Okay, let’s resume the series I started before we left for Mexico where I write about some of the major things that have impacted the person I am today.
The first four were my parents, my friends, books and travel (I won’t link to them here as I’ll probably do a master list at the end and link to them all.)
For the fifth one, I want to get a bit more abstract and interestingly, it was while we were sitting in the Regina airport, waiting for our flight to Mexico and bumping into various people I knew or striking up with people sitting nearby that I didn’t, when I thought of this characteristic that helps make me who I am.
Whether you call it “extroversion” or “sociability” or “emotional intelligence” or whatever, the reality is that I think I’ve always been someone who’s very outgoing and interested in and able to connect with other people – whether that’s the high level politician I’m talking to at a fundraising event or the waiter serving our table.
When I started this series talking about my parents influencing me in different ways, this is probably one characteristic that I inherited equally from both of them.
My dad is the kind of guy who will strike up conversations with complete strangers everywhere he goes. When my mom was on the board of directors of the Sask Union of Nurses, we used to joke that her hotel room was often the unofficial hospitality suite for the meetings as she would often play host to various after-hours gatherings.
So I come by it naturally and don’t remember ever having even a phase where I was shy or quiet (though I’m sure there were people who wish I had!)
This has served me well in various ways.
I was impressed when a former coworker casually mentioned that he’d never failed to be offered a job he’d applied for whether he took it or not.
I couldn’t say that but it got me thinking and I realised that I was similar, at least in the fact that I’ve never been in a situation where I *really* wanted/needed a job or an opportunity and not been able to end up with it offered to me – whether that was when I was looking for work when we first moved to Calgary and beat out some very well-known members of the local writing community as a complete unknown to become the WGA’s Southern Alberta Program Officer to being one of only five out of dozens of applicants picked for an exchange to England while I was an undergrad student to getting into a work-employment program when I was an underemployed recent grad soon after convocating.
That one was particularly memorable as the program coordinator, at a wrap-up party at Bonzinni’s brewpub, got talking to me (after a couple pints I suspect) and she said “You did really well in this program considering I wasn’t even going to pick you.”
What?
“Well, I don’t know if you remember but you were the last interview I had on a Friday afternoon. I was burned out from a week of interviewing people and had basically made up my mind I wasn’t going to pick you as I just wanted to get through the interview and head home for the weekend. But you came in and were like a breath of fresh air and so I had to pick you!”
Wow!
My social skills have served me well in a variety of ways – from being able to improvise an hour-long library program for registrants on very short notice when the actual presenter doesn’t show up to finding ways to help others feel welcomed and included in various social settings to being able to talk my way out of speeding tickets (I’ve ended up getting out of a lot more than I’ve paid over the years!)
I’ll have to dig it up but RPL used to (and perhaps they still do?) have a requirement that all librarians applying for a new role had to take the Gallup Clifton Strengths Personality test.
Again, I don’t remember what my other four were (though I think most of them were connected to being outgoing and interested in other people) but I’ll always remember my top strength (eat your heart out, Gwyneth Paltrow – I’m the king of Woo, not you!)
Woo
People exceptionally talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with someone.
There was lots of controversy on Twitter (but when isn’t there?) a couple days ago when Leafs defenseman, Morgan Rielly, was accused of yelling a homophobic slur on the ice.
At the same time, the Rielly case is an interesting one in that it’s also an indictment of the immediacy of the Internet which mixes with outrage culture so that people and organizations are regularly found guilty of all manner of crimes they didn’t commit, usually without any opportunity for all evidence to be considered or the accused to be fairly judged – whether that’s a kid in a MAGA hat in Washington DC or a hockey player in Toronto.
Officially, most all-inclusive resorts have a “no tipping” policy.
But the reality is that many workers at all-inclusive resorts toil for relatively low wages and many vacation-goers who spend thousands to go to an all-inclusive, don’t mind giving a bit more on top of that throughout the week in tips for servers, maids and others – either following their own formula for who they tip and how much or only tipping occasionally and/or only for really good service or whatever.
* Restaurants: $1-3 per meal per table
* Bartender: $1 per round of drinks
* Bellmen: $1-3 per bag / 20-50 pesos
* Housekeeper: $1-5 a day, if you have special minibar requests tip extra
* Pool Boys: $5 if they save you prime chairs by the pool
* Concierge: $5 if they get you into a fully booked specialty restaurant
Because of this, a recurring question that comes up if you spend any time on Trip Advisor forums, Facebook fan pages for resorts or anywhere else that people are discussing tropical holidays is whether you should tip in USD or the local currency (in this blog post, I’ll talk about Mexican pesos although many of the same points apply if you’re going to the Dominican Republic or Jamaica or even Cuba although Cuba is a bit unique with that country having two forms of currency – one for locals and one for tourists. We once tried to pay for a meal with a tour guide and he grabbed our “tourist” bills which are worth more and paid with local currency!)
Anyhow, if you are American, there are reasons to tip in USD and reasons to tip in the local currency. But ultimately, I feel strongly that for most visitors, no matter where you’re from, tipping in the local currency is the best for everyone involved for a variety of reasons.
Reasons People Tip in USD
This is the currency that most Americans have already so they don’t have to bother with exchanging it.
Especially in a place like Cancun or Playa Del Carmen or most other tourist hotspots, American money is essentially a second currency, widely used and accepted so it’s not like you’re going to some isolated country in central Africa that rarely sees American dollars. Prices are often posted in both currencies and most stores and restaurants will accept USD without issue (though not everywhere!) Also, you may end up getting your change back in pesos anyhow.
(I’ve seen reports that people feel like they get better deals when negotiating in stores or with vendors if they pay in pesos instead of USD.)
There is a perception among some people that American money is “worth more” or “more desirable” to workers, even than their local currency which seems counter-intuitive at best and completely uninformed at worst.
Although it’s impossible for it to be “worth more” than whatever the exchange rate of the day is, American money *is* more versatile – if you have a stack of American dollar bills and you don’t give them all out in Mexico, you can easily use them on your next trip, even if you decide to go to a completely different country.
Obviously, American money is most useful if you decide to visit the US which is the #1 tourist destination for Canadians and probably on the list for people from many other countries as well.
I read one comment from someone who said they prefer tipping in USD since they don’t have to do any math, especially after a few drinks. I mean, right now 1 USD is basically equal to 20 pesos so that’s pretty easy math – one buck = 20 pesos, two bucks = 40 pesos, five bucks = 100 pesos and so on but if that easy math stymies you, by all means, stick with single greenbacks for double tequila shots! 😉
Many people report that staff tell them that they prefer receiving tips in American dollars but my sense is that this is more about staff being well-trained to be agreeable generally and tell guests what they want to hear and/or that staff see the money as roughly the same so why quibble and risk insulting someone?
Because of the way the bills of each country “equate”, there’s a chance that people will be more generous if they tip in American money than local currency depending on the exchange rate at the time. For example, right now Americans commonly use $1 or $5 bills to tip but have no middle option. But Mexican currency has a 20 peso note (which is basically equivalent to $1 USD), a 50 peso note (which is basically $2.50 USD) and a 100 peso note (which is basically $5 USD). So the thought is that, on balance, you’re likely to take home more when people only have the option of giving $1 (which might seem low for a tip) or $5 but no option for a $2.50 tip if they’re giving American money.
Reasons To Tip in Local Currency
Ultimately, I’m with the people who think its better tip in the local currency instead of USD and I have a few reasons I think that is the best way to do it.
If I tip 20 pesos, that’s slightly more than a single American dollar (at least at at today’s exchange rate of 19.4 pesos to the USD.) So if you give a resort employee $1 USD, it seems like you’re giving a buck (and you are from your point of view) but from their perspective, you’re actually giving them a bit less than if you gave them the nearest denomination in the local currency (20 peso note). The difference is literally only a nickel right now but over the course of a day or a few days or a month, an employee might lose a few bucks (depending on how often they get tipped) just because of this small difference. Over the course of a year, this could add up significantly, especially in countries were people might only be working for a few dollars per day.
Some argue that US currency gives more “buying power” but I don’t understand that argument at all, especially at the current exchange rate. Think of it this way – if I give a worker 20 pesos, they can go to Oxxo on their way home and buy a 20 peso chocolate bar. But if an American gives that same worker $1 USD, the worker still has to use .6 of a peso of their own money to buy that same chocolate bar since $1 USD = 19.4 pesos (and it possibly costs them even more if Oxxo has a worse exchange rate that the bank or currency exchange which seems likely since they’re not in the business of subsidizing financial transactions.) Of course, if currency fluctuates and $1 USD is worth more than 20 pesos, then yes, $1 USD is a better tip than 20 pesos and preferable. But I’d argue the exchange rate has to be quite a bit higher than par because there are other costs associated with giving someone tips in a foreign currency.
For example, I would assume the employee receiving the tip has to spend time and/or money to go get any foreign currency they receive exchanged and wherever they do this (bank, currency exchange, local shop, grey market), whoever is doing the exchange is going to take a cut, reducing the amount they received in foreign currency tips even more compared to if they were given local currency which they could spend/save without issue.
Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to relatively minor differences in exchange rates. But, at the same time, I’d think that most tourists are in a better position, both financially and time-wise, to absorb the difference banks and other institutions charge for currency exchange than resort workers in Mexico. So to me, it makes sense for me to buy pesos at home and then use them for tips than to take USD then pass that cost of exchange onto the person I’m giving the tip to (though I do read comments from people who feel they get a better exchange rate from Mexican banks than their own financial institutions at home and honestly, I haven’t investigated that too closely.)
Just in general, I think it’s more respectful to use the local currency (and doubly so with the current tensions between the US and Mexico due to Donald Trump making many inflammatory comments about Mexicans, which, although happening at a much higher level than the average tourist, can also subtly reinforce ideas that Americans think they’re “better” or “worth more” when they use their own currency instead of the local currency.)
As I mentioned, Mexico’s next highest denomination after the 20 peso note is the 50 peso note which is about $2.50 and then a 100 peso note which is about $5 USD. So pesos give you more flexibility compared to USD which mostly has $1 or $5 as your options. This may mean less $5 USD tips but may also mean that people are more willing to give something worth $2.50 USD than $1 USD, even if they feel $5 is too “rich” of a tip. (Even one American I saw commenting said he gave $3 for the maid everyday so that’s basically the same thing – he thought $1 was too low but $5 too high.)
I’m always surprised in these discussions when even Canadians (or occasionally Brits) say they’re tipping in USD. That means people end up losing money twice – once to purchase American bills and then again when the person receiving the tip has to convert it into pesos. (On that note, many Canadians, especially who’ve never been before, think it’s “cute” to leave loonie or toonie coins but my understanding is that most foreign banks won’t even accept non-bills so you end up forcing workers to find ways to exchange this money in other ways. I think it was in Cuba where we actually saw locals lined up outside the airport trying to “sell” loonies and toonies to the departing Canadian tourists in exchange for their unused local CUCs!)
Some Other Thoughts About Tipping at All-Inclusives
In many resorts, it is different people who stock fridges/snacks in rooms and who make up the beds/clean. So if you leave a tip for the maid, don’t forget to leave a separate tip for the person stocking your fridge!
There is a “tipping hierarchy” and that list near the start of this post is a good example of the people who tend to get the bulk of the tips – bartenders, waiters, bell boys, etc. But don’t be afraid to tip others who work just as hard if not harder or who have dangerous jobs – I think of maintenance people, gardeners, lifeguards, security guards, etc. Also, you might want to tip people who appear to be working on commission (our most recent resort had photographers who might have only been paid if they sold packages after taking “free” photos though I’m not 100% sure if this was the case.)
In some countries (especially Cuba), taking gifts (everything from school supplies to toys to candy & gum) is seen as even better than tips since most Cubans simply can’t take their tip money and go to Wal-Mart to buy this stuff. But even in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, we’ve had workers who appear genuinely happy if we offer to leave behind some of items that we either didn’t use or used but didn’t want to transport back to Canada (pool floats, books and magazines, once we even left a small stroller).
Someone pointed out to me that there’s also a hidden cost if you take pesos in converting them back to your local currency if you don’t spend them all. I replied that we get around this by having a pretty good idea of our “tip/spending budget for the week” and if we over-estimate, we keep any pesos we don’t spend in a sock drawer to encourage us to book a trip the following year! 😉
In the end, although I prefer tipping in local currency and think there are more good reasons to do so than to not, I think the more important thing is that tourists see tipping as a valuable way to supplement the often meagre (relative to the rest of North America) wages of resort workers. And ultimately, all things being equal, I suspect workers would prefer whichever type of tips gives them the most money in their pocket at the end of the day! If I give a bartender a 20 peso tip for my drink and the American beside me gives $1USD, I’ve given slightly more. But if I tip the maid 50 pesos and that same American leaves $3USD, they’ve given slightly more.
(Of course, this discussion opens up a whole can of worms about tipping in all-inclusives in general and how that can end up impacting service for everyone in that those that tip more generously may end up receiving better service and how that undermines the point of an all-inclusive in the first place. But I’m not going to go there – I’ll just say that I don’t personally agree with it but understand if someone chooses not to tip at an all-inclusive at all or in a very limited way and I’m also fine is a big spender throws around money freely, even if they end up getting better service or more perks or whatever. But personally, I try to find the sweet spot in the middle – tipping generously but not outrageously – to maintain balance in the world!) 😉
Last year, I did a list of 10 highlights of our winter vacation. We stayed at Moon Palace for two weeks instead of one week like we did at Hyatt Ziva this year so I think the math works out if I only do a list of five highlights instead of ten. 😉
First View From Lobby I mentioned this in my review but I can’t help but reiterate how stunning this resort is. We’d read about it ahead of time had but until you arrive, you can’t comprehend how unbelievable the views are from the lobby, the stairwells, the balcony and pretty much every other spot you might have your eyes open! 🙂
First Supper on Beach The fact that Hyatt Ziva Cancun had a taco/ceviche restaurant right on the beach was one of many things that drew us to this resort and I’d earmarked it for our first meal. After a full day beginning at 5am, the constant “wait and go” of airline travel and finally arriving at our resort in late afternoon where the kids, not as hungry as we thought they’d be, dragged us to the pool first, we finally got to Habaneros in early evening after the sun had gone down. And what a magical setting – a table in the sand, the kids able to go play in the ocean while waiting for our food to arrive and various hotels (including the very distinctive Riu Cancun where we’d stayed fifteen (!) years ago), lit up in front of us, it was amazing. Oh, and to top it off, the food was pretty damned good too!
Foam PartyWe’ve been to resorts that have had foam parties but never managed to make it to one – either because we were doing something else and forgot or the party got cancelled (I never thought of this but someone pointed out that, at least at Hyatt Ziva, the party which has been on Saturday afternoon lately, often gets moved or cancelled if they have weddings in the nearby gazebo. Hard to believe a bride wouldn’t want a bunch of dancers from Coco Bongo and dance music blaring in the background of her special day!) 😉
Double Decker Cabana We’d read lots of commentary online that said it probably wasn’t worth paying extra for since you could get poolside cabanas for free and drinks and food service were provided all over the resort as well. But I decided that it still might be a nice way to surprise Shea with a belated birthday gift by booking a double-decker cabana on the “wide beach” for one day during our trip. This got us access to the top and bottom levels of the cabana, a nearby sunbed, a personal server for the day and a special food menu for the afternoon. I asked ahead of time if the staff could decorate for Shea’s birthday and they did an amazing job. I also brought a bunch of Dollar Store games/toys/books to ensure the kids would be occupied for a full day (mostly) in one location and it turned out to be a very relaxing, enjoyable day.
Narrow Beach We were desperate for a decent beach after a couple years at amazing resorts that had amazingly crappy beaches. And the choice was extra hard with non-stop stories of really bad seaweed plaguing the Mayan Riviera and Cancun areas. But the “narrow” beach on the north side of Hyatt Ziva Cancun was one of the best beaches we’ve ever been at – minimal seaweed, crystal clear water, beach chairs steps from the beach, close proximity to Habaneros for lunch and its wonderful swing bar for drinks (to supplement the servers on the beach) not to mention hammocks over the water. Perfection.
In the end, only having one week instead of two and with it being a much smaller resort then we’d stayed at in the past few years, honestly, we spent most of our time lounging – by the narrow beach, the pool and the wide beach so we didn’t have a lot of things that stood out as unique highlights. But, at the same time, the overall combination of what was available to us (as I said in my review) created one of the most perfect weeks we’ve ever had.
Last Things First! Usually this would be the end of my review but let’s get it out of the way right off the bat:
Hyatt Ziva Cancun is the best resort we’ve ever stayed at!
I mean, based on Ziva’s overall Trip Advisor rating (#6 out of ~200 Cancun hotels when I booked the trip, #7 as I type this, oops, #8 as I edit – wow, it’s slipping before my eyes!), online reviews, the hotel’s own “From the Heart” service promise, Travel Awards won and the high price point, I fully expected Hyatt Ziva to be a contender for the best resort we’ve ever stayed at when we booked it.
And after a week at Hyatt Ziva Cancun, both my anecdotal impression and my only-slightly-more-scientific spreadsheet where I rate resorts we stay at in a number of categories, weighting things that are important to us more highly (beaches, a la cartes, pools) than things that aren’t (proximity to airport, being in or near a city), it is clear that Hyatt Ziva is the best resort we’ve ever stayed at.
But what surprised me was that Ziva wasn’t a clear-cut winner, especially given that we also paid a 25% premium over other resorts where we’d spent significantly less for a week’s stay. (I try to account for this in my spreadsheet by comparing the resort’s final rating with the price we paid to get a “Value Rating” and Ziva still wins when you take this into account but again, comparing its rating to what you paid to stay there makes its win even narrower.)
So the question then becomes, is the price difference between Hyatt Ziva and other similar resorts which may not offer all that Ziva does (but may also exceed what Ziva offers in certain areas) worth it?
A Note on Expectations
In previous resort reviews, I made a point of saying that often, I feel like online reviews are as much a reflection of the person doing the review as anything legitimate about the resort.
Some people will complain about the food on the buffet and some will rave about it and they’re both talking about the same buffet!
So your own personality heavily plays into the experience you have and since I tend to be a fairly easy-going person, happy to be on any tropical holiday (especially when the weather at home is record-setting cold) I rarely find anything to complain about beyond mostly minor quibbles.
With that said, I think the price we paid to stay at Hyatt Ziva influenced me more than I care to admit and I started to find little things irking me in a way they might not at a mid-level resort. “How dare that waiter forget to bring the Fanta my kid ordered!” “I called the desk for maid service since we got skipped in the daytime when napping and they never came!” “What do you mean you don’t have a milder salsa for kids to go with these nachos?” (Er, in hindsight, they probably would’ve brought pico de gallo.)
To me, I kept thinking about how my expectations at this resort were similar to what happens when you look at restaurant or movie reviews.
Sometimes you look at rankings for restaurants in a city you’re visiting and you might be surprised to see that some affordable hole-in-the-wall shawarma joint is the highest rated restaurant in town and a break-the-bank foodie paradise is far down in the ratings. Same with when you watch an Adam Sandler movie versus a Daniel-Day Lewis movie. You know you’ll have a good time at an Adam Sandler movie which will be entertaining and enjoyable. But a Daniel Day-Lewis movie will be more memorable and stay with you longer.
My point is that if you go in with lower expectations, you might be less likely to be disappointed (and more likely to be pleasantly surprised.)
I don’t want to sound too harsh as again, Ziva is the single best resort we’ve ever stayed at for a whole host of reasons. But there was also a tinge of disappointment at different points in our trip that it wasn’t even more perfect if that makes sense?
Here’s a small example – the “narrow” beach was perfect in so many ways. But I found that some of the chairs had broken “pegs” in the back which meant their backs would “wobble” when you sat in them instead of staying firm. At a mid-level resort, this is meh. At a resort getting into the five figure range for a single week, grrr!
How We Picked Ziva I joked that we picked Ziva from the air while parasailing in front of Beach Palace last year but I think the reality is that I began researching potential new resorts to visit, pretty much the moment we got off the plane after our trip last year.
Moon Palace had been an amazing resort (equaling or even exceeding Ziva in many categories) but it was also a horrible beach and I was facing a divorce if I didn’t find a resort with a better beach than we’d had our last couple trips. 😉
I think I may have been down a rabbit hole, researching about brewpubs in Cancun when I stumbled across the fact that Hyatt Ziva had its own in-house microbrewery which, as far as I can find, is unique to any all-inclusive in North America, if not the world.
I happen to like beer so, looking into Ziva more, I saw that it was also unique being on a peninsula in that it featured not one but two beaches which both got good reviews from guests. In fact, at #6 in all of Cancun (recently dropped to #7 and now slipped to #8 as I’m doing some editing of this entry a few weeks later – hmm, wonder why its dropping?), it was the highest rated hotel we’d ever stayed at. (We tend to stay at hotels rated in the 20-30 range out of the hundreds of hotel options most places we stay – except Cuba where we purposely stay at higher end places which end up being like regular hotels in the 20-30 range anywhere else!)
So the only problem is that Ziva was coming in around $10,000 for a single week when the most we’d ever paid for a single week previously was $6600 at Moon Palace last year (and technically, my parents paid that and we paid for the much cheaper second week we ended up staying for). Other than that a couple exceptions (Moon Palace, Iberostar Varadero which is the only resort we’ve stayed at over New Year’s which is the highest of the high seasons), most of our resorts have come in at $4000-$5000 for a week so we were looking at twice what’d we’d normally pay.
But after a tough year at home, I was very much in a “life in short/you can’t take it with you” mode so I kept regularly checking Expedia (which we use since its connected to our points card) hoping I might catch the price changing by more than a couple hundred bucks from week to week.
I don’t know for sure but I suspect that Expedia’s algorithm noticed I was regularly checking the price and so one day at noon, I logged in to find the price had dropped by two grand to a still rich $8000 but a lot more affordable than ten grand. Was it fishing to see if I’d bite on a big price drop? Well, it worked – a quick call to Shea, a couple clicks on my mouse and we’d booked our trip.
“This place better be good,” I remember thinking to myself as I hit “Submit” on the Expedia page.
The Good
And overall, it was really good.
So where do you start?
Stunning.
That’s the word that kept popping into my head all week because, being on the tip of the Cancun peninsula, the resort is surrounded by water on three sides and unlike a lot of resorts where some views are of a highway out the back of the resort or a jungle out the side or even an obscured ocean view at the front, Ziva has absolutely breathtaking views everywhere you look.
This begins when you arrive in the lobby and a giant opening on the other side of the lobby reveals ocean, pools, hammocks in the water, a lighthouse and more.
Small things like being offered a cold towel (and colder drink!) when you arrive are appreciated and I don’t know why more resorts, even lower priced ones, don’t do this. Is it really that big of deal that you don’t get your first drink until the check-in process is done and you have an official wristband?
Speaking of which, this is the first resort we ever stayed at which didn’t have wristbands at all. This was nice for a variety of reasons – from no awkward tan lines to drawing less attention to the different categories of guests (for Moon Palace last year, I found a list online of no less than 15 wristband colours they used to let staff know everything from where you were from to your age to whether you were part of a wedding or a group!)
That lighthouse I mentioned, though not operational, just adds so much character to the resort that I couldn’t stop looking at it and trying to get it in the background of every photo I took!
Another guest I talked to observed that Ziva felt like being on a private island and I thought that was a good way to describe how the resort makes you feel, not just in the views but the laid-back, casual, somewhat isolated (even being a five minute walk from the heart of Cancun’s hotel zone) vibe as well.
If you think of the Cancun hotel zone like a #7, Ziva is located at the point where the two lines intersect. Being at the tip of the peninsula like this also reinforces the isolation because you only have a hotel on one side of you, not both sides like in most resorts that are jammed together everywhere else.
Also, because it is on the tip of a peninsula, Ziva has an incredibly rare feature of having two beaches instead of one. The “narrow” side is calm, shallow and features beautiful clear blue water that reminded us of Playa Norte, the beach on nearby Isla Mujeres that is rated as one of the best in the world. The “wide” side is a bit rougher (but not unduly so due to a wall of giant concrete blocks that form a massive breakwater), is a bit of a walk to get to the water and offers a stunning view of the Cancun hotel zone in day and night.
Another rarity is that every pool at Ziva is heated, not just one or even none (hello Cuba!) Jumping into an icy pool at the end of a hot day in the sun is refreshing (eventually!) but so is slipping into a warm pool in the early evening after the sun’s gone down.
Speaking of water, I loved that the resort offered abundant mini-bottles (333 mL?) of water instead of the larger sizes (500 mL or even 1L) that many resorts offer which I feel ends up with more water being wasted if people don’t finish a bottle before its warm or whatever.
There were some (very) minor exceptions but we found the level of service of a very high level overall at bars, restaurants, check-in and so on. With that said, I didn’t think it exceeded some of the other resorts we’ve been to either – even at the lowest rated resort, you’ll find staff who take their jobs seriously and remember your drink order or give you a big smile when you see them or whatever and even at the highest rated resort, you sometimes find people who are having a bad day or more likely, some misunderstandings happen which might not feel like the greatest customer service.
The high level of service especially applied to the front desk concierge service which I contacted before, during and even after our trip, always receiving prompt, helpful responses from Pamela Hernandez and anyone else she had to forward my queries to. (I’ve mentioned in past reviews that this is something I’ve found lacking at every resort we’ve ever visited – whether I wrote ahead to ask about a birthday surprise or a cot for the room or whatever – often my inquiries would go unanswered or be acknowledged by email but then not followed through on.)
We didn’t use it as much as I thought I would but being the only resort I’ve ever seen with a microbrewery on-site is a very cool, unique feature. (I quickly realised that even with craft beer options, nothing beats a Sol with lime on the beach!)
We found that the room we were in, even at the entry level for the property, had lots of nooks and crannies for storage which was appreciated since, as usual, we packed as if we were going for seven weeks instead of seven days!
One subtle thing I noticed is that Ziva has lots of comfortable seating everywhere in the resort, not just in certain areas (lobby, bars). Instead, there seem to be cushioned seats and couches everywhere you look.
Another subtle thing – at different times, you’d hear classic 80’s rock playing in the background instead of the loud “fwomp!” dance music you often hear at resorts (though there was some of that too – mostly when there were exercise classes in the pool.)
Again, it’s not the whole reason you go but in this day and age, it’s nice to be at a resort with strong, reliable Internet everywhere you go from your room to the beach. Literally the only place I lost signal was riding up two floors on the elevator in the Pyramid Building and really, did I need to check Facebook at that moment? 😉
One final thing – every resort I’ve been to over the years has done a better or worse job of “hiding” the categories they use to differentiate guests by what they’ve paid to be there – some are very in-your-face about Executive/Diamond/Elite-type members with restricted cabanas, bars, priority seating in a la cartes, aggressive salespeople and even wristbands (“Would you like this garish neon orange wristband or pay just a bit extra for this exquisite silver wristband?”) I suspect the thinking is that seeing all you’re “missing” will make you more likely to pay for an upgrade, either that trip or in a future visit. But for me, it just reminds me that I’m a librarian making “medium librarian bucks” and seen as “lesser than” the doctors, lawyers and ranchers who are more willing and able to pay for the higher levels of service. One of the many, many things I thought Hyatt did well was not be so obvious that some guests were paying more and receiving additional privileges – obviously private butler service in the Club Level isn’t really in the face of other guests, a private rooftop pool for Turquoize level guests is fairly hidden and the lack of wristbands makes us all appear equal (at least until some peon tries to sneak into the private Punta Vista rooftop pool and bar area for a looksee!) 😉 On the other hand, there are no wristbands, no reservations for any restaurant, *free* poolside cabanas on a first-come, first-served basis for *anyone*, not just Diamond-level guests (which is very rare in my experience – we’ve only had that option paying an entry-level rate once before at an Iberostar in Cuba), no restrictions on top-shelf booze, no time share presentations or any of the other things that other resorts use to sell guests to ensure higher levels of service.
The Not-As-Good
At most resorts we’ve stayed at, pools had nearby washrooms, usually only steps from the pool and often a la carte restaurants had their washrooms outside but attached so they could still be used when the restaurant itself wasn’t open. At Ziva, unless we missed them somehow, it felt like many washrooms were either far away from pools and the beaches or *in* restaurants (meaning you had to put on shoes/were unlikely to go if you were soaking) which wasn’t as convenient as we’d hoped.
I think there’s only one main foot wash station coming off the narrow beach near the middle of the resort (edit: there are two – one at the far end opposite of the beach from the Habaneros end and one closer to the El Mercado end.) Unfortunately, since we liked the Habaneros end of the narrow beach *and* had a room in the Pyramid Building that we could access via the nearby back stairwell, we often found ourselves backtracking to use the central foot wash station before going up to our room. #firstworldproblems
Because of its unique design, the Pyramid Building has its elevator on the second rather than first floor. As well, the main part of the resort with most restaurants, bars and shops are spread over two levels so we found that we ended up taking a lot of stairs (elevators and/or ramps are available but like the foot wash stations, often it’s more work to go to them than to just climb the stairs. So you end up doing a lot of up and down climbing that you might not expect.) Good to help burn off pina coladas, not good if you have to run up and down stairs three times in twenty minutes getting your kid to the Kids Club to swim with friends then back to the room for dry clothes then back again because you forgot socks!
Speaking of the kids club, Ziva is billed as a family-friendly resort but we got the sense that it wasn’t fully embracing the label. They had a Kids Club (and maybe we were spoiled after the massive not one, not two but three we tried at Moon Palace last year) but it was relatively small. The “Teen Club” was actually just the brewpub in the daytime with one XBox and one PlayStation and not much else [2019-03-21 Edit: Someone on the FB Hyatt Ziva fan page reports that they’ve been told the resort is building a dedicated teen club with an aim of having it open in fall 2019.] All restaurants offered the same kids’ menu but most a la cartes didn’t seem to have baby change tables (at least in the men’s washrooms, maybe they did in the women’s? [Edit: My wife confirms this was the case and again, I may have also missed them because our kids are older so I wasn’t looking hard for them in the men’s washrooms.]) They had a kids’ section in the buffet for most (but I don’t think all) meals but we rarely saw hot dogs/hamburgers/fries on offer. Fries were actually a bit of a rarity generally – even the food trucks served potato chips instead of fries which is probably easier but not as tasty! (Ziva did, however, have Pasteles candy store as one of its “a la cartes” which pretty much made up for any other deficiencies in this area as it was a place we ended up with our kids every night and sometimes multiple times per day!)
I don’t know if there was a formal restriction but people didn’t seem to eat on the beach unlike other resorts we’ve been to. I know Habaneros told us that we couldn’t take food from there to our beach chairs which was disappointing.
We didn’t see many of them but I thought the evening shows were very high quality but a bit “generic” if that makes sense – “Mayan”, “Circus”, “Mexican” or whatever compared to more kid-friendly/pop-culture inspired shows we’ve enjoyed at other resorts. Ziva also doesn’t have a traditional theatre but instead put cushions on the steps leading out of the lobby. For the couple shows we sat for, this wasn’t a big deal (and again, this gives you a stunning backdrop for the shows) but if you have back issues or mobility issues, you might miss a more traditional theatre with chairs that have seat backs and/or arm rests.
Not sure if this is an ongoing issue or (more likely) just while we were there but one elevator in the pyramid building smelled like a grease gun and made me hope that the other elevator would arrive first every time I pressed the button!
Speaking of maintenance, they were replacing beds in the hallway we were in so these lined the hallways a couple days though they weren’t too much of an obstruction (though I still managed to stub my toe on one since I turned while exiting our room quickly and forgot there’d be a bed frame against the wall!)
For a high class place, I was surprised to find a robe in the closet but no slippers (hmm, I wonder if they were in the pockets of the robe?)
Not a huge deal but our balcony only had two chairs when we’ve stayed at some resorts where we’ve had more chairs – always nice if you have a family of four staying together or even guests coming to visit if you’re traveling with others or whatever. Sometimes that meant we had to pull two from the room to make four but here, there was only one in the room as well.
This also wasn’t a major issue for me personally but the resort does take some criticism for being home to a “swim with dolphins” activity so if that makes you uncomfortable, you may want to spend your money elsewhere. (Heck, even the dancing horse in the Mexican Night show made me a bit sad as I suspect a horse isn’t taught to do unnatural tricks like this by being given a lot of hugs and kisses.) 🙁
Speaking of social/environmental issues, the resort doesn’t offer straws with drinks which isn’t an issue with a coconut rum and Coke but can make it a challenge to drink a blended drink. I understand the movement towards no plastic straws in society but I also think it seems quixotic when you’re in a resort where people are massively wasting water, energy, and all sorts of other resources (not to mention jet fuel to get there in the first place) and “no straws” is the thing that’s going to save the planet? I don’t know but I guess if you’re really looking for a resort fully committed to embracing environmental responsibility, you might prefer a place like Sandos Caracol Eco-Resort?
Going back to dolphins, we thought we’d end up being wheedled into a “swim with dolphins” adventure with our kids but fortunately, the novelty of seeing dolphins quickly wore off and the dolphin enclosures never seemed that busy when we went by which might’ve encouraged more begging from our kids. (With that said, we did see one large group of kids which appeared to be a school group and I thought that looked like a lot more fun field trip than visits to cow barns which is what we tend to get where I live!) 🙂
Unlike most other resorts we’ve stayed at, there didn’t seem to be a central meeting place for gathering/people watching, especially in the evening. Usually in other resorts, this was the lobby bar but since Ziva’s lobby bar, Saasil, is behind closed doors, it didn’t create the same effect. (With that said, we didn’t get to Saasil in the evening at all so maybe that’s where people congregate before going for supper or to watch an evening show or whatever.)
Random Suggestions To Make Hyatt Ziva Even Better
Habaneros taco/cerviche restaurant was where we had our first evening meal after arriving and many of our lunch meals through the week. It’s easily the most stunning (there’s that word again!), perfect location of any restaurant in the resort and if we didn’t feel obligated to try other options, we might’ve eaten lunch *and* dinner there every day without getting bored. Seriously – it was that good. Because of its amazing location, I wish it was open earlier – I know these things are available elsewhere at Ziva but wish they had even just coffee and a continental breakfast of pastries and croissants available in the morning which would be a great way to utilize this prime space even more.
I’ve decided that all resorts should have small flags attached to your pool or beach chair that you can flip up when you are ready for another drink. (I also think that each chair should have a built-in drink holder since not every one has a table nearby. It’s not bad to put your drink on the pool deck beside your chair but a bit tougher jamming into into the sand on the beach and hoping no sand gets into your delicious margarita!)
Some Other Thoughts
I mentioned the resort offers free wifi – I think up to 2 devices at any one time across 7 devices total which seems like a lot but they also offer a premium package ($70 for a week with more devices and more bandwidth.) Never an issue for us but could be if you like to watch NetFlix or YouTube maybe?
There was lots of discussion right after we left about a new law that came into force on March 1 in Quintana Roo (the state that encompasses Cancun) which restricts beverage sales before 11am or after 11pm and some confusion about what this meant, especially in a resort where you’re not really “buying” your drinks, other than as part of a package you pay for months in advance with some people reporting being denied breakfast mimosas while others (including us on Saturday March 2) able to obtain one in the main buffet without issue.
Didn’t look too closely at checkout but when we got home, I noticed there was a small (couple bucks per day?) charge on our bill for an Environmental Protection Fee for each day we were there after March 1 which I assume came in as part of those same changes to the laws.
We rented a double decker cabana on the wide beach for one day as a belated birthday gift for Shea (who celebrated a milestone birthday in Canada the week before we left) and really enjoyed it. We knew it featured food service from a special menu but were a bit surprised it was only from 12-4pm, not all day (we had the cabana from 9-5pm.) We almost found the attention almost too much as staff were very eager to ask if we needed any more drinks/food/anything else. #3 and #5 are the two most popular ones though #3 has a slightly obstructed view of the hotel zone from the top level.
I’ve seen confusion about the Teen Club and what time kids can stay in the microbrewery. I think this is because the microbrewery operates as a “Teen Club” until 4pm but kids are allowed in the microbrewery until 9pm (and when our son wanted to go at 5pm, because it was quiet, the staff let him play XBox for half-an-hour while we went to the Mezcal tasting at Saasil.)
By the way, you should do the Mezcal tasting at Saasil. Shea and I were the only participants at the session we attended but it was highly informative and how often do you get to drink something as rare as the pictured bottle? Apparently some of the agave plants used to make mezcal have to grow for FIFTEEN YEARS (!) before they can be used to make this unique liquor.
This is beyond minor but I got a number of large peso denominations in Canada before leaving (500 peso notes mostly) since they’d be easier to carry then I thought I could change them at the hotel like I have in other resorts (Moon Palace even had a dedicated, staffed Money Exchange booth). But sometimes, the front desk didn’t have change for bigger bills and I had to wait until they did – which meant I was less likely to leave tips even when I wanted to.
On that note, I initially thought I might end up tipping less than usual since we’d paid so much for this resort and I honestly felt a bit stretched because of that. But when I counted the pesos I had left over when we got home, I’d say I tipped at about the same rate as I always do – for the maid, after meals, for bartenders and occasionally for others who offer good service and/or who don’t normally get tipped (I often look for groundskeepers to tip as I think they get left out but this time, I didn’t get a chance to – at least partly because I found the groundskeepers a lot less visible than at other resorts we’ve been at.)
The hotel has on-site photographers who will take posed photos at no charge or obligation and then you can go to a kiosk in one of the gift shops to add any photos you’re interested in to a personal account. Then at the end of your trip, you can decide if you want to buy any, ranging from $160 USD for 10 photos to $940 for 70 photos (which one employee told me they’d basically consider an “unlimited” package and give you all photos they’d taken during the week up to 500 photos.) We didn’t intend to use this service initially but once we realised they were getting good shots and we also ended up using them for some sunset photos of our family that we really liked, we decided to buy a 15 photo package for ~$200 USD. The process of selecting photos was easy as the employee scrolled through full size versions of all photos you’d put in your account on a touchscreen computer through the week and you said “No” or “Maybe” as they winnowed the photos down and then down again until you got to the number you wanted. This is a great, easy-to-use system and the only thing I could think that would make it better is if they could somehow incorporate facial recognition like Google Photos uses so the system would automatically find photos of everyone in your party since I’m sure we missed adding some photos to our album that were taken early in the week (you’d have to scroll through all photos taken by the photographers during an entire day to find ones of yourself).
Not to take anything away from the regular Hyatt Ziva staff but I found the photography staff some of the most kind, helpful and friendly people we dealt with all week (maybe because they’re working for an external company and/or on commission?)
Speaking of photography, when did it change that everyone seems to think they’re an Instagram influencer? So many people walking around doing duck face while their partners are shooting photos like they’re on a runway in Milan. (I mean, every time I ate something, I took a photo of the food and joked I’d be posting it to Instagram. But then I didn’t because that’s silly.) 🙂
So if you really look at our market, the all-inclusive market, there is a very, very low percentage of resorts that have a US brand and even the ones that do have a US brand are not run as all-inclusive.
Final Verdict Unlike many all-inclusive fans who find a favourite chain and only book the various properties under that single umbrella to gain reward points and other privileges or those who find a single favourite resort and return year-after-year getting to know not only the property but the staff and the ins-and-outs, Shea and I have always been interested in trying different properties, run by different companies, in different locations.
Because of this, we’ve tried lots of resorts that came close to perfection but always seemed to be missing…something. Maybe they had amazing food but their beach wasn’t great. Or they had a great beach but a crappy Kids Club. Or it was a mega resort with dozens of restaurants, bars and activities but which also required spending lots of time walking to and from all of these options which impacts your time spent actually using them.
For that reason, although it still isn’t the absolutely perfect resort, I’d say that Hyatt Ziva Cancun is the closest we’ve ever found.
It offers so many things we rate highly when picking resorts – not just one great beach but two, great drinks, great pools, pretty good food for the most part, lots of unique “intangibles” from the scenic lighthouse to free poolside cabanas to hammocks over the water to a wonderful beachfront restaurant, all in a very small footprint compared to some of the mega resorts we’ve stayed at in the past.
We paid a large premium for all of these advantages and for that reason, I doubt we’ll return any time soon. But for perhaps the first time in my life, I feel like this is a resort that I could see us returning to eventually.
