DISCLAIMER
This review is based on what we experienced July 8th – 15th, 2023. Vidanta is the rightful owner of the Vidanta trademark. We’re using the name here in accordance with our experience on their property.
We’ll talk about the assault below, but if you want to read about the entire horrific adventure, please click here. Vidanta’s response, or lack of, can be followed by clicking the X1-X9 links in the left menu.
THE ASSAULT
We decided to venture in to Nuevo Vallarta on our own. Had some fun, but whatever I ate didn’t agree with my stomach. When we arrived back at our room, the water was turned off. With an upset stomach and not feeling well, this is an inconvenience. During my washroom visit, my wife and youngest son went to the Grand Mayan pool around 4:40 pm. They sat down at an empty patio chair and a lady came out of the pool, and screamed that was her chair. There was nothing on it or under it. She then proceeded to shoulder check my son to the ground accusing him of stealing her “reserved” chair. 7 months ago my son had an almost complete spinal fusion due to severe scoliosis. At no point is it ok to assault another guest, but especially considering what he has just come through. By the time I got there, 7 security members and the chief concierge, Claudia, could only try to whisk us away so that we wouldn’t cause a scene in front of other guests (who all saw what went down, but nobody wanted to get involved). When I asked Claudia if anyone asked him if he was ok, Claudia told us that she didn’t know our son was hurt because we didn’t tell her. Our entire family is first-aid trained, and the first question on ANY scene where there’s an assault is, “does anyone need medical assistance?” But she reversed it to blame us that we didn’t tell anyone that my son was hurt. We asked for the police to be involved and were told that police do not come on to the property. Does that make you feel safe knowing that security isn’t there for you because this is private property? We were then escorted to the “medical team” who we find out cannot assist in any way. They don’t even have Tylenol for pain. But they were happy to send us to La Plaza to spend more money on simple medicine. I’d say that for a resort this size the medical dept is useless. I guess if you had heat stroke, they can let you sit in their air conditioned office, otherwise there’s no help here.
What did the resort do about the assault, nothing. We reached out to our medical provider at home for their recommendations and had an immediate appointment for the day after we returned. Rejected and worried sick, we return to our room and there’s a smoke alarm going off in a room somewhere on our floor. We let a staff member know. He laughs, “we’re probably all safe” and walks away.
Manager / Supervisor Hector, lovely individual, definitely the nicest person all week, visited us in our room. There’s an investigation happening about the assault but there’s no information that can be shared with us due to guest privacy. I’m sure the offending party’s side of the story will paint a completely different picture. The way the rest of this trip has gone, I know they’ll be right and we’re wrong.
On checkout I filled out an honest review on the iPad that they hand you. A Vidanta rep, Elizabeth Barrera, has since said, “the hotel is not responsible for the actions of other guests.” From what we saw, other than you’d be an a-hole to do it, my guess is that you’re welcome to push, shove, steal, assault as much as you’d like and the only ramification is that if the victim makes a scene, the victim will asked to leave. I absolutely have no trust in the security or medical team. We demanded the police be involved and were told that the police do not have authority on Vidanta property. We demanded that the other party be charged with assault. Nope. On-site security will only stand with their hands politely folded in front of them and won’t say a word or get involved.
