Hello TTR friends. I have written several reports on here on TTR and was asked by several to share our Desire Pearl experience. I will always post first on the Desire Pearl forum Desire Resort Forums • View forum - Trip Reports from Desire Pearl out of respect to that forum and then later copy it here and maybe add a little more on the comparison piece. I will start with saying we definitely experienced two worlds of Desire Pearl... it seemed like two different resorts from the beginning of the week to the end of the week and we did manage to slip in one day to TTR but it definitely was too short. So the start of the report ... Hello all. Happy to say we loved our first visit to Desire Pearl after several trips to Temptation. We visited from May 10th to May 17th. And in the middle went to Temptation to visit some friends we met there last May. I have written several reports on TTR on Cancuncare and I must warn in advance they tend to be long, detailed and written one day at a time. I like to reminisce as much as possible and go back and read later what I forgot 1st some background on us. We are both 40, like to think we take good care of ourselves and are about the party first...then whatever happens happens. We like to think we live life to the fullest and try to maximize our enjoyment with whatever we do, understanding that everyone has different ideas on what is enjoyable. On vacation we love the sun, love to drink, enjoy our volleyball/corn hole/silly games during the day and love to dance to EDM music at night and stay up late. We took this approach with our trips to TTR including our first in 2010 where the wife initially said maybe she would go topless. Well it took an hour. Many other fantasies were met that first trip and with subsequent trips. I am sure most are considered tame by most Desire veterans but our logic is always we would rather regret not doing something then regret doing it. It seems like every trip we leave thinking we had the best week of our life. We love TTR and will be back for many reasons (people, sexy pool) so what made us try Desire Pearl this trip? - never really happy with the majority of the food options at TTR (exception being the Italian) - rooms getting more and more run down with each trip. We usually upgrade to jacuzzi room but even those are showing wear and tear. - the beach, not the best - no community jacuzzi - the singles. Every trip to TTR we had a single guy issue at some point. - the cameras. Every trip there has been an incident with a camera. Not what we feel like dealing with on vacation. Desire Pearl Saturday May 10th - not exactly a good start. We used miles and as a result were scheduled to connect thru Chicago. Not ideal given all the storms there lately so I nicely convinced the agent to instead put us on a direct flight once we got to the airport. Got us into Cancun at 12:30 instead of 3pm. Called USA Transfers (who we always use) in advance letting them know we would be early. They had the info but sadly we still had to wait about 30 minutes. Never had this issue before with them so was surprising. They indicated they were busier than ever but still disappointing. Maybe this happens all the time on Saturdays? We don't usually arrive on a Saturday. Arrived at the resort at 3pm. We reserved a Penthouse for the week. Figured if we were going from the $160 a night TTR to the $500+ a night Desire Pearl we might as well go 100% and get the nicest room. We were very disappointed to find that the room wasn't even ready at check in time, 3pm. They said to change in the spa and explore and we will have a room ready for you shortly. We changed and got to the pool a little after 3 and witnessed the very end of the Foam party. Looked like a blast. Sad we missed it. Plenty of chairs available (although they said the resort was 100% full on Saturday we were not sure where everyone was ) So we enjoyed the sun for a little. The mrs. wasn't sure if she would go total nude but it only took 20 or so mins lol. Me I wasn't ready to take the plunge, yet. On the nudity thing, it wasn't a driver for us trying Pearl. Was actually a deterrent. But there was absolutely no pressure and the %'s were surprisingly lower than expected. Maybe 80% of the guys were nude, 60% of the ladies, with almost 100% of the ladies topless. That is just a guess but that seems like a fair estimate for the week. You were definitely more likely to get a comment for having a suit on than not but it was all in good fun. Plus most would put the suit back on when visiting the restroom or getting a drink. Almost always suitless in the chair, bed, pool or jacuzzi but always with suit on in the lobby, restaurants, etc. I definitely did my fair share of mass drinking though to make myself comfortable with the many oscars and waving balls all around me (who would of ever thought ball sacks came in so many different shapes and sizes? lol. I learn something new on every trip to Cancun) At 4 something everyone heads over to the jacuzzi. Saturday was one of the busiest days there (from a quantity of people perspective) but still way tamer than we expected. Some socializing. Maybe 1 or 2 sexual activities on the beds beside the jacuzzi but nothing in the jacuzzi (we prefer it that way, lol, cleanliness thing) and it seemed like everything was about voyeurism and exhibitionism. Not a mass sex scene as some had warned. Very tasteful. As we would later find out the level of activity would widely fluctuate from day to day. But we were disappointed that there were very few shots and no body shots and when we asked someone that had been there for a week where they were they commented they hadn't seen one all week. Clearly the crowd has a lot to do with it which is logical of course as many said they had visited other years and it was very different. We did meet some nice couples in the jacuzzi, discussed the usual stuff.. where you are from, football teams, what pearl was like, what time to be where and when, etc. We were informed that the disco would likely be more fun about 10:30ish. Finally at 5 something our room was ready. Simply put the Penthouse rooms are stunning. The balcony itself is larger than any room at TTR and has a good size plunge pool (we later fit about 18 in it comfortably, will explain later in the report) that can be heated to a temperature of your choosing. The penthouse also has a sitting area with a couch and table with 4 chairs, a bathroom off the main entrance way, the main bathroom with 2 sinks, a changing area and plenty of room for storage of clothes, a separate tub that overlooks the balcony and the ocean and the main bedroom which also has a couch. The balcony has the previously mentioned plunge pool which is raised up to give you a beautiful view of the ocean, a full 2 person sun bed/chaise, and a table and chairs for eating outside. We later in the week found out it can fit 40 or so people easily. That story to come later in the report. The huge negative we quickly found out was NO running water. Pretty amazing that we can pay so much for a room and it not be ready on time and have no water. Thats right, I said no water period, not no hot water, no water period. It came on after dinner at about 8 after some calls but not a good start to the trip. Pearl has 2 restaurants... the nicer pearl restaurant and aphrodite which is also nice but not on the same level as pearl restaurant. We would place Pearl way above anything at TTR and Aphrodite in-between the Italian and Asian at TTR. On Saturday nights they serve Sushi outside of Pearl on the terrace. It was ok. Better than TTR food but nothing we would call special. Every night the cuisine would change from italian to mediterranean to french, etc. At 10:30 the nightly show starts in the Disco. I can't remember what the show was sadly. My drinking pool side and in the jacuzzi caught up with me. Thankfully my wonderful wife was in good shape as we enjoyed the show (or so she tells me) and really enjoyed the dance floor in the night club. It is smaller than the TTR club but 2000% nicer. And the air condition worked beautifully (a big pet peeve of mine at TTRs Nice Shoes). Also plenty of bar tenders. Never ever waiting for a drink. And when the mrs requested songs they actually knew them and played them. It was a real DJ. Not some mix tape. It was very, very refreshing. At TTR we request songs all the time and rarely then hear them. The negative though was when my wife got Stellar played it partially cleared the dance floor. As mentioned earlier it was definitely an older crowd than expected at this point of the trip (this did change significantly as you will see in later days of the report) so that had something to do with it. But I think the DJ did a good job of mixing the music. A lot of complaints I read are people preferring more oldies. We like the EDM / club stuff so on most nights we were pretty happy. We did tip well which was also an influencer fyi. Then making a semi rough first day EXTREMELY rough all of a sudden my wife is yanking me back to the room. She didn't say why, just saying time for us to call it a night. The next morning she informed me that the man from the 'nice' couple we met in the jacuzzi earlier basically walked up to her said she was hot and shoved his hand up her dress while I was turned the other way chatting with someone. Just shows that it isn't always the single guys that are aholes, the married ones can be too. Not the resorts fault of course but a tough first day. Thankfully my wife was smart enough to wait to the next day to tell me or our trip probably would of ended there in a mexican jail. Also thankfully we knew from earlier in the day that they were leaving early the next morning. She looked for his wife to tell her what her husband did but no luck. We didn't let it ruin our trip but it was a rough first day. My wife threatened to wear panties the rest of the trip but thankfully she reconsidered. I promise every day of the trip report gets better but just telling it how it was. Tomorrow I will continue with day 2 and provide more info on the pool and beach scene too. Also our first experience with the late night hot tub scene as of course we didn't make it there day 1.
And some pics to help illustrate the room difference... sitting area... tub... patio... We had two crazy parties on this balcony / plunge pool. One with 40 + and then a more selective 20 + one that was catered (reduced the invites as I had to pay per head kind of like renting the Cigar lounge but 1 million times better)... view from bed... and an even better view from the bed lol... I didn't take many pics on this trip and any of people won't be shared but this gives you an idea.
Thanks for the TR. We are heading back to TTR this year but might try Desire next year. Looking forward to the rest of the report.
Great first day report. Can't wait to read the rest. I am already getting some ideas of the place. I think personally Pearl would be too small and old for my liking but that's not to say I wouldn't try it out once. I am thinking Desire RM would be more my pace though. Of course now I'm jealous b/c I will likely never rent the penthouse and the thought of parties catered and having that space would make the trip that much more AWESOME!
I have tried to book a room like that in the past but it's always been. Taken or the resort has nothing better then an ocean front If. We decide to ever try Desire I know what room I'll be booking now
Great to read well written and informative trip reports...coming from Pearl veterans here, it does change quickly depending on the crowd
Great TR Kyle, as always. Can't wait to hear the rest. I'm glad Jen waited to tell you that he stuck his hand up her skirt until the next day. It made my blood boil just reading about it happening to you guys. Anxiously awaiting the rest of your TR...!
HOLY CRAP on the room size and the balcony!!! That was $500/night or $500/night is a regular room and that was more? (I'm assuming the latter.) Can't wait to hear more! And, finally, what do you guys do for a living and are either of you hiring? lol Or wanting a kept woman?? I could probably talk Rome into lending me out :icon_eek:
