TerryK

It is self service in Club Lounge. You can pour the whole bottle if you want.

jayzee

anybody with experience know how strict they are with enforcing charges for a toddler? I'm thinking about going and bringing my son who will turn 3 2 weeks before the trip. It seems kind of outrageous to charge him the equivalent of an adult when he won't drink and will eat barely anything.

aba030

We recently (last month) went with my 2 year old son, and we were not asked to show his passport.

dprocuk

What did you guy do for transportation to/from resort? Did you do a rental car, or did you arrange for transportation with your 2 year old son?

If you arranged for transportation, did you do private or shared? with which company?

If shared, how was it with the car seat and shared van? What stop is the Ziva en route to zone 1 hotels?

Thanks!

Preacher7

I'm very interested in the answer to this too. Am considering a 3 night stay in February, but have no idea whatsoever of how to get to and from the airport to the Ziva!

cmjaffe

from a relaxing, weeklong stay. transport is easy. taxi from airport is around $60 so you might look into making arrangements with concierge at hotel. return taxi to airport is only $25. seems that there are different companies have different contracted rates. will post review of our experience later this week when I finally get chance. was pleased with diamond recognition (was very helpful with getting dinner reservations as well as great award room view and location.

dprocuk

We took private shuttle with Victor's transport (high recommendation from TripAdvisor and others). Pricing was $60 each way. We had the same driver from and to the airport, and driver had cold bottled water and beers available for us. It was a very clean Chevy Suburban.

I would use Victor again if going back. If booking directly with hotel for private transfer, the company they use is $150.

Private transfer isn't necessary, as the drive is fairly quick and the road infrastructure is perfectly fine, unlike other parts of Mexico.

A shared ride van will be the cheapest option, and suitable if looking to save money. If looking for comfort, cold beers, and direct transfer, why not go private for the extra money.

cmjaffe

fOR $60 use victor going to the airport... but for your return home just grab a taxi from the hotel... which will be a white minivan ... you can bring a drink while you exit the hotel, and it will cost only $25
JMHO

cdancer20

So what does this equate two with the new room types? There is no more "junior ziva" and they are 2 levels better the cheapest time room and oceanview (i.e. pool view). I'm looking at this hotel and I have a DSU that I probably don't have any other immediate use for. I'm wondering if it's worth using a DSU just to guarantee that I get an oceanview room vs just waiting until check in. (Probably Apr/May)

dprocuk

Children under 3 are free. Although morally wrong, how strictly is this enforced?

Anyone brought their three year old and booked them as under 3?

As mommy points and others have stated before, it's crazy that a 3 year old is an additional 10,000 GP points, just as an additional adult is, when the child will not eat nearly as much and won't have any alcohol. It is somewhat helpful if paying cash that a child from 3-12 is charged less than 13+, however, a 3 year old certainly isn't consuming over $100 per day in additional resort food and amenities.

This may make or break our decision to return to the resort. I'd be ok even with 5,000 additional points, but 10,000 is steep for a 3 year old.

cdancer20

The question is, will they make you show them a passport for the child. I assume that they look close enough to 2 that they can pass? Yes, I agree it's morally wrong but we've done similar things in our family before LOL. Tell my nephew that he's 9, not 10, when going into Disney World. However, the next time we couldn't fake it since he looked his age.

TechieTravels

Just returned from a 3 night stay here. Here's my quick review:

We set up shared shuttle transportation via the hotel. The cost was $28 USD round trip per person which was comparable to what I found exploring transportation companies. I emailed "[email protected]" requesting transportation and they sent the forms to be completed.

I used a DSU and was upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite. I think the actual room name was "Hyatt Ziva Ocean View Two Bedroom Master Suite". When calling in to request the DSU, I was informed that I would be in a Ocean View King (one category upgrade). Not sure if the additional upgrade was because I used the DSU, diamond status, or for room availability reasons. There were two large groups staying at the hotel while we were there so that may have played into the upgrade.

Other diamond benefits included:

• 20% off spa and romantic dinners
• Access to club lounge with premium alcohol
• Ability to make reservations at a la carte restaurants
• Tequila and wine tastings

The weather was beautiful while we were there - mid 80s and sunny. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and immaculately maintained. Lounge chairs were plentiful - we never had any problems finding 2 together. Plenty of options in both the sun and shade. Waiters came around every so often to take drink orders. As others have mentioned, there are only two heated pools - the adults pool and the infinity pool by the beach with the swim up bar. While we were there, the infinity pool was more of the spring break scene while the adult pool was more laid back.

We ate at the Italian restaurant, the Japanese restaurant, and the French restaurant. All were great, but my favorite was the Japanese. The ability to make reservations was a life saver as people were being told 90 minute waits for restaurants one night (Saturday). Other days, there didn't appear to be much of a wait. Buffet was fine for breakfast and lunch. There was also a snack bar serving Mexican dishes and ceviche that was excellent.

We booked an excursion to go whale watching through the activities desk. Got to see a whale "twerking" (slapping tail) and had a wonderful time. Picked up and dropped off right at hotel.

Only problem was being double charged for the airport transfer which was a little bit difficult to catch due to the final invoice being in pesos after being quoted in USD. However, the issue was quickly resolved.

All-in-all had a wonderful time and would definitely return.

imm2b

We were there last week. Out of the 3 restaurants. Italian was the best and Japanese was the worst. May be we're spoiled by the good Japanese restaurants in the Bay area.

At the Japanese restaurant, they allowed us to order sashimi while seating at the Hibachi table. At first, they told us we had to seat at Sushi bar in order to order sahimi. But the restaurant manager made an exception for us. Sashimi was grocery store quality. While Teppanyaki food was too salty and no flavor. Though, we knew coming in, but it was one of the worst Japanese food we ever had. We did Teppanyaki mainly for the show (underwhelmed) and we're very disappointed.

The Italian restaurant was surprisingly good so we came back the next day for lunch. The French restaurant was good, but one of the seafood dishes was too salty. Our taste is on the saltier side and even so we couldn't eat it. Ended up order some side dishes in lieu of our dinner.

The breakfast buffet is below average. No quality in any of the dishes. We ended up grabbing a bagels in the lobby cafe the next two mornings.

We like the snacks bar at locomoco. Good Mexican fares and quick service.

Overall, it was our first time doing all-inclusive. Service was excellent, especially when tipping generously. We have mixed feeling, on one hand, we like the feeling of not having to worry about where to eat and the free flowing alcohol. But given the low quality of the food offerings, we probably won't be back.

imm2b

Taxi is a cartel. We did the exact same thing going back with taxi in a big suburban SUV. Though, $25 is max of 4 people. $6 more for each additional guest.

Jimgotkp

Just got back with the family as well. Had two rooms w/ one of them being upgraded to an Oceanview King Master Suite. The two rooms were connected so it was basically a 2 BR (1 King & 2 Double) Suite which was very nice. (Have a family member who is Diamond and he didn't use a DSU). Not sure if the upgrade for one of the rooms was because of very poor response times when we e-mailed Cesar, the Guest Services Mgr.

Restaurant-wise, we didn't try any of the buffets for breakfast. We did room service instead. The quality of the room service food for breakfast isn't great, it's just okay. For lunch, we tried La Plaza and Hacienda. Both of them are just average with La Plaza being the better option due to them having more variety. Recommend going to Coco Loco for some tacos instead. For dinner, we tried Hacienda, DoZo, Bon Vivant, and El Molino. Hacienda was fine but the wait time to get steaks was pretty long. DoZo was horrible and I don't recommend it due to poor quality of food and service. El Molino was pretty bad as well since most of the food was cold. Bon Vivant was probably the best restaurant for dinner. Sadly, we didn't get to try the Italian restaurant as they had long wait times on our final night.

Have to say this property was pretty good overall. Much better than Rose Hall in terms of service and quality of rooms. If the F&B improves over here, this place would be one of the best values at 25K per night.