GNVGator

Post bar trip to the Cancun Ritz.

One word: wow

This was the best RC experience I've ever had. The service and soft product are unbelievably amazing.

Arrival: Requested a transfer through the hotel. Unless you are a CUN expert you need to have transportation set up ahead of time. Once you exit customs it is a mad house. The first layer of people tell you that they are your driver and will do everything to try to get you to stop and talk to them. Walk past these people to the next layer of people who also claim to be your driver. Get through that layer and you'll see a group of drivers with the respective boards with your name on them, these people are your drivers...

Check in: Did a 5 night point stay for 200k points. Booked in a regular ocean "view" room and was upgraded to ocean front upon check in on a high floor. Apparently the top two floors are the refurbished rooms and are the rooms that you need to request. According to reviews the non refurb rooms are showing some wear/tear. We arrived around noon thus our room wasn't ready until 2:30. This could have contributed to the upgrade but who knows. Sat at the ocean front restaurant and had lunch and margaritas (best margs I've ever had). The front desk agent gave us 2 free drink coupons while we waited for our room. The waiter recognized this and called the front desk every ten minutes for us seeing if our room was ready without us asking him to do so, which was the first example of proactive service.

Room: High floor, refurb ocean front. Ask for a room on floors 7 or 8, those are the refurbished rooms. Amazing view of the crystal blue ocean and ice cold A/C which is a must. Bellman knocks on our door and gave us a bucket of Dos Equis and chips/salsa/guac as a welcome gift with a generic note from the GM, very nice touch I thought. Great big bathroom, separate bath/shower, two sinks, marble etc. Very comfortable bed. Turn down service was nice. After turn down they leave the tv on tuned to some fish under the sea documentary that was clearly filmed during the 90s. Still, I love fish and watched the whole thing.

Amenities: The hotel is clearly old and the layout is very strange. The architect clearly wanted all of the rooms to be able to see the water but with that there is a lot of dead space in the hotel. Lobby is very pretty. Pool is smallish compared to the other pools on the hotel strip. Plenty of lounge chairs for guests. No 3am towel reservation problem that I read about on the JW reviews. Apparently by 6am all of the loungers were "reserved" at the JW. It seemed that you had to be a guest of the RC in order to use the loungers so that might have helped alleviate the mad rush for the loungers. Plenty of beach loungers as well. Cabanas can be rented for something like 120 USD a day.

Restaurants: Blown away with how good the food was. Four different restaurants with different offerings. Breakfast buffet was amazing. Roughly 30USD p/p but it includes all you can drink champagne and the food spread rivals a vegas buffet. No free breakfast for golds. At booking I saw that they were offering packages with free breakfast for each day and daily room credit. In retrospect those were great deals and you should snag them. At night the cabanas can be booked to eat on the beach which they set up with tables and table clothes/lights etc. Great for special occasions, they charge a flat 120USD to eat there on top of whatever you order FYI. Got a hand written thank you note the next day from the chef of one of the restaurants on site where we ate, nice touch.

Prices: Standard for a RC. $8 margaritas, $30 breakfast etc. Though with the soft peso right now you get a little bit of a discount since everything is denominated in pesos there. This is where no forex fee credit cards are your friend.

Service: This is where the hotel stood out. We walked out to the beach with mimosas and one employee appeared out of nowhere to take our drinks and carried them for us on a silver tray. Another employee appeared out of nowhere to place two loungers wherever we wanted to sit, and a third employee appeared out of nowhere carrying a beach umbrella and shovel. They set up your loungers with towels, table, and umbrella. They put a flag on your chair so you can order drinks and food. Throughout the day another employee comes with cold towels, then later another with watermelon or mango juice, then later again with fresh fruit popsicles. They truly go out of their way to try to be proactive and anticipate your needs. They had mangos at the breakfast one day where I ate a bunch. The next day there were no mangos but the waiter placed a plate of mangos in front of me right when I sat down seeing that I ate a bunch the day before. Travel companion was working out and after she finished on the treadmill an employee pops up out of nowhere with a frozen/lavender scented towel for her to cool down with.

Etc: Taxis are great. They have new suburbans to take you everywhere for a flat rate based on distance. However all cabs operate on this flat rate so you're not paying a premium for the suburbans which is nice. Concierge is very helpful to book or point out excursions. No need to pre book a return transfer to the airport, cheaper to just use the suburban on site. But imperative to pre-arrange arrival transfer...

Don't come here expecting a cultural visit, you'll have to drive a good distance to see any cultural sites. The hotels are located on a barrier island (called the hotel zone) and if the employees didn't speak spanish you'd think you were at disney world. I was in desperate need for a break so it was perfect me to just sleep on the beach.

Amazing stay and will definitely go back don't overlook this place when looking at CUN.

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