Occidental Day Pass

[saltshell]

Anyone spend the day at Grand Occidental? If so, how was it?

[c-leg5]

On 1/3/2019 at 8:29 AM, saltshell said:

Anyone spend the day at Grand Occidental? If so, how was it?

 

Have done day pass to Allegra (sister hotel) and spent two weeks at Occidental, both before they were taken over by Barcelo - any specific questions?

[saltshell]

Just wanted your overall impressions. Clean? Food quality? Ambience, etc. Thanks for replying.

[Husky61]

On 1/3/2019 at 6:29 AM, saltshell said:

Anyone spend the day at Grand Occidental? If so, how was it?

Have you researched the reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp?

[saltshell]

One review on trip advisor.

[c-leg5]

15 hours ago, saltshell said:

One review on trip advisor.

 

Here is a link that may help and my previous comments.. Keep in mind this is all from before the take-over by Barcelo so there may be changes.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2225978-occidental-grand-day-pass/?tab=comments#comment-47708573

 

You will find more threads if you put “Occidental” in search engine for this forum. Search engine is somewhat difficult with CC upgrade  (on iPad at least) but go to Cozumel forum then search/topics/ cruise critic community (and search for Cozumel in drop down list)

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by c-leg5

[cruisemein]

My wife and I were there this past Thursday on a day pass.  We were not impressed.  Water was murky, unable to find one lounger on their beach area, many were occupied but most had towels draped on them.  We ended up at the pool, which was fine.  The food was so so, not much of a selection (buffet style).  Once we flagged down a bar waiter, he was good at bringing our drinks.

We prefer Nachi Cocom, but since we had missed our stop in Roatan the day before(too windy to port) the ship was able to stop again in Cozumel, but too late to get reservations at Nachi.  We have done many day passes in the Carribean and this one was our least favorite.  However there were not many kids there and there was a separate adult pool.  There was only a limited number of cruise guests at the resort (you could tell by the wrist bands).

[c-leg5]

4 minutes ago, cruisemein said:

My wife and I were there this past Thursday on a day pass.  We were not impressed.  Water was murky, unable to find one lounger on their beach area, many were occupied but most had towels draped on them.  We ended up at the pool, which was fine.  The food was so so, not much of a selection (buffet style).  Once we flagged down a bar waiter, he was good at bringing our drinks.

We prefer Nachi Cocom, but since we had missed our stop in Roatan the day before(too windy to port) the ship was able to stop again in Cozumel, but too late to get reservations at Nachi.  We have done many day passes in the Carribean and this one was our least favorite.  However there were not many kids there and there was a separate adult pool.  There was only a limited number of cruise guests at the resort (you could tell by the wrist bands).

 

As I said above it has been over two years since we stayed there and there has been a change of management, so I don't know what changes that has made.

 

However last week was still the New Year holiday week so I am not sure I would have chosen any hotel resort for a day pass at that time. I am not surprised you had difficulty finding a lounger on the beach they have restricted areas for hotel guests of different levels (like the ships!) and I am sure day pass visitors don't count highly. 

 

We were at Nachi mid-December and found the beach to have a lot of seaweed that wasn't cleared up until after mid-day, (probably due to storms) - it can be a factor at this time of year in Cozumel and stirs up the sand so not sure if that was what happened to you since you said you had had winds.

 

That said I think there is a big difference between the experience I would expect at a beach bar like Nachi and a resort hotel.