Distance from airport Ooops forgot to ask... how far is the Flamingo hotel from the airport? Do they have buses that transport from hotel to airport and vise versa? Just curious as to what we should be expecting. Also as far as transportation goes is it cheaper to use the buses instead of taxis?
to anyone who's been there recently... someone on trip advisor said that the AI stops at 3 in the afternoon and that drinks/food are to be paid for after that?? Is that true? TA claims there's no time limit on the AI, funjet sez there's no time limit, so I'm doubting it; probably my suspicious side wondering if something fishy is going on.
i was there for sb and the ai stopped at like 11 or 12 at night i think... which was pretty darn perfect.. unless u spent the night at the hotel and wanted to drink.
yea, that's understandable and seems standard (which is fine cuz it's not like you can't stock up your fridge earlier in the day) but that trip advisor comment threw me for a second with a WTF???? thx!
I think the TA comment was in regards to someone checking out. If you have a flight that leaves in the early evening, I think the Flamingo cuts off your AI access around noon.
Just got back from the Flamingo, and it was ok. It definitely is a 3*, and you get what you pay for. The infamous $20 bribe did not get us ocean view, we got Margaritaville view. Whatever, we were rarely going to be in the room. However... our closet doors were busted literally off the tracks. One light fixture was hanging by the wires, the other had the socket hanging out of the fixture. The kleenex box was torn out of the wall, we only had one light in the room that worked, there was a scotch brite floating in the toilet, the fridge was broken and the tv did not work. When we reported this to the front desk, we were told we had to pay for any damage to the room -it would be charged to our credit card. :shock: Went to the funjet rep and got most of it resolved without incident. I wasn't terribly impressed with the slushies they claim are drinks, especially when they have top shelf liquor but do not offer it even with tips or request. What they show behind the bar is not what they are putting in the drinks. Those top shelf bottles are for show. The beach is now HUGE. One heck of a trek, asthmatics, keep that inhaler close, it's a hike to the water. Boogie boards were easily obtained every time we wanted one, tho some staff requested 2 hours and a form with the room info, others couldn't care less what room you were from or how long you had the boards. Beach towels were never a problem, either. Always available, heavy duty. I advise water shoes for the beach, lots of broken shells, very sharp on bare feet. The quiet pool is wonderful, the bar pool really could use a good clorox scrubbing; lots of mold and dirty water especially around the bar. Volleyball is fun but that fountain is trecherous to play. The waitstaff, bellboys, and the housekeeping staff are wonderful. They are 5* all the way and deserve to work in a nicer hotel. I wasn't thrilled with the minifridge stock boy demanding $8 for the 2 bottles of water that was part of our AI. I am not sure I get why/how he was doing that, but I never complied. Told the funjet rep and it didn't happen again. Last 2 days, we got no restock at all. Spoke with front desk and we got a price list. Said we were AI and they said if we wanted the restock, there were the prices. *shakes head* Gave up. Not worth the aggravation. I am not sure who that woman is that attacks you the minute you get in the lobby, but they were the biggest pain in the butts the entire week. They would not leave us alone for anything. Every single time we left the hotel, she insisted we had to tell them where we were going (I never did as I never felt is was her biz) She didn't have my name in her little book, and basically held us prisoner for 5-10 mins every time we tried to leave! She would never answer my question as to WHY she was asking us all these questions every time we wanted to leave the hotel. The biggest fiasco with her was when we hired a taxi driver (thru recommendation on this forum) to go to Chichen Itza. We ate breakfast Sunday morning and headed out and she blocked our way with an inquisition about our papers and documentation. We needed them for our excursion. We had NO CLUE what she was talking about. I tried to explain that we did not book any excursion, that she must be mistaken or confused us with someone else. She said we are going somewhere and demanded to know where. Then another guy came and shoved papers in my face saying my papers have to look like this or we can't leave. Huh??? :shock: A third guy from the table came and they tried to intimidate us with how dangerous cancun is and how easy it is to get ripped off and have bad things happen when you think you can just go do whatever you want without protection. Told us the bus was too dangerous and that taxis would rip us off, that we should avoid certain areas (like going to the bus station) as downtown is too dangrous for tourists etc. She called the funjet rep over, they spoke, and then the woman insisted that funjet had to arrange the trip for us because, for our safety, they do not allow any outside arrangements. For our safety. Again, I explained we did not book any excursion through anyone and that we had to leave as our ride was waiting for us. I simply said a friend was picking us up and we were spending the day with them in hopes that would get her to back off. She then rifled through her book and wanted my name again. Finally, the funjet rep told her we could leave (to this day I don't get why they had to do this every time as they did not do this with others in our group or other patrons) and we ran out of there. After two days of being polite, we acted deaf or extremely preoccupied to ignore her calls and arm grabs. Other stuff will happen in a trip report as this was just my experiences with the Flamingo Hotel.
Takami826 Thanks for you review, it was very helpful. That would get really old with that lady constantly stopping you. So what is the Margaretaville room, I think thats what you called it? How far is the beach from the hotel? Where did you get your beach towels? I don't think we are going to bring towels down so that's why I was wondering. It sounds like you had a good time all in all. Did you swim with the dolphins at all?
We were in room 440, which overviewed the main drag thru Cancun opposed to ocean view -they claimed there are no rooms with 2 beds on the ocean view side (we found this is totally not true) we stood on our deck and could see/hear margaritaville every night. The hotel is on the beach. When they rebuilt the beach, they REALLY rebuilt the beach, it's about 60m I would guess from the steps at the hotel to actually reaching the water. It's good, though, that there is that much beach, the water used to come right up to the base of the steps!! The towels can be borrowed against your room number near the pool bar (by the massage table) and the boogie boards can be borrowed near the gift shop (these things are all in the center of the hotel's buildings)They have to be returned by 6pm or they charge your room $20 per towel -but sometimes they just gave us towels and we never checked them out against our room # so I think it depends who's running the show that day. It was a total blast because we were determined not to let the annoyances ruin our trip. The only real aggravation was that woman -when she wasn't there, the other people manning the table left us be- and the funjet people were just a little pushy with their excursion packages, but cuz we had the CanDo maps and such, we were 100% independent of organised tours and whatnot. My friend did the dolphin thing at xel ha (or xcarat? I get the two confused cuz I was very very sick a couple days) 2 yrs ago, but not the one that's in Cancun. I couldn't care less about swimming with dolphins personally, so I don't even know if that's been rebuilt or reopened.
hey- sorry to hear the flamingo sucked. nothing like that ever happened to us on sb. do u have pics of the beach?
it didn't entirely suck, I didn't mean to leave that impression. it was an ok hotel for the class it's in. some things just came across as shady and that irksome woman always trying to scare us into being afraid to venture without their protective tour guides or something. common sense and mapchick's maps took care of us quite well. There's a post in the cancun info section where someone asked about the beach and I posted a link to my pix there. the beach is huge now, and quite nice. they are planting some plants around the hotel, too.
