I stayed at the Secrets Impression Moxché (SIM) recently on points and wanted to share my experience since the property seems to be getting some attention as a notably good value per point, at least in nominal terms.

It was my first time at an all-inclusive like this, and I suspect many other FlyerTalkers also don't frequent the space, so I was a bit nervous going in, but I ended up enjoying our stay. I wouldn't necessarily return just because I don't often go back to the same resorts twice, but I'd gladly recommend it on points for most people at current prices. 

I have much more to say below, but my shortest version of that recommendation is: if you would be comfortable with the idea of staying at, say, a Marriott- or Sheraton-branded resort and staying on property the entire trip, you'd probably enjoy it here. (Maybe even Westin-branded, but I don't want to over-promise, despite the hotel using the word "luxury" to describe itself a lot.)

If you can't imagine staying at anything less than the Park Hyatt/Ritz/Four Seasons etc., or can't imagine staying on property the entire trip (or, specifically can't imagine staying on property the entire trip when staying at a brand less than the Park Hyatt/Ritz/Four Seasons), it's not for you.

The resort

Impression is a new higher-end sub-brand of Secrets, with this being the first one and another one opening on Isla Mujeres soon. Like Secrets, it is an adults only resort.

This one is also a hotel-within-a-hotel on the grounds of the Secrets Moxche (SM) (the Isla Mujeres location will be standalone Impression), with Impression guests having access to some dedicated facilities as well as all of the main SM resort facilities, and the main differences that i could gather seemed to be:

• SIM rooms appeared to be larger
• SIM guests have access to a "butler" who can help with various requests
• There are several dedicated Impression pools and a dedicated beach club area, with a couple of dedicated restaurants attached to those areas; the Impression pools were much less crowded than the ones in the shared areas
• Impression bars, including those at the pools and the bar in the lobby, offer a slightly higher-end alcohol selection. The alcohol lineup at the Impression lobby bar, which seemed to be replicated at other Impression venues, can be seen below; the bars in the rest of Secrets lacked some of the higher-end options, including Grey Goose, Patron, Johnnie Walker Black, Maker's Mark, and others. (Impression guests ordering at the regular Secrets venues can only order from the more limited selection, though you can order at an Impression bar and bring the drink with you elsewhere if you want. It did not appear there were any "well"/"call" liquors below the ones displayed.)
  
  
• I am not sure but it seemed like the food quality at the Impression restaurants was somewhat higher than elsewhere, using somewhat more premium ingredients (for example a "Waygu burger", which was good though I certainly wouldn't have known it was Waygu from a taste test)
• There was a small selection of club lounge-like snacks available in the SIM lobby throughout the day (though of course you can also get unlimited food at SM, you just might have to work a bit more for it)
• Impression guests also get access to the rooftop pool at the regular SM building, which is limited to certain categories of guests there

The central area of the resort from the rooftop of SM, with the rest of the SM building on the right and the Impression building on the left (there are also numerous additional pools in the central area that you can't see in this photo):

Who is this place for

As I mentioned I had not stayed in an all-inclusive like this before and frankly I kind of looked down on them. (Example of how I looked down on them: I say "like this" because I have stayed at places like luxury safari lodges and an Australian luxury lodge, Saffire Freycinet, which were in fact all-inclusive, though I wouldn't think of them at all in the same category as this.)

I don't intend to frequent them going forward, and might not even try another non-Impression Secrets property, but I was generally pleased with this property in the end. For this trip, I had been wanting to go somewhere warm using points, and my leading candidate was the Andaz Mayakoba, which would have cost about the same number of points as the SIM without having included food and drink, and I think this was the better choice -- I haven't stayed at the Andaz but I have stayed at the Banyan Tree Mayakoba, so I have a sense of what Mayakoba has to offer, and other than a more compact "campus", I thought SIM was a reasonably similar experience to what the Andaz might have been (especially as I didn't find the food at Mayakoba to be anything exceptional, and it is expensive at that). And checking out of a resort hotel I paid for with points to have a $0 balance due after eating and drinking all week was admittedly pretty nice.

That said, if I was going to pay the asking ~$1500/nt cash rate for my stay at SIM, I would definitely have preferred to either pay much less cash to stay at the Andaz, even after F&B costs, or pay about the same amount for a much more elaborate villa at the Banyan Tree (again even after F&B costs).

As of now, the SIM and SM seem to cost the same amount on points, and for as long as that remains the case, it is a no-brainer to book SIM and not SM.

All that said, some specifics on who the SIM is for, and not for:

• If you are otherwise considering something like Mayakoba where you're going to a resort to stay on property pretty much the entire time, then SIM could work; if you'd prefer to do something like the Grand Hyatt Playa del Carmen where you can easily go out to eat at other venues and/or you really want to explore, find the best tacos in town, etc., then SIM is probably not for you
• I thought the SIM and even SM lineup of hard liquor was decent enough, but the wines on offer (without paying extra) were IMO pretty terrible, so if you really want to drink wine, I wouldn't stay here
• More on food below, but if you want to have "luxury" food -- steaks, lobster, etc -- you won't find much of that here
• If you have ever been curious about going on a cruise but are horrified by the logistics, in many ways this was kind of like going on a cruise on land ... in addition to the endless food options, there were also lots of activities organized by the resort, and nightly live entertainment shows (many of which were sort of mini-Cirque du Soleil style, and which weren't Broadway but were fun enough for the marginal price of $0)

In terms of the clientele, it seemed pretty similar to what I might expect at any upscale resort in Mexico, with a lot of couples in their 20s-40s, as well as a few older couples. I read some reviews online that said the crowd was very fratty, which was not my experience, and others that said that it was a wedding factory, which was also not my experience, so I guess it can vary when you go. We were also there during the week, so I can imagine it may be busier for a weekend stay.

The resort is a bit closer to Playa del Carmen than Mayakoba is, but it is not really plausible to walk into/around town from here, unlike from the Grand Hyatt.

Room

All base rooms at the SIM are a decent size in a junior suite-type layout, with a balcony including at least a hot tub. Like many resorts all of the balconies face toward the ocean at an angle, so I am not sure which rooms would be considered truly the "tropical view" options vs. ocean view.

I used TSUs to confirm an upgrade to a standard suite, which here is the Signature Suite Ocean Front, which is the exact same room as the standard room other than the view and location, so it is perhaps not a particularly great use of TSUs.

However, I reached out to the hotel in advance of my stay to inquire about changing to a Signature Suite Swim-Out Tropical View, which is listed above the Ocean Front room in the order on the website, but which seems to typically go for a bit less in cash, and they were happy to "downgrade" me to the swim-out room, which had a large heated private pool, and which I would consider ultimately a good choice.

That said, my room was facing south toward the main resort and so we got plenty of sun in our private pool during the day, but there were also swim-out rooms on the north side of the building which never get any sun this time of year, so I would have been much less impressed if we had been assigned one of those, and it doesn't appear the room categories make any distinction between the two sides.

In terms of other room amenities:

• Bathroom is large with a big bathtub and nice separate shower, and toilet in an enclosed WC. Bathroom lighting is atmospheric and flattering, which is to say completely useless for things like styling hair, shaving, and applying makeup.
• Toiletries seemed nice and were extensive, including SPF 15 sun lotion and bug spray.
• Bed was comfortable. 
• Minibar is included, and comes with waters, sodas, some Sol beer, the same awful wine as available elsewhere, and M&Ms, Pringles and pretzels. All are replenished daily. 
• The large TV has Netflix and Youtube built in, but annoyingly does not offer any way to plug in your own entertainment (no easy way to access HDMI ports, and no input change button on the remote even if you could). The TV channels also seem to have a thing where you can go back and watch what was on most live TV channels within the past few hours, which is nice enough, though it is only the Mexican version of most channels. Oddly, there also seemed to be a few hardcore porn channels included in the channel lineup for free?

The balconies of the standard Impression rooms (other than the bottom floor, which are swim-up rooms):

The ocean front side of the Impression building, with the narrow column being the Signature Ocean Front Suites:

Two views of the pool for the Swim-Up suites -- one from the room, and then one from the public paths for one suite that had a particularly unfortunate break in the foliage; most of them (including ours) were better shielded than this, though it is certainly not completely private

Dining

I could be called a foodie, so I was most nervous about the food going in, and overall I was pleasantly surprised. Nothing we ate was exceptional, but it was generally good; I didn't feel like I was eating food substantially below the standard I would normally be eating on vacation. The Mexican food is certainly not the best in Mexico, but I thought it was consistently quite a bit better than what you can get at 90% of Mexican restaurants in the US.

A few overall notes on dining:

• Reservations are not required (except for a few premium dining options), and we had no trouble getting seats right away upon walking in to any of the restaurants except for Bamboo, the "pan-Asian" restaurant, which is quite a bit smaller than the others.
• There are a few dining events each week, including during our stay a "Tour of Mexico" dinner event with food, drink, performances, and art set up around some of the pool areas representing a few different regions of Mexico, and an "Asado" grilled meats event. The food at those was hit or miss (though some of the Tour of Mexico food was very good), though of course you could always graze through and head straight to a restaurant if the event isn't to your liking.
• There is somewhat more information about the restaurants in the Hyatt Inclusive Collection iPhone app (a lightly rebranded AMR app -- Ziva and Zilara aren't included yet, for example), and a tablet in the room which provides more information and menus, although the app and the tablet didn't always agree on opening hours so worth double-checking if there's anything you're particularly set on.
• Along the same lines, there is a somewhat complicated dress code system for the various restaurants, which is made more complicated by having sometimes-conflicting information across the hotel website, the app, and the in-room tablet. The biggest constraint I found is that men are not supposed to wear shorts or flip-flops at dinner, which I have certainly done (and not felt especially out of place) at other beach resorts equal to or nicer than this one, so I found that a bit annoying, though the app--but not the other two sources--seems to suggest that maybe shorts are in fact okay for dinner if sitting outdoors, which would be more reasonable.
• You will not go hungry. In addition to the numerous restaurant options, carts are set up on one of the main pathways each night (in SM) with tacos and crepes, and there is also a 24-hour coffee shop (again in SM) which serves various snacks and pastries. There is also room service included, which we did not try, but the menu looked relatively basic (and I believe can be seen on the app).
• As I mentioned above, the quality is reasonable, though the seams do show sometimes toward the higher end ... I noticed that when ordering some of the dishes with higher-end ingredients, either portions would be very small (a hamachi sashimi on the Impression rooftop was very good, but a tiny portion) or quality would be questionable (i did not finish a tuna tartare at the Japanese restaurant as the fish had no taste).
• Portions were on the small side in general, but there was no issue ordering additional courses, or if you wanted even going to a second meal elsewhere.
• There is a buffet breakfast at SM (which also has a lunch service, which I didn't try), and it was extensive and generally pretty good, with quality similar to what I might expect at a Sheraton restaurant breakfast, just the widest-variety version of that. There is also made-to-order breakfast at the SM rooftop and Impression beach club, which we did not try (and which means that "regular" SM guests have only the buffet option for breakfast).

As for the restaurants, we tried the Mexican restaurant, the Japanese restaurant, the pan-Asian restaurant, as well as the beach club and rooftop restaurants at Impression.

I don't know how long they'll work for (and can't figure out how to add proper links in the review interface), but for now these links should take you to the menus of the Japanese restaurant:

https://qrcgcustomers.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/account23070986/33449426_2.pdf?0.8189247572789791

The Mexican restaurant:

https://qrcgcustomers.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/account23070986/33449103_1.pdf?0.9837803682651887

And the lunch menu at the Impression Beach club:

https://qrcgcustomers.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/account23070986/33450478_1.pdf?0.64319996691957

I didn't take pictures of all of our food, but a few samples:

Ceviche at Impression Beach Club

"Catch of the Day" at Impression Beach Club:
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Udon noodles at the Japanese restaurant:

Quinoa bowl for lunch at the Impression rooftop:

Salmon and shrimp at the Impression Beach Club:

Drinking

Worth a separate section for an all-inclusive property. Some thoughts:

• As mentioned above, the included wine was really very terrible, and appeared to be the same between SM and SIM.
• Liquor was reasonable quality (see notes above). I didn't think there was any evidence of drinks being watered down or anything like that. They did measure booze for cocktails which meant some were weak by some US standards, but they were happy to pour doubles if requested, and personally I don't mind not getting smashed while laying in the sun, but I know not everyone feels that way.
• There was an option at check-in (I think for all SIM guests) for a bottle of liquor for the room as well, with the options of vodka, tequila, white rum, or aged rum. We chose aged rum and received a 375mL bottle of Flor de Caña, a relatively premium brand (that was I think at SIM but not SM), so I assume the vodka and tequila would be similar.
• I didn't have beer, but it appeared there was a selection of a few basic mass-market options.
• One thing I did find odd and annoying was that there weren't generally cocktail menus available; they were happy to make standards like margaritas, pina coladas and mojitos, but never offered a list to choose from or to jog your memory of anything you might like to try. Some of the restaurants did have a couple of signature cocktails on offer, and there was usually a signature cocktail being suggested at the bar leading into the theater, but the pool areas and lobby bars did not have any sort of menu.

Service

Service was generally very good across the hotel, and all of the staff were consistently friendly and helpful, as I find to be pretty common in Mexico.

The service standards were similar to what I might expect from a Westin or an Andaz, which is to say they delivered on things like not dropping the ball on any requests, and staff members being able to answer questions about things outside their direct area of responsibility. The "butler service" at Impression was mostly a gimmick, as you might expect, but it was helpful to have a single point of contact for queries.

Despite marketing this as a "luxury" property, they did not attempt some of the things I might expect from true high-end luxury resorts, like staff members who you haven't met knowing your name, or making a point to conduct housekeeping while you are accounted for at a restaurant.

Resort facilities

There are over a dozen different pools at SM, offering just about any style, depth, vibe, and temperature of pool you could be looking for, with drink service to your seat throughout (and two swim-up bars). That said, seating at the most popular pools did fill up -- not like a 6am scramble for chairs situation, but seats were gone by noon. There were always some of the quieter pool areas at SM that still had seats during our stay (not sure what occupancy rates were), but it was nice to have access to SIM where the pools were often nearly empty, so there was plenty of choice of seating. And SIM itself had a good selection of pool options, with two large pools and two hot tubs on the roof, and two large pools and a hot tub near the beach club area.

As is common in the area, the beach is not great for swimming, with lots of seaweed and other detritus in the water. There are plenty of options if you just want to have your feet in the sand while swimming in a pool though.

The gym was decent, but did get very busy some mornings of my trip, which I imagine will vary with the clientele on site at any given time. There were about 10 cardio machines, dumbbells up to 50lbs, a cable station, and a few dedicated weight machines.