Flying for Fun

When were you there? I was last there in June. The Club Lounge was clossed. Breakfast and evening Canapes were offered in the restaurant with snacks & fountain drinks available all day at the bar. It was definitely a nice breakfast offering with eggs & pancakes, waffles made to order. Huge selection. The evening service for Elites was excellent too with a soup, 4 hot entrees, salads, cold meats & cheeses, fresh whole and cut fruit and an assortment of desserts. Service was fantastic, by the second day they knew what to bring without asking. You could easily make a dinner out of it. There was also proper table service and beer, wine, cocktails (Margarita(girl)s too. Great value. I was upgraded to the same room you had from a garden view room.

Has the Club Lounge re-opened? The information I received made it sound like the closure was permanent.

James

Intl359Widget

Hi James...

I recently stayed last weekend and the spread that you just described matched what was offered in the lounge on the 12th floor over the weekend and the drinks were strong and free-flowing for this Gringo.

Intl359Widget

You’re long overdue for a do-over trip.

margarita girl

Not sure I’d say long overdue. Sounds like there was nothing in June so these changes are quite recent.

Yours is the first report of any improvements. TBH I had given up on this property and have been booking the IC El Presidente which has a fabulous lounge.

lockman21

I'm also curious about this - anyone have an opinion either way on the differences? Thanks!!!

bsdstone

This is great to hear! Wife and I are headed down for a long weekend without the kids March 6-9. Lifetime titanium and booked on points, so any kind of upgrade would be great!
Hope the story about the lounge holds true...that would make life a lot easier for what we want to be a relaxing weekend!

Cheers, and I'll report back after we return!

Intl359Widget

Booze was a-flowing but the quality was so and so though the food was exceptional (for North America).

wma

Marriott is planning to close the lounge permanently in March. Some say March 15 others March 31. Either way the lounge will be gone. We are at the Westin as I write and it will be a tremendous loss. The grapevine also has it that the Westin PV will ultimately become just timeshares. No one is sure of the timing but again another loss.

bsdstone

Well, we will be there the first weekend in March, so looks like we might make it under the wire! :-)

bsdstone

Just returned from a long weekend with my wife...arrived Friday afternoon around 3:30 and departed on Monday at noon.
Haven't been to this hotel in about 16 years, and it seems pretty much the same...that is both a good and a bad thing! :-)
The outside of the building as well as some of the common areas are showing their age and could use some tidying up, but nothing that really caused me to raise an eyebrow. The rooms, although dated, are in good shape, and the cleaning staff did a GREAT job of keeping the room spotless and our room was cleaned by 10:30 am every day.
The pool area is still in great shape and has such a nice relaxed vibe to it. New loungers and pads makes for a great experience.
Cheap drinks and good poolside service.
We used the club room for cocktails and apps before heading into town for dinner every night. Alcohol was free, and the food was abundant...we only ate the chips and guac every night. There were 3-4 hot dishes a night...usually only one per night appealed to me. Breakfast had a great spread in the mornings...will be a big loss when this benefit goes away.
I utilized the gym every day and it is one of the better ones I've been to...lots of machines, lots of free weights and tons of cardio equipment.

We will stay here again if we go back...If you have any questions, let me know and I'll be happy to answer.

Enigma368

Anyone stayed here recently? I assume the lounge has closed permanently by now? Do they still give Plats evening canapes in the bar? What are the current Covid restrictions?

dll

Stayed this week. Hotel is obviously re-opened and are doing, in my opinion, a good job with visible safety precautions. Masks are required (for employees and guests), and I saw 100% compliance while I was there. You do not have to wear them in the pool, obviously. Additionally, they have hand sanitizer pretty much everywhere, do temp checks and sanitize your shoes upon arrival and whenever entering the restaurant, and many of the staff wear a face shield in addition to their face mask. They also put a decent size pack of sanitizing wipes in the room.

Right now the lounge is closed, as is the bar on the lobby floor. The bar out by the beach is open, and the main restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is no buffet presently. My room rate included breakfast and I was informed I could order whatever I needed.

I ordered room service one night of my stay and it was packaged like takeout within a sealed paper bag. Meals in the main restaurant are served as normally expected. All menus are digital. Towels at the pool are self-serve and wrapped in plastic.

There are a couple of minor areas where they could incrementally improve safety. They still require signatures on receipts for food and drink, and at check-in. They seem to use a shared pen for all of these transactions. But with ample hand sanitizer around I wasn't all that worried about it. Housekeeping is on the third day of your stay, but you can request items left at the door if you don't want service. I saw them sanitizing the elevator frequently. They seem to be taking good precautions, and frankly their precautions are much more apparent and visible than hotels I've stayed in during recent US road trips.

A note on the airport: arrival was a non-event. Immigration was empty and so was customs, super easy. Timeshare alley is still in full swing with lots of people in that crowded little room. I bolted through as fast as possible. Departures is a different story...I don't know if it's covid-related, but on my departure day the a/c in the airport appeared to be out. That, coupled with 92-degree heat and 85% humidity, made for an extremely uncomfortable wait. Concessions in the airport are largely all open. The "first" VIP lounge is open (the one located near the food court before the second duty free), but the larger one in the US departures area is not. The VIP lounge was very crowded so I did not go inside, there was actually a queue waiting to go in.

The airport also has a ridiculous questionnaire that must be completed on your phone before entering the departures area. You scan a QR code and then answer a series of questions before they let you into security. If you don't have Internet on your phone there is slow public wifi in the airport, but if you have multiple people in your party it could be annoying. They seemed to have some paper forms but were out of them when I was there. Lots of confusion about it among travelers. And despite the thing generating a code on your phone, it was never verified so I'm not even sure what purpose it serves.

All in all, it was clear Mexico is trying to take steps to make travel safe. I was impressed with the Westin's approach which felt both normal and safe.

Intl359Widget

Hola from the Westin!

I will say that I am very impressed with the social distancing measures at both the Marriott Resort and the Westin Resort here in Puerto Vallarta.

I was upgraded from an Oceanview Double into an Oceanview Double with a Whirlpool at check-in which was a pleasant surprise as this is the room that we were upgraded into when I went last year. As mentioned in this thread the Club Lounge is closed indefinitely at the Westin and there is no other alternative amenity offered for Platinums and Above so we will count our blessings with the upgrade and spacious grounds as occupancy is much lower here than the crowded Marriott Resort.

The staff was very friendly and cordial welcoming us back as repeat guests which was a nice touch.

SFO_Chad

Hi there. Thinking of getting away for a remote week of work before having to go back to the office. I have a suite at the Westin PV confirmed, but my partner is concerned about the wifi situation as he will be on Zoom calls each day and needs solid, reliable & strong connectivity. I am trying to reassure him that it will be fine...but he is looking for any actual experience. Does anyone have any real-world experience from this property or a good recommendation on how to find out?

Thank you in advance!

TravelingZoomer

Even though there’s no lounge do we get breakfast at the restaurant as plat?