Houston Texas
2017-07-26
For the price in Cancun, you can do a lot better
My wife and I received a special offer from the Westin Cancun hotel, sometime in November. We have a Westin which is great here in Houston, and she has stayed at one that is absolutely fantastic in Scottsdale for business conferences. We figured, for less than two hundred bucks, we'd definitely give it a try. If we got bored, we could always go into the Party Zone, right? We arrived, and this Westin is at the far end of the Hotel Zone. I mean, literally the farthest hotel on the strip of land which the hotel zone rests upon, sort of out on a point if you will. There's good views of both the sea side and the... I'll call it the lagoon side, and the lagoon side is relatively calm compared with the ocean side. We saw lots of people water skiing and involved in other activities on the lagoon side. But... not people from the Westin, for some reason. There seems to be a lot of wind coming in from the ocean all the time, which makes sense. This Westin is divided up into two parts, the Westin, proper name itself, and the so-called Royal Beach Club at the Westin. I smelled time-share pitch as soon as we arrived, when our "personal concierge" asked us to go check in, get comfortable, and she'd sit down with us and explain all the benefits of their wonderful hotel. I've been to wonderful hotels before... there's most likely good beds, big bathrooms, fluffy pillows, a bar or three, one to five restaurants, two to five pools, perhaps one or two with swim-up alcohol access, and generally a beach to go lay one's person upon. Well, at the wonderful hotels I've been to, anyway. The Westin checks all of those boxes. Swim-up alcohol available at one of the four pools, though two of the pools aren't big at all. The beach is huge, though the shells which comprise it are gnarly and they attempt to make your feet like them. There is an artificial, lifted so to speak, beach area where you can lay out at the Royal Beach Club section, they have service staff moving around there. The room we were assigned in the RBC building was quite a bit larger and better-appointed than the usual Westin... I really would say that the Westin's rooms were about as well set up as your average Holiday Inn in the states, to give you an idea. Definitely NOT like the Scottsdale experience my wife has had a few times. No Heavenly Bed, comforter just average hotel stuff, pillows equally... average. One very noticeable absence... music. No music around the pools, in the restaurants, in the bars, anywhere except very faint in the lobby. This was weird to us. Who has ever heard of a bar in Mexico with no music of any kind? It actually pyut dampeners on everyone's enthusiasm for any of the supposed "fun" available at the Westin. We were offered daily breakfast, as part of our "plan," which wasn't an all-inclusive thing. They don't offer an AI plan at the Westin, apparently. I was sleeping in one morning, vacation-style, and my wife went down and had breakfast and thought it OK. But, she went to make a little plate for me and was told she could not take it to the room - I'd have to come down to get it. The aforementioned party zone had vetoed that proposition, so I skipped breakfast that day. I did note that the day we arrived, the posted per night rate was $559/night. Ouch. We got average island-time delays in the beach service, which is OK. We werent' in a hurry. I do have this pet peeve about someone asking if I'm ready for the bill, and when I say yes... I'd really appreciate not having to wait a half-hour to get it so that I can go somewhere else. That seemed to happen every time we ate at the Westin this trip. Like I said, service was good, friendly and helpful, just slow to close the deal. Every time. I'm just sensitive I think. One thing interesting... the food was not good. How can a cook screw up chicken nuggets? I mean, chicken pieces, breaded, fry... done, right? Well, apparently it's a mystery. Asking for Nachos is an adventure in mexico and I get it, but if they put it on the menu... then it ought to be close, right? But, no. Perhaps this is a relatively new Westin building and they're still working out the kinks? I don't know. But, if you were paying full rate for the day I noted it, that $559/night... you'd be... upset.My wife and I received a special offer from the Westin Cancun hotel, sometime in November. We have a Westin which is great here in Houston, and she has stayed at one that is absolutely fantastic in Scottsdale for business conferences. We figured, for less than two hundred bucks, we'd definitely give it a try. If we got bored, we could always go into the Party Zone, right? We arrived, and this Westin is at the far end of the Hotel Zone. I mean, literally the farthest hotel on the strip of land which the hotel zone rests upon, sort of out on a point if you will. There's good views of both the sea side and the... I'll call it the lagoon side, and the lagoon side is relatively calm compared with the ocean side. We saw lots of people water skiing and involved in other activities on the lagoon side. But... not people from the Westin, for some reason. There seems to be a lot of wind coming in from the ocean all the time, which makes sense. This Westin is divided up into two parts, the Westin, proper name itself, and the so-called Royal Beach Club at the Westin. I smelled time-share pitch as soon as we arrived, when our "personal concierge" asked us to go check in, get comfortable, and she'd sit down with us and explain all the benefits of their wonderful hotel. I've been to wonderful hotels before... there's most likely good beds, big bathrooms, fluffy pillows, a bar or three, one to five restaurants, two to five pools, perhaps one or two with swim-up alcohol access, and generally a beach to go lay one's person upon. Well, at the wonderful hotels I've been to, anyway. The Westin checks all of those boxes. Swim-up alcohol available at one of the four pools, though two of the pools aren't big at all. The beach is huge, though the shells which comprise it are gnarly and they attempt to make your feet like them. There is an artificial, lifted so to speak, beach area where you can lay out at the Royal Beach Club section, they have service staff moving around there. The room we were assigned in the RBC building was quite a bit larger and better-appointed than the usual Westin... I really would say that the Westin's rooms were about as well set up as your average Holiday Inn in the states, to give you an idea. Definitely NOT like the Scottsdale experience my wife has had a few times. No Heavenly Bed, comforter just average hotel stuff, pillows equally... average. One very noticeable absence... music. No music around the pools, in the restaurants, in the bars, anywhere except very faint in the lobby. This was weird to us. Who has ever heard of a bar in Mexico with no music of any kind? It actually pyut dampeners on everyone's enthusiasm for any of the supposed "fun" available at the Westin. We were offered daily breakfast, as part of our "plan," which wasn't an all-inclusive thing. They don't offer an AI plan at the Westin, apparently. I was sleeping in one morning, vacation-style, and my wife went down and had breakfast and thought it OK. But, she went to make a little plate for me and was told she could not take it to the room - I'd have to come down to get it. The aforementioned party zone had vetoed that proposition, so I skipped breakfast that day. I did note that the day we arrived, the posted per night rate was $559/night. Ouch. We got average island-time delays in the beach service, which is OK. We werent' in a hurry. I do have this pet peeve about someone asking if I'm ready for the bill, and when I say yes... I'd really appreciate not having to wait a half-hour to get it so that I can go somewhere else. That seemed to happen every time we ate at the Westin this trip. Like I said, service was good, friendly and helpful, just slow to close the deal. Every time. I'm just sensitive I think. One thing interesting... the food was not good. How can a cook screw up chicken nuggets? I mean, chicken pieces, breaded, fry... done, right? Well, apparently it's a mystery. Asking for Nachos is an adventure in mexico and I get it, but if they put it on the menu... then it ought to be close, right? But, no. Perhaps this is a relatively new Westin building and they're still working out the kinks? I don't know. But, if you were paying full rate for the day I noted it, that $559/night... you'd be... upset.