We've been to Hedo and Temptation and last year went to Oasis Viva. We are mid 40's but not wild and crazy anymore. Like nude/topless if others are participating and fun in the evenings but not into the techno disco scene. Here's our experience: Up at 3:30am for an early flight. Arrive at hotel around noon. Can't check in till 3pm(no problem) so change and hit the outdoors. Eat at Mexican for lunch and quickly realize it's not good Mexican-just ok. Check back to front desk at 3:30 and they say come back later. Go back later and they say 20min. Go back 20min and they say 10min. I say, I want a room NOW! Hey, get a room 481 ocean view. Room: mediocre but didn't expect 4-5 star. Shower/bath combo w/toilet, sink and mirror outside bathroom, 2 beds and a sitting area. No balcony. Safe in room was already closed so we couldn't access it, mini fridge didn't work, and only half of the led light strip at sink worked so shaving and make-up application was difficult. No washcloths, floor mat, iron or ironing board. We ended up w/ one washcloth for 2 days and non for the rest. Seemed to be the norm from listening to others. Got locked out of room 3x during week where we had to go to desk and get it recharged. Could here every little noise from next room. Went to desk next morning to tell them about safe, mini fridge and wash cloths before breakfast. Returned to room and nothing different. Went back and they said they would come fix but we needed to be there. 45 min. of lost beach time and we still had to try locking it 2-3x before it would lock. Told no spare fridges so to bad(asked 3 more times during week w/same result). Restaurants: Cobia(buffet) is only open for breakfast and dinner but didn't go for dinner. Starting at 8:30am-10:00 there was a line for breakfast. It is basically in the "basement" although there are window panels on the west side (since the resort is on a hill the west side is lower). Took up to 20min to get inside then 5-10min. for omelette station. Staff did great job of turning tables around but forget about consistent service. Had to search out someone for coffee and water and then lucky to get them. Food was ok also. Had awesome french toast first 2 days then gone for week. Italian: only went for lunch and food was ok. Mr Wimpy: spent 20min looking for it only to find out it is where the Happy Chicken is. Opens at 11am but never got any of the food. Happy Chicken which turned into Hippie Chic during week opens at noon and there is an immediate line since it is also Mr. Wimpy which has people sitting at tables already. Food is excellent but takes forever. Orders done 1 at a time so look to wait 30min. for chicken strips. Add that to the 20-30min wait in line and more lost beach time. Japanese: Really good rib-eye. Open for dinner Black Hole: Dark restaurant where you are given around 25 different bites of food and try to figure out what you're eating(nothing crazy disgusting). Really neat but beware of the neighbor that gets their food before you and says out loud what it is. They also put on a little show. Reservations needed as well as long pants and shoes. Dinner only. Box: Tapas that were very good. Reservations proper dress. Dinner only Al Sur(Mediterranean): Good food. Advertised as only dinner but on 2nd last day, went to foam party at quiet pool and saw people eating lunch. That area of the resort is basically a hidden secret. Ate lunch the last day and had good fish strips. Veal is the popular meat there. Overall all breakfast and lunch service was poor. Wait long or never get drinks. Forget about water. Resort: Yes, lots of step but layout was cool looking though. 2 pool levels where the upper falls into the lower. Pool bar is underneath the water falling into lower pool. Chair very comfy around pool(chair saving by 8am if you want one) but hard plastic on the beach. Topless signs at all pools but non taking part.Lobby shows in early evening were great. Entertainment staff were great but not overpowering. Front desk staff friendly even when telling me too bad so sad about mini bar. Was in Kinky Club 1 time and wasn't for us. Had a couple oops early nights and went to town 1 night. Gym equipment old and in partial open room so when it rains, the equipment gets wet. Would bet 90% of the people never knew where it was(hidden). Resort was bought by Lifestyles which has numerous resort properties in the Caribbean. Somewhere in Dominica is their home. Talking with members, they think changes will be in the way because their other properties are much nicer. There is a massage booth a short walk north and south of resort. Both are $40/hr. We went south and it was worth every penny. They have a book for reservations and were quite busy. heard the one north was good also even though it's in front of an abandon resort. Took bus into OLD Cancun for dinner. Went to Pericos which required walking 5-6 blocks after getting off bus in a not so nice looking area. Well worth it. The place is a blast. Severs are fun and totally committed in giving you a great experience. 4 of us went and everyone's food was great. Pouring down rain while going back to bus so took a cab for $10 back the Coco Bongo area and bar hopped around there before catching bus to hotel. Could do opposite to get to restaurant if not comfortable walking 5-6 iffy blocks. Overall: Food was fine, resort and layout fine, however, the lack of wash cloths, no mini fridge, and waiting in line for breakfast and lunch wasn't worth it. We had 6 days to enjoy as much sun a relaxation as possible before going back home to another 8 weeks of cold. We didn't want to wait in line to eat everyday. Will be giving someone else a try next time.
Actually sounds like the Sens SUCKS. I agree with going into Cancun centro. Love going there. I don't think it is scary. Maybe because we have done it several times over the years. Better restaurants and food than you will ever get in the HZ IMHO. Thanks for the insight on the resort.
My wife and I were at the Sens Feb 2-7, I think our experiences were similar to KT. We stayed at the Grand Oasis Viva last year and had a good experience, when we found out that was under new management we looked for a comparable place and found the Sens. We were upgraded free of charge to a room that had a deck and a pool. The room was beautiful, but we had some issues. First the AC didn't work. We had a maintenance person down the first night, I speak Spanish so was able to communicate easily with him and he just basically told me it was not going to be fixed, that it was the way it was. I relayed that to the front desk, they dispatched a new crew to look at it. I asked the front desk for a fan, which for us would have solved the problem pretty much completely, they said none were available but they keep an eye out. Crew #2 comes down, cuts up a piece of wood and crawls up in the ceiling after removing the tiles, and props open the vent with this wood. Now, a trickle of not very cool air was coming out, better than nothing I guess. I asked this crew about a fan, they said they knew where the fans were stashed and would have one for us in a few minutes. And they did - which makes me kind of wonder what the deal was the front desk. Next morning about 7:30, I hear what sounds like a bucket of water being thrown on the floor, followed by what sounded like rain in the room. Right above the sink, right where the guys were futzing around with the AC, water was just pouring out. Kind of scary because of the ceiling lights, had to call down twice to get someone to take a look. Same crew that "fixed" the AC came down, took the ceiling tiles off and we see a pipe that essentially goes nowhere with a valve on it. Close the valve, problem solved. Twice during our stay there was no water in the resort for ~10 minutes, we called the first time and we were told they were doing maintenance. Having said all of that - we liked the place! The rooms were clean, once we got the fan in the room it was fine, and the water issue was kind of fluky. The front desk is not friendly, I got a bad vibe from that entire crew, but everyone else from the maintenance people to the maids to the wait staff were great. We did not have the problems of towels/washclothes/filling the minibar etc... I would give all of that an A. The food was good. I have read complaints about it on other sights, and quite frankly I just can't imagine not being happy with the food. Plenty of variety, not one bad experience. Other than the buffet for breakfast and one trip to the Chicken place by the pool we didn't even wait in line. The Chicken place was the worst, we waited 30+ minutes but once we were seated the food was good. I forgot the name of the restaurant, it's not the molecular food one but the other one you need reservations for, really nice ambiance until the roof started leaking. A waiter took a major spill on the wet floor, and we had to scoot our table over a little bit. It was raining that night, and the roof leaked. Nightlife for us was perfect. We are kind of quiet, we aren't looking to meet people or party - if you needed serious nightlife then you won't be happy. If you are ok with some half way decent bands/lounge music, then there were plenty of offerings. We took a salsa class, I played some beach soccer, stuff like that. You could find little things like that. Depends on what you are looking for. The bones of this place need some work I think, but the exterior is nice. Food was great, the beach was fantastic, the pools were nice. We liked it. Some stuff is kind of scary - I know a few days after we were there a ton of people got bumped to the other Grand Oasis which was also full - so that's not cool. Front desk staff could be more polite for sure, wait staff etc.. was good. We liked it better than the Grand Oasis Viva by quite a bit actually, but I could see how things could go wrong. I'm not sure I would return because I would be afraid of something really bad happening, but I'll bet most people that go end up like us - we had a great time with some funny stories to tell.
