Spent Christmas week at Temptation (Dec 19 - 26, 2024) Overall, we had a wonderful trip. It was so nice to be back and we look forward to going again. A little background: Once upon a time, hubby & I were very vanilla. We stumbled upon Temptation in 2014 and fell in love with the resort and the lifestyle atmosphere. We visited TTR basically every year except for the year of the Reno and COVID. In 2021, we had a very very bad experience at our Premier "meeting" The sales manager was just horrible, yelling at us, calling us liars and basically being a verbally abusive ass. It was an awful experience and at the time, we swore never to return. (how could they treat us like that after we've shown so much loyalty?) We avoided TTR for a few years in bitterness. Anyway 2024 came. They say time heals all wounds and we were ready to forgive and (mostly) forget. Also, it had been the Premier sales agent who was a jerk; the rest of the resort was A-OK We are not Premier members. We do not want to be. It stinks that non-members get fewer and fewer privileges, but it's their resort, they can make their rules. So here's my review of our comeback visit, still a non-member: CHECKING IN: Check in went smoothly. We arrived early, like noon, so I knew the room wouldn't be ready. But we checked our bags with Angel the bellboy, grabbed some beach gear and headed for lunch at the buffet. Then we went to the beach to enjoy the waves. ROOM(S): Our room was ready at 3p. Angel was a super-friendly bellboy; great attitude, lots of laughing and joking. He showed us how to use the infamous control panel (lights, shades, AC controls) and how to open the "hidden" closet doors (still never figured out where all the doors opened) Our initial room felt very musty and reeked of mold. Even the bellboy turns his nose up. I felt bad about asking for a new room, but Angel was very encouraging. He said, "you have to be happy with the room! If not, your stay will be miserable." which was 100% true. So we headed back to the front desk and he spoke directly with the desk agent to get us better rooms. Our next room, not far from the original one, was much better. Standard room, no penthouse, no jacuzzi, no plunge pool but it was great. We were on the 3rd floor, but the room number began with 9xxx. Not sure why level one has 7xxx room numbers, and so on... it was confusing for a few days. Room was super clean, comfy. Mini-fridge had lots of water, sodas, beers. The room has an iron, coffee maker, TV, motorized shade (curtain) and an electronic safe. The bathroom is spacious with a large rain shower. There is no door to the shower so water tends to splash all over the bathroom floor, even with a towel laid out. The bathroom has a hair dryer and a lighted vanity mirror. We thought the lighting in the bathroom was a bit too dim. We only needed the room cleaned twice during our week (we tended to keep the room tidy on our own) Our housekeeper was Magali and she did a superb job. We asked her for more waters and boy did she deliver. She left us about 15 bottles in the room, which were more than enough, then she stopped by later to bring more. (I should note that we had left a nice tip and I also gave her gifts as it was Christmas week) My point of all this, is that even the lowest budget Trendy Garden room can be wonderful. We had no issues with the room. RESTAURANTS: We primarily dined in the buffet for most meals. It was usually pretty good. On a few days, the food was a little repetitive, but still good, and still better than what I could cook at home. On Christmas Eve, the food at the buffet was spectacular. There was roast lamb and roast turkey; both were excellent. There were other good options also. On our 1st night, we went to Hibachi. We didn't have reservations, but we asked if there were any open seats, and luckily there were 2 for us! Perfect! Unfortunately we both thought the food was a little bland. The theatrics of the chef were great, but the chicken, shrimp and beef tasted under-seasoned. (the fried rice was very good, though) We decided to not do Hibachi anymore. On Sunday, the buffet was closed for dinner because there was an outdoor BBQ on the beach. We didn't think the food was that great. Also, it was breezy and chilly so the food got cold quickly. On Monday, we had dinner at Romanza, the Italian restaurant. The service was very slow. It took about 10-15 minutes for anyone to ask what we wanted to drink. It took about 20-25 min for someone to take our order. Guests who came after us were being served before us and that is one of my husband's biggest pet peeves. This one couple who came 10 min after us not only had their orders taken before ours, but the finished their meal and left before our entrees came out. Also, the waiter Charlie, seemed miserable. Not friendly or courteous. It made us feel like we were inconveniencing him by being there. Oh well maybe he was having a lousy day and we just happened to be there. It happens. Anyway, that was our only meal at Romanza. The rest of our meals were at the buffet, Amores. It was so good seeing a lot of familiar faces at breakfast/lunch: Lucio, Miguel, Juan, Reyes, Francisco. Lucio and Miguel were super friendly and seemed to remember us (although maybe they just say that to a lot of guests; it didn't matter) Another great waiter was Salvador, who made an effort to teach guests how to say certain phrases in Spanish. I thought this was great: good service and a free language lesson. He taught us to say "Ya cabe" when we were done with our plates. One day, there was an outdoor grill by the Sexy Pool. We were excited because there were crab legs. Too bad we couldn't get any meat out of them as we had nothing to crack them open with. So we ditched our plates and went to the buffet that day as well. BEACH: We were happy to enjoy the beach. On our last trip to Desire RM a few months ago, the beach was barely existent, due to erosion. So the Temptation beach was a welcome sight. The waters were shallow and nice, not too rough. The shore itself is full of little rocks and shells, which make it hard to walk so I highly recommend going in with swim shoes. Lots of vendors walking the beach selling jewelry, scarves, coconut waters, sliced mangoes, hats, bags, keychains, cigars. Also ladies in scrubs offering massage services and guys offering visits to Isla Mujeres. It's a public beach, so there are families walking by as well. POOL: We actually didn't spend too much time in the Sexy Pool. I am barely over 5ft tall and I don't like how the water goes up to my chin. But we did spend some time there and it was fun. The music was pretty loud (we could hear the music very well from the beach) and the shenanigans were fun. HOT TUB: We went to the hot tub twice. Lots of friendly people. On 1 of the days, the water was not warm at all. NIGHTLY ENTERTAINMENT: We enjoyed the shows nightly. It was mostly choreographed dancing, but there were acrobatics and sexy theatrics on a few nights. On our Wednesday, it rained out so the circus show took place in the lobby. (It was excellent by the way) Does the DJ play the same music over and over? Sadly, yes. There were a handful of songs I knew would be played as we heard them in our previous visits. But the songs all have good beats and got people dancing. There was also karaoke on a few nights. Many singers were local guests, singing Mexican tunes. It ached whenever someone chose a slow ballad. Kinda killed the pre-party vibe. Boobs Cruise: Went to 2 of them! Had a great time on both. The second one didn't have a whole lot of guests, but it was still a lot of fun. The only "issue" we had was the buffet lunch wasn't as good as on previous visits. Other notes: Pretty much everyone we met was nice and pleasant to talk to. It was a good crowd! Quite a few topless ladies, I'd say between 40% - 60%. Several single guys, but no one seemed out of line. Christmas Eve (Tuesday) was way more festive than Christmas day. By Christmas evening, no one had holiday garb on anymore. JJ is still there, raunchy as ever. He made a few appearances, which was nice. We really didn't get to know the Playmakers. We didn't spend a lot of time in the Sexy Pool and that's where they introduce them. So we'd see them at Bash at night, but I never got their names, with the exception of Cowboy. The TV in the room has resort info. It also has several channels, but unfortunately for us, very few in English. No ipad survey at check out. Not sure how we officially tell the resort how we felt about our trip, but hopefully a survey will be sent. Thankfully, there was ZERO timeshare pitch. Maybe there's something on our "file" (since I filed formal complaints after my last stay) but no one approached us about joining Premier. Thank you Temptation for a lovely stay. We will be back.
Thanks for taking the time to write your report, it's been a while since we had one. Glad you had a good time
