“We’ll Never Go Back… Until the Next Time We Go Back!” Background: Milton & Michael here (mostly Milton). We are posting this report to help other first-timers figure out if Temptations is the place for them and to offer a tip or two. If it helps as you read our trip report, we are a gay male couple with a 19-year age difference between us, and May 15-22 was our first trip to Temptation Resort. We wanted to go someplace other than Key West, where we usually go a few times a year. We were looking for an all-inclusive, no-kids resort in Cancun that offered something more than golfing and shopping, more than dressing fancy for every meal, and more than sitting around a pool quietly reading the paper listening to freakin' Enya all day and sipping iced tea. We like to have tongue-in-cheek, double-entendre, sexy fun with shots and cocktails and we like to shake our tail feathers now and then, and we wanted a resort where everyone was of the same mind. I found Temptation on various websites and through Google when I searched for “adults-only” resorts. It seemed affordable, fun, spirited, and just what we were looking for, except... Hesitation: We were very hesitant to drop the big bucks and book for two reasons: (1) Many reviews of Temptation describe it as a “swingers resort” in very unflattering terms and (2) Temptations is for most intents and purposes geared toward heterosexual folks. Now we have nothing against swingers or heterosexuals (we actually love both, some of our best friends are swingers and/or straight and all of our parents are heterosexual (we think!) LOL -- and besides most people don’t even understand what swinging is in the first place so some of those reviews we just wrote off as uninformed and malicious). It’s just that we didn’t want to drop a couple thousand bucks, fly down, and be the monogamous gay couple bored out of our minds, sitting around for an entire week reading while everyone else was whooping it up and ignoring us (or even giving us ‘dirty looks’). We are fun-loving, open-minded, and like to get a bang for our vacation buck, so if that was gonna happen, we’d just go elsewhere, no big deal. To each his own, right? TIP: Use this message board if you’re a first-timer or even a repeater with a question. I posted point-blank “We’re gay. Is that gonna be a problem?” The response was over-whelming: at Temptations if you’ve got a good attitude, no one gives a shit. I also pored over the board reading the posts that dealt with swinging until I was comfortable that our monogamous relationship would be welcome and that in any case “no means no.” (As it turned out, btw, Temptation is not a "swingers resort" in the way some posts on tripadvisor.com etc made it sound, like it was everywhere all day every day in the pool in the room at the buffet. Good grief! Sure, there are folks there who might be swingers or whatever but you could totally go to Temptation and never even know this unless you wanted to know it, and the folks we met into that were just as awesome and friendly and sweet and loving as anyone! So TIP: Skip over the ignorant reviews on tripadvisor.com and chill out.) Travel, Check-In, Etc: We booked through Expedia and having plugged in several dates and tried several websites, feel that we got a fair price, with flights that were convenient. Booking through Expedia didn't seem to be an issue at all in terms of our room or treatment at the resort. One big issue (for me) did arise. COMPLAINT #1: Not once, not twice, but FOUR TIMES I made it clear that we wanted a quiet room away from the Paty O’s area. I listed it specifically in my Expedia reservation. A few weeks before our arrival I emailed Temptation directly with this request and a response that “That will not be a problem, and we’ve listed this in your account.” Then when we checked in, the front desk man gave us a room that seemed like it was close to Paty O’s. I told the front desk man, “We requested a quiet room, away from Paty O’s. Is this room quiet?” And the front desk man either didn’t know the layout of the resort or he flat out lied, “Oh yes. This will be a quiet room. You won’t notice any noise.” Then, when we got waylaid by the timeshare people, who present themselves as “resort ambassadors” with their “introduction to the resort, calendar of events, and info guide,” I asked this fellow as well about our room and he said, “There’ll be some noise but not much.” Epic Fail. Epic. So we took the room, which directly over-looked Paty O’s. And guess what? We go to the room that evening and already (at 8pm) we could hear music and laughing, even with the balcony doors closed and with both the TV and the A/C on, and we knew it would only get louder as the evening progressed. HAPPY RESOLUTION TO COMPLAINT: So I marched down to the front desk, told the fellow I was unhappy with our room, and with-in three minutes he’d given us a room in a different building. It was quiet. He was wonderful! Phew! TIP: If you want a quiet room, demand it. And print out a map of the resort and make the front-desk check-in person shows you EXACTLY where the room is. If you enjoy a room over-looking resort hot spot, great! But if you are like me and need some downtime, then demand a room away from Paty O’s. Be nice though! If you get a loud room, just ask for a new one! The staff (except for that first check-in guy) was accommodating and friendly! Boobs Cruise. What in the world are two little super gay men gonna do on a catamaran trip that goes by the name “Boobs Cruise?” Well, I’ll tell ya. Par-tay! BEST TIP EVER: If you are a newbie to Temptation, book the first Boobs Cruise you can, and I mean the one organized here on the board by Steve and limited to cancuncare.com members. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and went on the Boobs Cruise on Wednesday morning. Ka-Ching! A ton of new friends instantly! (Well, not exactly new, since I’d been posting on this message board for a few weeks before our trip and had already “pre-made” some friends but you get my point.) We decided to start our first day right and showed up for the Boobs Cruise in grass skirts with about 100 leis that we handed out, offering to give every a “good morning lei/lay.” We were hoping that’d be a good way on our very first morning to meet some people face to face and gauge whether our planned costumes would be a go or a no-go. The cruise itself was top-notch! Drinks were served regularly, there was music and dancing and laughing, etc. We loved the relaxed atmosphere and that women were comfortable going topless. (Would be nice to have it clothing optional for everyone, although it’s not as if our speedos left much to the imagination – sorry fellow male cruisers! Look away! Look away! LOL) Best of all was a private area on Isla Mujeres just for us – with a delicious buffet of food and drinks and some time off the catamaran for lounging and some fun, silly beach games. Then some time on your own to shop or a trip to a local bar. Then back on the boat for the ride back to TTR, and that’s when things got really fun! It was our first time doing alcohol-infused whipped cream and body shots. We really felt the “no one gives a shit” attitude! Hands down something we will do again. I did at times wonder if maybe we weren’t being included a little too much in the games on the boat and on the beach for everyone’s taste; seemed like we were in every game and we didn’t want to be hogging the fun. Plus, I (Milton) wanted to burn through that buffet a couple more times LOL) TIP: I took a motion sickness pill about 1.5 hours before we got on the boat. Took another after we’d been on the boat about 10 minutes. Never had any issues. I also drank a lot and was fine during and after the cruise. J Themes, costumes, Music, Etc. We were confused before our arrival about the difference between the “official” resort themes and the cancuncare.com themes but the inimitable Mayor (Jamie, here on the boards) cleared it up for us. So we tried to blend the two when we could. We were a bit surprised that more people didn’t dress up at most of the parties because we had a blast planning out our theme-night costumes and trying to play on the themes and twist them up a bit. I have to admit that we played it up a bit with our costumes; then we’d sort of sneak by the outdoor Paty O’s area to make sure at least a few people we knew were already there before we’d walk in. Big Thanks to all of you who liked our costumes and demanded pics! We felt like celebrities and it really meant a lot to see that you enjoyed them. Like I’ve said a million times, we like to make people laugh. We were never out past about 12:30 a.m. so can’t speak for the whole night, but overall we liked the music – a nice mix of some 70s, some disco, some 80s, then a few current pop hits (Rihanna, for example). Seemed perfect. Some people had posted that they got tired of the endless techno around the pool, but they must have changed that because we liked the pool music too – seemed like it was a good mix. Fun to dance with each other but also with other men and women, just shaking our booties. No complaints, except for one night when the party was held in the New Shoes place and the music was all stuff that neither Michael nor I knew at all – and given our age differences we know most ALL music, from disco to hip hop, from pop to ballads. Okay, call me a romantic but it would have been SORTA nice to have SOME slow songs mixed in for some slow dancing but then again, that might have been a downer to the great energy at Paty O’s. Ages, Bodies, Romance. The crowd during our stay skewed mid-30s to 50s, and everyone basically seemed to be there to get away from it all. TIP: I really don’t think Temptation is a resort you’d want to book if you were in college or if you were looking for an MTV Spring Break sort of vacation or wanting to do a hard-core raucous bachelor party trip. The focus at Temptation wasn’t how much can you drink, how drunk can you get, how rowdy can you be, or how many guys/gals you can nail. This is “spring break for adults,” as several people called it, and I think that is a good description. Temptation is not boring by any means (!!!), but the energy is less frantic and crazy than the resorts with college-aged folks. There was never any time in the public areas of the resort that we felt anyone was out of bounds or being lewd – in terms of being drunk off their asses, doing lewd sex stuff, etc. (Well, okay, one time during a game but staff was good about moderating that and it was fine. Seriously, it barely registered on my radar.) In our eyes, many of the couples there were renewing their romances and really enjoying the welcoming atmosphere. And the singles we met weren’t “on the prowl,” but were all also there just to enjoy the fun and friends and if romance blossomed then cool. It didn’t at all have the “high pressure” sexual atmosphere that some tripadvisor.com etc reviews had suggested. It was respectful and mature yet fun as hell! The resort is top-optional for women and many of the women seemed to enjoy dressing with a little flair for dinner and for the parties, and it was fun to see the women feeling sexy! There were all different body types for men and women and they all looked wonderful and relaxed. We really appreciated that men and women complimented one another and not once did we hear any nasty asides about “can’t believe she’d wear that…” or anything like that. It’s a beautiful thing when people older than 25 can enjoy their own bodies. Loved that. TIP: Whether you’re a woman or a man, whatever your age or body type, push your limits just a little at Temptation. Wear that sexy dress or that kilt. Show a little more skin than you’re used to. Take off your top. As a gay male couple we were not only welcomed but embraced (as in seriously bear-hug-embraced) and we truly felt that when people said Temptation wasn't judgmental, they meant it. Really appreciated all the straight guys who were comfortable enough in their own skins to chill out and have fun with us too! We felt perfectly comfortable behaving as other couples did -- holding hands, an occasional smooch, some dancing, etc. Love is love and although Temptations is definitely a helluva party, you could NOT NOT NOT look around that pool or meet people or have dinner with new friends or be on the dance floor and not feel love! (Corny, we know. But whatever... it's our trip report!) TIP: If you’re unsure about what is “okay” or “not okay” PDA-wise etc at Temptations, open your eyes and watch what others are doing and mirror their behavior. We were actually a little shocked by how many people told us that they could “never do this back home” (because of jobs, family, social norms, etc) and it made us happy we’d found a place like Temptation where people can let loose a little. Our dress and behavior at Temptation wasn’t really that different from what we’d do here at home (in Kansas no less) so it made us feel very fortunate! Food, Cleanliness, Drinks, Staff, Etc. Not much to say here because we aren’t the super-picky types so we thought it was all just fine! The buffet food was buffet food, prepared with – what? – 400 or 500 resort guests at any time? It was plentiful and yummy for buffet food. A slightly larger selection (like I've seen at other cancun resorts) would have been nice but seriously, that's just me TRYING to find something to complain about because it was really A-OK. The restaurants were of better quality than the buffet (duh!) and delicious -- the Asian restaurant was particularly surprisingly good. Zero complaints about cleanliness anywhere in the resort – our room, the public restrooms, the pool and pool area, etc. TIP: Walk, don't run. It's hella slippery everywhere, especially when you've got a drink (or 20) in ya. And as for the drinks, they got me buzzed! Because they are making and serving drinks so fast we did get the occasional drink that was a little weak or a little strong but who cares? It’s all-inclusive! So we’d just ask the bartender to add a dash of Sprite (or whatever) or we’d drink the one we had and order another! Other than the check-in guy (see above), every single member of the staff was wonderful. TIP: I’ve followed a vegetarian diet for 25 years and I had no problems at Temptation. At the restaurants where vegetarian options were lacking on the menu itself, I simply asked the waiter and there was no problem preparing dishes without meat. People. Saving the best for last, partly because the people really are the best part of Temptation and partly because this is the hardest part to write because we met so many freakin’ wonderful, awesome, kind, interesting people and we are missing them very badly and counting the days until we see them again. TIP: When you are at the resort walking around, say “hi” to anyone. Everyone was friendly! There’s no way to name everyone and if we tried we’d surely overlook someone important, so we’ll just say this: To EVERYONE who responded to us on the board or dropped us a private message of friendship; to EVERYONE who actively sought us out to introduce yourselves; to EVERYONE who put us up to those sexy games or "demanded" our presence at a theme night and demanded pics; to EVERYONE who pulled aside at different times during the week to tell us that our costumes and attitudes were making their vacations more enjoyable or to tell us how glad they were to have met us; to EVERYONE who laughed with us or even at us; to EVERYONE who’s Facebooked us and stayed in touch after vacation… WE didn’t make YOUR vacation more enjoyable. YOU ALL made ours a truly awesome memorable experience! Here’s to next year – May 2013! P.S. Already planning costumes for next year. Bring your cameras. (Did y’all notice that there was no COMPLAINT #2? That’s because we honestly had nothing else to complain about. Nothing! WE. FREAKIN. LOVE. TEMPTATION. RESORT. AND. ALL. OUR. NEW. FRIENDS.)
WOW, Great trip report guys. Very detailed making my 16 days to we get to TTR for trip #3. A very long 16 days. We so need this trip. Brian
Nice trip report guys! It was great meeting you and chatting. Now you can see why we keep coming back. I have some pictures for you and I will drop you an email soon.
That had to be one of the best trip reports that I have read. You guys should post it on trip advisor. Glad you had an awesome time , and sorry we left before we got a chance to meet you guys. But here more than anywhere else....we can say and mean...maybe Next Year!! Frank
great report! I feel much better about our trip in December. We look forward to going and meeting wonderful non-judgmental people. Thanks so much!
Great TR! I had been anxiously awaiting hearing from you guys! Glad it was a good time! May we meet in the future and I can drink from your alcohol filled bossoms.
