Fantastic trip to Kantenah Family Select

[Anne]

By Eileen. Printed with permission.

We just returned home from a 6 day stay at Family Selection Kantenah (Villa 48). Just wanted to give back to the group with our experience! Sorry this is extremely long!!

First, let me say everything was absolutely wonderful. We are a pretty laid back family (we have 2 daughters, age 14 and 16) and are fairly easy to please and we go with the flow. So if you are that type of person/family, then this review is for you

Staff/Butler: Every single person that we came in contact with on this resort was SO nice. They would bend over backwards to help you. Definitely utilize your butler for dinner reservations. We did this on our first morning, took less than 5 minutes to have all of our dinners booked. We also needed the pull out bed made up and extra pillows, which was taken care of in a timely manner. Even the grounds crew was friendly! Seriously, so nice!

Room:
We had one of the Garden View rooms with 2 Double Beds. My husband is 6’8″ and my 16yo is 6′. A double (full size) is pretty cozy for my husband and I as we are used to a King at home. However, we made it work. Our 16yo took the other double and the 14yo preferred the pull out chair (twin bed). I will say that the choice to use Full/Double beds in rooms geared to families is a bit confusing to me. Seems like Queens would be more enticing to families. But, we made it work. We spent as little time in the room as possible because who wants to be in their room while in Mexico?!?! Lol!

Food – Breakfast:
We ate at The Nest (menu + buffet, for FS only) a few times and La Hacienda (buffet open to all resorts) a few times. I LOVED the higher quality of foods offered at The Nest (fresh berries every day!! made to order crepes!!), but my husband and kids liked the larger buffet for a wider array of food options. LaHacienda’s buffet was similar to other resorts we have been to, but had some nice “extra” touches….the donut wall, fresh made to order smoothies, made to order omelets, etc. If you like a more calm eating experience though, go to the Nest.

Food – Lunch:
We did the buffet at the Colonial Pool for two days. One day we sat and ordered from the menu, the other day we just grabbed a plate of nachos/cheese and cheese fries to snack on. If I had one “bad” thing to say about the resort, it would be the food at this buffet. But for real it’s really nothing to get worked up over. My daughters ordered the quesadillas from the menu and quac and chips, which they were very happy with. Was the food quality the best here? No. But it’s beach side food. Keep your expectations lower here and have some grace. Now…if you are FS…I definitely recommend utilizing Es Niu….it’s the lunch restaurant at the FS pool. Their menu is fantastic, much higher quality food and a perfect place to take a mid-afternoon break from the sun (it’s outdoor but they have big umbrellas over the tables so it’s shaded while you eat). Even if you aren’t sitting at this pool for the day, head in for lunch if you want something better than nacho chips and cheese!
Another day we skipped lunch but made a pit stop at the Sports Bar in the Colonial Lobby for some nachos. They were awesome. Had meat and quacamole layered in. So good.

Food – Dinner:
Every one of our dinners were fantastic, no lie. Here’s the rundown.
The Nest – Ordered off the menu. I had the Beef Filet…it was amazing. Best steak I had on the resort!
ElDorado (steakhouse) – again had a Filet Mignon…a VERY close 2nd to the Nests steak the night before. Highly recommend the Rosemary Sauce here!
Portofino (Italian) – we all enjoyed our meal, nothing is standing out in my memory from that night, but I know we liked everything!
LaAdelita (Mexican) – My husband and I both had the fajitas which were VERY good! We also asked for an order of quacamole and chips for the table. Best decision ever. It was beyond fresh…could taste the fresh lime they had just squeezed in there. My daughter and I would have licked the bowl if that was socially acceptable. The little Mexican Fritters for dessert were delicious as well!
Sumptuori (Japanese, Hibachi): definitely do this one!!! And sit at a show table if you can, such a fun experience. We all loved it. The food was beyond delicious….we are still talking about it. Sushi for an appetizer (most of my family won’t eat it, but we did try some), the best fried rice known to man and then a plate of your choice of meat (steak, chicken or shrimp) and roasted veggies. And definitely get the Fried Ice Cream for dessert. If we could go back to any restaurant it would hands down be Sumptuori!!

Bars – the FS Pool Bar and the FS Beach Bar both have better booze, better quality drinks and more attention to detail since there are fewer people using them. Highly recommend getting drinks from these two! And they have popcorn and ice cream cones for a little snack when you get the munchies. The Kantenah Lobby Bar also makes a great cocktail (loved the Cosmos I had there!).

Evening Entertainment: The Colonial Lobby is definitely the “party” Lobby, whereas Kantenah is very chill. So depending on your mood, you have a place to go! Also, if you are there when they have the Silent Disco Party, DO IT!!! It’s so much fun!!!

Other Random Things:
Bring cheap pool floaties. The depth at the Colonial Pool is 5’3″ and makes it difficult to hang out in the pool, other than around the edges. I was so jealous of those with the lounger things.
The FS beach is the best as far as white fine sand and less rocks. We didn’t have water shoes and were fine. However we don’t have small children who will play for hours in the sand…we went in the ocean only a few times to cool off and wave jump and that was it.
The FS Beach has way better towels and beach chairs.
We could hear construction noise occasionally at the FS Beach, but it wasn’t anything horrible. I pretended it was the blender making fun cocktails.
We were always able to get a cart ride back from the lobbys at the end of the night. No problem. We usually just always assumed we’d walk from our room to dinner, so if we randomly got a cart ride it was a bonus. Again, we are easy to please, don’t have small children and are blessed with the ability to walk. So we enjoyed our evening walks!

Overall our experience was absolutely fantastic. Going forward, even though we loved all the little extra perks that came with Family Selection, I don’t know that I would pay full price for that if we came again. We got an introductory deal that was basically 50% off what FS will normally cost. With that said, if we had smaller children and had the financial means, it would be totally worth it. We did use the FS Beach but I could do without the nicer towels and chairs. And we much preferred the Colonial Pool over the FS pool anyway. But each family will have different expectations and needs, so you do you!

Hope you didn’t fall asleep reading this and found it somewhat helpful! Happy to answer any questions

of the sunrise on our last morning. Cloudy but still beautiful

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