July 10, 2005
08-07-2005 8:24 am
July 10, 2005
color=#0000ff> Iberostar Message BoardWe just returned from on honeymoon at the maya, and I give this place high marks. We were there just to relax and get away, so we didn't do any of the excursions since those tend to run on a schedule, and we didn't want any contraints on how we spent our time. But honestly there was plenty to do in the resort itself.
We got to the maya at around noon, but were able to check in right away. There was no line at the front desk, in fact i never saw a line there the whole trip. The people were incredibly friendly, and spoke fluent english (or so it seemed, Later in the week, I ran out of toothpaste in the morning and asked around for a place to buy more, and no one who worked there seemed to understand the word "toothpaste". I did the brushing teeth motion and was able to get the information i needed). Check in went very swiftly, we got our bracelets and got a couple of delicous drinks before ever setting foot in our room. nice way to start a vacation.
Overall:
The whole resort was absolutely beautiful, a lot of people have said the pictures just don't do this place justice and they're right. The attention to detail is amazing, every courtyard, path, nook and crany was landscaped immaculately. Every building, resutrant, bar was decorated to the hilt. There's a huge staff, always running around, cleaning, fixing, generally hard at work to keep this place running. It is indeed a large resort, we stayed in building 65, closest to the lobby and resturants, a good 5 minute walk from the pool and 15 from the beach. We didn't mind really, being veterans of walking around Disney. The lobby area of each of the four resorts had it's own theme and feel. The Maya was grand, Lindo floated on water, del mar/beach were tropic with flamingos and others casually strolling around. They were all very nice. Honestly, I like the lindo lobby the best and spent a good bit of time there. However, The smokyness of the main bar and lack of a/c in the walkways to the shops and restraunt waiting areas makes the maya my prefered choice. The only complaint we had (not really a complaint so much as a observation) was that it didn't seem like it was built to handle rain. There was puddles in on the paths and it dripped in the main lounge and some of the first floor rooms were flooded. But everywhere you looked there was somebody rushing around with a squeegie cleaning up the water. Also the power went out a couple of times in the middle of the afternoon in the maya complex, I'm not sure if it was just a rolling blackout or not, but in the middle of the afternoon, it was incredibly hot and the A/C was definately needed. I rate this category 9/10.
Staff:
Just great people, Always present to help, you never have to go in search of someone. And if they don't handle it, they'll go find somebody who does. Some of the staff were open and friendly, giving you a smile and "hola" when they walk by you, some were more introverted, prefering to leave your alone, which was fine. The bartenders keep busy, they make the drinks fast and good. We never had to wait longer then a minute to get our drinks even when it was packed. The efficiency with which they serve the non stop steam of people was something to see. Always did it with a smile and a "thank you my friend". We tipped a dollar or two every round, but they never look like they're expecting it or demanding it. The waiters in the specialty resturants were well trained, fast and courteous. Kept your drinks and plates filled (we tipped 3-5 dollars per meal there). The service at the buffet resturants was another story. They must be understaffed because it was rare that somebody would take our drink orders before we were half way through our meal. This isn't a big deal since you can get your own drinks at the bar, and there's water and juice machines where you can fill your glass at breakfast. There was one time when my wife took a specially spicy bite of food at lunch and needed water quickley. When i got up to get her water from one of the waiter stations, I was rudely told to go sit down without getting any water. It wasn't long before they came by with a refill, but still, I didn't appreciate the attitude. We generally tipped 2 dollars per buffet meal, except for that one instance. Our maid was excellent, our first day there, in our hurry to get a little bit of sun and pool before the rain hit, we left suit cases half unpacked laying around everywhere, toileries all over the sinks and whatnot, and by the time we got back, she had picked up and oraganized everything, put our shoes away in the closet, and did something cool with the curtains of the balcony door. I caught her the next day, thanked her, apologized for the mess, and asked for more coke instead of fanta and whatever else was stocked in the fridge. Every day after that, we got exactly what we asked for, mini fridge stocked full of water and coke, the towel animals and curtain designed got more elaborate etc. Very impressive, we tipped her 2-5 dollars a day, based on our messiness. The building conceirge was also very helpful with our meal reservations and called up rotinely to see if we needed anything. The bellhop service was a bit slow, 45 minutes after we checked in, our luggage still wasn't brought up. We went down to the lobby to check on it, and they said it was being delivered. When we got back to our building, we saw our luggage on a golf cart, we told the man it was ours, and grabbed it and lugged them back to our room ourselves. In retrospect, they probably shouldn't have just let us take it, but again, worked for us. Again, the attentiveness and friendlyness was welcome and appreciated. I rate this category 9/10.
Rooms:
The room was more then I expected. It was certainly more then large enough for 2. King sized bed, desk, night stand on either side, 2 chairs, a small couch, coffee table, armoir with TV and DVD player and still room enough to feel spacey. The bed was firm (not hard) and comfortable (I like firm). couple of ceiling fans over the bed and the sitting area. The chairs were comfortable to sit in for a while, and the couch was nice to lay around and read on. There was plenty of lighting, although the switches were confusing. Huge glass door leads out to the balconey, which had a couple of standard deck chairs, a little table and a hammock chair. We didn't have a view of the ocean or the pool, just some jungle, which was great for me. It was very private and relaxing. I enjoyed spending the early morning sitting on the balcony with my paper and a drink. Plenty of english tv stations really, cnn, espn, the cartoon network, and a couple of other stations that showed reruns from early 2000s, adromeda was on pretty much all day. It was alway intersting to watch the jetsons and simpsons in spansih.. I know all the dialogue by heart anyways. Bathroom had a large jaccuzi tub, large stand up shower, double sinks with a large mirror and a make up mirror (girls like that kind of stuff). The shower leaked a good bit, but it was made to look pretty (it did), and not much of a chore to shove a towel by the door anyways. Outside the bathroom was a small hallway with a counter and closet on either side. Plenty of space in the closets for a week or two of clothes, and safe in one of them. The counter was mostly used the coffee maker, and occasionally they dropped of little things on it like a t-shirt, fruit platter, peanuts, passtachios, bottle of red wine, taquilla.. on and on. There was also a full length mirror in the hall, very nice touch. I think the room upgrade is definately worth the money over the Lindo. I wish there was a TV in the sitting area, but that's just nitpicking. I rate this category 10/10.
Food:
we got reservations at the places we wanted on the nights we wanted with no problems, since we prefered the later seatings (8:30-9pm)
- specialty resturants: We went to the gormet a couple of times, the japanese, the steakhouse and the canjun in Lindo. My favorite was the gormet, we went there the first night, I had the cream of asparagus soup, the duck (well done) and the coconut ice cream dessert. The soup was above average, delicious with the pastry. The duck was excellent, not the best i ever had, but certainly in the team picture. Dessert was also quite good. The service here was also the best out of all the resturants. My wife had the salmon rolls (okayish), the lamb (average) and the chocolate dessert (good). She ranked the gormet third of the specialty resturants we went to. Next was the steakhouse, They brought the blooming onion right away, but we found the onion to be quite bland and the sauce to be subpar as well. After a few bites, we went to the appetizer buffet, there were a few good options, average fare to be sure. The main course was bad, just really bad. I ordered the sirloion (medium) and my wife ordered the tenderloin(medium). Both cuts were cooked a bit more rare then expected, (medium-rare to rare), and yet both were tough, chewy and tasteless. So much so that we stayed away from the beef at the resort for the rest of the trip. I don't recall the dessert here, obviously nothing to write home about. This may have just been a bad night or a bad cut of beef, we talked to several others throughout our stay who had good things to say about the steakhouse, but we did not go back to try again. This was the worst resturant we tried by far. The next day we ate at the Japanese. They started everybody with a plate of common sushi rolls with a bit of wasabi and soy sauce on the side. I've had better, and i've certainly had worse, it was fresh and good. Next we had the hot appetizers while the the two cooks started on the grills at the tables. We had a trainee i believe, and he failed most of the tricks he tried, while the other chef did some nice things with eggs and a flaming tower of onion. It was acctually nice to see some of the failed tricks to remind us how hard it really was to perform such feats over a hot grill. Very entertaining. I had the vegtable tempura, which was really good, although not worthy of the raves it has recieved from other reviewers. Main course of chicken and shrimp turned out very nicely, and the fried rice was probably the best thing we had there. Neither of us tried the other menu items, but those around the table that did appeared to have not enjoyed or even touch very much of it. We also skipped the miso soup, althought others said it was good.
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