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| Resorts in Mexico are adding many new child-friendly amenities to draw the family crowd. |
Whether your clients are still seeking a place to spend the annual family summer vacation or are looking ahead to the winter holidays, two prominent hotel chains in the Riviera Maya have enhanced their kid-friendly amenities to entice them.
During Tianguis Turistico earlier this year, Travel Agent got the scoop from Lissette Robledo, senior marketing manager at Karisma Hotels & Resorts, on a new children’s room category that has now been inaugurated at Azul Hotels by Karisma properties. The Fisher-Price rooms include toys, children’s decorations and other kid-friendly amenities.
The plan, Robledo told us, is to design roughly five such rooms at each Azul resort. Then, depending on how popular they prove to be, that number would increase.
“We don’t want to take 10 rooms out of our inventory until we see how well they do,” she said. “We won’t do anything that we can’t undo just in case we need to book the room for someone besides kids. Once we start to gauge the interest, then we will add some more permanent designs to these rooms.”
Concurrent with that, Azul launched Mini Mayans, a program designed to educate children on the Mayan culture during their stay. Offered at Azul Beach Hotel, Azul Sensatori Hotel and Azul Fives Hotel, it includes fun, interactive elements such as: “Give the Mayans a Mano,” which invites children to pick up where the Mayans left off and create a 2013 calendar; “Mini Mayan Musicians,” where children build their very own instruments of wood and recyclable materials, feathers, clay, fabric and paint; “Tiempo de Tiles,” in which children create their own stories on painted tiles as the Mayans did in ages past; and “Mayan Cooking Classes.”
Mini Mayans has been incorporated into the daily schedule of activities at Azul’s Azulitos Playhouses, which also hold Fisher-Price toys and play sessions, My Gym Children’s Fitness Center activities, games, storytelling, Spanish and dance lessons and piñata parties.
Palace Makes ‘Connections’
The all-new “Family Connections Program” at Palace Resorts, which has all-inclusive properties throughout Mexico and the Caribbean, was created to strengthen family bonds through one-of-a-kind vacation experiences. The newly enhanced kids’ club has added extra amenities, services and activities to its already well-established program, available at all of the brand’s family-friendly properties including Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort, Beach Palace, Cozumel Palace and Playacar Palace.
The new “Connection Zone” children’s club at Palace Resorts (for kids ages four to 12) offers premium services and amenities to all families, including Nextel Direct walkie-talkie services and a specialized children’s club menu. The upgraded amenities in the Connections Luxury Suite with Nanny Service level includes private nanny services, priority access and a “Kiddie Concierge Line.”
Other options for families in the region include Club Med Cancun Yucatan, home to Mini Club Med for the four-to-10 set and creativity-inspiring Club Med Passworld for teens; Grand Oasis Palm, which offers 10 kid-themed rooms (underwater, jungle, etc.), and sister hotel Oasis Palm Beach, with one of the most impressive kids’ clubs we have seen in all of Mexico; and select Iberostar resorts.