ng_iint

I'm sure this property has been discussed before, but I haven't seen any threads on it. Can anyone give me likes, dislikes things to do etc.?
Already booked there on points for next year and looking for candid information.
Thanks

RFTraveler

I haven't been there either (considering it...) but realize that this property is in San Jose del Cabo, not in Cabo San Lucas. This may not matter to you, unless you are counting on being in the "real" Cabo...which is 15 or 20 miles to the south.

When I went to Cabo several years ago, I remember SJD as being more of a real town (just passing through) whereas Cabo is a resort town.

Count on a bit of a drive to see the arches, the Cabo Wabo nightclub etc.

RFTraveler

ng_iint

Thanks for the responce. Yep, I knew it was up the coast and looks like a interesting area.
Anyone else?

TravelLawyer

I stayed there for my honeymoon in 2003 and split half with the Hilton Los Cabos. Amazing property then, but it was brand spanking new. When we booked, it was actually the Faro del Cabo, but I guess it changed hands prior to our arrival. We thought we went to the wrong place! We were on the all-inclusive package. Anyway, it was our honeymoon so we paid for an Ocean Front Suite. The view was awesome, but the beds were a little hard. Um, the food was amazing, but drinks were call drinks with brands I've never even heard of before. It was a little quiet when we went, but all in all, it was a good time.

TravelLawyer

P.S. Cab rides to Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Del Cabo are steep, so be prepared.

ng_iint

Thanks Atomic

Did you post a review somewhere else about this property? I think I've read it before, but with more details.

xpacific

I just posted a trip report on the IC Los Cabos which is next-door to the CP (that is, excepting between the properties there is now another resort going up, so be advised you may hear some construction noise).
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=515080

The only comment I can make regarding the CP is that it shares the same beach with the IC, and thus you will likely NOT be able to go into the water due to unsafe surf conditions which constantly pound the area. However, there is the Santa Maria beach just a short drive or bus ride from the property, which you will find has excellent swimming and snorkeling. Bring beach shoes, however, as the sand at Santa Maria is kind of rocky.

You might check out www.tripadvisor.com for reviews of the CP. We met one couple who was staying there who reported that the place was great, and the all-inclusive food was excellent.

sonora

I also posted in the thread started by the previous poster, my comparison of the IC and CP in Cabo. We have stayed at both.

ng_iint

Thanks for the replies and what a great review.

To stop confusion and limit the number of threads covering the same subject, will the moderator please close this thread I started since the other thread contains more of a wealth of information.

Thanks again

Sweet Willie

I made the choice to save points and went with the CP, doubt I'll return as there were just too many things wrong and no attention given to my PC Plat status.


I walked all over the CP resort and took notes of the rooms and their numbers, there are 5 suites at the CP.

The CP is made up of 3 primary buildings, a main building that runs parallel to the ocean, the main building contains the lobby, and all but two of the restaurants. The other two buildings are wings that run perpendicular to the beach, So picture a big U with the top of the U being closest to the ocean/beach and the bottom of the U being farthest away from the ocean/beach.

As mentioned there are 5 suites on the CP property, 3 are in the main building (President's Suite room #1604, and two others rooms 1609 and 1617) and 2 are in the wing to the right as one faces the ocean from the Lobby. These two (#3591 and #3595) are right on the ocean and truly face the ocean, most rooms are at an angle (so all can be considered ocean view)

The main building has three floors of rooms 1400, 1500, 1600 level with the 1600 being the top floor. The rooms run from XX01 on the far right hand side of the the main building (again when facing the ocean) to XX25 on the far right hand side. XX01, XX02, XX24, & XX25 all have larger than normal balconies, but all XX01, XX02 look directly into the left hand side wing so not great rooms. The XX24 rooms looks directly into the right hand side wing so not so good, the XX25 rooms however while they look into the right hand wing, also have a partial wall to the west that at least allows for the sun and a view of the ocean over the currently undeveloped piece of property to the west of the CP. I could not hear the ocean in the dead of night from the main building so I don't believe I would have enjoyed staying in these rooms, PLUS the lobby bar area is very loud, till very late, so rooms 1401 through 1415 would be right above this very noisy area.

As far as the two wings go, they both have 5 floors of rooms.

The left hand wing is odd-numbered 2X01 through 2X25 down the left hand side of the wing and even-numbered 2X02 through 2X24 down the right hand side of the wing. The higher the last two digits, the closer one is to the beach/ocean. The higher the first two numbers, the higher the floor 21XX being the first floor and 25XX being the top floor. Most of the odd numbered rooms in the left wing are angled and overlook the roofs or look into a resort that is 20' from the CP, NOT a good choice of rooms. The even numbered rooms in the left wing look over the pool areas.

The right hand wing is odd-numbered 3X01 through 3X25 down the right hand side of the wing and even-numbered 3X02 through 3X24 down the left hand side of the wing. The higher the last two digits, the closer one is to the beach/ocean. The higher the first two numbers, the higher the floor 31XX being the first floor and 35XX being the top floor. The even numbered rooms in the right wing look over the pool areas. The odd numbered rooms in the right wing overlook a vacant lot to the west of the CP and if one had to choose a regular room, the odd numbered rooms would be the best IMO.

The Best rooms at the CP are those that are not angled, are on the end of the wings and face directly onto the ocean. These rooms have a different numbering system, there are five floors of these rooms (219X to 259X) in the left wing. 2X95 being the rooms to the very left of the wing to 2X91 being the very right of the wing. There are only three floors of these rooms (339X to 359X) in the right wing. 3X95 being the rooms to the very right of the wing to 3X91 being the very right of the wing. These rooms of this wing are directly above the beachside restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch, FYI.

Arrived into Cabo at 6pm after our flight was delayed. Taxi wanted $55 US to drive to the CP, shuttle was $11 per person and we only had to wait 3 minutes for the van to fill up with enough passengers.

Upon arrival at the CP, we were very pleased with the large open air lobby, there is a slightly chilly breeze blowing through but much better than Chicago (especially in the opinion of Mrs Sweet Willie )

Check-in was quick but there was no mention of nor perceived action as a result of my Plat status which is usually not a good sign. Asked about an upgrade as was told that that was not possible, again usually not a good sign.

We were put in room 2304 which is on the third floor of the left hand wing. Clearly not a great room as the third floor of each wing are where the walkways from the lobby meets each wing so one gets all the pedestrian noise of people entering the wing, then either walking past to get to their rooms or laughing/talking as they wait for the elevators which are on either end of each wing. I went back to the front desk to inquire about switching my room for another and was told that that was not possible. Oh, well I thought, I'm not here for the room I'm here for the beach and sun. We unpacked and I went onto the balcony, upon resting my forearms on the railing, they were immediately covered with dirt/dust, the railing had not been dusted in quite awhile. So I went to sit down only to see that the seat of one of our chairs was ripped 7/8 of the way so was unusable.

Mrs Sweet Willie was ready to go to dinner as was I, we went to the buffet restaurant as the other two (an Italian and a Mexican cuisine) restaurants require advanced reservations which there were no openings upon our arrival.

I've never been a fan of all-inclusive resorts as the food is not good quality. Fortunately there was a highlight or two with most of our dining experiences at the resort. Seriously, as I walked past food steam tray after steam tray, it all looked and for the most part tasted like cafeteria food. The highlight this evening was the roast pork, as most pork in the US is pumped full of solution to keep the pork moist, this was real pork the unadulterated stuff !!! Excellent

We then grabbed some beers and went down to the ocean to listen to the waves, we were tired and turned in early as we had just had two days of weddings and the great parties that went along with them.

That night there was some very loud metal banging noises, almost as if some kids were banging on the door then running away, I assumed that is what these noises were. The next morning while waiting for Mrs Sweet Willie I figured out the noises were the AC unit which is mounted in the ceiling just inside the door to our room. I'm not an AC expert but it appeared to me that the unit would make this sound when the room reached the temp we had requested as the metal door would shut cutting off the cool air from continuing to enter the room. I made a note of this and the dirty railing as well as the ripped chair and went to the front desk to ask that these things be repaired/cleaned.

We then headed to the breakfast/lunch beachfront restaurant and had breakfast. Mediocre Mexican pastries, a decent fruit selection, egg station, breakfast meats, and yes do I actually see something true to Mexican culture on the breakfast line, yes I do!!!! it was a tray of Chilaquiles and some AWESOME fresh green salsa and Mexican crema to go with, I had this every morning for breakfast, great stuff, the rest of the breakfast buffet, ehh.

One is given one towel card per person, so only one towel. They are however nice sized and of decent quality. There are two types of chaise lounges, both of the same comfort level and size IMO. There were some crazy early morning people with marking chairs with towels and then not using the chair until after noon, at other resorts we would use the chair in the AM and when confronted simply move to a different chair, but we didn't have to result to that at the CP.

There is a swim up bar in the main pool, the outside in pool stools were very slimly which to me indicated poor pool care.

The bartenders were quite prompt and the waitstaff that circulated the pool area were not always present when we wanted but were frequent enough, some extra tip $$ solved this issue.

There is a food bar open at the bar by the pool, standard mediocre burgers, hotdogs, chicken wings or tenders BUT again as listed above there was usually a saving grace for each food line, this time it was some very good fish ceviche with fresh guacamole. Later in the afternoon, we went for lunch at the breakfast/lunch restaurant, and again most of the buffet was crap, except for the fresh mahi mahi fillets that they flat top grilled, one could request some tortillas and then with the fresh pico de gailo make an excellent fish taco. As an example no nothing food preparation, take the chicken or beef fajitas, the meat was grilled on a flat top grill (so no charcoal flavor) and without marinade or spice, so essentially it was steamed pieces of meat on a tortilla this dish and many others could have been so much better with a little extra effort by the kitchen.

At this time of year, the sun goes behind the right wing at about 3:30pm so there is no/very little sun on the main pool at this time.

We had dinner in the historic downtown district of San Jose del Cabo at a place called Don Emiliano. More on that place later.

The next few days consisted sunning/swimming in different areas. The beach as mentioned is rough, although there were a good amount of us who braved the waves.

We did dine at the Mexican "fine" dining restaurant which one has to make a reservation for, the food was quite good, the particular night we went we dined on smoked fish empanadas, cream of poblano pepper soup, fish with cilantro sauce, chiles relleno (one). They did run out of dessert and while I very much appreciated the extra effort of a waiter to go down to the buffet restaurant and bring up a few selections from there, the "special" restaurant should have had their own desserts like were on the menu, running out of all of them is not excusable. We were really puzzled at the lack of people in the "special" restaurants, they should have been able to handle many more people.

In the evening we went up into the skybar which is a tower that stands above the resort, what could have been a huge WOW factor seeing the lights of the hills and resorts turned into an ehh factor as the outside of the windows were simply filthy with dirt and hadn't been washed in a long time so it appeared to be a haze instead of the clarity there could have been.

We rented a car one day from the budget office across the street from the CP (there is a Thrifty desk at the CP) and then drove to Todos Santos. While an interesting and artistic town, it was not that interesting nor the crafts/art that good to warrant a trip in my opinion. It was excellent to get out and see/walk some of the deserted beaches along the road to/from Todos Santos though

We spoke with two different concierge, one was young (said she had been there awhile) but was an idiot, didn't know approx cab rates to various destinations, for instance she quoted $50US to the center of San Jose del Cabo (which is exactly two miles away from the CP), the cab ride should be no more than $6US. The other concierge and I wish I could recall her name (Suzanne maybe?) was extremely proficient and good, I tipped her well. We also scheduled massages, the idiot concierge gave us a piece of paper to take to the front desk so that it could get charged to our room, then we were to come back to her with the proof of payment. Seeing as lines move slow as molasses this could have taken quite a bit of time, so I simply waited until later in the day when there were no lines. I shouldn't have had to do this, as soon as I scheduled the massages and asked that they be charged to the room, that should have been the end of it, no playing courier.

The massages were $135US for 70 minutes, not cheap and of good not great quality IMO, Mrs Sweet Willie really enjoyed hers though so YMMV.

We were there for 5 days and never was the AC fixed, railing cleaned, ripped chair replaced.

I did take a drive down to the IC property, while it did appear slightly older, the location is quite nice as there are no buildings to the east of the IC, so there is a huge expanse of open beach. The IC is about 1.5 miles from the center of the historic district of San Jose del Cabo.

To conclude, I'm glad I was able to burn some points at the CP as I haven't been all that impressed with the ICH program. The sun is almost always shining in Cabo so Mrs Sweet Willie was very happy which makes me happy. The fact that there was no recognition of my plat status and there were far too many faults and lack of action IMO, we won't go back to the CP

SomeGuy

I stayed at this hotel in March of 09, and just returned earlier this week for my 2010 vacation. I probably won't return again.

While the staff was very friendly, the hotel has made 2 changes that I don't understand how an all-inclusive hotel can call itself all-inclusive.

1) Internet was always spotty in 2009. In 2010, not only was it still spotty, but it now costs about $10 USD each day.

2) Room service is now only open 6am-1am. For the other 5 hours, you are totally out of luck, because you can't even find a vending machine. In 2009, I had a tendency to order pizza at 4am. This year, well, it's a good thing I had snacks saved up.

Duckman

I was at the CP Cabo this week-great food, cold beer, nice people. There was a large ad in a Gringo newspaper recruiting timeshare sales staff for an 'exciting new all inclusive project' at this property (the photo of the hotel was a dead giveaway).

So if you ever wanted to use some points there, now would be a good time to go. Once it goes timeshare, who knows if it will stay in the Priority Club family. My guess is it won't....

In other news, Internet is now 65 pesos per hour (ouch!) and the signal is still weak in the rooms. As stated above, room service is no longer 24 hours day.

Duckman

This property is now called the
"HOLA Grand Faro Los Cabos Luxury All Inclusive Resort" so Priority Club no more!

sonora

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/inter...bo-mexico.html

The recent reviews on Trip Advisor are not looking real good. Anyone been there this summer?

BigFishDave

Anybody else have reservations made prior to the switch? I am going in January on points.
PC says contact the hotel directly, i e-mailed but have not heard back yet.
This happened to me at the old Paradise Island HI too, and they honored the HI reservations. Hope this hold true.