First Week Trip Report

Thanks for the fantastically detailed trip report!

I know many think I'm over defensive of the hotel, but I disagree that they opened too early. It's very easy to go from one room to another and check the AC, the hot/cold water etc one by one. But it's not so easy to stress test. When 200 rooms all switch the air con on at the same time and have it running constantly, when 50 taps/showers are running at once and a toilet somewhere is being flushed every 10 seconds it's a whole new ball game. That's why the prices were 45% discounted.

We arrived on opening day (3rd couple to check in) and changed rooms three times ourselves. First room was way back in the garden view maze and the room was hot. I wasn't sure if the A/C had only just been switched on (after all it was only 7:45am on opening day, but it was set at 14.5C and it was about 30C) or if it wasn't working, but I didn't like the location. Second room was OV by the quiet pool but we never saw that as we upgraded to Premier and was given a room in the tower. Our luggage got lost somewhere along the way but was located and delivered within 30 minutes.

Our tower room from the outset had both hot/cold water and aircon. I think the third day the hot water stopped but we still had cold (which isn't really a huge problem for me, since in Cancun it is never really "cold" like home). TV worked fine, shutters worked fine. I did hear of many people having issues with various things mainly a/c and water but after about day 3 or 4 the problems were largely fixed I think and remaining problems were isolated. I think those have all been resolved now, and we're still only two weeks since opening.

Re Ents staff. I was sceptical myself at the beginning by the sheer number of them and also by their young age. By the end of our trip I was very happy with their enthusiasm, willingness to chat, mingle and boundless energy - especially as for several of them it was their first foray into that field of work. I think they suit the new hotel perfectly. Out of the 17, I think a few will leave, a few will be hangers on for their contract term and a few will become 'legends'. As much as I love the old school, Chinos, Omar and Sara et al (so much so they work for me on the Boobs Cruise) I don't feel they would quite fit the new hotel.

Re the Boobs Cruise, so glad you enjoyed it in spite of the rain . It was our first big one for a year and although I don't think any customers noticed there were a bunch of things I was not happy with myself.

We requested our usual crew but due to some internal politics we ended up with a new Captain, 2 of our usual crew and the rest were new to us and not familiar with the Boobs Cruise. The rest of our usual crew were sent out on different boats despite wearing our uniform. We were doing a photo shoot that day for our new flyers (remember the drone?) and I wanted all my regular crew in their best uniform for the photos. Some of the newbie crew had old tatty/dirty/non matching T shirts, they flew the Canadian flag upside down, didn't put our boobs cruise banner on the boom, drinks service was slower than I'd have liked, they used throwaway cups instead of the better quality hard plastic glasses we should now be using, there was only one ladies bathroom open when there should have been two, the one that was open was not inspected and cleaned as it should have been. Jannet opened a second bathroom herself and cleaned them both. Check in was too slow. We've had meetings and emails have been flying back and forth, the problems were all fixed for our second boobs cruise 5 days later and proper service has been resumed.

I guess, by bringing the boobs cruise into this what I'm trying to say is after a long break and a re-start there will be things that will not go perfectly. But a responsible owner will seek to address the problems as quickly as possible and ensure that the service expected is indeed delivered. I noticed several higher ups at the hotel constantly seeking feedback and addressing problems as and when they arose. Anyone notice the huge aircon unit on the back of a flat bed truck in the parking lot that arrived on Day Two? Noisy as hell but did a temporary job while a permanent solution was worked on. You also mentioned the fans added in Bash on day 2 or 3, a mutual friend of ours suggested that to the owner and the next day there they were.

From what I'm hearing now, things are much better than those first few days (although personally I had few issues myself). There always has to be a first week and if it wasn't two weeks ago, it might have been two weeks or two months from now and similar issues would have arose.

Once again, thanks for your great trip report. No criticism of it whatsoever.