Riu Tequila Reopening after Renovations

[Libby]

The Riu Tequila in Playacar will reopen on November 28th after extensive renovations. $15 million USD was spent on the improvements which include a new Asian restaurant called Bamboo, new linens, irons and ironing boards in all rooms, flat screen tvs in Junior Suites, and complete refurbishment of public spaces.

Full article here:
Riu Tequila To Open Next Week After Major Renovation

[Kirbyfan]

We will be staying at the RIU Tequila from December 29th - Jan 2nd so I should be able to give you guys a pretty solid review on how the resorts renovations have gone.

We have never done an AI before so this should be interesting.

[Libby]

Awesome! I'm looking forward to hearing your report. Have you ever gone away for New Year's before?

[Marman]

I've stayed at the Tequila twice....love the setting and its a great bargain $ wise for being across the street from the ocean. Fantastic food and service!Hopefully we can find a deal when we head down in July....

The only thing I hope they did was paint the rooms!

[John]

Originally Posted by Kirbyfan

We will be staying at the RIU Tequila from December 29th - Jan 2nd so I should be able to give you guys a pretty solid review on how the resorts renovations have gone.

We have never done an AI before so this should be interesting.

Are you going to be out and about for New Years Eve, or party at the Tequila? I don't remember much of last new year's eve in town, but people tell me I had fun.

[Kirbyfan]

Originally Posted by Libby

Awesome! I'm looking forward to hearing your report. Have you ever gone away for New Year's before?

Originally Posted by John

Are you going to be out and about for New Years Eve, or party at the Tequila? I don't remember much of last new year's eve in town, but people tell me I had fun.

We have never gone away for New Years before Libby so this should be a fun adventure!

John, we dont really have any plans as of yet for New Years. We thought we'd do whatever is "fun". If you have any ideas/suggestions or know of something please let me know....I'd like to remember most of the evening but if its all a little hazy, thats ok too!

[John]

Originally Posted by Kirbyfan

We have never gone away for New Years before Libby so this should be a fun adventure!

John, we dont really have any plans as of yet for New Years. We thought we'd do whatever is "fun". If you have any ideas/suggestions or know of something please let me know....I'd like to remember most of the evening but if its all a little hazy, thats ok too!

I blame Tony for my blackout. F'in Tony. Granted, I'm the idiot who kept drinking the shots of tequila being offered. Doh!

We haven't really paid attention to official party notices in the past. We generally end up on Calle 10 between 10th (La Rana, Beer Bucket) and the beach (Zenzi). Calle 12 is also a mob, especially around the intersection with 1st Avenue. On Jan 1, 2006, the party was still raging there when my buddy and I called it a day at 6:30am.

Stay tuned for party announcements. We should start receiving them in the next week or so.

[Cuff]

HERE is Biz's video from the 6AM to 7AM stroll last New Year's day...

[Kirbyfan]

My day one initial reaction/report on the RIU Tequila. The rooms are very nice with many great features. The staff is VERY friendly and helpful. The beach is great and in good shape, much better than the RIU Allegero, which has no beach at all.

We ate dinner at the main buffet on night one and the grilled fish was excellent! The rest of the meal was very forgetable with the food being either very average to bad. I suppose that's what you get with a buffet. The drinks are pretty bad for the most part with the blended drinks being anything but frozen, I had to basically tell them how to make a decent margarita. The beer HAS to be being watered down, it doesn't taste right and you can drink it all day and barely catch a buzz.

The hotel and the grounds are beautiful and well maintained.

This far I give it a 5, it's definately a mixed bag this far. We are eating at the steak place tonight so maybe that will drive the rating up some.

[raquelle261]

Originally Posted by John

I don't remember much of last new year's eve in town, but people tell me I had fun.

My recollection is that it was a good night all round last new year's eve in town.

[Kirbyfan]

We had dinner at the steakhouse last night and it was pretty good, far better than the meal at the buffet.

The wine here is ghastly, $100 to anyone that can mule down a decent one in the next day! I gladly drink boxed wine at this point.

I think we are the only Americans stating here. I have yet to meet any others, only Europeans and Canadians this far in 2 days...seems weird.

[Libby]

Originally Posted by Kirbyfan

The wine here is ghastly, $100 to anyone that can mule down a decent one in the next day! I gladly drink boxed wine at this point.

Take a cab to Sam's Club and you can get yourself some decent wine. Or for $100, maybe I could be convinced to deliver it to you.

Have a great time! I look forward to hearing more about your stay.

[susango]

Originally Posted by Libby

Take a cab to Sam's Club and you can get yourself some decent wine. Or for $100, maybe I could be convinced to deliver it to you.

Have a great time! I look forward to hearing more about your stay.

Do you need a membership to shop at Sam's Club?

[Libby]

Originally Posted by susango

Do you need a membership to shop at Sam's Club?

Yes, you do. Thanks for pointing that out. I believe they will accept your U.S. Sam's card. If you don't already have a Sam's Club card and are just here for a short vacation, you can go to Mega, Walmart, Soriana or one of the wine and liquor stores. But it seems to me that Sam's Club generally has the best combo of selection and value for wine and liquors.

[Kirbyfan]

Ok I am here to kind of finish my reporting on our stay at the RIU Tequila as we are back now.

The first thing I want to say, because it really sticks out to me and says A LOT about the resort is that virtually every single person that we encountered that worked there seemed like they really liked their job. (could any of us here say that about our fellow employees?). Everyone would smile at you, greet you sometimes shake hands or even hug you! The staff that works with the children is TOP NOTCH! Joseph, a manager of some sort was all over the place and greeted me by name EVERY time he saw me! The entertainers were really great and very friendly. Each night there is an evening show after dinner and once the show is done virtually all the entertainers that performed come out and mingle with the audience...a very nice touch if you ask me. People that work at this place are happy and enjoy their jobs, that to me speaks volumes about the place.

The rooms, hotel in general and grounds:
Everything is kept clean and looks very nice. The rooms are clean and comfy. They have little extras that we arent used to in Mexico and they were very nice, such as an iron and ironing board as well as a blow-dryer for your hair.

The hotel is beautiful and well decorated. The pools are clean and well done with lots of chairs available to sit in.

The grounds are constantly being maintained and look beautiful.

Grade: 10

Food:

Very mixed bag here.

Breakfast is good at the two locations we at ate with omelets made to order and plenty of fresh fruit and freshly squeezed fruit juices.

Lunch is set up as a buffet and is plain and predicatable. There was little if any change in what was offered each day for lunch and maybe its just me but Pizza, Hot Dogs and Hamburgers arent my idea of what I want to eat when on vacation in Mexico...I can eat that crap every day here! Lunches werent good.

Dinner was spectacular and disappointing depending on where you ate. Dinner in the main buffet was disappointing and forgettable. Dinner in the Chinese restaurant was not at all for me although if you like lots of sushi maybe it would be better for you as I am not a sushi eater. The only thing worth mentioning IMO was the Fried Ice-Cream (is this a chinese dessert??), that was very good.

So thus far we have 2 bad meals for dinner, now on to the other 2 meals we had there. First the Steakhouse and it was excellent! We enjoyed all of the food offered there in multiple courses. The appetizers were good and they even brought us a 2nd plate when we commented on how we liked them. The salad was really delicious. The soup was the only thing that we thought was so-so. The steak was great and done exactly to each of our specifications. The mashed potatoes were nummy and the veggies were also. Steakhouse gets top marks!

New Years Eve Dinner in the main restaurant was AMAZING! They had all you can eat grilled lobster, steak and LOADS of other dishes that I cannot even recall. I can tell you that this was hands down the highlight of the trip with the restaurant being decorated with many ice sculptures, chocolate sculptures and butter sculptures. The desserts were also fantastic. We ate until we thought we might get sick but it was all sooooo good!

Grade: 7

Drinks:

This is where the resort really suffers and makes YOU suffer! The drinks are absolutely horrific! You can drink all day here and not catch even a slight buzz. We both were able to get stomach aches from the lousey drinks though repeatedly, eventually we just drank Pepsi. The beer HAS to be watered down as it tastes terrible and I spoke with a couple others who also said they had drank it all day with no effect. The frozen drinks taste alright but are hit and miss and apparently are all "virgin" drinks. Shots....oh you can be a big shot here when it comes to shots as you can do them tell hell freezes over and not get drunk.

The drinks completely and totall suck! If you dont plan on drinking then adjust my overall score up 2 points.

Overall score: 7