The Gardens of Eden (Grand Sunset Princess (Playa del Carmen, Mexico))

Member Name: grahamt

Product:	Grand Sunset Princess (Playa del Carmen, Mexico)
Date:	22/06/09 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful setting; comfortable accommodation; decent food

Disadvantages: Poor quality house wine; facilities going wrong

First of all, may I offer a heart-felt thank you to all of you who decided to heed the media hype about the supposed dangers of Swine Flu and cancelled your holiday to Mexico this year. It made our holiday there so much more enjoyable! Sadly, it has also been a disaster for the Mexicans, who so much depend upon the tourist trade in what is not a rich part of the World, not for the native population that is.

We have been trying to reach the Yucatan for a number of years and one [natural] disaster after another has caused us to be forced to abandon our visits. Even this year, the combined efforts of Swine Flu and Thomas Cook almost meant that another year would fruitlessly go by. As it happened, we finally cancelled with Thomas Cook when our patience with them ran out, and booked a late booking with Thomson instead. The consequence was that instead of our original hotel close to Tulum we ended up at the Princess Hotel just north of Playa del Carmen. It turned out to be quite a reasonable substitute.

The Princess Hotel complex is, like most on the eastern Yucatan coastal region, located off the coastal dual carriageway, which runs north/south between Cancun and Tulum, between it and the coast itself. The Princess Hotel complex entrance is, though, accessed down a mile-long road rather than having its entrance actually at the main road. At the time of our visit the entire road sign marking its location was being demolished and rebuilt.

The Princess Hotel complex actually consists of two hotels on the same site - the Grand Riviera Princess and, the part in which we were staying, the Grand Sunset Princess. Both hotels share the same grounds, carved out of the coastal mangrove. The whole site stretches about half a mile from the reception area down to the beach. The two hotels sit on either side of the grounds, facing each other, and are, as far as I can tell, almost mirror images of each other.

I say, "as far as I can tell" since, because of the Swine Flu, the hotels had only 25% occupancy and so the management had taken the decision to close the Riviera side for maintenance and repair and locate everyone in the Sunset side instead. However, what applies to the Sunset undoubtedly applies to the Riviera as well. During our stay certain Riviera restaurants were opened for use whilst their Sunset opposite numbers were closed for maintenance.

The Princess Hotels are rated by Thomson as 5 Star. Certainly, initial impressions were very good. We had been booked initially into the basic Junior Suite but when we arrived we were upgraded to the Deluxe Junior Suite, perhaps in gratitude for us deciding to come at all! There are other higher graded rooms also, including a complex of mini villas around a private central pool.

The main rooms stretch down the grounds in a chain of three-story blocks. It is possible to walk the entire length inside, away from the heat of the day. Each block is built around a central atrium, open to the sky, with the central courtyard cooled by pools and fountains. There was a noticeable and welcome drop in temperature of as much as 10C as a result.

Our room (2031) was located about half-way down the chain. We were allocated a room on the outside of the block, away from the pools and gardens, and so enjoyed a bit more peace and quiet than might otherwise have been the case although, with the drop in numbers that wasn't much of a problem anyway.

The room was spacious and cool: air-conditioning was standard, as was a variable speed ceiling fan, which we solely relied on at night. The room was floored throughout in cool marble. Ours was a ground-floor room, with an enclosed patio beyond the sliding glass door, also protected by a sliding bug-screen. It is wise to keep this in place as, being this close to the mangrove, inevitable there will be some insect life present. However, the bug screen itself was not lockable and so we were not prepared to sleep with the glass door open, a pity really. This would not be likely to be a problem on the upper floors though, not that I'm suggesting that the whole site is insecure!

Storage space was extensive and a modern 4-digit PIN code safe is provided free-of-charge. There is a free mini-bar (we were staying all-inclusive) that was kept regularly stocked with soft drinks, beers and bottled water. The water here is good enough for brushing your teeth but you are recommended not to drink it.

The bed was HUGE: it was wider that it was long. Were you feeling sociable enough, it could sleep four in comfort, and very comfortable it was as well. We always enjoyed a good night's rest. Entertainment was limited to a flat-screen TV with a very limited range of channels. Although we weren't here to watch TV, I would have liked, at the very least, a decent news channel such as BBC World News or CNN but instead we only got the lamentable "Voice of the Republican Party", Fox News Extra! Still, the TV did have a mini jack lead so you could plug in your iPod or MP3 player and use it as speakers instead.

The bathroom was a bit odd: there is a large walk-in shower, separated from the toilet only by a frosted glass screen! Both are separated from the rest of the bathroom by frosted glass doors. Consequently it is possible to see the shadow of someone sitting on the loo or taking a shower! Although there was no notice to that effect I suspect that the presence of a waste bucket in the loo suggest that you are expected to dispose of toilet paper there rather than flushing it away. We flushed and didn't suffer any blockages so I suppose that the waste system must be tolerant of our European customs!

The bathroom also has a large jacuzzi bath, which my wife greatly enjoyed. Double sinks are also provided so that you can both ablute together, should you be so inclined. Towels were regularly changed by the usual method of leaving them on the floor.

Not that the room was entirely without its problems during our stay. The hairdryer assembly in the bathroom regularly fell off of the wall and had to be replaced by the maintenance man. The loo flush stopped operating one day and had to be fixed and the loo seat came loose and also had to be replaced. All were rapidly attended to, though, as soon as reported so these inconveniences did not in-convene unduly. The only thing that couldn't be corrected was the floor of the shower: the tiles had not been laid correctly, resulting in a pool of water forming just inside the door, where it couldn't drain away. Not the sort of thing you expect of supposedly 5-Star accommodation.

What is the crowning feature of the hotel though, is the grounds. The gardens are utterly delightful and perfectly maintained. Not a day went by without the gardeners ensuring that the beautiful lawns, bushes and flowers were kept in tip-top order. The walk down to the beach each morning certainly helped to lift the spirit. The sides of the pathway were lined with statues in the Mayan style.

These gardens attracted abundant wild life: the grounds were dominated by hundreds of Melodious Blackbirds calling to each other and fighting over territory. Also present in smaller numbers were the gorgeous Great Kiskadee, with its bright yellow breast and equally colourful Oriels, who were nesting in the tops of the palms. In addition an iguana had made its home under one of the statutes alongside the main pathway, and emerged each morning to sun itself on the grass, darting back into its hole if you got too close.

Weaving its way around the gardens is the main pool complex. On initial appearance it seems like the pool forms a canal that runs right around the gardens but this is deceptive. What look like wooden bridges onto the central "island" are in many cases in fact fakes covering a retaining wall that divides up pool into a number of discrete sections. Consequently it is not possible to swim all the way around without getting out and back in again.

There are further pools closer to the beach and each has a swim-up bar for those who like to take their refreshments "in loco". The central bar area had a daily disco that was quite loud. If you like this sort of thing then fine but we tended to get as far away as possible, which wasn't difficult considering how big the grounds are.

Around the pools are sunbeds and large thatched roofed sun shelters for those who, like me, burn easily. Towels are provided in exchange for a plastic card provided at Reception, one card per towel. You can change towels as often as you like. We scrounged enough for two towels each.

The beach is accessed across a wooden walkway through the mangrove. A shower for washing off sand and toilets are located just on the hotel end of the walkway. There are no such facilities on the beach itself, probably due to ecological considerations. There is, however, a wooden beach bar and also somewhere to get you beach towels as well. A waitress service for drinks operates here as well as throughout the hotel complex, though you can just go and get your own as well.

The beach here has beautiful soft, golden sand and the sunbeds are set amongst palms and more sun shelters. However, once you get into the warm waters the sand gives way very quickly to a hard stony sea bottom. Walking out into the sea can be quite uncomfortable and I would recommend swimming slippers in order to avoid hurting your feet. The sea itself, though, is shallow for a long way out, not getting deeper than about a metre for as much as a couple of hundred metres. We saw a lot of one particular fish, about 20 cms long, silver with long, dark fins. They were very friendly and came up and inspected you before darting away.

The restaurants are mostly located at the reception end of the site although two are also located just behind the beach and it was here that we took breakfast and lunch most days. The selection available is quite wide and we never got bored due to "sameness" of the food provided. The food was good, tasty though not generally as spicy as I would have expected.

Our evening meals were taken either in the general buffet style restaurant or in one of the speciality restaurants, which have to be booked in advance. We were disappointed by the speciality restaurants, of which there were around ten. The food in almost all of them was unexceptional and generally not better than that in the buffet. Had we known in advance what to expect we probably wouldn't have bothered. With the buffet though, there could be no complaints.

Wine is available with meals. We immediately voted the house white undrinkable: it tasted watered down (I'm not suggesting it was, just that it tasted like it was). The rose was passable but had a very odd appearance: it seemed almost fluorescent! The red was probably the best of all though none would win prizes! You can buy bottles of wine at additional cost.

Entertainment is provided each night around the Reception area. The central courtyard bordered by and shared between the two hotels and by the Conference Centre and Theatre, was nightly occupied by a small combo whose saxophone player regularly went walkabout amongst the guests. Pity his talent didn't match his bravado! Shows were also available in the theatre in the conference centre; we watched one and were quite impressed with the professional skills of the entertainers.

Internet access is available wirelessly and in two Internet rooms, at additional cost: $10 US for thirty minutes. We only used it because of problems throughout the holiday with getting a reliable mobile phone connection. My wife irregularly got a connection on one of her Vodafone contract mobiles; I never once got a connection on my 3 Pay-as you-go.

What was a bit disturbing was that we were in the Internet room one night, when the fire alarm in there went off: I believe a couple smoking walked in and set it off as we saw them rapidly disappearing out the door when they realised what they had done. However, no one took any notice of the alarm! We reported it to Reception and they didn't even seem to be aware! I wonder what would have happened if there had been a real fire?

At reception there are a couple of desks run by organisations selling excursions. We used Best Day for a couple of these and they proved to be at as good a price as we had seen anywhere. We did book one through the Thomson rep though only because he offered one we didn't see advertised elsewhere. Best Day also runs the hotel's "Free Shuttle" to Playa del Carmen. This proved to be a bit of a con: the bus only runs twice a day; into Playa del Carmen at midday; return at 6.00pm. This was entirely inadequate and so we took a taxi each time; they charge 135 Pesos (£7) for a one-way trip.

All in all we enjoyed our stay at the Grand Sunset Princess and would have no hesitation in staying there again, despite the minor problems. However, I wouldn't call this a 5 Star hotel, more a 4 Star or maybe 4+. The gardens are without doubt the the crowning feature; these alone though do not add to the facilities. Our room was comfortable enough and I would expect the higher rated ones to be even better. The pools were all warm, large and scrupulously clean. The food was generally good in the buffet restaurants. The staff were all exceptionally friendly and helpful.

Summary: A good though not exceptional hotel on the Yucatan coast