Best to officially chase it up via the Tour Operator/Travel Agent you booked with stating that you specifically booked the complex due to the open restaurant policy. They will be the ones you will be seeking compensation from when you come back if it is not the case.

We ate at the Coba "restaurants" every evening bar a trip to the "oriental" in the Hacienda, which is a shared area, and a trip to the "turtle" restaurant at the Tulum, which was the only steak house we found.

Quite a few "cross hotel" people were using the Tulum and Akumel snack bars at lunch time, but the only time my daughter did she was ill for 24 hours. We kept away just in case and went back to the Coba if we felt peckish.

At the Coba, there were restaurants we could not use as we had not upgraded to premium class or whatever it was, but the loss of facility was not even noticed, in fact I had even forgot they existed until this brought it back to mind.

They may well be trying something like this:
I have mentioned elsewhere that we were unable to book the steakhouse at the Coba because according to Customer Services there wasn't one, as far as they were concerned no restaurants existed outside the Coba/Hacienda complex, however when we arrived back at the customer services a couple of days later and stated we wanted to book the Turgesa, it was accomplished immediately and with no fuss.

hi,
This is the situation
the buffet restaurants and gourmet are only for the guests at that hotel as of end of November i belive.. so if your in the coba you can use that buffet and only the coba gourmet , but any other single restaurant in any hotel about 8 in total to use as you like.

So in each hotel the buffet and gourmet are for that sole section but the italians the new brazilian the japanese the sea food and any others can be used by all guests at any section..

gourmet in hotels are

coba.. le gourmet
Akumal.. arlequin
tulum .. don pablo

thanks for all the info, i did contact thomas cook who said that they are not aware of any restrictions but they are going to check and let me know, must admit not too happy as this was to be a special holiday and we took a bit of time to pick this one out, paid for premier class on the flight and have already booked flights from channel islands and a hotel at gatwick, we will jusy have to wait and see what they say,
anyone else with any info it is always appreciated
mind you we will just make the best of it anyway, no matter what but it is a bit of a dampner!

i will let you know what TC say

J

suntanman, can we still drink in all the bars or are they to be restricted as well?

locogringo.com said also that they are to be split and no drinks after 11 pm !!

The bars have always closed at 11:00
There are other bars at the Hacienda which do stay open till later. The Disco being the main one I think, however we were always cream crackered by 11:15 - last cup of hot chocolate or cappuchino at 11 and drinking up time, so even when we thought about it, the room bus would pull up before the Hacienda bus so we never made it to the Hacienda at night!

I think I remember seeing something about le gourmet, but not the actual restaurant, maybe that was the one reserved for premium/premiere accomodation. The only one we ate in at the Coba, apart from the Buffet and Snack bar, was the Italian, so the restriction may not be such a problem depending on which hotel you get.

hi yes all the bars will be available for all,

Its really not a big difference unless you enjoy trying all the buffets and have a prefered gourmet you can still use all other restaurants in all the three hotels,

By the way getting my info off another site which is usually 99% correct but got freinds going in a couple of weeks so will post again..

pm if you want more info not sure if i can advertise other sites on here,

Is that still the case this summer, where as you can't use the bufett and gourmet restaurants at the other two hotels?

I've read good reviews for the other 'A La Carte' restaurants, has anyone had first hand experience of them? Any recommendations?

A couple of weeks ago I was told that the Coba was closed and everyone was in the other two hotels. All to do with lack of tourist numbers due to the pig flu scare - and high prices also putting people off. Not sure if this was accurate or not, but the source is one I trust.

I also have been reading this and would guess we are looking at the same site..

The information i would say is correct.. Have heard the coba is to open this week but im sure will take time to get up and going to full service.

We are heading back in November so hope it is back to normall by then, but even if ITS not its still a great hotel..

A friend of mine has just arrived back yesterday. There were problems with Mosquitos due to the hotel having been closed and not fumigated before reopening, big mistake. The hotel management are confident everything will be back to normal over the next week or so.

Apart from the above they had a great time and would go back again. He did say it was a massive complex and you do need to use the Golf Buggys to get around otherwise you will be cream crackered.

Trip wise, he said a must was Coco Bongo's and also they was a guy from Manchester who had set up a business doing speed boat trips, not cheap apparently but well worth the money. Same boats as the US navy Seals use, not for the faint hearted.