Back from our trip to the Golden Parnassus. Since I read every report on this website for the last year, and finding them helpful on what to expect, I thought I would share ours. I know most of the reports are from Temptations, but maybe it will help anyway. Background: We are 43 year old high school sweethearts from a very small Midwest town. This would be our first trip together ever. We have two kids 13 and 19 who we have taken to Disney World the last few years. Our 19 year daughter is extremely special needs, and Disney just goes above and beyond making it a great vacation. We just stay at one of the value resorts, because we are never in our room anyway. Planning: Last Christmas I surprised Meri with a money for a trip. We had no idea where or what we would do. Initially we were thinking cruise. I joined one of those forums, and got some ideas. It seemed like the longer 7 day cruises to St. Marteen were the best ones, but we just couldn't be gone that long. The shorter ones to Cozumel didn't seem like they where worth it. So, I scrapped that idea. Somehow I ended up on this forum. We definitely wanted an adults only place. If we were going to be without our kids we didn't want to see anyone else's either. It was pretty much down to Temptations or the Golden. I knew we weren't going to be in a "in it to win it" drinking all the time sort of mode, and the reviews about the Temptations Hotel itself weren't that good so the Golden it was. Being a guy I did want to go where toplessness was more prevalent, and when I saw a few other couples on here saying they were going after Thanksgiving, and that was one of things they were asking about, my mind was set. As it turned out they weren't able to make it, so we were pretty much on our own. I didn't spend a lot of time tracking prices, and in early spring we booked thru Orbitz. Everything seemed fine until the night before we were to leave. Meri was doing the on line boarding passes for the airline tickets, and noticed we were to be landing in Chicago after our next flight was to be leaving Chicago. Called Orbitz, and they said, "yeah, we sent you an email about that in September." I didn't remember getting one, but it didn't matter at this point, and I just wanted a fix. Orbitz was able to get us a similar flight that had one less stop, and got us to Cancun 3 hours earlier. So that worked out pretty good. Trip: Easy flight, and after landing in Cancun we just followed the crowd of people thru customs. It went very quick, and was pretty organized. We then made a rookie mistake. I remember "Stacia and John" saying you just put your head down and get out of the airport. Not knowing how to find our limo guy, we got sidetracked by someone trying to "help" us. After two minutes we figured out he wasn't there for us, and made our way outside. Personal vehicle picked us up, and he took us to the Hotel. Stinging from the defeat at the airport, and after reading about timeshare vultures, I wasn't going to let that happen at check in. We walk in, and you literally walk in, as there is no doors, and are greeting by a guy who puts our bags right by the front entrance, and tells us to go sit in at a table around the corner. We didn't want to leave our bags, and were skeptical as to what they were doing, but our worries where all for naught. A lady came over, gave us wristbands, answered a few questions, and pointed us on the way to lunch, while we waited for our room. Finished lunch, and room was ready. Like I said we're Disney value resort folks, so we don't require too much. Room: Plenty big enough room, and was the upper level ocean facing that we requested. Bathroom was nice, with a huge shower. Needs a ledge for leg shaving I'm told. Sliding door to balcony, and a great view. Resort: I guess you would say smaller in size than most. Which didn't matter to us. All we wanted was to be able to walk out of our room and easily get to the beach, and we could. Very clean, I don't have anything bad to say about it. Average sized pool that had in it a nice area you could put your lounger in if you wanted. Beach area was huge, and had perfect sand. There was a sand volleyball court. They also had a hot tub. This was the only bad part. I know one of the complaints of Temptations is no hot tub, and we partially choose this resort because they had one. Well, hot tubs are only good if the heater works, and this one was broken. Most of the repeat guest we talked to said it was usually working and quite warm. It was too bad because we have a hot tub at home, and use it all the time. Plus this one is in a great location. It overlooks the ocean, is right next to the volleyball court for entertainment, is next to the pool, next to the Tiki bar for drinks, and is big enough for around 30 people, and that wouldn't be packed in. Oh well, maybe next time.... Bars: Tiki bar- just off the beach next to pool. The main hangout place at night. Beer Garden-just off the lobby, small open air bar with lots of small tables around. Dolphin- right on the beach with swinging chairs. 60's- kind of a sports bar feel. Couple of nice pool tables, ping pong table, and dance floor. They do karaoke in there. Restaurants: They have a few places to choose from, and 10 more at their sister resort just down the street. Paradise- they did breakfast and lunch buffets. Pier 12- Pasta and sea food. Sumo- Asian food. The Barn- American style steak and potatoes kind of place. Shangrila- formal dress required. We don't make a big deal our to eating. I look at as more as just something i need to do, and we tend to just eat what we like, and move on. We did the breakfast buffet each morning. Pier 12 twice for dinner, and the barn twice. they have a place just off the pool that cooks burgers and a few other things all afternoon and evening. We got burgers there twice. I have no complaints about the food, enjoyed it all. Entertainment/staff: They do the games during the day around the pool. Trivia and what not, and yes, their famous bingo. Not of fan of that. The have a pool party on Saturday nights. The wind was blowing about 30 that night so it got moved to the Barn for diner, and then the 60's club for the entertainment. They had a couple contest that was entertaining and resulted in most of the guys standing up in front with their pants down. Their staff most be huge because they were everywhere, and always smiling or helpful. Most of the bartenders were pretty entertaining. Day one. Once we got our room we headed to the beach to check things out. The wind was really up, and we got sandblasted a bit on our walk. We ate dinner at Pier 12, and headed up to the room for a "christening". It was one of many encounters that week that ranged from hot to comical, and I'll leave it at that. Having been up since 2:30 a.m. we crashed on the bed on top of the blankets. Day two. Breakfast buffet, and headed to the beach. They have chairs around the pool that people were staking out starting around 7:00, but that was only if you wanted a certain spot. Plenty of chairs for this time of year. It can be an issue there though, like it is a Temptations. The beach had tons of chairs. We pulled two out of the line, and claimed our spot off to the side of the volleyball court. After about 30 finger tapping minutes the top came off. Nobody else did the whole time we were there so she has that to be proud of. Couple contest in the 60's club after dinner, and then up to the room for rounds 4 or 5....? Day three. Boobs Cruise. I knew I couldn't sit around for five days, and do nothing, so we booked Steve's famous cruise. After reading about some of the crazier ones, like the famous "buffet cruise" I would say we were a little nervous. Check in at Paty O's went fine. I wasn't that impressed with Paty O's as it looked like the inner commons of a cheap motel. I'm sure it's different at night with hot women, but I wouldn't want to come to an ocean side hotel, and not be able to see the ocean. Tiki bar has a better view, in my opinion. We ended up on the forward level just up and left from the steering wheel. The cruise was sold out, and all the tops but a couple were off in a matter of moments. I'm guessing this cruise was like most others. Music, laughing, drinking, and having a good time, and we did. We talked to Zurc, naughtybrunette, mexicotraveler, and a few others. It got rather wild on the way back, and one lady got a digital pleasure just to our left. Another time after the skinny dipping time, I turned my head to the right only to find a naked guys "Johnson" a precious few inches from my face. It was a lot of fun. Back to the Golden for supper, and did karaoke. Day four. The weather got better each day we were there. It was never cold, but was windy. By this day the wind was down. Back to the beach for most of the day. I walked around while she laid out, and I would come back once in awhile to comment on her, "putting the lotion on it's skin". Bad weather had closed the Tiki bar the first two nights, but we hit it up on this, our last night. One cool feature of this place besides the great location is the music. They let you plug in your won Ipod. Some "20 something" had music going for a while, and I don't know the name of the songs, but they all could have been called "fu*# you" because that's all they said. He took off his music after a short bit, and the bartender played some slow Mexican stuff that nearly put the place to sleep. At that point I stepped in, and plugged in my phone. I played songs for at least an hour or so, and the place picked up quite a bit. Even the "20 somethings" said they liked it. At some point I got my phone back, and started to playing a spin the bottle app on it. I have it set so that when you spin it, it comes up "show boobs, or show thong". Couldn't get the couple next to us to do it, but then we started looking for others at the bar to play. We got one lady to come over, and she did show her thong. So then we started working on a group of young girls on the other side. They ended up coming over, and playing. The were eager to show their thongs. Meri couldn't show hers because they were in her hand bag, they thought that was pretty cool. We were working on them flashing, but one of them said to my wife, "you have the best boobs here, you should do it." Then she reached over and gave them a squeeze, which was kind of cool, and did result in her flashing them. We closed out that bar at 2:00 a.m. and Meri had to have set a record for her of at least 13 drinks, and two shots. A few wanted to keep going after closing, but Meri said, "I want to get laid on the balcony, and it needs to happen now or it not going to...." It was a really fun night. Day five. We had until noon before we had to leave. Even after the drinking the night before we were up at six. Gave the room one last "send off", and headed down for breakfast and the beach. After complimenting Meri on her lack of tan lines for the about the thousandths time, it was then back to the states. Overall we had an absolute great time on our trip, and are thinking about doing it again. While the Golden doesn't have the sexiness of Temptations, it still has that potential if you are there with a group, or if a few more like minded people just happen to be there when you are. I'll work on some pictures later.
Thanks for the review! As 37/36 year old future first timers to some adults only resort we appreciate your perspective.
