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My family and i have a vacation scheduled at the Iberostar Perismo DelMar in Riviera Maya.? |
Travel Info I'm looking for reviews from people who have stayed there? Travel Tips Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar Review Feb 10-17, 2007 - Very Long! After reading so many reviews on www.iberostar-board.com I was a little unsure what to expect. With a few exceptions (food did range from bad to good) I can happily say that I think that the most of the nay Sayers weren鈥檛 not at the resort鈥hey couldn鈥檛 have been!! Cancun Airport 鈥?7:00 PM - Line-up was a breeze much faster then Puerto Vallerta was last year, that said, we omitted to sign our name on a section and the custom guard said to go to the back of the line!! We looked at her in disbelief and started walking, turns out she meant the back of her station we signed then were allowed to go, make sure everything is filled out properly. We got the Green button and quickly found the Signature man who directed us to the waiting bus. Yes there were a lot of timeshare shark. Bus ride was maybe 30 Min's tops. We were the first drop off (YEA!!!) Check in - Check in was quick and easy. We asked about making reservations and were told to make them at the desk in the lobby, it was opened from 9-10 and 4-5 I think (my husband made all the reservations) That said, get there early, the line forms fast and moves slow. We had to make two 9:00 PM reservations plus one 8:30 one. So often the restaurants looked so empty, we couldn鈥檛 understand the reasoning behind the late reservations. We did manage to get two extra reservations, total of 5 reservations, which was nice. Bit of a mix up with a single woman traveling with us. They assigned her a room and I went with her to make sure everything was fine. She had been assigned a room that was being used!!!! Suitcases abound鈥IKES Thank god, no one was there鈥e backed out quickly and went back to front desk where another room was issued. Room 鈥?1629 we had emailed to request a king size bed in a quiet location. We got a king size bed in building 16 which seemed smack dab in the middle and very quiet. We loved it! Beautiful, large and very clean. J Nice size balcony with table and chairs. Loved the bathroom with its double shower!!!!! There were many shelves in the closet, which was good because the room lacked dressers. Mini bar stocked with four bottles of water, four bottles of beer (one Superior and three Dos Equis), small glass bottles of coke (really cute) and some tinned Fanta pop such as orange, cream soda, grape and also tinned sparkling water. Mini 鈥?bar was stocked daily. Housekeeper was wonderful and made the best animal towels. We tipped her each and every day and also left a small gift. Really she was wonderful J Bars 鈥?We made good use of the Del Mar lobby bar, lobby bar at The Beach was much nicer, more character, we had a few drinks there. We loved the Mojitos and Palomas!! Margaritas were not good鈥?.L They made a mean Kir Royale, as did the bar in the Star Theater complex. My husband drank a lot of beer, which was on tap; the only bottles were in the mini bar. Pool bar was good as was the beach bar although the beach bar almost always had a long line up. . My husband and a friend went walking up the beach and thought they discovered another beach bar, it was empty, not one person waiting in line, it was the Lindo/Maya bar鈥? we were not allowed to use it. In fact over the week it remained unused quite a bit while the Del Mar/Beach bar was busy with guests from all four hotels. There are nice clean restrooms right behind the bar in the same building. Miami Vices were good as were the Electric lemonade and the Palomas (tequila, grapefruit juice and something sparkling club soda maybe?) These were great when the other drinks got too sweet)鈥UM! Bartenders were very nice many did not speak English, made me want to learn to speak Spanish a whole lot more. We tipped at each bar every day but found even when we didn鈥檛 tip, the service was still good. That said, they didn鈥檛 remember our favorite drinks or even remember who we were. The bartenders must see so many people I imagine it hard to keep track. Beach 鈥?This is where, I think, a lot of damage was done by the hurricane. One portion of the beach (close to the dive shop) was robed off and we could see a lot of rocks. We hung out on the right hand side of the lifeguard station (throughout the week I saw him rescue three people who were caught in the undertow/riptides) The area close to the cable had no rocks to speak of (not that the beach area was infested with huge rocks, it really wasn鈥檛, I just hate walking over rocks so preferred to go in close by the cable) and this is where I would make my descent into the water! The water was truly a beautiful blue green color, it was our first time to this side of Mexico and the beach and water are much nicer on this side, not that Mexico has ANY bad sides when it comes to their beaches and water. Maya side is just. 鈥icer鈥 Lots of tropical fish abound and one day a couple was beside me feeding the fish. Quickly the few fish became a swarm, they were swimming in and out of our legs, rubbing up against us, doing that frenzy fluttering on top of the water like sharks do on Discovery Channel and I had a Open Water/ Jaws movie flashback and turned and ran screaming to the shore LOL, if anyone saw a quietly screaming (didn鈥檛 want to disturb anyone) woman in the water on Feb 2, that was me!!! My husband was killing himself laughing!! Excursions 鈥?We did the free scuba lesson in the pool which was fun, the scuba instructor looked like a much more handsomer Ricky Martin, which made it even more fun!! Also he was very nice and very informative. Our friend signed up for the scuba excursions and enjoyed it very much; he had a few hours in the pool then was out diving with the instructor in the ocean. He loved it. We opted for the $29.00 dollar snorkeling one and OMG what a thrill!!!! They suit us up with masks, fins and such and took us by a 10 min boat ride to a reef. WOW Incredible!!!!!!! We went to Playa Del Carmen on day and liked it well enough, it seemed pretty commercial, and I would have loved more time to explore off the beaten track, off of 5th ave鈥? . Also one day we went over to Cozumel via ferry ($20.00 return) loved the village and took a taxi out to Iberostar Cozumel!!!! We loved this place; it felt like a lovely jungle with a tree house type setting. Since we were guests of Del Mar we could use this resort too. Beach was much too rocky to walk far into the water through you could enter from the dock. We hung out at the pool and enjoyed a nice buffet lunch and drinks. Well worth the time to come over here nice day J Shuttles 鈥?The free shuttle to and from Playa leaves at the commercial center and it seems to be bust in the morning (we entered the line-up at 8:40 and the bus was half full when we got on) people were left behind as the driver insisted no one was to stand. The bus ride home, later that night (6:30 PM) people were standing. It must depend on the driver. Commercial Center 鈥?WOW impressive! Beautiful shops and lay out. Close to the convention area WONDERFUL mini-restaurants. The taco stand (for lack of a better word, stands do not do these places justice) served some of the best food on this resort!! No.6 shrimp and chicken tacos were to do for!! As well as the Ropa Viejo tacos with great salsas, limes, and guacamole. I felt that this place had some of the best food at this resort. The crepe stand rocked, loved the Crepes Suzette鈥mmmm. The two nights we couldn鈥檛 eat at the restaurants we ate here, much better then the buffet! They open at 12 (I think) till very late evening We had to eat here the night we check in as at 10PM when we had dinner everything else was closed. The hamburger stand was good much better burgers here then anywhere else. We looked into the disco and had a function here but didn鈥檛 see it at night in it鈥檚 glory, had a few friends who said it was a lot of fun J Food (this is long, we love food) - This was the only area that Iberostar Del Mar was lacking. The food ranged from bad (a nasty fish salad I tried at the late night buffet the first night) to incredible (no.6 tacos were what dreams are made of). We ate twice at the Japanese restaurant and thought it merely all right, sushi was horrible, stir-fries were good, it was fun having Ginny prepare our stir-fries for us. She made this restaurant good J we live in BC Canada and have so many incredible Japanese restaurants. The Mediterranean restaurant 鈥淩estaurante Mediterranean La Dorado鈥?we loved it here. Twice I had the 鈥淶arzuela de pescados y mariscos Costa Brava Fish and seafood 鈥淶arzuela鈥?Costa Brava style It was that good, lobster tails, prawns, mussels, salmon, red snapper, squid all fresh and served with a garlic butter dipping sauce. It was messy as you have to shell everything yourself but they provide fingerbowls and it was so good!!! A friend had the Huachinango a la espalda con ajos confitados sobre cama de patatas Red snapper saut茅ed with pickled garlic on potatoes bed Which was so good my husband put us on a wait list so he could have it sounds not that appealing but it really was great, well the one bite he allowed me was鈥?) The night before we left we ate at the steakhouse and I had the Rib-eye which was not good, really thin cut and just not nice at all. A friend shared her huge tenderloin with me and that was good. Buffets Breakfast buffet rocked!!!!!! OMG it was so good. The doughnuts were to die for and I limited myself to just two, quite frankly it was hard to do that. However I only brought down bikinis and I just couldn鈥檛 eat more.. The fresh juices were kept in a cooler inside the buffet room (the juice dispensers you see when you first come in were all of the frozen icky type juices.) The made to order omelets were great a few days we saw fresh corn tortillas and they made us Huevos Ranchos..UMMMMM.. We never tried the main buffet at lunch as the poolside one was good enough as well we went to the taco stand a lot. Ice Cream鈥?.OMG here is where the resort shone鈥est ice cream in the world鈥?.truly ..That comes from a female with a serious Hagan Daz and Ben&Jerry鈥檚 addiction. The citrus one rocked as well as the chocolate, strawberry and cheesecake one鈥?to be honest they all were wonderful. The poolside ice cream bar makes milkshakes!! Check Out Our plane left at 7:40 PM and the time that the Charter bus was leaving the resort was 2:55PM.......We were not into spending over 4 hours away from a GREAT beach and resort. We had talked with the front desk staff, a taxi (fit all four adults plus all our massive luggage) would cost $27.00 US and would take roughly 30 Min's give or take the traffic. We talked with the rep from Signature (it took a few days to track her down as she wasn't always there when the she was slated to be) we got taken off the bus list. Our room could be held over at $10.00 per hour as long as we needed it unless they were fully booked. Since we were spending most of the time at the beach we didn't think we needed to spend the $50.00. Yesterday we checked out (SOB SOB) after 10 Am and they kept our luggage in their locked locker room. We still had our wristbands on and our towel cards. Went to the beach and had another fun filled day at the beach and pool. We still had the bracelets on so still had full privileges. We went up to the lobby at 4, exchanged our wet beach towels for dry ones and showered and changed into our clothes. There are two small private rooms off to the side of the lobby that have a shower, shower gel and shampoo (no conditioner) and blow dryer. We brought our luggage in, showered and changed. The doors were locked and the room was very private. They were not busy at all We then handed back our dry towels and asked to have the bracelets cut off. LOL, the front desk clerk protested that we should have one more drink before the Taxi arrived (we had requested the taxi for 5 PM) so off we trooped to the lobby bar for the last drink. We handed the bell boy the little slip of paper that the front desk clerk had given us, the bracelets were cut off and we left. The taxi ride went very smooth and took about 25 Min's. We breezed through checking and security and bought some duty free stuff. it was all very easy Sorry for such a long review. Iberostar Board helped us so very much that I wanted to try to include any and all information that might help others. I felt so welcomed at the resort. Everyone was so friendly and helpful. I thank everyone for the wonderful service. I will come back, just have to save up for another vacation. Source(s): http://www.iberostar-board.com/... http://www.tripadvisor.com/hotel_review-... Other Travel Tips www.tripadvisor.com.. Go there you will be sure o find it! |
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