Activities, Kid's Club, and Babysitting at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun
Our Spring Break trip to the all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancun couldn't have been a better fit for our family. From the big two-story suite we scored, to the awesome pools and beaches, to the pretty good included food and drinks, it was basically a resort paradise that costs nothing out of pocket when you book using Hyatt points or Hyatt credit card sign-up bonus nights. You can check out all those details and more at the links below.
Booking and Getting to the Hyatt Ziva Cancun
Review of the Hyatt Ziva Cancun Pyramid Suite
Review of the Hyatt Ziva Cancun Pools and Beaches
Review of the Food and Drinks at the All-Inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancun
The final details I want to cover about the Hyatt Ziva Cancun include a look at some of the activities the resort offers and information on the Hyatt Ziva Cancun Kid's Club and babysitting services.
Activities at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun
The daily activities at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun include things like yoga, tequila tasting, kayaking, tennis, Spanish lessons, and more. These are listed on TV screens around the property and on printed pieces of paper. These is also evening entertainment and shows that starts after dark...er after my kids' bedtime. Honestly we didn't have the ability to participate in any of the included activities on this trip other than to see a few minutes of the evening show one night. The few events I saw starting up had limited participation, but that's probably because everyone is so busy enjoying free poolside cocktails during the day!
The bit of the evening show we saw included some singers/dancers that honestly seemed a little cheesy, but it was cheesy in a fun way. My kids enjoyed it, which is I think the most important thing. The best part of the show in my view was the seemingly intoxicated small mob of adults dancing and laughing beforehand that was great from a people watching perspective, and my own little performer who still talks about the "show" she put on and the applause she got from those who were waiting for the real show to start. Though she firmly insists she was the real show!
Seriously, she ate it up as you can see for yourself!
Kid's Club and Babysitting at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun
While I can't give much first-hand information on the activities at the Hyatt Ziva Cancun, I can give lots of details on the Kid's Club (or actually, the Kidz Club), and the babysitting services since we made use of both of those.
The Hyatt Ziva Cancun Kidz Club is free for kids ages 4-12 and it offers not only a cool room full of crafts, toys, and video games but also has its very own little water play area that is only open to kids in the club other than for small periods of time when it is open to all kids at the resort with supervising parents present.
At the Kidz Club you are given a pager when you drop your kid off so that the staff can notify you if you are needed before your scheduled return time. You can also give your child permission to leave on their own assuming they are in the older age bracket and you are comfortable with that arrangement.
My six year old went twice and enjoyed it, though she is now at an age that her enjoyment of a kid's club is directly related to whether she plays well with the other kids in attendance. It was tougher for her on one of the days when a larger sibling/cousin/friend group was there and she felt left out. It would have been awesome if we were traveling with another family and she could have gone to the club with a kid she knew, though she did make some friends there one day that she loved playing with!
It is also worth a mention that many of the kids there on our visit either spoke only Spanish or English and Spanish, but were playing with each other in Spanish. I think that is absolutely awesome from a world traveler point of view, but tougher for my six year old to feel a part of the action in a new setting with new kids in a language that she has limited ability with.
Still, I thought the club was awesome - and beyond awesome that it is included in the all inclusive mentality. Similar Kid's Clubs at resorts can easily cost $60 for just a half day or evening dinnertime visit. For the little ones who aren't yet four years old, there is still hope of you snagging some "adults only" time by using the resorts babysitters. We loved the babysitter we used for Baby S, but the babysitter system isn't quite as streamlined as the Kidz Club system.
When we first inquired about a babysitter we were told they come from an outside agency, but that one can be arranged with no problem. We set that up the first day we were there for our second day, but the babysitter never arrived. When we inquired further with the concierge desk they had put it down for the wrong day. However, after some back and forth they were able to arrange an alternate plan for later that day by utilizing a woman who worked in the Kidz Club. A bonus, in my view, was that our baby would be watched 1:1 by her in the Kidz Club during her babysitting time instead of in our room, which I vastly prefer for a number of reasons.
We then repeated that same plan one other time during our visit at the rate of $20/hour payable to the hotel, not directly to the babysitter. Other than the initial hiccup with scheduling, this worked out very well until we found out after we returned home that the hotel had not charged us for the babysitting at check-out. Normally this isn't a big deal as the hotel just lets you know and then charges the card you had on file. That would have been fine with us, but for whatever reason we were told that wasn't possible and they wanted the credit card number emailed as it couldn't be accepted over the phone.
I wasn't comfortable with that scenario and it was all very complicated and took six weeks to find an acceptable compromise to finally get the charge squared away so the babysitter could get paid. At the end of it all I think that the babysitter we had was great, but I hope they are able to work out the kinks in the babysitting reservation and payment process in the future.
I've said this before, but I honestly cannot wait to get back to this resort. In a perfect world I hope to return there in a year or so with a 7 year old Little C and a toddler as both would truly have a blast. Maybe we could even convince another family to go at the same time so C would have a playmate.
From the food to the drinks to the included Kidz Club I smile just thinking about the Hyatt Ziva Cancun and hope some of you are able to enjoy it, too!
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