April 27, 2005

Iberostar Message Board

My wife and I just got back from a 5 night stay at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya 4/17 –4/22. This was our first trip to Mexico and we can’t really think of anything that we could complain about. Thanks to this forum, we singled out and planned our vacation to this beautiful resort. I had been reading all of the trip reviews the last couple months, and have a few comments to add that may help others.

First, I had read reports how the airport in Cancun is hot and not well organized. We didn’t experience that. Our full flight (Spirit Air) was efficiently processed through customs and then funneled out into the parking lot (to the left). I have heard all the stories about the “time share vultures” waiting to pull you away from your transfers. Just had one kid try to pull us toward those people, but just said no thanks and headed toward the floral print shirts of the Apple Vacation reps. It was a little hectic, but they found us on their transfer list and got us into a 9 passenger van, for our 30 minute trip to the Maya. They also gave us our return voucher – we were expected to go to a 15-minute presentation that day, at the resort by the Apple rep, for introductions and to see the various tours available through them. They require you to visit them to validate your return voucher. They also require you to check in the night before you leave the resort to confirm your flight and departure times from the resort. Anyway, the Maya is one of the closer resorts to the airport, so we were the first ones dropped off.

The lobby is beautiful – almost museum like. The reception desk was sort of hidden in the back left area of the lobby. We were given welcoming fruity drinks, our room keys, resort map and towel cards. We were upgraded to one of their bigger rooms in building 60 on the 3rd floor.

Be sure to use the services of the bellboys for your bags – even if you only have a couple. It’s a long haul to your room with luggage. Our building was closest to the beach overlooking the mangroves with a sliver of ocean view. The room itself was beautiful. 10-foot high ceilings with fans, beautiful bathroom, safe, and TV with enough English channels to get your news/sports/entertainment fix if needed. The room had a coffeepot with a convenient gallon jug of bottled water. The frig was stocked with Coke products, more bottled water and two types of Mexican beer (alas no Corona anywhere at this resort). Two thermal mugs, nuts and small bottle of tequila rounded out the welcoming supplies. A complimentary edition of the Miami Herald (Cancun edition) was delivered every morning. The rooms use “smart air conditioning” - If you have your balcony door open the air conditioner shuts off until the door is closed. Each room has a hammock chair on the balcony. Don’t plan on using these however – they look better than they work. The rooms were immaculately clean and never saw a bug anywhere. My home blood bank warned me of a problem with malaria in the Riviera Maya area (they say they won’t take my blood for the next year), but I never ever saw a single mosquito. From our balcony we saw several cruise ships off in the distance at night.

After getting into our room we checked in with our building concierge. These folks are stationed next to the stairs on the first floor of every building. We made late reservations for ala cart restaurants for the first couple of nights, with no problems – and again later for the remainder of the stay. It appears that as long as you were flexible with your time, you could get into any of these restaurants. Just being the two of us also probably helped. They give you a little computer printout with the restaurant name and time, with the warning that men must wear long pants (however, this is apparently not true for older male adolescents).

The buffets (especially breakfast) were great. Be sure to check out all the buffets at the Mayan/Lindo as some have some differing pleasures – for example, one makes fresh donuts as you watch. The ala cart restaurants were OK. Nothing to rave about, but a nice balance to the buffets that you get for breakfast and lunch. Several of the ala carts give you a full bottle(s) of wine with your meal rather than by the glass, which was a nice touch.

As others have stated, this is a big resort, so be prepared to do a lot of walking. My wife got blisters on her feet from trudging all over. We are seasoned veterans of the Disney World scene. If you have ever stayed at one of their resorts, I think you will find it to be similar in walking to the Iberostar resorts. The walks are beautiful. We checked out (walked and biked) all the other properties here and found them all equally appealing. I didn’t see any of the other resort’s rooms but the common areas of all are gorgeous and unique in their own way. It was fun exploring. The only major advantage that I could see for staying at the Maya/Lindo is that you can go anywhere on the resort. The Beach and Del Mar vacationers are not supposed to venture to the Maya/ Lindo.

The beach/water was warm, clear, clean and beautiful, but was a little rough on the days we were there (red and yellow flags out). I would have been reluctant to let a little one venture out very far. Even though there were signs all over about not “saving” spots and no topless on the beach, there was a bit of both. Never played the game about saving a sunning spot early and never could get a prime spot by the pool (although used the private pool by building 60 with no problem). On the beach, if you walked a little to the south there were plenty of beach sunning spots, but it was a little walk to get your drinks – just ask for two. Also saw a bunch of Coati (looks like a cross between an anteater/raccoon with the tail of a monkey that run around like squirrels). They hang out at the edge of the mangroves and under the walkway to the beach. Pretty shy, but fun to look for. Although plentiful here they are apparently rare in the US. Kept looking for spider monkeys but didn’t see any.

They do advertise a golf course opening here, but they say it won’t be done for several more months. I guess there is a course next door (Mayan Palace?) but it’s expensive - $120/18 holes plus $40 for club rental. I love to golf, but unless it’s world class, you won’t see me there for those prices.

Wanted to mention about the water/GI issues. My wife and I were just in Las Vegas a couple of months ago, and 3 of the 4 of us who went got food poisoning. So we were really concerned about it here. I’m a pharmacist so I stocked up on Cipro, Pepto Bismol, and Imodium. Never needed to use any of it. At the resort, just don’t drink the water out of the tap. The ice cubes and water in the restaurants are made with purified water. I would still take the drugs listed above along with you as a precaution, but I think they do a pretty good job of protecting you while at the resort. Even if you don’t use the Cipro you can leave it in your emergency kit at home in event of a biological terrorist attack (anthrax) – a little pharmacist humor there…

Communication home is not the best - $5/minute from the room to the US. Used E-mail at the Internet lounge at the lobby - $3 /15 minutes. The rooms have network ports, but I didn’t want to lug my laptop with me.

One last word about many people saying that this place wouldn’t be good for honeymooners. Unless, you totally hate kids, I disagree. We were there for sort of a second honeymoon. We had a quiet room overlooking the mangroves, hung out at the private pool, had a semi-secluded spot on the beach (south), dined at the later evening meals at the ala carts, and then strolled around the beautiful grounds late at night when all the kids were in bed. If your plans include sex on the beach in broad daylight, go someplace else, but otherwise I would say this place would be OK for most honeymooners.

Did the day trip to Xcaret – neat place – only 30 minutes away – would go into details but this is way to long already.

Before we knew it our time was up – got a great tan and gained 5-7 pounds.

Arriving back at the Cancun airport, the Apple rep got to us, as we exited our van. He personally carried our luggage right to where we had to be – a very nice touch. The waiting area for departing flights HAS air conditioning and is reasonably comfortable. However, we almost immediately started to miss our “all inclusive” amenities (think it’s called AI withdrawal). There are several duty free shops in the waiting area, so be sure to stock up on alcohol for all the new drinks that you have come to know. The fast food at the airport was awful, so choose carefully.

We arrived back in Detroit in the early evening after an uneventful flight - Detroit Metro could learn some lessons on how to process international passengers from Cancun. After reaching home safely, we awoke the next morning to almost a foot of fresh snow. It was OK though – it contrasted nicely against our golden tans – plus I didn’t have to worry about cutting the grass for a couple more days.

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