Sandos Gala Beach Resort

[davpar]

Here is a definitive photo album of EVERYTHING at the Sandos Gala Beach resort. Shot in December 2006. Enjoy!

[Sukidog]

It looks lovely!!! Thanks for posting. How was your stay?

[Scaramouche]

nice pictures! You have several date stamps on the pictures--how many times have you been there?

[windex]

Awsome pics. thanks so much for posting them!!

[kramer123]

Great show and looking forward to March for our trip.

[davpar]

Just updated with more pics of Xel Ha and Chichen Itza. Enjoy!
http://community.webshots.com/user/davpar1

[sixkristy6]

Wow those pics are amazing! We are staying there in July for our anniversary and your pics are making me even more excited Do you have any tips at all about staying there?
We requested an oceanview room when we booked through AAA, and it said we can get one for an extra fee but were never charged an extra fee at the time of booking. I don't know if we should just call ahead of time or when we check in or what.

[kramer123]

Will give a trip report when we get back the first week of april.

[davpar]

Oceanview rooms are only available if you have upgraded to the "club" which will also entitle you to stake a spot in the roped off area of the beach. In my opinion if you have your heart set on being ocean front, it is a worthy investment. If AAA did not charge you extra for the ocean front, I might hazard a guess and say you are probably NOT going to get one as you are traveling during their high season when they typically have a 80-90% sold rate. I would contact your travel agent and get confirmation of ocean front if this is what you paid for and is what you are expecting. Even if you do not get an ocean front, this resort will exeed your expectations. One word of caution, there is not much of a nightlife there in our opinion, especially for those travelling with small children, so be prepared to watch some TV, take walks down the same pathways as the night before, and generally drive yourself batty once the sun goes down. Of course if your a couple without little feet, I'm sure the experience is vastly different.......

[sixkristy6]

Originally Posted by davpar

Oceanview rooms are only available if you have upgraded to the "club" which will also entitle you to stake a spot in the roped off area of the beach. In my opinion if you have your heart set on being ocean front, it is a worthy investment. If AAA did not charge you extra for the ocean front, I might hazard a guess and say you are probably NOT going to get one as you are traveling during their high season when they typically have a 80-90% sold rate. I would contact your travel agent and get confirmation of ocean front if this is what you paid for and is what you are expecting. Even if you do not get an ocean front, this resort will exeed your expectations. One word of caution, there is not much of a nightlife there in our opinion, especially for those travelling with small children, so be prepared to watch some TV, take walks down the same pathways as the night before, and generally drive yourself batty once the sun goes down. Of course if your a couple without little feet, I'm sure the experience is vastly different.......

Thanks for your response! It's just us, we're in our late 20s celebrating our 2nd anniversary. We don't mind romantic walks on the beach at night.
The club level, is that the royal club or something? I will email the travel agent. I have heard nothing but good things about Sandos (except that the a la carte food restaurants are not so good). Did you guys eat at them? I am picky so buffet always works well for me anyway.
Was there any food there you absolutely loved? What about beach chairs/palapas? Are they hard to come by if you don't get there early? Or, is it hard to get a palapa but beach chairs are always there?
I'd love to upgrade to the Royal Club but I'll have to see the cost first. I'm sure it's worth it but I have to convince my husband.

[davpar]

Originally Posted by sixkristy6

Thanks for your response! It's just us, we're in our late 20s celebrating our 2nd anniversary. We don't mind romantic walks on the beach at night.
The club level, is that the royal club or something? I will email the travel agent. I have heard nothing but good things about Sandos (except that the a la carte food restaurants are not so good). Did you guys eat at them? I am picky so buffet always works well for me anyway.
Was there any food there you absolutely loved? What about beach chairs/palapas? Are they hard to come by if you don't get there early? Or, is it hard to get a palapa but beach chairs are always there?
I'd love to upgrade to the Royal Club but I'll have to see the cost first. I'm sure it's worth it but I have to convince my husband.

In my opinion most of the poor reviews I read about the food at Sandos was made by people who had expectations of North American type cuisine. Here is a tip for you and all others following this thread...Mexico is a foriegn country. If you head there expecting a meal worthy of Spago's or some such other fine dining establishment, yes, you will be sorely dissapointed. I personally had only two issues with the food, namely, too much gristle in the sausage and the beef was not to my liking (too stringy) other than that everything far exceeded my expectations. I also read several complaints of lack of choice and lack of imagination. I wondered during our two week stay there whether or not we were staying at the same resort as those who leveled these complaints. Not only is there an abundance of choices each and every meal, the resort seemed to go out of there way in ensuring there was something to eat for everyone. We ate at two of the a la carte resteraunts. The mediteranean is really the resteraunt closest to the pool and also will be one of the choices you have for lunch buffet. In my opinion their shish kabob was delicious. Our daughter celebrated her third birthday there, and they even provided a cake. The atmosphere is quite nice, they even had a saxaphone player wandering the tables. The Italian resteraunt was also nice. I had the lasanga. I would say for Mexico it was good, but if I had to do it over again, I would probably stick with something like the steak. If your unsure of what to eat, and would consider yourself to be on the "picky" side I would reccomend sticking with what you know rather than risking trying something new. One futher reccomendation concerning food. We took the "all inclusive" trip to Xel Ha. If I had to do it over again I would do two things different. #1- I would never pay the "all inclusive" price again. Please understand that when I traveled to Mexico, I had no preconcieved notions concerning the food there. I was prepared for the worst, and pleasantly surprised by the quality. At Xel Ha however, the opposite was true. Again, in my opinion, there was absolutley NOTHING worth eating at this park. I am not a picky eater. I will usually find something, anything to munch on. There was NOTHING to munch on there. #2- Bring water, lots of it. They sell you on the "all inclusive" aspect, but they fail to mention that this does NOT include bottled water, and there is only one spot in the whole park where they will give you bottled water, and that is right by the exit (I can't even confirm if this is true or not, as we never did find the place they were supposedly giving out the bottles) I asked the young lady at lunch for a bottle of water. She brought me a glass of water with ice. I said no, I'd like a bottle. She said if I wanted a bottle it would be 20 peso's (about $2 american) I said no, I'm all inclusive. She said all inclusive except water. I asked her where the water she poured in my glass came from, she said here. #1 thing they tell you when you go for orientation--DON'T DRINK THE WATER. Hmmmmm. Anyway, that's just my opinion on the food at Xel Ha. Speaking of Xel Ha, I would highly reccomend planning for two trips there. UNBELIEVABLE. Simply amazing, and far too much to take in in just one day. One other food tip before I switch subjects...the lime soup I had during my trip to Chichen Itza (and yes I recommend the "all inclusive" for this trip) was delicious, however seeing as the soup is water based, and you can't be entirely sure they heat it to any degree (mine was luke warm) I would shy away from it. (thank God for immodium..I paid for my blunder the next day)
If you get the Royal club upgrade, which again I'll reccomend if you have your heart set on oceanfront, you'll have very few issues concerning pallapas. If not here's a tip. If you like the action on the beach (ie: volleyball soccer etc) be prepared to get your towel at 8:00am when they open and get a spot on the right (south) side. If you don't care about watching the beach sports and are more concerned with either the shade of a pallapa or the unobstructed view of the ocean (front row) then go left PAST the royal club roped off area. It's a little farther to go to get a drink, and there isn't really alot of action down there (except for the Iberostars sound system playing faintly in the background) but during our stay we were 100% gauranteed a pallapa at any time of day.
Well I know that was a little long winded, but I hope I answered you questions. If ya have more, don't hesitate to ask away....

[sixkristy6]

Wow TY for your response again!
I certainly do not expect Spago type meals. In fact I have no problems staying with the buffet, because of my pickiness. I know I'll be able to find something at the buffet so maybe aside from one night we'll stick with it. I love Italian, hate Mediterranean, and Mexican is good.
I will email my travel agent right now about the Royal Club. One thing we're looking forward to are massages as well.
Thanks for the tip on Xel-ha but at this point we're gonna stick with tours from this site. We want a relaxing vacation and from what I hear Xel-ha and Xcaret are amazing places but always so crowded. We are used to cruises and really want more of a relaxing vacation.
I think the Royal Club sounds like the way to go so I am off to email the t.a. now!
Thanks for your help! Any other advice on tips, drinks, etc...?