A question for schmerl
 

We will be arriving at the Iberostar Grand Paraiso on July 9 for seven nights. It looks like you are the expert on this property. Any tips you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Do we need to make dinner reservations each day in order to eat in the alacarte restaurants? If so, how do we make the reservations. When? Where? I know we can eat in any restaurant in the Iberostar complex, but are the other restaurants worth going to or should we stay at the Grand for meals. Should we make a reservation for our first night before we arrive? Our flight gets in around 4 pm. How would we do that? Thanks for any tips.

I'm not an expert on this property, but just got back from the Maya. We got on property at 4PM and had no problems with any reservations for that night. One night at 7:30 we made reservations for a restaurant at 9PM that same night. It is the low season in Mexico so the property should not be crowded. From the beach anyway it didn't look at all crowded at the Grand last week. There was hardly anyone on beach in front of the hotel.

I tried to make a reservation for a restaurant before I arrived and was told I had to wait till I got there. You can send the hotel an email.

We liked the Japanese and the Steak house at the Maya. I hear that overall, the food is better at the Grand.

I certainly don't consider myself an expert, but I'll try to help.
You do have to make dinner reservations, but staying at the Grand, you will have a butler and a conceirge to do this for you.
You can chose to make all your reservations all at once when you arrive, or make them daily.
The food at the Grand is better than at the other IB Paraiso resorts, so I would stick with meals there. You can also ask for things that are ot listed on the menu. People have raved about the shrimp fajitas for lunch even though they are not listed on the menu.
There are also some shops and a few other food places at the Commercial Center. You can get your butler to arrange a golf cart to take you there or just enjoy the walk. They sometimes have band playing out front of the Commercial Center and people can dance. There is also a disco inside the Commercial Center.
The Grand is more lenient than the other IB properties so you may be able to make your reservations before you arrive for your first night. It never hurts to try. Just email the resort. I can't find their email address right now, but will try again later.

Here's the email address for the Grand:
[email protected]
Also, visit this board for great information. Just scroll down to the section on the Grand:
http://www.iberostar-board.com/boards/index.php

Austin and schmerl, Thank You for taking the time to answer my post. Every little bit of info helps.

We recently stayed at the Grand and it is a lovely resort. That being said, we found the food to be disappointing overall and the reservation policy to be annoying.

We visited the concierge desk upon arrival and for the duration of our stay only 6:30 and 9:00pm reservations were available. We don't care to dine so early so were stuck with 9 which is too late. We did show up twice at 7:30 to restaurants that were half empty but they refused to seat us.

We met another couple at the pool bar who told me they had paid 6k for a week and refused to put up with the reservation nonsense. They showed up each night when they wanted and demanded a table. For whatever reason, they got one.

For us, the dinner reservation policy is enough to make us not go back. And there are resorts in the area we prefer for food and service.

I agree with schmerl that the other properties are not on par with the Grand plus there were a ton of kiddies everywhere. We stuck to the Grand.