Fiesta Americana Puerto Vallarta All Inclusive and Spa

I spent a week here with my two sons aged 18 and 21. We stayed on the 9th floor (Fiesta Club) and I wasn't sure if those light blue bracelets were what got us such stellar service all week or if everyone was treated so well! Other guests we met seemed equally happy with the very friendly staff. Main added bonus of Fiesta Club was the lounge, where a hot breakfast was served every morning, and appetizers and drinks were served late afternoon/early evening. The breakfast was an especially nice touch- so nice to cross the hall for brekkie, and then go back to your room to brush teeth and gather beach/pool stuff. I checked out the breakfast buffet on the last day to see what we'd missed; not much, unless you want a custom made omelet. The convenience of the lounge breakfast superseded the extra selection, in my opinion. Other advantage of 9th floor was no lobby noise, which some guests on lower floors experienced when there were convention goers overtaking the lobby bar.The view from the balcony was stellar, especially for sunsets. Loved grabbing a glass of wine from the lobby bar and enjoying the sunset from my private balcony! We had two double beds; two queens would have been better since my sons had to share, but the beds and pillows were comfy and the linens were really nice quality. The room was spacious enough. I was really impressed with how quickly housekeeping came to clean our room after we vacated for the day- if we returned in an hour or two, it was always in the process of being cleaned or clean already, and cleaned very well (thanks Alicia!). The toiletries supplied were of average quality and sufficient. The air conditioning worked really well (too well, my boys froze me out); I would have preferred a ceiling fan and balcony screen, but most people would probably not be cool enough. You couldn't leave the balcony door open as since there is no screen, critters came in. We had a few tiny geckoes on the ceiling and one bat-sized moth that maintenance came and helped us get rid of :). There were little tiny bugs crawling on the hard surfaces in the room; I'm not sure these can be eliminated in places like this, as they were the same bugs I saw in the sand, and with sand coming in on tourists every day.......they weren't a big deal to us. The food was pretty good, my sons certainly enjoyed everything. We ate at the Asian and Italian restaurants, both were good but only the Asian had air conditioning. I've stayed at higher end hotels and had better food, but was still really happy with the quality here. It was hard to know where the buffets were being served from day to day; the usual buffet is closed due to pool/restaurant construction, so the buffets moved between a conference room, and the Asian and Mexican restaurants. Signage would have been helpful in this regard, but it's a small hotel so really not hard to find out where it was. My eldest has a nut allergy, which I emailed the hotel about before we arrived. They'd made two cards that stated his name and allergy in both Spanish and English for him to present before dining, which would have worked really well had he actually been diligent about presenting it (insert eyeroll emoji). He bit into one piece of bread with pecans in it at the Italian restaurant and was fine, but if he hadn't been, it wouldn't have been anyone's fault but his. The boys loved the poolside grill burgers and fries, and they also had nachos there with pico de gallo and amazing guac. Every day around 2 something different was served at a poolside BBQ and everything we had was delicious. I wasn't a huge fan of the lobby bar. The music in the evenings was often so loud it was difficult to hear one another. There was a TV in there too, which I think takes away from a lobby bar. I didn't care to see CNN on vacation, not in the lobby bar. Those who want to have TVs in their rooms. The music around the hotel was always generally too loud for me, and depending on where you were, you could sometimes hear 3 different types of music; one morning at the pool, the lobby bar, adjacent Mexican restaurant, and pool speakers were all playing different music. At the beach, you could hear both pool music and that from the seafood restaurant, which usually played spanish music as opposed to the pop playlist frequently played by the pool and in the lobby bar. I found it really hard to find anywhere to relax at this hotel, so took my pool floatie into the ocean to get away from music. The pool was really nice, and the new adult pool will surely be a fantastic addition. There were a few days where getting a poolside lounger was challenging, so I'd just go to the beach instead where they always seemed plentiful. Many palapas to be had on the beach and the palm trees were lovely, this was the best beach of the hotels on this stretch. The water was warm but if it had rained the day before, it would become brown and kind of full of debris because the river emptied into it about a km up the beach. Not a big deal, it was still cleaner than 90% of Alberta lakes lol. The water got deep quickly and I wouldn't be comfortable taking small children in without life jackets, but wasn't an issue for us and we played in the water quite a bit. Vendors on the beach were plentiful but there were bargains to be had! Go low, less than half for some items. I found that most left you alone with a simple no thanks. The crown jewel of the Fiesta Americana is their staff. I have been at 5 star resorts with less personalized attention and attention to detail. Food and beverage manager Wolfgang was EVERYWHERE, making sure that everyone's needs were being met. I haven't seen such a consistently visible manager at any hotel before, and it clearly improves the level of service. Polo and Luis were fantastic at the beach (where I usually was), and service at the pool was good as well. Try the Luis special number 6 drink haha! Joaquin the head waiter was also very gracious to us and the first day we went for a meal, he made a point of meeting us afterwards to see how everything was, plus he knew our names and that it was my son with the nut allergy. This was impressive. Miguel was our waiter one day in the buffet, he was so friendly, plus he helped my son back to the room one day after too many Tequila, thanks Miguel :). Rafael was the concierge on the 9th floor and he was so friendly and helpful, loved his morning cappucinos! Martin did a fantastic job keeping my boys busy with beach volleyball, soccer, and even got them doing the dance lesson; didn't think anyone would ever accomplish that! Overall, it was a fantastic vacation and the construction noise wasn't even all that troublesome. Only real complaint was the loud music everywhere. If I were looking for a quiet couples vacation, I might look elsewhere, but for a family vacation, Fiesta Americana suited our needs really well!