VDP 9/21-9/28

The Quick and Dirty:
The location rocks. The maid staff is wonderful. The pool made me exceedingly happy. The whale slide was a blast. The internet café is great. The spa was fantastic and affordable. The rooms are dated but not horrible. The views are beautiful. The service staff (front desk, hotel operator, servers) was grumpy and not helpful except at the Baja California Restaurant where they were very kind. The water was brown for days, very brown. The information about what we could and could not take advantage of as far as facilities was inconsistent and often times plain wrong. The UVC (timeshare people) were rude and snippy, also not willing to help when we had issues.

The Details:
Our check in went very smoothly and the front desk staff was helpful. Our luggage arrived in our rooms very quickly and even though the room was a bit dated, it seemed perfect for us. The couch was a bit torn and you can tell the rooms have been used for many many years, but they are still comfortable and there was no musty, moldy smell like you sometimes get in beach hotels in humid locations. We had requested an upgrade to a two bedroom at check in and were told it wasn’t possible that day, perhaps tomorrow and to check back.

We did check back and they were kind enough to let us view the two bedroom unit they had available. It was in the building on the South side of the complex and I believe its rooms have not been updated as it did not have marble counters and newer cabinets like the one bedroom we originally were booked into. The elevators are also older. Regardless of that we decided to change rooms because it would be much roomier for four people and the room, while not updated, wasn’t bad, it seemed quite comfortable in fact.

Our move between rooms was very smooth; our bell hop helped us with all of our bags and groceries.

The new room, like I mentioned, had not been updated so the furniture was older, the kitchen was tile, just a little shabbier, but nothing I would call horrible as some reviews have stated. It was pretty clean. The maid staff does a really good job and goes the extra mile. She even washed our dishes for us twice which was completely unnecessary.

We signed up for our Gold Card so we could take advantage of the discounts. We were staying with an owner so it was very painless and went quickly. They recommended some restaurants and encouraged us to visit the sister properties restaurants and spa. They also told us we could visit the pool area at Los Arcos. We had been trying to book into Los Arcos before arriving and were told to keep checking as something might become available.

Sure enough the next day they called to let us know there was a one bedroom available at Los Arcos. We went to view it, but decided that despite how lovely and new it was, we were better off with the space of a two bedroom at VDP. They were not able to find us a two bedroom at Los Arcos or a studio to use in addition to the one bedroom unless we were willing to pay an extra $90/night. The owner we were staying with wasn’t happy about it as she had been trying to book in Los Arcos for weeks being told there was nothing available when clearly there was. But that’s timeshare politics and I don’t get into that too much.

So now that I’ve told you where and how we stayed let me just give you a list of things that needed attention or shouldn’t happen while you’re on vacation.

1. Water ran brown for two plus days – We noticed it right away but figured it was an older hotel and the pipes just might need some flushing, but then it didn’t stop. Even leaving the water running for thirty minutes it still ran brown. Down in the lobby multiple guests were carrying down glasses full of the brown liquid to show the staff. We also mentioned the problem in our room and were told someone from maintenance would be up to check on it/fix it. No one came. When we returned form dinner at 10:00 we checked in with the desk to ask about it. They assured us someone had been up to look into it; every room had been fixed or moved. We checked the water, not fixed. They did not offer to move our rooms for us, instead sent a very sweet man who spoke absolutely no English up to try and fix it. My limited Spanish doesn’t include words like “pipes”, “shower” or “water main”. He called the front desk and handed me off to them who also tried to explain what was going on. Even in his very good English it took a long time to figure out that they thought it was a broken water main issue. If that really was the case I don’t understand how they thought they could go room by room to fix the issue. The didn’t offer to move our room even after they were unable to fix it, instead they suggested that we could shower in a different room?!?! While the water did get better over the next two days, it still wasn’t clear and we brushed our teeth with bottled water and took pretty short showers. Chances are there was nothing wrong with it, that it was minerals in the water, or something like that…but days on end of brown water make for unhappy people. You could hear people all over the resort talking about it. We took pictures of the water in glasses and it looks like I’m drinking amber beer. Not pretty.
2. Broken Elevator – Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Elevators break, they need maintenance, but it was just one more thing to frustrate people who were trying to carry bags down flights of stairs to check out. I heard one guy look at the “out of order” sign and ask very loudly “what else can go wrong at this place?”
3. Service by pool bartenders and changing happy hours – Of our five days of pool time and multiple servers, only one didn’t make it seem like it was an inconvenience for him to take our orders. I know there is always going to be one or two people who aren’t the friendliest servers, but this was a repeat issue. They didn’t want to take our orders; they were frustrated if we wanted to order again later, they would avoid eye contact so we’d have to get up and move to talk to them, they were angry if we asked for a copy of our receipt. On top of that happy hour was from 4-6 the first night then changed to 4-5:30. Again, alone this isn’t a big deal, but we were confused and they were frustrated with us for not knowing.
4. Four phone calls to get a roll away bed – We called for a roll away bed, because the fold out bed, after three nights, was making sleeping impossible. Granted it was a little late, 10pm, but they said they would bring it up. It never came. We called back, they said it would be up. Half hour later still no bed. Call again, fifteen minutes later no bed. One more call before we pull out the air mattress we have, they promise it will be up. Bed arrives 1 hour after we call, no sheets on it. The maid who has delivered it doesn’t understand any English and can’t help us. Thankfully we have our own set of sheets (I’m a chronic over packer who thought we’d be using an air mattress).


I’ve reread my review and I feel like maybe some of this seems trivial, and independently the issues might be, but combined and coupled with the feeling that we were second class guests compared to Los Arcos, it made for a lousy time at the hotel. I know the owner I was with felt embarrassed by how her guests were treated and she was angry that having paid into the group she was being denied access to some amenities that had been promised to her, both when she bought and also upon check in. My inlaws have a time share in Mazatlan that is older but still maintained and I compared that location to VDP as I think the buildings are about the same age and rooms about the same size. In Mazatlan we were always greeted with a smiling face and a helping hand. If something broke they apologized and did their best to fix it. We’ve also stayed at VDP in Nuevo Vallarta and I wrote a glowing review on that property as well. While it is newer, it also had a much friendlier, helpful staff that made the place that much more special.

On a good note, the spa was wonderful. It’s new and located at the Los Arcos location. It was easy to make the appointment and I felt like the prices were very reasonable. If only I could have gone over there every day to shower!

We still had a great time in town, and on the Pez Gato snorkeling excursion that we took. We loved the restaurants that we ate in and had a little too much fun at Cabo Wabo and Squid Roe. We had no issue renting a Jeep for the day and driving to Todos Santos. The city of Cabo San Lucas was lovely, the Villa de Palmar, not so much.