Chris and April, we were planning to go check it out one day too. Not sure which day, we were going to play it by ear and maybe head over on a day when the sexy pool is not hopping or maybe if the weather is uncooperative. Either way, it would be cool to do this with other TTR folks!
This might be a fun night excursion. I know that nobody really does Coco-Bongos sort of excursions in our group. But it would be kinda fun to jump on the bus and head over there with 20 of our closest friends one night and see if it was worth booking in 2015. Can probably even get complimentary or damn cheap night passes if they are interested in a large group of exactly their type of target market coming to test it out before booking for next year.
Booked Ok. We just booked may 8th for 4 nights at grand oasis viva. Orbitz has a cyber monday deal for the first 500 customers today where it is 25% off hotel rooms only. So we booked GOV. For May 8th - May 12th, 4 nights, at $163 total a night. The code is lucky500. If you don't make it as one of the first 500 then use 'cheers' which is 20% off. This is better than the alpharooms rate for the same dates of $185 a night and the Expedia/Travelocity regular hotel only rate of $210 and way better than the Temptation alpharooms rate of $215 a night or $225-$249 a night on other sites. Best of all it is fully refundable until 3 days prior. So if GOV doesn't pan out in the reviews with the concept change we can switch to another hotel. Hopefully it doesn't get to that. And then the icing on the cake... In addition we are going to book a vacation package via orbitz. Orbitz now allows you to get the package savings without booking the hotel for your entire stay. So we are going to book the flight from the 8th to 15th and 3 nights at Desire pearl (never been, might be over the top for us, but worth trying). And as most know Desire pearl isn't typically discounted and is $495 a night everywhere I look for those dates. But with the package we save 300 so it works out to be $395 a night. I know I sound like a walking orbitz ad so sorry about that but I am just so happy about how this is playing out. Normally I am a walking alpharooms ad So it comes down to this for us... $665 for 4 nights at gov $1184 for 3 nights at Desire pearl $1358 for 2 direct round trip flights from philadelphia. Philly air is expensive in the spring. Total $3206 Pretty good for a week including half of it at desire pearl!
Booked We also booked through Orbitz today and took advantage of the Cyber deal. We can't argue with the free cancellation policy as we have yet to book flights (we try to use miles). See you all at GOV May 8 -14.
The thing is that the price you are finding is for the hotel only at TTR( what I assume). The price I found was a package for both air and hotel. That is where the difference is made. When I check into pricing for TTR(hotel only) I find that it is at average it is $200USD/nt/cpl. with the same date range. The airfare would be another $1600USD. The simple fact is that yeah the prices are way up from last year and that you can find a MUCH cheaper rate at GOV with a package deal rather than heading to TTR again with the risk of being "bumped" out due to construction and over booking. « Select another hotel Your Accommodation Details Destination: Cancun Hotel Zone, Cancun Hotel: Temptation Resort And Spa Hotel Check-In: Tuesday, 11 February 2014 Check-Out: Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Occupancy: 2 Adults (1 Room) For a limited period, it is possible to pay a deposit in order to secure this accommodation. ** The deposit is £1, with the balance due (3 weeks before departure) on 21-Jan-2014. Accommodation Itinerary Temptation Resort And Spa Hotel Cancun Hotel Zone, Cancun 3 Star Hotel Km 3.5 Blvd Kukulcan, Zona Hotelera, Cancun Check-In: Tuesday, 11 February 2014 Check-Out: Tuesday, 18 February 2014 Accommodation Costing Description Price Quantity Total Twin/Double Room - De Luxe, All Inclusive (2 Adults) £1,049 1 £1,049 DISCOUNT -£95 1 -£95 Total £954 Deposit Payable Now £1
Scott, when I was comparing prices, I looked at hotel only... reason being, it didn't seem fair to blame TTR for anything that had to do with flight. I was looking "apples to apples". I see that's what you're doing too, as long as the flight is the same. My guess is, if these resorts are really going to go head-to-head, their prices will be pretty similar once some of these one-time anomalies have been flushed out of the system (ie, TTR construction, and GOV trying to recruit new guests). Of course that's only a guess. Competition is a great thing, and for a while now TTR has had the market cornered. I guess we are about to find out how big the market is for this type of resort. If GOV is successful, it wouldn't surprise me to see more players enter the market.
I have typed and deleted, typed and deleted a few times trying to get my thoughts out on this. It's kinda shocking to me how quick everyone is jumping ship. I get and totally respect that if Temptation is simply more money than people want to or can spend, but I can't imagine there is any comparison now or in the near future between the experience you will have at one resort vs. the other. I remember before our 1st trip last year I researched the hell outta adults only party resorts and time and time again Temptation came up. I understand that GOV has changed their concept and threw up some stripper poles, but I just can't imagine the place being anything like Temptation by February. I'm sure the rooms and beach will be nicer, maybe even the food. But from what I have read,the nightlife there is all based on the clubs downtown (which is $50-$100 per night I think) and I can just picture heading to the pool in the mornings there, looking around and just thinking what I'm missing at the Sexy pool at Temptation.
Bottom line, take out the great CC partyiers , theme night organizers, and your left with a run down 3 star resort that try and sell you into 4 star service for thousands. The resort was never the attraction , ( beach area/ water is almost non existent),, it was always the crowd that went there. Have to add that the TTR front line staff has always been great. We went to a resort (TTR) and paid to stay there and had a blast and fun. We don,t owe them nothing , and going to another resort to avoid construction/ high prices, and try something new is not ''Jumping ship''. Most CC people are partyiers and adventurist , doesn't hurt to try something new, but I will miss a lot of regular friends. As far as the experience you will get at TTR vs GOV that will depend on the crowd and won't happen overnight and not by Feb as you say but maybe a good start by April. The comments about the night clubs was from a post about someone being there before the change over and everything being quit at night. We all do what we want to do , I,m going to give it a try in April to avoid construction at TTR , and try out the smoke free bars, better rooms ect ect , I may regret it, or I may be at the forefront of a great new adventure
Obviously you and everyone here will do what they want to do. I'm not saying you owe Temptation anything, or that you shouldn't go to GOV. I am simply saying that as of now, or in the near future I can't see how they can be compared. If someone else does, all the power to them. And hell, maybe it will be the same great time. I get going to GOV for something different, I just don't think that anybody booking there for the next 6-8 months will find themselves an overall replacement at this point In terms of my "jumping ship" comment, I wasn't referring to people trying a new resort, I was more so referring to the sudden surge of negativity towards Temptation in general. When I came here a year ago researching the resort, I really couldn't find any significantly negative comments about Temptation and everyone spoke of it as if it was somewhere special, not just "a resort". I don't think that Temptation was any better or worse a year ago (maybe I'm wrong), but anyone coming to this site now, isn't going to get the same impression. We have booked, and paid for our trip in Feb and can't wait. We know it's going to be an awesome time, but in the mean time I enjoy coming here and getting even more excited with others. I just find that there are a lot of posts all of a sudden with people speaking negatively about TTR, and I don't think these posts would be there if GOV were not in the picture. Not saying people shouldn't post what they feel, it's just an observation.
