hurnik
TUG Member
So this is our second trek to Vidanta NV. Stayed at Grand Luxxe (1 BR) via SFX bonus week.
I wish I could say that the issues from last time (6-7 years ago?) were resolved, but not quite. They are still as disorganized as ever. The accommodations are excellent, as always.
We were in 2 groups. We were at Grand Luxxe. Other group was at Grand Bliss. When we arrived, we told the luggage person several times that we were in 2 different buildings. He put all our luggage into one thing and gave us one ticket. So I asked about how we go about getting our luggage and he just said to tell them the 2 pieces were Grand Luxxe. ha! We get to the shuttle place and the lady says oh no, you need your own, so we go back have to find the luggage thing, move the 2 suitcases to new one and get a new ticket. He wrote the wrong name on the ticket (again). At this point we're just wanting to get to check-in. The ticket says our bags are in tower 5. We get to check-in, knowing full well our room will not be ready (it was before 5 p.m. - probably around 3:30 p.m.) Have to get through the next 30 minutes of "welcome drink" and say "no" to presentation several times. (But we give you all the benefits up front and since you've been here before it'll only be an update presentation for about 2-3 hours). NO WAY.
So around 5:30 we get to check-in. We're in Tower 3. Or so the lady wrote down on the paper. Try to find our room and I'm like, the numbers end just before our room number. Ask concierge in Tower 3, oh it's to the right. OK, so go to to the right. Nope. Ask a different person. Oh, that room # is in Tower 2, not tower 3. AUGH.
So we go to find tower 2 (which is NOT on their Vidanta app/map if you sort by lodging). More about the app later.
Finally about 30 minutes later we are in Tower 2 (supposedly one of the best everyone tells us there). Room is very nice. Has a river view (can see the ocean if you look to the right). Call to get luggage. Oh, it's in Tower 5? Why would they put your luggage in Tower 5? you're in Tower 2. Yeah, tell me about it. So the guy says it'll take about 45 minutes because they have to transfer from Tower 5 to Tower 2 and then get them. He calls back 5 minutes later and asks if he can open the luggage thingy and just get our bags so we don't have to wait that long. I happily agree.
Finally get luggage. Yay!
The GPS on the app is flaky to say the best. Reminds me of the Disney app in Disney world. Plus there's like 3-5 different ways to get anywhere, just a matter of whether you want to walk around for 20 minutes one way or 3 minutes the other. haha.
Further annoying is the info in the app is mostly wrong. Has wrong hours of restaurants. The signage around the walking paths is wrong (still shows Tramanto when it doesn't exist anymore). Has another one that says Grand Luxxe is to the left, and about 10' later another sign says it's to the right (got lots of exercise).
I'm assuming due to COVID that hours/things have changed, but would it kill them to update the app to accurately reflect things?
Oh, and a suggestion:
On the first day you arrive, make reservations for ALL your restaurants for the entire week. else you won't get in. We were just a party of 2 and couldn't get anything more than 4 days out. La Cantina doesn't require reservations, FYI.
They are also very strict about the bracelets. My sister (Grand Bliss) couldn't even visit our room. That was a fiasco. After a heated conversation, the concierge relented to change their wrist bracelets to Grand Luxxe and re-code for their Grand Bliss room entry. But first they tried to tell her she needed to buy a Day Pass.
Restaurants were good. Food was good. Some of the restaurants seemed to have a limited menu (Blue Bistro is one) but not sure if this is due to COVID or not (even here in the US most of our restaurants are still serving limited menus).
I did get to enjoy "lobster" night at Puerto Manjar. Very good lobster.
Room service takes about an hour to get your food (pizza is faster, just an FYI).
I did find the fish tacos at the Grand Luxxe punta pool to be better than the ones by Grand Mayan Pool.
Oh, the Adults-only pool by Grand Luxxe Punta (on the tip) is closed for construction.
Somehow we missed the ooo-la-la infinity pool that's to the right of Puerto Manjar. Oh well.
Now, for COVID testing. Another cluster. App said to call a certain #. The person there said they do tests until 2:00 p.m., so we scheduled for Wed (we left Friday) for 12:30 p.m. My sister asked if we can charge to room, oh yes (we all heard it). NO YOU CANNOT. You must bring cash, or credit card. And also bring your passports.
Took 30 minutes for shuttle to show up (we thought 20 minutes would've been long enough, nope). Get there, and there's no instructions on what to do. Are you supposed to wear a mask? Don't know. No signage. You enter the room and there's a bunch of chairs, a table where people are in line, another set of booths for testing (A, B, and C), and another table with papers on it. Do you wait in line first? Do you fill out papers first? Nobody knows.
DO NOT sit in the back. You must sit/stand in the front of the chairs. Why? Because they only "talk" (not shout) your name ONCE. If you don't hear it, they don't repeat it again. People were waiting for 40 minutes only to discover their names had been called 30 minutes prior. What a joke. Anyway, 2 hours later, we finally get our test. It is NOT like the cotton swabs we have in the US (or at least in our neck of the woods in Albany, NY). Rather, they are very small "probes". I'd say thinner than the non-cotton part of a q-tip. They go in probably about 3 inches and it's extremely uncomfortable (way worse than any I've had except for the one here where they poked my deviated septum). It "tickles/burns" more than anything. Anyone with kids - prepare for lots of crying. I didn't see anyone under 10 that wasn't in tears and crying afterwards, including my niece and nephew. Not the resorts fault obviously. We did antigen test.
You'll get TWO emails (check your spam filter). One in Spanish (without your DOB and passport on it) and one in English (WITH DOB and Passport #). I mention this for folks using Verifly app, as you need to have DOB and Passport # on the test results.
We got our results starting around 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. that same day.
OK, now ready to leave. Started on Thursday, asked concierge what we needed to do. What time are you leaving, our flight leaves at 12:30 so we'd like to be at airport at 10:00 a.m. Pick up taxi at 9:45 a.m. OK, bags pick up at 9:30? Sure. WRONG!!!!
You will want your bags picked up at LEAST 1 hour prior to getting a taxi. Of course, we don't find out until the next day when they tell us it'll take an hour for our bags to get to taxi, so after much back and forth, they get a shuttle with enough room to put our two bags on (again, every person you ask here you get a different answer and it's usually wrong).
Ironically airport was very quick/easy. Probably because we were there early and a Friday. No lines really. Southwest (my sister was flying them, we were on American) ticket counter doesn't open until 11:00 a.m. (just an FYI). Fortunately we got everyone into the VIP lounge (first one on the left after you pass through duty free) with our credit cards. VERY nice and friendly staff (Alejandra, thank you). She makes a mean mimosa.
The resort is even bigger than I remember, they've added additional walkways and covered some. Pools were very nice, I liked the Grand Luxxe punta pool and the one by Tower 1 (it's like 3 pools together, but the far left one is adults only).
I still think Riviera Maya is less problematic (in terms of things going wrong, incompetence, etc.) But then again, RM restricts (although maybe not as someone posted they were able to use an SFX bonus week and still have full Grand Luxxe amenities). Although this time of year, the RM will probably have the nasty seaweed smells and such.
Also, I'd say very few people (meaning guests) wore masks. We were told all public areas, so we did, but then by the 2nd day, we were like what's the point? It's all outside/open (except for La Plaza, or entering a restaurant), and we're vaccinated, so "CDC" guidelines were followed. I only saw mask enforcement at La Plaza. Just an FYI.
Our trip back was horrible (AA was late, luggage was delayed, missed flight, no flights to albany from DFW for 2 days on any airline, and then alternate flight had mechanical delay--LOL). So do NOT ride on the same plane I'm on. Got back Sunday instead of Friday. And got downgraded from paid First class to economy, oh well.
I wish I could say that the issues from last time (6-7 years ago?) were resolved, but not quite. They are still as disorganized as ever. The accommodations are excellent, as always.
We were in 2 groups. We were at Grand Luxxe. Other group was at Grand Bliss. When we arrived, we told the luggage person several times that we were in 2 different buildings. He put all our luggage into one thing and gave us one ticket. So I asked about how we go about getting our luggage and he just said to tell them the 2 pieces were Grand Luxxe. ha! We get to the shuttle place and the lady says oh no, you need your own, so we go back have to find the luggage thing, move the 2 suitcases to new one and get a new ticket. He wrote the wrong name on the ticket (again). At this point we're just wanting to get to check-in. The ticket says our bags are in tower 5. We get to check-in, knowing full well our room will not be ready (it was before 5 p.m. - probably around 3:30 p.m.) Have to get through the next 30 minutes of "welcome drink" and say "no" to presentation several times. (But we give you all the benefits up front and since you've been here before it'll only be an update presentation for about 2-3 hours). NO WAY.
So around 5:30 we get to check-in. We're in Tower 3. Or so the lady wrote down on the paper. Try to find our room and I'm like, the numbers end just before our room number. Ask concierge in Tower 3, oh it's to the right. OK, so go to to the right. Nope. Ask a different person. Oh, that room # is in Tower 2, not tower 3. AUGH.
So we go to find tower 2 (which is NOT on their Vidanta app/map if you sort by lodging). More about the app later.
Finally about 30 minutes later we are in Tower 2 (supposedly one of the best everyone tells us there). Room is very nice. Has a river view (can see the ocean if you look to the right). Call to get luggage. Oh, it's in Tower 5? Why would they put your luggage in Tower 5? you're in Tower 2. Yeah, tell me about it. So the guy says it'll take about 45 minutes because they have to transfer from Tower 5 to Tower 2 and then get them. He calls back 5 minutes later and asks if he can open the luggage thingy and just get our bags so we don't have to wait that long. I happily agree.
Finally get luggage. Yay!
The GPS on the app is flaky to say the best. Reminds me of the Disney app in Disney world. Plus there's like 3-5 different ways to get anywhere, just a matter of whether you want to walk around for 20 minutes one way or 3 minutes the other. haha.
Further annoying is the info in the app is mostly wrong. Has wrong hours of restaurants. The signage around the walking paths is wrong (still shows Tramanto when it doesn't exist anymore). Has another one that says Grand Luxxe is to the left, and about 10' later another sign says it's to the right (got lots of exercise).
I'm assuming due to COVID that hours/things have changed, but would it kill them to update the app to accurately reflect things?
Oh, and a suggestion:
On the first day you arrive, make reservations for ALL your restaurants for the entire week. else you won't get in. We were just a party of 2 and couldn't get anything more than 4 days out. La Cantina doesn't require reservations, FYI.
They are also very strict about the bracelets. My sister (Grand Bliss) couldn't even visit our room. That was a fiasco. After a heated conversation, the concierge relented to change their wrist bracelets to Grand Luxxe and re-code for their Grand Bliss room entry. But first they tried to tell her she needed to buy a Day Pass.
Restaurants were good. Food was good. Some of the restaurants seemed to have a limited menu (Blue Bistro is one) but not sure if this is due to COVID or not (even here in the US most of our restaurants are still serving limited menus).
I did get to enjoy "lobster" night at Puerto Manjar. Very good lobster.
Room service takes about an hour to get your food (pizza is faster, just an FYI).
I did find the fish tacos at the Grand Luxxe punta pool to be better than the ones by Grand Mayan Pool.
Oh, the Adults-only pool by Grand Luxxe Punta (on the tip) is closed for construction.
Somehow we missed the ooo-la-la infinity pool that's to the right of Puerto Manjar. Oh well.
Now, for COVID testing. Another cluster. App said to call a certain #. The person there said they do tests until 2:00 p.m., so we scheduled for Wed (we left Friday) for 12:30 p.m. My sister asked if we can charge to room, oh yes (we all heard it). NO YOU CANNOT. You must bring cash, or credit card. And also bring your passports.
Took 30 minutes for shuttle to show up (we thought 20 minutes would've been long enough, nope). Get there, and there's no instructions on what to do. Are you supposed to wear a mask? Don't know. No signage. You enter the room and there's a bunch of chairs, a table where people are in line, another set of booths for testing (A, B, and C), and another table with papers on it. Do you wait in line first? Do you fill out papers first? Nobody knows.
DO NOT sit in the back. You must sit/stand in the front of the chairs. Why? Because they only "talk" (not shout) your name ONCE. If you don't hear it, they don't repeat it again. People were waiting for 40 minutes only to discover their names had been called 30 minutes prior. What a joke. Anyway, 2 hours later, we finally get our test. It is NOT like the cotton swabs we have in the US (or at least in our neck of the woods in Albany, NY). Rather, they are very small "probes". I'd say thinner than the non-cotton part of a q-tip. They go in probably about 3 inches and it's extremely uncomfortable (way worse than any I've had except for the one here where they poked my deviated septum). It "tickles/burns" more than anything. Anyone with kids - prepare for lots of crying. I didn't see anyone under 10 that wasn't in tears and crying afterwards, including my niece and nephew. Not the resorts fault obviously. We did antigen test.
You'll get TWO emails (check your spam filter). One in Spanish (without your DOB and passport on it) and one in English (WITH DOB and Passport #). I mention this for folks using Verifly app, as you need to have DOB and Passport # on the test results.
We got our results starting around 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. that same day.
OK, now ready to leave. Started on Thursday, asked concierge what we needed to do. What time are you leaving, our flight leaves at 12:30 so we'd like to be at airport at 10:00 a.m. Pick up taxi at 9:45 a.m. OK, bags pick up at 9:30? Sure. WRONG!!!!
You will want your bags picked up at LEAST 1 hour prior to getting a taxi. Of course, we don't find out until the next day when they tell us it'll take an hour for our bags to get to taxi, so after much back and forth, they get a shuttle with enough room to put our two bags on (again, every person you ask here you get a different answer and it's usually wrong).
Ironically airport was very quick/easy. Probably because we were there early and a Friday. No lines really. Southwest (my sister was flying them, we were on American) ticket counter doesn't open until 11:00 a.m. (just an FYI). Fortunately we got everyone into the VIP lounge (first one on the left after you pass through duty free) with our credit cards. VERY nice and friendly staff (Alejandra, thank you). She makes a mean mimosa.
The resort is even bigger than I remember, they've added additional walkways and covered some. Pools were very nice, I liked the Grand Luxxe punta pool and the one by Tower 1 (it's like 3 pools together, but the far left one is adults only).
I still think Riviera Maya is less problematic (in terms of things going wrong, incompetence, etc.) But then again, RM restricts (although maybe not as someone posted they were able to use an SFX bonus week and still have full Grand Luxxe amenities). Although this time of year, the RM will probably have the nasty seaweed smells and such.
Also, I'd say very few people (meaning guests) wore masks. We were told all public areas, so we did, but then by the 2nd day, we were like what's the point? It's all outside/open (except for La Plaza, or entering a restaurant), and we're vaccinated, so "CDC" guidelines were followed. I only saw mask enforcement at La Plaza. Just an FYI.
Our trip back was horrible (AA was late, luggage was delayed, missed flight, no flights to albany from DFW for 2 days on any airline, and then alternate flight had mechanical delay--LOL). So do NOT ride on the same plane I'm on. Got back Sunday instead of Friday. And got downgraded from paid First class to economy, oh well.
And just an fyi - at the Lindo Mar you don't need to worry about drinks with hibiscus, but La Playita's margaritas will put you down with just enough warning to let your brain say 'uh oh!'