I have just returned from a fabulous vacation in Cancun at Oasis Playa. I traveled with my husband and another couple. We flew out of Hamilton airport. I would rearrange my travel plans in the future to be able to travel from Hamilton again, it was completely hassle and stress free. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful (even customs!). We landed in Hamilton at 4:30pm Thursday afternoon, we were through customs and had our luggage by 4:50pm.
This was the first trip to Mexico for all of us, but I know it will not be the last. Our resort was stunning. I was very quite concerned after having read some of the horrible reviews of Oasis Playa that I had gotten us into something awful. All week we commented to each other that you would have to look pretty hard to find something to complain about in beautiful place like this.
Arrival:
Upon arrival to the resort our "sunquest" group was ushered into a conference room, which initially we were a little concerned about, but it turned out to be the check-in process. Instead of waiting in line we were briefed on the resort and the sunquest amenities, at that time we were each called up to receive our wrist bands, beach towel card, room number, key and remote for the TV. I really liked this method of check-in…..it set a relaxing laid-back tone for the rest of our holiday. As at most hotels, check-in time was until 3pm (we arrived at 11am) so our room wasn’t ready yet, but the staff (all of whom were very helpful and friendly) locked up our luggage for us and brought it up to our room once it was ready. We quickly grabbed our bathing suits and sunscreen and headed for the pool. We felt perfectly safe leaving our luggage in their possession.
Rooms:
We were very impressed with our room. First off it was spotless and our chambermaid was an absolute sweetheart. We lucked out with a huge terrace over looking the lagoon side of the resort. We were on the 7th floor (our friends were on the 5th) The terrace was about the same size as our room and surrounded with flower boxes full of hibiscus’s and azaleas. Everyday we were surprised with amazing towel creations from our chambermaid….she did everything from swans to roses even elephants! She often took the time to pick flowers to include in the displays. The air-conditioning in our room worked great and yeah the bed was a little hard, but if that is your worse complaint about a vacation, I really don’t think you have anything much to complain about.
Beach:
We spent most of our time on the beach, the chairs around the pools seem to go very fast. There was usually stacks of chairs still available on the beach and when there wasn’t, we laid on our towels in the sand. The ocean was beautiful, but very rough, everyday was a red flag day, but we had a blast body surfing on the waves. The bar on the beach opened each day at 9am the others didn’t open until 10am. We didn’t find the drinks watered down at all, they were usually too strong if anything. We also brought with us our own insulated cups….keeps a drink cold for hours (not that the drinks lasted that long). The staff was great about rinsing them out for us and refilling them. The best drinks where by far at the swim bar…..best Mai Tai’s EVER!!!!
Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
We signed up for a package tour at the Aquaworld tour desk….they are very cleverly also the people you have speak to to get your beach towels. For $115 per person we got 3 tours that we spread out through-out the week. The Jungle Tour (although I am unsure why it’s called that) we took waverunners on 45min trip across the lagoon through a narrow "jungle" like channel into the ocean and then over to the Mayan Reef for 1 hour of snorkeling. The trip there was a blast, although the machines are not true waverunners and didn’t have a lot of power. The snorkeling was ok, but you just jumped in off your machine, we didn’t shore-up, just anchored. There was about 10 other tours there all snorkeling at the same time and you had to stay within a roped off area…..it was quite crowed, I think we saw more bodies than fish. I wouldn’t really recommended this adventure….overall we were disappointed with it. Parasailing. This was AMAZING and I would recommend it to everyone. It wasn’t "true" in a harness parasailing, we actually sat in seat. The seat fit two people. It was so totally calm and peaceful up there. You go 400 feet up in to the sky….what a rush!!! We were taken our to our boat on a true waverunner….that was a ride in itself. Sub See. This was also very cool. We traveled on a party barge with free flowing beer and blasting music over to a "submarine" out in the ocean. The sub is kinda like an underwater bus made of all windows…..we saw amazing things. I would also highly recommend this. It would be great for kids too, but it did make us feel a little sea sick…..we were very ready to get off when we did. I think the sub ride was 20mins.
Food:
The food at the resort was great! The buffet was always fabulous morning, noon and night. The pizza is worth waiting for at lunch and bbq at the beach was good too. The a la cart food was excellent. I ordered off the "not included" menu one night and had a delicious beef, chicken and shrimp kabob…it was only $11 and worth every penny! But the BEST meal all week was after the bar (the only night we made it to a bar) we were starving, but the buffet was closed….it turns out that every night at 12:15am there is a sandwich bar at the Mediterranean restaurant. I don’t know if it was because we were so hungry or what, but those sandwiches were fantastic….the bread must have been made only hours before
Nightly Entertainment:
Every night at 9pm there is a show…they are fine, your typical resort style shows. After that there isn’t any night life in the resort and all the resort bars close at midnight. But the city buses are wonderful and run 24/7. We went to Senior Frogs in Cancun one night….I guess we are getting old, because we found it too loud and were happier playing cards at the piano bar at the resort, so we left and that was what we did.
Summary:
All in all….go to Oasis Playa…..you won’t be disappointed!