After the Hurricane.....

Has anybody who owns Timeshare to the Crown Paradise visited there since the construction has been completed after Hurricane Wilma? I am curious to know what changes have been made, such as the restaurants changing places, and how the beach looks now that the sand has been dredged from the ocean to re-build it. I heard that reservations are no longer necessary for the restaurants and there is a gazebo on the beach now. Also, I heard that the lobby has been remodeled. We will be going there at the end of January (can't wait!!) and I am curious what to expect! One more thing: has anybody ever stayed in a Studio room, and how is it? This year I traded in one week of my one bedroom timeshare to get two weeks in a studio....I do love the one bedroom, but this way I doubled my time and only had to give up one week....Anybody stay in a studio, and what is your opinion? Thank you!!

kathy787 wrote:

Has anybody who owns Timeshare to the Crown Paradise visited there since the construction has been completed after Hurricane Wilma? I am curious to know what changes have been made, such as the restaurants changing places, and how the beach looks now that the sand has been dredged from the ocean to re-build it. I heard that reservations are no longer necessary for the restaurants and there is a gazebo on the beach now. Also, I heard that the lobby has been remodeled. We will be going there at the end of January (can't wait!!) and I am curious what to expect! One more thing: has anybody ever stayed in a Studio room, and how is it? This year I traded in one week of my one bedroom timeshare to get two weeks in a studio....I do love the one bedroom, but this way I doubled my time and only had to give up one week....Anybody stay in a studio, and what is your opinion? Thank you!!

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I just got back from Cancun on Friday, 1/26. It was my first trip to Crown Paradise Club.

Nobody mentionned any new restaurants and they still do take reservations. The fitness club/weight room was destroyed during Wilma and has not been re-opened yet. They moved it into the 2nd Tower and only had about 6 machines, walkers, bikes, etc. It was very limited at best.

They told me that about 95% of the rooms have been re-opened thus far and work was being done as fast as possible as they are at almost 100% capacity mid Feb.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom in the 2nd Tower. I also looked at the 2 & 1 bedroom suites in the old 1st tower. I liked both suites better and those are beautiful. Our room was large and nice. The only problem we had was that it was very dirty. This was our first trip to this resort and maybe our last due to the lack of cleanliness. I do not believe that they swept or washed our floors once during oour stay. We are not neat freaks, but we have 2 little kids and we did not allow them to crawl on the floors, thus we cleaned the floors ourselves.

The restaurants were nice and all other service was good for the most part.

Thanks for your reply! You left Cancun on the day we arrived there. I got home yesterday, 2/9/07, after spending two weeks there. This message is a bit of information for all those people planning to visit Crown Paradise in the near future. We found many changes from the last time we were there, most of them not to our liking. I had exchanged my one bedroom timeshare for a studio when I made my reservation for 2007, so that I could get two weeks while only using one week of my timeshare allotment. After spending several years in a one bedroom suite in the new tower and always being extremely pleased there, I soon realized I made a big mistake by making this exchange, as I found the studio to be old and not updated at all, and apparently the hurricane took its toll on the appliances that were in the room. The air conditioner never got the room cooler than 25 degrees celcius, which is about 75 degrees fahrenheit. I complained constantly and they kept telling me it had been fixed - not true....Finally after a few other malfunctions occurred in the room, I was upgraded to one of the Crown Club Rooms, which I loved. So, lesson learned was to stick with my one bedroom suite, and never trade it in for a studio, just for the sake of gaining more time there. Onto other matters - yes, I did find that the restaurants still needed reservations, and so often we were told they were booked up, but every time we were in any of the restaurants, they were never full. I don't know what that was all about..... The French restaurant, which was where the Italian restaurant used to be located pre-Wilma, was very wonderful, and truly elegant. The Italian restaurant, now only opened for lunch, was mediocre at best. Previously, it was really great but the menu is very limited now. Wayne's Boots was good most of the time, however, the bull had broken during the first week we were there, and as of yesterday, it had not been fixed and therefore, a lot of people were disappointed not to be able to get the bull riding experience. The worst change was the fact that the entertainment staff who had been a major part of the Crown Paradise's appeal, had all been fired after there was a split of hotel ownership. The new management has decided they wanted to 'tone down' the activities, which was a big mistake. The previous entertainment staff had the people rocking the whole time, adding to the enjoyment of one's stay at the hotel. Now, they hardly participated in events with the guests at all, which made the vacation seem much less fun. What a shame the new owner thinks this is the way to keep people happy. I was with a group of 20 people, and even though we had fun despite the changes, we all feel we would not encourage anyone to buy timeshare there, unless things go back to the old way of doing things. Another negative point was the fact that the lobby used to have lots of chairs and tables for people to congregate at night. Now, with the lobby bar being located where it is in a new spot, and the new pond in the middle of the lobby, there is no real comfortable area to sit around and mingle at night. There are only 3 or 4 tables near the lobby bar, and they are usually occupied by people who smoked quite heavily, which made it difficult for the non-smokers to breathe!! We did request the chairs to be returned to the lobby, but were told it wasn't going to happen. On the upside - the waiters are all wonderful and are at your beck and call. The food was very good at the Japanese restaurant, and LaPalapa had a good variety of items every day. The beach has gained a good deal of sand post Wilma, and there are more chairs than ever on the beach.

Crown Paradise does still need some re-vamping, and if someone is looking for luxery and upscale food, this is not the place to go. However, if you have children, they do have a great kids' camp, a different show each night in the theatre, and the price is right for the kids, since those under age 12 are free.

kathy787 wrote:

Thanks for your reply! You left Cancun on the day we arrived there. I got home yesterday, 2/9/07, after spending two weeks there. This message is a bit of information for all those people planning to visit Crown Paradise in the near future. We found many changes from the last time we were there, most of them not to our liking. I had exchanged my one bedroom timeshare for a studio when I made my reservation for 2007, so that I could get two weeks while only using one week of my timeshare allotment. After spending several years in a one bedroom suite in the new tower and always being extremely pleased there, I soon realized I made a big mistake by making this exchange, as I found the studio to be old and not updated at all, and apparently the hurricane took its toll on the appliances that were in the room. The air conditioner never got the room cooler than 25 degrees celcius, which is about 75 degrees fahrenheit. I complained constantly and they kept telling me it had been fixed - not true....Finally after a few other malfunctions occurred in the room, I was upgraded to one of the Crown Club Rooms, which I loved. So, lesson learned was to stick with my one bedroom suite, and never trade it in for a studio, just for the sake of gaining more time there. Onto other matters - yes, I did find that the restaurants still needed reservations, and so often we were told they were booked up, but every time we were in any of the restaurants, they were never full. I don't know what that was all about..... The French restaurant, which was where the Italian restaurant used to be located pre-Wilma, was very wonderful, and truly elegant. The Italian restaurant, now only opened for lunch, was mediocre at best. Previously, it was really great but the menu is very limited now. Wayne's Boots was good most of the time, however, the bull had broken during the first week we were there, and as of yesterday, it had not been fixed and therefore, a lot of people were disappointed not to be able to get the bull riding experience. The worst change was the fact that the entertainment staff who had been a major part of the Crown Paradise's appeal, had all been fired after there was a split of hotel ownership. The new management has decided they wanted to 'tone down' the activities, which was a big mistake. The previous entertainment staff had the people rocking the whole time, adding to the enjoyment of one's stay at the hotel. Now, they hardly participated in events with the guests at all, which made the vacation seem much less fun. What a shame the new owner thinks this is the way to keep people happy. I was with a group of 20 people, and even though we had fun despite the changes, we all feel we would not encourage anyone to buy timeshare there, unless things go back to the old way of doing things. Another negative point was the fact that the lobby used to have lots of chairs and tables for people to congregate at night. Now, with the lobby bar being located where it is in a new spot, and the new pond in the middle of the lobby, there is no real comfortable area to sit around and mingle at night. There are only 3 or 4 tables near the lobby bar, and they are usually occupied by people who smoked quite heavily, which made it difficult for the non-smokers to breathe!! We did request the chairs to be returned to the lobby, but were told it wasn't going to happen. On the upside - the waiters are all wonderful and are at your beck and call. The food was very good at the Japanese restaurant, and LaPalapa had a good variety of items every day. The beach has gained a good deal of sand post Wilma, and there are more chairs than ever on the beach.

Crown Paradise does still need some re-vamping, and if someone is looking for luxery and upscale food, this is not the place to go. However, if you have children, they do have a great kids' camp, a different show each night in the theatre, and the price is right for the kids, since those under age 12 are free.

*We stayed at the Crown Paradise Oct. 05. just before Wilma hit. We loved it so much that we bought a time share. I am now thinking that It was a mistake.

It was very clean, the food was great and the activities and crew were wonderful. Since then Rodreigo and the old crew are gone. I hear that they are sadly missed. I now hear negativity about the rooms and the food!

I was wondering if the teen club was up and running. I heard that it was wiped away after the hurricaine. Do they do any activities by the pool during the day, or in the lobby in the evening?

Any more info about changes since then would be greatly appreciated. We are planing to visit in May for the 1st. time since then.*

I just got back and it looks like it hasn't recovered yet. The place was dirty and in need of serious repair. And all the drinks are served in little tiny cups. If you are going, bring a big cup along and they will fill it for you. Otherwise you need to order about 6 beers at a time. And hope you like Corona on draft cause that's the only beer they have. This place is no 4 or 5 star.

celineb3 wrote:

I just got back and it looks like it hasn't recovered yet. The place was dirty and in need of serious repair. And all the drinks are served in little tiny cups. If you are going, bring a big cup along and they will fill it for you. Otherwise you need to order about 6 beers at a time. And hope you like Corona on draft cause that's the only beer they have. This place is no 4 or 5 star.

Hi, Thanks so much for the response. I was also wondering if you meant that the rooms were dirty also.