Royal Hacienda

We, too, own at The Royal Resorts (Haciendas and Caribbean) and ALL villas have the same configuration - having a king in the master, two fulls in the 2nd bedroom, and two twin murphy beds in the living room. The beds at The RH are very comfortable - even on the murphys. My son (who is a little guy) and I stayed on the murphy beds this year so that my mom & dad and brother and sister-in-law could have the two bedrooms. We've never had the full six in a unit, but honestly, we were not crowded at all. The Hacienda villas are a little bigger than the villas at the Cancun resorts, and we couldn't have been happier.

Recommendation: Ask your concierge to make reservations for you at a restaurant in Playa called Chicago. It is FABULOUS! We can't wait to go back!

My family owns several weeks managed by different timeshare companies, and we never trade our units from The Royal Resorts. We use our Hawaii weeks to trade back to the Royals, putting us there twice a year - most of the time with two villas. :-)

You'll have so much fun, and anxiously await the next time you can travel back there.

By the way, As an adult, I'd rather sleep in the living room than squeeze in a full-sized bed with my husband. If you are concerned that there won't be enough room, you might look for a lock-off side or the one bedroom side to rent. You can typically get pretty good deals on the lock offs.

Thank you! Your information was great. I'll let my daughters and their husbands decide if they want to sleep in a double bed or on the murphy beds:) Do you happen to know if room F238 is a lock-off or not. I hear the lock-off's have a jacuzzi but the others do not. I cant wait until June to stay at this beautiful resort. What type of restaurant is Chicago?

Terri,

All two-bedroom units include a lock off. Each villa at The Royal Haciendas is identical, except the top floor units which have vaulted ceilings. You can visit this link: http://www.royalresorts.com/villas-royal-haciendas.asp to check out how the villa is set up. It will also show you some pictures of how the units are decorated.

The side of the unit with the kitchen and master bedroom (king bed) has the jacuzzi. Each complete villa has one, so as long as you didn't get JUST a lock off unit (which you didn't), you'll have a jacuzzi.

The restaurant, Chicago Don Jose, has international fare. It is simply fabulous. It is quite small, so I suggest making a reservation if you plan to go. We had a party of 6 and had no trouble making a reservation the day of. I found a write up about it: http://www.playa.info/playa-deals-89.html. I felt the prices were very reasonable - especially for the food quality. They paid attention to every detail. Two examples: My six-year-old son (who has low vision and uses a cochlear implant to hear) was enjoying the strawberries off of my walnut crusted spinach salad, so they brought him a bowl of strawberries. The soda they brought was in a tall glass, which they could see wasn't working too well, so they brought a short glass with the straw cut off. We didn't mention or ask for anything, the table attendant quietly observed and made sure we had a very pleasant dining experience.

Have you ever been to the area before? Playa is a lot of fun, and the resort offers a shuttle to take you there & back several times a day. We always got on the last bus to town and took a taxi home.

We also enjoyed the scuba class through Dive Balam at the resort. We did our instruction, practice in the pool, then completed the class with a 40 foot dive at a reef not far from the property. It cost $99 per person and we felt it was worth it.

We already have our plane tickets for our April trip, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we'll be able to go. My same little guy with the vision/hearing deficits was diagnosed with leukemia in November, and his oncologist is doing her best to get him well enough to make his favorite trip to Mexico. We absolutely love the Royal Resorts, no matter which location/resort we stay. I'm sure your family will love it there too.

Best wishes,

Shannon

Shannon- First, I would like to wish your son a very fast recovery. Your information about the Royal Hacienda and Playa is very helpful. We have never been to Playa, but have been to Cancun a couple times. We stayed at the Royal Mayan and the Sands on our previous stays. The resorts and the employees are so great, that we wanted to trade one of our Hyatt timeshares for another opportunity to stay at another Royal resort:) I was worried that we wouldnt get confirmed to much to our pleasure we did!!! I love the idea of the shuttle that goes to and from Playa and to the other Royals in Cancun. We do plan on using the shuttles quite often and probably will do the same as you did by taking a taxi back to the resort at night so we can stay in town for some good times! Would you know the best place to swim with the dolphins would be? I see XCaret is nearby and they offer it. It is the one thing one of my adult daughters wants to do!!! She did take the scuba lessons at one of the other resorts but never did go into the ocean:) Thanks again for all your information, Terri

We have never swam with the dolphins before, but I have heard from others who have at Xcaret that it was great. Your best bet is to ask your personal concierge at the resort and she/he will surely not misguide you. I think that Thomas Moore, the travel agency within the resort, does a great job of ensuring good experiences for the guests. My friends just got back from Cancun, and they swam with the dolphins at Wet & Wild and had a wonderful experience too. Xcaret would be much closer for you, however. It is a fun day trip, and quite close to The Haciendas.

If you get Camilla as your concierge, she is who takes care of us on our stays at The Royal Haciendas. She has been great with making activity and restaurant recommendations for us. If you contact the resort a couple weeks ahead of time (you can do so via email), you could request her as your p.c.

Thanks for the well wish for our son. Sam was actually hospitalized Christmas Day with a virus, and hasn't been able to shake its effects. Although his fever is down, he can't seem to wean off steroids after being on high doses during the induction phase of his chemotherapy. He's home now, but on IV fluids to help him stay hydrated. I spend a lot of time cuddling with him, thus making my laptop a good distraction to not being able to do much else around here. We hope to see our happy boy again soon. It is so hard seeing him this way. 2009 has to be better...

Happy New Year!

Shannon

Hi Shannon- How is Sam doing? Hopefully alot better:) Do you have any tips on airport transfers? I see Thomas Moore has roundtrip transfers to the Royal Haciendas, but its $44.00 per person. Is that a reasonable fee?

I am going in June with husband and 4 kids; 2-15yrs, 1-14yrs, and 1-12yrs. suggestions on the best activities/day trips/somewhat inexpensive dining options? They like to keep busy or they drive me crazy.

shannon191 wrote:

It is definitely worth every penny to stay at a Royal Resort Property. We went twice this year. My parents are owners at The Royal Caribbean, so we were there in April. This fall we stayed at The Royal Islander on a trade from our villas in Hawaii. We got two ground floor units (4611 & 4612), ocean view just steps from the pool. We loved it. Now we are considering buying a week 42 unit at The Islander or Sands. Once you stay there, it is hard to stay elsewhere. Check out www.tug2.net. Of the top five resorts, I think four of them are Royal Resort Properties. If you need help with rentals and are confused about unit location... let me know. I can tell you about each villa, and you can decide which is the best location for you. :-)

Shannon, just to let you know that there are many prayers said for your little one, hope he is better - Alicja

If you are an owner, is it hard to trade your week for a different week at Hacienda? Let's say you have week 8 and can't go in 2011 at that time. Is it pretty easy to get a different week - let's say a March week instead? From reading the forum messages, it sounds hard to even get a trade at the Haciendas.

Also, timeshare presenter said if we bought a timeshare and wanted to sell it later, Royal would pay us what we originally bought it for - I'm seriously doubting that but wanted t0 hear from owners. Wouldn't the value go down because there are less years in the RTU period the more years you own it?

alicjab wrote:

Shannon, just to let you know that there are many prayers said for your little one, hope he is better - Alicja

Alicja,

Thank you so much for thinking of and praying for Sam. If you want to read more about his cancer journey, you are welcome to visit his carepage at www.carepages.com/carepages/sambutalla.

The support we have found through our "family" we've met at The Royal Resorts has been wonderful. We are truly appreciative of people constantly checking on him, making sure that we are all ok.

We went through Internal Servicing to do an exchange for our usual weeks, so we will be at The Royal Islander week 12 (March 20) and The Royal Sands week 13. We are fortunate Sam is well enough to go on a trip to Mexico. With the winter we've had in Nebraska, it will be good for all of us to get away to some 80+ degree temperatures!

Thanks again for praying for Sam. He is in treatment until February 2012, and has some setbacks recently. He is still in remission... but just battling the side effects of chemotherapy. We are hopeful they will not cause permanent damage, but confident in Sam's medical team to make good decisions about treatment to ensure the best chance of success for him.

Shannon

Alicja,

Did you ever get your exchange figured out with Interval? I'm sure they would take it now. They were willing to bank our Carribean week if necessary...

I apologize I didn't reply to your post sooner. I never received the forum alert notification!

Shannon

I am responding to your message from 2007 (kind of late), but in any case we are the owners at the RH for week 13. We have the two bedrooms villa. Any questions? feel free to contact me directly at:

brana@westman.wave.ca

Carolyn,

You have a few options: 1. You can go through the resort directly. It is the "Internal Exchanges" Department, which can be accessed through the member login area of the website. 2. You can work through Interval International if you are a member. There are two options... a. You can relinquish your week completely by banking it, meaning you have a two year window either side of the date of use to use another property b. You can put a request in now for whenever you want to go, then the system will search for the match. If a match comes up, you relinquish your week... but not until.

One nice thing about Interval is you can trade only part of your unit if you want. You can bank the lock off portion if you know you aren't going to need it, but keep the 1-br side if it is just a couple people going. We've never done this, as no matter how many of us are going, we like having our full villa.

The price for an internal exchange through Royal Resorts is about the same as Interval. I think it is $149 through the resort and $145 through Interval. We exchanged our week 16 (RH) & 17 (RCB) internally through the resort for weeks 12 & 13. The first exchange was available immediately. The second took 3 months, but it did happen. I put a request in using another unit for my family with Interval for week 12 using a Hawaii property we own, and we got a match to The Royal Islander in 3 days. :)

I hope this makes sense. Holler if you have any other questions.

alicjab wrote:

I am responding to your message from 2007 (kind of late), but in any case we are the owners at the RH for week 13. We have the two bedrooms villa. Any questions? feel free to contact me directly at:

brana@westman.wave.ca

We'll be at The Royal Sands week 13... If you are from Canada, you are probably as happy as I am (from Nebraska) to get away from winter weather!!! Counting the days...

I'm happy to answer any questions relating to all resort properties as best I can too. You can email me at shannon@cal.gnst.org

please contact me at:brana@westman.wave.ca, I am the woner of week 13 at the RH, 2 bdr. villa, we can exchange some news - Alicja

Hello Shannon, glad to hear your little one is able to go to Mexico again, I hope all goes well for all of you. There seems to be a problem with notification, so don't worry. We too own week 13 at the RH, I was actually hoping to be able to deposit trough theInterval, but despite the contract they refused, I think the economic crash prompt many people to stay home, but I am not happy. I was able to bank the lock-off unit since our children are not able to join us this March. I you wish to exchange information about the RR pls. contact me directly; brana@westman.wave.ca Best wishes for 2010 - Alicja

Here is my direct contact:brana@westman.wave.ca, we can exchange comments on RH - Alicja

Shannon, we are in the mids of Colorado Low, you know how that is like, so yes , we can hardly wait for Mar. to get warmer. Thanks for your prompt response, I may turn to you for advise in the future, so I am keeping your address on file - Alicja

IS there topless bathing by the pool or beach? thanks Kim