What about Sunscape?
- Thread starter Redfoot
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Redfoot
Contributor
Thanks Chuck- This trip would be staying at Sunscape all inclusive, but diving with Dressell. Appears to be valet, as the flyer says they keep our gear, wash and return with it the next morning. Pickup at the Sunscape dock.
Reading reviews I saw about Sunscape, the consistent negative is the food. Not a total deal breaker for me, as I am not a picky eater, but I am always hungry when diving. Also, it seems Sunscape is fairly far from town, so it may be difficult to break away for a few good meals?
Reading reviews I saw about Sunscape, the consistent negative is the food. Not a total deal breaker for me, as I am not a picky eater, but I am always hungry when diving. Also, it seems Sunscape is fairly far from town, so it may be difficult to break away for a few good meals?
1967Goat
Contributor
I thought it was nice, maybe 3.5 stars out of 5. It also depends on if you have kids or not, and what type of food you are expecting. We normally stay in Playa del Carmen at a place called The Royal Hacienda. My wife, who is higher maintenance than me, compares everything back to the Hacienda (her personal gold standard). We have 2 boys, age 8 & 9, so they factor into all of our travel decisions. She said she probably won't go back to Sunscape, but I think she's being a little unreasonable. I think many of her gripes are because they are only at 11% occupancy, so they only have 1 of their 3 restaurants open at a time (completely understandable).
I had a conversation with a fellow diver on this trip and we talked about the difference between a "traveler" and a "vacationer". I am a traveler, and my wife is a vacationer.
I think Sunscape and Secrets (next door) are owned by the same company (but that is speculation on my part). The pier is at Secrets, a very short walk from Sunscape. I think Sunscape caters more to families and Secrets is adults only. There were definitely adults with no kids at Sunscape though.
Pros: They have 2 dive shops on site, Dive Palancar (DP) and Dive House (DH). We chose DP, but I think I would've been happy with either. I saw many other dive ops picking up guests from the Secrets pier (Tres Pelicanos, ScubaTony for example). Since I am relatively new diver (just over 50 dives now) I wanted a dive op on site. I don't think I will have this requirement in the future.
2 pools, a rectangular pool and a bigger, "activities" pool with 2 small slides for kids. They have a GREAT entertainment staff of 3 that kept my kids occupied, and got the adults involved in some water activities. They were so great I tipped them very handsomely at the end of our stay. We were all inclusive, so all drinks and food were included. Food was acceptable, with 1 exception. As I said above, I have 2 boys. Both them and my wife are a pain in the ass when it comes to food (picky eaters). It took us a few days to discover you could get the kids menu at each place. 1 of the places is an Italian restaurant, which made my wife and kids happy, but I don't travel to Mexico to eat Italian, lol.
The only con I can think of was we had 2 issues with the AC in our room. They have 2 mini-split systems in each room. The first few days one of them leaked quite a bot of water all over. We called and no one ever came. That pissed me off. I went to the front desk and voiced my displeasure. I waited and they sent over a maintenance guy and his supervisor. They tore the entire unit apart (I think it was a plugged condensate line) and it worked fine after that. We had a different problem with the other unit where we couldn't get it to turn on. They sent someone over and he fixed that as well. I heard of others having AC issues as well, but I believe they were all fixed. For some reason my wife was not happy with the AC issues, but if it gets corrected, I am fine with it. **** happens.
I liked the fact they had a sandy beach. Many of the properties we looked at did not have much of a beach. There's a lot of rocks right when you enter the water, but as long as you have water shoes it's not a big deal. 1 of the girls on our dive boat tore one of her toe nails completely off when she tripped over a rock coming out of the water (not dive related).
All in all I would go to Sunscape again. My wife won't, but I think she's being unreasonable, and she's not a diver. We really, really like the Hacienda in PDC, but the diving isn't nearly as good. Feel free to message me if you want more details.
1967Goat
Contributor
Here's a gripe I have about the distance to town. The taxis charge 170 Pesos, about $8 USD to go from Sunscape to town, which is very reasonable. However, if you pay in USD, it is $15, about double. This wouldn't have been a big deal, but the 1 time we went into town I had enough Pesos (200) for the trip there, but I needed to exchange my USD for Pesos in town. I went into the exchange place and didn't have my passport and they won't exchange USD if you don't have it, so I had to pay $15 to get back. Not a huge deal as it's only $5, and its my fault for not bringing my passport, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Every Mexican I have ever encountered in Mexico prefers USD over Pesos. I can pay with either, but I usually bring a huge stash of $1, $5 and $10 for tips. Taxi drivers charging double for paying is USD ticks me off. </rant off>
Every Mexican I have ever encountered in Mexico prefers USD over Pesos. I can pay with either, but I usually bring a huge stash of $1, $5 and $10 for tips. Taxi drivers charging double for paying is USD ticks me off. </rant off>
mediumone
Contributor
cozcharlie
Contributor
Those mini splits can be a pain. I have a few mini-splits from Carrier and LG, always having trouble with at least one of them even though the Carriers are only 2 years old and they get serviced regularly. Kind of wonder if sometimes if it is the lines between the inside unit and the outside unit as opposed to the units themselves. Bottom line is, even if hotel is maintaining them properly those mini splits may still have issues (and don’t put anything under/near them that needs to stay dry
)
driftwood
Contributor
Sunscape Sabor and Secrets are aging properties. While that is good for the landscaping, a lot of mechanical systems are too long in the tooth. The unit we stayed in didn't have hot water for a couple of days. Bit sensitive about that since a hot morning shower is my equivalent to a cup of coffee.
The food at the main restaurant was pretty good. You had to get there earlier than I like to eat dinner to avoid a long wait. The long wait tells you about the other options at the resort.
I look at the southern resorts on Coz like this. The taxi moves a lot faster getting you to downtown than a downtown's boat gets you to the dive sites.
The food at the main restaurant was pretty good. You had to get there earlier than I like to eat dinner to avoid a long wait. The long wait tells you about the other options at the resort.
I look at the southern resorts on Coz like this. The taxi moves a lot faster getting you to downtown than a downtown's boat gets you to the dive sites.
If you use an off site dive op there is a daily pier usage fee. In 2019 it was USD 2 per day. I'm staying at Secrets this Oct and checked and it's still USD 2 per day. Pick up and pay for wrist bans ( 1 per day) at front desk. Someone on the wooden pier will collect them daily.
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