Customer facing staff (servers, concierge) were outstanding. Kudos to Leonardo, Ulyses, Omar, Alex and Alfredo.
Back office staff (room staff, admin) not quite so good. We only got nightly turn down service about 50% of the time and our welcome letter was addressed to someone else.
Emilianos restaurant was disappointing. The main room was closed and we were shunted into a spare room, square with white walls, little decoration and no entertainment - the atmosphere was terrible. We dined on the patio a second evening, and it appears they had a static menu as we could spot no differences from our first visit. To cap it all, the food was overcooked.
Fortunately, the hotel offers complementary dining at its sister locations.
Tau, on the beach, was our savior. The service was excellent both during the day and at night, and the food outstanding. Their menu varied night to night, they had an excellent singer providing entertainment, and the open air ambiance completed the experience. Well done to Leslie and her staff of Saul, Isaac, Antonio, Enrique and Erick.
We also went to the Andrea restaurant in Velas Vallarta, but after being served by a disinterested water in a room of screaming children running around we vowed to never go back.
Finally we went to Grand Velas and dined in their Piaf restaurant. It was the culinary highlight of our trip.
Overall, though, we had a very pleasant experience at Casa Velas. Would we go back there? The jury is still out on this.