Here is my TripAdvisor Review from 2017 (wow has it been that long):
Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta 15-22 Dec 2017
RCI reservation made almost 17 months earlier. We have Wyndham Grand Desert EOY 154k weeks and were able to get two-2 bedroom units for the 154k points and invited another family of 6 to have the 2nd unit. 4 in our fam so a group of 10.
Shuttle: Email shuttle confirmation provided accurate map and instructions for avoiding the timeshare sharks and finding the shuttle. The staff (contracted I think) assisted with the luggage and we were transported in a large nice van (14 or 15 people plus the driver).
Check in: Check in changed a bit from the last time we were there ( 3 or 4 years ago?) Shuttles now drop off at a centralized check in location near the taxi drop off (vice hotel). If you are staying at the luxxe they appear to have a seperate, presumably quicker check in. Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, and Grand Bliss were the same shared location. We prepared our guests for the slow check in and it went a little quicker than expected. They had lots of seating for people while the responsible people waited in line and bottled water for everyone.
Our friends completed their check in here complete with towel cards and bracelets. Our room was apparently not ready so we had to take the shuttle to the hotel main lobby and complete our check in there. The room was ready by the time we made the relatively short walk.
The lock off hotel part of the 2 bedroom was locked off in our friends’ room so we went back to the main lobby and the counter person seemed to think we were lying about having a 2 bedroom unit and then needed a number off of the paperwork they received at check in. We had provided the RCI reservation at check in (other location) and the staff kept it so it wasn’t obvious what were supposed to do. Eventually he figured it out and said we needed to call maintenance to open it up. Our response: you are standing at a phone, please call for us. This was literally the only time in the entire week we didn’t feel we were getting good service so its not emblematic.
Timeshare sales: At check in we were asked by a roving staff member with a clipboard what our names were and he checked them off the list but did not inquire about attending any presentations. The ONLY time this came up was a phone call my wife received in the room. Been there done that and didn’t want to kill a day of a weeks stay dealing with sales over something we would never buy. I did meet a gentleman on a shuttle who was an owner and paid more for his 2 bedroom Grand Mayan week than I paid for both of the 2 bedrooms I booked via RCI. Let that sink in a minute.
Rooms: Our unit (#3206 or Copan Building (3) Floor 2, unit 06) had a king in each bedroom while our guests (#3506) had 2 beds in the 2nd bedroom which is what we hoped would happen for them. We were both placed in the Copan building and as expected both rooms faced away from the ocean. The 5th floor room our friends had did have a nice view toward the marina while ours was too low to comment on. Hey, it was a cheap stay for a 2 bedroom unit.
Laundry: There is laundry behind the elevators on the first floor. I think its $100 peso for wash and dry (each). They collect a refundable $300 peso deposit for the cards that operate the machines and provide soap with the fee.
Ice: Our floor had an ice machine by the elevator. I presume all floors have this.
Lake Show: The lake show is apparently relatively new and at La Cantina. Great venue with an underwhelming and perhaps weird light show. They promote how it is different every night. I think it could be better if some sort of short story instead.
Santuario: We only did a walk through on the last night due to the kids but the entertainment appeared to be top quality and the venue is amazing.
Water Park: One wave pool was closed for repairs. The slides and pools were all in good working condition but the lazy river did close a couple times while they made repairs. The liner appears to work loose from the walls or something and requires repair sometimes. It may be that the wave generator is too hard on it but the waves are great when it’s going. The best chairs by the pool were saved by towels or other items by 9-10 am. That’s how we got our seats.
Taxi: Taxis from the resort to the Malecon in downtown PV were 200 pesos for small cars. That seemed to be consistently the rate either direction. We paid 250 pesos to the airport but the suitcases were pretty big and heavy so I just paid it rather than negotiate.
Joy Squad: The name is a little cheeky but they really do make Vidanta special. Hired staff that play ping pong when kids need a partner, lead tequila volleyball, have pool parties for the younger ones, etc…Activities going on all over at almost every hour.
Wifi: We elected only the free wifi which was spotty outside the room. The new vidanta app was neat but required so much bandwidth that it doesn’t really work with the free wi fi.
TV: We were able to watch NFL football Thur, Sun, and Mon night in the rooms. It was in Spanish. There are a couple english speaking channels in there, sometimes with spanish subtitles. We weren’t there to watch TV anyway.
Housekeeping: Daily included with turn down service. They did a great job and we tipped well every day.
Nuevo: We walked up the beach to the Sea Garden a couple times. It is about a 7 minute walk along the beach and drops you out maybe 150 yards from the marina. Taxis are cheaper here and quicker to leave if you don’t mind a beach walk. Immediately outside the entrance is a little market but everyone goes across the street to the Oxxo (like a 7-11). If your mobile enough to walk the beach I recommend this strategy to get out or simply to be able to walk to other restaurants or the dolphin adventure.
Sea Turtles: Sea turtles are released just before sundown after a short educational brief at the protective enclosure. Not publicized but you can purchase a wristband at the kids club for ~31 pesos that allows you to be closer to the turtles. Kids might be free. Under the law, only the biologist can handle the turtles. Its seasonal and was a highlight for our kids.
Food: The bills now explicitly state that tips are NOT included.
Room Service: They have an extensive room service menu with specialties from perhaps every restaurant on the property. I think the items may also be slightly cheaper. You can also order wine, beer, and hard alcohol. It was about 45 minutes delivered. The delivery person set the table complete with water glasses which had been covered with saran wrap to prevent spilling. They have a seperate pizza menu for room service, which our guests ordered from one night A large pizza was about $13 USD and they were all tasty.
Tramanto: This is the only fancy restaurant we ate at. My oldest daughter requested it. I was underwhelmed. The salads are huge and we should have stopped there. The entree portions are small, perhaps to be expected but also not all that great (in my opinion).
Samba: We ate here a couple nights and enjoy the locations by the pool as the kids can swim until the food is ready then join us.
Taco Break: Food was underwhelming but we have good mexican food trucks near my work so I may have been expecting too much. Meat was pretty dry like it had been cooking a long while.
Creperia: This place was fabulous. Our friends had breakfast crepes and waffles. We had dinner there one night. Portion are huge so consider splitting one.
Pool Service: They have a great menu for pool food. The Mayan Palace pool appeared to have a much larger food menu than the Grand Mayan. Servers were generally very attentive and food cam pretty quick. I generally brought a soft cooler down with me as service didn’t start until after 11 I was only “hassled” once for bringing a cooler in the area and it was the day we checked out and weren’t sure the pool was set up for credit card charges. Food service started at 12:30. Happy hour was 11-3pm and was 2 for 1 on drinks but not beer. Most drinks were 150 pesos while beer was 75 pesos.
Mercado at La Plaza: Not to be missed is the bakery, and the chocolate shop. Interesting note: the raspberries and blackberries in the store were the exact product I buy at Costco at home, same packaging etc…
Checkout: I went down about 8:30am to avoid the rush. I didn’t scrutinize every charge but It looked correct to me including the $75 weekly resort fee (due to our old reservation we avoided the $11 pp/pd fee. Note they count ages 12 and up as adults in calculating that now. We kept the towels for the day as we had a late afternoon flight and turned the towel cards in just before departing.
Summary: We love trading into Vidanta and were thrilled to be able to get such a cheap deal on huge accommodations allowing us to invite friends. We will certainly be returning, perhaps for an adults only trip. The resort can make either a family or no kids trip a great vacation.Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta 15-22 Dec 2017
RCI reservation made almost 17 months earlier. We have Wyndham Grand Desert EOY 154k weeks and were able to get two-2 bedroom units for the 154k points and invited another family of 6 to have the 2nd unit. 4 in our fam so a group of 10.
Shuttle: Email shuttle confirmation provided accurate map and instructions for avoiding the timeshare sharks and finding the shuttle. The staff (contracted I think) assisted with the luggage and we were transported in a large nice van (14 or 15 people plus the driver).
Check in: Check in changed a bit from the last time we were there ( 3 or 4 years ago?) Shuttles now drop off at a centralized check in location near the taxi drop off (vice hotel). If you are staying at the luxxe they appear to have a seperate, presumably quicker check in. Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, and Grand Bliss were the same shared location. We prepared our guests for the slow check in and it went a little quicker than expected. They had lots of seating for people while the responsible people waited in line and bottled water for everyone.
Our friends completed their check in here complete with towel cards and bracelets. Our room was apparently not ready so we had to take the shuttle to the hotel main lobby and complete our check in there. The room was ready by the time we made the relatively short walk.
The lock off hotel part of the 2 bedroom was locked off in our friends’ room so we went back to the main lobby and the counter person seemed to think we were lying about having a 2 bedroom unit and then needed a number off of the paperwork they received at check in. We had provided the RCI reservation at check in (other location) and the staff kept it so it wasn’t obvious what were supposed to do. Eventually he figured it out and said we needed to call maintenance to open it up. Our response: you are standing at a phone, please call for us. This was literally the only time in the entire week we didn’t feel we were getting good service so its not emblematic.
Timeshare sales: At check in we were asked by a roving staff member with a clipboard what our names were and he checked them off the list but did not inquire about attending any presentations. The ONLY time this came up was a phone call my wife received in the room. Been there done that and didn’t want to kill a day of a weeks stay dealing with sales over something we would never buy. I did meet a gentleman on a shuttle who was an owner and paid more for his 2 bedroom Grand Mayan week than I paid for both of the 2 bedrooms I booked via RCI. Let that sink in a minute.
Rooms: Our unit (#3206 or Copan Building (3) Floor 2, unit 06) had a king in each bedroom while our guests (#3506) had 2 beds in the 2nd bedroom which is what we hoped would happen for them. We were both placed in the Copan building and as expected both rooms faced away from the ocean. The 5th floor room our friends had did have a nice view toward the marina while ours was too low to comment on. Hey, it was a cheap stay for a 2 bedroom unit.
Laundry: There is laundry behind the elevators on the first floor. I think its $100 peso for wash and dry (each). They collect a refundable $300 peso deposit for the cards that operate the machines and provide soap with the fee.
Ice: Our floor had an ice machine by the elevator. I presume all floors have this.
Lake Show: The lake show is apparently relatively new and at La Cantina. Great venue with an underwhelming and perhaps weird light show. They promote how it is different every night. I think it could be better if some sort of short story instead.
Santuario: We only did a walk through on the last night due to the kids but the entertainment appeared to be top quality and the venue is amazing.
Water Park: One wave pool was closed for repairs. The slides and pools were all in good working condition but the lazy river did close a couple times while they made repairs. The liner appears to work loose from the walls or something and requires repair sometimes. It may be that the wave generator is too hard on it but the waves are great when it’s going. The best chairs by the pool were saved by towels or other items by 9-10 am. That’s how we got our seats.
Taxi: Taxis from the resort to the Malecon in downtown PV were 200 pesos for small cars. That seemed to be consistently the rate either direction. We paid 250 pesos to the airport but the suitcases were pretty big and heavy so I just paid it rather than negotiate.
Joy Squad: The name is a little cheeky but they really do make Vidanta special. Hired staff that play ping pong when kids need a partner, lead tequila volleyball, have pool parties for the younger ones, etc…Activities going on all over at almost every hour.
Wifi: We elected only the free wifi which was spotty outside the room. The new vidanta app was neat but required so much bandwidth that it doesn’t really work with the free wi fi.
TV: We were able to watch NFL football Thur, Sun, and Mon night in the rooms. It was in Spanish. There are a couple english speaking channels in there, sometimes with spanish subtitles. We weren’t there to watch TV anyway.
Housekeeping: Daily included with turn down service. They did a great job and we tipped well every day.
Nuevo: We walked up the beach to the Sea Garden a couple times. It is about a 7 minute walk along the beach and drops you out maybe 150 yards from the marina. Taxis are cheaper here and quicker to leave if you don’t mind a beach walk. Immediately outside the entrance is a little market but everyone goes across the street to the Oxxo (like a 7-11). If your mobile enough to walk the beach I recommend this strategy to get out or simply to be able to walk to other restaurants or the dolphin adventure.
Sea Turtles: Sea turtles are released just before sundown after a short educational brief at the protective enclosure. Not publicized but you can purchase a wristband at the kids club for ~31 pesos that allows you to be closer to the turtles. Kids might be free. Under the law, only the biologist can handle the turtles. Its seasonal and was a highlight for our kids.
Food: The bills now explicitly state that tips are NOT included.
Room Service: They have an extensive room service menu with specialties from perhaps every restaurant on the property. I think the items may also be slightly cheaper. You can also order wine, beer, and hard alcohol. It was about 45 minutes delivered. The delivery person set the table complete with water glasses which had been covered with saran wrap to prevent spilling. They have a seperate pizza menu for room service, which our guests ordered from one night A large pizza was about $13 USD and they were all tasty.
Tramanto: This is the only fancy restaurant we ate at. My oldest daughter requested it. I was underwhelmed. The salads are huge and we should have stopped there. The entree portions are small, perhaps to be expected but also not all that great (in my opinion).
Samba: We ate here a couple nights and enjoy the locations by the pool as the kids can swim until the food is ready then join us.
Taco Break: Food was underwhelming but we have good mexican food trucks near my work so I may have been expecting too much. Meat was pretty dry like it had been cooking a long while.
Creperia: This place was fabulous. Our friends had breakfast crepes and waffles. We had dinner there one night. Portion are huge so consider splitting one.
Pool Service: They have a great menu for pool food. The Mayan Palace pool appeared to have a much larger food menu than the Grand Mayan. Servers were generally very attentive and food cam pretty quick. I generally brought a soft cooler down with me as service didn’t start until after 11 I was only “hassled” once for bringing a cooler in the area and it was the day we checked out and weren’t sure the pool was set up for credit card charges. Food service started at 12:30. Happy hour was 11-3pm and was 2 for 1 on drinks but not beer. Most drinks were 150 pesos while beer was 75 pesos.
Mercado at La Plaza: Not to be missed is the bakery, and the chocolate shop. Interesting note: the raspberries and blackberries in the store were the exact product I buy at Costco at home, same packaging etc…
Checkout: I went down about 8:30am to avoid the rush. I didn’t scrutinize every charge but It looked correct to me including the $75 weekly resort fee (due to our old reservation we avoided the $11 pp/pd fee. Note they count ages 12 and up as adults in calculating that now. We kept the towels for the day as we had a late afternoon flight and turned the towel cards in just before departing.
Summary: We love trading into Vidanta and were thrilled to be able to get such a cheap deal on huge accommodations allowing us to invite friends. We will certainly be returning, perhaps for an adults only trip. The resort can make either a family or no kids trip a great vacation.
