In today’s report we are on day 6, so I guess I’m getting to know the resort really well. Prior to coming here I had read hundreds of reports about the GR Solaris, and I guess I’ve really started to form my own opinion about many of these things.

One of the complaints that people have about this resort is the fact that you can hear everything from your room. On many boards you read that you can hear your neighbors almost as if they are in your room. So here is my take on this complaint.

During our first couple of days here we heard NOTHING with the exception of the ding-dong made by the elevators when the doors open on your floor, along with a few people going to their rooms at 3:00-4:00 in the morning after having a few too many adult beverages. The corridors in this hotel are enclosed, and the room doors are literally the kind of door that you would put on a room inside your home (nice solid core doors, but still pretty much that same quality and thickness we have at home).

This morning at 6:00AM a family of rude people decided that their two very young children could play in the hall. They ran up and down the marble floored halls yelling and screaming. At a few points the parents obviously decided they were making too much noise so the father went into the hall and yelled at the kids at the top of his voice, to which the kids yelled back! Finally one of the other people on this hall went out and put an end to it. I would have done it but my Spanish is not good enough to get into an argument with someone in the hall.

We had new next-door neighbors a couple days ago, and they were also loud – not loud like you hear them every once in a while, but VERY LOUD!!!! Those people moved out after one day to upgrade to a suite! We got more new neighbors now – NO NOISE!!!

So my take on noise at the hotel is if people would simply be courteous of others there would be no complaints of noise. The Solaris surely can’t have noise police stationed on every floor of the hotel.

Something that I never have noticed at this Solaris as compared to other visits at AI resorts is that I have not seen one person who is stumbling drunk. There is something that is rather family oriented about the crowd here. Most of the people at the pool and shows have a good time meeting other people, and I have no doubt that many of the people who leave here will become permanent friends. There are a huge number of people from the New Jersey/New York City area here this week. They have been exchanging numbers and addresses. There is no doubt that they will all get together again after this visit.

One other thing I notice here is that there are not the “pool bar huggers”. You know what I mean – the people who sits at the pool bar from the time it opens to the time it closes. As a matter of fact, most of the people actually take part in the pool activities like aerobics, water polo, water volleyball, poolside trivia, etc…

If I had a complaint about the resort in general, I would be that they do not do an RCI Timeshare EXCHANGE, which is actually something I intend on speaking with customer service about when we get home. My doing so will not help me, but may help someone in the future that may visit this resort.

On an exchange to all the other resorts we have gone to since 1984 we trade our week for the same privileges that everyone else has at that resort. The person who trades from another resort and goes to either of my two home resorts gets full member privileges for the week. At the Solaris an RCI Exchange guest pays a higher AI fee than Solaris members, and we also get less privileges than they get during the week. They have member only events, which do not include us, even though we EXCHANGED our week for a week here. That, in my opinion, is not an even exchange.

I have no doubt that my concern will fall on deaf ears, but I feel that it needs to be expressed. We like this resort, but I doubt that we will ever return here. The room is too small, and the world too large, for us to come back here when we are not totally in love with this place. I hope that if enough people voice concerns about uneven trades (if it happens here it must happen elsewhere) that RCI will either stop the uneven trades, or dismiss the Solaris resorts from the RCI system.

It is now 2:50PM and we are taking a sun break and are back in the room. I got a massage and Joni is doing so right now. Heather seems to be having a problem with her eyes. They are burning uncontrollably. We have a pool at the house so this is an unusual problem. While we got our massage Heather IM’d her friends back at home.

The spa services here are good, even if they are a little disorganized. When we went to check in for our massage (our first and only for the week) we found out that there were five other $75-$110 treatments that were being charged to our room. The funny thing is that the people who had given our room number were getting the treatments when I arrived, and were still in the spa. When I checked in I noticed several other places on the book that also had my room number. I asked why and was told that my room number was the number they gave.

We have been told that the situation has been corrected, but the people at the spa took no responsibility for booking and charging other people to our room. All you have to do is give a room number and sign in. The signature was a scribble like so many people do so it looked real enough to fool the receptionist. (Note from Friday morning - I went down and check my bill and was informed that the charges are correct so far!!! Each of us has a bracelet with a number, so the people who tried to charge on our room would have not only been unsuccessful, they would have been caught when they checked out of the spa because their bracelet number doesn’t match our room.)

By the way, a massage is always part of any trip to a tropical destination. Waves and a massage go together like cheese and a burger. Separately they are good, but together they are great! The two people who gave us our massages (out by the beach) were wonderful. My lady said that I was very tight, one of the worst she has done in a long time. She stopped after about 40-minutes of a 50-minute massage and asked me to come back tomorrow because she could not go any longer. That is the second time this has happened to me so I know she was not just being lazy.

The pool is very quiet today. I’d say that there are about 300 people in the hotel at the most. Out of that 300, there may be 100 or so at the pool. There are even unclaimed loungers by the pool. I was told that most guests check in on Friday afternoon or Saturday, and the ones on 4-day or 5-day packages are checking out, so Friday morning will be a quiet time here at the Solaris.

As for right now – time for a nap!

Okay, no nap – I changed my mind and I went down and played volleyball in the pool while the girls rested. There is a volleyball game going from the time the pool opens until it closes. Sometimes they even get a bit serious, but it is also a great way to meet people form other areas, and who trade in from other resorts. Joni and I have learned that the best way to learn about other resorts is to talk to people while on trade.

It was interesting to hear the different points of view about this resort. Some people live it and are buying timeshare here. Another man bought and has a meeting to speak with the manager tomorrow because he has decided he does not want it. Others say they will be back next year, while others say they will never return here even if it were free. So how do you get that many points of view about the same hotel during the same week? The answer is anybody’s guess.

As for us, we have decided that this is a nice place, and we would recommend it to people who; 1) get a good deal coming here, and 2) would not consider the timeshare presentation. On a scale of 1-10 it is a strong 8, or a 4 out of 5 stars if you prefer that standard.

The service is very good for the most part. The staff by the pool is among the best I have ever encountered, and the maid has done and incredible job, of course the tips we gave her didn’t hurt in that department.

Abraham at the bar is the single best bartender I have ever been served by. He remembers everyone by name, and always remembers your favorite drink. With people skills like his he should be put into management. He is polite, and works hard to please his customers. We have tipped him a few times during the week and I have no idea as to what I should give him tomorrow. I don’t drink that much, but he is a true shining star at this resort.

Two shows tonight, one called Pre-Hispanica and the second was what they referred to as the Circus show. The Pre-Hispanica was a small portion of the troop that performs the shows at Xcaret every evening. Because they also had to perform at Xcaret the show began at 5:30 with what they referred to as a special VIP Dinner for about 90 guests.

The show was very well choreographed and the dancers were wonderful. The show was based upon the religion of the Mayan people prior to the arrival of the settlers who brought the Hispanic influence. The only problem was that during the show it would have been nice if they could have told people what the next dance was about. I would imagine that the time constraints of performing and then having a drive to get to Xcaret caused them to have to leave out the explanations that would have made the how so much more informative. The dinner with the show was served in a VERY dark room because the show needed special lighting effects because of the costumes. Call me picky, but I didn’t eat very much as I just didn’t like eating in the dark room where you had no idea what you were eating.

The second show was fabulous. It was a show like Le Cirque. This troop would all be millionaires if they lived in a City that had a population like New York or Orlando where a single show could last for years. The show was as good as anything I have ever seen inside the United States when it comes to acts of this type. I included a few pictures, but pictures will not do justice to this type of show.

Two shows made for a pretty late evening, followed by a trip to the Deli for a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned the Deli, but it is open from about 4:30PM until 6:30 AM – Yeppers! That means food all night long! It is basically a sandwich shop with any kind of sandwich you can dream up! I’ve made visit or two to get a sandwich to eat while typing my trip reports late at night. It is a great feature of this resort, and the person working behind the counter is always ready to please you with what ever you might like.

The end of the day was great, then off to bed, and then……… wow, what happened?
It sure is hot in here. You guessed it…. The a/c was acting weird. The a/c here is activated by motion in your room. If you come in right after the maid has been cleaning the room her constant motion makes the place like a fridge. At night when you are sleeping it gets warm, but last night was the worst – it was HOT!!! So I got up to check the thermostat and the a/c came on and it got cooler –then hotter – I waved a towel in the air every 30-minutes for the next two hours and eventually it got cooler. This morning while we are up and around it’s almost cold.

All is good! We are looking forward to one last good day!