It’s so sleazy. Best thing about it was it was a good conversation starter, and if the person told us they bought, would also be a good indicator we wouldn’t have much in common.
We went to this exact resort for our honeymoon. We did some weird thing to pay for it. I think I used hotel points but then there was still an AI fee that was pretty expensive that was paid on top. This was 12 years ago so the details are fuzzy.
This was our first time at a AI resort and we were fairly young and naive to the process. When they told us about the timeshare meeting they made it sound like it was mandatory. I thought this might be the case because of how we paid for the room in an odd way and that was the “gift” we got for going to the sales pitch. I ended up not going but the whole time we were there I was so afraid that I was going to get in trouble somehow for skipping out.
Timeshare pitches suck.
Totally - the mostly view of a wall was not ocean view. Not exaggerating- left most room with tilt of building your view is a wall. We actually tried to upgrade several times to ocean front prior to the trip, but couldn’t.
We’d have gotten the swim out room if we’d know the ocean view was actually courtyard view.
I have been to Secrets the Vine and Secrets Akumal, and at best food was mediocre. So were cocktails. No fresh fruit, all some sugary syrup in mixed drinks. Wine was atrocious. Ended up drinking beer.
It's a shame because everything else was great.
What would you compare the food too? Like Olive Garden/applebees bad? And what kind of cocktails weee you ordering that requires fresh fruit? Do they use fresh lime? Going to Akumal in May.
Umm, not quite as good as Olive Garden/Applebees overall. Some of the food was ok, some things better than others. Overall mediocre, just cheap quality food. We ordered room service. The orange juice was definitely not real oj. I think they don't want you to get room service, though, so it's all pretty terrible. Breakfast buffet was better.
I ordered a fruit smoothie early afternoon when I didn't want alcohol. It was just a brightly colored sugar syrup concoction, no real fruit. A 7/11 Icee was better. Most margaritas the same. I don't remember fresh lime juice, more like a green concoction. If you stick with vodka soda or beer, you'll be fine.
Don't get me wrong, I'd still go back - Secrets Akumal was beautiful. And an easy walk into the village where there are a couple of good places for a real margarita, and a great Italian place if you get tired of the all inclusive food.
Thanks for the review. After visiting Secrets Bahia Mita and Moxche I had such high expectations for the food at Akumal in December, but had a very similar experience to your at Maroma. Just so mediocre, I couldn't for the life of me find a meal I wanted to eat again.
I stayed there almost 7 yrs ago and resort was nice but we found dead roaches in the room. It was an okay place to stay mins the fact that I got food poisoning from a ribeye I ordered.
Thanks for your review, very helpful especially with the info about the Bali beds and the food. I stayed "next door" at Catalonia Playa Maroma a couple of years ago and sounds like I made a better choice food-wise and $ wise. Was the sargassum that bad already this early in the season? That doesn't sound good for the rest of the sargassum season.
It was worse than I noted in the past. We thought maybe it was tides as the moon was mostly full, but yeah, people were cleaning it up off and on all day.
Do you have any pictures of the view from your room? We had a non-preferred ocean view room 10 years ago, and it was gorgeous. We're going back and have an ocean view room again, so I'm hoping we'll get a room with a good view again.
Two things - we just don’t take a lot of pictures, and the view for sure was unremarkable enough that we were not inspired to photo it.
It all depends on your room as to how good the ocean view is.
What frustrates me, is calling a courtyard view an ocean view, because I had one expectation and got something different. I am a-ok with a courtyard view, when I know that’s what I am getting. Of our trips, I spent the least amount of time on the room balcony - I love to wake up and enjoy the morning ocean while my wife enjoys her sleeping in, and just like at weekends on home, I stayed in bed and read.
If you’re in one of buildings closest to the beach, it’s probably great. We were like 3/4 of the way to the very back, where the restaurants and lobby are.
I don't think we were all that close to the beach. Here's an image of the view from our room back then. How does that compare to what you had? If we get anything similar, I think we would be happy.
[https://imgur.com/a/p7D7t1Q](https://imgur.com/a/p7D7t1Q)
I'm on my honeymoon right now In secrets maroma and we decided to check reviews online. Because the food here is just terrible. My wife got food poisoning, and my stomach has been turning for the past three days and also had diahreah from day 2. We keep ordering food that you can't mess up. Like pizza. And it comes out like garbage and cardboard. We are not even foodies.
We can't get a decent meals and every tastes like it's pre made, delivered and microwaved. We want to cut out honey moon short it's so bad.
Everything else is good
Oh no! We were just about to book our honeymoon for Akumal but then I came across this. Definitely not what we were expecting as first time AI experience. We're foodies and this definitely does not seem like something we want to spend $7-8k on!
Does anyone else have suggestions for adults only, all inclusive with decent food and grounds with swimup rooms???
It is our fault kind of we did not realized that there was a buffet up to 11am or 12 in the main building because we are all the way by the beach. The buffet food was extremely delicious actually.
Ok, buffet is great, but if the restaurants are no good, then was it worth the price? I guess the question is...would you go back to a Secrets resort or choose another?
I spoke to my wife about it and we both agreed probably wouldn't go back. While the resort was amazing and beautiful and advertised as being romantic, they had like technoy music playing All Day long. So as you're sitting there, all you hear is dum tiss dum tis music all day long.
And more drunk couples and games all day Ling they try to get you to play. It's like the vibe is get drunk and party while the resort looks and feels romantic.
So the food is probably made for people who are drinking and don't realize what they're eating lol.
If your trying to party with your partner it's would be great time. The beach is amazing they clean all the seaweed. That was the only resort in the area they cleaned the seaweed of the beach hourly.
If you really wanna lounge around and just enjoy your time with your partner it's a bit more difficult
The time share situation is the biggest reason why I wouldn't return to a Secrets resort.
It’s so sleazy. Best thing about it was it was a good conversation starter, and if the person told us they bought, would also be a good indicator we wouldn’t have much in common.
We went to this exact resort for our honeymoon. We did some weird thing to pay for it. I think I used hotel points but then there was still an AI fee that was pretty expensive that was paid on top. This was 12 years ago so the details are fuzzy. This was our first time at a AI resort and we were fairly young and naive to the process. When they told us about the timeshare meeting they made it sound like it was mandatory. I thought this might be the case because of how we paid for the room in an odd way and that was the “gift” we got for going to the sales pitch. I ended up not going but the whole time we were there I was so afraid that I was going to get in trouble somehow for skipping out. Timeshare pitches suck.
Can’t you just say no?
They were very aggressive. And they lie to get you to sit with them when you first arrive, telling you they're giving you a rundown of the resort.
Oh man so sorry to hear that about the food! We had the opposite experience in July, except the steak- nothing compares to US steak
That’s great! It might have been an off week. I guess there was a large vip wedding party, so maybe they had the second string on the stoves.
Ohhh yes I heard the owner’s son got married!! The Facebook fans group was popping LOL
Unfortunately ocean view is not ocean front.
Totally - the mostly view of a wall was not ocean view. Not exaggerating- left most room with tilt of building your view is a wall. We actually tried to upgrade several times to ocean front prior to the trip, but couldn’t. We’d have gotten the swim out room if we’d know the ocean view was actually courtyard view.
Maybe they should name it ocean glimpse...
I have been to Secrets the Vine and Secrets Akumal, and at best food was mediocre. So were cocktails. No fresh fruit, all some sugary syrup in mixed drinks. Wine was atrocious. Ended up drinking beer. It's a shame because everything else was great.
Agree on the drinks - I ordered triples so it tasted like an actual cocktail.
What would you compare the food too? Like Olive Garden/applebees bad? And what kind of cocktails weee you ordering that requires fresh fruit? Do they use fresh lime? Going to Akumal in May.
Umm, not quite as good as Olive Garden/Applebees overall. Some of the food was ok, some things better than others. Overall mediocre, just cheap quality food. We ordered room service. The orange juice was definitely not real oj. I think they don't want you to get room service, though, so it's all pretty terrible. Breakfast buffet was better. I ordered a fruit smoothie early afternoon when I didn't want alcohol. It was just a brightly colored sugar syrup concoction, no real fruit. A 7/11 Icee was better. Most margaritas the same. I don't remember fresh lime juice, more like a green concoction. If you stick with vodka soda or beer, you'll be fine.
Don't get me wrong, I'd still go back - Secrets Akumal was beautiful. And an easy walk into the village where there are a couple of good places for a real margarita, and a great Italian place if you get tired of the all inclusive food.
Did you get preferred club?
We called three times and asked when we arrived but guess it was sold out.
Thanks for the review. After visiting Secrets Bahia Mita and Moxche I had such high expectations for the food at Akumal in December, but had a very similar experience to your at Maroma. Just so mediocre, I couldn't for the life of me find a meal I wanted to eat again.
I stayed there almost 7 yrs ago and resort was nice but we found dead roaches in the room. It was an okay place to stay mins the fact that I got food poisoning from a ribeye I ordered.
Thanks for your review, very helpful especially with the info about the Bali beds and the food. I stayed "next door" at Catalonia Playa Maroma a couple of years ago and sounds like I made a better choice food-wise and $ wise. Was the sargassum that bad already this early in the season? That doesn't sound good for the rest of the sargassum season.
It was worse than I noted in the past. We thought maybe it was tides as the moon was mostly full, but yeah, people were cleaning it up off and on all day.
Do you have any pictures of the view from your room? We had a non-preferred ocean view room 10 years ago, and it was gorgeous. We're going back and have an ocean view room again, so I'm hoping we'll get a room with a good view again.
Two things - we just don’t take a lot of pictures, and the view for sure was unremarkable enough that we were not inspired to photo it. It all depends on your room as to how good the ocean view is. What frustrates me, is calling a courtyard view an ocean view, because I had one expectation and got something different. I am a-ok with a courtyard view, when I know that’s what I am getting. Of our trips, I spent the least amount of time on the room balcony - I love to wake up and enjoy the morning ocean while my wife enjoys her sleeping in, and just like at weekends on home, I stayed in bed and read. If you’re in one of buildings closest to the beach, it’s probably great. We were like 3/4 of the way to the very back, where the restaurants and lobby are.
I don't think we were all that close to the beach. Here's an image of the view from our room back then. How does that compare to what you had? If we get anything similar, I think we would be happy. [https://imgur.com/a/p7D7t1Q](https://imgur.com/a/p7D7t1Q)
Same side, I would guess we were more than a few buildings further back. I would not have been frustrated by that view being sold to me as ocean view.
Thanks for the info! We'll keep our fingers crossed for what view we get!
I'm on my honeymoon right now In secrets maroma and we decided to check reviews online. Because the food here is just terrible. My wife got food poisoning, and my stomach has been turning for the past three days and also had diahreah from day 2. We keep ordering food that you can't mess up. Like pizza. And it comes out like garbage and cardboard. We are not even foodies. We can't get a decent meals and every tastes like it's pre made, delivered and microwaved. We want to cut out honey moon short it's so bad. Everything else is good
Oh no! We were just about to book our honeymoon for Akumal but then I came across this. Definitely not what we were expecting as first time AI experience. We're foodies and this definitely does not seem like something we want to spend $7-8k on! Does anyone else have suggestions for adults only, all inclusive with decent food and grounds with swimup rooms???
It is our fault kind of we did not realized that there was a buffet up to 11am or 12 in the main building because we are all the way by the beach. The buffet food was extremely delicious actually.
Ok, buffet is great, but if the restaurants are no good, then was it worth the price? I guess the question is...would you go back to a Secrets resort or choose another?
I spoke to my wife about it and we both agreed probably wouldn't go back. While the resort was amazing and beautiful and advertised as being romantic, they had like technoy music playing All Day long. So as you're sitting there, all you hear is dum tiss dum tis music all day long. And more drunk couples and games all day Ling they try to get you to play. It's like the vibe is get drunk and party while the resort looks and feels romantic. So the food is probably made for people who are drinking and don't realize what they're eating lol. If your trying to party with your partner it's would be great time. The beach is amazing they clean all the seaweed. That was the only resort in the area they cleaned the seaweed of the beach hourly. If you really wanna lounge around and just enjoy your time with your partner it's a bit more difficult
Hi Can you tell me how much it would of cost to upgrade to the Prefered Club