I see very little written about Pearl, or Desire in general. Here is my latest review of Pearl (yes, Hedo Joe goes other places) with a few comparisons with Hedonism II.
It is said that variety is the spice of life and don’t we all want a little spice in our lives. Ten years ago, we decided to try a different all-inclusive resort in the year of our 25th anniversary. After some searching, we wanted it to be similar to our home in Jamaica and we chose to go to Desire Riviere Maya. Five years later, 3 couples we are friends with and who all had been to Hedonism II, suggested we all go somewhere for our anniversaries, our 30th and their 35th. They wanted to try something new and we suggested Desire Riviera Maya. Last year they all talked about going again but hemmed and hawed at dates. When we found a great price at Desire Pearl on their Black Friday sale, we told them that we had booked our trip and they could join us or not. Next thing we knew, all three couples were onboard at a rate of $2345 per couple for 7 nights plus $105 for private transfers. We just returned from a trip celebrating our 35th anniversary while at the resort. I hope to give you some insight on my take of Desire and Desire Pearl.
Our trip was nine nights, all spent in a master suite with ocean view. In fact, all rooms at Desire Pearl have somewhat of an ocean view and the lowest category room is called Oceanview. By the way, all nine nights we spent there this trip cost us ZERO DOLLARS. I did pay $105 for private SUV round trip transfers. The transfer time is about 20 minutes. I’ll explain how this came about at the end.
We arrived at Pearl around noon and of course our room was not ready. As on our previous trip, we were instructed to put our carryon in a locker at the spa. Even though there is a men’s and women’s locker room, you get one key and you both go into the same locker room. Desire is a clothing optional resort and if you are offended by the nudity of the opposite sex, you shouldn’t be there. We left our backpack in a locker and put some essentials into a beach bag and headed to Aphrodite, one of three restaurants, for lunch. Aphrodite is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is a breakfast buffet with a station making omelets or pancakes and a wide variety of food with items that change daily. At lunch, they seat you and offer you a small menu you can order from or you can go to the buffet. The grill now cooks up tacos or fajitas with whatever items you want. The buffet for lunch also changes daily. They also have some great desserts and self-serve hard ice cream with toppings. In the evening, the buffet line is closed off and Aphrodite become a sit down a la carte restaurant with a menu that rotated through 3 or 4 different specialties. If you are like Ellen and wear heels to dinner, you despise having to walk through a buffet line, balancing dishes in 3 to 5 inch heels.
When lunch was over, we went out to the pool (right next to Aphrodite). The pool concierge saw us walk over and asked if we wanted chairs and where we wanted them. We chose two chairs and he put towels on them and raised our umbrella. They keep track of who is in what chairs and on what beach beds. Tipping is not required but is greatly appreciated by the staff. Yes, I did give him a tip. While we were in the pool, enjoying the first of many top shelf drinks, the pool concierge walked over and told us that our butler was looking for us and did we want him to come to the pool (more on that later as well). He came to tell us that our room was ready, and our luggage was already there. Things could not have gone any smoother.
Let’s talk about the different aspects of Pearl piece by piece starting with the rooms. The rooms are clean and comfortable and of decent size. It may seem odd, but some furniture such as nightstands and sofa bases are made of concrete. They will never have to replace something that breaks. There is plenty of storage in a dresser and closet. Bathrooms have small separate rooms for shower and toilet. All rooms have mini refrigerators and they provide you with bottled water and, I believe, all rooms get soda and canned beer. The resort has only 88 rooms, so it is a short walk from any room to the pool, restaurants, hot tub etc. As I said previously, all rooms a at least a small ocean view and they all have patios or balconies.
The pool is divided into two sides. There is the quiet side and the active side. If you want to just relax and not be bothered by noise or music, the quiet side is for you. Yes, there are people there. For someone who has never been to a resort where you can be nude, this might be the perfect spot for you to begin so you can get topless or nude at your own pace. The other side of the pool is where all the activities happen. Desire does not allow any PDAs or PDSs at the pool like Hedo does. They ask that you reserve that for the hot tub or the playroom. There is a DJ at the active end of the pool and that is also where the Desire Playmakers (think Hedo EC’s) hang out. They post the activities of the day and the night’s theme on a large board on a walkway to the pool. They will do water aerobics at noon some days while others may be water polo or water basketball. They play trivia games and other silly, mindless games for couples (Desire is a M/F Couples only resort. They do allow a couples to bring an extra female a couple times a year). They also will bring gaming boards such as poker or blackjack into the pool where you play with chips. Prizes are given on most games. Saturday afternoon at Pearl is the foam party. If you think the foam party at Hedo is fun, wait until you experience a Desire foam party. On Saturday afternoon, they bring a foam machine to the pool and pump foam into the pool for over an hour and maybe closer to two. They use a non-detergent foam that will not sting your eyes, make your body sticky or make you slip when you walk into it on the pool deck. The foam covers a good portion of the pool and goes a couple of feet over your head. You can walk through it and if you get flustered by it, wave your hand in front of your face and it dissipates.
The hot tub is a short walk from the pool and opens at 1 PM. There is really nothing stopping you from going in there before that. It is a round hot tub with a raised center circle for sitting or lounging. This is where all the extra fun takes place. Want to do body shots? Lay on the bar and they will provide you with chocolate sauce or 1921 Crema Tequila, the Mexican version of rum cream. Since the bar at the pool closes at 5, the bar in the hot tub stays open till 3 am. The hot tub deck has cabana beds all around it so you can take your lover or another couple to a bed to play around. Towels are proved in cubbies at the hot tub.
The beach has cabana beds along the length of their property. Nudity is allowed on the beach. They have had problems with major seaweed coming ashore. Desire Riviera May recently put in a seaweed barrier and it has helped there. Desire Pearl is set to have one installed in the near future. There is a pier at one end of the property where you can go out and sit or take photos. They offer a catamaran cruise at an additional charge that leaves from the pier. They do need a minimum of 5 couples to sail.
Let’s discuss the other restaurants other than Aphrodite. Pearl, which is near the lobby, is an elegant room with tables for 2, 4 or 6. Their cuisines changes nightly and rotates through Italian, French and Mediterranean. We had all three, some more than once, and every course was excellent, and plating was given a lot of consideration. Pearl is next to the lobby. Reservations are required. The other restaurant, which had their grand opening while we were there is Suki. Suki is an Asian restaurant with dishes from various countries. Personally, I am not much of an Asian food eater, but we ate there twice, and I loved everything I ordered. This is not a hibachi or teppanyaki restaurant. Suki is located above Aphrodite. Suki also requires reservations. We were on our way to Aphrodite one evening for Mexican, when we were stopped poolside asking if we wanted to eat out there as they were grilling steaks, chicken, sausage and several seafood items. We did eat there, and the only downside was that you had to get up to go to a small buffet line to get your potatoes and vegetable (remember…heels!) At lunch time, if you did not want to get dressed to eat, there was a grill outside Aphrodite every day and every day the grill items changed. They have also put in a gas fired beehive pizza oven, but it was not open when we left. There is a coffee bar near the lobby that is open after midnight that also serves snacks. The lobby bar is open 24 hours a day! Reservations at Pearl and Suki are made every morning, starting at 8 AM, at the hostess stand at Aphrodite. We always gave our butler instructions the day before as to where we wanted to eat and at what time (again, I’ll explain the butler later).
There are theme nights at Desire, but people usually dress nice for dinner and then change into theme wear after they are done. Women can get away with wearing revealing dresses and men are required to wear long pants and shoes at Pearl and Suki. At 9:30, entertainment of a band or DJ begins outside the lobby, and they open all the door to make one open space. People will begin showing up in very sexxxy, very erotic theme outfits. After an hour of dancing and drinking at the lobby bar, they open the door to the disco. Either the Playmakers or an outside group, put on some sort of show on the dance floor in the disco that lasts about 20 minutes. It is then open for dancing. People eventually gravitate from there to their rooms or the hot tub.
In a nutshell, food is delicious and varied, drinks are top shelf, service and staff are fantastic. The guests are as friendly as Hedo but there is no true nude area. It is a little classier than Hedo but then again, remember the variety being the spice of life. The ride from the airport is short and mainly on a major highway and for what our transfers cost in Jamaica, we get a SUV for just the two of us. Arriving with friends at the same time who reserved transfers, you each get an SUV. There is a ZERO tolerance on drug use. They have signs posted that if you are caught with any illicit drugs, you will be asked to leave the resort and authorities will be contacted. We felt safe both on and off the resort. There are no beach vendors. We walked into town once day. It was about a 20 minute leisurely walk through the mangroves and residential streets. Downtown Puerto Morelos has a square in the center of town with all kinds of shops, vendors and restaurants, There is also a big supermarket with some wonderful items and great prices.
Now, how did we get to stay there nine nights in a Master Suite with a butler? Desire has a Premier Membership program. To entice you to listen to their sales pitch, they offer various discounts, such as $150 towards a massage or discounts in the logo shop or jewelry shop. It is not a time share program but rather a VIP discount program. Our first two trip to Desire RM, we avoided the sales talk. This past October, we succumbed, telling each other that we would just go in there, get the discounts and say no. Once they began telling us about the discounts and what they were going to offer, it just started to sound good. We began to look at it from my background in travel and Ellen’s background in finance and realized buying a membership was a no brainer. They even offered to finance the cost at 0% interest over 8 years with 10% which we initially did. When we returned home, they sent us a letter saying if we paid off our balance, we could deduct 10% from our total. They offered a few different plans, but we went with a 10 year/80 night membership. Part of our plan was that once our balance was paid in full, we were given nine free nights in the aforementioned Master Suite which automatically comes with butler service. Another part of our membership is a 25% discount off the lowest rate they have when booking an Oceanview room. Our discounts go higher in higher category rooms. If they are offering a 30% off sale, we take an additional 25% off. Now, if a nonmember books an Oceanview room, no butler is included but, as a VIP Premier member, we still get butler service in that category. We also received 4 referrals to give to friends who can book a room and receive all the VIP Premier perks that we get. We have urged those we gave a referral to, that they must attend the sales talk as we get a bonus when they do. Now, I won’t tell you how much our membership cost, but I will say that after using our free nights and getting a 25% discount on our upcoming October trip, we will more than break even after 4 more trips. The nine free nights had a value of over $6000.
If you have any questions about our experience, please feel free to ask.
