Gran Porto Real Trip Report OR The Third Floor of Paradise

Spire2000 · 01-17-2005

THE THIRD FLOOR OF PARADISE

I'll be posting this review in a number of places, including TripAdvisor and Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews, but since I found this site so helpful and the people here so friendly, I thought that I would make this my first publishing location. For those interested, you can read my first review of a Playa Del Carmen resort at Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews, under Continental Plaza Playacar for January 2004.

On January 8th, 2005, my fiancee and I travelled to Playa Del Carmen with another couple and stayed at the Gran Porto Real on an all-inclusive package. We booked through Sears Travel, and were represented by World of Vacations. We flew direct from Ottawa.

We arrived in Cancun at about 11am and spent the requisite 2 hours getting out of the airport. It always strikes me as the ultimate tease when you get that first taste of sun disembarking from the plane and walking to the terminal but then you are cooped up in the immigration and customs lines for hours. Not a big deal though, because we were expecting it. We boarded our bus outside the terminal and proceeded to our resort. I found it a little odd that our first experience in Mexico on an all-inclusive trip was to be offered a bottle of Corona on the bus for $3.00. I realize the resort has nothing to do with the bus ride, but it just felt a little too opportunistic by the rep on the bus to try to squeeze us for that little bit of extra cash.

We reached our resort just before 2:00pm and were struck by the size of the place. I know it's not huge compared to many other resorts in the area, but it's an impressive structure to be placed right in the middle of a town. Approaching the front desk, we began to feel lumps in our throats since we've been reading so many accounts of overbookings here. With a bit of hesitance, I handed the gentleman at the front desk our papers and he promptly handed us our room keys and attached our bracelets. Our bags were passed to the bell boy and we were off to our rooms with absolutely no problems. In fact, for our entire trip, we didn't hear of anyone experiencing any difficulties with overbooking.

Our room was on the third floor of the spawling hotel, though it could actually be considered the fourth, since we were actually up on a second story of the third floor. If this sounds confusing, it's because the hotel is laid out very strangely, almost as if the property was once multiple properties all tied together at some point. It wasn't a problem, just a curiosity really. We were located just outside the auxilary pool tucked away on the third floor in the back. It's a very quiet area and a spot that was recommended by our travel agent. We had standard rooms, and found them to be exactly that. Two double beds, a desk, a TV, a small fridge filled with soft drinks, water and beer, and a small bathroom. The room is exactly the same size you would find in any motel or non-luxury hotel and the only complaint we had was the lack of a dresser. The couple we were with were less-than-pleased with their room's size though, and to be fair, for someone who plans to spend any real amount of time in their room, it could feel a little cramped. We hardly saw the room though except when our heads were on the pillows so we had no complaints here. The cleanliness was outstanding and the housekeeping was top notch. Overall, it was exactly what were expecting in terms of size, and exceeded our expectations in terms of cleanliness and presentation.

We changed into out swimsuits immediately and headed straight for the beach. Again, I had read a great deal about the beach here at this resort and I can say that generally, people have been accurate with their opinions. The strip of beach this resort resides on is very long and quite wide. The sand is great and the water looks terrific. Unfortunately, since all beaches are public property in Mexico, the reports of fishing boats tied up on the beach is true. There are about a dozen boats that never seemed to move once in the entire week, and are used by locals to take tourists out for diving/snorkelling/fishing when they can find someone to go with them. These fellows are a little sketchy to say the least and I had one of them offer to sell me drugs at one point as I was walking by. I think the resort security keeps an eye on these guys, but there's really not much they can do.

These boats take up more than half the length of the beach in front of the resort, though one could enter the water between them and swim out beyond them if the individual so wished. Sadly, most of the remaining area of the beach is plagued with just enough seaweed and coral to make swimming there uncomfortable. In front of the resort, the only idea place to enter the water is just infront of the seawall to the far left. You will see most people frolicking at the tip of the seawall, as this is where the bottom is ideal and the waves are big enough to have fun.

Now, that being said, do not get discouraged if you are someone who loves to play in the surf. Beyond the sea wall, the beach turns inward and moves to the north. There is a small strip between the sea wall and the new ferry pier (that we saw used exactly once) that is unswimmable due to lots of coral, though at low tide it provides lots of tide pool activity. When you move past the pier, a beautiful, perfect beach stretches on toward the horizon right in front of the new Royal Porto Real being constructed. This is a very popular area for locals and tourists alike and has nothing except for a few bars along it, as it stretches north out of town. I recommend making this your beach destination. While it's true that you will not have the use of the beach chairs or the beach waiter service, should you be one who like to swim in the ocean, this is the only real choice. We were disappointed that we only found out about this spot on our last day.

I'm about to turn my attention to the food at the resort, but before I do, I've come to realize that my standards for food at Mexican resorts could be too high. I suppose it's possible that what we are served is the norm here, so I wanted to frame my comments this way. This resort features six different methods to be fed. The one you'll likely visit most often is the buffet restaurant. It is not open from 7am-11pm like some other resorts buffets are but rather it closes for a couple hours between meals. It was open early enough and closed late enough for us, so that was fine. Lunch at 12:30 was a bit late for some visitors we noticed. Generally, the buffet was fine, but there were times that you felt a little off-put by the selections. Breakfast was usually the best meal, with lots of fruit, pastries and usually someone preparing pancakes/waffles/omlettes for you. There is always a ton of other selections that I was surprised to see for breakfast, like hot dog wieners and chicken in tomato sauce. Lunch and dinner are very similar, with salad, chicken, fish, pork, sometimes beef, lots of rice/potato dishes and some random stuff that is pretty much unidentifiable. Some days the chefs are preparing Mexican specialties which are terrific, but they don't speak English for the most part so trying to figure out what they are preparing is a challenge, particularly if they are just standing there waiting for your order in front of a bunch of ingredients. My biggest complaint here is that the dishes were usually not labeled correctly, if at all. When a dish is labeled "Beans" and it's clearly a piece of fish, you know they have a bit of work to do.

For those who like to snack, or who don't wish to sit down inside for lunch, you can take advantage of the snack bar, which gets set up around 11am and stays until around 5pm. You'll find mostly North American grub here, like hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, chicken wings, etc... They have good nachos, salsa and chili here most of the time. I found that taking some fries and drenching them with chili was a good way to chase away the hunger during the middle of the afternoon. My piece of advice here is to watch for strange additives in common foods if you are a picky eater. I discovered the salsa one day was laced with squid (just that one time) and the chicken nuggets tasted like they were anything but.

There are two restaurants that are a la carte style and require reservations be made 24 hours in advance, though you make as many as you like. The Mexican place we didn't try due to it having a set menu that we didn't agree with on the day we hoped to go. It was a very odd selection that included a turkey consume, tuna garden salad, grouper fillet or port kebabs and some sort of desert. It may have been excellent, but I cannot say.

The Italian place on the other hand was very nice. It's very small and the staff are terrific. There is a nice menu to choose from and there is also the opportunity to create your own dishes should you wish. I believe they only do two sittings per night though, so your choices are obviously limited.

All-inclusive guests are granted one free room sevice delivery per day. We didn't try this, but the other couple we went with did. The ordered club sandwiches which were tasty I'm told, but she ended up on the toilet all night following it. Obviously we can't be sure that the room service was the cause, but it seems suspicious.

Finally, all-inclusive guests have the option to visit the "VIP Room" which is a small lounge open 24 hours a day that has a few items for those who need a shot of tequila or a fried cheese stick at 3:30am. They have fountain pop, hard liquor, fruit and a few hot items like the above cheese sticks or rolls, as well as a pool table and air hockey table. Honestly, I visited this place twice, both times for a glass of orange soda and only because my fiancee was visiting the washroom directly next door.

The activities held by the resort were something we took part in only occassionaly, though there were a ton of things to do. We did the bracelet making lesson and painted some pottery to take home (which we really love, thank you very much) and watched a few of the evening shows. The Caribbean show and Mayan show were impressive, but the Michael Jackson show was almost embarrasing. It is a look-alike lip-synching and dancing to Michael Jackson's music, and given recent events in the real performer's life, watching this show made me uncomfortable. It's a shame that this guy's whole act is being tainted by the legal problems of the star, but it's simply the way it is.

Last year, we visited Xel-Ha and really enjoyed it. This year we visited Xcaret and also had a blast. I was reluctant to take the plunge into the underground river after being warned that it was 68 degrees, but it wasn't anywhere near that cold and it was a true pleasure. The night show at the park is truely something that cannot be missed.

Of course, we also spent a good deal of time in town too. We went for afternoon Mojitos at Bourbon Street, a tradition we started last year and took peeks into places talked about on these forums like Blue Parrot and Posada Freud. We also took some pics of the old Continental Plaza where we stayed last year and were shocked that it's basically an empty shell right now.

As you can probably tell, the trip was a great success and we would happily make the Gran Porto Real our annual destination. We are getting married in October and are considering the Royal next door (under serious construction, nearly day and night) as our honeymoon destination next winter. Out of five stars, I would give the Gran Porto Real a 4 1/4 star rating.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at m.ouellet AT rogers.com and I will be happy to answer anything I can.

peterparker · 01-17-2005

Wow that was quite the detailed review you provided, you answered many of my questions.

Thanks

Spire2000 · 01-17-2005

My pleasure. I had to find to do at work today and that seemed like something that would eat up an hour. Feel free to ask anything else you want here and I'll do my best to answer.

peterparker · 01-17-2005

Great Thanks

We are heading there in Feb. and were worried as were alot of people about getting bumped at GPR. Sounds like you didn't have any trouble.
Was it fairly quiet at night for sleeping?
I like to party too, but I also like to sleep! zzzzzz
Thanks

Beachnutt · 01-18-2005

Great report. We share your enthusiasm for GPR. To answer Peter's question, I had the best nights' sleep ever at GPR.

Spire2000 · 01-18-2005

I suppose it depends on where your room is located, in terms of how quiet it is. We were located in a spot directly facing the construction across the street, but that didn't start until 7:00am, and by then the sun had been up for an hour and were up enjoying the day anyway. It's not like they are using big machinery over there anyway, as the most noise coming from there is the sound of distant hammering.

Now, if you were in a room closer to the centre of the hotel where the bars and entertainment is, that would certainly be a problem if you go to bed before 11pm.

01-17-2005	#1 (permalink)
Spire2000 very sparkly Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 25	Gran Porto Real Trip Report OR The Third Floor of Paradise THE THIRD FLOOR OF PARADISE I'll be posting this review in a number of places, including TripAdvisor and Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews, but since I found this site so helpful and the people here so friendly, I thought that I would make this my first publishing location. For those interested, you can read my first review of a Playa Del Carmen resort at Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews, under Continental Plaza Playacar for January 2004. On January 8th, 2005, my fiancee and I travelled to Playa Del Carmen with another couple and stayed at the Gran Porto Real on an all-inclusive package. We booked through Sears Travel, and were represented by World of Vacations. We flew direct from Ottawa. We arrived in Cancun at about 11am and spent the requisite 2 hours getting out of the airport. It always strikes me as the ultimate tease when you get that first taste of sun disembarking from the plane and walking to the terminal but then you are cooped up in the immigration and customs lines for hours. Not a big deal though, because we were expecting it. We boarded our bus outside the terminal and proceeded to our resort. I found it a little odd that our first experience in Mexico on an all-inclusive trip was to be offered a bottle of Corona on the bus for $3.00. I realize the resort has nothing to do with the bus ride, but it just felt a little too opportunistic by the rep on the bus to try to squeeze us for that little bit of extra cash. We reached our resort just before 2:00pm and were struck by the size of the place. I know it's not huge compared to many other resorts in the area, but it's an impressive structure to be placed right in the middle of a town. Approaching the front desk, we began to feel lumps in our throats since we've been reading so many accounts of overbookings here. With a bit of hesitance, I handed the gentleman at the front desk our papers and he promptly handed us our room keys and attached our bracelets. Our bags were passed to the bell boy and we were off to our rooms with absolutely no problems. In fact, for our entire trip, we didn't hear of anyone experiencing any difficulties with overbooking. Our room was on the third floor of the spawling hotel, though it could actually be considered the fourth, since we were actually up on a second story of the third floor. If this sounds confusing, it's because the hotel is laid out very strangely, almost as if the property was once multiple properties all tied together at some point. It wasn't a problem, just a curiosity really. We were located just outside the auxilary pool tucked away on the third floor in the back. It's a very quiet area and a spot that was recommended by our travel agent. We had standard rooms, and found them to be exactly that. Two double beds, a desk, a TV, a small fridge filled with soft drinks, water and beer, and a small bathroom. The room is exactly the same size you would find in any motel or non-luxury hotel and the only complaint we had was the lack of a dresser. The couple we were with were less-than-pleased with their room's size though, and to be fair, for someone who plans to spend any real amount of time in their room, it could feel a little cramped. We hardly saw the room though except when our heads were on the pillows so we had no complaints here. The cleanliness was outstanding and the housekeeping was top notch. Overall, it was exactly what were expecting in terms of size, and exceeded our expectations in terms of cleanliness and presentation. We changed into out swimsuits immediately and headed straight for the beach. Again, I had read a great deal about the beach here at this resort and I can say that generally, people have been accurate with their opinions. The strip of beach this resort resides on is very long and quite wide. The sand is great and the water looks terrific. Unfortunately, since all beaches are public property in Mexico, the reports of fishing boats tied up on the beach is true. There are about a dozen boats that never seemed to move once in the entire week, and are used by locals to take tourists out for diving/snorkelling/fishing when they can find someone to go with them. These fellows are a little sketchy to say the least and I had one of them offer to sell me drugs at one point as I was walking by. I think the resort security keeps an eye on these guys, but there's really not much they can do. These boats take up more than half the length of the beach in front of the resort, though one could enter the water between them and swim out beyond them if the individual so wished. Sadly, most of the remaining area of the beach is plagued with just enough seaweed and coral to make swimming there uncomfortable. In front of the resort, the only idea place to enter the water is just infront of the seawall to the far left. You will see most people frolicking at the tip of the seawall, as this is where the bottom is ideal and the waves are big enough to have fun. Now, that being said, do not get discouraged if you are someone who loves to play in the surf. Beyond the sea wall, the beach turns inward and moves to the north. There is a small strip between the sea wall and the new ferry pier (that we saw used exactly once) that is unswimmable due to lots of coral, though at low tide it provides lots of tide pool activity. When you move past the pier, a beautiful, perfect beach stretches on toward the horizon right in front of the new Royal Porto Real being constructed. This is a very popular area for locals and tourists alike and has nothing except for a few bars along it, as it stretches north out of town. I recommend making this your beach destination. While it's true that you will not have the use of the beach chairs or the beach waiter service, should you be one who like to swim in the ocean, this is the only real choice. We were disappointed that we only found out about this spot on our last day. I'm about to turn my attention to the food at the resort, but before I do, I've come to realize that my standards for food at Mexican resorts could be too high. I suppose it's possible that what we are served is the norm here, so I wanted to frame my comments this way. This resort features six different methods to be fed. The one you'll likely visit most often is the buffet restaurant. It is not open from 7am-11pm like some other resorts buffets are but rather it closes for a couple hours between meals. It was open early enough and closed late enough for us, so that was fine. Lunch at 12:30 was a bit late for some visitors we noticed. Generally, the buffet was fine, but there were times that you felt a little off-put by the selections. Breakfast was usually the best meal, with lots of fruit, pastries and usually someone preparing pancakes/waffles/omlettes for you. There is always a ton of other selections that I was surprised to see for breakfast, like hot dog wieners and chicken in tomato sauce. Lunch and dinner are very similar, with salad, chicken, fish, pork, sometimes beef, lots of rice/potato dishes and some random stuff that is pretty much unidentifiable. Some days the chefs are preparing Mexican specialties which are terrific, but they don't speak English for the most part so trying to figure out what they are preparing is a challenge, particularly if they are just standing there waiting for your order in front of a bunch of ingredients. My biggest complaint here is that the dishes were usually not labeled correctly, if at all. When a dish is labeled "Beans" and it's clearly a piece of fish, you know they have a bit of work to do. For those who like to snack, or who don't wish to sit down inside for lunch, you can take advantage of the snack bar, which gets set up around 11am and stays until around 5pm. You'll find mostly North American grub here, like hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, chicken wings, etc... They have good nachos, salsa and chili here most of the time. I found that taking some fries and drenching them with chili was a good way to chase away the hunger during the middle of the afternoon. My piece of advice here is to watch for strange additives in common foods if you are a picky eater. I discovered the salsa one day was laced with squid (just that one time) and the chicken nuggets tasted like they were anything but. There are two restaurants that are a la carte style and require reservations be made 24 hours in advance, though you make as many as you like. The Mexican place we didn't try due to it having a set menu that we didn't agree with on the day we hoped to go. It was a very odd selection that included a turkey consume, tuna garden salad, grouper fillet or port kebabs and some sort of desert. It may have been excellent, but I cannot say. The Italian place on the other hand was very nice. It's very small and the staff are terrific. There is a nice menu to choose from and there is also the opportunity to create your own dishes should you wish. I believe they only do two sittings per night though, so your choices are obviously limited. All-inclusive guests are granted one free room sevice delivery per day. We didn't try this, but the other couple we went with did. The ordered club sandwiches which were tasty I'm told, but she ended up on the toilet all night following it. Obviously we can't be sure that the room service was the cause, but it seems suspicious. Finally, all-inclusive guests have the option to visit the "VIP Room" which is a small lounge open 24 hours a day that has a few items for those who need a shot of tequila or a fried cheese stick at 3:30am. They have fountain pop, hard liquor, fruit and a few hot items like the above cheese sticks or rolls, as well as a pool table and air hockey table. Honestly, I visited this place twice, both times for a glass of orange soda and only because my fiancee was visiting the washroom directly next door. The activities held by the resort were something we took part in only occassionaly, though there were a ton of things to do. We did the bracelet making lesson and painted some pottery to take home (which we really love, thank you very much) and watched a few of the evening shows. The Caribbean show and Mayan show were impressive, but the Michael Jackson show was almost embarrasing. It is a look-alike lip-synching and dancing to Michael Jackson's music, and given recent events in the real performer's life, watching this show made me uncomfortable. It's a shame that this guy's whole act is being tainted by the legal problems of the star, but it's simply the way it is. Last year, we visited Xel-Ha and really enjoyed it. This year we visited Xcaret and also had a blast. I was reluctant to take the plunge into the underground river after being warned that it was 68 degrees, but it wasn't anywhere near that cold and it was a true pleasure. The night show at the park is truely something that cannot be missed. Of course, we also spent a good deal of time in town too. We went for afternoon Mojitos at Bourbon Street, a tradition we started last year and took peeks into places talked about on these forums like Blue Parrot and Posada Freud. We also took some pics of the old Continental Plaza where we stayed last year and were shocked that it's basically an empty shell right now. As you can probably tell, the trip was a great success and we would happily make the Gran Porto Real our annual destination. We are getting married in October and are considering the Royal next door (under serious construction, nearly day and night) as our honeymoon destination next winter. Out of five stars, I would give the Gran Porto Real a 4 1/4 star rating. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at m.ouellet AT rogers.com and I will be happy to answer anything I can.

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01-17-2005	#2 (permalink)
peterparker lost on fifth Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alberta Canada Eh! Posts: 16	Wow that was quite the detailed review you provided, you answered many of my questions. Thanks

01-17-2005	#3 (permalink)
Spire2000 very sparkly Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 25	My pleasure. I had to find to do at work today and that seemed like something that would eat up an hour. Feel free to ask anything else you want here and I'll do my best to answer.

01-17-2005	#4 (permalink)
peterparker lost on fifth Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alberta Canada Eh! Posts: 16	Great Thanks We are heading there in Feb. and were worried as were alot of people about getting bumped at GPR. Sounds like you didn't have any trouble. Was it fairly quiet at night for sleeping? I like to party too, but I also like to sleep! zzzzzz Thanks

01-18-2005	#5 (permalink)
Beachnutt añejo Join Date: May 2004 Location: Upstate New York Posts: 3,972	Great report. We share your enthusiasm for GPR. To answer Peter's question, I had the best nights' sleep ever at GPR.

01-18-2005	#6 (permalink)
Spire2000 very sparkly Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 25	I suppose it depends on where your room is located, in terms of how quiet it is. We were located in a spot directly facing the construction across the street, but that didn't start until 7:00am, and by then the sun had been up for an hour and were up enjoying the day anyway. It's not like they are using big machinery over there anyway, as the most noise coming from there is the sound of distant hammering. Now, if you were in a room closer to the centre of the hotel where the bars and entertainment is, that would certainly be a problem if you go to bed before 11pm.