I've written a review of all TTR trips, since this is my 9th one figured I'd write an update yet again. Visited 18th November to 2nd December. Weather fantastic the entire 2 weeks. Transfer: Used USA Transfers to/from airport, extremely friendly drivers and great service. From finding them at the terminal, in less than 5 minutes they had a vehicle for us. We changed our pick up to be an hour earlier, they got back to us really quickly and pick up was at the time we specified. Check in: Bought into premier last year, so first time checking in from the premier office. Took about 20 minutes. No hassle about 'doing the tour' etc. again (finally!) Introduced us to a butler, but then someone else showed up at our door the next day. Never saw them again entire trip, which suits me fine. I would have no idea what to use one for anyway. Room quality: Stayed in a Bash tower room. 6th floor. Awesome view, room size great. Totally worth it IMO. Bathroom had two doors, a big sliding one leading into bathroom, and another privacy door for the toilet. That door looked like it had been painted white (from the previously semi-opaque door I'd experienced last year) which I was very happy about. We got some noise bleeding into our room in the afternoon from the Sky Bar, however I was impressed how little of the Bash noise travelled up. Only a little and if you had the TV on loud enough it would drown this out. A lot of balcony shows going on over in Bash tower and you get a view of everything if that's what you're in to. Resort quality: It's a really beautiful place. Everywhere is immaculate, people working very hard to keep everything spotless. Service is second to none. Maids, security, servers, bartenders, entertainment crew...they all work extremely hard and extremely efficiently. All staff very friendly and helpful. Security much better than years past, albeit a couple times I was a bit put off (explained later on). Food/restaurants: The food is ok. It's not spectacular, but not exactly inferior either. There's so much choice and the restaurants are very accommodating. I feel like they try their hardest to never say 'no' to any request. I guess I'm a picky eater though. There was a lot of stuff I just couldn't eat. A lot of dishes seem to come bathed in a creamy tasteless sauce and every dessert is some variation of a flan or mousse. Everything tastes too sweet, too wet and as if they're relying on cheaper bulking agents to keep costs low. Not what I'd call 5* dining. For example, the 'bed of vegetables' that came with the duck at the Asian, bathed in a sauce that looked like vomit, tasted like flour and sugar and nothing else. Depending where and when you ate, service could be slow. I'm used to that so didn't bother me but maybe it would others. Positives for food - I love that they now serve food around the pool! This is a great idea. In previous trips if I was in the pool come lunch time, more often than not I'd just skip lunch rather than get out and dried for dinner. Now they have buffet outside, or at least hot dogs (which were awesome). The drinks served were also good. They didn't run out of anything I was ordering. I stick to plain or flavoured vodka for the most part, they ran out of flavoured stuff last year but there was plenty available this time. We took a day trip over to Isla Mujeres and I got crispy beef tacos at a bar over there. That was the best meal I had all stay! Seriously, how come a bar over there can make tacos so tasty, yet the resort's stuff is so bland, wet and disappointing? Had to ask for sour cream in the Mexican. Entertainment: I'm over the pool games, so can't really comment on them. After 9 trips, it's just background noise for me. For the nightly entertainment, this is hit-and-miss for me too unfortunately. Sometimes the music and atmosphere was great, but that often depended on how much I'd been drinking (drunk chicks dance more, it's a fact) and who I was partying with (great people = great time). The nightly fun is slowly losing its edge for me. It's all scripted and professional: from the shows, to the playlist. Almost everything is planned in advance. The Playmakers, it feels like they are contractually obliged to be up on the stage and dancing for a set amount of time. They may be smiling on the outside, but I cannot imagine having to be there on stage, pretending to have a good time with the drunk patrons up on stage every night. I can't help but miss the old night entertainment, the strip show, the karaoke night, lingerie casino. Now it's all shiny and glossy and has lost some of the old charm. Every show feels like some form of acrobatics performed to music, and the bloody violin guy is back!!!! No, I don't want to hear the instrumental violin version of popular songs played for 30 minutes at ear-bleeding volume. The DJ plays music that I assume fits with the concept that the resort is aiming for. They have scripted 'songs with dance routines associated with them' that are played night after night. At least 2 right after the show finishes. The Playmakers know all the routines and are up there doing said routines for between 1 and 2 hours after the show finishes. The music played is very much catering to the market TTR is targeting, not its old clientele. It's all Mexican Club Hits, Latin Top 50 type stuff, with the occasional urban or overused retro hip hop thrown in for good measure. I'm not happy about this, but I've made peace with it. I feel that if the dance floor is full, the DJ is doing their job. I did a lot of watching this trip, and for the most part, the dance floor was full. It's full with different people than before, but it's still full. In future trips I think I'll be spending more night time in the Sports Bar, or the room. Boobs Cruise: I've done many a Boobs Cruise, but this was the first one I've done in about 3 years. Had an awesome day. Chinos and Sarah were otherwise engaged unfortunately, but that did not dampen the day at all. Had a lot of fun. It's well worth the money to be out on the water having a good time once in a while. Some other points worth mentioning: So we noticed a lot of private parties going on this trip. Twice they had tables and bar service set up in the space between She restaurant and the beach. Looked like promo stuff, with a photography board set up etc. We walked past one of these after eating at the Italian to go through the tunnel and back up the ramp to Bash - tried to have a nosey what it was, but had security walking up to us to try and barricade us from this group, if we'd attempted to walk over there. There were also a few private parties up on the Sky Bar. One we noticed for a takeover group, who'd come down with their own DJ (who also took over DJ'ing at Bash one night), but also had the rooftop one night too. Fine by me, didn't affect me as a guest whatsoever. However, another group held a party in the day up at the Sky Bar. There was a large group up there but the rooftop was still open for normal guests too. None of the people in this party had any form of wristband on. One woman in the group was constantly filming people and security did nothing about it (even though we'd heard the day previously someone had taken a photo of the view over the water and been promptly told by security to delete it). Someone with us complained to security about the filming, and security's response was "she's only filming her own group, not other people". Not cool. I don't like that 'the rules' only apply to certain people and not others for whatever reason. Nobody should get a pass on the resort's own rules, whether they've paid for a semi-private party or not. We left as I did not feel comfortable up there with a group that were taking videos, clearly doing their own thing and had no identifying wristband that they were even staying at the resort. So to summarise, I had a great trip. Some things are changing, some for better, some for worse. I hope they sort the food quality out and I would love to see a return to more conventional club music in the evenings, but I doubt that's going to happen. It's still worth it for me. I will be back. As always, it's the people that make this resort stand out. Both guests and those looking after us!
Trish. Thanks for the trip report. Enjoyed reading it, and your objective point of view. Glad you had a nice time and know, as always, your vacation can be whatever you make it (in this case meaning, not really feeling bash anymore, might as well just party in the room or at the sports bar. Which I totally feel the same about) Did you purchase a tower membership? or was this like an upgrade week from buying in?
Cheers Steve. We bought tower membership. Whether it's worth it I can't say but it seemed like a good deal. Gives us 30% off the TTR price. Worked out to be around $300 extra for 14 nights, so just over $20 extra per night. When you add the cost of the price we paid for the premier upgrade for this it currently works out at $31 extra per night against a standard garden view room.
If you turn left straight out of the ferry port, follow the road right down to the end (takes less than 10 mins to walk) to where it bends by Playa Norte. Across the road, there's a sports bar called Jaxx Bar & Grill. They have an upstairs deck where you can sit right out and look out across the beach. Great food & drinks at a reasonable price.
