Trip Report EDR August 13-20

Hi Everyone! I thought I would make my contribution to this forum since all of your contributions helped me in planning our trip.

To begin we flew out of Indianapolis early August 13. We connected in Houston and went to Cancun from there. Immigration took around an hour(it was a Saturday, very busy). We arranged our travel through an RCI exchange, so our transportation to the resort was free through Lomas Travel. We had a private car which was very nice!

We arrived at the resort and were swept off to a private concierge for RCI members. We, of course, quickly learned that this meant that they wanted us to listen to their timeshare presentation. We were feeling pretty good so we agreed. Big mistake! They spent the whole time slamming RCI even though they are an RCI Gold Crown Resort. Were we not so offended by the sales rep, I think we actually would have purchased the package - it was a great deal! That is as far as I will go into that! Now for the good part!

The resort is beautiful! We were in Building 1616. It is a gardenview, but we had a little peek at the ocean! Not the very best, but we are not picky people(we were just in shock from finally getting away without our 4 children after 15 years!). Our room was wonderful. I agree with a previous report that the air conditioner freezes you nearly to death! Our drinks in the fridge were only cool as well! We loved the hot tub in the room and our hammock on the balcony, though! The shower in the bathroom was awesome, but we had very little water pressure.
To be continued...

..... and wanna hear more!

[TEX]

Originally Posted by angieb

The shower in the bathroom was awesome, but we had very little water pressure.
To be continued...

WOW!! when we were there, the shower pressure was unbelievable.... the water actually hurt if we turned the knobs too much. guess it just depends on which building you stay in.....

[MsRosey]

Man, what a tease!
can't wait for the next installment

We really were happy with our room!!! Except for the lights going out for several hours for two nights in a row! The AC stayed on though!

We made dinner reservations via email in advance, so upon check-in I had my email confirmations in hand. Very helpful suggestion from one of the forum members! We had La Isla first and it was awesome. Our waiter, Eric was the best ever! We also loved Kampai and D'Italia. We did not get to eat at the Mexican restaurant. The pizza place by the main pool was awesome! The waiters were super friendly and always made us feel like they were old friends! The same for the beach bar(we hung our here and at the martini lounge the most). Room service provided our breakfast nearly every morning and was really pretty good! The food definitely was superior!

We are definitely beach people. Even though the beach was not the most gorgeous, we were loving it. The water was so calm and clear, although not very deep. The main pool seemed to be the hot spot for those who love to take part in activities - definitely not us! Alot of people seemed to enjoy the kayaking. We only saw one paddle boat go out, though!

We took a taxi to Playa del Carmen instead of using the shuttle(we didn't want to wait until 6pm to go). We also took a snorkeling trip at Playa Maroma - very fun! The food made us sick, though!

Would we go back? Absolutely, we really liked the resort and definitely ate and drank our $90 per person a day for the all inclusive fees!

[JustMarried]

Thanks for the trip report. I'm glad you had a good time. We are also using an RCI exchange and we were told the transportation was $26 per person round trip! Just wondering, were you given the opportunity to upgrade your room?
Also, for sitting through the timeshare presentation were you given anything?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by JustMarried

Thanks for the trip report. I'm glad you had a good time. We are also using an RCI exchange and we were told the transportation was $26 per person round trip! Just wondering, were you given the opportunity to upgrade your room?
Also, for sitting through the timeshare presentation were you given anything?

Thanks!

You only have to pay for the return $15 per person if you choose to use Lomas. We took a cab back, because there was a chance that it wouldn't be a private car on the way back and we wanted to make sure we got to the airport in plenty of time(didn't want to wait on others). Our concierge gave us the tip since a cab back was only $28. We were given the opportunity to upgrade and chose not too. They gave us a little coupon for $10 off an upgrade per day. We didn't spend alot of time in our room and thought the gardenview rooms were fine.
We were given 100 El Dorado dollars for sitting through the presentation. You can use them on just about anything. We used them for our snorkeling trip. We also got lots of coupons for the spa services and jewelry store(just $10 off). Let me know if you need to know anything else!!

[sunnygrl]

Angie, I'm glad you guys had a good time. Will be going with my sisters and our hubbys next June, through an RCI exchange.

Questions about the transfer. How did you set it up? Did you go to a website? How do you get in touch with Lomas and did you tell them you were with RCI? Is that why it was free? Seems like they would lose a lot of money giving free rides and just having folks pay for the trip back. I'm sorry, I didn't fully understand your reply to justmarried. You don't need to use them round trip?

The RCI concierge. Did he do anything else for you while you were there? Is he available all the time? Or was he just set up to have you listen to the timeshare spiel? What was so attractive about the package that would have made you want to buy?

I'm sorry for all the questions, but the more we know before we go the less "surprises" we'll have once we get there. I take it you had no problems with the email reservations?
Was the resort crowded? Did you have any trouble getting lounges or the beds? Did you wander down to the casita area?

Did you see much, if any, evidence of Hurricane Emily?

Now I'm just waiting for the pics!
Thanks for the report.

Hi sunnygrl - Don't worry about the questions - I am more than happy to help!

The transport was arranged through exotic travel(they are the travel company that provides the private concierge and are located in the lobby). Here is the email address to arrange transportation for RCI members: sdiaz@exotictravelers.com. A Lomas Travel rep is also located in the lobby to arrange return transportation for you. Our concierge(or whatever concierge was there were always available to us). If we needed something ASAP, they made it happen.

The presentation was given by someone else not our concierge. He set the appointment for us. It was a really enticing offer. 120 weeks to be used whenever or in whichever resort(they one several along the Mexican Coast) withing 25 years for 14,900 dollars. When we said no, they offered 60 weeks same deal only 6900 dollars. When we said no again they offered 30 trial weeks within I think 10 years for 3900 dollars. Also, if you want to reserve more rooms than just one - it just takes off a week per room. Example want to bring friends who need two rooms with you - just take off three weeks of your time. To answer the other questions - the resort was busy but never seemed crowded. We did walk around alot and saw the casitas(also included in the presentation a tour of a casita). I had no trouble with email reservations-keep your confirmation letter. There were no beach beds, but had no trouble with lounges-the beach was less crowded than the main pool. Very minimal hurricane damage. Also, we didn't exchange any currency- had no trouble using american dollars. Let me know if you need anything else!

[sunnygrl]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[cpfstich]

angieb:

Glad you had a great time, I'm not surprised. EDR is a wonderful place, as is its sister El Dorado Seaside Suites. Thanks for the trip report!

[brouhaha63]

Originally Posted by angieb

The transport was arranged through exotic travel(they are the travel company that provides the private concierge and are located in the lobby). Here is the email address to arrange transportation for RCI members: sdiaz@exotictravelers.com.

Hi Angie, I'm new to this forum so I have a lot of reviews to read! Anyhow, my husband and I are going on our delayed honeymoon in December (we were supposed to go the week of Hurricane Emily, but Delta called us to tell us our flights were cancelled so we ended up not going) and we are going through an RCI trade as well. RCI wasn't able to really tell us anything so it's good to hear what your experience was.

So for the transportation, you emailed sdiaz@exotictravelers.com before you arrived in Cancun and got a free ride to the resort? Just wanted to doublecheck. And how far in advance did you email your reservation requests? A week before, a few days before?

Also, you mentioned that you got a gardenview room...do all RCI members get put in the same area and do you think the rooms are not as nice as the ones given to regular guests? I had heard some rumors that they aren't as nice, etc. Anyhow, thanks for the review, and email me if you would prefer to answer my questions not on the board. THANKS!!!

[JustMarried]

We just got back on Saturday night from the most amazing honeymoon. We were also with RCI and ended up paying $30 roundtrip for the transfers. This was fine since when we emailed we were told $26 per person.

As for the timeshare presentation. We declined at first and a few days later we were offered $200 El Dorado dollars to do it, so we couldn't turn that down. It was a good deal, but we just couldn't make the financial commitment to something that we realyy couldn't understand.

With RCI we were given a garden view room. I can't say if it was nicer or less nice than others, but it was great for us. We did upgrade to a casita for the last four nights and it was amazing. We paid $100 a night to do this and used the money from the timeshare presentaion to go towards it. Plus the $10 off coupon. To us the upgrade was well worth it as we did not go on any tours, or get any spa treatments.

It was overall the best vacation I have ever had and I hope we can return.

Ironically, we were originally booked at ASP, but due to the hurricane we were able to switch to EDR. I think that it was really for the best for us.

Hi Brouhaha,
I would think a couple weeks to one week in advance would be plenty for the transportation info. Just send an inquiry to the listed email address. The gardenview room was fine, I am not sure if it was better or worse than any other gardenview. Like I said, ours had a little peek at the ocean! I would be interested to know if all RCI members were placed in the same building. The location of building 1616 was great for us(close to everything except Kampai!). Let me know if you need anything else!