NJHousewife - can you please add this to the vendor site? Thanks!!
We stayed at Dreams Los Cabos for 8 days for our Honeymoon from end of October/beginning of November. When we arrived, check in was quick and our room was ready (it was 3pm). We were introduced to Christian who quickly showed us around, got us drinks from the bar and then sat us down and started asking some questions. He talked about getting us discounts on excursions and invited us to a breakfast the following morning. At this time, we had no idea it was a Vacation Club presentation. He said we’d eat breakfast and then hear a presentation about some other Dreams Resorts, etc. We were under the impression that other couples would be there and it was more of a “welcome breakfast”. The following morning, we went to the desk and were asked more questions again, then we went to breakfast with some guy, who then showed us a suite and then did the “presentation” with us (we were the only people). It turned out to be a Vacation Club, similar to a timeshare, and he pressured us for over an hour into purchasing this. We finally got out of it, but were still able to get some great discounts on the excursions we wanted to do. We just felt tricked and didn’t appreciate that.
The hotel is pretty smaller, smaller than we expected (about 300 rooms). They have one main pool, with loud music and activities. It has an infinity edge facing the ocean. The second pool is called the Adults Only/Tranquility pool (no views). Both have a swim up bar, ledges to sit on, etc. There is a Jacuzzi in the main pool. The pools were always clean. They have signs up about saving chairs with towels or objects, which was enforced. If you leave a towel on a chair for an hour, they take the towel to free up the chair for someone else. So we never had a problem finding chairs, even towards the end of the week when it got more crowded.
The rooms were nice and clean and the maid service was amazing. She gave us fresh towels every day, organized the bathroom sink for us (our items), and did turn down every night, which included filling our ice bucket (we didn’t realize that until the last night!). We had a junior suite which included a kitchen with sink, a mini fridge, a sofa, a table, coffee table and 2 chairs. The balcony was also large with a table and chairs, overlooking the main pool and ocean views.
The service at the hotel overall was impeccable. We never had to wait for a drink at the bar, and after a few days, the bartender knew our drinks and had them ready for us as soon as we walked (or swam) up to the bar. Everyone was VERY friendly and pleasant. The Ipod connection was broken in our alarm clock and they brought a new one to us shortly after we asked.
They have activities every day and we participated in some of them. We attended the “manager’s cocktail” which was different than we expected. They spun a roulette wheel and picked a few winners – I won the first prize! (2 for 1 on the Sunset Cruise). We also attended the tequila tasting which was fun. They have a pub crawl for $20 on Wed and Saturday – we wanted to go Wednesday night, but nobody else showed up, so it was cancelled. They had Casino night which was fun (playing for a prize, not money), and I won there too! (a free professional photo – but we didn’t get it because it was our last night). They had a Halloween Party which was complete with a buffet of themed food, a dance show with fire, a band and more. They also had a Mexican show one night but we didn’t attend. They also had Rifle Shooting, water aerobics, volleyball and some other things that we didn’t participate in. (Tip – there is a pool table and ping pong tables at the back end of the Gym that we discovered one night)
Dreams offers a shuttle to downtown Cabo San Lucas (drop off at the Mall) for $6 per person one way. You need a minimum of 4 people if you want to go one way, otherwise a minimum of 2 people round trip. You need to make a reservation with the concierge for the shuttle. The only drawback was that it only runs until 9:30, so if you want to try out some of the bars in the Marina, you will need to take a taxi, which costs $25 ONE WAY (due to the distance). Dreams is about a 20 minute drive from the Marina/downtown, and about 20 minutes from the airport. Taxis are expensive.
Overall, the food was very good. We have stayed at multiple all inclusive resorts, both together, and separate, including Barcelo, Grand Palladium and Secrets, in Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, and Dreams had the best tasting food by far out of all of them. We felt that the menu selections left something to be desired though. We ate at the Breakfast buffet 3 times – it was the same exact food every time. Your typical scrambled eggs (also an omelet station), bacon, sausage, potatoes, pancakes, waffles, cereal, fruit, toast, etc. Everything tasted very good, but a little variety would’ve been nice. They serve the large buffet at El Patio, overlooking the ocean, and also a smaller buffet at The Seaside Grill (right next to it). There is also The Coco Café, which serves coffee and Danishes (open til 5pm), so we grabbed something small from there a few times. We also ordered breakfast room service one time, which was good (pretty much all the same selections as the buffet).
For lunch, we ate at the buffet a couple times or at the Seaside Grill. The nachos were disappointing – bagged tortilla chips, melted Velveeta looking cheese and refried beans. We also tried the shrimp cocktail, Mushroom Brushetta (delicious), Quesadillas, Fajitas, Shrimp Po’Boy, Pork Sandwich (amazing), Turkey Sandwich, Cheeseburger, Ham Rolls, Chicken Floutas and the Cobb Salad. Everything was good. I would’ve liked to see a grilled chicken sandwich or salad on the menu and maybe an option for just chips and salsa (with homemade REAL chips). The Oceana Restaurant is also open for lunch but we never ate there, because I don’t really like much seafood.
There is also an Italian Restaurant (Portofino) and Japanese Restaurant which are only open for dinner. We ate at Portofino twice – I had the lasagna (delicious), and the Raviolis (also good, but small portion). The Caesar salad was great and big and the minestrone soup was good. My husband had the two beef dishes – he said they were good. The appetizer portions are small, so order a couple of them. The Japanese restaurant was our favorite overall. Everything we had was AMAZING, including the sushi (and I don’t normally like sushi).
The Seaside Grill turns into a steakhouse at night. The steak was good, but because the cattle are free range, it doesn’t taste the same as steak in the US. Please keep that in mind. (for good tasting beef, to go Baha Brewing Company at the Marina, or Medano Beach). We never had dinner at the buffet or the Oceana (seafood) restaurant, so I cannot comment on them. The room service food was good (we ordered a couple times from the late night menu), but note, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes for them to bring it to your room. (but at least the orders were correct each time with no problem).
The restaurants that are open for dinner change every day, which was a little confusing. They give you an activity/information sheet each night, which lists the restaurants that are open that day, and what times, but it would’ve been nice to know the complete schedule at the beginning of the week, so we could’ve planned accordingly a little bit easier.
One of the more annoying things is the number of weddings they do at Dreams. We were there for 8 nights, and there had to be at least 10 to 15 weddings during that time. In the beginning of the week the place was very quiet and seemed almost empty (they said they were only at 40% capacity). Then, more and more people started arriving for weddings (one person had 65 people coming), so it got more and more crowded with rowdy people in their 20’s. (We are early 30’s). The one group was jumping over the edge of the pool, and throwing a football across the pool all day. It got annoying, so we moved to the Tranquility pool which was much more quiet and relaxing.
There is a “night club” called Desires Lounge, which is more like a bar room with some tables and a tiny “dance floor”. It was empty in the beginning of the week, but then the large wedding groups started going there, which made it loud and rowdy, so we’d usually leave early (and we WANTED to stay up later). The lobby bar closes at 11pm, so you are forced to sit in Desires if you still want to drink and enjoy yourself. The weddings end at 10:30 pm, and then everybody goes straight to Desires. At one point, we felt like we were crashing a wedding because we were the only people in the room that weren’t part of the wedding.
Overall, I would definitely recommend Dreams and would probably stay at a Dreams Resort again, just not the one in Cabo, due to the distance to downtown and the expense of going into town. We ended up going downtown about 4 times because there wasn’t anything to do at the resort after 10pm, but it got very expensive doing so.
To sum up – the food and service was great, but there are too many weddings which hindered our “relaxing honeymoon experience”. (that might not be an issue at a larger Dreams resort where things can be more spread out).