On your next vacation use the Guudjob App to rate customer service at all the Royal Resorts. Did a Royal Resorts employee make your day with service that exceeded your expectations? Or is something you feel that he/she could improve on? Post your review in real time.

Download the Guudjob app from the Apple App Store or Google Play. All you do is log on and search for the Royal Resorts logo and the person’s profile and you are ready to write your review.

If you would rather post your comments via the Internet, you may do so by visiting www.guudjob.com and writing your review.

Using the reviews members and guests post on Guudjob helps Royal Resorts identify areas where there is room for improvement and provides additional information on job performance that is incorporated in regular evaluations for the internal employee recognition program. It will also motivate staff and encourage professional growth.

Guudjob was launched in 2016 as a pilot project at The Royal Islander and was extended to all the Royal Resorts on December 31, with the exception of Grand Residences.

The Royal Sands has another delicious dining option for you to try on your next vacation. Now open, Sand Dollar Cevicheria is a seafood bar on the terrace outside Sidelines.

The menu features an array of freshly made fish, shrimp, octopus and oyster mushroom ceviches and seafood cocktails, crisp tostadas topped with fish ceviche, octopus, tuna or shredded beef salpicon and a variety of seafood tacos. Order your tacos with the traditional soft corn tortillas or choose lettuce leaves, crispy taco shells or rice sheets for an Oriental touch. The tostadas and tacos come with chili sauce or chipotle mayo and there’s plenty of habanero chili on demand.

After lunch or dinner sit back, enjoy the view, a beer or cocktail and be sure to save space for a tropical ice cream or Key Lime pie.

Sand Dollar is open daily from 12 noon to 8 p.m.

You’ve all watched the noisy black birds that boldly strut around the pool area and squabble among themselves as they steal food from plates waiting to be removed from restaurant terraces. Known as great grackles (zanate in Spanish or pich in Maya), these gregarious birds are so abundant that they have become pests in many resorts, including Royal Resorts. Any number of scarecrows have been tried in the past, including life-size model owls, but the birds keep coming back. Not any more. At The Royal Haciendas falconry is being used to scare the birds away.

A professional falconer is visiting the resort every week with an eagle or hawk on his arm. The bird of prey is flown in areas where the grackles are a particular nuisance and the appearance of a predator scatters the birds.

The ancient art of falconry is interesting for guests to watch and these natural scarecrows do seem to be effective. They drive the grackles off but do not kill them.

This environmentally friendly form of pest control is a much better option than other eradication methods such as poison, which cause unnecessary suffering, contaminate the water supply and enter the food chain affecting other species.

It has come to our notice that some members and guests have recently registered their pets as emotional support or anxiety control animals. We would like to remind you about the pet policy at Royal Resorts. We will not accept pets under any circumstances unless they are medically certified service animals (i.e. guide dogs or animals specifically trained to aid a disabled person). For easy reference, please review the definition of “Service Animal” in accordance with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act at the end of this article.

Service Animals are allowed, in accordance with the following:

1. A Certified Doctor must provide a letter, similar to the one requested by Airlines for Service Animals.
2. The Guest must bring a Certificate that certifies that the animal has been trained as a Service Animal
3. The Guest must bring the health certificate and vaccine records of the Service Animal
4. The Guest must pay a special fee for the special cleaning of the Unit.
5. The Guest is responsible for keeping the Service Animal clean as well as any area that he/she may use with it.

In the event that you are planning to travel with your pet as a companion or for emotional support and are due to stay at any of the Royal Resorts, we strongly suggest that you leave it at home or register it at one of the following authorized pet kennels:

In Cancun:
VYP Lounge vyp_lounge@hotmail.com facebook VyPloungepequenos
Petopia www.petopia.com.mx

In Playa del Carmen:
Castillo Canino http://www.castillocanino.com
Dog Holiday     http://www.dogholiday.com.mx

The definition of “Service Animal” in accordance with ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, is as follows:

SERVICE ANIMAL

A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Tasks performed can include, among other things, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving dropped items, alerting a person to a sound, reminding a person to take medication, or pressing an elevator button.

Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not service animals under Title II and Title III of the ADA. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not considered service animals either. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability. It does not matter if a person has a note from a doctor that states that the person has a disability and needs to have the animal for emotional support. A doctor’s letter does not turn an animal into a service animal.

Examples of animals that fit the ADA’s definition of “service animal” because they have been specifically trained to perform a task for the person with a disability:

• Guide Dog or Seeing Eye® Dog¹ is a carefully trained dog that serves as a travel tool for persons who have severe visual impairments or are blind.
• Hearing or Signal Dog is a dog that has been trained to alert a person who has a significant hearing loss or is deaf when a sound occurs, such as a knock on the door.
• Psychiatric Service Dog is a dog that has been trained to perform tasks that assist individuals with disabilities to detect the onset of psychiatric episodes and lessen their effects. Tasks performed by psychiatric service animals may include reminding the handler to take medicine, providing safety checks or room searches, or turning on lights for persons with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, interrupting self-mutilation by persons with dissociative identity disorders, and keeping disoriented individuals from danger.
• SSigDOG (sensory signal dogs or social signal dog) is a dog trained to assist a person with autism. The dog alerts the handler to distracting repetitive movements common among those with autism, allowing the person to stop the movement (e.g., hand flapping).
• Seizure Response Dog is a dog trained to assist a person with a seizure disorder. How the dog serves the person depends on the person’s needs. The dog may stand guard over the person during a seizure or the dog may go for help. A few dogs have learned to predict a seizure and warn the person in advance to sit down or move to a safe place.

Under Title II and III of the ADA, service animals are limited to dogs.

While Emotional Support Animals or Comfort Animals are often used as part of a medical treatment plan as therapy animals, they are not considered service animals under the ADA.