FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Hilton Vallarta Riviera All-Inclusive Resort
Old Feb 19, 2023 | 4:58 pm
  #39  
LRobs
All eyes on you!
5 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 102
Wrapping up my 2nd stay here, the first was pretty recently after it joined Hilton and several things have changed since then and other things are still changing. As a diamond, we were upgraded to a room on the 13th floor. All non-suite rooms are the same so the only 'upgrade' is the higher floor. We were offered an upgrade to a Governor suite for $300/nt but declined. We traveled with 3 other couples/families who were all diamond. One was given a room on the 3rd floor. Aside Any room around floor 4+ should have an unobstructed view of the sea, which is really, really lovely. The views at this hotel are much better than at the Conrad Punta de Mita.
Service was reasonably good. Food is hit or miss. The breakfast in the club lounge was quite awful but the breakfast buffet at the main restaurant was quite good. The refried beans were some of the best I've ever had, and I live in Texas. Oddly, the only bacon is at the omelet station so you have to wait in line for it. They also had a scratch-made tortilla/quesadilla station at breakfast with a slow moving line but worth the wait, in my view. Lunch at Cocomar was fairly good for things like ceviche. Dinner at the Italian restaurant had comically slow service, it took almost 2 hours to have dinner. Service at the sushi restaurant off the lobby was also very, very slow but considering it was at an all inclusive in Mexico, the sushi was surprisingly decent. Like I wouldn't seek it out but it was good under the circumstances. The best meal we had was definitely Mexican night which is on Fridays I think. Great food, great service, and lots of fun.
The bars start closing at like 8p, 9p, 10p, 11p, and then finally the lobby bar closes at 1a. The lobby bar is a weird vibe for people to be getting wild late into the night, I found it weird that was the final bar to close and it was quite busy at 11:30p as it is the only option.
Guests with club lounge access get "top-shelf" drinks at in the lounge from 6-8p which includes things like Jack Daniels Single Barrel and Johnnie Walker Black. It was unclear to me if you could get these at any bar that had them by virtue of your wristband but only the club lounge and lobby bar has those I think. We went to the Martini bar (closest at 11p) and it wasn't really better equipped for Martini-making that any other bar. They didn't have Lillet Blanc to make a Vesper, for example, and seemed to lack traditional Martini garnishes like blue cheese olives or lemons. The bartender did cut some lime peel into my Martini for me. All I am saying here is that the names of the bars don't mean anything, they are all just the same bar in different places.
Highlights:
  • Amazing view throughout property and from every room on floors 4+
  • Reliably decent availability on points where a 5 night stay will get you over .5cpp typically
  • Decent food for an AI
  • Excellent beach
  • All bars have name brand liquor like Bacardi, Ketel One, etc included
  • Can order room service in the web app
Lowlights:
  • Smaller rooms than, e.g. the Conrad Punta de Mita
  • Unlike other high end hotels in the area there were not trained falcons scaring off the small birds so grackles and crows would swoop in and try to steal your fries
  • Incredibly slow service at the featured restaurants and for room service (at (9:30a scheduled room service lunch for noon, arrived after 12:30)
  • Small bathrooms, very narrow toilet area, shower door has no seal so water leaks
  • Maid service was spotty, towels sometimes not restocked, floor kind of sticky, etc
Overall it is a decent redemption in a beautiful setting. We were looking to book 4 rooms for 11 people all on points and during peak season (holiday weekend during whale season) so hard to beat that.
LRobs is offline