - the folks on our cart were dropped at 3 different places . As a existing MP owner ,we had a member update specialist with 6+
years of Vidanta experience . This meant that when we finished saying -NO - thank you - : we did not have to go through the exit package gauntlet .

Vidanta Member Services is the repository and arbitrator of contracts . They are separate from TS sales as well .

 

[richontug]

IMO - this is because the resort staff all work for the "hotel side " of Vidanta which has a management hierarchy that is separate from the TS sales side .
Benny Michaud is the director or hotel operations .

FYI - front desk works for the hotel side while the folks that book presentations (after you leave the front desk check in ) work for sales .
The concierge who can answer questions , sells the meal packages vouchers ,will print boarding passes etc. works for the hotel side.

Sales is split into International ( USA , Canada etc ) and Mexican National .
Within International TS sales ( at least at NV ) there seems to be member upgrade specialists as well as (newbie) exchanger sales people and perhaps "trade in " specialists .
When we last took the stretched golf cart (2016 ) at NV - the folks on our cart were dropped at 3 different places . As a existing MP owner ,we had a member update specialist with 6+
years of Vidanta experience . This meant that when we finished saying -NO - thank you - : we did not have to go through the exit package gauntlet .

We are also Mayan Palace owner with 6+ years of Vidanta experience but we did have to go through exit package gauntlet - never again!!

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

If you do pay MF for GL, can you book the weeks you want? At the GL pool I have heard other owners complain about availability.

Did they book at the 12 month mark ?

 

[richontug]

Did they book at the 12 month mark ?

Don't know - is that the trick?

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

We are also Mayan Palace owner with 6+ years of Vidanta experience but we did have to go through exit package gauntlet - never again!!

Hi Richontug ,
You posted above that you go to Riviera Maya .
IMO - RM sales is not as "professional" as Nuevo Vallarta in this regard . IMO - both on TUG and elsewhere - RM has more listed complaints .
I also believe RM has more complaints regarding the "transfer company " used for trade ins . ( RM uses an entity local to them & not the one used in NV )

*****
RE - booking windows

My Mayan Palace contract (2006 ) has 6 month ARP . So I could (and did) book February of 2018 on August 1 2017 .
See Plittle - number 8 : in her post above ( 3 in the thread )

All or most Grand Luxxe contracts have 1 year ARP .

If the owner comments at the pool were from 2010 /11 - there was a period when Vidanta was selling Grand Luxxe faster than they could build units ;
and some owners were offered Grand Mayan for usage during busy periods .

 

[pittle]

If you do pay MF for GL, can you book the weeks you want? At the GL pool I have heard other owners complain about availability.

Yes - we have been able to get the weeks we want. Now that we live in AZ, we do not want to go anytime in January - April. We tend to go in November now. Our family likes to do Thanksgiving in Mexico.

We have the Gold Membership - it is similar to the Profile A that they used to have when we had 2 GM weeks and 4 MP weeks. We got it because of our "significant investment in Vidanta Priperties". We got to keep it when we upgraded. Platinum is the highest and they always get what they want.

 

[RussellSun]

We are also Mayan Palace owner with 6+ years of Vidanta experience but we did have to go through exit package gauntlet - never again!!

What is the "exit package gauntlet"?

 

[RussellSun]

Don't know - is that the trick?

I just booked a Jungle Suite at Riviera Maya for the week of Jan 26 in November. I was surprised to get it. I already had the week of Jan 19 booked and I added a second week without a problem. That was very surprising because when I booked Jan 19, I was told they only had 2 Jungle Suites left. It was with only 2 months advance notice during high season. Maybe I got lucky?

 

[RussellSun]

Yes - we have been able to get the weeks we want. Now that we live in AZ, we do not want to go anytime in January - April. We tend to go in November now. Our family likes to do Thanksgiving in Mexico.

We have the Gold Membership - it is similar to the Profile A that they used to have when we had 2 GM weeks and 4 MP weeks. We got it because of our "significant investment in Vidanta Priperties". We got to keep it when we upgraded. Platinum is the highest and they always get what they want.

We have been offered Gold Status if we upgrade. What benefits do you get with Gold status?

 

[richontug]

What is the "exit package gauntlet"?

When you say "no" to original offer, they will lower price several times. After you say your final no and think you are through, you will be sent for an exit interview. There you will offered a mini package vacation (worth little) for a couple of thousand dollars. Another no and you are out of there!

 

[Eric B]

I'm not sure about Gold Status or Profile A, but with Vida Lifestyles, the associated program run by ICE, you would get Chairman level membership benefits. (You should have gotten Platinum level membership benefits with them with a studio loft.) I got the chart below showing what the different levels and their benefits are from someone at Vida Lifestyles a couple of months ago.

 

[Eric B]

Here's the chart....

 

[pittle]

Here's the chart....

Vida Lifestyles is totally different than Vidanta Ownership/Membership. It is one of the "extras" that they add and some people find it a benefit, but many choose not to use it. I think of it ans another exchange program like SFX, RCI, or II. Maybe even more like HSI that we tired once and really disliked.

 

[Eric B]

Was trying to make it clear that it’s a program associated w/Vidanta, but run by a different organization. It does have some benefits some might use; similarly, SFX is the organization that handles “privilege weeks” that Vidanta now has as part of the membership. I haven’t owned there all that long, but have the impression that these and “Vida weeks” took the place of vacation faire weeks that Vidanta used to administer directly (though that, too, could have been run by a different organization - was it?).

Anyway, I haven’t seen any info on what Vidanta Gold or Platinum benefits are; what are the different tiers w/Vidanta itself?

 

[pittle]

We have been offered Gold Status if we upgrade. What benefits do you get with Gold status?

With Gold Status, you are in the middle tier and have a special phone number call for reservations and have a better chance to get what and when you want. You are also assigned the more desirable units. Platinum Status has the same phone number, but they take preference over everyone and will get better units than the Gold or entry level ownership levels do. The last time we went to the update meeting, they offered us another week and Platinum status, but we said no thanks. We did not need another unit and the MF on all three units would be even higher per week than now, AND we did not want to spend a lot more money.

 

[Eric B]

Thanks. They referred to that as Residence ownership when we were down there. Same idea, different names.

 

[pittle]

Was trying to make it clear that it’s a program associated w/Vidanta, but run by a different organization. It does have some benefits some might use; similarly, SFX is the organization that handles “privilege weeks” that Vidanta now has as part of the membership. I haven’t owned there all that long, but have the impression that these and “Vida weeks” took the place of vacation faire weeks that Vidanta used to administer directly (though that, too, could have been run by a different organization - was it?).

Anyway, I haven’t seen any info on what Vidanta Gold or Platinum benefits are; what are the different tiers w/Vidanta itself?

I look at Registered weeks as what the original weeks used to be when we had MP & GM and Residence weeks as Vacation Fair. At least on our contract, we have 2 Registered weeks and lots of Residence weeks that we can use by paying extra MF and they cannot be used in February or March. When we pay the renewal at the 10 year mark, then names change to Residence, but we still get the 12 month reservation and can go at the same times as our original contract. When our Senior certificate goes into effect, the first weeks are part of that, but the other weeks are not. But, we will get to go for 2 weeks free every year and can split them into two 1-bedroom units and 2 studio units for a total of 4 weeks!

They do not tell you about Gold or Platinum until you qualify. It is similar to the old Profile A. Back in 2005, several of us learned about that. It began that if you had invested more than $50,000 in the properties, you always got the best rooms. Then the number changed to $75,000 in 2006. I had purchased numerous older MP contracts trying to get to the $50,000 number by 2005. I found out that it was not what you paid, but what the original owner paid (minus taxes and closing costs). So, buying several MP units for $2500 got me to that "magic" number. When we upgraded to Grand Mayan, all our contracts really bumped us up and we got a letter that because of our significant investment, we were consideder Profile A and would get the best room assignments - high floors, ocean view, further or closer to the elevator, etc. We got small fresh flower arrangements and a fruit and chocolates basket several times.

So, when we upgraded all 4 of our MP contracts and 2 GM contracts to GL, we were given the Gold status which they said was the same as our Profile A. In 2014, they really were pushing us to buy another unit and that would have "guaranteed" the best units. I am not sure about that - there are lots of owners and only so many rooms. Last time we were there, we were on the 6th floor in Building 2 at NV looking towards town. We are not really picky about our room assignments as the units are the same. It is nice to see a glimpse of the ocean, but sometimes when we take the family, we ask for one unit on ocean side and the other not. After a day in the sun, I am ready for some shade.