Long A$$ Review--first Trip Since The Remodel 7/18-24

This was our 8th trip to TTR, but first since the remodel, and I'm going to put it right out that I'm going to be giving some very mixed opinions here. I love TTR, and I am so grateful for all of the fun and friends I've made there. I had a fantastic trip. However, there are some really stupid things I wish the management would address.

This is going to be long, so for those of you who want the short version here's what it boils down to: The way the resort looks, the way the food tastes...all irrelevant. The bottom line is that the people you find yourself with will make or break your vacation.

About us:
We travel a lot and love to be right in the middle of any ruckus we find. Todd is undefeated as Mr. Temptation! We've been coming to TTR since 2011 at various times of year, so we've seen the place at its rowdiest and at its quietest.

We had two friend groups go after the remodel but before us. Interestingly, one group raved about it and told us we were going to love everything, and the other group said it's now "TTR Lite" and that they may not go back. We definitely wondered which side we'd fall on!

First impressions:
Looking around, my first thought was, "If they're going for sexy, why did they use the same color scheme as my kids' preschool?" The cool towel and cold drink on arrival are nice. The check in process was much more quick and efficient, and the inevitable meeting with the timeshare person was less pushy than in the past. In addition, our Bash Tower room was ready early. Our friends' jacuzzi room was not.

Bash Tower rooms:
The Bash room had a decent view of the ocean and a very clear view onto the shenanigans on the balconies across from us. The air conditioning worked great (we were even cold sometimes!) and there was plenty of storage in the room cabinets and in the bathroom. The room even had robes and a Nespresso! Nice!!!!!

The window shade was the first of many examples of stupid things that were designed for form and not function. You push a button next to the bed, and the shade raises from the floor to the ceiling. There is no in-between--it has to be all up or all down. You can't access the balcony unless it's up. So, in the morning, when one person wakes up and wants to go sit on the balcony, the poor late sleeper (*cough* Todd) hasn't got a chance because the room gets completely flooded with light.

Simple fix? Blinds that slide side to side and allow for partial opening.

The Bash rooftop:
It's beautiful, with stunning views from the infinity pool, and a shady bar with excellent food. It's also boring as hell. Nice place for a quiet, romantic retreat. It could be a blast if all of your friends have access, too. It's set up with a nice light and sound system, yet they close at 6. What a waste.


The Sexy Pool:
I'm 5'0", so I knew this was going to be an issue. I cannot say strongly enough how much I hate the changes to the sexy pool. The old pool was a great size and nice depth--I'm so sad they screwed it up!

Yes, there are plenty of ledges, but socializing groups tend to drift, and when they'd start to shift or move, I had to choose between staying on my ledge and finding a new group, or following the group into the "murky depths." In the depths, I couldn't hold a drink comfortably, and didn't want to think about what was getting splashed in there from the pool, anyway. I had a float, but that kept drifting into people. I had friends who would carry me across and hold me up in the middle, but that wasn't really convenient.

The most ominous moment of the trip: I was talking to a woman who has been to TTR many more times than me. She loves the depth of the pool now because "you don't have to see all of those boobies all the time." Ummmm...help me out with this, but if you don't want to look at boobies, couldn't you go to any of the hundreds of other resorts in the world? Is this the customer TTR is courting, now? 'Cuz if this is the type of person they're going to attract, we're going to lose our carefree happy place.

Meanwhile, there are more funholes, so we ended up gravitating toward them. Even though it's much larger, the water was still very warm in July. I can't predict what will happen in cooler months with so much water relying on the sun to heat it.

Although security kicked us all out by blowing whistles on some nights, they let us stay in until 8 on other nights. Not sure why the inconsistency, but we were grateful when security let us stay. (And, seriously...whistles????!!!)

The restaurants and food:
We aren't foodies by any means. Our usual style is to drink until we're kicked out of the pool, get dressed, and throw something down our gullet as quickly as possible so we can get back to the party. So, we ate in the buffet every morning and the buffet or Amore's for lunch every day and most nights.

We were always happy with the buffet--but then, we always were. The fresh omelettes and made-to-order fajitas and tacos are always great. There was always enough variety that we left full.

We did try Romanza, the hibachi, and She for dinner. All of the food was excellent. I can be a fussy eater, so I was a bit worried about She--but I truly liked everything, and the presentation was really cool. Todd worried he'd leave hungry, but he was fine. The hibachi was really entertaining and delicious.

The atmosphere (i.e. The Only Thing that REALLY Matters):
Yes, it's "TTR Lite."

Body shots got us kicked out of the pool "WHAT??? I thought those were practically required at TTR??!!" you say? Not anymore. First day there, a friend tried to do a body shot off my nipple; I was clearly consenting, and the bartender told us we couldn't do that and made us leave.

Every day, we saw security making someone they deemed to be over-served leave the pool. A girl in our group stumbled, and security "grounded" her by sending her to their room and telling her not to come back to the pool for the rest of the day (granted, she was tipsy after the Boobs Cruise, but not so much to justify getting kicked out.). Another friend tripped on the pool stairs (which you can't see no matter how sober you are, by the way) and had defend himself to security in order to be allowed to stay at the pool!

Pool games and entertainment are very similar to before, but there is less encouragement for people to "vote" by getting naked.

One day, the floated around a really cool "fruit kayak," where you could go get a mango, pineapple, jicama, etc. on a stick. It was classy and a really nice treat.

Theme night participation is way up, and people really go all out on the outfits. Bash had a great energy every night. The shows are more professional...but less personal, less audience involvement. Like many things around the "new" resort, they're slick and meant to be looked at and admired. I missed the "anything goes" games and the lingerie night casino games, though.

Bottom line: First-timers were amazed at how "crazy" TTR is; repeaters were rolling our eyes, knowing how much they were not seeing.

The Biggest Turn-Off: The Completely Arbitrary Caste System:
We had a Bash Tower room, so we had free rooftop access. Our friends paid the same price as us for a jacuzzi room, but had to pay for rooftop. Our other friends had an ocean-front suite for which they paid significantly more than us, but they also had no rooftop access. Other friends came on a referral, so they could access the Premiere deck, while the rest of us couldn't.

I sense that management is disconnected from their repeat customers. Everything they see as a selling point for memberships is something that removes you from the party: quiet rooftop access, quiet deck access, etc. The things they've sunk money into (food, design) are things you can find at any resort in Cancun or DR.

So here's what I wish I could tell the managment: TTR became the special place that it is because it allowed/encouraged people to lose their inhibitions and to socialize. People come back because TTR has been the only place that offered an energetic, sexy, fun party atmosphere. It will stay that way if the people who value that keep coming and holding on. If the long-timers and repeaters move on, though, I'm really scared that TTR will be no different from any of the other adults-only AIs in a few years. I really hope the management starts to look at the things that make them special and start to focus on them.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this report, we be there in a little less than 90 ish days with the HnH gang, we can't wait and are hoping that Temptation for being open over a year after the reno's starts to figure out where there trying to go and lighten up some, I'm not liking this TTR Lite stuff. Security grounding people and sending them to their rooms WTF, from all the pictures out there most people will be sent to their rooms because they stumbled over the poor design of the new TTR, obviously Mexico has no building codes that needed to be followed. All the reviews out there seem to have one thing in common, there is no consistency in how things are done, security, pool/hot tub open hours, they really need to figure this out and make some changes in the positive old TTR direction by reading these type of reviews and the others that are out there on other sites.

T

 

Thanks for the detailed TR! Kind of laughed at "the most ominous moment of the trip" about boobies. Umm, that's one of the reasons we're going. Boobs boobs and more boobs! Funny how western culture seems to have a conservative attitude towards them. For Christ's sakes, they're JUST breasts at the end of the day, and we all have nipples. Too bad she isn't there when we are, wife is going to be topless the moment we step away from the check in counter but hey, they're "just boobs", right?
Oh, and if she reads this, we'll be on the Boobs Cruise on the 21st if she wants to come.

 

So I guessing that the women who liked the depth of the new sexy pool so boobs aren't showing all the time isn't a frequent flyer on the Boobs Cruise.

T

 

THIS!!!

Amazing review @summerbum

This is exactly how I felt after our 6th and 7th trip (2 since renos). You definitely wrote it more eloquently than I could have but this is exactly what is wrong with the new TTR. I got reprimanded because a husband and wife wanted to enjoy whipped cream off of my boobs...is this not a requirement of all days in the sexy pool!??!

We are heading back in 53 days and I am always hopeful but still annoyed at these ridiculous changes.

Nikki

 

Great report, and I agree with a lot of what you said.

First Impression: To me the new part of the resort just has a weird sterile look to it. Not a big deal, but just kind of odd.
Rooms: Completely agree with the shades. I have a hard time sleeping on vacation, and would like to go out on the balcony in the morning. The ridiculous set up makes that very difficult.
Roof Top: We like many other people apparently , since all I hear about is how unused it is, will not likely be up there at all. I keep reading in trip reports about how great the food is supposed to be up there. Reminds me of the commercials where they tell people they are at Five Star restaurant and feed them Hardee's burgers or something like that, and they just love them.
Pool: Getting rid of a pretty innocent thing like Body Shots is not a good sign as to where they are heading in the future with the themes.

I keep going to back to the very first time I saw the video about what the plans were, and it all being described by the "designer." He certainly looked the part of a designer, but it's apparent he had no idea what he was doing. Chairs, steps, ledges, pool depth, bathrooms, etc.... what a train wreck.

If they keep pushing down the "Vibe" of the place, it's going to be a very affordable place to go, for a semi-adult vacation.

 

Is your husband “Keith Richards”?

 

Yes! That's JJ's nickname for him

 

I didn't see the kindergarten look
when I look at it I see a really cheesy 70"s porn
we are premier but every time we went up to the pool no one was there ..so we never hung out up top
personal gripe .. at the end of the bar it says its a premier area ..you know so you don't have to get out of the pool and walk way over to that little bar to get a drink , but they don't have any of the premier booze down there ..they won't even go get a bottle to put there all we wanted was a bottle of jack and one of crown ..
also the new shot glasses suck badly they don't stack so you can't get like 20 and just go around making new best friends

 

He KILLED it in Mr. Temptation. The man knows his way around erotic pastries.

THIS! A lot of people (maybe even you) asked our opinion of the changes when they found out we were there for the 5th time and this would inevitably be brought up by me. We had a Jacuzzi suite and I love to get up early to save a couple of chairs and grab a couple of cups of coffee to bring back to the room and sit on the patio to watch the day begin. That stupid shade killed it. I hated that fucking thing.

As for the Sexy Pool, I liked the ledges and the numerous fun holes, but the pool is too big and too deep and everyone seemed to gravitate to the edges, fun holes, or bar. Also, I thought I broke my toe by stubbing it on a stair I didn't see. Glad security missed that. Regarding pool security, we noticed a lot of people being removed, too. Most looked like they needed a timeout, but some didn't. We must have hidden it well on some days. I liked the fruit kayak (lesson learned: don't grab jicama) and the occasional mango or fruit cup with chili-lime salt. The pool games were fun, but noticeably tame. I may not have seen any body shots but I did see a lot of people "improvising". We didn't make it to Bash every night, but the rest of our group did and everyone had a great time there. I liked it more than Patty-O's. I did think it was a tamer TTR while the other three couples who joined us were first timers and blown away.

I had to read this part a few times because it just doesn't make sense. My wife was mad because she couldn't see all those boobies all the time and her's were hidden as well.

Agreed. We paid more for our Jacuzzi suite than my brother did for his Bash Tower room that he only booked because of the words "ocean view". We got the peasant wrist bands of white while he and the other couples wore the more esteemed blue. I wasn't about to pay $20 to go see the pool that nobody uses.

Great summary of a great Trip Report. Thank you!