I give opinions on all sort of random stuff EXCEPT religion and politics...two of the most divisive topics on the planet. I give advice and answer questions (like an advice column), and I love the topics of all things spiritual hilton garden inn chicago and metaphysical, parenting and general life issues. I'll review products, movies, books, you name it.
Read previous posts to get the full details on my recent trip to Cozumel, Mexico. This post will just cover the resort we stayed at, Melia Cozumel . Visit their website via the link for more details, and check out the photo link. Keep in mind, like all advertising, the photos, like the one you see here, are all professional photos. I'll include some "unprofessional" photos that we took for more full disclosure. Then you can compare them to the photos on the web page.
You can pay like a typical hotel, or pay all-inclusive, or get a golf all-inclusive etc. For this resort (they all vary so read the fine print, and ask questions like a crazy person), hilton garden inn chicago "all-inclusive" meant meals, tips, drinks, entertainment, non-motorized (little boats, snorkel stuff etc), beach towels. Extra charges were for things like ordering lobster (clearly shown on the menu as an extra charge), room service, mini-bar items (if your room has a mini-bar), AND, as we found out, non-motorized recreation lasting longer than an hour. Only your first hour is free. After that it was about $6 an hour.
We stayed in room 337. It was designated as Garden View. The view from the terrace looked out over the family pool and further out, the ocean. To actually see the garden, you had to look out the front door of our room over the balcony...no windows actually "viewed" the garden. No matter...the view we had was fine.
We didn't have a mini-bar, hilton garden inn chicago but that's OK. We wouldn't have cared to pay extra for that anyway. What we WOULD have loved to have would have been a mini frige that is standard in many hotels these days. We bought bottled water (you are given two bottles of water in the room each day...not enough in a hot, humid climate), juice, ice tea etc but had no way to keep it cold. There are no ice machines handy. To get ice, you have to get it from one of the bars and from our room, that's quite a walk. We tried to keep ice in the bathroom sink to keep bottled drinks in, but it was hard to keep enough ice in it. An ice machine on each floor, or a fridge in each room would be GRAND.
This is our actual bathroom. "Garden View" is one of the more economical options and we found the room to be very adequate (except for the lack of fridge). Air conditioning cranked on high was sometimes not quite enough, but it was hot in August.
I read some reviews complaining about how damp the rooms were. Yes, they were clammy, but it's really hard not to have a clammy room at the ocean in nearly 100% humidity. That's just a fact of nature. Goes with the ocean territory sometimes.
This was our actual view from the balcony. The larger thatched roof building is the buffet restaurant, and the pool you see is the family/kid pool, family activity area. To the far right of that bunch of trees is the fancier restaurant.
Odd thing about that fancy restaurant, it is surrounded by a stagnant pool of nasty water. hilton garden inn chicago It appears that at some time (or some times of the year?), it contains an apparatus hilton garden inn chicago for a fountain or water feature to keep the water moving. It was not in operation during any time of our stay and just served as a really nice mosquito breeding ground.
Bring insect repellant. hilton garden inn chicago The mosquitoes are fierce in the early morning and evening hours. They will make you miserable. I brought some all natural, essential oil based repellant and I think I heard the mosquitoes laughing. There are geckos, blue land crabs, and giant iguanas that walk the property hilton garden inn chicago (moreso at night and early morning) and they are beautiful. I saw one sign warning against feeding the iguanas...I wouldn't hilton garden inn chicago DARE. We used our zoom and got lots of great pictures but kept a respectable distance.
The gift shop, just past the front desk in the main lobby has a few essentials at high prices. Good if you MUST have something right away. Otherwise, wait and buy it in town somewhere else. I think we bought some chocolate, a couple of cokes and some bug repellant for something like $15.
There is a spa which we didn't see or use, a golf course which we didn't hilton garden inn chicago see or use, outdoor massage huts which we saw but didn't use, the Flintstone Club for kids (activity center) hilton garden inn chicago which I just found where it was but thank goodness we were traveling without kids.
Our room was kept nice and clean with the exception of one day when we didn't get any maid service. I notified the front desk and they said they would send someone but never did. We needed water and fresh towels mostly. I ended up finding a maid in a supply room and in our limited command of each other's language we came to an understanding of what we needed and she fixed us right up.
Melia has a LOT of employees hilton garden inn chicago from what we could see. They work hard and they work continuously. Even though tips are covered in the all-inclusive, bring a bunch of U.S. one dollar bills with you. These people work so hard and are so kind, we liked to give out small tips frequently. Interestingly, what I found was that the front desk help often seemed aloof or indifferent and often not terribly concerned or responsive, but the ground level "help" hilton garden inn chicago bent over backwards to do whatever they could for us and everyone hilton garden inn chicago else.
There are 5 bars. There was a swim up bar in the adult pool. I thought it silly...at first. hilton garden inn chicago Then I grew to love it. You could quickly ascertain who the seasoned alcoholic guests were. Good news? The bar is in the shallow end and that's were everyone hung out...leaving the deep end empty to float away the hours in. Plus that pool also looks out over the ocean. SO beautiful. hilton garden inn chicago Did I mention that the margaritas were REALLY good?
Not knowing the country, or the security of the area, we decided against bringing a laptop with us for using free wi-fi. And neither one of us have smart phones. Our plan had been to keep long distance to a minimum by keeping tabs with home via the computer lab at the front desk. They have three computers for patron use at $5 for 30 minutes. Enough to send a quick email home every day. Only...for the first two days of our stay, the computers were down...and there wasn't much urgency about fixing them. I felt a bit miffed hilton garden inn chicago about that. I had to use my friend's cell to call home because I discovered my Tracfone wouldn't call out of country. So have a communication plan in place...and a plan B.
There are some evening shows, and a disco. We never saw either one. We were often in bed by 7. We're such party animals. The disco is a smallish, round hut with glass windows and some chairs around the perimeter. It had a fishbowl look from the outside and it seemed like you would have to be plenty inebriated for that to look like a good idea. That's the disco hut there.
Most everyone there speaks at least some English but for finer points, it's sometimes hard to explain things or ask the questions in greater hilton garden inn chicago detail. Some speak better English than others, and my Spanish is deplorable. I'm in THEIR country, so the onus is on me. We muddled through the best we could.
I'm not sure if it is a cultural thing or a communication style or what, but I often wanted WAY more explanation or information or directions or instructions than we got. You were handed an activity hilton garden inn chicago schedule, and you were pretty much on your own. A lot of questions were met with a recurring statement "Don't Worry". Which seemed to mean..."You Americans don't know much do you?" What was obvious or simple to them, seemed like a mystery to me. Where is the ice? How do I get it? Where is the place to rent the snorkel stuff? When will the computers be fixed? How do I get a cab? What are the hours of the restaurants? How do I make a reservation? Things were just, well, different.
There are basically three restaurants: A buffet serving breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week, a snack bar/grill that is open air serving nachos, burgers and mostly junk food, and a fancier restaurant serving dinner only 6 days a week; reservation required. And you can only make the reservation at the buffet, in person, at 10 am every morning...which seemed a tad odd and not so convenient hilton garden inn chicago always. But we managed to eat their twice.
My travel pal has a serious allergy to MSG so she has to be very careful when she travels to find and seek out the plainest, least adorned food unless they can assure her or show her it has not MSG anywhere in it. It wasn't possible to make this understood with my Spanish skills hilton garden inn chicago and they didn't hilton garden inn chicago understand our question. Not really their fault, just a challenge. Most everything was bathed in a sauce which is suspect. So I was afraid she was going to starve to death eating fruit, steamed veggies and rolls.
hilton garden inn chicago We mostly ate at the buffet. I have read reviews all over the map about the food here. Some saying it was the worst thing EVER, and others saying it was grand. It all depends on what you're hilton garden inn chicago used to and your expectations and adaptability, palate, etc. I found it to be just shy of adequate. I didn't starve. My friend may have. How best to describe it is that I was surprised they have no local produce. It is all shipped in and it is just not that fresh. The dishes, are, to the best of my ability to name it, made from the least expensive ingredients possible...food stretchers. hilton garden inn chicago It was just...OK.
In the nicer restaurant, once you figured out how to make a reservation, it was a quieter, more formal atmosphere. No flip-flops allowed. We wore dresses. There was a piano player playing mostly show tunes and 70's music. He was fantastic. I would have chosen classical or traditional Mexican music, but whatever.
Again, the service was excellent and friendly and prompt, but the food was rather odd. They made attempts at gourmet on a budget is what it looked like. It was "all included" except for what was shown other
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