First Week Trip Report

This will be my attempt at an accurate Trip Report. I decided to wait a bit before posting this report to allow my emotions to settle down some. I understand that not everyone will have the same view as me but I will do my best to accurately convey my experience. Our travel dates were from August 15th to August 24th.

It was the normal trip in, pretty much the same airport experience and of course USA Transfers ALWAYS hits the mark. Our driver was very friendly and we informed him to take us the most direct way as to bypass the longer trip thru the Hotel Zone. As we approached the area we know to be where TTR is located, we noticed the Tower looming over the Skyline. It was incomplete but very Striking to see! It really adds a noticeable and significant outline to the older and more subdued area of the Hotel Zone.

Upon arriving at the Hotel, we were met by several friendly, smiling familiar faces. It was Extremely nice seeing those bellhops we've grown to love with there great demeanor. They took our bags and directed us to the front check-in. The Premier Check-In wasn't finished so we checked in thru the regular check-in desk. This went much faster than I anticipated seeing that there were an unusually large amount of people checking in at once.
We received our New armbands, I'm sure everyone has seen pictures of them, Very comfortable to wear and definitely look better than the old ones. We were directed to Norma, who was our Premier sales rep, who sat us down and immediately started the Premier Up sale. We declined and were introduced to our Premier Concierge. His name was Ivan. He accompanied us to our room.

Room Review:
Our first room was #9307 Garden View. Located on the 3rd floor. Room was very nice, Air worked Great!
It appeared to be smaller than the old rooms but this is due to the darker wallpaper and furnishings. There was a electronic wall device that controls the electric blind, the overhead lights and the mood lighting. We immediately noticed that the blinds go up automatically upon entering the room. This will make for some difficulty when coming back to the room drunk and trying to get the blind down so you can get your business going, but this may be the intent. LOL
After being in the room for a bit we noticed that we had no Hot Water! This lasted the entire time we were in this room, which was for three days. (More on this later).
Tile in the room was slick and there are no doors on the shower so be careful. Also no seating in the shower, so shaving for women will be difficult. There are plastic bedside tables that worked great for me. I moved one of them into the shower and was able to sit and shave my areas which needed shaving.
There was plenty of room in the closets and a room safe to keep your valuables. They also have an Iron, Hairdryer, and Flatiron. A coffee maker was also included. The TV system was interesting to say the least. You can order room service directly from the TV. There is a $5.00 fee per order unless your Premier, there is no fee. Also, no more free PORN. There are movies you can buy directly for a 24 hour period, they are $5.00 each or you can order Adult channels for $10 per day.
On our third day in our room we noticed a horrible septic smell so they moved us several times till we finally were given a Jacuzzi Room upgrade. this room was #7328. Very nice room same situation with the air and we received Hot Water on the fourth day. The Jacuzzi never had knobs to be able to use. We requested them several times but never received them. All in All, the rooms are nice but I will address this more in my summation.
Restaurants:
The buffet is about the same as before except for better quality breads and food. The buffet is dived into two sections which gives the appearance that its smaller but I figured it had about the same amount of food for Breakfast and Lunch. Dinner they shut half of the buffet down and it becomes the Steakhouse. It wasn't as good as we had hoped for but Steak in Mexico is a definitely hit or miss.
Sea Flirt was Incredible! The quality of the food was very impressive. The lobster tail was enormous! The three colossal shrimp are exactly that. They're HUGE! Very good place to eat and the interior was exceptional. Air worked very good. It overlooks the Caribbean so you can expect a very romantic dinner here.
Romanza:
This is the Italian Restaurant. It is located in the same place as the old Italian. The interior is very sleek and modern. The food quality was once again Excellent. The Lasagna was fantastic along with several other items we had.
Sutra:
This is the new Asian Restaurant. The first night we went we ate from the menu. It was AWESOME!!! The Tempura Sushi was excellent. You have to have a reservation for the Hibachi. That was easy to get, so we ate Hibachi several days later. It was so, so. The Fried rice was a little bland and the meats were bland as well. The best item was the Mahi Mahi.
SHE:
We didn't eat at She, but the consensus was that it sucked! It takes about 2 hours to eat and you don't get much. There is a show with a guitarist and a scantily clad woman that dance on a stage in front of you while you eat. No one we spoke with liked it. This will be one of the things they will eventually change, at least that's how we felt about it.
Caffeine:
Small coffee shop in the lobby. Very good coffee and Danishes. Worth a visit.
Amores:
This is the Mexican snack bar and Dinner Restaurant. It used to be Margarita's. It's completely enclosed now with really good A/C. It wasn't open for the first few days we were there but finally on Monday they opened. It really didn't offer too much in the way of Mexican cuisine. It was mainly burgers and hot dogs. The Mexican rice was excellent!
BASH BURGER:
This is the old Patyo's Burger. Located outside in the Bash Bar. It is Definitely a different burger. The meat is thicker and appears to be more of a hand made patty. It tastes different, not necessarily better or worse, just different. Make sure they cook it all the way thru, it is thicker and takes longer to cook.
BASH:
Very reminiscent of Patyo's with better airflow, lights & sound. It was still humid and warm but definitely had ocean breezes. They brought in about 12 to 15 large fans to help move air around on Thursday. Made it MUCH nicer. The bar is very easy to access and get drinks now. You will recognize many of the bartenders.
Music was on par and was actually pretty well mixed to keep the energy levels up. Of course the old standards were played including YMCA, which got the bartenders up on the bar. Always a crowd fav!
SEXY POOL:
ABSOLTELY the BEST aspect of the entire Resort!!! The Only negative was that they have made it deeper so now women's BOOB's are below the water level. If your 5'4" or shorter, you'll be on your tippy toes.
Freddy was serving up the best drinks as always and even had a new shot called "Shit in the Grass".
Bar is easy to access and get drinks due to the enormous size. They did the Foam Party there on Thursday and a issue was very evident! With the Fun Holes located on either end of the pool, the foam collected there and stayed for 4 days! They had a very difficult time getting the foam to dissipate out of the water. Also, the fun holes are located so far away from the action that they didn't get much use. But with all of the Yuck that collected and clung to the foam, I wouldn't have hung out in them anyways.
Entertainment Staff:
This is a bit of a touchy situation. They have 19 entertainment staff members ranging in age from 21-21. LOL.
Actually they are all in there early twenties. They come from all over the world and speak a multitude of languages. Because of there age it was difficult for them to interact with most of the crowd so the resort brought in DD from Desire to assist for a few days. I spoke with several of them and definitely got the feeling that they didn't think they would make it very long. Either due to the Sun beating them to death or not jiving with the crowd. I know this will be viewed differently by some but there were a lot of people, mainly women, complaining quietly about the young girls. They tended to command more attention and that's kind of what we older ladies like about going to TTR is that "WE" are the ones that get the attention. I could be wrong on this but I feel that they need to get a little bit older entertainment Staff that can relate with us! Just my Opinion.
Anyone that remembers Lalo that worked in the Mexican Restaurant will be happy to know that he is now the Entertainment Concierge. This job fits him perfectly!
They have pool concierge's that will get you your pool towels and place them on your chairs for you. And yes, you can hold your chairs with T-Shirts. You can wrap them around the cushions on the chair. We found that there were plenty of chairs available but the resort was at only 20-30% capacity the first week.
VIP POOL BAR:
This was definitely the most disappointing aspect of the pool area. They have done absolutely NOTHING to this bar. No make over, No new counter top Nothing. As a matter of fact part of the granite counter fell off on Thursday and hit a woman's foot, bruising the top of it. Adan is still the head bartender and the drinks were perfect as usual. Saby is still the poolside waitress and sometimes bartender. It was very good to see the both of them again. The VIP Premier Pool lounge area is still located away from the pool, which has ALWAYS been something I found strange. Every VIP area in every Las Vegas, Miami, Cancun, etc.... nightclub, always is situated away from the action. Doesn't seem to be very fun! I've NEVER sat or used the VIP lounge chair area. I guess for some it's a good place to hangout if you're not in the mood to be a participant.
BEACH:
Same old small beach with dirty, sea grass filled water. They did build a deck over the old black snake that crept out from the marina. There are no beach beds anymore, only chairs now. Other than that, nothing much to speak about.
Quite Pool:
Didn't go, It's still there. But not my forte.
Gift Shop:
The new gift shop has Sexy Women's clothing and shoes, Sex lubes, bubba mugs and snacks and drinks. I think they sell Fireball also. Looks nice but was still under construction while we there. Looked to be having some serious water leakage issues.
Summation:
In my honest opinion, they shouldn't have opened when they did. they needed a few more weeks to iron out some of the issues. I don't have high standards, but I do require A/C, running Hot & Cold water. There were a lot of people that had neither of these for DAYS! I understand that it was a Soft Opening but this was way too soft. How hard would it to have been to go to each room Before checking in people and making sure there was A/C & Hot/Cold Water. It appeared that hey spent more time focusing on the overall LOOK and not the infrastructure. As it stands, this will never be a 4.5 Star resort. Even if they trucked in a million cubic yards of sand and had a beautiful beach area, the resort itself was so crappily built that they will be dealing with problems from now on. One week into the resort and the space directly above Rain and directly below Bash already had rust stains streaking the outside paint. Speaking of Rain, that was an absolutely perfect name for the buffet seeing that it literally was raining inside the buffet from leaking pipes and Rain pouring into the restaurant. On the first day, a pipe exploded in the buffet bathroom and water came pouring into the buffet. There were no toilet seats on any of the toilets in the public restrooms till Monday. The ceiling in the lobby came crashing down in several places due to water pouring thru the lights from leaking pipes. The Tower didn't have enough water pressure to get water past the third floor. Did they not pressure test the system before sheet rocking the entire resort.
We were moved 4 times in one day due to a horrific smelling sewer leakage in our first room. The room they moved us to had no A/C or Hot water. the second room had peoples luggage already in it with a severe sewage smell then they moved us to another room that didn't have A/C. Tyler finally blew a gasket and they moved us to a Jacuzzi Suite. It never had knobs on the tub so we couldn't use it.
Many people were laughing about there electric blinds were already broken on the second day, how are they ever going to keep these things going? The wall paper was already peeling off the wall in our first room. Don't get me wrong, I love TTR! Don't want to spend my vacations anywhere else, but I would have been perfectly fine if they had just gutted the old building and remodeled it. I think they would have saved a lot of money and been able to open sooner. That's just me!
Hi-Lites:
The Boob's Cruise on Monday the 21st was EPIC!! We got caught in what became Hurricane Harvey several days later. The rain made it the best Cruise Ever!!! Thanks Steve, Jannet, Chino, Sara and the crew!
Of course seeing so many of the old staff really helped with the other bad things. Lalo, Damian, Saby, Freddie, Adan, Marco and all of the rest.
And then there was the TTR regulars and newbies that Absolutely MAKE TTR what it is. It was so nice meeting everyone, Angie&Jeff, Brad, Erica&Dennis, Layla&Bill, Bob&Melissa, Sam&Matt, Steve&Vonia, Chris D., Mike C, Tom&Tabbi, Scubba Steve, and everyone else. Laura Claire, girl, get some sleep!
Too everyone else we met, hugs and kisses.
xoxo
Angie
P.S. Sorry for the long windedness.

 

Thanks for the honest report. And no AC is not a good thing.

 

Thanks for your honest opinion. Sounds like you had a great time even with the issues! Did the resort offer any sort of compensation for all the room issues or simply expect you to write it off as soft opening problems you should have been aware of?

 

That is a great trip report angie...sounds like overall the good and all the fun outweigh the issues that you all had..on the part of a 4 to 5 star resort goes what I've been seeing they have it priced like it's a 5 star and hope they don't price people out...hope to see you and Tyler in june of 2018

 

Great review!

Interesting about the depth of the Sexy Pool. She is only 5'2", and the prospect of hanging out and socializing while having to worry about water going into the face is concerning.

I wonder if the water level can be reduced, or if the design of the pool dictates that it has to be at full height.

 

Do they still have sexy coffee in the Italian restaurant?

 

@Tyler and Angie. Thanks for the great report and honest assessment. I'm certainly glad to hear that overall you still managed to have a great time. However, the issues you bring up sound more serious than any other report I've seen either here or in Steve's Facebook group. Unfortunately, it sounds like some of them will not be fixed so easily. I'm headed there on 9/10 to see for myself. I'm sure I'll have a great time, but I do like my creature comforts.

I am curious to know if you received any sort of compensation such as free nights, free future upgrades etc?

Thanks again for your detailed report.

 

Ang, great trip report. Pretty much taking some of the words right out of my mouth. Sorry to hear about all the room issues, but I never knew you were suffering because you were always having a good time (hey but I think that's what we do!)

It was great meeting and hanging out! Also a bummer about them knobs, never thought there was a shortage of those at TTR. Hopefully next trip they have lots of these issues worked out, but, like you said, it is going to be problematic with the infrastructure.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your trip report. TTR will take some time to get it completed and hopefully it will be completed by the end of this year.
We will see what next year brings with the construction and pricing and then decide if we will book a trip.
T

 

Stinks you had so many room and facility issues. I am never one to refute others experiences but ha we LOVED SHE. I agree they really rushed this build and will be dealing with the consequences for a while. Or should I say 'we' will be dealing with the consequences. If we had experienced all of the room/facility issues you had not sure we would be going back so soon (booked for November). Sorry you had to deal with so much crap. I would of blew a gasket also in that situation.

We loved the entertainment staff. Will explain more in our report. But I don't disagree with anything you say about them. Think you did a good job explaining why they were not a fit for you.

As for all the questions about compensation, I sent an email about a week ago to the front desk manager and have not heard back. I will send a follow up now.