Secrets The Vine Cancun

This is our second time at Secrets The Vine Cancun for me and my husband. We convinced my mother and father-in-law, who have stayed at some of the best high-end hotels, to come to this hotel because we had an amazing experience here back in 2024 and thought it was on par with those hotels. Unfortunately, since the first day, we had issues with the hotel. The room my in-laws got was the “Preferred Master Suite Ocean View” from Costco. When we got to the room, we were shocked by how dirty and run-down it was. The “ocean view” was actually a “lagoon view” with a city and bus stop view, which, on level 21, was absolutely loud. We tried to resolve this issue with the hotel, but they were no help and were, in fact, rude. We are in the process of sorting this situation out with Costco since that’s where we got the package. Other than the room and the customer service at the reception, we have lots of thoughts on the restaurants, food, and amenities. Our first trip was so good, and the food was amazing, but this trip, unfortunately, 80% of the food was bad. The buffet for breakfast is 7/10. It’s decent, and it’s the best part of the day. The buffet for lunch is horrible. Don’t waste your time. Lunch is great at Sea Salt Grill, 10/10. The burger station is mediocre, 3/10. We didn’t try Olio for lunch. For dinner, we had Dragons the first night. Do not get anything besides sushi! I repeat, do not waste your time on anything other than sushi at Dragons, which is 7/10, Other options are absolutely bad and salty. The Mexican restaurant is good. They used to have great tacos, but they changed the menu. I liked the flank steak and enchiladas this time. 8/10. Bluewater Grill is absolutely horrible! The surf and turf is disgusting. The steak is low grade and tasted horrible. I’ve never had a steak this disgusting! We asked for medium and it was almost blue. The picanha sandwich was good. The restaurant is 4/10. We tried the Italian restaurant last time and hated it, so we didn’t try it this time. The Vine Café and their staff are amazing. We enjoyed the coffee and drinks there. 10/10. All the bars are great, but I liked the Preferred Bar on level 21 and Manatees Bar more than the others. Just make sure you ask for the better alcohol, otherwise they will use the cheaper alcohol. The staff are friendly and amazing. The hotel has three main pools and one Preferred pool. The pools are nice and are not crowded from around 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM, but after 3:00 PM the water gets murky from all the sunscreen, and they become very crowded. The Preferred pool is good, but it feels very isolated. Lastly, our absolute favorite restaurant was Olio! The food was the best we had at this hotel, and we enjoyed the beef shawarma, beef tenderloin, and the teapots with Medjool date dessert and baklava. We absolutely loved our server, Cesar, for the two nights we had him. He is so kind and amazing. We loved having him! For our last night, we had Alejandro, who was nice and helpful as well. Our experience was partly memorable because of our servers, which we truly appreciate. Overall, our experience with Secrets The Vine was 5/10, unfortunately, and has changed from the 10/10 experience we had the last time we were here. Unfortunately, we won’t be back at this resort unless they do a major remodel and change their food menu and quality.

This place is excellent!! This was our second time going. We will be back again. We love the Secrets brand. Beautiful aesthetics and great staff.

Fantastic experience!!!! Will be doing this a lot more often. Room was spectacular after 5 nights did not want to leave.

TL;DR - If you have the means to fly to cancun and stay here just to read a book on the beach, this is for you, otherwise its a bad time. Food was pretty good though. First of all, for all of these complaints, no one listened. Every time I asked for a manager, I was just pointed to concierge. Inconsistent: Only some guests received champagne on arrival; 2 friends had a ready room at 12:30, 2 others had it at 2:30, and we were scolded and told we HAVE to wait until 3 as it will be ready at 3 and it wasnt ready until 3:20, AND the sheets were still stained and had hair and debris on it. Bags took an HOUR to get to us. After telling them we were going to go get our own bags and they confirmed, I made it downstairs just for them to say they dont know which floor the bell boy is on with the bags. Random maintenance man knocking my door at 7am mistakenly thinking I asked for a plug to be fixed. Put my name on a list for a nice dinner for 7 people. Was told it would be about 50 minutes. Went back an hour later to be told "Oh we don't actually service a table that size without the wine package purchased." I had to go full embarassment just to get us seated. Asked for transport to the airport the day before. Was told by Concierge to leave my phone # and an Amstar rep would text me in an hour. 6.5 hours later, I got no text. Also, super restrictive for those who like to drink. No alcohol served prior to 10 AM (my friends wanted 9:30am mimosas with breakfast). No shots at the pool or beach after 5pm. Despite being Adults Only, bathing suits must be covered up before entering the building (women), and all button ups must be buttoned at least 3 buttons (men). Lack of activities, lack of digitally posted scheduling, lack of awareness.

The location was nice and the Italian and Blue Water Grill were great but long waiting lines. Sea Side Grill says it is best gourmet Peruvian food, but I have had much better in other locations and they forgot to place my husband's and a friends main menu order. Because all the pools are basically next to each other, there is no real quiet time to relax unless you are prefered member and you can use the pool in the 12th floor. Too many influencers at that time and you had to constantly stop to let them finish filming or get their wrath if you messed up their filming. Room service was almost non existent in the preferred area and only gave us chocolates the 1st two nights and wrappers stayed on the night table until I threw them away the day we left. It is not a place for people with handicaps, wheelchairs or walkers, only one steep ramp to get to all the pools and step downs are not properly marked to warn you. It's a nice place for young inexperienced travelers.