Secrets The Vine Cancun

The food here is the worst ever experienced at any hotel or restaurant in Mexico. The "Asian" restaurant, Dragon, was a joke. The pad thai resembled nothing like real pad thai except that there was a taste of tamarind sauce and noodles, plunked on a plate. The Italian restaurant served their dried out chicken parmeggiana with mashed potatoes instead of traditional noodles. The Ossobucco was fine. Forest salad had almost none of the promised ingredients like cheese and nuts, mostly wilted greens. The steakhouse was also disappointing. Grilled octopus of which I am a big fan was rubbery and flavourless. The picanha was good. We thought at least the a la carte Mexican meal dinner at the Market Cafe would be good. The place settings, linens, etc. were nice. The food? Guacamole consisted simply of mashed avocado with some bacon bitgs on top. No chopped, red onion, no seasonings, no LIME! The couple at the table next to us tasted it, got up and left. The rest of the meal was similarly bad. You would think that they would at least get the Mexcian food right! The restaurants seemed seriously understaffed meaning that there were lots of empty tables and long waits because there weren't enough serving staff. Decor was lots of marble and more marble. Nicely decorated but cold. Junior club suite was enormous but no hand-held attachment in shower or bidet in toilet area. No safety bars. The staff was great and always obliging.

We have stayed at the Secrets many times before- this was our 4th or 5th time. We love it and come back a lot, but this was a disappointing visit for us. Upon arrival we were taken to our room, but after 45 minutes our luggage had not arrived. We were waiting to shower and change for dinner (we got into our room at 7pm) and we had to call down to reception to chase our bags. Our room was at the end of the hallway, and it had a second door first that opened from the corridor into a small hallway, and from that hallway you can access one other room and ours. This door had no soft close mechanism, so the door was banging loudly every time someone left their room. There was also parts of the rubble of the wall flaking off onto the floor. The rooms themselves are looking very tired and in need of updating- neither of our wardrobe doors closed properly which meant the light from the wardrobe shone out all night, our shower door did not fully close and the mirror above the bathroom had a flashing light the whole time. Our room was often not made up until between 5-6, which was when we returned to get ready for dinner and meant we had to say no to having it made up a few times. The wait for the restaurants was ridiculous- I understand you are busy but every one had a wait time of at least an hour. You could ‘jump the queue’ by paying for a bottle of wine which was very unfair, as you have already paid a lot of money to be all inclusive. We missed out on the Mexican night due to this issue. When eventually in the restaurants, although the wait staff work very hard it felt as though they were understaffed. We had to order twice at the Japanese restaurant as our order went missing, and our meals at the steak restaurant were wrong and over cooked. Usually the concierge at the Preferred pool was very helpful, assigning sun beds and helping you set up but this was not offered this time. The wait staff at the preferred pool were very good though, and so were the staff at the Vine Cafe. We requested a late checkout, as we were told that 1pm should be fine but later were told this was wrong and is not correct. We advised we only needed an hour and that often the maid did not come to our room until the evening anyway but were told no it is not possible, and the reception staff then called us on the hour at 12pm which felt as though they were checking we were leaving! (We were walking out of the door.) We sent a few requests to the concierge on our floor, and on one time he said he would investigate something for us and come back to us but this didn’t happen. The service from the WiFi was also intermittent. We usually love and rave about the hotel but this year the service fell below standard and felt impersonal. Sadly we will not be returning.

This was our second time visiting Secrets the Vine and it was as good as the first time. We came back because the service is amazing. The rooms are so clean and the pools are fantastic. The food was as good or better than before and the entertainment was phenomenal! We were treated like royalty by Veronica that would not allow us to be without a drink in our hands. Shout out to the entertainment team specially Chema! They seriously go above and beyond to make sure you have a good time!

Great resort. Santiago Morales from the sports bar was the best waiter here. We went to see him almost every night. Some waiters here should take him as an example. Overall great resort.

Special Thank you to Santi Morales from the Half Time sports bar, h'es literally the best waiter and he made our whole week better. Always a pleasure to see him every night with his welcoming attitude. We need more people like Santi, thankyou again hermano