Oasis Sens del Mar — Hotel in Cancún

Recently made a trip here with a couple of friends in January 2019 for a mid-winter escape.

Initial thoughts upon entering the hotel were good. You're greated with shiny clean grand entrance and a gigantic statue with a bit of a water feature and some very nice aromas. However, this is where the hotel peaked...

Rooms were run down and dated. The first night we were there it was windy and raining. I know I can't fault the resourt for the weather. However, our rooms were on the ground level close to the pool in what one would think is a nice location. Sadly being close to an enterance on the ground level was not all that good for my friends. All the rain that fell seemed to run like a river down the corridor straight in to their room... My room had mold above the shower and toilet along with cracks in the plaster on the wall. I took pictures of the mold and filth in the room, but am not posting from my phone unfortunately (where the pictures are). I am someone who likes to unpack and actually use the drawers in the rooms and not live out of the suitcase when on vacation. Yet I was unable to do this here cause the drawers were so dated and run down as soon as you tried to open them. They came out about 1/4 of the way then fell making them unusable.

Literally next to no night life. They had a band play for an hour on a small stage out by the upper pool... However this was no where near a bar. If you wanted to get a drink you had to walk back inside the resort. Which lead to no one coming out and taking in the entertainment, leading to the atmosphere being flat and boring the entire time. Everyone seemed to congragate around the lobby bar but would quickly dissapear because literally nothing was happening. There is a "disco"... If you want to call Kinky a disco. You can clearly tell its initial purpose when the resort first opened was to be used as a strip club. It is small, dingy and the bar isn't fully stocked so you are very limited to what you can drink when you are in there.

It actually astonished me at how understocked/understaffed all the bars were while we were there. Especially since it is suppose to be "high time for travel. There were moments where the bartender at the pool bar would just dissapear for 10 to 15 minutes. I later discovered it is because he was running around collecting all of the plastic cups. Because apparently they didn't have a porter on staff to do that... The bars were suppose to be open at 10am every morning (lame). Yes I know I sound like a drunk. But there were times when I showed up at 11-11:30 to grab a drink and i was told "we don't have mint for mojitos"... or, "no limes" or "we're closed"...

The food was dissapointing. The breakfast food was bland and dry. Supper was hit and miss, and was average at the best of times. Maki Taco sounds like a cool place, right? I wish I knew, it was never open. Maria Bonita (only open at lunch) had great fish tacos. The salmon at Moonlight was delicious. I never ate at Sakura Sunset, however my friends said it was good.

There is literally smoking everywhere and aywhere on this resort it seems. As someone who doesn't smoke I found it to be disgusting that as soon as I walked out a door I would be greated by a plume of tobacco smoke. Then swimming through the pool and having to push cigarette butts out of my way was also rather disgusting.

There is also no medical staff on sight. Friend of mine got drugged at the pool, and the hotel manager seemed more concerned about the hotels image if he needed to be sent to a hospital. He even stated, "if we need to send him to a hospital. I will need to file some papers, and I don't want to have to do that." Seemed to care more about the hotels image than he did the health and safety of the guests.

Overall, I have no clue how this resort has the start rating it does. I would not suggest staying here. Even if you won it in a free trip. I would say more, but I have run out of...

So let me start by saying…if you are looking for a vacation where you lay next to the pool or on the beach and someone brings you drinks…this is not your place. We arrived on a Friday afternoon and had to wait outside in the sun for an hour for our ride that was provided by the hotel. Then we had to wait in line at the hotel to check in. Check in was very slow. We eventually got to our room and it was really warm. It felt like the A/C wasn’t working. We mentioned it to the man that brought our luggage to the room and he turned it all the way down…and it stayed that way the entire time we were there. We opened the mini fridge to get water. There was no bottled water BUT there was an open can of soda. When the person came by to refill the fridge, we asked for water and he told us he didn’t have any. We asked him if he could get some and he said no. We ended up going to the gift shop and BUYING water because we were so desperate for water. (Side note – we hoarded bottled water for the rest of the trip.) We then went to the front desk to ask for another room, but they said nothing was available. We were told they’d send someone up. No one came. The following morning, we went to the front desk again about the A/C, no water and now the bathroom sink wouldn’t drain. We left the resort for a few hours and when we came back, still no one had been to our room. We went back to the front desk AGAIN about the 3 issues. They finally sent someone to our room. He checked the A/C and unclogged the sink. Then someone stocked our mini fridge with bottled water. We thought things were turning around! We went to dinner at the Careyes restaurant in the resort which costs extra. It was very good! We went back to our room to get something around 8 pm and the electric went off. The entire resort had no power or emergency back up lighting. We managed to find our way outside in the pitch dark using a cell phone as a flashlight. Eventually emergency lighting came on in select areas of the resort. We sat out around the pool for a couple hours and then decided to go back to our room around 10:30 to try to go to sleep. The room was, of course, hot. The power came back on around midnight. Another thing to make note of…there are 13 restaurants. One is, of course, the usual all inclusive buffet with the usual all inclusive food. Some of the restaurants are only open for lunch or dinner. Four of the restaurants cost extra…two of those require reservations. There are two other restaurants on the premises that are included in the all inclusive deal but they require reservations. To make reservations, you don’t simply call the front desk or the concierge. You have to stand in line starting at 10 am at The Box and you can only make reservations 24 hours in advance – not the same day. I stood in line for an HOUR to make reservations and, by the time I got up there to make the reservation, only 9:30 pm was available. Moonlight is their Italian restaurant. I ordered fettucine alfredo with shrimp. The shrimp were tiny and it was all swimming in sauce. The roasted pepper soup was pretty good and had good flavor. The Mexican restaurant, Maria Bonita, was pretty good. The Hippie Chic Grill had decent burgers and fries but very slow. We had dinner at Sakura for my birthday. After standing in line for a reservation for an hour, the best time we could get was 9:30 pm. The food was excellent and our server, Eyder, was great. We also had a couples massage at the spa which was fantastic but unfortunately needed because the beds are rock hard. The coffee shop was nice to have in the morning but there was usually a line because it was always only staffed with 1 person. It was usually very relaxing at the Hidden Pool in the back. The main pooled tended to be more crowded and noisy. The “swim up bar” at the main pool was nasty. Not a place where you’d wanna hang out. So overall, we made the best of our trip but the food was mediocre and the service...

CONSIDER THIS A PSA-PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT. Let's start with the old cliche, if I could score less, I would. This place is a trap. This was my first all inclusive resort experience and it's nothing like what's advertised. As a grand plus guest, I didn't receive half of the stated amenities. You can complain all you want, nothing will be done. It's a package you can't get out of. Read the fine print. The AC never worked. Another guest's AC froze and flooded out her room with the ceiling about to cave in. (Rm 225 4/27) Most of the shared areas are not air conditioned. I didn't receive a room with a plunge pool. Didn't get my own beach area. Not even a robe, did get slippers though, one pair for 2 guests. The rooms are definitely outdated with malfunctioning fixtures that either work, have shorts that you can hear shorting out all night long, or don't work at all. The best description of their food is that it's frozen & americanized. The good restaurants, you have to book way in advance (so much for being all inclusive). The other semi-decent restaurants don't require a reservation; however when you speak to the host to be seated, she will clearly recommend that you show up by 4 to reserve your 8pm seating, which does not make sense to me. In my world, that's making a reservation. A newlywed learned that their first night. (4/26 Schillabar) The wife was in tears, she wanted a nice dinner on their honeymoon. Was politely turned down and educated on being there by 4pm to reserve their 8pm seating. It was really sweet that James and his wife, a couple that had previously eaten there gave up their table for the newlyweds. The service is horrific. One day they can put a table together to accommodate 5 people, the next day it's an issue and you just have to grab an extra chair and the 5th needs to be squeezed into a table for 4. One waiter took close to an hour to get me 2 tacos and forget that I ordered a shrimp cocktail and another friend ordered a ceviche he never received. (4/22 Muerdeme Mucho) When I asked for more napkins, it was an eye roll reaction and i never got them. The evening of the newlywed encounter, I reluctantly venture to Muerdeme Mucho. Reluctant because of the previous service i had received. I ask for a table for 4, the host tells me there aren't any tables available. I can clearly see there is one table obviously reserved for a couple and 2 other tables that needed to be cleaned. I don't argue about it, I simply tell him I'll wait. Remember, I had just come to the realization that this was far from the experience I was owed. You can see the aggravation that he needed to clean the table. And so he did. He sits me and tells me Lupita has offered to take care of you. Offered, as if it was a bother. I have to say, I was extremely pleased with her. She was awesome. There were only 3 service personnel that did a great job, Luipita (Muerdeme Mucho 4/26) Carlos, and Jose (Maki Taco and Caba). You can tell they did a great job, not because of training, not because they were proud to represent the hotel staff, but because it was innate in their nature and personality. The type of personality they portray in their prideful work. Remember, it's a package you already paid for. They got your money so you're f*&^#d. Your travel agency can't do much, they have to discuss it w/ the resort and it's ultimately up to the resort themselves. Parking is another issue, do not bother getting a rental car. We were blocked in multiple times and by one of their employees who had to be called to move their vehicle. Yes, another thing. Any visiting guests have to obtain a 66.00 day pass for every day they visit before they are allowed on the premises. Definitely read the fine print and between the lines. Everything shuts down by 10pm including beach access. Yes, it's adults only that's great, but the negative really...