FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - One&Only Mandarina, close to Punta Mita, Mexico
Old Nov 29, 2020 | 5:36 pm
  #52  
uclabruin82
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Just got back from our 4-night stay so will add my 2 cents:

We arrived in a O&O transfer from Imanta in a black MB van. They brought a baby car seat for us, but I think we may be the first people to use it because the driver did not really know how to set it up. Transfer from Imanta was about 45 minutes. We were supposed to leave Imanta at 1:30, but our driver was at the resort at 12:30 waiting for us, so we just left. The van is new and in good condition.

Check-in was done at reception as our room was not quite ready. This is the only time I would imagine someone being at reception since there is nothing there. We were greeted by a few people and presented cold towels and a passion fruit / tumeric drink. After that, we were taken in a buggy to our room, a cliff side villa.

I dont have pics, but I will add some thoughts on our villa vs the Treehouse shown above and generally: The treehouses are going to suffer from privacy issues. You can usually see into the outside parts of them from the road and the decks often look right into other Treehouse decks since they are at the same eye-level. The treehouses have outdoor baths, whereas the villas have outdoor showers (we had an indoor bath). The villa also looks to have more inside space. Our main room had the bed in the center, then a desk along one of the sides, and then a seating area with a couch & lounger on the other. Also, I think the villa pools are a bit bigger. Normally I do not care for plunge pools, but this was just big enough, especially taking into account the beach and the numerous other large pools. OVerall, I would not pay extra for the higher category one-bedrooms. None of them have beach access

As mentioned above, we booked a cliff villa, but we could see the ocean pretty clearly. We could not see beach, but we could see the ocean, it was actually a great view with all the greenage and then the ocean in the distance.

I agree that the food is fantastic, Breakfast at Alma is strong and you can order whatever you want. They have the best breakfast pastries I have had in Mexico - which I find to normally be poor given the altitude in DF and the humidity in beach resorts. They were also happy to accomodate our requests and by our second morning remembered our room number, where we liked to sit and my wife's allergies. Lunch is at the Jetty and again food is very good. You can eat at your lounger or in the actual restaurant. We had dinner at Carao three nights and Alma once. Alma was weak - service was very poor. Carao was great - and I think Pujol is overrated but like Cosme, and we did not have service issues (though Enrique Olvera was there our first night which mjay have helped). again, by our second night they remembered my wife's allergies and what we liked to drink. Three things to note about the food though - (1) it is expensive and you are basically captive and (2) there are limited options for "basic" food - specifically for dinner. You cannot just get something simple. For four nights, this was fine but if you were to stay a week, it may get tough. (3) Carao has indoor and outside seating. If you do not want to eat indoors in the current environment make sure to state this.

About the resort - As noted above, the resort itself is stunning. The beach is ok and the sand gets very hot - the beach at Imanta is better in my mind. The lounge chairs stair at the rock jetty, which is sub-optimal. But walking towards the far end of the beach is very nice and the waves are larger. At check-out, the receptionist told us that by the holiday season the second beach club is going to be ready (I believe this is shared with Rosewood?). However, also as noted above - it is massive and very hilly. This is not like the resorts in Mayakoba where you can walk/bike/buggy around. You are generally going to be in a buggy most of the time. Generally it was fine, but dinner time they clearly got backed up and we would wait 20-30 minutes. If you want to be able to walk places, I would recommend treehouses 100 & 101 which are closest to breakfast & the beach Also, the drivers like to talk to you. We did not care about this because they are nice and generally just asking about our son, but something to keep in mind if you like silence. The gym is solid with a lot of options of equipment. My only complaint there is they would not let me use the yoga studio by myself when I just wanted to stretch and was told I would have to use the gym - not sure why. I did not see the rest of the facilities.

Only for people with young children - They setup a very nice crib for us. They also brought in a changing table - but we turned this down to save on space. They provided a O&O baby shower towel (the ones that go over the head) and baby specific cleansing soap and lotions. The babysitting was hit or miss. They are all employees of the hotel as opposed to outside babysitters which we liked. However, the first women was just a young woman and was not great. The second day we got Laura who had a 9-month child of her own and she was great and came back to help us again on the 3rd day. Finally, when my son had an accident in the crib, they replaced the mattress and sheets very quickly which was appreciated.

A few final notes:
1) Internet for us worked very well - numerous Zoom calls with no problem
2) As mentioned above, there is no creamer, but there is full-fat milk in the minibar which you can use
3) Spanish is the language people greeted with us first. This was similar to Imanta and we liked it, since we are in Mexico afterall. Of course, after our first interaction with someone they always remembered to speak with us in English
4) Housekeeping is very thorough. It was a little bit of an issue for us dealing with baby nap times and zoom calls. But to give you an example - they mop the floors every day. This level of cleaning is going to take some time
5) According to the GM they were around 50% capacity over Thanksgiving. The GM did admit they are still working through some service issues, but this has too be expected given they are open for a month now. Will be curious to see how they do over xMas/NYE

Anyways - hope this helps people and happy to answer any specific questions people may have.
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