We went to the Blue Diamond for 9 days, 8 nights in May. Let me first say that the property itself is gorgeous. The situation in nature provides a beautiful, quiet environment (which was exactly what we were looking for). The reason for the two stars as above is mostly for the adverse interactions with the management and multiple non-relaxing incidents, which I will detail below. I mention other aspects of the property after telling this story, which sounds bizarre, but which I swear is true.

We saw the resort advertised on Jetsetter, which we have used multiple times before. We called the resort twice before selecting a room class to figure out which has the greatest privacy, and nicest rooms. The first time we called, the person who we spoke with was not familiar enough with the different rooms to tell us which offered greater privacy. The second time we called, we were reassured that the Palafitos Terrace rooms were good, and had the advantage of a rooftop terrace, so we booked one of these. On our booking, we requested extra pillows and towels (never happened). On Jetsetter, and on our booking confirmation, the resort (not simply room) is listed as non-smoking. There was smoking nearly every day we were there - mostly outside ceviche and aguamarina. I called a few days before to book transportation to and from the airport, which per the Jetsetter booking was included in our rate. After finding our reservation, they were happy to set up the transportation, then let me know it would be $75 each way. After I told them that I thought is was included in the rate we booked, only then did they say "oh yes. That is correct". Nonetheless, they did honor the proper rate. All of these are minor problems, but belie a lack of attention to detail.

We flew in to Cancun, and they picked us up from the airport in a van without incident, and transported us to the resort. We tipped the driver, and the front desk person kindly reminded us about our 50 minute couples massage (also included in the rate), and booked a time for us. We asked whether it was possible/necessary to make reservations for the restaurants and she told us no to both questions. We also asked if the hot water and air conditioning were working well in our room, and after hesitating she replied that they were. We were then taken to our room via golf cart. The room itself was beautiful, with fresh fruit and sparkling wine waiting for us. We requested an umbrella for our roof terrace, which they brought promptly. Overall, all was well and we were looking forward to a very relaxing vacation.

The air conditioning worked without problems. The hot water was a problem for the entire time we were there. Although hot water was present, when you left the shower knobs at a given setting (with both the hot and cold on), every 15 seconds the water would shift from dangerously hot, to completely cold, then back again. There was never a time that this would not happen. This happened in the 3 different rooms were were in at the resort, so I suspect it is an issue specific to the water regulators they use, not simply an issue in one of the rooms.

One thing that I noted to be odd at the time, was that from the rooftop terrace, you could see into the adjacent Palafito terrace room's bathroom and shower, which was glass walled. As a consequence, whenever we used our bathroom, we made sure to close the pulldown shades that were in the room.

We had a few nice days, then on Monday night/Tuesday morning, it started raining (obviously not the management's fault). At 6:45 AM on Tuesday morning, I was awakened by the sound of water leaking into the room, and a major leak into the ceiling and into our closet, with a pool of water on the ground, and two minor leaks around windows on the left side of the room. I moved all of our stuff out of the closet to avoid the flood, and called the front desk immediately. I told them what was happening, and they said they would send somebody out. I let them know that given the severity of the leak, they might want to plan for having us move rooms, since they most likely would have to rip up the ceilings due to water damage. They said that they would have their people take a look at it, then come up with a plan, which sounded fine to me. In roughly 45 minutes, a kind maintenance guy from the hotel took a look around, and told me the front desk would call me. After waiting another 30 minutes, they never called, so I called them and asked them what was happening. They told me that we would have to move rooms, and that they would call me shortly when it was ready. After waiting another hour, I called them and they had identified a potential room, but could not commit to a time. Since it was getting on in the morning, I told them that we would go for breakfast. We went to breakfast (around 9:00 AM), and the concierge desk guy grabbed us on the way, and told us the room should be ready after we are done with breakfast. We then went to breakfast, and on the way back, the same concierge desk guy told us (at 10), that the room isn't ready yet. Given that this was dragging on a bit, I asked when we should hear something next. He said they would call by 11. I told them if I don't hear by 11, I would call again. Indeed, I didn't hear, so called again, and they said the room would be ready shortly. About an hour later, they called us that they were ready to move us, and they did. One morning of relaxation killed, but I figured, at least that is now behind us.

The new room was fine- looked pretty much identical to the old one and we moved our stuff over. After getting to the new room, I tested the hot water, which was present. I hadn’t realized by this point that the issue with water was specific to the mixing of hot and cold. The other thing that was odd, was that there were no pulldown shades or blinds to provide privacy in the bathroom. I checked from my roof and the adjacent room seemed to have them, as had the room from which we moved. I called the front desk, and told them about the shades, and they sent the same nice workman from earlier to check it out. He told me there were no shades, and none could be installed. He also confirmed that hot water was present (via my broken Spanish). So my wife and I went to the beach, but on the way the same guy at the concierge desk asked if everything was OK with the room. We told him about the lack of shades, and he said he would look into it, and that we should stop by after we were done at the beach. A few hours went by, and we stopped back by the desk to see what was up with the shades. He then told us, that we shouldn’t worry about privacy because he told us that the adjacent room that could theoretically look into our bathroom had a roof leak like our first room, so was currently unoccupied. I then asked “will it be unoccupied this whole week?” and he said “Yes, it will be unoccupied this whole week.” I then asked “but won’t there be workmen on the roof fixing it?” and he assured us “No, there will be no workmen on the roof.”. So we were reassured, and went back off to our room.

About an or two hour later (maybe 6:30 PM, but still light out), my wife went to the bathroom to take a shower. She was standing in front of one of the full length windows for about 15 seconds, then looked up and there on the adjacent roof was a workman leaning over the railing, staring into our bathroom. He made eye contact with my wife and continued staring. She screamed and ran out of the bathroom. I then went into the bathroom, and saw the same guy on the adjacent roof, leaning over the railing.

I called the front desk, and asked to speak with the manager about what happened, and they insisted that I tell them the story first. I didn’t want to have to repeat myself, but I went ahead and told her anyways. She then told me “this is very delicate” and that she would call her manager. I again said I wanted to speak with the manager and asked when I should expect to hear from them. She didn’t know, and so I said I would call back in 10 minutes if I didn’t hear anything. 15 minutes later I called back and they said their manager would speak with the hotel manager at home, and that somebody would talk to me. I told them we were going to dinner, and they said somebody would speak with us at some point. So, we go to dinner, and while at dinner, a manager found us, and we related the entire incident, including our previous discussions. She said she was sorry, and “knew what it was like because she was a woman”. It wasn’t clear to me she understood how upsetting it was that we given false reassurances by the concierge guy. Nonetheless, she then argued with us, telling us that there was good privacy. She also said that none of the Palafitos terrace rooms had shades in the bathrooms, despite us having been in one and having the adjacent room have them. Regardless, she said she would go investigate while we were at dinner, and try to fix the problem. I asked what her plan was, and she said she would return with the solution.

At the end of dinner, she returned and said she had moved the shades from our previous room to the new room, and that the problem was resolved. I thanked her, and was hopeful we could just move on with our vacation.

We get back to our room around 10 PM, and although there now were some shades, they only covered 1/3 of the width of the windows, leaving exposed the same portion of the bathroom that caused the problem before. By this point, I was too exhausted from dealing with the management all day, and decided to take up the issue the following day.

The following day (Wednesday), we go to use the gym, and I stop by the front desk to say I want to speak with the manager to fix our shades. The same manager from before comes to see me, and I tell her the window is only partially covered, and ask for her plan. She offered to upgrade our room to a beachfront casita (which was very nice), but that they were not available until the following day. In the interim, they could hang a sheet over the window. She alternatively offered to change us to a patio room (an uncompensated downgrade), or to change us to the room next door to ours that the workman was on. She said we would have to decide fast, since somebody would be moving into that room in a few hours (What happened to nobody occupying that room for the week, I wondered?). I took the first option, and an hour later a white sheet was stapled to the ceiling, finally giving us privacy in that room, and we planned to move the following day.

Thursday, we go to breakfast and on the way back from breakfast, the same guy at the concierge desk grabs us and tells us that he would like to show us the beachfront casita room, to make sure we like it, and also to show he is a person of his word (not sure how this accomplished that, but whatever). We saw it, it looked great, and was certainly an upgrade from our previous room. We waited most of the day to move, and finally got there around 3:30 PM. So we move rooms, satisfied that at least the management has made an effort to make this situation right. At around 4:30 PM, we put on the do not disturb sign, and close the deadbolt on the room. At 4:50 PM, my wife was just getting out of the shower, and I was about to go into the shower, when I hear the front door opening to our place. I shout “Hello? Hello? Ola? Stop!” with no response. The door continues opening, and I run to the front door as it is opening, completely naked, and try to start closing the door. The person on the other side was pushing against me, and I braced myself and finally forced the door closed. I looked through the peephole and asked again “Can I help you? Que pasa? Hello?” and got no response. There was a hotel worker wearing all white, who was looking quizzically at a clipboard, obviously confused. I figured out that they must not have changed our room number in their computer. So we go back to the front desk again, and tell them what happened. They did not apologize, and looked in the computer, and indeed they failed to list that we had changed rooms. The management never spoke with us again, and I had no interest. I gave up at this point, and simply chalk it up to incompetence.

Now, the rest of the resort:

Rooms: Beautiful

Food: OK, but not great.

Service in restaurants: pleasant, but would frequently have to ask multiple times to get something.

Grounds: Gorgeous, well maintained

Housekeeping: prompt, and overall excellent, except for the time we found a bunch of dark hair in our bed (neither mine nor my wife’s).

Gym: Modern, beautiful, air conditioning could be improved

Massage: Average.

Tipping: We tipped everybody, and often.

Other incidents: Despite being told that we couldn’t make restaurant reservations upon entering the resort, they made it their mission to force us to do so from then on. We would be at the beach, and they would insist we tell them an approximate time, which they claimed was non-binding. Then without our knowing, they would send a cart which we didn’t request to pick us up at the room. Once they did this, waking my wife from a nap. Another time, while my wife was napping she was awakened by them calling to ask us when we planned on going to dinner. During my last interaction with the front desk, I asked that they not ask us about that again.

The upgrade to the beachfront room earned them a second star, but the rest of the interaction above was so incredibly frustrating, it was hard to get comfortable and really relax after that…