Trip Report/Royal Hideaway Overbooked

[actran]

Less than 24 hrs before we were to leave for a week at the RH, I get a call from skyauction saying RH is overbooked and the first four days we'll be going to the Grand Xcaret. We get the last 3 days at RH and a week free at RH in the next year.
I am not a happy camper. A week free is great, but it was THIS vacation I have been dreaming about for the last year, since we were at RH last year.
I send some emails to skyauction and RH saying I don't think these two peoperties are comparable at all.
We don't hear anything back before we leave the next morning. But upon leaving the airport where our driver from Cancun Valet is waiting for us, is also Oscar, from RH. He tells me they are overbooked (like it was the first time I was hearing this - but I couldn't understand everything he was saying. But since his English is waaaay better than my Spanish, who am I to complain?). They are sending us to the Ceiba del Mar and he says it's the same quality as RH and adults only. I say okay (can I refuse and demand to go to RH?)
Ceiba del Mar is in Puerto Morelos, about halfway from Cancun to PDC. Upon arrival I knew immediately it wasn't the same as RH, which has a very elegant facility. CDM is more open, "enjoy the outside" type of place. It was nice, but different. We got champagne and towels as we checked in. The champagne was served in heavy, chipped glasses as opposed to the cystal flutes at RH. Luis took us on a tour as he took us and our bags to our room. He was very nice, thorough and informative. Our room was ocean view and the patio led out to the pool area. It was a ground level room and kind of dark and he warned us not to use the tap water to brush our teeth. Fat chance, the water smelled awful! There is a hammock on the patio, but it wasn't terribly comfortable. The room was nice, but not as nice as RH.
The two things that were better at CDM were they had comfy, padded beach chairs on the beach and palapas to sit under. No matter what time we came out, there were chairs on the beach AND by the pool. Also, the food was better. RH has very good food, but it was just better here. I had lobster three of the four nights we were there and chateubrianne (I know that's not spelled right) the fourth night. They had a fabulous grilled fish at the lunch restaurant also. Breakfast was a buffet and not very good. The service was inconsistent, but I couldn't really complain (my problem was I kept comparing - and I probably would have thought this place was great if I hadn't ever been to RH). The drink service on the beach was just okay. You could put up a flag (if they gave you one) and wait a good half hour before someone would come. Once we went to the restaurant for luch and we sat there for 10 min. before a waiter came up and after asking if we spoke Spanish, told us they weren't open for 20 min.
They have a nice spa and we both got a massage. I never had to wait long to use the internet. They have rooftop jacuzzis and drink service in the late afternoon. They had a fruit bowl and bottles of liquor that were filled with water (?). Someone came by and offered us drinks though. It was a great idea, but not well executed. The second time we went up there, there were no towels and trays from other people's meals. It was kind of a mess.
The beach and ocean doesn't even come close to PDC. It was not that "impossible, beautiful" blue, and there was a ton of seaweed on the beach. Every day these guys would rake and cart away the seaweed. The last day the ocean was really warm and I was completely enjoying it, while wondering what this new type of seaweed was floating around. It looked like brown stalks, chopped up. A little closer inspection revealed it to be jellyfish! I hightailed it our of there cause there were tons of them.
The last day we hung by the pool in the morning, counting the minutes until we got to go to the RH. They were sending a van for us at 11:30. There was some confusion, because apparently the van came early and 2 other couples took it to the airport. Then their van came, and he eventually took us to RH.
FINALLY!
We arrived and Iran, the doorman opened the door and said "You've been here before, haven't you? Welcome back!" We went to the lobby, where there were several people wating to check in. They gave us cookies, cool cloths and champagne. They checked us in and upgraded us to a Royal (that means tiny bit of ocean view) View room. We were on the third floor of Villa 22, so we had the vaulted cieling - very nice. Our room wasn't ready yet. But we had a plan. We ate luch at Spices and then went to 5th avenue to do some power shopping. We wanted to get back before 5 so we could make dinner reservations for the other 2 nights.
That was a mistake. We should have gone directly to the concierge and made our reservations. After shopping we got our key from Andreas, our concierge and he told us to go to our room while he finished up with the people he was with.
I ended up not unpacking for the entire week. I was in denial that I had to unpack at CDM, and by the time I got to RH it was like, what's the point?
When we made our dinner reseervations (our 1st night I had made before we left home for 8pm at the Grille) the only times available were 6pm and 9:30pm or later. We really enjoy afternoon tea, so 6 would be too early.
We took 9:30 both nights at Azia and Palazzo.
We went to tea, and then took a nap. When I woke up I had an upset stomach. I would have blamed this on a Mexico thing if this hadn't been the fourth time in the last 2 months that I had tummy trouble. It wasn't horrible, but I didn't really enjoy my dinner and had a restless night. The beach was really crowded although we we able to get chairs. The erosion wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. And of course the pool chairs were all "claimed" although there were very few actual people laying on the chairs. Since I prefer the beach this isn't too big a deal for us.
The first day on the beach the drink service was exemplary. The second and third days it was almost non-existant. The service was definitely not as amazing as last year. Still very good, but a noticeable decline. My husband thought it seemed like a lot of people were in training. I thought the waiters were really busy.
As far as our dinner reservations went, we we so tired the night we went to Azia, I didn't really enjoy my dinner again and didn't eat much. The waiters get so distressed when you don't eat much, I felt bad.
We went to our concierge the next day and said we wanted the 6pm reservations for Palazzo, but they were gone! He said he would see what he could do and we ended up with 7pm reservations! Yes! We enjoyed that dinner so much more. I was feeling better by then too.
We had a continental breakfast one morning in our room and they forgot the breads, but brought them when I called. The other 2 mornings we ate at Ventanas. Another thing that is different is last year we would order the house wine and they would give us an entire bottle. This year they just poured it by the glass. Althought we could have as much as we wanted. Since we almost never drink an entire bottle it wasn't too big a deal.
We spent our last few hours on the beach and they let us stay in the room until 12:30 (check out is 12 and last year we had to use the hospitality suite to shower after the beach). We had a last lunch at the snack bar. We had planned to eat at Spices again, but it was closed.
We got our certificate for our free week, which can't be taken from Dec. 15th to April 25th and in July and August (Is that a busy time?).
It was a relaxing week and we had a good time. But it wasn't what we were expecting in several ways.
Other things I noticed, this place has really become popular with honeymooners - the place was crawling with them. I hope they know how lucky they are. Of course we'll go back, we have that free week after all.
Last year I had wanted a once in a lifetime experience for our 15th anniversary, and as it turned out, it looks like it was.