GM Riveira Maya, Veterans Day Week??

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

M&M - does that same person do the Xcaret all inclusive with evening show as well?

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

November is a busy travel time for NJ residents. There is Vereran's Day, voting day and NJEA Convention. Many parents just take their kids out of school because it is so broken up and travel. Hope this helps.

[M&M Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close M&M]

Hi all,
I've gotten a couple emails from some of you asking for information regarding my recent trip to Grand Mayan. Instead of responding to each of you separately, I hope that you don't mind that I give out the information here.

1)If you have a preference as to which building to stay, you can email the resort to request i. The email address is conciergerm@mayanpalace.com.mx
Our group had 13 people and we got 2 2-bedroom units @the Grand. Since there are young kids and senior citizens (my parents over 75 yrs old), we emailed the resort and got 2 units in the same building, building 1, which is very close to the Grand Mayan pool and the front lobbly. In my opinion, this is the best location for us.
Each unit has 2 bed room. In each bed room, there is a king bed and a sofa. At night, the maid comes to "turn down" bed (?) and we found out that the sofa can be made into 2 single bed. In the family room, there are 2 sofas, so we came to the conclusion that since the unit is so spacious, you can sleep 12 people easily in one unit. In our RCI confirmation, it's stated that the maximum occupancy is 8 for the unit. The resort did not ask us how many people is our group. They just ask how many adults so they could give out the writstbands.
One more thing about the unit, the kitchen is a little bit small compared to other time share resorts (Marriott, Fairfield, Royal Caribbean) that I have been staying.
2) If you use the Grand pool, you don't have to check out a towel to use. One clean towel is laid on each lounge chair. You have to check out and return the towel when you are at the Mayan pool. The resort give you the towel cards but they say that there will be $30.00 charge for each card misplaced. You can not take the towel from the Grand pool to the Mayan pool since there is someone standing at the Grand pool's exist asking you to give them the towels back.
When I was there, I did not notice if they check the guests for using the Grand Mayan pool. We used the Mayan pool during the day since there were a lot of games/activities conducted at this pool. However, we used the Grand pool at night time since where the Grand pool located, you can watch the night time entertainment that is going on at one of the restaurant.
3) Althought the resort has a "cash less" policy, my dad was able to buying drinks and food at the pool. He told them that his room key is not authorized for charging. If you charge it to the room, you don't need to tip them since the resort automatically add 15% service to it. We did not buy anything at the resort's market but we heard that the 15% service charge is also added for things that you buy at the market too. We went to Wallmart for our groceries. Don't forget the fruits. They are sooooo good and so cheap compared to fruits in USA (papaya, mango, kiwi). The pastries are also good. Bought everything that we need for one week and took a cab back to the resort (around $15.00 back). We found out that the exchange rate at Wallmart is the best. At the time we stayed there, Wallmart rate was 10.8, the resort rate was 10.2 and at the exchange booth which you can find along the 5th avenue is 10.55. Howeve, Wallmart won't give you exchange unless you buy something. You can buy one small item (e.g. a bottle of water), give them $50.00 US dollar bill and you will get the rest of your change back in Peso.
4)Tours/attractions: At check in, the resort gave you a price list for tour attrations. The list has 2 different prices. One is "discounted" for taking the resort time share presentation and the other price is for not taking the presentation. I used the "discounted" price list as my guild to bargain when I was on 5th avenue. In Mexico, you need to know to bargain but do it with a smile . The name of guy that I booked the attraction is Victor Moreno. He gave me a business card for Rosa Cortez, Gte. General. On the back of the card, he wrote down his location and cell phone # - corner of 5th Avenue and 10th street, cell phone is 004 984 119 55 62. On the business card, the email addresses are
rosatravel@prodigy.net.mx or
wwww.rosatourscancun.com
If you ask for a private van, make sure that the van is new and the driver can speak English. I just realized that I misquoted the Tulum/Xel Ha cost. It was $71/per person, not $65/per person. The $65 is for public bus. Also, if you have children, it's 30% discount. The discount is not based on age but on height so unless you have kids who are under 8 years old, they are all adult price. The height restriction is Xeh Ha's policy. These prices are vey good price ompared to the price quoted at the resort.
Also with private van, you set your own hours. When we were at Tulum for less than 30 minutes, we told the tour guild that we want to go to Xel Ha, they happily obliged to our request. Had we do the public tour, we'd have got stuck at Tulum for 2 hours before the bus goes to Xeh-Ha. The kids had a blast @Xel Ha while they think Tulum is boring.
If you see Victor, tell him that the Asian lady refers you to him.
5) Other information:
We book the airport transportation with Cancun Vallet. You can email them in advance. The service was super and a little bit cheaper than Brants.
To get to the town, you can either take "express" van which is across the highway (15 peso/per person)or waive down a cab which could cost you from $8.00 US to $12.00 depends on # of people traveling. I guess the cab driver takes into account your cost of the bus fare before giving you his price. The price for a cab in front of the lobby is always highter than the price for a cab at the front gate.
I hope that you find the above information helpful and if I forgot to address any of your questions, please feel free to email.
Trang

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

Triang,
Thanks so much for the info. We have booked GM for November 10th (1BR) and are very much looking forward to it.
Did you do any snorkleing while there and if so what trip did you take?? I have been looking at one that goes out of Cozemel, as we want to possibly go over there one day anyway.
One question about the sofa beds in the living room area. How are they arranged, do they make up in to a double or are they singles also?? Also, would having someone stay on sofa bed in a one bedroom make it really cramped or would it be alright?? Right now it is just my wife and I but my wife has been considering asking her sister if they want to come along.
If you took the bus from front how did you find getting across the highway??
A couple of folks had told us that was quite difficult and was just wondering as we really don't want to rent a car there if we don't have to???
Again thanks for the info and hope I are not burdening you will all the questions.

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

Oh yeah, one other question...I am sure there will be more so please bear with me.
Are the Grand Myan wrist bands just to id you go get to use the GM pool or are there other things you need to be id'd for also??
Also, someone had said that having the wrist band on in town might cause you to get charged higher prices or be in less of a position for bargaining. Don't know if that is true or not but just because I hate to wear a wristband around all the time can you somehow take it off when not at the resort?? Maybe bring some good tape to put it back tgether when at the resort or someting??
thanks again