Grand-Sirenis.com

[ryanandevelyn]

Well, we’ve been back about 3 weeks now and I’m finally getting to write my review for the GS. I should have done this directly upon our return so sorry if I leave out anything. Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.

I’m just going to basically go through our trip and what happened each day.

We arrived in Cancun on a Saturday right around noon. There were no issues getting our bags and also no issues with a single timeshare person. When we got outside we saw the guys from Lomas Travel and told them what hotel we were going to and they directed us to our van/bus. The ride to the hotel was pleasant and we only had to stop at Hotel Barcelo (very very nice looking) on the way to GS. The ride was about 1.5 hours but it was cool to see all the grand hotel entrances, little towns, different cars, and stuff along the way.

Check in was seamless. We were greeted with a drink and a smile and even though we were there a few hours before check-in time they said our room was ready. We had an appointment to meet our Lomas Travel guide guy in the hotel lobby at 4:30 so we decided to change and check out the grounds. Our hotel room was pretty nice and in the Jaban building on the Mayan side. We were on the second floor and we had a great view of the ocean.

The room: I can see how some people would slip and fall on that slick marble floor, but hello, I noticed it would be slippery when wet, so put down a towel or something outside the shower and you’ll be fine. Be careful and you should be fine. There were no smells, no bugs, no iguanas. A/C, TV, pretty much everything was working fine. I don’t know if they’ve remodeled some of the rooms, but our room had a wall where I had seen pictures of the big hole in the wall.

We went around and checked out the property. Yes, you have to walk to pretty much everything, but it’s so nice and you’re so happy to not be at work or something you don’t even notice it. We were hungry so we checked out the snack bar/restaurant buffet next to the pool. It was okay, not anything spectacular, so we didn’t eat much. Then we walked over to see the beach and found there was another snack bar!! Sweet! They had some fajita meet and awesome buffalo wings of which I ate about 50! Not all the tables in that area were cleaned off, but who could complain, we were chillin in Mexico. I can see now how some picky snobs could go here and find all this crap to complain about, but it is nothing that is a big deal at all, they just like to complain.

Anyway, we just booked our trips later that afternoon with our tour guy. Oh, we also set up our dinners in the first hour we were there and we still couldn’t get in the Japanese. We got the steakhouse and brazilian.

Trip 1: Okay, this was kind of crazy, but my girlfriend really wanted to go to the Coco Bongo club in cancun way before I even booked this trip to GS. So when she brought it up our tour guy said, “Yeah, I can have a guy pick you up here tonight at 8 and take you to Cancun. VIP service at the club and everything.” I thought we would get a ride and a ticket in. Well I have to say that this trip was one of the highlights of our trip. We got picked up at 8, and after some crazy driving we were in the heart of Cancun around 10:30. There was already a line of about 200 people outside for this club. Our leader guy left us for about 10 minutes and came back with wristbands for all of us. He took us in the side door before anyone else was let in and we got seats right in front of the stage and bar. Let me tell you, this club is a club, a vegas stage show, and a cirque de solei all in one, and the drinks were included all night!! I loved it. Anyway the worst part was leaving at 3:30 in the morning and not getting to the hotel room till about 5:15am. Definitely worth it though. Tickets $90 each.

Day 2 was pretty much spent chilling out, sleeping in, and swimming in the pool. That afternoon though we took a cab in to Playa Del Carmen and walked up and down 5th avenue. I was disappointed in the power of an American dollar though, it seems they are accustomed to rich tourists coming and spending money, so you’ve got to search around if you’re looking for a bargain. I did get about $10 off a group of things I was buying by bargaining. We ate at this great taco restaurant and sat right there on the street people watching, it was very nice. Taxi ride there of course was $25 and we bargained with the guy on the way back for $20. Really kind of expensive, but it was quicker than waiting on a bus and my gf felt safer that way too.

Trip 2: On day 3 we had booked a trip to go to Xel-ha. Wow! That place was so amazing and I’d go back a hundred times. You have to see it to believe it. You meet a bus outside the lobby and arrive at Xel-ha around 10am. This place is like a natural water/theme park. It’s like a lake inlet straight from the Caribbean Ocean with crystal blue water. The whole place is swimable and everyone is just snorkeling all over the place. There’s also cliff jumping, a weak rope swing, cave swimming, biking, tubing, and a bunch of other stuff. This place is also all-inclusive, so there are about 4-5 restaurant buffets you can eat at and bars all over for drinks. Nice! We had such a great time here. The lockers here are free and so are towels, but snorkel gear requires a $20 deposit, you get to keep the tube though. We brought our own snorkel gear so that didn’t matter to us. Also, make sure to bring money/credit card, we didn’t bring more than $5 because it was all included and didn’t want to lose anything, but there are people taking great pictures of you all throughout the day and when you leave you can buy these pics for $12 each. Tickets I think were $85 each.

That night we had our dinner at the steakhouse which was okay. Pretty good food and service, nothing too special. We are from texas so the country music was nice for us to hear. After dinner we walked over and saw the last half of the Lion King. Pretty good show for kind of being out in the middle of nowhere. It’s pretty hot in that theater though, whew. We also went and checked out the club on the property. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was and how it looked like a club I’d frequent here in the states. Drinks were good and music finally started getting good around 12am.

Trip 3: Day 4, we met another bus outside the lobby first thing in the morning. Oh, one thing about the buses, don’t be afraid to speak up to these bus drivers. They tell you a time to meet out front and some of these bus drivers just pull up and don’t say anything and you don’t know if that’s your bus or not. Anyway, we took a trip that day to Tulum ruins. Now I think I ate something bad the night before because I did not feel well at all that whole morning. The day we went to Tulum it was about 95 degrees at 9:30am! I think I had a fever or something because I thought I was going to die. Anyway, if you do this tour make sure to grab as much water as you can for free from the hotel before you go. This is a hiking trip basically and you do a lot of walking/climbing etc. Even though I felt like crap I still loved this trip. Our tour guy was great and very knowledgeable, funny, and made the experience pleasurable. The views from the cliffs behind the ruins are just awesome. There are so many great photo ops at this location. I wouldn’t recommend it, but there were a lot of people swimming down on the beach as well. Tickets were about $35 each.

That trip is only a half day, thankfully, so when we got back to the hotel I had to take a 2 hour nap because I felt horrible. I was kind of mad because I was wasting time in the hotel room when I wanted to be on the beach playing volleyball or something. I didn’t want to miss the brazilian restaurant that night though. I still felt so bad, but we made it to eat and I thought it was very nice. The food comes out in waves and the guy has slabs of meat on a metal skewer and cuts pieces off for you. Pretty interesting. If you don’t like meat though I’d stay away because that’s pretty much what this place is all about.

The next morning we packed up to leave and the Lomas travel guys met us again. I don’t know why, but we got to the airport like 2 hours early and just sat around. The Burger King there was pretty good though.

So all in all, I’d have to give the GS about an 8 out of 10. There were no major complaints from me or evelyn and we had a great time. I’d say it’s more at 4 stars though than 4.5-5, but still not bad. I love the location of this resort because we were so close to places like Xel-ha, Xcaret, Tulum, Playa, etc. I wish we had a couple more days there just to relax because it just seemed like we didn’t rest much the whole time.

Let me know if you've got any questions!

Oh, I forgot to tell about the big buffets. It took us a day to figure out that there were huge buffets at the main lobby building. There was good food in there pretty much around the clock. We def enjoyed the breakfast each day.

[Mustang]

Thanks for your report. Better late than never. Thanks again.

Mustang
_________________
Dreams Riviera Cancun 12/09
Barcelo Palace 6/09
Grand Sunset Princess 12/08
Barcelo Palace 7/08
Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach 7/07
IB* 00,01,02,03,04,05.06
Robinson Club 99
Windjammer (Fantome) 81,82,83

Carefree Highway!!!

[bgarhan]

thanks for your thoughts!

[sami_j_1]

Me and my partner will be visiting GS on 12 Sept - This is my first time to Mexico so not sure what to expect. Visited Dreams Punta Cana - Dominican Rep in May 08 and I totally loved that resort!! But Ive been told Mexico is the place to be, apparently, far better than the Dom Rep - so after reading this review I can say, Im even more excited than I was before! Keep you posted guys!

[Mustang]

For most of us in the states the RM is a cheaper option and shorter flight times. Also depending on where in the DR you go there can be nothing to do off the resort.

Mustang
_________________
Dreams Riviera Cancun 12/09
Barcelo Palace 6/09
Grand Sunset Princess 12/08
Barcelo Palace 7/08
Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach 7/07
IB* 00,01,02,03,04,05.06
Robinson Club 99
Windjammer (Fantome) 81,82,83

Carefree Highway!!!

[makita122]

Thanks for the great review.

I agree with Mustang....Dominican Republic isn't really safe off the resorts, that's why we to go Akumal area! Please be sure to go to Akumal to the beach and snorkel....it's amazing!

[HarleyMom]

Did you find the pool to be cold? We are going in December and I'm worried about that, as I've read that in a few posts.