Manzanillo - Gran Festivall All-Inclusive Resort

I have been to this resort before but most recently was March 2013 for spring break with my family. All I can say is that this resort has gone WAY downhill and fast. I had a terrible time and I was... More>

I have been to this resort before but most recently was March 2013 for spring break with my family. All I can say is that this resort has gone WAY downhill and fast. I had a terrible time and I was so happy to come home to the cold where at least I can go to an establishment and be treated with respect. this resort use to be known for its entertainment but now none of the staff even speaks English and you're lucky if you would get a smile out of any of them. we even have friends who are from the area too go to this resort because it is local to them in Mexico and even they will not be returning after the experience that we had there. They are locals and even they were treated with complete disregard. The staff there cannot be bothered to even answer simple questions let alone put on entertaining show at night or play a fun game by the pool during the day. I am extremely disappointed in my vacation here and although I have been here before and I am a returning guest I will never in a million years ever ever go back to this resort. Like I said it has gone way downhill and I can't see any way that it could be better unless they replace terrible staff!

Our family of 3 stayed there from March 15 - 29, 2013. We would go back in a heartbeat but would definately take some Spanish lessons before going again. The resort was not busy during the... More>

Our family of 3 stayed there from March 15 - 29, 2013. We would go back in a heartbeat but would definately take some Spanish lessons before going again. The resort was not busy during the weekdays but business certainly picked up on the weekends with families from neighbouring Mexicans towns staying from Fridays to Sundays. We have been to resorts in PV and Cancun and this resort was in no way as busy as those places. The entertainment staff by the pool were a great bunch of people. They welcomed us Canadians (there were only 4 families of us there) every day and on many occasions did speak english when explaining games etc. I do admit that most announcements were only in spanish, but heck...we are in Mexico. By the end of the 2 weeks that we were there, I do believe my knowledge of spanish improved from being immersed in the spanish that was spoken everywhere. My 11 yr old son enjoyed all the activities by the pool..darts, jenga, ping-pong, snorkelling classes, water basketball, water aerobics and even tequila volleyball (he enjoyed the fact that every "error" he made during that game I had to drink for him). He got to practice his french with Pepe (from Senegal) and even made friends in the pool with several Mexican kids who wanted to "practice" their english. Due to the fact most of the guests are from Mexico, it was never a problem to get a seat in the sun as most of them were under the shade of the trees around the pool. I agree with other posts that the adult pool had the best bartender (he delivered drinks to us all the time). When you were at the main pool you had to go up to bar to get drinks as there were no wait staff wandering around. The drink strength was just like every other resort we've been to...a little watered down, but the bartender was always willing to make any drink a double or a triple...you just had to ask. The a la carte restaurant was only open the last 2 days of our trip and we did get to go once. I wouldn't rave about it..we've been to other resorts with much better a la cartes than this one. I still find it hard to believe that they wouldn't do a "Mexican coffee" because the restaurant was too busy (it was 1/2 full when we went for the 7:30 sitting). Every other resort we've been to, they practically begged you to order this special coffee...the show alone makes the dinner unforgettable. The food at the a la carte was pretty well the same quality as the buffet, just a better presentation. The food at the buffet was standard resort food. My son loved the fact that hot dogs were available from morning to night. I loved the fact that all types of fresh fruit and salad were available from morning to night. We didn't get to try the omelete bar as our plates were always full with other offerings before we got to that station, but we are ok with that. I liked the 6 different fresh juices they had available every morning. Had never had banana "juice" before and can now say that I have (like a very thick banana milkshake). The morning waiters were all very attentive, a shout-out to Alfredo for making sure my husband's cup of coffee was never empty. Our favourite waiter was Sergio. He worked the Playa bar during lunch and then the main buffet during dinner. As soon as we walked into either place, he was always waving us over and finding a table for us right away. Got us our regular drinks right away and took care of every need we had. He had the Canadians wrapped around his little finger, took care of all of us. The night time shows put on by the entertainment staff were great. 95% of the announcements at them were in spanish, but between knowing the odd spanish word and the wandering entertainment staff that would translate for us we enjoyed them immensely. The dancing was top-notch and the highlight was the black light show. Awesome. The post show dancing at the Danzeon playapa was fun and loud. It was an all-ages venue and the DJ loved to blast out anything with a latin beat and the crowd certainly loved it. The entertainment staff would come in after their show, would play some type of game (name that song, cake eating contest, dance-off, drinking contests) and then the dancing would seriously get started. We usually managed to stay awake until midnight and would then head back to our suite but the music would continue to at least 2am most nights. Our suite was a room. The king-size bed was not that comfortable..very hard. When we go back, I'm bringing mats to put on the bed. Our son slept in the living room on the 2 single beds that also doubled as sofas. He slept like a log and didn't complain one bit. The showers in the room were tempermental...no happy medium..either hot or cold. The room had a mini-fridge and a kitchen table and we were ok with that too. We did have to get our keys re-activated several times during our stay but when we did, the front desk staff were fast at doing it. All in all, we would go back to Gran Festivall. Out of all the places in Mexico we have been, this has been the closest we been to what I believe is real Mexico. I loved the fact that the resort was mostly mexicans and that we were the outsiders. When I travel I want to see and be part of the area where I go...not just someone to be "taken care of". Thanks Manzanillo...we'll be back.

We are a family that travels every winter to a 3-4 star resort. We are not a fussy family but expect a certain level of service and this resort does not have it. We booked Gran Festivall through... More>

We are a family that travels every winter to a 3-4 star resort. We are not a fussy family but expect a certain level of service and this resort does not have it. We booked Gran Festivall through Air Transat and they have it advertised as a ?Family Collection? resort. This resort is definitely not an English family resort. To begin with all the entertainment day & night is held is Spanish. We were there for 2 weeks and it was only the last day did the entertainment staff talk English when we went to complain that this was the worse resort we?ve ever been to for getting English kids involved in anything. They don?t have signs advertising what is going on and all announcements are in Spanish. For the 1st week of our vacation the resort was at 99% occupancy but I?d guess it was with 95% Spanish speaking families. I have nothing against staying at a resort with Mexican families but didn?t imagine that one with such a high percentage of them would be advertised in a Canadian company as a family collection. Yes the Mexicans are great people but when traveling with kids part of their fun is meeting & playing with kids that can speak their language. There was no interactions with other guests because we were very much a minority. We can also speak French and still only found 2 families the 2 weeks there to speak to. ROOMS- We had trouble with the water not draining in the shower for the 1st 4 days. We phoned the front desk 2nd day, twice the 3rd day and again the 4th day. They finally came to look at it evening of 4th day there. There was as a heavy rain on the 2nd evening and returned to our room flooded with water coming in the front door and making its way to the bedroom. We phoned the front desk about the flood and again no one came, we ended up cleaning the mess ourselves using every towel in the room. The next morning we went to the rep and told him all the issues and wanting to change rooms and said he would go talk to someone but couldn?t find anyone to help him. He suggested changing resorts (at a cost to us) because he never gets service from the managers there. We went everyday and we were constantly told there were no rooms to move us to, "come back the next day". After going back a couple of times a day, (most of the time no one spoke English), we finally found someone that was willing to help. We were given a different room on day 4 at 6:00 pm. This resort is definitely not for anyone with mobility issues. The rooms are big but there are a lot of stairs involved to get everywhere. We were in the 2 bedroom units and there are different kinds of them. The 1st unit had master bedroom, a bathroom on main floor, then down steep ramp to living room & kitchen. The 2 single couches in living room are very comfortable to sleep on, they were actually more comfortable then the main king size bed! Second floor had another bedroom with one bed and bathroom. Not much for dressers or closet area when you're a family staying for 2 weeks. The 2nd unit had master bedroom (king bed) with attached bathroom with only toilet. There was another full bathroom on main floor, down a few steps to living & kitchen area and upstairs bedroom with one bed and another bathroom. You really should check out room before you accept because another one we looked at had main bedroom upstairs. The stairs up are very steep and narrow so not great for some. The air-conditioning is also not the greatest so imagine when it?s hot would be very uncomfortable. There is a mini-fridge in kitchen and one television in living room. Rooms are not fancy, could use some upgrading but they are ok. RESTAURANTS & BARS- ? Gran Festivall (International): 7 am to 10:30 pm Las Guacamayas (Mexican): 7 am to 11 pm À la carte restaurants*: Confeti (Italian): 7 pm to 9:30 pm Other restaurants: Las Piñatas (Snacks): 12 pm to 5 pm Club de Playa (Seafood): 1 pm to 4 Las Guacamayas buffet restaurant was only open for supper for the first 3 nights, and for breakfast it was only open till Jan 6th. It was never opened for lunch. The Gran Festivall buffet was closed for supper 3 nights and the only option was the a la carte for the whole resort. The food handling was very unsanitary; there was one lady behind cook station handling raw hamburgers with her hands and then touching all the utensils to put out the food. There should have been 2 workers behind the counter handling the raw & cooked food. Some dishes had no utensils so guests would grab with their hands. When the resort was at full capacity there was a noticeable lack of workers for the amount of guests. When the occupancy went down the buffet was the only option and some days it was only half the buffet open. We were suppose to get unlimited a la cartes/week but instead the a la carte (Italian) was closed for 7 nights out of the 14 we were there. Three of the nights it was open it was the only restaurant that was open for the whole resort so it was very crowded and noisy. The food & service was great when it was actually an a la carte. Las Pinatas snack bar was never opened even though the 1st week the resort was at full capacity. There was a snack bar at the waterslides that was only open for the 1st few days. There was also suppose to be a snack bar at the kids club but when our son went to spend the day they never fed him because the snack bar was closed there also. All in all the food was good, just not much for choices some days when only one restaurant is open. Would have been nice to have the snack bar open and be able to sit around the pool to eat at lunch. BARS_ The drinks are really watered down and not the best quality of alcohol. While watching nightly entertainment you have to walk around the pool to go get drinks, they don?t make it very convenient at all. If you want a drink you?ll be standing in line most of the time, not much for waiters coming around to serve drinks. Around the pool there is no service. The best drinks were from the adults only pool, great waiter & service. This is where you will find the most variety. At beach you have to climb stairs and stand in line to get your watered down drink. At night (10 pm) you have to walk to the Danzon bar which is pretty far from most rooms. They have music and dancing every night. The best waiter in resort was Juan that worked the whole bar most evening by himself; he was constantly on the run. It?s open till 1:00. ACTIVITIES- This resort is advertised as a ?Family Collection? but it is the worse of all our years of traveling to be labeled a family resort. The main pool is huge but it?s all the same depth of 1.5 meters, or 4.92ft, really deep for kids. Our son is 10 years old and tall for his age and still found the pool to be too deep, not great for non swimming kids. There was a small pool beside but that was more for 3 years & under. The pool is also very cold even though it was 90-100 while we were there. They have a nice kids pool with play area if you have kids 6 & under by the kids club. Kids club- We hardly used it since most times no other kids there spoke English. The staff is good with kids taking them for tennis, skating, waterslides (didn?t like the supervision going on there), crafts. It also stated under SPORTS ? A variety of daily sports ? Golf course nearby ($) ? Kayaking ? Selected non-motorized water sports (1 hour/day) ? Snorkeling ? Tennis We asked at the beach about the water sports and all we were told was that we could rent boogie boards. We never saw anyone doing kayaking or snorkeling. We could never tell who a worker was because they don?t have shirts or nametags to identify themselves. They also advertise having paintball there but it was never opened because we were told previous staff had stolen the paintball guns months before. They also had archery but it was only open a couple of times and then closed because they had no arrows and never replaced them in the 2 weeks we were there. One of the waterslides was even closed down for most of the 2 weeks and no one was working on it. My husband and 15 years old went on the zip lining and they were never told how to brake. My husband was coming in and thought he was coming in fast and could see them scrambling on the ground to slow him down so luckily he put his feet straight out and was able to stop himself before slamming into the pole. The workers all looked a little freaked out about the incident. Glad it wasn?t our son because he would have seriously hurt himself. BEACH- The beach only has 18 palapas for 514 villas. We went to the beach the 1st 3 days and had to turn around and go back to the pool because there were never any spots or chairs available. The palapas are old and ripped and the tables that are there are in terrible shape, some even missing a leg. Never saw any one come on beach to clean up so garbage everywhere. There are no signs in English around beach so never even knew what was included. There were other palapas all around but for a charge. In all our years of traveling this was the 1st time that we couldn?t even sit at the beach for the first part of the week. Had a great massage on beach with ?THE SPA?, very reasonably priced at 250 pesos for a 45 minute massage. I had Stacy Victory who is an American that?s been there for a few years. The other therapist spoke no English so she didn?t understand what I wanted but Stacy gave a great deep massage. CUSTOMER SERVICE- . They were the worst in customer service we have had in 26 years of traveling. There was a customer relations room that we went to talk to day 2 and no one there spoke English, they had to get a worker from store to translate. They finally said they would look into our complaints but they were never in the room again. We talked to a few workers at the resort who informed us the resort has been without a manager for months now and they themselves are disappointed with how things are being run. It was my birthday while there and every other resort has made an effort to notice it. My husband told the customer service area and the restaurant and they never even acknowledged it. The resort was at full capacity the first week so we had to constantly stand in line for food, drinks, no where to sit at beach, a couple of days no chairs around pool. By the 6th the crowds left but occupancy went so low that they closed whatever was opened down. We usually travel starting of January and have never had to deal with most of things closed because of low occupancy. We cannot understand how this resort is being advertised as a family collection to Canadian families when nothing is in English. We cannot be the only guests complaining to Air Transat about what is going on at this resort when the rep there is saying that guests that have been going there are saying the same thing. The Air Transat rep there said that he cannot understand how they are still selling this resort and wishes they would remove it from their list of resorts. This was by far the least favorite resort my kids have been to and unfortunately the most we?ve ever spent to go to somewhere. They were so excited to go thinking that the activities listed would be available and not shut down. We always travel the same 2 weeks (starting of January) and have never had so many things closed down at resorts. I?m not sure if it?s just how Manzanillo is with mostly Mexican guests that it?s the slow time in January. We have heard from people that the resort has really gone down the past year.

For adults coming down from Canada, we would rate this a 3 star hotel, but the kids and grand-kids that we brought with us, would rate this a 4 plus star. Between the water slides, the pirate ship... More>

For adults coming down from Canada, we would rate this a 3 star hotel, but the kids and grand-kids that we brought with us, would rate this a 4 plus star. Between the water slides, the pirate ship pool, all the activities at the main pool, and of course the evening show, the kids were totally enthralled. The accommodations were average but clean, the food was "cafeteria" style, and I have to admit that it could get a little bit repetitive, but then, the kids enjoyed it, and that was the main purpose of going to this resort. If you come, please accept that on week-ends this is a Mexican family resort, and guess what country you are in. On average, they are very polite and friendly, and if you try their Spanish, they will definitely try their English. (we have made many friends this way). A little "propina" and politeness, goes a long way to enhance service, as does remembering names of the staff. Taxis can be taken for 90 pesos to downtown Manzanillo, and you can catch the local 6 pesos buses to anywhere in Santiago, Manzanillo, Salagua, and many other points. The main shopping centres are "Commercial" and "Sorianas", but try many of the local family run stores, and beach vendors, as some times you will get a better value for your money. Nothing is perfect, and there will always be some minor problems, but these are quickly solved by some patience and a little humor. The only problem that we find, is that the beach is across the main highway (accessed by a pedestrian bridge), the sand is coarse, and the waves are "interesting". If we were taking grand-kids again we would definitely spend some time at this resort

I recently returned from a two week vacation at the Gran Festivall and cant say enough good things as it was incredible! This resort is absolutely beautiful !!! It really needs to be promoted more... More>

I recently returned from a two week vacation at the Gran Festivall and cant say enough good things as it was incredible! This resort is absolutely beautiful !!! It really needs to be promoted more as there were not too many Canadian vacationers -they all seemed to be at the Barcelo and the Tesoro but the Gran Festivall has way more to offer than the other two (imo). Which explains the Mexican/Canadian ratio which was just fine but made you feel a little unwelcome as since the resort is geared more toward Mexican vacationers there is little to no english spoken by staff so felt very left out of activites/shows/events/etc. or general communciation. And the fact there were not many other tourists there made for a quiet vacation. Even the main staff (front desk, most waiters/waitresses) dont speak english. It is nice to chat and make friends with staff but it seemed some just weren't interested. This would be the only complaint if you can call it that, that i would have. Plus we need to learn Spanish as we will continue to travel to Manzanillo year after year :) It seems staff arent staying too long at this hotel recently which is maybe due to drop in tourism this year people want to move on to bigger and better. The food is good (not as good as the last couple of years), tons of activities, pools are endless, beach and amenities are great and couldnt ask for more. It appears that they are in the process of upgrading the villas which i'm sure will take some time since it is such a huge place and i look forward to seeing the improvements/completion. It is sad to see that tourism seems to be not so good in general for Manzanillo this year as i'm quite sure that explains some of the disappointments at the resort. All in all, Gran Festivall and Manzanillo in general is the gem of Mexico that is not well known and given the chance i'm sure once it is discovered by Canadian travellers it will boom.