Trip actually 31 March thru 6 of April, 2023. Being members, I'd tried to book our usual "Plush Jacuzzi Suite," but the resort occupancy is up due to the April Addicts beginning to show up we took a Garden Jr., instead, which worked out well as we were on the same hallway as we like to be when we get the jacuzzi room. Travel blurb is standard, all good and smooth out of Houston, down to Cancun. Only little snag was it took nearly an hour for them to get the baggage onto the conveyor, which seemed long compared to other trips. Made up for it leaving, until I wanted to get a bottle of "better" bourbon at Duty Free. 750 of Woordford Reserve in hand, inside that red plastic bag they give you, we headed out. Nobody said anything to us, but being "do-gooders" we asked a airport staff member what we needed to do with our Duty Free bag, and we got routed to customs. NOTE: Nobody was actually routing or selecting randoms to go to Customs, we "could" have simply cruised on by and I don't think anyone would have said anything. But, because I like my bourbon and we're goody-2-shooze.... we had to stop while they opened and hand-searched all our bags. 45 minutes later we were finally on our way out the door. USA Transfers was on point, as per usual, but the first driver we got got his wires crossed and turned into the United terminal (#3 I think?), but we were in the Southwest terminal (#4?) and there was construction - AND- an accident "in" the construction, so that driver was going to hang us up another 45 minutes just trying to get through it. So, they got us another driver and off we went. Once out of the airport area's construction, it took ~25 minutes to get to TTR. Member's front desk room was MUCH better this trip, it seems they've fixed their workflow problems. We were bagged & tagged in about 10 minutes. Way better than 2020 Labor Day Weekend's 45! Room 7305 if anybody cares, simple Garden View, but it was clean, in a good location for the resort, so all was well. Out to the Sexy Pool on Day 0, pool pretty busy. Toplessness was around 3 out of 4 in the pool, around the Members Deck VIP bar it was almost always 100% ladies in the Temptation swing with tops off. Odd thing this trip... we've NEVER been to Temptation and seen So many "Full Coverage" bottoms. At least a quarter of the ladies had those big-ol' Grammie briefs on. Boobies out, but briefs on. Some own-ass hatred? The percentage of the string thongs and smaller was WAY down. When we got there, Stacia was the only girl in a stringback at all, and only 3 other girls in "thongs" at all. That part was weird. They were still having fun though, so whatever. It just seemed weird compared to previous April trips where 95% of the female crowd, however built, were in g-strings. *shrug* It was great to see the guys at the VIP bar out on the Members' Deck, Jerry, Adon, Antonio were our crew for most of the days we were there, and they did their usual above & beyond excellent level of service. Met Bart & Annette of the board for the first time in person, talked with them for quite a while. Great folks. Met lots of new folks who have no idea that Cancuncare.com even exists, so we educated them. Met a single guy named Shiba on Day 1, and we enjoyed talking with him for most of the trip, watching him go be social. Met a couple named John & Sasha and went, "Wait... what?:" twice before it sunk in both ways. Mine has a "t" in her name, his does not. There you go. Super-fun folks and also from Houston, so I expeect we'll be seeing them around again sometime soon. BASH: Bash hasn't changed since it started, so nothing "new" to report from other trip reviews. How you take Bash in depends strongly on your own intent/decision to relax, have fun and enjoy, or not. I will note that the DJ is still doing the thing where (most nights) he'll start out playing a fun song that folks want to dance to and let it play for... 30, maybe 45 seconds then will do a DJ-smashup and roll into the next song. It might have the same "fun factor" the other song did, or it might not. More often than not, you'd have people start moving to the dance floor (remember, it's a bit of a trek from one part of Bash around the bar over to the floor) and by the time they got there, or got up onto the dance floor to start dancing--- music changed. Flow away from the floor. It was sort of like watching water splash back in forth in a bathtub. But... of course when it got later in the night and he switched to Tejano dance music, all of those songs got played completely through. I wonder why? *shrug* it's his Country, I guess. DRINKS: Just get it in mind that, if you're from the States, that they don't have what we'd call "Premium" liquor from the States and/or Europe, etc., at TTR any longer. I literally checked each bar to see if they had Crown Royal (I know, right? Not so pinkies up, but hey...) and they didn't have that at any of the bars all week. Same story for Stacia's fave that Goose vodka. They had Jim Beam bourbon and Jack Daniels whiskey and something in a plastic bottle that looked and smelled "wrong," so I did NOT even try. Stacia was able to get Kettle One vodka at all the bars, and at the VIP bar they had some Skyy. They had Don Julio blanco for good tequila, so there that is. Higher up the quality food chain, you'd have to go find it in the wild on your own. My bottle of Woodford, I gave to the Bash bartender, who marked it, and it lasted me four nights, so that worked out well. FOOD: I'm Very pleased to report that the food quality has improved/returned to the previous high quality at both Romanza (Italian) and Sutra (Asian), although both restaurants menus were different again, and both seemed smaller than before. We did't go to the steak place (Flame?) or Sea Flirt and I can skip She every single time forevermore. I'm not into a 3-hour meal, even if the meal was served on naked ladies, which it's not. Really good sushi, Stacia reported. She stuck with that at Sutra both times. We did the Italian to give it a chance again (bad quality and service last time in sept. of 2020). It was excellent again. Stacia got lasagna bolognese and I had penne calabrese w/bacon the first time there, I had the lasagna and she had a fettuchine in a wine sauce with capers and shrimp the 22nd time, and I had tortellini and she had a double order of the capresi (spelling?) salad. All excellent and service back to par once more. EPIC FAIL: Sky Bar's food sucks now. Smaller menue, quality went in the ditch and service remains so super-duper slow... Of course, the view up there is G.R.E.A.T., so it's a shame. Good place to get away from the pool games, which brings me to... Sexy Pool: It's the Sexy Pool, and if you've been twice, you know they're pretty much the same, all the time. Same jokes, same Q&A, pretty much same-samey all around. After you've done it a few times, easier on the brain sometimes to get down to the beach or go up, as long as you don't mind the drop in service. STAFF: Of course, the best thing about the resort itself is the people working there in the service elements. All seem to be in a great mood, upbeat, and smiling all the time. Very helpful if you've got a question. Although... I am still trying to figure out exactly what the bultlers at TTR aare doing all day as nobody can seem to find them after check-in. PROVOKE: Stacia wanted to do the Provoke photoshoot, and we've heard from a couple people that it was a good experience. Here's a direct link to the service's webpage: https://en.provokephotos-temptation.com/ I booked Stacia for the hair & make-up (extra service, cash payment when they get to your room of $155 USD). Booking it, they explain you can take pics clothed, lingerie, or nude. You can do glam all the way to interactive" photos (nice use of euphemism), and you can stay in the room, go to the spa, beach or nightclub (not sure I'd want pics at Bash during the day?). Stacia's pics were int he room, then up to the balcony surround the Sky Bar & Pool area. They turned out pretty awesome, I thought. Here's a sample.
Word is there is a shortage of Crown Royal in Mexico at the moment. They were actually asking our group to bring a supply next week so they could have some on hand.
Great review! Liz wants to do the provoke shoot in June when we go. Anything else we should know about doing the shoot? Thanks!
I second that request! Megan has been wanting to do a sexy shoot forever, looks like this trip will be the one.
I am happy to hear the Members check in seems to be more efficient. We were in there for atleast 40 mins last time. It was annoying!
Great review. We were there the same time. Apr 1 - 5 and we also did the photoshoot. I also booked the hair&make up. We couldn't be happier how it turned out. One of the best highlights of the trip and now one of those Mrs' pics is hanging on top of our bed
J: Cool, nobody happened to mention anything about it to me, but that might just be because Stacia was there, getting her hotness in the way to get her own drink on. Still, even if the Crown IS there next time, I do believe that, in spite of it being an all-inclusive thing... I'll probably bring my own bottle of "good" (so to speak) bourbon. Crown for a week gets a bit too sweet. J: Feel free to DM me with specifics or a request to see other photos taken to get ideas. Our photographer was Pam, Stacia thought she was great. J: I know, right? This time, it was very smooth, sat down at desk, one person handled the entire thing... not shuffling us around from one person for IDs, the next to register, the next to do the wristband "keys," etc. All done, one dude, 10 minutes. J: There ya go! It's not what I'd have called "cheap," but it was certainly pleasing. Great out come for the pics. J: No problem... it's like, what I do. Get your expectations up and you'll have a great time. Everyone does. Well... Almost everyone. Smoe people are fun-haters (see my thread on that subject, too).
John thanks for taking the time out to write the review! Glad you had a good trip. Love the photo. Thanks for the skybar update (I saw the menu on FB and knew we would start to see some sadness).
Great review. I was there Mar 28 - Apr 2nd, and think I saw you guys in the pool. Stacia floated by on the golden inflatable mat?
