TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Background: went June 27-July 4 41 and 35. Wife chills, I am a sheep dog that needs constant activities. SATURDAY - Arrival was easy. Arrived around 1:45 or so. Given a welcome drink, check-in was a breeze, no line, no people at all (obviously this can vary depending on the time and day). Fernando checked us in and upgraded us to the 15th floor (which is the Preferred floor). We didn’t even ask and he just did it. What a great surprise. Big thanks to him. - Then we got ferried over to a rep who gave us the spiel about the resort coupons and “here are the deals I have for you”. Only took 10 minutes, lady was nice, but it’s how they make commission— you get the “deal” but only if you show up to a 90 minute presentation the next day around breakfast. We said we’d think about it— and just tossed the coupons in the bucket in our room. Nothing we’d use and with the ???? exchange rate, lol no thanks. - Met Mauricio on the 15th, he’s the butler. Super nice kid, showed us the room, pretty much can get whatever you need, always asking how things are going ????. We didn’t use his services all week, just a hi and bye. The top floor has its own little bar area where he can fix you a drink or two. The main Preferred “lobby” is in the other building by the jacuzzis. - Room was nice. Double sinks, nice shower, jacuzzi tub, spacious. Beds are hard as ??, so be warned. Oddly enough, I only tossed and turned a bit but still woke up refreshed each day which doesn’t make sense haha. View was incredible. - Pool time. Essentially the swim up pool and the pool volleyball pool and a little shallow tanning pool. Both are nice. Wasn’t too crowded at all. Now.. best part.. arriving down there at 3sh.. lots of seating still. Not prime seating mind you, but the towel game is NOT as much in affect here. Pleasant surprise. Lol but if you look at the Dreams side from our Birds Eye view on the top floor… that side is literally littered with orange towels from 7am on. It’s crazy. - Music plays constantly on the Secrets side, so you don’t have competing speaker systems which is nice. HOWEVER…. By day 3 (fast forward), the entertainment guys play the same songs over and over and over and over. If I hear Celebration by Kool & the Gang one more time, I might qualify to join the band. - Entertainment gents: nice guys, we met Noe and Carlos today. The times of the activities are a little off from the times on the TVs, but whatever: there was beach volleyball on both sides every day, Dreams first then Secrets, so I got my fill over the week and that is all I need coming from where we live. - Dinner. We did the Mexican restaurant and it slapped. Three boys in there made the night for us: Cesar, Isaias, and Saul, especially Saul. He was hilarious and a great server. Thank you guys! Food was great, fast, hot. I was blown away. - No shows, no entertainment for us. We get it going during the day and hit the hay at 9pm or earlier on most nights. Day drinkers where you at? ?? SUNDAY - We try to keep our routine on vacay, so we hit the gym every morning around 7:30. - For our people: DBs all the way up to 110lbs; three benches (two that adjust), lat pull/seated row, angled machine press (shoulder to flat), leg extension/leg curl, other cable tower had adjustable pulleys up and down, every cable attachment you’d need (nice surprise), decline ab bench, horizontal leg press, adductor/abductor machine, bench press, lots of treadmills, bikes, stretching area. No bands, foam rollers, med balls, and no squat racks. - Breakfast. We did the buffet every morning and sat outside. Service was great, attentive. Not a massive RIU spread, but a very nice spread. Tons of fresh fruit options, a build your own avocado toast section for the instagram basics out there, crepe station, omelette station, taco station, an insane amount of fresh juices, many hot options, and your standard breakfast fare. All in all, nice work! - Pool time. Starting noticing the cleanliness. Monday update. - First day of volleyball. Amazing. Love it when you get an actual game going with three touches (hats off to players on both sides). - Now today was the treat. Canada played South Africa and Secrets has this INCREDIBLE set up for the matches. I guess people can come in off the street to watch and pay to get in. The Mexico game on Thursday is going to be madness I hear. Words can’t do it justice. Jerseys hanging everywhere, in glass cases, the actual viewing area has two massive screens and they brought in stadium seating. So imagine going to your home stadium (much more scaled down) and watching the games on the jumbotron. Same idea. And the floor is an actual turfed soccer pitch with lines on it. Full bar. Nice work Secrets… it was very cool. And we won, so let’s go!???? - Back to the pools. Asked Noe if we could play a set on the speakers that we like and he happily obliged. Lol, problem is that everyone’s tastes are different, and hopefully ours was well received (Purple Disco Machine seemed like the vibe ??). - Went to the Japanese spot for dinner. Service was fine, but for the rest of the week, Tamarindo set the bar, so it’ll be tough to match. Food was good. Not a mind blowing experience. MONDAY - Workout, breakfast, creatures of habit. - Pools. The music. Good Lord. It’s not even the genres at this point because we can get down to anything, but it’s the same songs over and over. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s wild. They need to do a better job here. Have like 20-25 playlists over the week, mix and match for the time of day. There’s no DJ who live spins at the resort (sorry friends), so the music needs step its game up. - The main pool gets pretty gross by 2:00. Cloudy, crum in the corners.. not fantastic. The volleyball pool has stayed quite clean all week though. Same can be said for the Dreams side. But hey, we have floaties, so all good. - Grounds themselves are immaculate, so nice work there! - Emilio served us all day today. Find him, sit in his area. He went above and beyond. Take our money sir, you earned every peso. ?? - I should mention on the Beach: the water was a wonderful almost-light blue this week. Not Cancun esque, but very very nice. Warm as well, but yes after about a metre or two in, it gets quite rocky. Good stretch for walking though. - Dinner was Italian. Servers were awesome, shout out Enrique. Food was meh and slow to come out. Gordon Ramsay would have called someone an idiot sandwich with the risotto quality. I had to order it to see. We laughed and it got eaten so all good. Lasagna was really good though, but least favourite based on food quality so far. - Last couple days we did the Preferred Club lobby for lunch.. nice little spread and ACd. Bartenders there are quite talented as well. Jaime seated us and offered some drink suggestions.. he’s a really nice guy. It’s a small area, like two tables, pretty much grab and go. TUESDAY - more of the same. - Emilio is THE guy in the pool area. We have him serving until Wednesday then it’s his day off. - Dinner at Oceana. Service was good, food was not bad. - Mexico game was bananas in the area they set up. We didn’t go because it was like $100 on top of being a guest already. Pretty steep, but sounded like a good time. WEDNESDAY - The music changed! Trance-esque most of the day, but they picked a station or something at least because you heard the odd commercial. Not our cup of tea after a few hours, but all good. - Smoked a cigar on the beach around 5 away from people on a lounger in front of the big cabanas you can rent; no issues from staff or security. - Quiet day for activities outside of pool volleyball. The guys do a good job, but times of things are definitely not set in stone from what you read on the board. - Did the Mexican restaurant for dinner again. Saul absolutely carries that place along with the rest of the guys. New server tonight was Edgar and he was good too. It’s been by far our favourite for food and service. Just the little things that go above & beyond that no other restaurant has touched yet…. Outside of breakfast at the buffet, they’ve been awesome there too, but Tamarindo is on another level. - We walked all the way to the middle of the malecon by the bridge where Oscar’s is this evening. Felt safe the whole time. It was around 7 and we got back around 9. Walk itself is further, but pretty good. Flat the whole way. Bring some water. - Only complaint after this day was the lobby activities are really loud at night. The sound just echoes out into the courtyard and up.. even on the 15th floor it’s noticeable. I suppose we could not go to bed as early either lol. Personally think karaoke is dumb too, but that’s just an opinion. But there is the Dreams, so kid friendly option I suppose. THURSDAY - Entertainment guys also let us jam to a playlist again today in the later hours of the afternoon before they shut the music down which was nice. - I would say Carlos is the el capitain of the team, as he was off until later in the afternoon and it was a slower entertainment day. He seems like the leader of the pack ?? - While we are not prima-donna’s, not having Emilio at the pool was a downer. After being spoiled by him for the whole week, the rest of the guys (at least in our section) were not as strong. Lots of wait time, less drink creativity, and little things checking in, bringing water without us asking, remembering our orders, etc. We can get out of the pool to get a drink lol, but when it’s always at your table, floatie, wherever, it’s nice. Looking forward to having him back tomorrow! - Did the buffet for lunch on the Secrets side and dinner yesterday on the Dreams side just for a change. Secrets side in general we’ve noticed the service is better. Good offerings at both spots. Highlight was having chicken, steak, and shrimp all grilled on the spot and making our own surf and turf plates that were ???? FRIDAY - Last full day. - Pretty much the same as usual. - Crazy 10s wind storm around 2-3pm picked up all the umbrellas and blew some of them 20 feet in the air. It was insane. But the staff from the servers to bartenders to entertainment team were great at helping people and keeping things calm. It was crazy. Never seen anything like that in my 20 years of travel to Mexico in the summer. SATURDAY - Our flight was at 6, so we left at 3. Mauricio was able to give us a late check out at 1, but the hotel does not have any “hospitality” rooms where you can quickly shower and get changed if you have a later flight. That would have been ideal, because we could have used the pools til later. 3 hours was a long time to sit around and wait for transport, but oh well. - Had a nice chat with Jaime before we left in the Preferred Club, he inquired about an old arm/neck injury I had and provided me with a quick massage as his background is also in this area. Really solid guy. OVERALL - We had a great week. The Secrets side was far from capacity but not dead. That was nice. - Servers and staff were great with some going above & beyond: some notable names: E Team- Carlos, Noe, David, and Erik. Really friendly guys who are happy to oblige your requests and get activities going. They kept the week fun!; Emilio as a pool server and Pedro who was in the breakfast buffet and soccer stadium. Everyone was very friendly. We were impressed. - Preferred Club is not worth it I’d say. Now we got upgraded for free, so no complaints and thank you, but for those that paid, you would be disappointed I think. Liquor selection is the same everywhere, there’s no dedicated pool, they do have the PC lobby and that’s nice to get away for a bit, but that’s about it. - We wouldn’t be back just because we don’t do the same place twice, but would recommend to others. It’s more chill, but there’s definitely activities to keep you busy. The resort has been around for probably close to 15 years, so it’s behind other Secrets, but it isn’t showing its age too much which is a plus. But it’s not your new Secrets experience. - All in all, check it out. Staff are fantastic and it’s close to downtown if you want to get out and about.

This was our third stay at Vallarta Bay. It’s always a spectacular experience. Location is perfect, the resort is 5Star! Our butler Jose was truly the BEST. He accommodated us with anything at any time. I highly recommend Secrets Vallarta Bay

Amazing atmosphere and service! Resort was extremely clean. If you are travelling with no children I highly recommend the Secrets side. Fabulous room on PH floor. Mauricio our butler was terrific. Animation team - Toto, Noe, Erick, and Carlos were excellent with activities and good times! They worked so hard in the heat. Food great! All around fantastic week… Will return!

This was a wonderful trip. Caleb and Alexandro were amazing for pool service. Humberto was the best server ever at Oceana. Jimmy and Aidee were an awesome duo for entertainment. We saw whales from the beach!

Sharing a concise overview of the positives we experienced, along with a concern we want addressed regarding the Mexico World Cup game event. PROS (Outstanding team members and service): Karen Araiza (Restaurante Tamarindo): Exceptional friendliness, attentiveness, and service; she also made the best guacamole. We enjoyed her hospitality so much we visited Tamarindo twice. Hector (Oceana): Went above by seating us close to closing time without making us feel rushed; offered great suggestions and delivered friendly, attentive service. Mauricio Rios (15th floor): A truly wonderful and approachable floor concierge who provided superb customer service, kept us updated daily, and made us feel seen. He also offered excellent day-of recommendations. Hector (pool bar): An excellent bartender consistently delivering high-quality service. Jorge (pool bar waiter): A 10/10 in service. He was always on top of our needs and ready to assist; often had drinks ready before we asked. CONS/CONCERNS: Mexico World Cup game charges: The resort charged guests to watch the game in the tennis court area (approximately $1,000 pesos per person, about $60 USD). While the property is all-inclusive and adult-only, this event did not feel aligned with that model. We felt compelled to purchase tickets because our options at the resort were very limited, and sadly the event was very poorly planned. The food arrived at halftime and was NOT the new or special experience promised; it mirrored items readily available at the resort. Charging guests extra for this event was in poor taste. We talked to employees about this before and after the event and they did nothing about it. It left us with a negative impression. Overall, the staff and service quality in several areas were outstanding and greatly enhanced our stay. Our experience would have been even stronger with a reconsideration of the World Cup event charges and a more guest-centered approach to that particular offering.