At Grand Residences your wellbeing is our top priority. When you return to your home away from home you’ll find that we have taken additional steps to ensure the safety of owners, members, guests and staff.
We will be reopening with new hygiene protocols for rooms, guest areas and back of house in accordance with guidelines issued by the Mexican Department of Health and the World Health Organization.

They include:

• Welcoming members and guests with warm smiles and the traditional Yucatecan greeting of the hand placed over the heart, Ki’ imak K’iin instead of handshakes and hugs
• Keeping a safe distance and avoiding physical contact.
• Use of face masks by staff
• Widespread availability of hand sanitizer for guests and staff to use, including a bottle in the room amenity kit for guests to use and take with them when they venture outside the resort
• Incorporation of additional sanitation protocols and disinfectants in our daily room cleaning procedure
• Increased cleaning of guest areas and back of house where staff work behind the scenes
• High traffic areas and surfaces such as tables, doorknobs, elevator buttons and handrails are cleaned and disinfected frequently during the day
• Sports gear, yoga mats, gym equipment and fitness machines are cleaned with disinfectant before and after use and sanitizer wipes are available for guests to give them an additional wipe down.
• In restaurants and bars, seating plans will allow for greater separation between tables. Buffet service has been modified to reduce lines, other changes include greater use of individual portions and a member of staff to serve diners.
• Guest vans and employee buses will be cleaned and disinfected after every journey
• Using the Grand Residences App offers contact-free options for pre-check-in and express checkout, making special requests, checking daily activity programs and restaurant information
• Ongoing staff training on COVID-19 awareness and to reinforce hygiene protocols such as frequent hand washing
• Constant monitoring of the health of our employees
• In the event that a guest begins to feel unwell, has a temperature or is showing respiratory symptoms, the resort will notify the Mexican Department of Health immediately and follow its protocol on self-isolation, care and sanitation.

You may be missing your favorite beachfront seat at Heaven Bar right now for a lunch of fish tacos with lashings of pico de gallo or the catch of the day served up in El Faro Grill. If you are, here’s a recipe from the Grand Residences kitchen for you to prepare at home. We hope that it brings back wonderful memories. We’ll be sharing more recipes with you in the months to come. In the meantime, enjoy!

Tequila Shrimp
This shrimp and tequila flambée recipe from the Mexican Pacific coast tastes just as good in the Mexican Caribbean!

Serves 1 person
4 jumbo shrimp
4 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
1 sliced Guajillo chili
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
1 shot glass of white tequila
One grilled yellow corn, cut in halves
½ cup of cooked white rice
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley

Preparation
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the butter, garlic and the shrimp seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.
Sauté the shrimp until pink, about 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat and add the tequila. Increase the heat to medium high and then tilt the skillet over the gas burner or use a long match to ignite the tequila. Be careful as the flames may go high.
Cook, shaking the skillet gently once or twice, until flames subside.
Remove from heat and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately with rice and corn

Cocktail hour
If you are dreaming about your Mexican Caribbean home and all those relaxing afternoons by the pool sipping your favorite cocktail, here’s a recipe from the Grand Residences bartenders for you to enjoy at home.

Blueberry Mezcalita
2oz mezcal
2oz cranberry juice
2oz Sprite
¼ cup blueberries
2 lime slices
4 mint leaves
Ice
To garnish, a sprig of mint and a blackberry

Place the lime slices, blueberries and mint leaves in a glass and macerate using a cocktail pestle until the juices are released and mixed. Add ice cubes, cranberry juice, sprite and mezcal. Mix well and garnish with the blackberry and mint sprig.

Guitarist Jorge Duran has made many friends at Royal Resorts and Grand Residences over the years. Many of you will remember him from El Conquistador restaurant at The Royal Islander and he has been entertaining us since 1988. Although you cannot be with us right now, you can still watch Jorge jamming live via the Royal Resorts Facebook page.

Don’t miss Jorge Duran. You can watch him by visiting the Royal Resorts Facebook page

You cannot be with us right now but we can bring the beauty of the Mexican Caribbean and the Yucatan to you. Here’s our monthly gallery showcasing some of the region’s many natural and historical attractions. How many have you visited? Which ones would you like to see on future visits to Cancun and the Riviera Maya?

Puerto Morelos
Wide beaches stretching into the distance and sheltered by the offshore Mesoamerican Reef make this fishing community our favorite spot in the Mexican Caribbean.

 

Rio Lagartos
A vision in pink, thousands of flamingos make their home in Rio Lagartos Biosphere Reserve.

Cenotes
Gaze into the crystalline waters of a cenote or sinkhole in the Riviera Maya or Yucatan and a mysterious sunken world of columns and pillars appears, stretching into the darkness.

Tulum
In ancient times, lights in the El Castillo temple at Tulum would guide seafarers through the jagged reefs to safe haven in the bay at the foot of the cliff.

Izamal
Dazzling yellow, the town of Izamal is dominated by the huge Franciscan monastery built in the 16th century on top of a Mayan pyramid.

Bacalar Lagoon
In southern Quintana Roo, Bacalar is known as the Lagoon of Seven Colors because of the spectacular shades of blue of the water. We think that the number is actually much higher!