Beachchaser

I am here currently the rate iirc is $56 per person and covers you for a 10 day quarantine and includes room, room service food and non alcoholic beverages.

Warriorconcept

Thanks so much! How's the seaweed/weather?

coleslaw

Its worth noting that it includes *a* room (not necessarily the room you booked into / are staying in before a positive result). As of early 2021 they were using a specific section of the hotel for quarantine. You also don’t get daily cleaning (understandably).

strickerj

Calling you out on an inflammatory comment isn't bullying or silencing you. No one minds that you didn't find the place to your taste, but a sweeping generalization of a country of 300M+ people is uncalled for. Doing so to any other nationality/ethnicity/culture would likely not be accepted here. That's all my issue is.

The last couple posts reminded me, is there anywhere you can book that COVID quarantine insurance online or do you have to contact them? (I've seen no mention of it on the website.)

coleslaw

It's offered at check in. You can maybe email them in advance to ask whether they're still offering it at the time of your stay, but you don't need to pre-book.

strickerj

That's what I was hoping for. I'm hoping I'll be offered a reasonably priced upgrade to Turquoise Tower like last time (couldn't book it directly since I used points).

zbeebo

I also had a points booking. I called the front desk and asked for a paid upgrade. they charged me $120 a night to upgrade to the turquoise room. I checked avaialblity online first .. the first time i checked, they didn't have anything. then Yesterday i checked, i found something and called.

bostontraveler

Ok let me try to explain this to you another way. Try to suspend your judgment for a moment and hear me out.

No. There is no insult against 330 million Americans- and by the way I am also American. I have lived abroad for 20+ years. It's a huge country with lots of different people who behave differently. Not everyone is boorish. But as in any country, there are certain behavioral norms.

First, it is no secret that Americans are loud. Ask any foreigner. Ask any American who lives overseas. It drives people bonkers. Heck, it drives me bonkers when I go back to the US.
Environments are also extremely loud. There are TVs and loud music everywhere in public places...restaurants, lobbies, etc etc etc, you name it.
Then there are customs like walking around with food and drinks in your hands, putting your feet on furniture, etc... which people don't seem to consider the least bit offensive. As a child, if I did that I would have been grounded on the spot.

When I speak of a lack of perspective I mean it in the true sense. Most Americans are used to that level of volume and that kind of behavior and don't see anything wrong with it. That's what I mean about not having perspective. That is what many of you see as normal whereas elsewhere in the world it is not.

It's difficult to have this kind of conversation with Americans because even the slightest criticism (FYI, criticism of your own is ALSO a good thing!) immediately spurs the kind of rage we saw here... that American exceptionalism comes right out. Most other countries laugh at their own people traveling abroad!

I may have had a particularly bad crowd from the 330 million of us when I was there but I found the competing blaring music at a crowded pool, bad food, a room that wasn't up to par... a lobby full of drunk frat girls drinking beer and screaming "woo hoo", loud boorish people...it wasn't my cup of tea.

So no, that doesn't make me better than anyone. It makes my *perspective* different from many of yours. Period.

Enough has been said on this point... it really belongs in OMNI at this point.

With respect to your final point about booking that insurance you cannot book that online. It's an upsell at the property.

strickerj

Thanks; I think I understand better where you're coming from. I don't care for noisy environments either, which I think makes me a bit unusual in the U.S. I didn't find the Ziva to be that way, but it was pretty empty when I was there. We'll see how it is on my next trip - if it's as you describe, maybe the Zilara will be more to my taste.

I'll send an email in a few weeks and ask about a (paid) upgrade. (My trip isn't until September so I'm not sure there's a point to doing this now, and potentially ending up with a nonrefundable upgrade.)

PortlySpartacus

Ok, so I get where you are coming from but its also obvious that you see and experience things through your 'American filter'. I'm not doubting that you witnessed activity at the Ziva that you found unappealing. But you also have boiled down an entire country into one single perspective....that Americans are loud.

So, its no surprise that you experience Americans as being loud and rowdy because that's how you see it. Its funny how we experience things in life and see things in life based on our own filters. Like when you are interested in buying a new car, like a Mini Cooper, and suddenly you start seeing Mini's everywhere you go.

The same type of descriptive generalization has been said about French people, that they are rude. I remember, many years ago, my first trip to Paris. Guess what, all the French people were rude. Oh, and I do mean all of them. Everywhere I went they were cold, off putting and downright snobby. Then I started to learn more about their culture, understand their language a little more, and visit more often. I started to understand that French people aren't any ruder than people from any other country. The French people are more formal while Americans are more informal. This helped me in understanding how I interacted with the French people.

Understanding this helped me to appreciate and enjoy my experiences in France and not be so quick to just describe every encounter with a French person as rude. If you see Americans as only loud and obnoxious then that is exactly how they show up in your life.

bloc0102

Looks like $49/person, have to scroll down a ways.

https://www.playaresorts.com/covid-19-updates

br0wntown

This might have been mentioned before in 59 pages of review but if you search for an infant less than 2 via point booking on their website they never return with available dates. It took me a while to realize i just have to book 2 adults then add the infant on through a phone call.

Also has anyone traveled here late august?
I went in November last year and although it was pretty empty and quiet (which was great) it was also rainy season )

hoipolloi

they didn't charge me for my 3 year old daughter. I booked for two adults using points

alxyng

Same here. I booked a corner suite on points for two adults (won't let me book otherwise), and check-in with 2 kids over three Yo. Surprisingly, nothing showed up on checkout.

Superkittyfiah

that’s great, last year for thanksgiving we were also not charged for my 3 year old. He will be 4 this year and hoping for the same result. How old were your kids if you don’t mind me asking? And are you globalists? I can’t seem to figure out the pattern for why some peoole are waived the fees and others are not.