The main dining room is the Escanto. The Luna Azul and the Miramar are the full-service restaurants. The Sirena Restaurant is the one that serves children during the day.
For reservations at the Luna Azul and the Miramar, sign up at the desk at noon the day before. There's usually a line for these reservations, so head up 30 minutes or so in advance of noon.
In the restaurant, it pays to survey the offerings before starting to put food on your plate. There are many great offerings and some things change each day. Watch for shrimp, crab, escargot, Beef Wellington, lamb, etc. (Friday night seems to be especially nice, probably because it's most G.M.s' last dinners.)
Most of the food items have nice identifying tags in three languages.
The desserts are great, too!
The chocolate bread is super!
Most of the covers on the hot items have closers that lower them slowly. There are a few without the closers that drop and bang if you're not careful.
The teas are great.
There's beer on tap at the Escanto. Help yourself!
There are four major sections in the Escanto Restaurant. Each has a different theme.
Most people skip the saucers on the coffee cups and just take the cups.
House wine is free at dinner. Just ask for house red or white.
If you want a mixed drink at dinner, you need to bring it with you.
Wines by the bottle are available for purchase at dinner. Generally, they're expensive. The house wine is great.
The packets of raw sugar tend to absorb humidity, so they take a bit of work to get the sugar out.
There really isn't any tipping. You can get any food service or drink service and there's no expectation and no opportunity for a payment or tip.
There is no food being served from 12:00 noon to 12:30 PM. (Heaven forbid!)
There are four versions of a hotel newspaper put out each day -- US, Canadian, French, Spanish. Get them at reception each day. You won't find a newspaper stand or newspapers around Club Med. Click here for some samples.
The Room Directory has some good information in it, but it's tricky to work through because it rotates Spanish, English and French on the pages rather than have a section for each language.
Opening the door to your room can be tricky. It seems that holding the white stripe to the left and moving the key from right to left works most of the time.
The safe in each room is key to protecting your valuables. Lock everything up and just take your room key. (We heard of no problems at Club Med, but the safes can be opened by a person at each resort. One Ixtapa hotel had a guest complaint that the owner had opened their room safe and removed cash on two occasions, so care [and locking up limited amounts of cash] is probably a good idea.)
If you "blow it," the reception desk can send a maintenance person who can open the safe for you. There's no charge. (We weren't the only ones who needed this service!)
Beware the alarm clock. The last guest may have left it set and it could go off at 3 AM!
To turn the alarms off, press the Alarm Mode key until both alarm markers go off.
In the basic rooms, there's a shower, but no tub.
The sink and shower water are controlled by a single turn-knob. The more you turn it on, the warmer it gets. This isn't apparent because often the water that first comes out the warm water pipes is cool and the first water out of the cold water pipes is warm!
The telephone-type shower head can be pointed down so that you can adjust the water temperature before getting wet.
The suites are in the Sol building that include a concierge who will handle just about anything you want. They also include room service and have access to a private part of the beach.
The resort had a major make-over that was completed in December 2007. The place is in really good condition. There were a couple of issues in our room: broken decor and a pulled safety chain. We were surprised that these hadn't been fixed. (The door has a locking latch, so I don't know why anyone would need the chain.)
The landscaping is beautiful. It's like walking through an arboretum.
The little stands around the resort are to collect your cups and glasses. Just drop them off.
They reportedly spray the grounds twice per day against mosquitoes. We didn't see a mosquito the entire stay, but a few other folks did have a few bites. There is mosquito spray provided at the restaurants and we saw a can of it provided in the suites.
