THIS UPDATE WILL APPEAR TO BE QUITE LENGTHY BUT I HOPE YOU STICK WITH IT BECAUSE IF YOU DO, YOU WILL HAVE QUITE AN EYE OPENING!
We returned from the Grand Luxxe at the Riviera Maya on January 7, 2011. We were so disappointed that things are not as promised. The first major problem is that the building that has just been completed is very far from the beach and it does not face the beach. There may be a very few units on the southeast side that have a view but we could not tell. When we bought we were told the buildings would face the ocean & be along the beach. Not so. Also, any unit along the west or northwest side has a severe noise problem. Adjacent to the Luxxe is where they have all the air conditioner compressors. The noise is like a jet plane the entire time. We requested two room changes before we received a unit that was quiet! The buildings are in a rectangle and the center of the rectangle is outside with very unattractive natural jungle unless you are on the main floor.I don't know if they have any intention of fixing this up or not. The outside views are also terrible. If you are on the ground floor you do have pretty plantings to look at out from your deck if you are on the NE side of the triangle. In fact, they touch your deck rail because they are trying to hide the cart path that is just 10' from your balcony! The other ground floor rooms look at ugly natural jungle. After moving from the ground floor to the third floor, things got quiet but the view was horrible! Natural jungle & abandoned construction.
There was absolutely no work being done nor did it look like they were intending to any in the near future. There are no construction workers, no heavy equipment, no materials, nothing! We made mention of this to one of the sales reps & all he said was that things can change. Although they may change sometime, for the moment, no construction is occuring. The second unit is behind the finished unit which is even further from the beach. It is being used as a garage & even has signs to lead you to "Parking". There are some upright stanchions at another location adjacent to the "Parking" building and across from the finished building, there are some diggings around for a foundation. All of these units are no where near the beach. I have lots of pictures if anyone wants to request them.
Oh, by the way, there is no pool for the Luxxe either. One of the sales reps said that is the last thing they are going to build however, we found they were building one right next to the beach very far away from all the buildings! The pool is just down from the Havana Moon.
So as a guest, you are very far away from any amenities, no pool, no beach, no restraunts not anything even close. You must then wait on the carts to take you around. In Nuevo where we were in October, the staff jumps to take you where you need to go the second you appear at the door. The staff at the Riviera are much more blaise. The real problem is coming back to the Luxxe from a restaurant or the pool. Apparently these other employees don't understand that you are to be picked up from where you are. If you ask them to call for the cart back to the Luxxe, you will be told to go stand at the cart waiting area.
In general the service at the Riviera Maya is nowhere close to the excellent treatment we received at Nuevo. There is not a conceirge on every floor. You have to go to their makeshift office, which occupies on of the rooms, if you want to talk to someone. There is no morning coffee delivery, you must go down stairs to the office. Also be warned that if you need coffee in your room the first day, they don't even give you one free coffee packet as they do at Nuevo. Be sure to bring one or buy one. The conceirge and other staff on duty were wonderful, it is just that the number of staff is limited. When the sales rep answered my question about this I was told they had only been open 6 weeks as if this was an acceptable reason.
Our "update" where the sales staff weren't going to try to sell us anything, occured on our third day because we arrived on New Year's Eve. By that time we had a good grip on the layout of the land so to speak. We had the sales people detain us for over 3 hours before we got fed up & left. Of course they wanted to sell us some ownership in their grand new program called Mansions of the World or something like that. Sales is so fucused on this new endeavor that they have forgotten all of us who have waited for the Luxxe & Bliss.
We did learn a thing or two from sales, however. This info was not volunteered but it leaked out a bit at a time as we wrangled with sales about our Luxxe experience. Apparently the Mayan Group has made a deal with Interval International to give up a certain number of rooms for trades/rental. I believe the number was 4,000. II is displeased with with them for not coming up with the number that the Mayan had guaranteed them. So, the sales guy came right out & told me they are building the rooms intended for trades from II first!!! Can you believe that? That was one excuse I was given for why the locations of the buildings is so bad. He said they will use these for II trades. Now that brings up 2 things. One, we have waited years for this and they are building units to satisfy other people before us first? Second, what does this say for us if we trade our time for another location outside of the Mayan Group. Are we to expect to get a lesser room than those who own that resort's timeshare? Wow, what an eye opener!!
I hope you have learned from our experience. Hopefully each of you will have better experiences but, my patience has worn thin. We are older owners & now I wonder if all the promises made will ever be kept & if so will we be alive to see them? |
