We are open and so happy to welcome back our owners and members and their families.
Grand Residences staff and management representatives gave a Mexican-style Fourth of July welcome to the first owners, members and guests to arrive with applause, live music, cocktails and more.
Mexican and US flags were flying and a Jarocho trio from Veracruz serenaded guests with traditional Mexican music. This very special day ended with a Fourth of July BBQ in El Faro Grill.

Welcoming you back with new health and safety measures
Grand Residences reopened with new Royal Care Standard health and safety protocols in place for your protection. As part of this program, we have implemented World Health Organization, Mexican Department of Health and The Leading Hotels of the World® hygiene recommendations, elevating our cleaning and sanitization standards even further. Your resort has now received the Clean and Safe Check certificate from the Quintana Roo State Tourism Board and Department of Health. This official certificate also has the Safe Travels seal of approval from the World Travel & Tourism Council.
The new measures are in effect from the moment you leave the Airport. You will be greeted by your Grand Residences chauffeur, who will be wearing a face mask. He will escort you to your van, which has been cleaned and disinfected and is ready for use.
You will receive a complimentary hygiene kit including a face mask, gloves, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes for you to use on the resort premises or when you go on tours. Upon arrival at the resort, staff will ask permission to take your temperature and your luggage will be disinfected before being carried to your residence.
Disinfecting mats have been installed in the lobby, the doorways to other guest areas and at staff entrances. Wherever you go in the resort, you’ll find that we have also added hand sanitizer dispensers for guests and staff to use.
You’ll notice that all our staff are wearing face masks and some also wear gloves and visors as they go about their work. We ask our owners, members and guests to wear face masks in indoor spaces such as the Kids Club and busy public areas of the resort where keeping a safe distance is not possible. By doing so, you are protecting yourself and others. The use of face masks is mandatory when you go outside the resort, you must wear them in public areas, supermarkets, malls and more.
High traffic areas and frequently touched surfaces such as tables, doorknobs, elevator buttons and handrails throughout the resort are cleaned and disinfected repeatedly during the day.
We also adjusted our room cleaning procedures, incorporating new hygiene protocols and EPA-approved products. In addition, all rooms are sanitized using electrostatic technology prior to guest arrival.
Social distancing is respected wherever possible and in the Kids Club and Gym we have reduced the number of guests permitted at any given time. The cocktail class is also limited to eight people, the cooking class to seven and tea time to nine; reservations are required for all three. Two guests are permitted to use the elevators at the same time.
We have made changes at the restaurants too, adding hygiene protocols and changing seating plans. For the time being, we have suspended the theme night buffets replacing them with a la carte menus, individual portions and staff on hand to serve diners.
Wherever they are, our staff take care of every detail to ensure that all cleaning and disinfecting procedures and protocols are being followed.
We are looking after our staff and monitoring their health closely. All team members have their temperature taken before they start their shift and must complete a health survey. They then change into their uniforms, which are laundered on site. Additional health and safety precautions have been implemented in offices and other employee areas to protect them.
Staff have been trained to carry out the new protocols and also attend ongoing online courses on COVID-19 awareness and hygiene best practices.

Watch our Royal Care Standard video

For more information on the measures that have been implemented at Grand Residences and Royal Resorts visit royalcarestandard.com

Gourmet cuisine awaits you whenever you dine at El Faro and Flor de Canela and there is always tasty fresh seafood for lunch or early dinner at Heaven Beach Bar. Yet there’s much more for you to try during your stay, and you won’t want to miss the theme nights we have lined up for you this summer. They come with a la carte menus at the moment instead of the classic buffet but there are plenty of tempting choices, including appetizers, soup, salad, main courses and desserts.

• Monday
Italian Night, El Faro Grill

• Wednesday
Argentinian Night

• Thursday
Seafood Night, El Faro Grill

• Friday
French Night, El Faro Grill

• Sunday
BBQ Night

There may be some temporary changes in opening hours for Flor de Canela and El Faro Grill in July. Ask your Concierge for more information and the location of Argentinian Night and BBQ Night.

For a casual dinner on the terrace or in your dining room, order from the 24-hour Room Service menu. Chef Borbolla has added new dishes for your dining pleasure, including seafood, vegetarian and vegan options and you’ll find all-time favorites such as pizza and pasta.

Do you have a favorite Grand Residences cocktail? One you always ask for on your first day in paradise? Why not let us know and we’ll be sure to include it in future editions of this newsletter. In the meantime, we hope that these three drinks put you in the mood for your next vacation.

Golden Margarita
1 ½ oz Tequila Milagro Plata
¾ oz Grand Marnier
¾ oz orange liqueur
2 oz orange juice
1 oz lime juice
Serve over ice and with the traditional salt crust on the rim of your glass

Princesa Maya
¾ oz brandy
¾ oz almond liqueur
1 oz strawberries
½ oz coconut cream
1 oz Carnation evaporated milk
¼ oz grenadine
One third of a banana
Blend and serve.

Leaping Lizard
1 oz Melon liqueur
1 oz Banana liqueur
1 oz Kahlua
1 oz Pineapple juice
1 oz Carnation evaporated milk
¼ Banana
Blend and serve.

Here are some of the books we are reading right now if you are looking for something for the beach. Some are recent releases but there are some old favorites too. Why not write to us and let us know what’s on your bookshelf or Kindle right now?

Small Island
Andrea Levy, 2004
Following the fortunes of four people in 1948 Britain, this award-winning book is beautifully written and full of warmth. At times moving, funny, thoughtful and disturbing, it casts light on the struggles that Caribbean migrants faced in the land they had been taught to look upon as the Mother Country.
Alone in a London house, Queenie Bligh is taking in Jamaican lodgers for a living because her husband Bernard has not returned from the war in the Far East. One of her tenants is Gilbert Joseph, who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler but finds a very different, much colder, reception when he returns to Britain after the war.
His wife Hortense dreams of being a teacher and living in a fine house but soon discovers that the college qualifications she is so proud of will not be accepted by the Department of Education and that she must go back to university if she wishes to pursue a teaching career.
London is grey, cold and in ruins, a far cry from the warmth, sunshine and tropical colors of Jamaica. Gilbert and Hortense encounter prejudice and suspicion yet they persevere as they make their new life. What was a marriage of convenience becomes a marriage of love and their destinies are intertwined with Queenie’s when her troubled husband returns after years of absence.

Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell, 2020
A tale set in Stratford upon Avon about young William Shakespeare and his love for Agnes (Anne Hathaway), a country girl wise in herbal lore. They begin married life in the house belonging to William’s father John and have three children: Susana and twins Hamnet and Judith.
Despite their love for one another, Will is restless and decides to seek a new life for the family in London, far from the insults of his father. He falls under the spell of the playhouse and his letters are full of his writing and the troupe of wandering actors he is part of. His visits to Stratford become few and far between as he finds success in London.
The sudden illness of his son brings him back to Stratford but he arrives too late. The family all grieve for Hamnet in different ways and for William it inspired his finest play, Hamlet.
Maggie O’ Farrell’s vision of Stratford, the mysterious Forest of Arden and of the Shakespeare family makes for compelling reading.

The House between the Tides
Sarah Maine, 2018
Art gallery owner Hetty Devereaux inherits Muirian, the ancestral family home on an island in the Outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. She leaves her London life to explore the crumbling property that once belonged to an eccentric painter and distant relative called Theo Blake. With the discovery of human bones in the house, she stumbles across an old crime, a history of land disputes and a mysterious disappearance.
Hetty’s story is interwoven with the story of Beatrice, Theo’s young wife, who first visited the island in 1910. As she looks at Theo Blake’s evocative paintings of dramatic landscapes, birds and a wild young girl, Hetty begins to piece together a story of lost love, misunderstandings and sadness.

Need more books? Alma Libre Bookstore is open!
If you run out of beach books, you’ll be able to stock up at Alma Libre right here in Puerto Morelos. Located on the main square, this iconic bookstore has a good selection of new and second-hand books in English and Spanish. Currently open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.