DEsire RM October 25 - Nov. 1 w/Hedo comparisons
I'm sure you are all wondering what someone named HedoJoe was doing at Desire. Read and you will find out!
First a little background on how our trip to Desire came to be. Back around the first of the year, we decided to make plans to go away with three other couples to celebrate our 30th and 35th anniversaries. All of us had been to Hedo before but some people thought it would be nice to try someplace different. We were the only ones that had been to Desire Riviera Maya previously and they asked us about it. We told them it was nice but it definitely was not Hedo. Never the less, we decided when the best time for everyone would be and booked Halloween week. The only group at the time was through Dream Pleasure Tours. Eventually, SDC would announce a group which would become the larger of the groups there at the time.
We and one other couple decided to fly nonstop from JFK on Aeromexico arriving in Cancun around 9:45 in the morning. We had to wait for our transfer driver as he was in another part of the airport waiting for us. A quick call from another driver got him there right away. We arrived at the resort so early that our room was not ready. Gary from DPT gave our friends a tour around and we tagged along to reacquaint ourselves. We then went to Tentazione for lunch and drinks. Tentazione is the only place open for lunch. It is a buffet next to the pool and bar. As we were eating and having our first margarita of the day, someone we met at the resort 4 years and 51 weeks ago comes over the table to say hello. We had not seen T or L since then. They had been staying at Desire Pearl and decided with another couple that Pearl was too dead and too “old” for them and decided to transfer to our resort.
Rather than go day by day, with everything we ate and everything we did, I will detail all the various areas and aspects of Desire RM with a comparison to Hedonism II. Let’s start with the resort itself and the people. I cannot compare either to Desire Pearl but I can say that I had a good number of people tell me that Pearl has a much older crowd. As one couple said, the average age was around 70. Maybe it was an exaggeration but I got similar comments from other people. They also said that Pearl dies down at around 8 PM. Now, the crowd at Desire RM was not a young crowd overall. There were people there in their late 20’s on up to at least late 60’s. One would have thought that with an almost takeover with an international swing lifestyle site, it would have been a very wild crowd. Alas it was not. In fact, it was a laid back quiet kind of crowd. There are approx. 114 rooms and the resort was full but there was never a crowd at the pool, any of the bars, or restaurants. We are not sure where all 228 people were. Although the addition of a swim up pool bar brought more people into the pool to socialize, many people still sat on their lounge chairs and pool beds reading and paying no interest in anyone else. Other than the Foam Party or during a water balloon fight on Tuesday, I don’t think there were every more than 2 dozen people in the pool at any given time. If you have been to Hedo, that is a drop in the bucket so to speak. I think the pool at DRM is much too large for the resort. If we could swap their pool with either of the pools at Hedo, I would be happy. Their entertainment staff did a great job organizing events and games poolside. Every day brought new events and there were always people participating. It ran the gamut from games to guess a song or a movie from its theme to blowing up a penis by sitting up and down on a pump, to pole dancing and lap dancing lessons to creating and eating a human sundae. When the schedule said an event was going to take place, it did. A couple of times a week they even brought out beads for people to make their own name necklaces. Unlike at Hedo, the “Playmakers” were not in a uniform. In fact, the females were allowed to be topless with bikini bottoms when around the pool. The Foam Party in the pool was a BLAST! It lasted at least 45 minutes and brought so many people into the pool. The foam covered about two thirds of the pool and at times was probably four or five feet above the surface. It may have been the highlight of the week. Even during the foam party, there were still people sitting on their chairs reading. FYI, the pool is heated which is a big PLUS. I love the EC’s at Hedo but the Desire Playmakers were around more and got people involved in more than just bocce ball.
For those that know me, you know that I bring a party with me. Knowing that certain flavored Patron tequilas were not available in Mexico, I brought along with me a bottle of Patron Café and a bottle of Patron Cocoa. Neither would be complete without some alcoholic whipped cream. I also brought three cans of whipped cream; vanilla, caramel and pina colada. While the pina colada was strictly for fun purposes, the others were to top the shots. I had a very difficult time giving away tequila shots or using up leftover whipped cream. That would never happen at Hedo. One can of whipped cream was left there half full when we departed the hot tub. I was very disappointed in the stand offish nature of a lot of the people. The hot tub becomes the focal point of the afternoon just as it does at Hedo. At least at DRM, you don’t have to get out to get drinks as it has a swim up bar. If it were not for 99% of the people being naked, I might have thought I was at Sandals most of the time. As it is the only place at the resort where PDA’s are allowed, I saw less than a handful all week. There was at least one couple putting on a show on one of the beds on the roof near the hot tub though. I have to say it was a lot tamer than it was on our previous trip there.
Let’s move on to the rooms. We were put in an ocean view room (2004) and it was a nice room with a huge couch. It was not anything special. We did have bathrobes for our use. The building had four OV rooms. The one at the other end was similar to ours but the two middle rooms had just enough for a King bed in the middle with enough room to walk around it. They were VERY tiny rooms but they paid the same as we did. Some rooms had a painting while others had wall hanging decorations. Ours had empty walls. On our previous trip, we had a Passion Suite which was HUGE with a 4/5 person hot tub in the room. It went unused as the room would become steamy if it were filled with hot water. There were a lot of small rooms that we saw. At Hedo, no matter what room category you book, the footprint is going to be the same. Rooms also have different storage space. Where our room had 3 drawers, a friend’s room had enough drawer space for three couples. We also did not have enough floor space in the closet for shoes. Okay, we had a lot of shoes!
Now let’s get to restaurants and food. Breakfast is served in one location, Arrecife, just as it is at Hedo and is a buffet along with a grill area for all kinds of eggs. The one thing they do different when making omelets than Hedo is that they have bowls of all the ingredients in front of you. You spoon what you want into a small bowl and hand it to the woman making eggs. Want a lot of onions and only a small amount of ham, no problem. There was always fresh fruit, cereals, yogurts, meat, cheeses, salmon, etc. The hot area included mini waffles, bacon, sausage as well as Mexican favorites such as fried plantains, chilequiles, barbacoa, etc. The juice station had some rather different juices including a green juice made with limes, mint, and parsley among other ingredients. It tasted a whole lot better than it looked. There was also a Desire Juice made with orange juice, beet juice and other fruits as well as a Bazooka Juice with orange, passion fruit, etc. All were very good. The placards in front of them told you the ingredients and what the juice was good for such as stamina, increased libido, etc.
Lunch is also in one location as I mentioned earlier. Being a Mexican resort, there was always a big bowls of guacamole and salsa as well a house made tortilla chips. There were also various hot and hotter salsas. The buffet included various salad items as well as the previously mentioned meats, cheeses and salmon. The hot food varied every day. There was always a soup. Other items included chicken wings, various chicken croquettes, skirt steak, pork, fish, etc. There is also a grill where you can get a hamburger (tasted like a sausage burger), chorizo (in place of hot dogs), quesadillas, tacos, fajitas as well as grilled chicken, steak and fish. One day they were grilling pork chops which the placed over an apple mash and covered in brown gravy. What I like about the buffet at Desire vs Hedo is that food is brought out in small amounts in skillets and placed on a hot surface rather than in steamer trays. With the amount of Hedo guests, I don’t think this would be a viable option for them
For Dinner you have three options, the buffet at Arrecife, Suki, a Japanese fusion restaurant with 2 teppanyaki table and SAHLO, the formal sit down restaurant. Let’s take them one by one as there are comparisons to the restaurants at Hedo.
The buffet theme changes nightly with French, Italian, Steak, Aphrodisiac, etc. There are always a dozen or so skillets on the hot table with meat, fish, potatoes and vegetables. The grill station also takes orders for beef, chicken, fish, and chorizo. One of the nights we ate there was steak night. We were at a table for eight and out waiter actually came over, told us the cuts of steak they had and took our order. Among the eight of us, there were three different cuts. When the steaks were delivered, we could not tell one steak from another. Italian night included a very tasty meatloaf. I’m not sure why it was Italian but it was good.
Suki has teppanyaki tables like HarrySan but is more than that. Their two tables hold either six or four people. Reservations are required for the teppanyaki tables but not the other tables. It is a small restaurant. We sat at the regular tables and the food was very good. I had a salad with pickled lettuce, pork spring rolls and a Thai red curry beef that said VERY SPICY. While it was delicious, the red curry was barely mildly hot.
SAHLO is the Hedo equivalent to Pastafari. It does have a larger menu with much more gourmet offerings. Our first time eating there, I had Beef Carpaccio, Caesar Salad, Four Cheese Ravioli in a butter sauce and a pork loin dish. I was expecting slices of pork loin but what came out was a mixture of vegetables, sauce and cubed pork. It was all very good and very gourmet. Another night that we ate there, I ordered a beef filet asking for it to be cooked medium. What I received was a filet that had been seared on a grill and served. After one cut through on every side, it was evident it was as raw as the Beef Carpaccio.
The buffet setup did not afford you the opportunity to walk through and see what was available or to see if friends were in there. Most tables were set for only two unlike Hedo where you can carry food to a table and if someone if you could join them. The wait staff wanted to seat you as soon as you walked in.
Nightly entertainment takes place beginning at 9PM in the outside lobby near the Melange Bar. Melange is open 24 hours a day, serves freshly made espresso drinks, pizza after midnight and has fruit and cereal at 6 AM before breakfast begins. The entertainment here includes either a band or a solo singer. After the music, there may be a show with dancers or a guest show for lingerie night or couples costume party. While there are couches and chairs in the area there are not enough seats for everyone to sit for the shows so most people stand. With entertainment happening away from the restaurants, if you eat on the later side, you miss everything. When guest participation is involved, they do hand out certificates for half hour massages. On the night when couples wore costumes to complement each other, the big winner received three free nights. When the entertainment is over, people are told that the disco was now open and there would usually be another show on the dance floor before it was opened to the guest for dancing. The disco is very large with cushioned seats and couches. It also housed a playroom off to the side. There were large round beds in the playroom as well as a sex swing. Towels were also provided. On the two occasions we found ourselves in there, no one else was there besides us and the other couple we were with.
There are theme nights but we rarely saw anyone dressed in costume while at the buffet. There were a few but most people get dressed nicely for dinner then go back and change into their theme costume for the evening. A lot of the women did participate but not all. It seemed that many of the men avoided the theme nights except for a few. We saw a lot of participation on Western Night but jeans and boots were in fashion. Halloween night was a hit with costumes. The overall winner of the night was a couple who were in a roller coaster. BTW, this happened to be the night that my camera refused to turn on.
Now a little about the beach. The beach is full of lounge chairs situated in front of beach beds. You have to see the beach concierge every morning to get a bed assigned. If you want to guarantee the same bed every day you can take your chances or pay to have it at $20 per day or $100 for a week. That same person puts sheets on the bed and provides towels. Just like Hedo there is a lot of seaweed and grass. They actually go back and forth with a tractor pulling a device that picks it up after the surf deposits it on the beach. Once you got past the grass in the water, it was very pleasant, But as at Hedo, the grass does attract sea urchins. Very few people were actually in the water. They have a couple of Hobie cats you can take out as well as stand up paddle boards. There are no mattresses to float on. There is also someone at the pool that assigns you a lounge chair and gives you towels.
My recommendations for Hedo for future planning would include a larger disco, which we all realize it needs. When it does get rebuilt, have something to pull the people in. If there is any way to add some heat to the nude pool (solar?), that would be ideal. It does get a little chilly in there in February. The Prude pool area seems to be underutilized in the day time. Maybe, if there were pole dancing lesson, or lap dancing lessons or other games in the afternoon, it may bring some of the nude pool people up there and it would see more use.
Breakfast – TIE for food but atmosphere would go to Hedo
Lunch – Hedo (variety of locations)
Dinner Buffet – Close, but edge to Hedo based on my February trip
Dinner Japanese – Desire for the variety
Dinner Formal – Hedo (I like to know what I am ordering)
Dinner Entertainment – Hedo
Disco – Desire
Theme Nights - Hedo
Pool (size) – Desire
Pool (atmosphere) – Hedo
Playmakers/EC’s - Desire
Hot Tub – Hedo
Beach – Hedo for the interaction among guests
Guests – Hedo
Rooms – Hedo, especially the NEW rooms.
Overall Atmosphere – Hedo (for its party like atmosphere)
