Secrets The Vine Cancun

We had a wonderful experience at Secrets The Vine Cancun and would absolutely recommend booking through Costco Travel. The resort is beautiful, modern, and very well maintained. The ocean views are stunning, and there are plenty of comfortable places to relax whether at the pools or on the beach. The food was excellent with a great variety of restaurants to choose from. The quality and presentation were impressive for an all-inclusive resort. The entertainment staff truly stood out — they were friendly, energetic, and made activities so much fun without ever being pushy. There were plenty of daytime activities and evening shows to keep things lively, but also plenty of space to unwind if you prefer a quieter vibe. Overall, this was a fantastic getaway with great service, delicious food, fun activities, and a beautiful resort setting. We would definitely return!

Something happened every day to keep it from being a great experience. Some bigger deals than others…quick summary of good, bad and ugly: Good: Room was nice, preferred pool was heated (needed!) food was good, and pool servers were great Bad: Ocean view was nothing like the picture, lunch service at restaurants was bad Ugly: security, wine knowledge, constant badgering about buying wine for reservations, given misinformation, butler service is virtually nonexistent, just a text with the day’s activities, usually late morning, which is unhelpful for planning. Here’s some more details on the things that happened each day: Day 1: We got in early and our room wasn’t ready yet – they gave us a key and said when it is, this will be our key - so we had some drinks and hung out with friends by the pool. Their room was ready first, and they asked about ours. Their butler called and was like your room is ready too, it’s XXXX, your butler will meet you there. We go to the room – no butler was there – but we go inside. We’re walking around and see a backpack and headphone case, and they aren’t ours. We look around more and see a toiletry bag and then luggage – also not ours. We are clearly in someone else’s room. So we go to the concierge and tell them and they were pretty nonchalant about it. “Sorry, but this is your room instead.” Ok, while it wasn’t a HUGE inconvenience, why did that key even work?? Did people just walk into OUR room too at some point? Day 2: Weather was kinda meh and so we decided to go to the French themed wine tasting in the afternoon as we are wine enthusiasts and both have small cellars. Luis was our guide. He made a big-to-do about the tasting, but actually gave us incorrect information on the wine!!!! The 2018 Pezat Bordeaux, which we went on and on about as being a “left bank Bordeaux, which is Cabernet Sauvignon-based…” was rust colored and very raisin-y. I looked it up only to find it was from St. Emilion (which is right bank) and is 90% merlot and 10% cab franc. Also, it was priced at $185 USD, but sells for $17-25 online, so a TREMENDOUS markup! Plus if that wine is any indication, nothing is being stored correctly. Needless to say, we never purchased any wine – the house wine was fine, even for us wine snobs ;) Day 3: MORE consistent pestering by the guys walking around asking where we are having dinner tonight – a ploy to get you to buy a bottle of wine for a “reservation”. We were told that there were 300 people for an event and they were all going to the steakhouse, so it was VERY unlikely that we’d be able to get in without one. As such, we were worried about it and modified our evening plans to get to dinner early and be prepared to wait or pivot to a new restaurant. I walk in at 5 to put our name on the waiting list and the hostess has no idea what I’m talking about and just keep repeating it’s first come first serve. We come back in about an hour and the wait is so little we barely have time to go grab a drink upstairs. Totally unnecessary stress caused by someone trying to hard sell us wine for reservations. However, dinner was good and our server was great!! Day 4: We went down to regular area for lunch – while the preferred pool is nice, we wanted a little beach time and wanted to see what else there was to do. We went to the Sea Salt Grill and the service was bad – the servers just stood around and I had to flag them down to get anything. Food was okay. The two pools had different music playing so it was super distracting at lunch. At dinner we went back to Nebbiolo, where we went on day 2. Service was not great this time - I just ordered an app and told the server I was going to sample everyone’s food – he seemed bothered or mad that I didn’t order a full meal. He never brought me a plate and I had to use my bread plate/bowl (the one with olive oil in it) as my plate. To make it worse, he actually took the pizza plate that still had food on it. All in all, nothing horrible happened, but is it a 5-star luxury resort with impeccable service, where wine enthusiasts should flock to? Nope. If you take a look at the awards page you’ll see it’s been 5+ years since any award was won….and I’m not surprised. I was highly disappointed at the butler service (we usually go to Sandals) and my husband's bday was barely recognized (I had to ask for a little door sash, despite it being on the reservation details. Honestly, was back and forth on 3 vs 4 starts, but the preferred pool servers and the food kept it at a 4.

Amazing attentive and professional service from the Olio team of Rosa, Michelle, Lesly, Victor, William and Jeovani.

We had a perfect vacation at The Vines. Everything was just perfect. It can be a challenge getting loungers at the main pool and beach but staff were great at finding loungers where people had left them unused for too long. We had no issues getting loungers in the Preferred Club. The longest we waited for a table at dinner was about 15 minutes on one day.

Amazing hotel - third time we have been and have already booked to go back Wow. What a hotel this is. This was out third stay here. We went for our daughters 18th Birthday and the hotel just get better and better each time. The staff, amazing!. Jonathan at the reception was great when checking in and during our stay. Michelle and Willian at Olio on 12th floor made our time so special, they were always smiling and chatting to us and they brought a cake out and sparklers on our daughter's birthday at breakfast time. We upgraded our room and were on 27th and then 28th floors. Rosanna on the 28th floor and Manuel on 27th floor were so helpful and kind. The food was amazing as always and the bar tenders at the Piano Bar were fantastic. The staff are a credit to this hotel and they really did make a difference for us on this trip. We loved is so much, we have just booked to return back to the hotel in March, so only 5 weeks to wait and we will be back in paradise. Thank you Secrets of the Vine. See you all very soon.