A great anniversary at Secrets Vallarta Bay hotel.

I would give this hotel a 4.5 stars. I will tell you at the end why it's not yet 5 stars. We know we will be back here again and perhaps with some friends next time. ;-)

We stayed at the sister hotel next door Now Amber last year. We loved it so much we came back this year to try Secrets. Secrets is adult only vs Now amber allows for kids and is a little cheaper. At least we thought that was the only difference. We were wrong.

Secrets is a class above. The room decor are the same but the lobby furniture are better, and the food overall is better. We only paid $60 more to stay at secrets for the whole week. We will probably choose that in the future.

Another wow factor was we told them it was our anniversary and ask for a high floor. We ended up on 12th floor with beautiful ocean views. When we first walked into our room, we were greeted with a bottle of chilled champagne, rose petals in the shape of a heart on our bed and a full aromatherapy bath ready for our stay in perfect temperature. The bath was Divine. We were off to a good start.

We discovered new favorite restaurants. Last year our favorite was Bordeaux and it was still good but this year we loved oceana for lunch and dinner. The marlin tostada was amazing as was the filet mignon, octopus stew, etc. It's right by the beach so we had a lovely dinner watching the sunset. Apparently the menu is a little better than the castaway on the Now side and only secrets guest can go there.

The barefoot grill was also better on the secret side. More adult choices plus the lunch buffets at the market cafe were delicious complete with separate grill meats and grilled seafood stations. We loved the seafood soup and the Mexican minestrone soup.

Our favorite drink was still the fresh mint - no alcohol by the pool and with our meals. I don't drink much but did have a few shots prior to going clubbing on some nights.

Having an all inclusive with premium liquor included and free room service were awesome.

So why the 4.5 star? Well we had two weird hiccups in the back office services
1. Room service one night - the guy answering the phone had a major attitude issue. He decided to play with us - telling us food will be there in 1 min as it was late. We called back in 5 min still without food. and he asked why we are calling him so much. He also pretended the line was not clear and his voice was in the distance. We were pissed and only got after food after 5 calls.
2. Housekeeping - wouldn't come and clean when we asked even though they said ok. Another time dare to knock on our door when we said do not disturb on the door.
For both incidents, we complained to the concierge and asked that their manager send me an email with a response. The concierge handled it fine but obviously they have some personnel and training issues in the back office. It was a small annoyance which is why it's not a five stars. It's been 3 days but I haven't gotten an email response yet.

Will this deter us from coming back? Probably not. No hotel is perfect. This one is still probably one of the best all inclusive hotels we have been to on all of our vacations. ;-)

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