While standing on the sidewalk, deciding which club to spend the evening, we were, by no surprise, approached by a salesman trying to lure us into mandala. My mom did not plan on drinking more than $25 dollars worth of drinks (which is how much you would need to to make unlimited worth it). The salesman lied and said the unlimited included bottled water (5-7dollars). Water from the tap is unlimited (which we drank and were fine). So we both decided to go unlimited.
We were at the club for an hour on a Saturday night when the same salesman, Carlos O., approached us and told us he could not accept the $100 dollar bill we gave him. He wanted us to run our card instead. The bill was torn down the middle and taped up. According to him, in Mexico, they do not accept taped up money.
We came to Mexico with new money from the bank. (My mom is careful about this stuff.) We knew without a doubt he had switched our money and wanted us to run our credit card for some peculiar reason. When I told him he switched the bill and that we wouldn't be running our card, he held us by the front desk for 20 minutes, making us wait for his ...boss? Continually changing his story as to what was going on. The front desk grabbed my wrist and scanned my bracelet as if out of punishment.
Carlos had mentioned at one point "refund" which at this point, we were up for. I had enjoyed 2 or 3 inclusive drinks, and was growing pretty annoyed with how the night was turning out. We got there at 11 and there was very little dancing going on. I told Carlos we'd really rather just get our "useless" money back and leave. When he realized that we saw through his trick, he pretended to receive (through telepathy?) a new development on what happened, and said it was all just confusion. Everyone working around him looked confused.
We aren't sure if the taped dollar he wanted to return us was counterfeit, or if this is a trick Mandala pulls on people who pay with $100 dollar bills... we aren't sure if running the card includes fees and they wanted more money from us... but we were so confused and our moods had completely deflated..
After considering leaving, we resolved to pretend it didn't happen and make the money spent worth while. At this point there was slightly more dancing going on. The music was top 40, mostly club remixes. The atmosphere was a little bit uptight. The floor tables were all unmarked but reserved. They circled the dance floor which made the floor feel kind of private or off limits. Still, we drank, and we danced. Confetti fell and there were fog blasters that cooled us down and created a cool sensory experience.
I wouldn't go back because I don't like how sketched out we felt about the fake money swap, or the awkward reservation area. read more