Not so keen on Capella in Cabo

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• Location: Cabo San Lucas
• Holiday Types: Beach, Spa, Family holidays

• by: CaboFan
• on: Thu 09 Feb 2012

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My husband and I are lucky enough to live close enough to Cabo San Lucas to enable us to spend a good amount of time there every year, so between February and August, we try to get in anywhere between two and six weeks there.  We often rent a house on the East Cape, as it is located on the Sea of Cortez, where the water is very warm, very green, and very swimmable.  But, we have also stayed at various times at the most well known hotels in Cabo such as Las Ventanas and Esperanza.  There’s also a villa we rent through Blue Seas in Cabo on a gorgeous, fairly private beach.  Even though the water here is the Pacific ocean, and therefore quite a bit rougher, there is definitely something to be said for being right in the heart of all the action.  There are some truly amazing restaurants in Cabo San Lucas, and being the foodies we are, we like to take advantage of this!

On this last trip to Cabo, after spending a few days at our villa at Sea Blue,  Mexico was a last minute trip for us as we were supposed to fly to Europe this July and after two weeks there, go onto our first safari.  Alas, I ruptured a disc, so we needed a low key vacation.  There would be no elephant rides or jeep tours for me.  As ever, Mexico was close enough to be able to just take a quick jaunt and soon be basking in the sun, while enjoying the benefits of frozen margaritas in no time.  We knew the family all loved Cabo, and I could relax while the rest of my party took on the more adventurous activities such as zip lining, bungee jumping, jet skiing, and parasailing.  As Sea Blue villas were unavailable after Day 4 of our holiday, we decided to check out Capella Pedregal instead. 

Capella Pedregal opened its doors just over a year ago and is part-residence/time share and part hotel.  The hotel is pitched as very high-end and to compete with the likes of Las Ventanas and the One and Only Palmilla.  But what can I say?  Not a chance! However, although we’d personally never stay there again, I don’t want give you the impression that it’s all bad.  They have a lovely spa, an innovative fitness room, and a fine dining seafood restaurant that would satisfy the choosiest of palates.

When you first pull in, there is a guard on duty dressed up in the traditional Mexican heavy garb of a Mariachi player.  I can only say that I truly hope his guard post is air-conditioned.  He only lets through residents and/or guests of the hotel, although I’m sure that they accept outsiders with dinner reservations as well.  There is a gorgeous tunnel that they’ve blown through the side of the mountain.  It goes for about a quarter-mile long and is through it are iron chandeliers and sconces.  It’s a very dramatic entrance and if you check in early in the day, driving through it at night is a must!  The greeters who welcome you are both accommodating and lovely. 

Upon arrival our room wasn’t ready, but we went to the Beach Club restaurant and had a decent lunch.  The menu wasn’t very impressive, and the tacos only so-so, but they did have a very tasty burger along with a different array of fries.  In addition to plain, they had truffle flavored and chili lime.  They also had some lovely fresh fruit juices.  I had the tastiest fresh apple juice I’ve ever had the pleasure of ingesting. 

We then checked into our room which was a three-bedroom villa.  After one evening, we were accommodated in our request to move to a four bedroom villa, which was exactly the same set up, just with one extra bedroom.  We were a family of four, traveling with another family of four and having four kids in one bedroom in the three bedroom villa, was pretty tight, so we were glad of the extra space. There was also a problem with the air conditioning in the kids room in the first villa.  In fact, none of the a/c worked too well, but the one in the children’s room.  Since we were moving the next day, we didn’t bother saying anything about the a/c problem, figuring that the kids could tough it out one night.  Then, when we were moved to the next villa, it was pretty much the same deal as the first. 

We called the front desk to let them know of our problem they sent up engineering, and not only got the one children’s room that suspiciously enough was the same room in the other villa that had no air, working but somehow got all the a/c’s to work better.  This led me to believe that they must leave it so that you don’t get a lot of air unless you deign to complain about it.  But, they did fix it nonetheless.

The rooms are a combination of modern and traditional Mexican decor.  The Master Bedroom has a very small plunge pool on the terrace, which would have been lovely except for the fact that it was about 60 degrees, and for some reason covered by a terrace that would have never given you direct solid sun.  This was the case in both of the villas we stayed in.  The living room also has a plunge pool that is somewhat larger than the one off the Master Bedroom, but just as icy cold, therefore rendering them both unusable.  We did ask if we could heat them up to a few notches to something that wouldn’t give us frost bite, but were told that there was no way to control the temperature.  The bedroom itself is just an okay size, very average actually.  The bathroom however, is more luxurious spacewise.  It has a double sink area with an open shower behind it, a cute, if not useless, round, cushioned seating space that divides the shower and sink area, and a claw foot tub to the right of the shower.  There is a separate toilet room with it’s own private door so that one of you could bath while the other uses the facilities.

The other couples room also has a terrace - but minus the plunge pool, but since no one was using the pools any time soon, it was no great loss. They too have a nice, large bathroom. The two children’s rooms are nothing special at all, but get the job done and each have two beds. Unfortunately, my children being bath children, were out of luck, as they only had showers in those rooms. The rooms also have a nice sized kitchen.  It’s not an eat-in, but there is a full sized fridge, and plenty of cabinet room for any snacks you may decide to pick up from Mega.  You also may want to stock up on breakfast foods, unless you want to waste anywhere between $30-$50 per person each morning.  We all know how much bang for our buck our children actually get out of this.

The Don Manuel restaurant that hosts the breakfast buffet each morning, has a nice array of different breads and pastries, omelette maker and a juice bar - but whichever guy is manning the bar each day, greatly shapes what type of juice you can get.  My friend and I were thoroughly enjoying the beet/celery/cucumber/parsley/ginger/apple mixture that was being made for us most mornings.  But one day, Rose went on her own, had another juice man, and he insisted that carrots were the only vegetable they carried.  She tried to explain that she had a concoction of the aforementioned vegetables every day previous to that one, but after wasting her breath for quite awhile, she walked away with carrot juice.  You can’t fight City Hall or apparently the Juice Man either!

They have three pools across the whole Capella Pedregal reseort.  There is the Main Pool - swim up bar and infinity edged, two feet away from the sand.  This is definitely a no swimming at any time beach, as the water is very rough.  This is the case however with most of Cabo San Lucas, but there are a few beaches that you can drive or hike to that you can definitely swim or snorkel in. 

The next pool is located near the Beach Club.  There’s no swim up bar but, you don’t feel neglected as the moment you sit down, the pool boys come over, fix your towels, bring you a few bottles of water in an ice bucket, and are happy to take any drink or food orders for you.  The last and final pool is further back from the beach.  This is the children’s pool, although children are allowed to hang at any of the pools.  It’s also located near the Beach Club restaurant, but it’s not an infinity pool, and it’s much further back from the sand.

It is however, a lovely pool!  It is a round one, decorated with large climbing rocks all over the back end, and the deepest part must be around 4-5 feet high.  You walk into the pool in a slope.  There are no stairs.  It just slopes down until you are around six feet from the rocks in at the back and then there is just one small stair to give you a little more depth.  Of course, if you try to jump off those rocks, someone will come over within a minute of seeing you partaking in the fun and tell you that you in no uncertain terms that you are not allowed to jump off of the rocks.  We saw this occur more often that I’d care to remember.  Why not just have a sign?  I sort of understand why they harass you all day long about this. They have to protect themselves if someone gets hurt.  Then why even have the temptation of the rocks there at all?  I can’t imagine any child seeing those rocks and not wanting to jump from them into the gorgeous water?  I must say, were it not for my herniated disc, I too would have been tempted to climb and jump!  The temperature in all three pools was perfect.  It was refreshing without being at all cold, unlike the plunge pools in our room, which were so frigid, even the bravest of our children wouldn’t dare to enter!

One of the very nice things about Capella Pedregal was that it was sort of pet friendly.  They’re not allowed in the restaurants or in the actual pool (they can sit by your lounge chair though), but that’s completely understandable, as not everyone would appreciate having a two or three swimming around in the pool.  We have a tiny bichon/poodle mix (hypoallergenic) called Toby.  One person asked his name when we were checking in and they must’ve made sure afterward that everyone knew his name.  Every single time, the employees past us, we always got a “Buenos Dias Toby!  Como Estas?”  It was a small, but lovely touch, which can go a very long way in making you feel comfortable.  The lower level staff was very sweet and helpful!  The pool boys, the waiters, the housekeepers, the valets, the golf cart drivers, the bellmen, the spa therapists, all must’ve been very well trained, as they were very quick to help, kind, and for the most part efficient.  It was really the management that didn't seem to be very nice.

It seems one night, it stormed in the middle of the night (it was one of those 3am jobs that was completely finished by 6am) and I woke up the next morning, got out of bed to go to my kitchen, passing through a short hallway.  Well, I took one step into the hallway, and there was literally a 2-inch high puddle of water filling the entire 3 x 5 ft. space.   Did I mention that the floors in every room are marble?  Needless to say, my feet slipped out from under me and I did a complete flop right onto the lower part of my back that is ruptured…..just great!  We called the management and asked to have a doctor sent up.

The doctor was actually very nice, completely fluent in English, and familiar with herniated discs.  He did a few little reflex tests and then felt my back with his hands.  He said that he would prescribe me a muscle relaxer/steroid combination.  Apparently, my whole back was very tight from it bracing itself as I was falling.  He wished me the best and let me know that he was leaving for vacation the next day so if I had any more problems, I’d have to go to the hospital. 

Meanwhile my husband spoke to management about what had occurred.  You’re expecting here that they said “I’m so very sorry, sir.  This is a terrible accident.  What can we do to make your wife’s stay more comfortable?”  Their response “Well, it never rains here.”  Seriously?  Besides the fact that Cabo San Lucas has a hurricaine season every year, besides the fact that they (we didn’t notice this until after my fall) put sandbags in front of all the unoccupied rooms every night, of which there were many.  Is that surprising?  Besides all of this, they have a serious engineering problem here!  Clearly when the foundations were being laid onto the mountain side, someone was shooting the tequila a bit too hard.  When you enter the rooms from the outside, the entire hallway is a slope!  It then slopes back up right before you enter your bedroom.  I suspect this is why there was no water in the actual bedroom area.  But really, who treats their clients like this?  All we wanted was a little TLC.

After a day or so of my husband talking back and forth with management, explaining how the 95 steps up to our room (yes, we counted them) weren’t the best thing for my back, they gave us a little one bedroom villa with a private pool that they somehow managed to heat, that was right down on the sand.  It was lovely!  We left the rest of our party up in the larger villa, as it seemed like a big hassle to pack up and move 8 people.  We were very happy in that room for a day until they called us at 5pm telling us that we needed to leave the room by 7pm that night as there were new guests coming in the next day.  Now as they gave us this room gratis, we fully understood that they may need the room back if someone called up to reserve that specific room. 

However, the management told my husband that they would make sure to give us 24 hours' notice.  Well, two hours later, my husband called and asked them what on earth they were trying to do.  He said we could get out the next morning at 9am and housekeeping would still have plenty of time to clean up while we headed back up the 95 steps to our other room.  The assistant manager was so condescending and rude to my husband, that he actually raised his voice very loudly in return.

I could count the times on one hand in our 20 years of living together that I’ve heard my husband yell at someone.  Honestly!  Now at this point, we should’ve packed up and left this place completely, but we had two days left until we were to fly home and it seemed like a big hassle.  I quickly threw my stuff into a bag to head back upstairs, told my husband not to worry about it, that we’d just lay by the pool all day the next day, and that I’d only make it up and down the stairs once each way per day.  Fast forward to 3pm the next day, I realized that I couldn’t find my Blackberry charger.  I walked from the pool over to the room that we’d consecutively stayed in and gotten kicked out of to see if anyone had seen my charger.  FYI, housekeeping was only then starting to clean the room!  Are you kidding me?  We were forced out of the room 8 hours earlier and they were just now starting to clean up our mess?  They saw the shock on my face and it clearly registered as one of the gals there was the housekeeping supervisor.

Within the hour, they contacted us and said that they had the same exact room directly next door to the one we’d had before and it was ready for us.  My husband took our stuff and we headed back down.  We had a lovely night and a lovely day the next day, and then…..  This is almost a joke already.  My husband woke up in the middle of the night to use the little boys room before me (thank God)!  He then woke me up to show me that the entire room where the toilet was located was wet.  FYI, there was no rain this time.  He cleaned it up, laid down towels, and said to be extra careful if I woke up to go to the bathroom.  I then went back to sleep after saying a few choice words under my breath about how we’d never come back here!  I did wake up a bit later and went to use the facilities and guess what!  Now the entire room where the tub was located was also flooded!  Thank goodness this room was brighter and I was able to see the water before I did another back flip! 

They must’ve known something was up with our room because our friend Todd, who was staying up at the four-bedroom villa, was out on the terrace, looking out of the binoculars that they are so kind as to provide for your stay, and saw six men huddling around a room.  He figured that they were working on something and then he looked a big closer and realized that it was our room!  Apparently there was some sewage problem, although I must say by the grace of God, the water was not brown and odious!  It was clear, bath like water. 

Okay, time to go home now.  We spent our last few hours by the pool, caught our flight back home and were very happy to say “Adios Capella Pedregal!” 

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