Mostly Great Trip to Kantenah Family Select

Trip Report to Kantenah Family Selection Dec 29th to Fri 4th

We just completed our stay at the Kantenah Family Select this week.

To provide some context to the review, we are fairly new to All Inclusive, this is our third (over three consecutive holiday peiords), the others being Dreams Macao Beach (DR) and Playacar Palace.

Before Arrival
We were booked in Villa 40 in a beachfront suite. We got what I thought to be a great rate, so super happy with the room, especially at the price, and during the peak holiday season. Not sure if we just got a great deal, or if that will be the ongoing rate, but I don’t recall the Family select being much more than the regular Kantenah or Colonial suites, and I don’t recall the beachfront suite, being much more than the regular Family Select Suites.

I reached out before arrival to request a 2 Queen room. This was acknowledged but not guaranteed. I subsequently requested the Family Wishlist, as this had not been offered up, and was provided it. Note, it is now a little different than the list currently posted on this website.

I also requested a reservation for dinner for our first night, given we arrived around dinner time and would be making reservations for the week with our butler at that point.

Arrival and Check-In
Checked luggage took quite a while at the airport, but otherwise fairly smooth arrival and transfer.

Arrival and check-in was smooth in the separate family select check-in area, with no other guests waiting. We were fairly quickly taken to our room.

One thing to note, our room request wasn’t acknowledged or provided (we had a King and a pullout), although that may not have a been a bad thing as the rooms are huge. Additionally it’s unclear that the wishlist was fulfilled either, as the few options we did select (around Family Boss extras and most drinks in room) seemed to be generic.

The porter gave a brief explanation of the room, and our butler, Luis came to visit us once we had settled to see if he could help in anyway.

The Rooms
Definitely one of the high points of the trip. Villa 40 is stunning, with it’s beachside location (note, their are palm trees, and beach chairs between you and the beach), it’s soaring lobby, and high end design.

Our room, a beachfront suite, was on the second floor (beachfront swim outs are bottom floor, and beachfront rooftops on the 3rd). I was not expecting how large it would be. It is a double wide suite. SO if a typical suite is say 700 square feet, this was 1400, with 2 separate rooms (living area and bedroom), 2 full bathrooms, a double wide deck, and hotter on the deck (as well as jacuzzi in the master bathroom). The general finishing were high end and quite luxurious. I understand that these renovated rooms just reopened, so I guess we’ll have to see how we wear… our experience is that even really nice all inclusive hotel rooms really wear out quickly.

The Beach
Another highlight. The beach is one of the nicest we have seen in Mexico. Long, with sugary white sand, multi colored water, and a family select section. We actually didn’t spend a lot of time at the beach, but it is really beautiful. You could see where the rocky areas were, but it was easy to pick a sandy area for wading out.

We found the family club beach section a bit of a miss. The first day we tried to use it, every beach chair was taken by 11am. The next day I reserved some with books and towels at 9am. In fairness one of the staff said they would remove them if we weren’t there in 45 minutes. I ignored this and they weren’t there in 45 minutes. I’m totally supportive of this, but for the whole trip there were clearly a ton of loungers being reserved with various items, and they didn’t seem to act on those. Either enforce consistently or not at all (or add more chairs).

The beach bar was perfectly fine. No line, good brand spirits, Chair service at the beach was very slow (one person for the whole section on the day we spent there). I don’t think there were food options at the beach.

The Pools
So I guess with Family selection you have availability to all the pools, including TRS. But because we had kids we didn’t do the TRS, and we briefly saw the White Sands but didn’t use (it’s quite a walk and there is still quite a bit of construction).

You probably want to reserve seats at the White Sands by about 10am with some towels. The towel booth ran out a lot (people were walking to the white sands to get them). They didn’t seem to enforce any policy about reserving. It’s a nice big pool, with multiple sections, It is mostly quite deep, but there are a couple of kids sections. There ism also a kids pool with slides attached, but really for younger kids (less than 8 or so?). There are glimpses of the ocean from various parts and a decent ocean breeze that keeps it cooler than some other pools/areas. I saw some folks going around taking drink orders, but not often, and they never came to us the couple of hours we spent there.

The family selection pool, is named after little hard toy find, on a path that leaves the Kantenah lobby. It is great. Medium sized. Rectangle in shape, but with a lot of planter boxes that makes it feel calm and exclusive. Chairs are always available, and service is never more than 5 minutes away. All drinks options and a fairly good food menu are available. I think this has been the only all inclusive pool we have been to, where they bring food poolside. To be honest, the family selection pool, was such a great experience, we passed on the beach and the Colonial pool after pretty average experiences there.

The Food and Drinks
I think I read another review, saying the food was OK. I would agree. Probably last of the 3 all-inclusive we stayed at, but not bad. The best (to our surprise because it wasn’t originally on our list) was El Dorado, an American style steakhouse. The filet mignon was a quality cut, perfectly cooked (medium rare for all of us) with delicious sauces and sides. We would have been happy with this at a steakhouse here in Chicago. We all enjoyed the teppanyaki at Sumptuori, probably our next favorite meal, although it was better at the other AIs we have stayed. La Adelita felt genuinely authentic with a lot gf regional specialities, Tex Mex this is not! That said, maybe a little too, off the beaten path, for our families palates. We ate al a caret at the Nest one night. Perfectly fine, if totally unmemorable. And lastly Portofino was below average. They’re replaced plated appetizers with a big standard salad bar, and the mains were hit and miss. The ambiance feels like a hotel meeting hall. We were booked at the Thai, but it closed the night we were booked because of flooding? (Reason was a little unclear). It looks great though. I will also add, our butler was able to get us bookings, but nothing before 8pm every day. Might be a good idea to sort out all of your bookings in advance if you can, they seemed quite stressed to get bookings. Could also have been excaerbated by being the holiday period.

We ate at all of the buffets (except at White Sands and TRS)… La Dalia, El Gran Azul and The Nest, La Dalia had the biggest selection of stations. Although its layout was a bit all over the place and vibe a bit chaotic. El Gran Azul was a great option by the Colonial pool, with a good vibe, and logical walk through station. Our issue here is we gave up twice when arriving after 10am, due to the wait. The Nest is exclusive to Family Select. It was a good option. Most nicely decorated, most calm, and quickest service. That said the buffet is a bit limited, with lukewarm food, and no omelette station. They do have a la carte, which was great, but takes 20 minutes or more (totally fine if you don’t have impatient kids).

No big comment on drinks. We drink mostly wine, and it was perfectly drinkable if uninteresting. Beer is typically Dos Equis or Coors. Spirits selection looked good for an all inclusive.

Activities and Entertainment
Another area that was just OK at best… again we would rate 3rd of the 3 AIs we have stayed at,

There are almost no organized activities at the main pool. Just a once a day aquarobics. We’re used to fun games on the hour. The family select pool, was better curated in terms off activities, although sometimes they didn’t seem to happen. My guess was just lack of attendees. Also the activities skewed for younger kids here. There is a lot to do across the whole property, but it seems mostly self serve than a managed experience.

Evening shows were mostly underwhelming. The best was the magic show. The rock show was… fine. There was a Jersey Boys show that was quite fun, although not held at the theater but just in the lobby bar; and finally a weird stripper themed Bingo night (which we all found funny until we were bored).

Service
A tale of 2 hotels. Our service in Family Selection was great. From our butlers, Luis and Emmanuel, to Maria and the rest of the team at the pool, to check in and check out, it really is a step above. Almost all of our interactions with the Colonial were a bit meh. From non-existent to slow service, it just didn’t seem staffed or designed to provide frequent service. Acknowledging we were in Family Select, I would add that compared to our previous AI experiences we would call the non Family Select Service a bit wanting.

Getting Around
This is a pretty large property and quite complex to navigate. Once you get it, you get it, but if walking around be prepared to get confused. If you are staying enough days, I would recommend just walking around and getting lost to figure it all out. On our first night, we planned to walk to dinner at the White Sands, but got hit but a rain squall. We tried to get a cart or train from the lobby, but it was chaos… people everywhere, no explanation of what went where. We texted our butler to get a cart, but it was totally unclear which cart was out. Eventually we got a shared one and made it, but it put us off the cart experience. I would note, that the next day, I did see that the family selection carts have a placard in the front window… so look for that.

The gym is a long and circuitous walk from the family selection. Initially I found this annoying, but actually came to enjoy the stroll over and back in the morning.

In conclusion
Sorry about the long review! Just trying too be helpful for future guests. On the whole we enjoyed our trip. The Family Selection is ABSOLUTELY worth it. I think if we were staying at the Colonial we may have been a little disappointed. But (almost) all aspects of the Family Selection experience (especially the room and pool) made it a great trip. We feel lucky to have had a good experience at all our AIs so far.

Hopefully I succeeded in posting some pictures of the Family Selection Beachside suite, as I didn’t find a lot elsewhere.