NIGHTMARE experience. Currently staying here on the grand side for 8 days and going home soon.

HAD TO USE A BATH TOWEL AS A BLANKET

Arrived Monday and didn't actually have a blanket to sleep with until Friday. Was using a bath towel as a blanket. Numerous requests to housekeeping via phone and the app to bring a blanket were non responsive. Direct requests to the people cleaning the rooms went unfulfilled. They were happy and nice when we ask them and said they understood that we wanted a blanket because one of the beds was missing it but never put it. I ended up having to find the linen closet in building 92 and grab a bunch of sheets as there were no blankets there at all. Was it until Saturday night that I went to public relations pissed off that I demanded the lady go grab me one.

UPDATE - Our checkout was at noon on Monday. At ~11am Monday, 1 hour before checkout, a lady knocks on the door and hands us two blankets then walks away. Either that was housekeeping playing a joke on me or they are really that bad. Didn't bother to ask.

DISFUNCTIONALY HOUSEKEEPING

Potty training daughter had an accident in the bed while taking a nap. As we were leaving, housekeeping was coming to clean. Will explained what happened and they said they were change all the sheets. Nope - They just made the bed with an obvious yellow spot right in the middle. Called housekeeping when we got back at 7:00 p.m. asking to come change the linen... Never came. Called again at 10pm, never came. Called at 11pm pissed off and they assured me they would send somebody right away. Nobody showed up. I walked around outside and found a lady dropping off a crib at a room next to us. Playing what happened and asked for help. She said "one moment por favor" and I watched her walk to the little desk on the ground floor of building 92, grab a little shoulder bag, walk down the hallway and completely leave out of sight. She's straight went home. I was following her from a distance because she was going in the direction of the linen closet and I thought that's where she was going... Nope, just kept walking by it made a right and walked out of sight with her bag on her shoulder. She literally went home. Ended up going myself to the trusty linen closet I found to grab sheets and changed the bed myself. Finally got our 4-year-old, 2-year-old, and 10-month-old to bed by midnight. AT 5:00 A.M. SOMEBODY'S POUNDING AT THE DOOR SAYING "HOUSEKEEPING".... I was livid. I had already been to public relations half a dozen times for various other stupidities and nobody cares. Literally nobody gives a shit.

UNSAFE FOR CRAWLING INFANTS

It's terrible for crawling infants. Everything is solid marble with eye gouging sharp points everywhere. There is a 2 ft cliff that goes from the main level in the room down to the lower level with the jacuzzi. There is nothing to block it at all, no furniture, no curtain, no rail, nothing. It's just a wide open cliff. I asked everybody at the hotel what's going on and they acted like I was crazy and I was the only person to have ever brought it up. No one cared to help, no one cared to even act like they gave a damn. A couple of trips to public relations and the only option I was given was to upgrade to a two bedroom family suite at Nizuc for an extra $780 a night which would have brought my stay to nearly $10,000 considering what I already paid for our room at the Grand.

UPDATE - Towards the end of our trip we were talking to some other guests about the problem with the ledge and they said their room has a curtain covering it. Another group heard our conversation and commented that their room has an actual wooden panel completely blocking the ledge. Keep in mind that every single room at the Grand side is exactly the same. Even the premium rooms like the Governors Suite is just 2 normal rooms with a door connecting them. So considering every single room is the same, they have in fact began addressing the issue and had put curtains and even panels blocking the ledge but acted like we were weirdos for saying it was unsafe and asking for a solution. They probably didn't have another room available with a curtain or panel and felt it was better to act like it wasn't a big deal rather than acknowledge it was a problem but that they didn't

have any updated rooms available.

ITS A TIMESHARE HUSSLE IN DESGUISE

The place is pretty much a scam dressed up as a nice hotel. We paid almost $6,000 to stay there and as soon as we showed up, they tried to course us into a 90 minute timeshare sales pitch. Like holy shit! Absolutely scum. As a first time guest, I didn't know anything about the app, how to get around, Where certain things were, etc. All of that information is provided by the "personal vacation planner" that comes to talk to you after you check in. This PVP is in fact a timeshare salesperson. So yes, basic hotel information is only available through their salesperson.

PROPERY IS WAAAAAY TOO BIG

Property is WAY too big for its own good. We went to the awe princess salon to have our daughters hair braided and we had to wait 20 minutes for the Green line golf cart to pick us up followed by a 10 minute ride....meaning it was a hour round trip waste of time due to the size of the place.

BEACH IS GROSS - ALL BROWN

This is probably why the beach is totally covered up on the grand side. Even pools along the beach have 10ft tall shrub walls blocking the beach. I can only assume it's because the water it shit brown due to the silt and sand in the water.

POOR MAINTENANCE

At first glance, the place looks incredible. But after staying there for a week, I noticed that the Grand side was pretty run down considering it it opened only in 2017. Every single red wooden bridge throughout the entire resort is blocked off because it's falling apart. Mushrooms are growing all over it, the floorboards bend when you step on them and are on the verge of breaking. Lots of sharp splintered chunks of what everywhere from the railing that's falling over. Even the caution tape used to block it off has been there so long that it's deteriorated from the sun. That's how we even noticed it because we didn't even see the caution tape and started walking through there. We immediately realized it was insanely unsafe when it started cracking under my 190lb weight. Most of the outdoor speakers don't work, a lot of the lights are either not working, are tilted over because they got hit by a golf cart and haven't been repaired, I saw several that were knocked over on the floor and looked like it's been that way for a long time. Several of the lights in my room didn't work. A lot of the outdoor architecture was broken, rusting, paint falling off etc. it looks to me like they are severely under staffing their maintenance crew. I'm sure the palace got hit extremely hard from covid but it's a shame they're allowing maintenance and upkeep to lapse because it looks like they spent a lot of money to build this place and now they're letting it slowly fall apart just to cut costs. Again, when you initially look around everything looks gorgeous.... But the longer you're there and the more carefully you look at things and not just gloss over the big picture, you'll start to notice just how poor maintenance is. I'd be upset about it if I were one of the families that got coerced into a timeshare there.

RUDE AND USELESS STAFF

Refused Guacamole for my 2 year old. My 2-year-old daughter absolutely loves guacamole right now and we ate at a little restaurant by the beach on the grand side. They had ceviche and salsa and everything but for some reason they didn't have any guacamole. I asked them where I can get some because my daughter was starting to cry about it. She sent me to the buffet that was just a couple hundred yards away from where we were at. I walk in there and without even thinking twice about it, I just walk to the back to grab a bowl and put some guacamole. An employee came running up to me with this arms out asking what I was doing. After I explained that my daughter was crying for guacamole and The other restaurant didn't have any, he said he's sorry but we are not allowed to have any guacamole. I asked him why and he said we have to eat the guacamole in the restaurant. Even after reiterating that we were eating at the other restaurant and they didn't have guacamole and they sent us here to get it, he assured me that there was no way that I can take a little cup of guacamole with me. It wasn't until I started getting pretty upset at them for being so ridiculous that another person came over, probably a manager or something, and he said that they will make a rare exception and only this time there will allow me to take guacamole. He said that they never do this and they will not do it again but they will do it just this once. The manager goes back into the kitchen and comes out with a tiny paper cup used for water that had two small scoops of guacamole. Handed it to me with a smile and reminded me again that this is an exception and they will not do it again.

EXPLOITATIVE PRICING AT THE SHOPS

Prices for anything not included are OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!! $35 for small bottle of sun block, small bag of sour worms $14, small pouch of Claritin was $32. You are isolated and stuck at the resort So they exploit that to the max.

MORE RUDE AND USELESS STAFF STUFF

Service is atrociously bad. Nobody cares at all. They all do what they're supposed to do such as bring you drinks or take your order or give you towels at the pool.... But if you ask for anything that goes beyond a basic requirement of their employment, they do not care one bit. I cannot tell you how many times I had to go find a high chair at the restaurant for my 10-month-old because nobody got one for us. It wasn't that I was being a lazy snob demanding that people go get me a high chair..... Every time they would ask if I needed a high chair, I would say yes, and they would nod their head and walk away but never come back. After the 3rd or fourth time this happened I realized that they never actually intended to get it for me. I don't know why they ask. Some did get a high chair for us but those were few and far between.

MORE STAFF STUFF

On Sunday we got back to our room and there was a large bouquet of flowers on the desk with no note or message. I called the front desk and they said they have no record of flowers for our room and assumed it was sent to us by mistake. I jokingly said maybe it was from public relations for all the screw-ups. She then puts me on hold for 5 minutes and then comes back to say yes, that's it! Public relations sent the flowers but there was no record of it anywhere for our room and the front desk didn't know anything about it also there was no note apologizing. Sounds to me like public relations decided to flip it from a "oops we screwed up again" to "oh ya that was just us being nice"

RESORT CREDITS ARE PRETTY MUCH A SCAM

Did I mention the resort credits are a scam? Nobody ever told me I had a $500 resort credit. Perhaps the personal vacation planner would have told me if I had only agreed to sit down and listen to a 90 minute high pressure sales pitch after paying out of pocket nearly $6,000 to stay at the hotel. I found out inadvertently from another guest. So after realizing I had a $500 credit, we booked some services at the spa which are comically overpriced. Basic massage is $350, deep tissue was over $400, couples massage is something like $1300. Facial I think was $250 to $300.... Straight up shocking. However, I figured since we had a $500 credit what's the harm in getting a $400 deep tissue massage. Nobody bothered to tell me until after the massage that I was only allowed to apply $165 of my resort credit towards the spa, leaving me with a bill of nearly $300 plus a mandatory 16% processing fee.... Yep 16% processing fee in order for me to use imaginary money. The 16% processing fee has to be paid out of pocket cash. You can use the resort fee to get stuff at the shops, but literally only women's hats, bags, and glasses. Not any of them, a very small specific rack in the back corner. It's a joke.... Every single cute hat or bag my wife saw weren't included. So literally only the ugliest farm straw hats were available with resort credit.

POOR STAFF TRAINING AND DISGRACEFUL SERVICE FEES

We need reservations for our two daughters to have their hair braided at the Awe Princess salon. We were told they were two options - "25 minute session for $35 for half of the head and 50 minute session for $70 for the whole head". We booked two 25 minute sessions as we wanted just the front half braided. We get to Awe Princess salon and they ask us which side of the head we wanted the 4 braids, left or right side. Huh??? When we explained that we wanted the front half of the head braided as we were told by the PVP, They said that was the 50 minute session for $70 and that if we wanted the whole head braided that's a 100 minute session which PVP didn't even know about. Okay, whatever, poor training or simple mistake. The staff at Awe Princess salon were actually pretty amazing and were hands down the best employees we had interacted with. They were able to extend the appointment and do the braids across the full front half of the head for both my daughters. THE PROBLEM - as you know they charge a 16% service charge that has to be paid out of pocket for using their imaginary money (resort credits). Service charges are non-refundable. Our account was charged an ~$5 service charge for each daughter for the original appointment booked by the PVP. When they updated it to 50 minutes So they can do the whole front half, instead of just charging us the difference, they cancel the 25 minute appointment and inputed a new 50 minute appointment. As a result, we were still being charged the service fee for the original appointments in addition to being charged a new service fee for the 50 minute appointment...... I just don't know what to say anymore.

BEWARE OF EXCHANGE RATE SCAM AT THE CLUB

At their nightclub, If you want a table, the presented in US dollars. For example a table the dance floor had a $1000 minimum spend. Okay, whatever... Not that unusual for a nightclub and considering everything else I had seen, I didn't think twice about it. Where shit gets criminal is that despite presenting it in US dollars, they actually charge you in pesos and they pick their own arbitrary exchange rate. The exchange rate was about 16 to 1. They charged 21 to 1....this worked out to a hidden 30% mark-up. So they would sell you a $1,000 US dollar table charge your car the equivalent of around $1350 USD (after the 21 to 1 peso conversion)

MADE UP NO-SHOW CHARGES

$25 Restaurant Reservation No-Show Fee Shenanigans. We made reservations for the Mexican restaurant in the main Grand lobby. When we booked it, it said that if we don't show up, we would be charged a $25 no show fee. I accepted the terms because we had no intention of not showing up. Sunday night, we show up right on time, enjoy our dinner and go home. When we checked out on Monday, there was a $50 no show charge. First off, even if we had not shown up, why were they charging us $50??? The explanation was that they charged $25 for every 4 people. Since we had 5 including our 10 month old infant, we were charge $25 no show fee twice. Anyways, when I explain that we did show up and we had dinner and that that was an erroneous charge, the person at the checkout counter basically said there's nothing he can do because that's what the system showed. What the hell?!?! He then suggested I go over to public relations to talk to them about it. OMG I was seriously about to lose it. He knew I was upset and said that he'd be able to take it off if I can show him pictures of my family eating at the restaurant last night. After everything I had dealt with over the last 7 days, the last thing I was going to do was to pull out my phone and show this guy photos of my family having dinner just to prove to them that they will wrong. He was very adamant and saying that unless I prove to him we were there with photos, we are going to be charged the $50 fee. My wife came up and showed some videos just so we could be done with it and leave. I was still pissed and was expecting him to remove it without having to defend myself with photos of my family at dinner. Anyways, after my wife showed him the videos and photos he very happily removed it without any problem. I was livid at the whole experience.

THE PROBLEM IS MANAGEMENT

Considering all of the other horrible experiences I had, my wife and I both came to the consensus that the employees do their job okay but only they're exact job. If they are not absolutely required to do something, they will not do it. If you ask them for anything at all that is not a fundamental duty of their job they won't do it. We asked for advice and suggestions, we asked for solutions to little problems we had throughout our stay like where do we get some towels because the towel station at this pool is closed and out of towels... Nobody cares. Nobody helps. If it's their job to take your order and bring you drinks, they will do that. But they won't do anything more. My guess is that the employees are underpaid, they are understaffed and overworked, and I suspect they are under very strict protocols with highly defined processes that they cannot deviate from. This is probably why nobody can do anything to solve any problems or help because their hands are probably tied. This is clearly a management problem and despite my extreme frustration towards all the employees that treated us like shit, I suspect deep down they probably wanted to help us but they couldn't. The employee at the restaurant that wouldn't let us take some guacamole to our daughter was following a protocol that said no food outside of the restaurant because they didn't want people eating by the pool. Despite explaining the situation and how we're not eating at the pool and how I'm dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, they probably didn't have the authority to deviate from the policy despite it making no sense in that particular situation.

CONSTANT SALES PITCHES

More scummy sales pitches after checking out. After the ordeal I had at the checkout desk with the nonsense $50 no-show fee, the moment I finished with checkout and turned around, a guy with an iPad walked right up to me and try to sell me a discounted return trip for $1200 or $2400 plus an upfront $299 "administrative fee" lol. A group of these people were standing around checkout waiting to pounce on guest as they finish checking out. What makes it even more scummy is they pretend to help you. When he first walked up, he asked if I needed any help transportation. I told him I already had a range private transportation to pick us up but he insisted on asking for our room number for some reason and wouldn't tell me why he needed it despite me not needing any transportation help. He eventually told me that he needs it to record that they had talked to me and that they had pitched me on the return trip. I asked him if he had heard my conversation having been standing less than 10 feet away. He said he heard it and he was sorry about it and then directly proceeded into his 2 minute sales pitch. I just stared at him with a blank face "are you serious?". The guy was actually very nice and I understand he was just doing his job. I gave him the room number, I explained why I would never be coming back, he seemed to be genuinely interested in hearing what happened and seem to be a really nice guy. My guess is since He's in sales, he's actually paid pretty well and doesn't completely hate his job. It really was a pretty sad and stark contrast from the rest of the staff.

FOOD IS ACTUALLY GOOD!

It is actually pretty good on the Grand side. The Middle Eastern and Japanese restaurants were particularly good. I am not some bitter angry person that is unreasonable about everything. They did have good food and they deserve credit for that.

I'm Never going back. There were tons of people complaining so it wasn't just me. They had a dedicated room (public affairs) in the main lobby off to the side with 4 tables... Most of the time I went in there about something, I had to wait because there was a line of people to complain about things going wrong. From what I heard from others, apparently this place was pretty great prior to covid but after the pandemic, everything went to hell. Seems they got hit extremely hard and they pretty much went to hell after that.

HIGHLY HIGHLY DO NOT RECOMMEND

If you are going, do yourself a favor and read the RECENT TripAdvisor reviews. They have a great review rating but if you read the recent ones of the last few years, you'll see that All these problems seem to be happening to a lot of people recently.