June 21, 2005

Iberostar Message Board

My wife and I stayed at the Lindo from June 12-19, 2005 for our honeymoon. We are in our mid to late 20's...I bet you can guess who is in their late 20's.

Weather: We had great weather everyday except for 1/2 day of thunderstorms. It was funny because the local weather station predicted rain and thunderstorms everyday, but usually there weren't even any clouds in the sky...wouldn't that be nice to have a job where you could be wrong each day and never get fired?

Resort: The resort was amazing and absolutely beautiful. Extremely well landscaped with flowers, palm trees, fountains, etc. The pictures don't do justice how amazing the resort was in person.

Staff: The staff were very friendly and extremely hard workers. They kept your drink full the entire time and were eager to please you. They never expected a tip, but we always left tips (about $75-100 for the week total) for the maid, bartenders, servers, etc.

Room: We stayed in building 50 which was closest to the beach, but quite a far walk for the a la carte restaurants in the evening. The room was very nice and the maid always kept the fridge stocked with plenty of coke, bottled water, and beer. She would also have different towel animals made each day along with tying the bed or curtains into a bow. We had a corner room so our balcony wrapped all the way around the room and provided a nice view of the main pool. My only complaint about the room was the fridge, it was not very cold. I had to get buckets of ice to get the beer, water, and cokes cold. Another couple we met at dinner one night mentioned that they thought their fridge was broken because it was so warm, but I assured them that is just how they are. I tried to change the fridge to cooler, but there wasn't any temperature adjustments I could find (and I looked everywhere). Other than that the room was fantastic!

Buffet: The buffet was very extensive for both breakfast and lunch. They always had something that you could find to eat that you liked. We usually stuck to the things we actually knew what we were eating like bacon, eggs, waffles, pancakes, donuts, and cereal for breakfasts. Lunch always had burgers, pork chops, grilled chicken, top sirloin steak (one Saturday), nachos, etc. Of course there were a variety of other things to get eat, but I had no idea what they were so I stuck to the american foods.

Restaurants: We made reservations to eat each night at a different specialty restaurant. We ate at the Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Steakhouse, Gourmet, Cajun, and the Mexican. The food was pretty good at all of them, but the meats weren't quite the same as in America. The steakhouse was decent and the steaks tasted close to what you would find in a decent restaurant here in the states...it wasn't a Ruth's Chris, but it was above average. We liked the Chinese and Japanese the best. We got the mixed teppanaki at both places and it was fantastic! The beef, chicken, and shrimp were all very delicious! Food overall was pretty good, but if you didn't like it you could always go to the dinner buffet til 10pm or order room service 24hrs. a day. My only complaint was having to wear slacks to dinner when it was still in the mid to upper 80's at night and very humid...lots of sweat on the walk to dinner, but then it was air conditioned for dinner which was great.

Drinks: There wasn't any selection for beer except for Dos Equis light/dark on draft. The pool swim up bar and beach bar had mostly well liquor, but you could find some Bacardi, Beefeater, Absolut, Jack Daniels, etc. at the hotel lobby bar... say hi to Eduardo in the lobby bar...he works very hard and makes a good drink. They drinks were made pretty good, but you could always ask for more liquor in your drinks and they would gladly stiffen it up for you. My wife enjoys a nice stiff one...drink that is.

Pools: The pools were spotless and extremely nice. The swim-up bar was always hopping during the day. I look back and read reviews of how cold the water used to be a few months ago, but my complaint is that it was 94-95 degrees outside and the pool water was like taking a bath. It was around 90 degrees in temperature in the pool....WAY TOO WARM for me! I manage a swim club in the summer and I do like my water to be warm, but still refreshing at around 82 degrees. The pools weren't even refreshing to get into because they were so warm from the extreme heat in Mexico. If you wanted to cool off you had to go to the ocean. Who wants to swim in a pool that feels like the kid next to you just peed in it? Not me.

Beach: The beach was very nice and had plenty of chairs to sit in, but if you wanted a paplayas (sp?) to sit under for shade you had to be at the beach pretty early to get a good seat. It was annoying that people would reserve these early in the morning before breakfast, but you wouldn't see them until several hours later or not at all. We did get a front row seat under the shade one morning, but we had to be out at the beach by 9 a.m. in order to do so. The beach bar was convenient and so was the water sports (kayaks, snorkling equipment, etc.). My only complaint about the beach is the topless women. Hold on...I know what you are thinking! Now, that may sound strange coming from a man, but if you saw a few of these women that were pushing excess of 200lbs. with their tops off you would be saying the same thing! There weren't many women that did go topless, but the few that did shouldn't have even been in a bikini let alone missing their tops! Actually there were a few nice sights the last day, but with the new wife around it was difficult to check out...lol! After all, those days are supposed to be behind me now that I am married. Another thing I don't understand is the speedo suits. I guess they are still popular with the Europeans, but I don't get it. I wouldn't be caught dead in a speedo, or as I like to call them, a banana hammock...especially if your gut hangs over it so far that it looks like you are nude. I prefer full length swim trunks, just my preference.

Entertainment: We didn't go to any of the shows so I can't comment on those. We did go to the disco one night and it was pretty funny. Lots of underage guys and girls dancing and getting wild. A few definitely had too much to drink, probably some that shouldn't have been served at all because they were under 18...hard for the staff to stop when guys would carry the alcohol to the restrooms and then give to the underage. If only there parents could have seen them that night...lots of making out, skirts being pulled up and exposing thongs (no complaints here), etc. on the dancefloor...I am sure parents would be proud. Who am I to say anything though because I remember those days.

Trips: We went to Playa del Carmen twice, once to shop and once to catch the ferry to Cozumel to snorkel. Playa del Carmen was a nice little tourist town, but watch out because they hound you to buy stuff or sell you time-shares. Thank God we didn't have to deal with time-share people at the resort! The snorkling we did at Cozumel was very nice. We went for almost 3 hours to three different places to snorkel. We saw lots of fish, sea turtles, sting ray, star fish, etc. It was a very neat experience that I recommend.

Overall it was a great honeymoon. We had great weather, beautiful beach, amazing resort, lots of drinks, and fun. If/When I go back it would be from December to April before it was so hot...I couldn't get used to the extreme heat and humidity the whole vacation.

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This review is the subjective opinion of a Iberostar-Reviews.com user and not of Iberostar-Reviews.com.