Trip Report GOV 14-21 August

Discussion in 'Grand Oasis Viva' started by aggiemike, Apr 22, 2014.

  1. aggiemike

    aggiemike Regular Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2007
    Messages:
    211
    Likes Received:
    156
    Location:
    San Antonio, Texas
    Ratings:
    +223 / 0
    Trip Report GOV 14-21 April

    Ok, so here is my feeble attempt to summarize our weeks experience at GOV. Longer than I thought it would be:

    In general we found the building and facilities to be in very good condition with lots of recent attention. The beach quality location is outstanding. Service was great. Not sure why the reviews tend to be all over the map but have some theories below.

    I am going to do some comparisons with TTR, but please recognize we last visited Cancun and stayed at TTR in Sept. 2010. We did get a chance this trip to see the current outsides of TTR when we went on the Friday Boobs Cruise. Quite a few upgrades visible from the outside.

    Check-in- Used USA Transfer, flawless as always. Airport facilities seem upgraded vs. our last experience in 2010. Arrived at GOV about 1:45 pm on Monday. Went strait to VIP lounge and checked in with concierge (very small wait during which we had drinks) was preparing to change into swim suites while waiting for check-in at 3pm but was given room keys early and went right up to room!!!

    Room - We stayed in a normal non-balcony room 636. View from seaside windows was spectacular. As others we kept one of our cards in the switch at door so AC ran and room stayed cool all day. Also kept cabinet doors open so fridge cooled properly. Room was cleaned fridge restocked everyday but usually very late (some time after lunch). Water hot, no plumbing problems. Sent note to Valentina and she had bottle of wine and treats available on our arrival.

    The Beach - WOW, wow, wow as everyone says, GOV has a wonderful beach with beautiful sand bar. Also the overall beach size and selection of recliners, beds, etc blows TTR or any other place we have stayed before out of the water. Yes you still have to play the towel game in the morning to get the very best places, but even if you missed this there were always acceptable places available even late in morning. Wife and I agree this is by far the best feature of the hotel.

    Bars/Drinks- Dos Equis on tap and typical quality mixed drinks (as compared to our past TTR experience). Multiple bars including in pool and poolside and tenders worked hard and waits were never long even during the busiest part of day. We never saw any issues with service or friendliness that some others had reported.

    Dinning: Food ranged from just acceptable to very good. Mexican, Moroccan, Taco Fusion, Italian all had some interesting dishes. White Box was the best but we only visited during lunch. It is the only one that requires reservations for supper which are obtained by waiting in line before 9am in VIP lounge. We decided to do this on Sunday our last day only to find out it is closed on Sundays!! Buffet room was on the warm side as others mentioned but was very clean and adequately stocked (we asked to be seated outside if available where the beach breeze was cooler). We usually only ate buffet in morning and had custom made omelets. I could complain that the quality of some of the stuff on the buffet and some of the items in the specialty restaurants was not up to par (i.e. not something I wanted to try) but that has also been true of other hotels I have experienced in Mexico in the past including TTR . Also you can get burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and potato chips during the day at front side of pool bar. Burgers were precooked and warmed up on a small George Forman type grill upon order. Still they hit the spot when you did not fell like drying off an going in for lunch. No sign of pizzas anywhere, GOV should consider adding a pizza option, preferably at buffet and poolside.

    Music/Entertainment - Not sure what to call the mix of music during most of day but it was relaxing and not overly loud as I remember it used to get sometimes at TTR. Really cool in afternoons when they brought out solo sax or violin players as live music. Several really cool evening shows with fire dancers, all sorts of other dance and costumes. These shows began around the pool at 9pm every night and were typically over in 20-30 min. Also some live bands at Coyote bar several nights and a sexy show on one night.

    Theme nights - Really disappointing here. Although it had been reported that there are normally 3 theme nights 1) black & white, 2) fetish and 3) lingerie the activity schedule for our week only included the first two (on Tue. and Wed. nights). Participation for black and white was limited and not the very sexy variety we would have expected at TTR. There was absolutely no participation for fetish night that we could identify. Free Kinky Pirate Cruise was a Oasis Viva and Sensa takeover of the Captain Hook Pirate ship from 11pm to 2am. Good fun and plenty of drink but more conservative than one might expect if TTR was putting on.

    Pools - Two pools - main pool with swim up bar and also adjacent Del Mar Bar which also had Sushi bar (we did not try Sushi). The quite pool is really big and beautiful infinity type with shade under trees and tarps. Nice place to chill out. Canopy beds all around. Foam party on Saturday (5pm) was restricted to beside the pool and not in the pool. It was mostly 20 year college types and tops stayed on with maybe only one exception.

    Other: On North east end of hotel is the infamous small/dark elevator. Says it is rated for 9 but you would have to squeeze to get 6 in it. Light is very dim blue but seems to have been improved. If you are claustrophobic you can always take the bigger elevators which are in main lobby across from buffet room. Even with the small elevator we never encountered excessive wait times.

    Adult/Party Atmosphere - Got to say, even though some limited topless was observed during the week, in and around pool and on the beach it was in general much lower ratio that TTR (usually no more that 2-5 women topless at any given time for the whole place). Wife said too heck with this (we paid good money after all to go to a topless optional hotel!) and she went topless all week. Also there was absolutely no adult oriented poolside entertainment at all. Coyote crowd staid pretty tame while we were there as well with a few college types both female and male doing some R rated amateur pole dancing.

    Other Observations/Theories-
    1) Demographics was diverse, but on average much younger than what we have experienced at TTR. Also lots of single vacationing together in groups (strangely probably more women singles than men). Got to believe this is the main reason for the different atmosphere. Don't think the younger single women are as interested in going topless and in general more reserved than couples oriented resorts.
    2) Heard stories of a few people being diverted to other hotels before we arrived but hotel did not seem very full for the whole week. There was evidence that some rooms are still being updated. While some earlier reviews talked of being bumped and long waits for elevators and drinks, etc. We saw none of this. I am wondering if those that had worse experience was due to high occupancy around spring break??

    Boobs Cruise - Though we have enjoyed stays at TTR twice before and have done the booze cruise, this was our first experience with Boobs Cruise. Outstanding, we had a ball the whole day, even including some rain before lunch stop. The show (and level of customer participation extracted) that Chino, Omar and the rest of the crew put on is without equal anywhere. This day was the highlight of our trip!

    So this brings us to the most important part of any review, would we recommend GOV to others and more specifically how does it compare overall to TTR. Are we going to visit again ourselves??

    Overall Review: We thoroughly enjoyed GOV. My wife fell in love with the beach. I have to say I agree. But we missed other aspects which were present in our past experience at TTR, most notably the theme nights and pool party participation. Also larger more diverse population at GOV made it harder to meet people closer to our age and experience. Also a consideration the package deal we got trough Orbitz was quite a bit cheaper than TTR.

    So I think for our next trip to Cancun (some time in 2015) we will likely be back to TTR with maybe a few days at GOV mixed in (at end or beginning?). Wife agrees but would say back to GOV with a few days at TTR (negotiation still in progress!). No matter we will definitely sign up for the Boobs cruise again.

    Thank,
    Aggie Mike
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2014
  2. bryane40

    bryane40 Enthusiast Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2013
    Messages:
    62
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    idaho
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Thanks for taking the time to post a tr. Sounds like you had a great time. Maybe in time more people will catch up with the theme nights and party a little more.
     
  3. Matt&Megan

    Matt&Megan Regular Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2011
    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Boston
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Thanks for TR, very informative. Is it true bars on the resort close early? 1-2am? PatyOs being open until 5-6 is one of my fav aspects of TTR.
     
  4. AprilnMark

    AprilnMark Enthusiast Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2014
    Messages:
    35
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Baltimore
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Thank you for your detailed tr. we hope our stay will be as nice as that. We're a lo alike hubby would like it to be more crazy like TTR whereas wifey wants a more laid back style. Thanks again!!
     
  5. Mike and Ang

    Mike and Ang Addict Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2014
    Messages:
    310
    Likes Received:
    173
    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Ratings:
    +188 / 0
    Thanks for the informative TR. Come on people...get on board with the theme nights! The resort cannot control this it is up to the guests.
     
  6. esparamedic12

    esparamedic12 Enthusiast Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2014
    Messages:
    89
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    USA, Virginia
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Thanks for the great trip report!!! Glad you all had a great time!!
     
  7. mnjvegas

    mnjvegas Enthusiast Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 3, 2014
    Messages:
    45
    Likes Received:
    0
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Very Informative Trip report..seemed like you had a good time..Thanks for taking the time to knock it out!
     
  8. Atlantasweetie

    Atlantasweetie Enthusiast Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2013
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    0
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Thanks for the report! Sounds like just what we need! We will be at TTR for 6 nights and then GOV for 3 nights to recover! :)
     
  9. hottie

    hottie Guest

    Ratings:
    +0 / 0
    Mike,
    Sounds very unbiased. I believe we are in for a great time, I think all of our girls will push the theme nights to a new level, or at least some of them! I am glad you guys had a nice time, thanks for the trip report,
    M
     
  10. silver&gold

    silver&gold Enthusiast Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2011
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    8
    Location:
    Texas
    Ratings:
    +8 / 0
    Thanks so much for the tr. Very well done, I like the demographics described. That really explains a lot of the differences between TTR and GOV. It will take a lot of "experienced" couples that travel to take over GOV to give it the atmosphere that is desired such as theme nights.
     
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice