Hello Everyone: On our way out this morning after a 5 night/6 day stay at the Grand Oasis Viva. I will save you guys the long read of trip report with some random bullet points. Pros: - The standard hotel rooms are very clean and nicely laid out. (king size bed, flat screen television, small table with two chairs, and small couch) - Nice clean bathrooms (double sink) - Nice double closet and dressers to store your clothes. - Bathroom towels are nice and thick (and soft) - Coffee (café con leche) is the VIP is delicious - Mixed drinks are strong! - Dos X beer is amazingly nice and cold. - No issues pool side with getting a towels. - The lounger chairs made of material near the pool are comfortable! - Sushi prepared on the beach is delicious. - The hotel grounds inside and outside are well taken care of. Much effort is made to keeping everything looking fresh and modern. - Nice lovely beach virtually steps off the pool area. - The resort foot print is small. All of the areas are laid very close and makes it easy to get from one place to another. - The Coyote bar has a feel of a real night club. Lights, sound, and drinks! - Salsa/merengue performed one day pools side, but never again. - Circus show perform one night by the pool. Make shift seating. - Hotel is located near the restaurants and clubs. Easy to make up for lack of entertainment and food quality in the resort. - Friendly and hard working staff. - lots of street venders on the beach selling jewelry, Cuban cigars, sun glasses, hats, donuts, cut up fruit, beach wraps, blankets, wood crafts made my locals, etc. - loved the canopy beds scattered throughout the beach. Cons: - Midi fridge is stored inside the dress right hand compartment. When you open the door, you feel the heat! If you enjoy a nice cold beer in your room, the fridge will not cool your beer. Why? Because of the POOR air flow! - Room cleaning is regularly done well. On occasion, the staff may run late and knock your door after five to clean your room. it happened once to us. - Air exhaust not working in the bathroom and much needed. - The plastic white lounger chairs made of plastic are uncomfortable after a while. - Service at the Mexican restaurant is slower than slow. The food is re-heat and not made fresh to order. Often they are out of certain things on the menu. The skill set of the workers poor and mechanical, not cooked with passion. - Beach can be a little rocky in areas. The sand in the beach area is flat and not sandy to where you feel like you are walking in quick sand. - Coyote bar was often empty or often filled with very few folks. DJ was playing a pre-recorded dj mix of current EDM hits. DJ needs to read the crowd and play music based on the audience. Club needs to be promoted by the staff. - Daytime pool activities are minimal. - Hotel night life is non existent. Folks leave the hotel for the night clubs. - Food is hit or miss, but often a miss!!!! This area really needs much improvement. **** fish at the Mexican restaurant took long time to arrive, and seriously lacked flavor! **** veggies prepared for eggs should be cooked on the grill first to be soften up, then the eggs mix should be beaten with a little milk to lighten them up so that the veggies are nicely cooked and eggs are light and fluffy. my veggies and eggs were thrown in together, flat, brown and over cooked. looking un-appealing. - much of the food sitting in the buffet breakfast is cooked in the same uninspired method as described above. - $30 USD charge for weeks worth of internet is high. All inclusive means all inclusive. - $7 USD charge for the safe is high. All inclusive means all inclusive. - Room service food is cooked un-inspired as the resort restaurants and charged extra! All inclusive means all inclusive. - Other guest were not social and often a little rude. - There were hotel employees chasing me down all week to try to get me to sit to offer free stuff or incentives to meet with them. Confronted at the lobby, phone calls to my room, and slips of paper under my door. A bit annoying. Summary: I think the GOV is a good value for the cost. if fast food, drinking, and beach time is your thing, this hotel will suit you fine. If you are looking for more structured entertainment events and well thought out executed meals, then you might be better off spending the extra money on a five start resort. * This is my opinion. I tried to be fair. I have been to Cancun 6 times and visited other resorts. I'm a USA born with both parents born in Mexico. I have more than an adequate feel for the cooking. I have spent more than 20years moonlighting in night clubs as a dj.
Thank you. The amount of pool chairs available is about to change if they correct the "cons." This site will inundate the hotel of they get the important tasks corrected!
Thank you. This is very helpful. You painted a very clear picture of the current state. We are most concerned about the lack of daytime activities, nightlife fun and the comment about other guests not being the friendliest or not into the party. However, like pointed out before we hope this is due to the concept being so new. I am sure most people there now want it to be quiet and were surprised by the promoted party atmosphere. Sounds like they have the facilities and they just need the activities and the people. When all 3 come together hopefully it is a success. A couple questions... - did the resort have organized trips to select clubs each night? - you mentioned minimal daytime activities. What did they have? Did they have silly games at the pool? Was their organized volleyball? Etc - with all the staff hassling you I assume that was about attending a timeshare presentation? I had read they don't have that YET. I guess it started? - did they offer room upgrades? If so what was the price for which upgrades? We are curious about cost for balcony and one of the rooms with a plunge pool or jacuzzi. - you mention very little people were at the main on site nighttime dance club. Did they have any activities or themes there? Or just a dj? Thanks.
Thanks for the trip report I'll separate it off to a new thread as it was a little buried away on the original thread.
Re lack of nightlife and 'non social guests' this is fairly typical of most 'regular' hotels. But is also something that will surely evolve over time. I can't stress enough that their adults only concept hasn't been fully implemented yet and almost all of the people there at the current time will have booked under the old concept. This time of year is also a very quiet time of year in Cancun, generally. People are only just starting booking for the new concept and it's going to take a while before the ratio first balances out and then more time before the guests who have booked for the new concept outnumber those booking for the old. As that ratio creeps up then I am sure the social aspect and nightlife will increase proportionately. I personally think it will take until Feb until ratios begin to balance out and then maybe May or June before we can see how the resort will be over the longer term.
100% agree with Tonys review. The service in all of the restaurants is pretty slow, a buffet would be great. I thought the reason that so few people talked to us is because we were Ugly!!! No, just kidding. Yes a lot of the guests didn't care to chat.. Totally different from TTR. I think it was that Retiree thing. Yes LOTS of vendors on the beach !!!! LOTS. WE are so used to JAMAICA, it was pretty strange seeing a lot of Vendors, but none selling drugs !!! We actually had a drug dealer in Negril Apologize for not having any Meth. I\
No Bob Marley? I can do without the Meth (totally!! LOL) but a little Bob just makes the world go round :angel1::rainfro:
Food, people and entertainment are big things for us. The lady who gave us a tour said they had a new head chef who is revamping all the restaurants. I strongly recommend anyone trying out this place to make sure the resort knows your comments so hopefully they can continue to grow
Thank you, Tony! I can tell you really took our questions to heart and kept an eye out for us while you were there. Too bad about the people...but I'm hoping Steve is right and the crazies will overtake the snobs in time.
what is going to be difficult for GOV is to transition from a "Beach oriented" resort to a "pool centered" one. GOVs main pool is certainly large enough, but its just a rectangular pool with a swim cup bar. It doesn't have any of the whirlpools or seating areas that TTRs sexypool does. It does have a small area to the left of the swimup bar with about 10 seats.
