We stayed at the Great Parnassus March 2, 2008 through March 7, 2008. When traveling without our children we normally stay at an adult only resort, but thought we would give this a try since it had an adult only pool, restaurant, and bar. Definately not an alternative to the adult only resorts. Upon arrival the rooms that we booked several weeks in advance were not available. Moved us to an alleged more expensive oceanview room. We had booked king lagoon view suite w/ jacuzzi on the double balcony. The upgraded room did have an oceanview, but we had no hot water and a balcony the size of our shower. I have been to Mexico enough to know that water pressure and temprature can vary from hour to hour but when using hot water we literally only had drips. Called maintenance and they took a look but fixed nothing. The air did not work in the room of the couple we traveled with. After two days we asked for our booked rooms and we were given new rooms. The hotel made us vacate ours at 10:00 in the morning, but couldn't guarantee when our new room would be available. I happened to be walking past the new room they were going to give us when the guests were leaving and asked them if everything in the room was o.k and they said you do not want this room. The air does not work. They had called every day and never did get it fixed. I immediately requested another room and they provided that. Great water pressure, our double balcony, but no king. We can live with that. My husband took a shower and upon exiting the shower was greeted with 1 inch deep water in our bathroom. There was a 6 inch gap between the side of the shower and the wall that went the entire height of the shower and water was gushing out of the hole. Within an hour someone did come and fix the gushing water, but my husband cleaned the entire mess up himself. 3 hours later housekeeping stopped by to see if our flood had been cleaned up. Yes, by my husband. This hotel appears to not have been completed during the construction process. A lot of shoddy workmanship can be seen in the rooms.

Along with these problems, 80 % of the staff are rude and feel inconvenienced when waiting on you. I would not return to this hotel.
The adult pool is on the roof of the lobby on the lagoon side and has a nice view. The swim up bar was closed and two days the bar in the pool area was closed due to windy conditions. It was very windy and of course not their fault, but it did dampen our trip a little. The food was good. Enjoyed the food court theme for breakfast and luch. Did not discover a drink I liked until the last day. It was quite obvious that they pour cheap liquor in top shelf brand bottles. The pool area on the oceanside for families is very cramped and has more of a curiseship feel to it. The beach was not impressive. No place in the shade at adult pool or beach. No palapas or umbrellas. Looked like sometimes they had umbrellas at the beach, but never at either pool.

None of these problems ruined our trip, but everyday it was something.

So we read the reviews on here and thought "It can't be as bad as that" and booked any way. Things that were important to us when we booked were the year the resort was built (2006) and price. We were pretty happy with the pictures posted on the web site, the beach looked fantasic. Later we found out while VISITING the resort the beach turned out to be more of a boulder garden. Until you see the amount and size of the boulders you really can't comprehend how dangerous it is. Remember this is a kid friendly resort.
On to our arrival and short stay at the Great Parnassus. We arrived on March 16 and were overwhelmed by the beauty of the open air lobby and cascading wall of water behind the reception desk. We had heard that the wait to check in was long, so we expected to wait.There were only two couples in line when we arrived. We amused ourselves during the wait by listening to other guest's with families argue with the staff about their accomadations. After about an hour it was our turn.
When we arrived at the counter we were promtly told that they did not have room for us and would be tranferring us to the Golden Parnassus they offered us a $150 voucher to spend in any of the shops,so off we went wondering what could have been and happy with an extra $150 in our pocket. How a resort could over book and ignore the fact that we had a contract is beyond us. We were not the only ones this happened to.
We returned to the Great Parnassus with our voucher in hand ready to spend. It was then that we were told that the voucher was only good at the resort's gift shop. One visit at that one store. Have you ever tried to buy $150 worth of trinkets, it wasn't easy but to the annoyance of the staff we managed :) SO DON'T TAKE THE VOUCHERS WITHOUT A FIGHT.
Here are some other things people received by throwing a fit. They transferred everyone that was not traveling with kids including spring breakers. 2 $150 vouchers ( we felt sorry for these people because they also were under the impression the vouchers were good any where in the resort), free spa sessions and the grand prize of a free week at the Great Parnassus.
IT PAY'S TO STOMP YOUR FEET AND THROW A FIT, DON"T GO QUIETLY.
We also wanted to check out the Great Parnassus for a furture trip with the kids. We'll still take the kids to Mexico, but we'll stay away from the Parnassus resorts.
If you want too find out about our stay at the retirement resort they call the Golden Parnassus check out our review for it.

Hotel instalations are very nice, they could easily trick you into the worst customer service we have ever had!
My husband and I traveled with 4 other friends for a 3 day vacatoin, we got to the hotel around 1:30pm, at checkin we were told that the rooms would be ready at 3pm We got our rooms at 5pm!
We waited more than 3 hours to get our rooms, when we finally got the keys, rooms were NOT clean!
We purchased thru the internet a ONE bed, ocean view room, but instead we got a two twin bed room with no view to the ocean, they were overbooked so we couldn't change rooms...
We didn't recieved our control remote.
We didn't recieve our basket of fruits with champagne.
That night we went to have dinner to one of their restaurants, we waited T W O H O U R S to received our meal!!!!!!!!! Thats unacceptable! Later we knew that there is only one kitchen for all 3 or 4 restaurants.
Food was horrible, drinks were too. 24 hour room service????? Dont believe that! we called for a 12 pack to be delivered to our room and we got hunged up 3 times!!! Manager didn't think it was to much of a deal....
We can only remember a couple of people that were actually nice and gave us a great customer service, We would never go back to that hotel.

Our family of five (mom, dad and three boys ages 12, 8 and 5) just returned home from a week at the Great Parnassus, and we had a great time! I was very nervous upon booking the GP, as I had read many negative reviews about the place, beginning with the check-in process. After a five minute check-in that couldn't have gone more smoothly, we went up to a clean, large room that easily accomodated our family of five. (We were sure to request an odd-numbered room so that we had a view of the ocean and not the Hilton next door.) Our kids loved the "cruise ship" style of the rooms- especially the 3 bunk beds one on top of the other! We were never without clean towels, bottled water or any other necessity. (Yes, we didn't get a television remote until day 2, but who cares?!) Whenever we needed something, our maid was on it right away, no questions asked. We found the service to be exceptional throughout the resort from the front desk, to the maids, to the bartenders. As for those people who actually took the time to take pictures of the poor architectural quality of their bathrooms and walls...WOW! You should have spent more time in the sun.

Do not book the GP if you are looking for a 5-star resort with no kids running around and excellent food. The GP is more of a place to bring a family with young kids who just wants to hang out on the beach and play in the ocean for a week. Contrary to many negative reviews, the beach is beautiful- plenty of white sand, chairs and umbrellas for everyone. Furthermore, wait staff occasionally comes around to take your drink order while you're laying on the beach. In addition to the beach our kids really enjoyed the mini golf, teenage water park, pottery painting and fun kiddie drinks available at the bars. A personal favorite of theirs was "La Creperie," the dessert/ice cream shop where they had numerous treats.

In our opinion the weakest part of this resort is the food. The food is not terrible or even bad...its just not overly good. Having said that, you should not be going to an all-inclusive resort expecting a grand culinary experience- especially in Mexico. The breakfasts and lunches at "Magnus" (the food court) were actually pretty good- it's just the dinner restaurants that need a little help. Our personal favorite was the Italian restaurant- Portofino. The Japanese restaurant, "Samurai," was very salty and limited in menu choices. The others were, as I said, "fine."

All in all we had a great week at the Great Parnassus. We would recommend this resort to a family looking to have a great "beach" vacation with not overly-high expectations on the food that they will be eating. The staff was friendly and helpful, and the resort is clean and spacious. If you fit the above description, go to the GP and have a great family vacation!