Not really a trip report, because honestly I can't remember enough of vacation to call it a trip report! Sign of a good time, dontcha think? I can't stress enough to bring 3 times as much moisturizing shower gel, hair conditioner, and body lotion as you think you'll need. The sun and the chlorine levels in the pool will dry you out terribly! And if you run out of your own shower soap/gel, you'll have to use their bar soap and it was very drying on my skin as well. You MUST drink a LOT of water, unless you want to be a piece of burnt leather, have blistered lips, and get very sick while drinking all the alcohol you'll be drinking during the week. I stayed good with the water drinking, but sure wished I had brought more lotion and hair conditioner. The chemicals in the pool are STRONG. It can turn your jewelry, rust it, and turn white clothes yellow. I'm glad they dump so many chemicals in the pool cuz with that many people in it daily doing god knows what in the water, there needs to be, but just know that some of your clothing or jewelry might get ruined. We ate at the buffet every day for breakfast and lunch. I personally preferred the food made to order from the grill over the offerings on the buffet itself. I had chilaquiles verde with eggs on top 5 mornings of the 7 we were there. My favorite lunchtime food were the chicken quesadillas, also from the grill. I have pics of the buffet that I'll post in a separate thread. We ate at all three restaurants, and like so many others, preferred the Asian over the other two. We never made any reservations. Once we ate with friends who had made a reservation, but usually we walked up and asked for seating on the spot. At the Asian, one time we waited outside with cocktails for about an hour, but it was nice out and we were enjoying visiting in the ocean breeze. Another time we walked up and got right in immediately. There was no money exchanged for tables, however we are pretty good tippers. You should try the Sexy Coffee; it's very good and quite the presentation. It's not much fun climbing stairs to a third floor room when you're tipsy. LOL Next time we'll get a ground floor room. The uneven stone surfaces are hell to walk on in stripper heels, so guys be sure to offer your lady an arm. We requested a room with the double shower. Nice and roomy, fun for two. HOWEVER....the tradeoff is there is no door between the toilet area and the bedroom. Also, I dunno if all showers are like this, but there's nowhere for a lady to put her foot up to shave her legs. Just straight walls and the floor. Just a minor inconvenience. Everyone who's been to Mexico knows about the sewer smell that pops up around resort grounds occasionally. But I've never experienced fresh shower water smelling stinky until now. It was quite unpleasant. The shower water didn't smell all the time, but when it did, YUCK. If you're picky about the brand of alcohol you drink, bring your own. Most of the stuff I'd never heard of. They did use Bacardi Anejo for my mojitos and they tasted really good. Word of warning....we brought our own mugs and when they made mojitos in my mug, they pressed so hard to muddle the lime and mint together that they cracked the inside bottom of my mug and I had to pitch it. Hubby gave me his to use the next day and when I showed the bartenders what had happened, they then began muddling the lime and mint in one of their small hard plastic glasses and then made the rest of the drink in my mug. Play the games. We did, and yeah it was hilariously humiliating, but who the hell cares. We arrived at the resort about noon, our rooms weren't going to be ready until 3:00 or so, and we were both buck ass naked before we even had a room because we were drunk and playing pool games. Some favorite staff members: Chinos, Amy, and Alex rock the activities. Victor and Sergio are hot, hunky hardbodies....excellent eye candy for the ladies. In fact, my girlfriend and I nicknamed them HAG and SHAG - Hot Activity Guy and Super Hot Activity Guy - and I'm not saying who was which one, LOL. Jacinto and Tiger were my favorite pool bartenders. Federico and Lorenzo were our awesome waiters in the buffet restaurant every day. If you're a tequila lover, bring your own. The pool bar where we spent most of our drinking time had 100 Anos and Jose Cuervo out on the bar. When we flashed some money and told them we wanted something better (100% agave), they got Tradicional out of the ice cooler down below the bar, which is fine to make margaritas with for us, but Darrin likes to sip good tequila on ice so we were VERY glad we had brought 2 bottles of Patron with us from home. Red Bull is $4 a can at the pool bar. We walked to the Oxxo convenience store down the road and bought 12 of them for about $25. The exchange rate at the resort is 11.80 pesos to the dollar; across the street it's 12.20. You will have to show your passport and let them make a copy of it in order to exchange dollars into pesos because of the new law that took effect last week. We mostly used pesos, so never had anyone tell us they wouldn't take dollars. We rode the bus into town to go to the market (Market 28 - to get there, take either bus 2 or bus 15), and it cost us like a dollar whereas a taxi would have been $10-12. It was our third trip to Mexico and we finally decided we were comfortable enough to ride the bus. No problems whatsoever, and lots of other tourists were riding the bus also. The bus stop is right outside the resort...exit the front doors and walk down the sidewalk to the right a couple hundred yards till you see the bus sign. The market is the only place we got any guacamole ALL WEEK. Never saw any at the resort at all. boo. Oh well, that's ok...I make the best guacamole ever anyway. Tried a michelada at the market with our guac and chips and salsa....it's a beer with lime juice and spices in it. Tastes rather like a bloody mary only with beer instead of tomato juice. It was deliciously different - oh, and it was poured over ice, which was fantastic for keeping the beer cold. I think I'll drink my beer over ice all the time now because I hate it when beer gets even a little bit warm. The beach was not good, but we didn't go for the beach. It's still beautiful to look out over, see the sun glint off of, watch the sails going by...but up close, to walk it....not a pretty beach. The only time we laid in the beach chairs or on the beach beds was on about our 5th day there, after partying hard all week, and we finally hit the wall and needed a short siesta that afternoon after our good friends left. So we napped on the beach, in the shade, with the breeze blowing, and it was GOOD. That's about all I can think of now....I'm happy to answer any questions that I can. We will definitely be returning.:bowdown:
great great upbeat report, looks like we got another regular..lol .. i usually have guacomole its normally on the buffet in the salad area..
Great tips for all the newbies that will be going soon.... as repeaters, we actually agree with most of them- especially getting the first floor room. Our last 3 trips there we upgraded to a jacuzzi room when we got there. Well worth it. The quiet pool bartenders go out of their way if you are sitting on your patio! We like the Italian restuarant the best but each specialty is visiting at least once. And the omelets at breakfast rock and go very well with mimosas....
Hey Lora and Darin. It was nice meeting both of you. We also had a blast and the trip report will be coming soon. I have spent the last few day being sick. Somehow managed to catch a damm cold so called in sick my first two days home. Our waiter at the magaritas put guacamole in front of us everyday. We never ate lunch at the buffet. We would have like to have hung out with you guys more. Maybe next trip.
Lora and Darin, It was great meeting you both! Did you happen to make it back that friday night, early enough to join in on Naughty School Night? We had a blast, but had to leave before too long because Krysie was overheating. I'm not sure if it was from all of the dancing or all of us studly men in our schoolboy attire. Monique, I think I caught that exact same cold. I started not feeling so hot, the morning we left. I've been fighting it all week. Thankfully, I haven't had to call in sick yet. Too much to do at work for that. It was great meeting you and Glenn and well!
Not sure how she lasted so long wearing those boots. When it started raining it was wet school attire but hell it felt great. Maybe it was Chris in his underwear that overheated the girl.
