Robert & Kari - October, 2012
My wife and I
have been to Hedo many times, but had never tried Desire. We debated
about whether we should go to the original Desire RM or try the new
Desire Pearl. Upon reading reviews and trip reports, we deicided to
check out Pearl for our first trip. We arrived on a Tuesday and it was
REALLY quiet. We were told at check in that the 88 room property was
about 25% occupied, but after spending the afternoon and evening there,
we suspected that estimate was high. We saw maybe a dozen other couples
not counting the ones who were visiting for the afternoon from Desire
RM. More on the occupancy level later.
Everything
about this resort was top notch. The grounds and the rooms were amazing.
We could tell right away that the level of service was extremely high
for an all inclusive. The food that night and throughout the stay was
light years ahead of anything we ever had at Hedo and even excellent
when compared to other high end all inclusives at which we've stayed.
The
entertainment staff was fantastic. Paloma, Marista, and Raquel do
an amazing job and by the end of the trip we truly felt like they were
old friends(even though there is nothing old about them)
Now back to the
occupancy levels: The first night when we realized how sparcely
populated the place was, we decided we would probably make at least one
if not multiple day trips over to Desire RM and even considered looking
into transfering over. We heard that RM was 80% occupied and things were
really hopping there so we filed that away as an option. We discovered
that you can either take a quick cab ride over or for the more
ambitious, you can walk down the beach(we heard varying reports of walk
times from 45 minutes to over an hour)
But for our
first full day, it was raining and overcast so we decided to stick
around Pearl and get the feel of the property and give it a real shot.
We are really glad we did.
Each day of our
stay, things got progressively busier. Never busy to the Hedo levels or
the Desire RM levels(from what we hear that is, we loved Pearl so much
we never made it for a visit) but we learned a very important lesson
about a party atmosphere oriented resort. For us at least, t's not about
quantity. We learned that smaller groups can be wonderful, crazy and
fun. In fact, when Desire RM guests would come to Pearl to visit,
they would remark on upgraded ammenities of Pearl over RM and the fun we
were having even with a smaller amount of people. So much so they it was
very common to have RM guests transfer to Pearl within a day or two of
their visit.
I have no doubt
that once more people experience Pearl and the word gets out, the
occupancy levels will skyrocket and the place will stay packed. And
we're sure that would be fun too, but regardless, we'll be back soon and
often to find out.