Stayed Dec 31-Jan 4.

Summary: Decent. Would not stay again.

The entrance is a ROUGH one. The rocks they installed at the entrance to the complex will knock you around considerably. Once you get through that, it’s smooth concrete but a solid 5min trip to the actual hotel from here. VERY long driveway.

Received the 3 day advance “upgrade” email prior to arrival as diamond. Next day it showed garden view was now ocean view. Arrived around 0830 morning of Dec 31 and was offered another upgrade to King swim/pool room without asking and could get to the room immediately. Obvious yes to this offer.

Room was one of the closest to lobby (rooms 1123-1140) and on “kid” side of pool and looked directly at the pool bar and close to the Mexican restaurant outdoor seating. Room pool not heated and receives sun for maybe 2-3 hours this time of year in morning. I would absolutely avoid any room between these room numbers. It is a main thoroughfare to the elevators on this half of the resort and the hallways were loud from 0700-0000 each day – mostly from small kids. Room 1130 also has an issue with the a/c. It’s either off all the time or constantly running all the time. It has an auto-shutoff feature if an exterior door is open. However, sometimes it would stay off and you’d have to open a door again to reset it. I had the temperature set to 69 deg and the temperature usually read 63deg. The one time I forgot to reset the auto-shutoff, the room was at 77deg. The toilet was the type that you have to hold the flush handle for its entirety for all of the contents to disappear. We could also never use the rain showerhead. Very low pressure and it never had hot water. We had to use the wand portion only. I don’t know if I ever had hot water out of the sink, either, now that I think of it. Also, both of our wristbands stopped working the evening of the first day. We had to eventually just get new ones when maintenance realized it was not the door lock itself. BTW, this is a big positive in that there are no key cards to keep track of.

Went to the “chill” pool on the right side of the resort (if looking at gulf/Caribbean sea) and my biggest complaint of this property is here: there is no real pool to “chill”. Kids run rampant on either side. You can’t lounge in any pool-side or in-pool loungers without being splashed with balls from kids (or some adults). My friends had asked one group twice already to move over if they were going to continue throwing a football and splashing people. Five minutes later the same football sails and hits me square on the side of the head. Their dad and I had some heated words after this. The sun goes away by about 1530 here and 1630 at the other pool due to how close it is to the building and facing east this time of year. The water temperature was perfect, fortunately. There are MANY little “chicklet” tiles that are coming loose in the pool, though. If you are in the pool and leaning on the ledge where the loungers are at, you can/will get black marks on your swimsuit or body from the grout these tiles are supposed to stick to, as well.

As most everyone else says, the beach here just isn’t great. I guess it’s just how the current is but it was a fairly consistent mix of sand/seaweed that just made the experience of being in the saltwater unappealing. The last day, we decided to use the upper-deck beach chairs for about 30min until a good number of mosquitos rallied upon us. One of the “experience” workers said that it gets bad when rain is out at sea and other places, so maybe that’s true since the last day was overcast and rainy later.

NYE event was good. Buffet was brought to a big conference/ballroom with lots of seafood and meat options. NYE event itself was upstairs in another ballroom with several drink stations. I don’t think I waited more than 3-4min in line for a drink during it.

Mexican restaurant is open for breakfast during high-occupancy timeframes and it’s definitely needed. The main buffet is in a fairly small area and can get very cramped during breakfast hours. I enjoyed being able to have breakfast at the Mexican restaurant and service is much better there.

Drink service around the pool area is very good. We tipped $1 or $2 each time and were very well taken care of. They would also bring chips and salsa/guac and extra drinks without us asking. Another highlight is the taco stand between 1100 and about 1500. GREAT tacos. The only ones better I’ve had came from a street vendor in MX City. There’s also a burger/brat/fries stand at the “entertainment” pool if you’d rather have that, which is also good. And there’s also the pool food menu with quesadillas, fish/chips, burger, and a few other things. Food from pool menu can be slow, however.

The Asian restaurant is pretty good. The grilled meats were the highlight here (perfectly seared steak, tuna, and octopus). Sushi was just not that memorable at all. I did enjoy the fried shrimp, too. Of the four or five different types of cocktails we ordered here, none were good. Stick with beer, sake, or wine at Asian.

The steak/grill restaurant did a great filet. 2 of the 3 were cooked a perfect mid-rare. The 3rd was sent back because it was more of a mid-well and noticeably not as plump/juicy. Good flavor, and 6 sauces to choose from should you go that route. I thought it was fine as-is. Avoid the lemon dessert here. We ordered cheesecake but they brought the lemon custard thing instead and it just didn’t hit right.

The Italian restaurant is up there, as well. Here or the steak place are the best two, based on our opinions. We all ordered a different entrée and each one we were impressed with. Odd that you can’t get cheesecake as a dessert at this one, though. The tiramisu was very bland so I’d pass on it.

I was fortunate to piggy-back on the reservations of friends we met for the Asian and steak places. Otherwise, I don’t know how they’re going to appease guests when you can’t make reservations at Steak or Italian until 3-4 nights in advance for a time other than 2130 or 2200. This was with a 40/50% occupancy, as well. If they’re near full-capacity, it’s going to be an issue.

The lobby bar gets a lot of action from about 1800 til close. They also keep sports on both of the big projectors in the main lobby and it looks like they stream a lot of different content, whether it EPL, NFL, or NBA. A good amount of seating all throughout the lobby, as well. Just watch out for the elevated seating areas. Those floors blend in with the regular flooring and you can EASILY trip on one of them (ask me how I know).

The coffee/snack area in the lobby is convenient and a good spot for coffee drinks. Several times I ordered a latte and took it to the lobby bar for some baileys. The pizza here is just ok. Much better in the Italian restaurant.

At the ice cream place near the Asian restaurant, the only ice cream they had was soft serve from a machine. No hand-dipped or anything. Quite a few toppings to add, though. And the churros here were VERY good!

Check in/out looked to be overwhelmed. There’s one bank of 4 computers on one side and another bank of 3 on the other. I only saw two agents working on the 3 side until my last full day there (the least crowded day, oddly). No fewer than 5 or 6 people in line most every time I walked through the lobby, which was easily 10+ times a day.

Service by most everyone is good, as it is with most of these upper-tier A/I resorts. The only place it lacked was in the breakfast buffet and I think that was just due to staffing. Most everyone seems eager to please/serve.

The complex itself is aesthetically pleasing. Interior design did great with the general feel of the place.

COVID testing needs to be improved (compared to Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana and Cancun). You fill out an 18 line form and then wait for an email as to when your appointment is. The entire testing process took at least 1.5 hours. Only ONE person entering passport information for every person being tested. They also do the swabbing in the same small registration room. This is done in the conference area wing that is still being constructed (connecting to the Waldorf) so no a/c over here either.

I wanted to take advantage of the 0900/1200/1500 shuttle into Cancun but never had the time to. I overheard that a number of taxis do not know where the Hilton is, so you may have trouble getting back to the resort if you were to venture into Cancun later in the night. And the rates will be $60+.

Overall, although it’s a solid property for being such a new opening, it’s not a property I’m coming back to. I used four free Aspire nights that had built up and delayed using over the past two years, so I’m very glad this was not an expensive stay for me. When I come to a place like this, it’s to mostly relax and be fat, dumb, and happy with the drinks and food that come with it. It would be an automatic upgrade should they decide to make the chill pool adults-only, which is absolutely needed. If you’re a family and bringing kids, then maybe this is more of a desirable spot to come to. But with some of the room issues and literally not one spot in the entire resort where you can chill out and relax without kids being around, it’s just not for me and a few others I came with or met while there.