Candid trip report...March 2nd-March 8th.

[litebeam]

Well, we just returned from our week at TTR Cabo. We're a bit exhausted and we always regard that as a great indicator of a fabulous, fun-filled trip.
It rained two+ days (huh?!) and everybody was a wee bit disappointed with ma nature but we still kept the fun going.

We're going to give our opinion of the resort as it stands right now; there is plenty of high praise and some critique. Please(!) don't slam us for "bad attitudes" or for being high maintenance. We're not.
We've been to Desires Cabo twice, Hedo II twice and Cancun Desire. This was our first specific TTR excursion.
We know what to look for and what to expect with all-inclusive adult resorts. We want to convey an honest take.

We arrived at TTR and it felt great--like home. Everything initially felt pretty much the same as Desires. We requested a room on the top floor and away from everything. The staff obliged. We reason the quieter the room the better the sleep. Sleep is scarce anyway at great, fun resorts like TTR.
We were disappointed with the front desk "member" hustle. We told the girl NO THANKS. We talked to two "members" about membership later in the week...one regretted it dearly, one loved it. Fair enough to us, but we don't want any hard sell on our highly anticipated vacation. If you agree with our take just tell them 'no thanks' right from the get-go and get on with your stay.

The grounds were simply impeccable, as was our room--very nice and clean. Our room did have a smoking odor. The bellboy said that it was incense but we knew better. We know nicotine when we smell it, but we stayed with the room because it was perfectly located and quiet. We opened the sliding door and the odor dissipated fairly quickly after a day.
Grounds "10" --wow, always beautiful!
Room "9"

After unpacking, we hit the pool. The water was warm and sparkling clean. The poolside beds and grounds were perfecto.
Pool "10"
The poolside bar quality has waned--terribly. The bartenders there were unconcerned and sometimes somewhat rude--very unusual!
Wife does most of the imbibing and she absolutely loathed the drink quality there. We heard about ten couples negatively comment on the terrible quality of the drinks now at the swim-up bar.
I went to get my first drink of the trip--a lowly Fresca--<grin> and the idle, joking bartenders wouldn't turn around to ask me for my drink request. Finally I grabbed the bottle, some ice and poured it myself in front of them.
Also, wife swam up and ordered three beers for herself (and friends) and the bartender put them on the walk up side--she had to ask them to put them on the side she was so she wouldn't have to get out the of the pool and walk into the food court topless. They were totally aloof most days.
Pool bar "2.5"
fyi: We loved the former pool bartender Efrain and tipped him well but he is gone now (the drive was too far for him.) Young Germaine is still fabulous at whatever bar he works at, usually the hot tub bar. One day he worked the pool bar.
He remembered us after 15 months from our previous trips and he even remembered our fav drinks!! He busts his ass for everybody tip or no tip, but tip him well!

The Malange bar, beach bar, Suki bar and Hot tub bar were all very good. "9"

The hot tub was great. Temp was about right and things were clean and maintained. They only light one fire pit now. It probably isn't a bad idea with the natural gas costs involved there and the fact that couples aren't "recreating" on the beds any longer.
Hot tub and surroundings "9.5"

The food was good, not great. Seafood buffet was excellent with fresh shrimp and excellent fish soup. Suki was good, not great. Italian buffet the same.
Restaurants "8"--solid

Breakfast buffet "10"

Pool lunch buffet "9"
Eliuht is still there and a great chef and fun. They no longer have flank steaks and fish everyday. Frozen burgers rule the day most days, but we love the pool buffet! The fajitas are great too.

Entertainment was good, not great. These guys are still learning. They aren't Javier or Giovanni, but they are friendly and fun. We kidded and joked constantly.
Entertainment staff overall "8.5"

The disco was a disappointment. There were fun nights and very dead nights. At one point we went up with friends at midnight--peak time for disco fun--and the place was dead. The bright garage work-style lights were on and the same Madonna-esque video was looping on the TVs over and over. I went down to the night manager and requested a DJ. We had about ten of us wanting to party, dance and have fun but the music etc. was lame.
Together the resort night manager and I went and got the DJ out of bed and he made him go do his job. The DJ wasn't happy with me and feigned "no English" when I told him we simply wanted the good stuff. He assumed that folks would settle for the lame crap on the videos. The evening ended great when he actually fired up the music and lights. He got his ass chewed big time and the manager told me that the DJ should re-evaluate whether he really wants to be there.
Much of the typical Malange crowd that goes to the disco never did several nights. Some may have went to town, although there were many smokers at the resort and some may have reasoned that they couldn't smoke in the disco, but we donno.
In the past the Desire Cabo disco was simply awesome with great familar dance music (Timberlake, Eminem etc.) and always packed. It was lacking here with the same euro beat most nights.
Disco "5"
Noemi is in the disco now and she is a sweetheart and works hard. We do miss Miriam: she was fabulous.

The resort staff overall (maids, desk, bellhops etc,) "9.5" --awesome.

Overall, the crowd was fun--many fun, hard partying Canadians and few Americans comparatively.
There were about 35% topless at the pool, maybe a bit less.
There were VERY FEW swingers there as far as we could tell. Don't go to TTR if you expect to have swinger fun; you will be disappointed! We went with realistic expectations in that regard and we weren't disappointed at all.
We will go to TTR Cabo during Desire take-overs in the future. We like the more crazy Couples vibe and the au natural experience.
The single guys we met were all very classy and fun--no Hedo trolls. Huge props to the single guys; we were initially very skeptical.

The spa and gym are still great. "10"
We got massages and they were excellent.

So, overall, great trip. For the money it is a fantastic all-inclusive bargain.
Everyone there seemed to get the same killer deals we got.
Go forth and have fun--hard to beat TTR Cabo!

[thebombs]

Thanks so much for such a thorough honest report. We are headed there on the 20th and are so excited.

[charlijo]

Hey litebeam!!! Great review, I remember when R.... got beer that day, (thanks for calling us friends) . I must agree that the pool bar was kind of slow....and most days they were 3 "barmen" standing and talking.
With everything said, it was awesome!

[BCE4800]

Do you have any pictures you could share? We are headed there 4/17 -4/24 with three other couples. Thanks!

[jaatee]

I was there the same time as Litebeam and he nailed it with that trip report. Poolside bartenders were brutal, some people complained late in our trip and they were acutally polite our last 2 days.... message received I guess. If they can get a decent DJ in the Disco that would make a huge difference, it was usually so lame we would skip straight to the hot tub from Melange. Germain, Jesus and Octavio at the hot tub bar on the other hand were awesome as Litebeam said. Rooms and grounds are beautiful and the service, beside the front desk hustle and poolside bartenders, impeccable. Food is pretty good, it is all inclusive We were there for 10 nights so it gets really repetitive, but not a big deal. Booze quality is pretty awfull, like all the all inclusives I've been to. Go to the Mega, get what you want, tip the bartender $5, he'll put your room number on it and serve that to you instead, problem solved. Tip or no tip the servers and bartenders are awesome. We had an amazing time, met a lot of great people, would go back in a second, probably not for 10 nights though, that was tough on the liver

[jaatee]

Oh and the spa is kick ass, do the couples massage for fun and the other treatments are awesome, Sarah had the body wrap treatment and was only sad that it wasn't her second one, simply amazing.

[Partydollgirl]

Thanks for the trip report. was the resort full?

[charlijo]

I would say 80% full...but they clamed that they were completely full???

No lineups whatsoever….

[Partydollgirl]

Originally Posted by charlijo

I would say 80% full...but they clamed that they were completely full???

No lineups
whatsoever….

Thank you,

[sandt]

Thanks for all the info. We are there April 14-19 and will use the tips. Did you have to be pretty discreet giving the bottle to the bartender or was the resort okay with it.

[litebeam]

Was great to meet and hang out with you Charlijo and JaaTee.

You guys can really put the hardy in the party....

[Partydollgirl]

I have a few more questions...if the disco was dead but the resort was 80% full where was every one... at Cancun everyone hangs out at Pattie"O... I enjoys dressing sexy for dinner and going to Pattie O bar like atmosphere... does every one leave .. or did everyone go to bed...lol

[Cali_desire_cpl]

Partydoll,
Most people hang out at the Melange Bar (main bar...usually have music/entertainment) @ about 10-11 people start to head up to the disco or the roof top jacuzzi....depending on the crowd. We have been there when the disco was packed and rockin' and other times no one was there like the posters here have said. The rooftop jacuzzi can be quite a party and some very "adult" activities take place.

Cali_desire_cpl

[litebeam]

Originally Posted by Cali_desire_cpl

Partydoll,
Most people hang out at the Melange Bar (main bar...usually have music/entertainment) @ about 10-11 people start to head up to the disco or the roof top jacuzzi....depending on the crowd. We have been there when the disco was packed and rockin' and other times no one was there like the posters here have said. The rooftop jacuzzi can be quite a party and some very "adult" activities take place.

Cali_desire_cpl

Yes, 100% correct on the disco experience.
It appeared that after Melange some went into town, some went to bed (most, we'd bet), some the roof top tub, and some went to the disco--very quiet most nights.
We love to dance and shake it so that is where we went but not before we walked the grounds and up to the tub etc. Unfortunately, as was mentioned, the music was not quite the good stuff. TTR needs to address it. Simply using the hip afternoon pool music would suffice we thought.

Per your "adult activities" reference, we saw it a bit differently this week. It was nothing at all like "normal" sexy nights at the hot tub at Desires Cabo (or Cancun). We didn't expect it to be either considering the make-over.
We saw no co-mingling or sex at all anywhere on the grounds in our week there...plenty of drinking and fun partying, but nothing more.
No one used the roof top beds at all.

Temptations: think "dating game meets Riu" or some other nice resort...
It is great and wonderfully quaint, but aside from a few topless ladies and a splash of chocolate, it is very, very tame. Realistically, it is probably just what the management has aimed for.

[Cali_desire_cpl]

Wow litebeam...sounds like your visit was much more "mild" than any of our 3 visits (One visit was while temptations was still Desire). Last trip (a year ago) there were lots of body shots being done @ the jacuzzi which lead to uh hmm.....other activities.

[litebeam]

Could be. But then again, things were still transitioning at the time you visited. Things maybe hadn't quite mellowed.
We had a fabulous time at TTR, and we know that things can indeed change week to week just based on the crowd.
Attitude is everything. <smile>
That is why Desires Cancun is so popular. The week-to-week crowd is a bit more consistent and like-minded as far as what can be expected.
The day we left TTR we met two very fun couples in the pool that were wild and crazy like we are. We missed out to get to know them better. They likely made for a fun vibe around there.
Timing is everything too!

In our humble opinion, TTR Cabo would be a fabulous honeymoon vacation. Not too wild, but just right.

We hope that another full time Desires Cabo-type hotel materializes on the Pacific side. We really loved that place.

[Cali_desire_cpl]

Litebeam,
We agree...another Desire like resort on the west coast would be awesome. You are probably correct...last year Temptation probably had some of that leftover Desire Vibe. We will be going back in May for the Desire week in Cabo. Can't wait.

[jaatee]

To answer Sandt's question regarding discretion when giving booze to the bartender, not required. I just said 'Hey Germaine! put my room number on this! Thanks Amigo!' Of course that was after a day and a few tips but I don't think it matters. Also, that was at the hot tub bar only, which was where I had most of my beverages. Saves them money anyways. I'm sure they don't want everyone doing it so keeping it on the downlow is probably a good idea or it would become unmanageable and that would be the end of it. Also, the friends I met that did that only had 2 bottles, Captain Morgan and Bacardi Limon, I would recommend limiting it to 1 or 2.

[sandt]

Thanks Jaatee I'm a Captain guy and would be suffering without it.

[J&AKRAIN]

First time TTR'ers....don't suppose you could elaborate on the couples massage.....??? Very into each other, not 'the lifestyle'.....trying to determine if its for us!