Golden Parnassus All Inclusive Resort & Spa — Attraction in Cancún

All things considered, this is not a bad hotel. They certainly have their problems, mostly with the front desk. This, the general manager explained, is due to being unable to give his staff any leeway or freedom to do their jobs to a higher level due to local restrictions, whatever that means. When I booked online, it was a 4* but I'm not sure now. 3* superior is more accurate. Anyway, on the positives...the position. Wow! It's right in the middle of the stretch of hotels that are about 13km from the airport . The beach is wonderful and clean. Lovely sand and the sea is just awesome, but very choppy with high, powerful waves that will somersault you, if not careful. You can do a few types of water sports. I rented a jet ski for $90 for half an hour. A bit expensive, but they were not strict with the timing. Boy, that was fun! Got up to 72km, but my backside is v sore today from the bumps from the huge waves! I think I was about 10ft in the air at times. It was exhilarating. I also took a paraglide (not in the normal understanding as the boat tugging you goes slowly, not at speed) in the afternoon as high winds were forecast for the next 2 days. Not as much fun but nice to be up on your own about 80m in the air, circulating around. The staff here are exceptional and very friendly. All of them! Well done. Now for the average (not bad)...the room I'm in is one of the more expensive on the top floor with an ocean view. It's a little tired & needs a face-lift. Now the 4 restos. Pier 12 is for general eating and is more than fine. The staff here are amazing & will post a picture of the manager, a really cool dude. The steak house is really nice. I had a nice Caesar salad followed by filet mignon medium stake - v good meat. I'd avoid the Japanese resto unless you are not used to excellent sushi as we are lucky to have back home. The fish restaurant is very good but watch out for the RIDICULOUS wine menu. Never seen anything so ridiculous and OTT in my life. $2200 for a bottle of the overrated Moet, you can pick up for $50. That's 44 times it's value! Their French wine was equally disgeacefully priced. I was so disgusted I threw the wine menu on the floor. Surely American (rich) tourists ain't that stupid to show off to their friends and pay that kind of money for average bubble or Burgundy? One thing, If you are not there before 9pm, they will not serve you. I had a set-to with the manageress, Jamel, who was a little rude/impolite. I'd been told by the barman earlier I could get served as long as I arrived before 9pm. But that is when the kitchen shuts. They should have made an exception and not given me the stupid excuse that they have to open again at 2pm till 9pm. Plenty of bloody time! The hotel manager, Antonio Torres, is a lovely guy & very professional as you would expect. I spoke to him on 3 different occasions during my week there. The sauna/hamam area is free and clean. The massages are normal US or European prices and very good. Now the BAD. They screwed up at the front desk and didn't order me a hire car ready to leave early on the Thursday for the Mayan temple. I had to organise it myself the next day, get my own change from dollars to pesos, take a bus to Avis and lose 3 hours getting to the Wonder during the hottest part of the day. I also lost 2 hours on my last day, cos I couldn't check out n get a special pass for food & drinks until.I had to leave for tge airport, because they had an error in their system and assumed I still owed some money for something I had paid for 4 days earlier, directly with the Hotel Manager. Always the same annoying, Lazy young girl at reception that was the bane of my life this holiday! She's cute but a nightmare! U r lucky if she can pull herself off texting on her bloody phone 2 get served! Some useful advice 4 those that don't go as part of a package seal n book directly with the hotel. DONT! You will have a nightmare. Everyone rips you off here. From the hotel, the shops, massage salon, the Mayan temple, taxi drivers, everyone - on the dollar/peso...

DO NOT SPEND YOUR VACATION TIME OR MONEY HERE!

My boyfriend and I have never travelled before and thought that it would be a great idea to spend our eight year anniversary at a resort in Cancun, Mexico. After using Expedia we found this place at a great price and the photos looked as though the hotel was well maintained and very lovely. When we got here the staff seemed friendly and attentive, although it was late in the evening and we wanted to eat and sleep as soon as possible. We ended up going to a seafood restaurant in the resort and found that the food was very bland and flavourless. We were thinking that maybe it was just us being tired and travelling all day and so we went to our room to settle down. Immediately when we walked into our room, it smelled of mildew and mold. The room had been repainted many times over and you could see that in the bubbling paint. The best way to describe the room is “the ultimate landlord special”.

Despite these issues, we really wanted to make the most of our 7 day stay here and so on the third night, we met some locals here at the resort and shared some drinks and good laughs with them. Our newly formed group decided to move into the resort bar called the sixties bar, were we awaited karaoke. While waiting, I mistakenly lightly bumped into a ping pong table that was behind me and it fell to the floor. When it fell, I lost my balance and fell on the floor as well. My new friends and my boyfriend helped asked me if I was okay. Before we new it, hot staff surrounded us and were taking photos of the ping pong table, without even asking what had happened or if I was alright. I and my group proceeded to move to a different area to carry on having a good time. Later on, the hotel staff pulled me aside and told me that the table was broken and that in the morning I would need to speak with them to resolve the issue. My night immediately ended as I knew they were going to try to pin the broken table on me, when I couldn’t break that table if I tried.

The next morning I woke up early and went right down to the front desk as I was so worried about what would happen to me. The hotel manager then told me that since the bar tender heard the table fall, turned around and saw me and the table on the ground, that I would be forced to pay the charge for the broken table. I was so taken back as I pleaded for them to understand that I did not sit on the table or stand on the table and that it was just a matter of me bumping into the table with my back. Three of my newly made local Mexican friends that were with me in the bar the night prior saw me pleading at the front desk and tried to stand up for me, as they knew and saw that I did not break the table. The hotel staff then had security remove them from the lobby. I cried and pleaded for two hours, although they declined to revoke the charge or show me any video proof that I was in fact the reason the table broke. I then asked if they could try and build the table to show me it was broken, to which they declined. I did go see the table and could see that one old rusty bolt had snapped on one of the legs. I was then told to either pay the fine of $14,000 pesos, also known as $1,113 Canadian or I would be forced to leave the hotel and that they would charge my card through Expedia. Needless to say I was scared and felt backed into a corner so we decided to pay the fine reluctantly.

We spent the last couple of days hiding in our room out of fear of being blamed for breaking anything further or treated poorly. On our last evening here, we did end up going back down to the sixties bar to say fair well to our newly made friends, and to our surprise we had a female bar tender approach us and tell us that she saw what happened the night of the incident and found that what the hotel did to us was terrible. She also mentioned that many of the other employees felt the same. I did appreciate this, as I was starting to feel crazy.

As I mentioned before, please do not support this hotel. They are thief's and will threaten you if...

I spent five nights at the Golden Parnassus. I got the resort on 200K Southwest points I had little other use for. I mostly just wanted a spot where I could spend the better part of a week reading a large stack of books, drinking cocktails by the pool, and otherwise checking out from my busy corporate job. This resort ticked all of these boxes. I had a lovely week consuming novels while alternating between pool chairs and beach chairs. I drank plenty of Mango Pina Coladas and Mojitos that I was able to get from either the pool side bar or delivered to my beach chair or in the lobby.

While I had a great experience, I think it also makes sense to have the right expectations going in. Before I go further, I just want to say the staff was absolutely lovely. Everyone was attentive without being overbearing. They were kind and all had enough English where we were not stumbling through a language barrier. While I am unsure I would return to the Golden Parnassus, if I did it would because the staff was so lovely.

In term of expectations, the resort is dated and desperately needs upgrades. While the rooms and resort where clean, with immaculately maintained outdoor spaces and a clean pool, the actual building was literally falling apart.

When we arrived, one of the two elevators was already down for the week, leaving one elevator to service both guests and staff, even so, this was not too big of deal. The wait for the elevator was not too long and we did not really have anywhere to be, so no worries here. On Tuesday afternoon, the second elevator was down, but was repaired with in a few hours, it went down again on Wednesday morning but was repaired quickly again. We were on the 5th floor and there was a nice walk up that faced the beach, so the stairs were not too much of a bother. With only 6th floors, the walk up is not too bad, but for those with mobility issues, this could be a problem.

On Tuesday morning, after a normal rainstorm, a large chunk of stucco fell from the building on to our balcony, but housekeeping cleaned up the stucco and the balcony was a great place to sit with amazing views of the beach and ocean (book a room that faces the beach/ pool, the view is amazing.)

The AC in our room was nice and cool, and the linens and beds were comfortable. We had bottled water delivered daily. I think there are a few small improvements to our room I would have liked. We had to hunt around the room for plugs, ultimately finding one behind the TV and the other in the bathroom for our phones. I think a lamp or alarm clock with plug would have been a welcome addition. I think we also missed the ability to make coffee and tea in our room in the morning. I would have liked a coffee maker or kettle in the room to have enjoyed with the balcony. More comfortable patio furniture would have been nice.

Overnight Monday, the celling seemed to collapse on the main buffet area, but the staff was able to accommodate quickly and move the lunch/ breakfast buffet to the lobby bar area. If anything, I actually liked the lobby service better than the buffet area.

This did mean that the room service breakfast we ordered for Tuesday morning was late and we ended up cancelling and going downstairs. I gave up on the breakfast room service after the Tuesday issues and just went downstairs for breakfast. The lobby area was nice enough and I was able to linger over my coffee while reading.

Overall, I had a lovely stay with amazing staff, a quite, clean, pool and beach where I could read, plentiful food and drinks. For my purposes, this lowkey resort, was perfect. I think if I were celebrating something big like a honeymoon or anniversary I would have been slightly disappointed with the humbleness of the resort.

While I am unsure I would stay again, I certain enjoyed my time at the resort and am appreciative at the attentive and...