Secrets The Vine Cancun

I stayed a week at Secrets the Vine and I was very impressed by the kindness and friendliness of the entire staff. I have stayed at many Secrets resorts in Mexico and throughout the Caribbean but the service here was the most consistently courteous I have ever experienced. I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality and tastiness of all the food. The standout was the scrumptious, perfectly prepared beef filet steak. The Cafe offerings were delicious as well. Daily morning yoga classes were my favorite activity. I appreciated the professionalism of the guest yoga instructor. This resort is a short ride from the airport and the views of the sea are lovely.

This is our 6th stay at this resort and is our last. Here’s why: Checking in was about 45 minutes just to talk to a “representative”. Of course a room wasn’t ready. We had surrendered our luggage to the bell man on entering the hotel- we didn’t have anything we could use at the pool. After 2 plus hours our room was ready. Our luggage was to be delivered right away according to our concierge. More than hour passed and we made phone calls to the bell station being told ‘we will check on it’. A text to the concierge was made. She was “surprised” it hadn’t been delivered. My husband went on a search and found the bellman. He had dropped off our luggage outside the wrong room. No one answered the door so he just left it. When my husband found him he was bringing it to our room. He admitted he had the correct room number but delivered to the wrong room. Our room is clean. But, the decor is getting tired. It’s been 10 plus years we’ve seen the exact same decor and furniture. The bed is comfy. The food is pretty good. For me personally I like warmer food than how it’s served. The hotel is staffed by people who seem to care. The problem is the hotel seems under staffed. The hotel next door is being renovated. We didn’t know before arriving that there would be constant construction noise. Jack hammers for more than 8 hour each day! And- one night construction was after dark-noise until late. We have always loved this resort and sad to say it’s not the same as we have loved in the past. But- on the good points- Coffee bar is outstanding. The people who work there are friendly, kind and hard working. I hope The Vine does everything to keep Jose from the entertainment staff. He is engaging, knowledgeable, fun and deeply cares about people. He deserves all the accolades I can give. Our concierge Rosanna is pleasant. Waitstaff at the restaurants are friendly and seem to be hardworking.

A once world-class property is having a broad range of issues that are extremely obvious, and clearly not being addressed since the affiliation with Hyatt. This was our 10th anniversary of going there (we've been there several times) and it's definitely not the same quality experience any longer. Something or someone severely changed how the property is being managed. The floors in the rooms were literally solid black from bare feet grinding dirt into the grout of the tiled floors. Everything on the property needing repairing, replacing or upgrading. The exposed kitchen area for breakfast was shocking and gross. (I think this may be why I got sick after eating breakfast there) Pools were missing HUNDREDS of tiles and had exposed pipes coming out of the walls. Paying extra for the "Preferred Package" didn't exempt us from 2+ hour waits for dinner, extraordinarily poor liquor selection/quality. Basic bartending items like Bitters, usual mixers, lemons and such were non-existent. Some liquors were absolute bottom-shelf trash. Thinking about getting a chair by the pool? No chance of that happening as "chair-hogs" would lock down 50-75% of all of them, never use them and the very limited staff wouldn't/couldn't help. The construction on the Hard Rock next door could be intrusive and we were NOT informed that this was work was occurring until 7am the next morning, after we first arrived, when the heavy construction machinery started banging away. Why weren't we told BEFORE we arrived and given a chance to change hotels? I started taking pictures of all the issues we were having, then I realized it was consuming too much time and just making the experience there even worse. I truly hate saying this, but, in short, after travelling the world for decades and staying at some of the finest places anywhere, The Vine isn't the place that we personally thought, was the #1 property on the planet any longer.

This was our annual holiday with 4 other couples. We choose Secrets (Hyatt) as is the past we really enjoyed it. Secrets Vine was nice hotel but I would not rate it a 5 stars. It took a little bit of complaining before the service got better. We had food restrictions with allergies and we had to explain every time. It took a few days and once the they figured it out, the meals were nice. You were restricted to 2 drink that you could take from the bar as there were 6 others in the group. We even asked them to bring it and they said no and that everyone had come to the bar to pick it up. They would not make any specialilty shooters and were limited to tequila, vodka straight shots only. I could have stayed home and had it there. When I go to an all in all-inclusive I want to drink things I don't drink at home. The rooms were nice and the view was beautiful. There was no hooks to hang your towels so you can reuse it so we had no choice but to replace daily. Not environmentally friendly. This was our 4th secrets hotel and least favourite. For the price and what they advertise, we feel we didn't receive our value. We will be trying a new chain. Spoke to many guests and they all shared similar comments. Too many up selling. They would try to sell reservations to special events, like $150 US couple to reserve a spot for dinner and show. We just arrived earlier and got a better table than was offered for $150 US and we didn't pay anything. Wine tasting was also a charge. The service was good by most. Special thank you goes out to Michelle at Nebbiolo, Ithiel at Sea Salt Grill for making us fish and chips and chicken burger which was a special request (who knew), chefs Enrique and Isidro who assisted us with the food menu. Location of Secrets Vine was central to town. Short bus ride to town. The beach was nice, but for the first 2 days we had to walk down the beach before found a suitable area to swim with little seaweeds. Overall it was good, we feel we didn't receive the value or the service for the money.

Miguel was awesome. Love our pool side bracelets.