Hotel Review: the All-Inclusive Resort Impression Moxché by Secrets (Part One)

Impression Moxché by Secrets is an all-inclusive super luxury resort which is part of the World of Hyatt collection of all-inclusive resorts. It is most often described with a series of enthusiastic oohs and aahs. Naturally, I had to go there to see for myself whether it was deserving of all the accolades. This is part one of my review – I couldn’t possibly contain a review to one post.

On the website, it’s described like this:

Welcome to Impression Moxché by Secrets, where every awe-inspiring detail is designed to impress. Indulge in the luxury of space with expansive modern suites and an abundance of stunning infinity pools. Relinquish all worries with Endless Privileges® inclusions and dedicated butler service. Escape to this exclusive luxury resort, where privacy abounds, personal needs are anticipated, and the highest level of service is customary.

It goes on to state:

Enjoy a welcome bottle of tequila or rum upon arrival and sparkling wine and fresh fruit daily. Fully unwind with a twice daily refreshed in-suite mini-bar,24-hour concierge services, 24-hour private in-suite dining, maid service three times daily, luxurious bath amenities and 24-hour laundry services. Enjoy a complimentary 20-minute wellness experience, WiFi, and no check-in or checkout times.

I never considered myself an all-inclusive kind of traveler. I generally prefer a nice mix where I can explore a location, rather than just staying on resort grounds. But having spent three nights at the resort, I can say it’s pretty nice to indulge in this sort of experience once in a while.

Before arriving at Secrets Impressions, I spent three nights at the Thompson Beach House in Playa Del Carmen, so I certainly had my mix of different sorts of cultural experiences before my arrival at Secrets Impressions. (see, Hotel Review: Thompson Beach House, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico).

Frankly, I was a little overwhelmed reading all the materials about Secrets Moxché.  There is a special iPhone app for the Hyatt all-inclusive properties, and there are various Facebook groups which focus on this resort. There are so many restaurants, how could I possibly go to every one of them? Which were the best? Which ones should I skip? Obviously, these are first-world problems, but they were stressing me out.

We took a taxi from Playa Del Carmen to Secrets Moxché. It was much closer to PDC than I envisioned. But when we arrived, it was like entering another world: a world of luxury and abundance and pampering.

We were immediately greeted and given welcome champagnes and ushered to the Impressions building. Impressions is part of Secrets, but is even more elite, if you could imagine that, with dedicated additional special restaurants and pools.

At the entrance of the Impressions building, there is a bar and a small buffet of foods and snacks which is replenished throughout the day and night.

We met our butler, Maili, who gave us a brief overview and tour of the grounds and escorted us to our suite. We immediately liked her. She was lovely and a lovely person. All rooms at Secrets Impressions are suites, but to our amazement and delight we were upgraded to the Master Suite Ocean View. Oh. My. God.

This is the hallway leading to our suite.

This is Dave obediently waiting outside the suite while I take photos and videos!

Speaking of videos, here’s one I took of the suite: Video Walkthrough: Master Suite at Impression Moxché by Secrets.

Here are some photos too! This suite is incredible. One interesting feature is a little cubbyhole, referred to as the secret door. It is a slot next to the kitchen, where you can leave items for housekeeping to pick up, or for them to deliver to you, without them having to enter the suite. I immediately thought it was a special door from either the film Being John Malkovich or perhaps an entry which Alice would have walked through in Through the Looking Glass. Yes, we were a little obsessed with the secret door!

This place has everything. Personally, I’m not accustomed to this level of indulgence, but there is something to be said for acclimating to it!

The balcony is huge.

Is it a pool or a hot tub or a bathtub?

The view is as pretty as a postcard.

The grounds of the resort are large and beautifully manicured. There are a lot of pools – we were told that some were more party oriented and others were more mellow, but we never really saw any activity that could be considered excessively loud.

There were even some smaller, more intimate pools, made to resemble Mexican cenotes.

Everything was beautiful.

There were pools for the Impressions guests only, including a pool on the rooftop of the Impressions building, and that’s where we went most of the time. The rooftop evoked pinch me is this real type of feelings.

There were a few other pools solely for Impressions guests.

I will devote a separate post to the restaurants at the resort. Below is only a short synopsis.

There are quite a few restaurants at the resort. A few are reserved exclusively for Impressions guests only. Only a few restaurants are considered premium restaurants and have an upcharge – namely Teodoro and an Omakase Japanese meal. I’ll discuss those in a separate post.

On our first day, we had lunch at Cielo on the rooftop of the Impressions building. It was incredibly tasty and lovely and service was impeccable.

For breakfasts, we went to the resort’s buffet restaurant twice. The food was good, but like everything else, was somewhat overwhelming.

Note, they really mean it when they say men must wear short-sleeve shirts and non-flipflop sandals. We were sent back to our rooms for a wardrobe change more than once. For women, the dress attitude is more of an anything goes rule. (Finally, a double standard in our favor!)

Since we love seafood and outdoor cafes with a comfortable vibe, we quickly discovered that our favorite restaurant for lunch was SeaSoul, which is accessible to all Secrets guests. It might have become our favorite restaurant for dinner too, but we were only there three nights and had to keep discovering various restaurants on the grounds.

There were shows some of the evenings. We found the performances pretty hokey in a roll-the-eyes kind of way, but we kept going back anyway.

After the shows, the back room of the nearby pharmacy shop opened to a what was supposed to be a disco/speakeasy. Again, a bit hokey. We went to some of the other bars on the grounds and at the entrance to the Impressions building instead and enjoyed our time speaking to other guests.

One morning, we also went to a timeshare meeting. We’ll also discuss this in a separate post.

Related posts coming shortly:

• Restaurants at Secrets Moxche and our dinners at two premium Secrets restaurants: Teodoro and Omakase.
• Our visits to the hotel Spa and fitness center
• and our attendance at a time share meeting

So, is this ultra luxury all-inclusive resort deserving of all the accolades it receives? I’d say probably yes. To be continued.