Spent 6 nights at GOV. We managed to have a good time but there were issues. USA Transfers were perfect, as always. In all fairness, my mistake was booking in the hotel zone, where all the bars are and 20-somethings go to party. Second mistake was booking on Memorial Day weekend. There were graduation celebrations with LARGE groups of singles from around the globe partying hard, not eating enough because food is not quick and easy to come by here, and subsequently, vomiting. The staff at this resort work harder not smarter because the company is in flux, I suppose. I assume because it will be family-friendly Dreams on 9-1-14, they push the other Oasis properties. Check-in was a NIGHTMARE. They told us our room was not available but they could send us to Sens, their LGBT-friendly resort. After booking this in December and doing my research, I knew we wanted to be at the GOV beach. I was prepared for this nonsense after reading reviews and I refused to budge from the sweltering lobby. I asked to speak to Valentina, as I had e-mailed her several times prior to this 25th anniversary trip. They said something cryptic, like "You will meet Valentina when you see her." The language barrier was a factor at the front desk. It would be 48 hours later before we met her. More on that later. They send you to the time share sharks, delay your vacation, and then when they realize you're not buying nor budging, they magically find a room. Forget special anniversary welcome...we just want a damn room. More later.....Liv
So we get a room on the 3rd floor. Simple room, hot fridge. We asked for assist with the fridge but after two days, gave up. By this point, we had time to enjoy the two pools and the beach. Settling in. Breakfast buffet at Coba was typical, but good luck getting coffee. I finally started brewing it in the room. Lunch options were limited. Mr. Wimpys had burgers, chicken tenders, paninis, hot dogs, and Lays potato chips. This gets old quickly. So I slipped on a dry dress and we went to Coba for lunch. I noticed they had plastic chairs for outside dining and all the ladies were wearing swimwear under cover-ups with damp hair, so I fit right in? No. The hostess said my bathing suit under my dry dress was too wet for the plastic chairs outside. People, I flipped. The fancy restaurants at this resort have CASUAL posted as their dress code and the 20-somethings take this literally, with cut-off denim shorts, etc. So this rudeness caught me off guard. I asked to see Valentina again. This was upsetting because we are not the types to complain in paradise. I always thought those TRs were hideous, but when you work 75 hours/week and you plan 6 months in advance, well, it was disappointing to say the least.. So Valentina does exist and she was the reason we didn't leave completely. She graciously arranged for us to move to a nicer, larger room on the 7th floor with a working fridge and coordinated two dinner reservations for us. This room did not have adequate A/C so we had 4 sleepless nights, but still, we appreciated her efforts. GOV has more problems than one woman can remedy. The pools were nice, the foam party was wild, the beach is gorgeous, the food is very good. Enjoyed the Moroccan the best, I think. Laura at the pool bar and beach is beyond awesome. We met nice people from all over who were the absolute highlights of our trip. Oh, and Senor Steve. On May 25th, we got up early so we could hitch a ride on the Albatross because we missed the deposit day. The activities guys said it came by at 10am, but a fellow CCC member said it was more like 11am. At 11:30am we thought it wasn't coming by so I went to the restroom. It came by. Yes, we were the crazy couple running, waving hats, only to wave bye at the buoys....it's laughable now. A little bit of voodoo nipped at our heels the entire trip, but we made the most of it. So it's back to Valentin Imperial Maya for everything that is awesome and back to TTR for a known quantity of naughtiness.
Thanks for the TR.....We leave Sat. for 1 week at GOV. We are hoping for the best. Its just a shame that we have to stress about our VACATION. I also work 70 hours a week, and have been looking forward to our trip for months.
I hesitated to write the TR because of the summer bookings that were like us...too late to switch. I'm sorry to paint a negative picture. I will say we met people who booked through different venues and had a better experience. We booked through Expedia. Is that a factor? I have no idea. It may have been our luck. The beach is amazing. Don't miss the guacamole and ceviche. The kids should be done with graduation celebrations by now. Have a great trip.
Thanks for the trip report. I would agree that Valentina is a huge asset to the hotel and its kind of sad the hotel has been sold and is losing the concept that her and a few others worked so hard to make a success. The way she has made sure to offer cancuncare folks a better time than they might otherwise had is unbelievable. We don't start check in until 10am and then leave Temptation 10:30 -10:40am, so it is more like 11:30am by the time we get to Viva. The Marine Police have been giving us shit about doing what we do (being too close to the shore etc etc) and following us around so we only have a very brief period of time to pick people up and it's not always easy to see who actually wants to go and who is just waving for fun. Sorry we missed you. We'll stop doing this soon altogether since the hotel is changing concept and less and less (of our kind of people) are booking there. Hopefully you'll get another chance to come with us.
It was nice to meet you both! Though it was brief. Our trip report is on the Facebook page, been too lazy to copy and paste lol. Our 8 nights were great, but we did have one couple in our party that had room issues, which Valentina remedied but we did try to find the humor in it. That Saturday we met you when we got back to our room they sent us a note that if we moved Sunday and spent our last night at Sens we would get a voucher for 3 free nights to use in the year at any Oasis. Since they last of our party was leaving Sunday morning and we had already been there 8 nights we decided to do it. We had visited Sens briefly early in the week and thought it was beautiful. They paid for the taxi, there was a brief problem with finding a room since we insisted on an ocean view suite, because we had paid for the upgrade at Viva. After looking at 2 other rooms, by 3 we had the most awesome ocean front, first floor, plunge pool...we so wish we had more time (we were leaving at 6:30a the following morning ). So we tried to explore all the pools and ocean we could get in before night. Lots of couples there, more men/women I saw than man/man, etc, which we have no problem with, we loved the laid back atmosphere. The Club was great, fantastic show...I am sure that's where we will use our free nights next year. Buffet was much better, Mexican for lunch was yummy. There are waves in their ocean, but the views from the pools are amazing. Gym is much better. And you can catch the bus and be downtown in less than 15 min. PM if anyone has any specific questions about the place and our experience. Michelle
It was nice to meet you two as well. We heard that Sens was beautiful, and the concept didn't scare us, we just had all our research and hopes on GOV. Thanks for the info on Sens.
Tim and Alysia Look forward to it...I hope it is good. We are going next week...so if you can include activity info it is appreciated as we have seen conflicting info.
