BACKGROUND: We are a mid forties couple from Minnesota. We went to Barcelo Riviera Maya with another couple, and our kids, for a week in February and wanted to go back for a vacation for us to celebrate our anniversary. (Wink) After much research we decided on SERC.

ARRIVAL: We arranged for Private transportation from the airport to SERC as our flight was scheduled to arrive at 7:40 PM, and we didn’t want to waste any time getting to the resort. We got off the plane, got our baggage, went though customs, and came out side to the transport company. This took a total of 55 minutes, then a 15 minute ride to SERC. 70 minutes touch down to front lobby, simply amazing! Upon arrival at SERC we were given a mini tour of the facilities on the way to the Excellence Club, where the concierge took over check in. We were given a welcome glass of Champaign and offered a form where you could specify your preferences for morning room service breakfast menu, and maid service time preference. In minutes we were brought to our room and given a fantastic description of all the amenities and services available to us for our stay. My wife noticed she did not have enough hangers in the room and they had more delivered to us in minutes.

ROOM: We were in building 7A, room 7053, which is a swim out in the Excellence Club building, on a small tier of the main pool side. This is not the heated pool as we had requested in our email to SERC. The room was beautiful with a Jacuzzi inside and another out on the patio. We had a beautiful view of the ocean over the small tier of the pool. There were rose pedals sprinkled on the bed, two towel swans kissing, fresh fruit basket, fresh bouquet of flowers, and a bottle of Champaign on ice, welcome letter form the manager with a 15% discount for spa services,. The marble floors, huge marble shower, duel vanities, sitting area with a table and seating for two, king size canopy bed, all added to the overwhelming feeling that we had just arrived in paradise. My wife loved some of the extra’s like the makeup mirror, huge assortment of lotions, sun screen (spf 8), soaps, shampoo, incense and many various toiletries, that were provided. Each room has every standard item you would expect in a hotel of this caliber including, hair dryers, iron, ironing board, 27” TV, DVD/CD player, alarm clock, electronic safe, high speed internet connection, mini bar, robes, slippers, ect. Water pressure and quality was great. We were told that the hotel has a state of the art water purification system, we even brushed our teeth with tap water which we would not normally do in Mexico. The patio was larger than most in our building with a love seat, table, chair, hammock, Jacuzzi, and two private lounge chairs on the grass just off the patio. The patio offers shade while the area where the loungers are offered full sun until 2:30 or so. The marble is slippery when wet, so be careful when coming from the pool. We liked this building better than 7B and 8 as we could swim under the walkway bridge and be at the swim up bar and the main pool activities. Since the temps were about 90, the Excellence club pool was to warm to really cool off in. The pool temp in this main pool was just right. Since all three pool bars close at 6:00 PM, it was very private in the evening and rarely did we even see anyone between our room and the ocean after 6:30PM. The swim out rooms are great as your already where you want to be at the pool and have your own bathroom in your room too. Even though this building was not my first choice, we both agreed it was perfect for us and were happy we did not get our request for a room on the excellence club pool side.

POOLS: There are so many pools to choose from at SERC. Lounge chairs are available at any time of the day, even though the resort was nearly at capacity. Towels are put out on the loungers every morning with a abundance of extra’s folded in towel bins for your use. No towel cards and you can use as many as you like, what a refreshing change from most resorts.

The excellence club pool, (in front of buildings (7b and 8), is heated and I would imagine it is the place to be in the winter. It is very quiet at that pool and the water temp was really to warm to cool us off in April. This pool offers great ocean views from your lounger.

The spa pools are very private, as they are more like a river that winds around the spa view rooms. This too is very quiet and relaxing with the serine music from the spa in the background.
We preferred the main pool area as it is the only one with a swim up bar and day time activities. The water temp was perfect given the 90 degree days in April. It did feel a bit chilly on the one cloudy, and very windy day, we had in our weeks stay. I enjoyed our patio, occasionally even watching the sun rise over the ocean in the morning, and I saw the pool guy out every day checking chemicals and netting any debris that may have accumulated overnight. Pools seemed very clean and also offered a wonderful ambiance after dark as they are lighted all night.

SPA: We toured the spa and it looked fantastic. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to use it. Several people we talked to did and said the hydrotherapy circuit and massages were particularly good.

GROUNDS AND BUILDING: The buildings at this resort are simply awe inspiring. So much marble and glass! The architects designed it with a Spanish motif, while Capri was designed with a Italian flare. The masonry work in many of the 40 foot ceilings, including the lobby bar area, really made you wonder how it was accomplished. There is art work built into many of the building designs and the grounds are very clean and well designed. There are thousands of plants and tree’s planted just last fall and with time these will become even more lush, adding to the tropical feeling with time. There are statues, ponds, and art work everywhere. The woods used in many of the restaurants and desires disco, is a very rich looking deep cherry. Appointments though out the property are excellent. The buildings, both inside and out, are one area that I could not imagine be improved upon. In our travels, we have never seen better.
The layout of the buildings is also well designed with everything very close, with the exception of the spa area by building 3, which is at the back of the property. I would guess that building and the adjoining ones would still be no more than a five minute walk to the lobby area, main pool and restaurants. Buildings 6, 7, and 8 are very centrally located and it was a minute or two to walk anywhere 6A or 6C would be my first choice in a ocean view room category. . I think building 9 would be also be considered an ocean view category of rooms and would personally be my least favorite choice. It is centrally located, but it adjoins the property next door. There are electric lines, a chain link fence with barb wire top, and neighboring building visible from this building and the view to the south was not very aesthetically pleasing. Excellence club buildings are 7A, 7B, and 8. Building 8 gets the least sun in front of the patio’s, till about 12:00PM. All of these buildings provide a great ocean view.

EXCELLENCE CLUB: This offers private check in and check out, expanded room service menu, oceanfront rooms, and access to the excellence club area. The club area offers high speed internet and we never had to wait for a terminal. Even though we brought our laptop, I would occasionally go down there in the morning to check email and have a cappuccino. It was the only place I could find one early morning. They also have pastries, appetizers and high end liquors at different times of the day. I watched a little of the Masters in the club lounge Sunday, where they have beautiful leather furniture and a very nice large screen plasma TV. Over all for us though, the excellence club is just a bonus you get when you pay for the ocean front rooms. The thing that you get of real value in the excellence club is location, location, location. In that regard, it was worth the price to us, but that’s just a personal decision. It’s funny that most who wrote reviews and did not choose to pay extra for excellence club were glad they didn’t, while most who did were glad they did. I think that’s a testament to the fact you will enjoy which ever accommodations you choose.

BEECH: In starting I will point out that we were spoiled by the beech at the Barcelo earlier in February, which is rated one of the best beeches on the entire Mayan Riviera coast. I will also prerequisite by making it clear that neither myself, nor my wife, enjoy swimming in the ocean from the beech. We like to snorkel, scuba dive, sail, but don’t particularly care for walking out in the water on the ocean floor. With that said, we thought the actual sand area of the beech was great. Very wide and plenty of room for all any activity. The water is exactly as described by others as some sea grass is on the water line of the beech. It is blue rather than turquoise in most areas, due to the sea grass on the ocean floor. They do a great job of cleaning it up several times per day, and it does not affect the sandy area of the beach, just the water line. We enjoy waking down the beach and did this at SERC too. Walking north to the end of the Paridisius property was nice, but I would not recommend going any further north. Beyond that it is undeveloped and the sea grass is piled up with a fair amount of garbage mixed in. Not very attractive at all and we did a 180 a few blocks past Paridisius. Walking south to Ceiba del Mar is much better and we enjoyed it. There will still be some areas with sea grass on the water line, but we did not see any garbage going south. It is not like Cancun where the resort properties are lined up next to each other and every inch of beech is being cleaned and maintained daily. Like the pool area, you will have no trouble getting lounge chairs and even the Palapa’s are available until late morning. Hobby Cats, Kayaks and wind surfers are available to use free. There was a volleyball game going most afternoons.

ENTERTAINMENT: The theater looks fantastic but we never made it to a single show. Stayed at the pool swim up bar till closing at 6:00PM most evenings. After a little relax time on the patio, showers, a few more before dinner drinks, dinner, and then after dinner drinks, (there seems to be a theme here), the shows were over or ending. Some people we talked to liked them for the most part but my experience with entertainment in this area would say not to expect Vegas style entertainment. Maybe other reviews can help shed some light on the entertainment scene.

FOOD:
Breakfasts: The buffet, where DeMario’s and Portofino are, combined into one restaurant. They have the standard cereals, juices and coffee. I was disappointed that you could not get a latté, or cappuccino there. They had a very good assortment of pastries and breads that included bagels and english muffins. They have a specialty toaster that allows for toasting anything to your exact liking. There were also two cooks that would make eggs and omelets to order. In addition several egg casserole dishes, sausage, bacon, ham, and a huge selection of fruits was offered. You can start your day outside with your breakfast on the Damario side patio with a ocean view!
We also ate breakfast once at Oceana. It was very good with the main difference being it is sit down service vs. buffet. They do not open for breakfast until 10:00AM.
We ordered room service most mornings, fruit plate, bagels and cream cheese, and a pot of coffee, even though there are coffee makers in the room. (We were really were lazy) Everything was delivered in approximately 20 minutes or at the time we had asked for it on the order sheets. They were happy to set everything up in your sitting area, or on your patio, depending on your preference. You can also have room service deliver to your secrets box, which they access from your hallway.

Lunch:
DeMario’s was one of our favorites for their custom made pizza’s. This is the casual Italian restaurant that is also open for dinner. They have a great assortment of pizza’s that are pre-configured, but if you don’t see one that appeals to you, just ask as they will leave items off or add some to make the exact combination you want. All of the pizza’s are made fresh to order. A few of us thought the seasoned fried calamari was the best we have ever had.
Sea Side Grill is the casual restaurant above the swim up bar and our favorites there were the steak fajitas and the salsa/guacamole and chips. Great with corona’s in the tall glasses with lime!
Oceana is the casual restaurant open for late breakfast and lunch and dinner. We had both dinner and lunch there and all the meals were excellent. The blackened Mahi mahi was spicy and my favorite and the Tilapia was my wife’s.
Beech Grill sets up a couple times per week in front of the two building 7’s. Great spot to get lunch and don’t miss the seasoned dry rub pork ribs. They are really great and my wife was disappointed they didn’t set this up every day.
Don’t miss the Shrimp cocktails at Oceana, Sea Side Grill, and the sugar reef bar. They are each a little different and in a light and sweet cocktail sauce, with little melon balls in them. Really great and a can’t miss.

DINNER:
Himitsu is the Japanese restaurant and was our least favorite. We waited about a half hour for a table, and then at least a half hour for a chef in one of the separate rooms. The Shrimp was very good but several that had the beef were disappointed. There really was not much of a show in preparing the food at your table either. Maybe I was expecting to much form the Japanese restaurants we have been to at home. It was also a heavy adult beverage day for us, and our newly acquired friends Gene and Robin, so our judgment my have been clouded a bit. We heard in a tour of Capri that this restaurant will be getting the chef from Himitsu Capri in the near future. This may simply be part of the growing pains. Others really liked this restaurant and went back more than once.

Bordeaux is the French restaurant with a extremely intimate and elegant décor. We ate here with Gene and Robin twice and were our favorite. The Chateaubriand, ordered medium rare, was absolutely fantastic. It was so good I had to have it again on the second trip back. The onion soap was very good and the only thing I could pronounce on the salad menu was the “green salad”, so I had that…. Excellent. The house Chardonnay was really pretty good too. I do recall the Gene saying the lamb was just ok.

El Patio is the Mexican restaurant and very good to excellent as well. We sat outdoors as it had cooled off by the time we got to dinner hour. We started with salsa and chips, and the salsa was so good they had to bring more in minutes. The dinner recommendation was for a shrimp appetizer, soup of the day, and lobster entrée. I would recommend all three and truly enjoyed the meal there.
Portifino is the Italian restaurant. To show you how accommodating they are at SERC, several of us could not decide between the pasta entrées and the sea food or steak entrées. Our waiter said no problemo, and ordered smaller portion pasta’s to accompany the other entrée of choice. We had a excellent meal followed by the Flaming Mayan Coffee, which is fun to watch them prepare.

We missed the Mexican theme night buffet on purpose. That was the night we went back to Bordeaux. Very difficult to choose a Mexican buffet when you have a restaurant like that waiting for you. The staff spent a lot of time setting this up though, and it looked quite festive.
Great nacho’s, salsa and chips at the Bar Racuda and Sugar Reef. Many people were having fish or burgers for lunch there but we never had more than a snack at these pool bars.

BARS AND BEVERAGES: The bar service was very good and only once do I recall receiving a different drink than ordered. They had a wide selection of Vodka’s which is my favorite, even Finlandia Cranberry that can be difficult to find and home and by the way is excellent with tonic. The only category we found lacking was the Canadian Whisky. I would consider VO, CC, or Crown Royal to be considered premium brands, but they only had Canadian Mist. Our new friend Gene, who is a Crown Royal drinker, took it like a trooper and drank the CM without complaint. The frozen drinks were very good with my favorite being the Miami Vice.
Given the fact that there were over 800 guests at this resort, we were truly surprised at how it never felt crowded. It was almost shocking given the number of people here that the desires Disco never had more than 20 people in it after 11:00PM, and most nights it was more like a dozen or so. Same with the bars around the resort after 11:00 PM , they just emptied out. The people that did want a later night at the bars were a lot of fun, so this did not keep us from continuing the party. I guess all that day time drinking has it’s effect.
Important note, they will make all drinks with the rail brand, but are more than happy to use your call brand if you ask. We quickly adapted by asking for everything with the call brand we wanted, IE: Absolute Bloody Mary, Cuervo margarita, ect. Also ask the bartender for his suggestion for a shooter, frozen drink, ect. Some of the best cocktails we had were found by just asking the bartender for a new drink suggestion.

IMPROVMENTS: Almost all of these were very minor items to us, and I feel a littleguilty even bringing them up, as overall the service was so good.

1. Service was a little slow between courses at Bordeaux one night.

2. No towels were provided on the lounge chairs in front of building 7A all week. (There were ample supplies by the pool and we just got them there.)

3. Missed cleaning out the dirty dishes in the secrets box on two nights. (Again, didn't matter to us as they are out of site anyway.)

4. Drink service at the main pool could be spotty at times. (We just walked the few steps to the pool bar and ordered there a couple days.)

5. They need a Cappuccino/latte bar that opens early in the morning.

SUMMARY: We had the best vacation to date. Our travels have included several Westin Resorts, Marriott Resorts, Acapulco Princess, Fairmount Properties, Embassy Resort Hawaii, Barcelo Mayan Riviera, and Biltmore Phoenix, just for a point of reference, and this property compares favorably to them all. The fact that we met our new friends Robino and Gene added substantially to the fun, and to be fair may have created somewhat of a bias for this property, due to all the great times we had. The wide age range from late 20’s to 50’s just added to the diversity of people, and no one ever felt out of place. We like trying different properties for our vacations, but this is one we will consider a return visit to. Also would like to try Secrets Capri, as it too looked to be a first class resort, when we took the tour of that property during our stay. Last word of advice, go and enjoy a wonderful vacation at Secrets Excellence, I don’t think you will be disappointed.