I would say you nailed it.

Very good overall review.

exactly

Going back to Temptations in February, and never been to GP - but I think your reveiews on both were excellent.

One thing about GP though - there is no swim up bar, right? I would miss that. Also the in room fridge.

Glad to hear that some folks agree with me.

And SunnyFace, I also wish GP had an in-room fridge and swim-up bar.

These were the two resorts that we had it narrowed down to before we booked. We decided upon Temptations but it sounds like we would have been happy with either. Guess I'll know soon enough, only 11 days to go.

Thanks for the excellent comparison!

VERY NICE!!!!! It is good to finally hear a real and decent review of TTR. We havent been there but it seems that some people here were bashing it even though they had never been there. We are going in 16 days ( to TTR ) and are looking forward to having the time of our lives. From everything we have heard you were right on. Even the people that frequent the resort ( TTR ) dont say it is a 5star resort but they do comment that if you are the kind of people that likes to let your hair down and have some fun that it is the place to go. Well that is us in a nutshell! Besides even on this site where TTR doesnt get spoken of very highly it is still # 34 out of 168 i think. not too bad in my book especially for the price!

Krupina, we have stayed at both hotels and I agree that your review was an excellent summary of these places.

I just want to correct and expand on a couple of points.

First, someone said that there are no in-room fridges at Golden Parnassus, but that is only partially true. All "Club" rooms on the third floor and the sixth floor do have a small fridge with bottled water, beer, juice, and soda.

FYI, it is supposed to be restocked every day, but ours wasn't, even after we repeatedly complained. We eventually found out that the person in charge of doing it had blatantly lied about it to her supervisors for two days in a row. We got terrible housekeeping service in general. Our maid didn't even bother make a towel animal on the bed, even though she took the two dollars per day that we left her as a tip. That's why we decided to skip it in 2008 and are still hesitant to ever go back.

The other point that I want to clarify is the "risque" atmosphere at Temptation. I hope it has changed since we stayed there in 2005, when it was called Blue Bay Getaway, but the entertainment staff then was extremely rude, using the F-word and other obscenities every five minutes or so as if profanity in itself were funny. We are totally in favor of female toplessness and sensuality, but have not use for dirty talk, especially when it is imposed on us over blaring loudspeakers. I can understand drunken white trash shouting obscenities, but not sober staff who are supposed to be trained professionals.

On the upside, I have heard that, as part of the attempt to improve the corporate image of the hotel, which included the name change and the remodeling of the lobby, Temptation management has fired some of that low-class staff. Could you please share your impressions about the entertainment staff, their behavior and their use of dirty language?

Hi notop,

I did not mention the Temptation entertainment staff in my posting, but I'm glad you asked about it. I found them to be hard-working and professional. That said, they (or at least one of them) did use the f-word occasionally or maybe a little. I did not find this offensive, but of course this is a matter of personal opinion. It was certainly not like listening to many comedians where every other word is a profanity. My guess is that staff have changed since your visit, because like I said I was struck by the quality of the entertainment staff.

I thought the entertainment staff did a good job of recruiting people to the (sexually suggestive) games, but I'm pretty sure no one was coerced who didn't want to do it. We didn't want to, and they didn't bother us.

We have just returned from Golden Parnassus ourselves and despite several misgivings I had about the atmosphere of the resort before we went, I have to say my impressions were more than favourable and I would recommend this resort highly. Like Nototop, I'll list the pluses we found.

1) the staff, can't speak highly enough of the hard working and exceptionally pleasant staff. That ranges from the woman who cleaned our room, her smiles and the towel animals, to the reception and waiters in all restaurants, to the bell "boys" to the exceptionally hard-working entertainment team. Added to that, no matter what we asked Yanina of public relations, our requests were met with a smile and agreement for anything (within reason) we wanted.

2) Room: upgraded to a club without amenities which meant coffee maker jacuzzi and fridge, only things we really cared about, and we were very satisfied (see cleaning staff above). When we requested dos cafes (in my halting Espangnol) they were there the next morning.

3) Lobbies as were all public places including washrooms were spotless. Maybe there was mould--it would surprise me in the tropics with constant humidity--maybe the grout was painted over, but I found no smell of mustiness, and had no allergic reactions at all. If there is a complaint, it's that like may other places we've visited, they need to once in a while thoroughly clean the air-conditioning units. This is where I think a lot of the respiratory problems I've heard about and encountered stem from.

4) Entertainment: We didn't participate in it but enjoyed watching those who did. As I said above, I thought the team was terrific, friendly, exceptionally hard-working and eager to please with a mostly non-responsive group who having waited practically a week for hot sun were not going to do anything but bask in it.

4) Pool area, clean, accommodating staff with umbrellas when you wanted them, but definitely on a hot sunny day, not nearly enough lounges or chairs. If you didn't reserve chairs or lounges by 8 or 9 the latest, you were out of luck. This I think is a problem and we also saw many wrist bands from Great Parnassus visiting which puts further claim on too few lounges and chairs.

5) Atmosphere: Perhaps a few, not too many that we saw or experienced, youngsters who thought it was extremely clever to get stoned out of their minds and ruin everyone else's holiday with loutish behaviour. Perhaps a few too many people with bad manners who don't understand what cover-ups are for and when they're needed. It's a matter of being respectful of others and realizing they're not despite what they may think the centre of any universe but theirs. But that's also the atmosphere I gather of Cancun itself which has been built on booze, beaches and shopping and seems to attract a specific type of person. I'll probably get slammed for this and it may be a generation thing, but that's our impression anyway. In any case, please understand that overall, we mainly and thoroughly enjoyed the geography and the Mayan culture of Yucatan, so we're perhaps not the "typical" clients.

Overall, I don't think GP is maybe 4 plus * but definitely 3 plus to 4. I would certainly recommend the GP to anyone looking for a reasonably priced and very well run holiday resort.