Since when is it okay to ignore the rules?

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

We just spent 2 weeks in Mexico at Mayan Palace Resorts. The first week in Nuevo Vallarta was great. Loved the room (even with a crappy view), loved the grounds, the service was outstanding, other guests were friendly, pool was relaxing, food & drink was good & reasonably priced.

Then we went to Riviera Maya. Again the room was great (great view), grounds were beautiful, service was excellent, pool was great, beach was super, food was fabulous although pricey, & most folks were pretty friendly. However, every morning between 6 & 7am there is a steady stream of "lounge savers" with room towels, shoes & hats (even portable coolers & blankets & beach bags) headed to the pool to stake a claim on their favorite lounge chairs & palapas. It states very clearly in the rules handed out at check-in and on signs at the entrys to the pool that placing of personal belongings on chairs to "reserve" them is prohibited. By 8am you are hard pressed to find a single spot in the shade without a resident shoe or hat. Most of these spots remain unoccupied until around 10:30 or so & many until close to noon. I have never seen the "no saving chairs" rule so blatantly ignored anywhere else.

I had a heated exchange with what I will loosely refer to as a "gentleman" who by his own admission had reserved his chairs at 7am. He was quite irate when he arrived at 11:30 to find I had removed his rubber flip flop at 10:30 to join it's partner on another chair. A guest seated nearby said he had also never seen it as bad anywhere else & blamed it on the abundance of people from a particular region of North America. I'm not so inclined to point figures at my northern neighbors. So perhaps some of you owners (with your gray wristbands) or frequent visitors (with your neon orange wristbands) to this resort can give me a better explaination. Why is it acceptable for so many of you to ignore the posted rule? This practice is downright rude, selfish, juvenile, stupid (that nice looking cooler is just begging to be stolen), childish, and at least 5 more adjectives I can't think of that apply to jerks who think the rules don't apply to them. This is not just a rant. I really want to know why normally polite, law abiding folks think it is perfectly okay to ignore the rules.

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

I agree with you

Julie,

I agree with you. I think it is the resort's fault. Many have rules (most I agree with), but never enforce them.

Nancy

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I have been to a few of the Mayan resorts and the one in Rivera Maya is the worst. I got up at 5am to Finally get a bed. I did not leave the bed, When I got there I went to sleep and woke up when my family arrived. The towels are supposed to be moved at 8am and they are from the beds since they make those up but they do not take them away from the chairs. I believe if you notify there guards they will time it and remove it with in the hour if no one shows.

[aliikai2 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close aliikai2]

In the Nuevo at the GM

Hey Julie,
I could watch them from our room, it was funny. They started sneaking out about 6am. One guy must have been suffering from ADD or some other defict as he put his stuff on 6 chairs, then walked away, came back and looked, walked away and hid behind a bush and waited for a few minutes. Then came back again and moved the things around on the same chairs. He did this 4 or 5 times, I was

It was awful that all these folks were so petty as to reserve NON-RESERVABLE
chairs.
When we went to the pool, I simple tossed the stuff onto another chair.



Greg

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

more palapa bed woes

We had the same problem at GM Mayan Riviera. To make matters worse, resort employees actually colluded with guests to reserve the beds. On two seperate occasions there were palapas with yellow warning tape surrounding them. When we enquired of a maintenance worker we were told they were to have construction work so were unavailable. Lo and behold, when obvious friends/relatives arrived the tape was removed BY THE WORKER. Additionally it appeared that an occasional employee was paid to spend the night on a bed in order to reserve it. They had blankets that covered their uniforms, but were witnessed leaving in the morning. (I didnt personally see that one.).
I feel that the blame is on the resort. If they enforced their posted rules, the problem would not exist. Each day we saw near fist fights over the beds.There has to be a better way.....

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

Frank, to be fair, I did see several folks who did actually leave a live body to save their spots, usually when there were more than just 3 or 4 chairs being saved. And I don't feel quite so miffed about people who leave an actual occupant there. But the vast majority simply left a single shoe or an old paperback. Like Greg I stood out on my pitiful excuse for a balcony watching the jerks head off on the 1/2 mile trek to the pool every morning with their armload of room towels. Those same people probably complain any other time about how far away it is! After putting up with it for a few days, I threw caution (& a rubber flip flop) to the wind & parked my butt in a nice shadey spot. Those folks all around me applauded when I stood or I should say sat my ground while being screamed at by the irate flip flop owner. They all confessed to being too chicken to move the stuff left by the reservers. And swore to join my mini revolt.

And although I agree the resort deserves much of the fault for not enforcing the rule, that doesn't justify the rule breaking. I have yet to hear from an owner at that resort who can justify allowing this practice to get so far out of control. Of course, people who would behave in such a stupid & selfish way are probably not smart enough to know about TS4Ms or TUG. I guess the owners there are the ones making that morning walk & they don't want the rule enforced.

So take this as a warning, MP owners & chair reservers everywhere. Get your management to enforce the rule or you WILL find your cute hats & nifty coolers somewhere in the shrubbery whenever I am there I am on a crusade!!

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

barndweller

Get your management to enforce the rule or you WILL find your cute hats & nifty coolers somewhere in the shrubbery whenever I am there I am on a crusade!!

It seems this practice is common at many resorts, and yes, it's totally rude, and annoying!

[pittle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pittle]

We were at the Riviera Maya for 3 weeks -January 27-February 18. Someone from our group did go down to get a palapa & chairs every morning about 5:30 AM, but the designated person stayed until someone else arrived. We never left our spot vacant. (The gals would bring the guys breakfast as a reward for getting up early.) On the days I was lucky enough to have a palapa bed, I hated to leave it to get in the pool or even go to the bathroom. I almost felt guilty leaving it vacant for a few minutes.

We watched the Security Guards walk around and check off whether someone was at each palapa every hour on the hour, but they did not do anything. We did see some people go get the same guys to show them that places had been vacant for a while and on more than one occasion, we saw the guards take the items and let the new people have the spot.

Shade is a premium. Once the new pools are open, there will be more chairs and shady spots and hopefully some of the problems will be solved.

There needs to be a better system.

[zdxlc9p6 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zdxlc9p6]

We were at the Riviera Maya for two weeks. (Left Jan 26 Pittle) I'm a natural early riser, and was at the pool 5:30-6:00 every morning claiming a palapa bed. However, other than a trip to the room for more coffee, and breakfast when DW finally got up, we pretty much occupied it all day. Security does check approximately each hr. One day I was concerned because I hadn't seen security for nearly three hrs. I asked the person next door, and he said about every time I left, security came by. Fortunately, I made the next bed check. Point is, security checks, I saw them leave notices on some beds, and they would remove the items, but only if someone complained to them.

[barndweller Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close barndweller]

Shade is a premium. Once the new pools are open, there will be more chairs and shady spots and hopefully some of the problems will be solved

.

Dale
The new pool area being built will not help. There are also 6 or 7 additional buildings under construction. Where are all those additional people going to sit? The new owners will simply learn that the rules are ignored & take up the practice as well. At some point people will simply check-in & go straight to the pool to stake out their spot for the week & never actually use their room. What will help is strict enforcement of the rules & people having the courtesy to not monopolize the lounges for hours without actually occupying them. Especially those bed things. I believe that many resorts with those things require a rental fee which seems like a much farer way to use them. That way everyone has an equal chance if they really want to have one.

What is especially annoying is that happy hour starts at 11am when a goodly number of those chair savers time their arrival & without actually ever sitting in their reserved spots they are now lounging IN the pool & clustered 6 deep around the swim up bar. Their carefully reserved places remain unoccupied while those who had neglected to ignore the rule are left without a spot to sit in the shade. And I can testify personally that the staff at the pool DO NOT enforce the rule. When asked to remove items left sitting for over an hour, they simply shrug their shoulders & walk away.

So, again I say, don't leave anything that you value on an unoccupied chair 'cause it will not be there when you finally show up if I'm aroundAnd if you do this at any other resort (or on a cruise ship) stop your snickerin' because you won't escape me. (insert evil laugh here.) Since I can't personally stamp out all unfairness in the world, I will make it my mission to combat the scourge of the rude, selfish, rule ignoring lounge hoggers of the timeshare world.

[zdxlc9p6 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zdxlc9p6]

First, the quote you used and references to the new pool are from Pittle, not Dale. Second, since I stated I was there except for short (<30 minutes) absences, I hope you're not around when I have to go to the bathroom or decide to get in the pool for 15 minutes. You say "I can testify personally that the staff at the pool DO NOT enforce the rule." I can state I personally saw SECURITY remove items, but not the pool staff.
I agree with you totally on those that leave an item and don't appear for hours. I don't know if you asked pool staff, or security, but I saw security move items. If security refused to move the items, I would ask them for their manager.

[Carol C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carol C]

I was just there at Grand Mayan Riviera Maya. The Sunday I arrived our villa wasn't ready yet, so I had to hang out poolside in the full sun because there wasn't a single shady spot anywhere for just one measly person. I got pretty burned in an hour there, so I went to the lobby to hang out in that sweltering heat (un-airconditioned lobby, what's with that?) to await my roommates who arrived late due to airline delays.

The rest of the week, being an early riser, I managed to reserve chairs for our party of six but most of the gals slept in late, arriving poolside noon-ish. So yes I was guilty of putting a flip flop here and a paperback there...but I was the only one up early to reserve spots for me and my travel companions. Another gal in our party started to show up early by midweek to help reserve space, so she and I took rotating shifts so one of us could go have breakfast or take a dip in the pool. As for those infamous beds, I managed to reserve a bed two mornings in a row toward our week's end. A bed came in real handy one day when we had rainy downpours all day...imagine 5 gals crowded under a palapa on one of those beds. There was no , that's for sure!

One thing I noticed was the hammocks on the beach were torn up, all but one. One morning a woman couldn't get into the hammock by sitting into it or straddling it, so she tried to step into it with one foot, putting all her weight on that one foot. She wasn't exactly thin either. No wonder hammocks get torn up at resorts with that kind of abuse by guests.

One other item, speaking of the Mayan...what's with those cheapskates giving out pool towels that are solid white and not colors or stripes? I wasn't the only one who mistakenly grabbed a white bath towel from my room only to find out it was the wrong towel when I attempted to exchange it poolside.

Last but not least, during my three hour tenure waiting in the lobby on check-in day, I observed at least a half dozen disgruntled guests who were either downgraded size-wise to smaller unit(s) or who were bounced from Grand Mayan over to Mayan Palace. Many were owners or friends of owners and they were not happy at all, fighting for what their paperwork promised them there in that suffocatingly hot lobby. It's really too bad that the Mayan people keep working so hard to fill up their sales presentation room when they're apparently so oversold they can't even accomodate current owners very well. I wouldn't go so far as to call the place a "dump" as a woman in the airport line called it. But for my money, I'm happy I own at Cozumel Palace and Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay in Mazatlan...both are class acts.

P.S. One really good thing about the Mayan Riviera resort...their Havana Moon restaurant has a nice seaview and a really great low-cal omelette at breakfast. Homemade whole wheat bread is sublime...try it you'll like it!

[Pat H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pat H]

In fact on Saturday both Kay and Carol got the bed palapas! I think the resort is fantastic. The units at the Grand Mayan are huge with very nice balconies. I can't wait to go back!

[pittle Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pittle]

Pat - The new grandbabies are adorable - thanks for sharing.

[Pat H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pat H]

Pat - The new grandbabies are adorable - thanks for sharing.

Thanks, pittle. And there's 1 more coming the end of June!