First off I'd like to say that this is a very pretty hotel, but it comes at a cost. Before I actually review the hotel I should give some background. I stayed at this resort from February 4-11, 2020 with my boyfriend. When we booked our vacation we thought that there was going to be a lot more than there was. The hotel is marketed as a party resort, which was fine, but upon arrival there was little to nothing to support that fact.
For example, we arrived at the hotel around 2AM and there was very few people out except for the people at the late night bar. All other restaurants and bars were closed. There was absolutely nothing going on. You'd think for a "party" resort there'd be something going on. Nope. Zip, zero, nothing. Completely dead.
And before I go too deep, I'd like tp point out that if you're going to do any excursions go see Oscar. Oscar is amazing and went out of his way to make sure that we had a good time, and that our excursions work outed for us. He was an absolute pleasure.
And now for the rest of the hotel...
The outside of the building is very pretty lobby and has great landscape. However, there is a feeling of disconnect when you (and almost disappointment) when you see your room for the first time.
The rooms feature wood furniture, which is beautiful. However, the rooms fall short with problems. Hallways echo like nobodies business. You can hear literally everything and at 3AM you really don't want to hear the drunk people on the other side of the resort finding their way back to their room. And if you're room faces the street and it's windy. Forget about it. Good luck trying to sleep. That being said, the mini bar was well stocked and the bed was decently comfortable.
The bathroom in our room smelled. We tried to avoid using the showers as much as possible as the water reeked of sewer and the bath looked like it wasn't cleaned properly. Also, there's a window that connects the bedroom to the bathroom. I understand it's there for extra light, but that was awkward...
For a party hotel it completely lacks any kind of entertainment other than day drinking. The DJ just blasted songs that where warped to the point you couldn't even tell what song it was. The dancers looked like they were forced to be there'd couldn't wait to leave.
The pool is very pretty and nicely designed with a dedicated "Swim" area and a shallow area near the swim-up-bar for everyone to dance and drink. The biggest problem with the pool is the stupid water works. There are "sprinklers" and other water features that just spray you all the time. There's water chairs in the pool and you can't use them unless you want to drown. User beware.
The area around the pool has cabanas, but in order to get one you have to wake up for 6:30. Most people would just leave their towels on them and not use the space all day. The beach is well maintained, but very packed. The hammocks are an awesome little addition to the water. They where used frequently.
Onto the food.
The food was so amazing for the 1st and 2nd days. However, it was like there was no budget for food after that. The buffet was inconsistant and didn't really serve real Mexican food. There was only 1 or 2 actual Mexican dishes and they where so dry and poorly done that we just ended up not eating.
The a la carte restraunts were decent, depending on what you get. The Whitebox is decent, the pizza was nice, but took forever to be served. Be warned that the steak house is unable to accurately cook meat. When you order rare, you get well done. Order a medium rare and get rare. Also, I guess 8oz means something different here because the fillet mignon (which was the biggest steak you could get) was tiny (maybe 4-5oz). The the 8oz rib eye was huge, but barley a cm thick.
Cafe del Mar honestly just sucked for lunch. You can get sushi which was ok, nothing incredible. But anything else on the menu sucked. Most of it would come out cold and had little to a plate. I ordered chicken fingers and was given a single chicken tender and less than half a cup of fries. The waiters also seemed to have an attitude and it was very confrontational near closing time (45 mins before closing).
Over all it wasn't a horrible vacation, but I will not be going back the Grand Sens. read more