The Unofficial Palladium Resort Site

This was our third trip to the Grand Palladium. We arrived July 5 and arrived home today, July 15.

Thanks, Ann, for the wonderful room recommendation! Room 2129 in Colonial was perfect for my husband and I and our two teens. The patio especially was marvelous, and how nice to have two tvs to watch over our toes before bed. Being able to see the ocean from our room was such a gift—I am an early riser compared to the rest of my family and each morning, enjoyed looking out across the property toward the water. I also love how thick the walls must be—it was rare that we heard any noise from adjacent rooms. One negative comment on the room would be the very strange (and not at all private) bathroom set-up (an opaque swinging, partial door to the toilet), but we were having so much fun, we didn’t mind.

We arrived to rain . . . torrential rain! We were so excited to be there that we decided to go exploring anyway. The palapa-covered pathways were in water up to our shins. How entertaining to watch the gallant young studs carrying their gals over the water! Drenched to the skin, we had cervezas at the beach bar and toasted our return to the GP. Darn it, no towels at the pool--I guess they didn’t expect the foolish tourists to be out in the rain! The tv news said rain every day that week, so we were very relieved to awaken the next day to sunny skies. We only had a few more intermittent storms, which we really didn’t mind at all. Here in Phoenix , we haven’t seen rain since April! We especially enjoyed huge cracks of thunder during one morning at the breakfast buffet. Again, very foreign weather to desert folk like us.

We love the jungle atmosphere at the GP and explored every nook and cranny. We were simply amazed to see the coatimundi in a tree near the breakfast buffet. A woman was feeding them croissants from her hand—we were enchanted. We visited them every day, and this morning were astonished to see four baby coatis. We also saw what I think were agouti—we called them wombats. Very peculiar-looking reddish ratty beasts without tails. The yellow birds were beautiful! It seemed to us there were fewer iguanas, especially by the smaller pools. We snorkeled every day off the beach by Punta Emilia. We saw many tropical fish—my husband saw his first bat stingray—very cool!

We took a taxi to Playa Akumal Saturday afternoon. The beach was busy, but the water was not. It took us only five minutes to spot our first sea turtle. On past trips, we had taken the snorkel boat from the GP, but this was a more “budget” approach and also gave us more freedom. We swam with the turtles (I believe we saw ten in all) and also saw a huge school of at least 100 bright blue fish. Breathtaking!

Our only other adventure (except for eating too much) was a swim at Dos Ojos. Again, we skipped the tour and took a taxi. We have always felt so safe in the Riviera Maya area—thank goodness, because here we were with our children on an abandoned dirt road with a driver with little English. Of course there was nothing to worry about—there were divers at the cenotes, plus “hippy types” (I’m dating myself) –all there to swim in the refreshing, crystal clear waters. Very fun, but wow, so many mosquitos! Our driver had insisted on waiting for us so after 90 minutes or so of swimming, we headed back to the GP. Total cab fare = $40—what a deal!

We had great meals at many restaurants. For our fussy son, the buffets worked out best, but even in the full-service restaurants, they were so nice to prepare for him “plain grilled chicken, no sauce!” I had to laugh at one gal’s recent trip report. BEGGING FOR COFFEE would be my biggest complaint. Each time it has been the same. I agree—the coffee in the machine is not good. I am not a coffee snob and drink Costco coffee at home—the coffee (if you could get it) was so delicious! We left good tips each morning, but it made no difference. I’m sure with so many people coming and going, the staff cannot keep track of us. Two mornings (out of nine) we did not get coffee for 30 minutes. One way around it is to order five coffees for three people. I also would take my cup over to the wait station and they would pour me a cup. I am not an assertive person . . . but don’t get between me and my coffee!!! Too silly.

We noticed more evening music than we’d seen on prior visits. We love listening to live music, so what a treat. Especially talented was a group of four young Hispanic men who were singing in the Gran Azul area Saturday night. They sang everything from The Rolling Stones to Dave Matthews Band. Very fun!

We adore the GP—we love to ride the trams at night, everyone dressed up from dinner. We love the international flavor with tourists from so many European countries. The last game of the World Cup played this Sunday, which was high energy at the resort with many people dressed in red or displaying red stripes painted on their faces. There were more visitors from the UK than we recalled in past visits. Such cheerful groups, all of them happy to be at the beautiful Riviera Maya.

A few negatives that we noticed this visit:

One of the sofa beds was broken in our room. A woman called to ask if our room was satisfactory, and I told her about it. She didn’t seem too interested and instead wanted to discuss joining a frequent guest club. I told her no, but to please take note of the bed. Since we had an extra, it was not a big deal, but we felt it should have been addressed. Also the Ipod dock in our room did not work. We hung out the repair tag and it was taken, however, we never heard back. We were not in our room often enough for it to matter (or to make a call) but again, a note saying “there aren’t any more available” or some response would have been nice.

There has been a drastic change in the dress code since our last visits in 2006 and 2008. While 75% of the guests are still dressing nicely for dinner at the sit-down restaurants, the other 25% were allowed to dine in shorts, tank tops, jeans and flip flops! We understand the staff does not want confrontation, however, I felt it diminished the experience. At Bamboo one night, some families were dressed very lovely in “cruise wear,” but then next to them sat a table of people with wet hair wearing jean shorts!

We have been to Puerto Vallarta and were surprised to see all the pool chairs saved with towels. We were so happy not to see that at the GP on our other two visits, however, it has become more prevalent here as well. I can’t think of any way to solve the problem, but we were sleeping in most days, and it was impossible to find four chairs together by 11AM. We started to keep track, and there were many, many chairs “saved” with towels whose owners never appeared. It worked out fine—we would do our snorkeling, then come back to find chairs available.

I don’t mean to be overly negative—we had a positively amazing time and I’m already looking at the calendar at when we could possibly go again. The staff is so friendly (and hard working!), the food abundant and delicious (there’s no better guacamole anywhere), and the ocean and jungle amazing. Thank you, Grand Palladium!