Now I’m back and well rested from the journey, I figured I’d best write up my trip report, before my brain gives out and forgets the details. How the hell do I cram two weeks of booze-soaked debauchery into one post!? Russ (AC/DC Guy) and I stayed for our second time at Temptation 26 November through to 8 December (2 weeks). I think 2 weeks is about all I can take before I’m ready to go, so hats off to those who do even longer. As always, apologies up front for length! Once I get going I find it hard to shut up. First off, I want to mention that our stay occurred slap bang in the middle of the Chaos Crew crowd (Mid Nov to Mid Dec). This motley crew of repeaters brings a definitive vibe to Temptation, and I’m honoured to have been a part of the group this year. I think Russ and I fitted in quite well, and hopefully contributed somewhat to the fun during our stay. These people, by far and wide, made our vacation. It is very clear to me that it’s not specifically the resort that brings you back time and time again to Temptation, but the people you meet, great conversations, hilarious antics and lifelong friendships that develop. I would love to mention everybody in my review, but to do so would be like the final credits of a film! There are however some people I have to mention up front and give a special thank you to. First off…Sue, for the immense organisation and planning she does for the group. Sue meticulously plans out the theme nights, and an awful lot of other organisation. She ensures newbies are welcomed into the fold, going out of her way to make sure nobody travelling alone stays that way for long, with group activities and always making sure there are group meals planned for those who want company every day. I’m sorry I missed the glow painting, and eternally grateful for the reservation Sue got us at the Italian (never managed to wake my lazy arse out of bed to do it myself). I’d also like to say a big thank you to Christa for her ever-presence propping up the bar each night, and being a welcome face poolside. There was something out of place every time we got to the bar if there was another group in Christa’s spot. I love that the only night Christa wasn’t at the bar, she felt obliged to come down for a while after everyone spotted her on her balcony overlooking Paty O, even though she wasn’t feeling too hot that night. Also the constant face-off between Christa and Jesse as to who will be first to leave at night is a constant source of entertainment (in my opinion Christa wins this hands down, as not only was she up late at night, she was already poolside most mornings before any of us!). Trish and Don were also another constant both at the pool and the bar. I don’t know where these two get their energy from, but they never stopped, and also participated in all the theme nights as well. Of course, no trip report in late Nov/early Dec would be complete without a special thank you to Jesse. Jesse’s character, friendliness and willingness to get involved with the group, wear those theme costumes and make the most of the place really is a big part of the heart and soul of Chaos Crew. A lot of us who do theme nights aren’t necessarily doing it for our own pleasure. It takes a bit of a mental pep talk (and liquid courage) first to summon the guts to go out in them. When Jesse is in theme, it encourages everybody in the group to participate as a whole, helping us all to lose that fear and get creative with the risqué outfits. I think this brings out the best of Cancuncare, and especially the Chaos Crew. Jesse demonstrates that theme nights aren’t just for hot wives to show off lingerie, they’re for everybody and we can all get creative to join in, to step a little out of our comfort zone, and have a bloody good laugh while we’re at it. We all know that greater participation equals greater fun for theme nights, so Jesse truly deserves a pat on the back for the effort he goes to in this regard…I think he goes through the same nervous block that we all do before stepping out in theme wear, but because he does indeed do theme outfits, many more do as well and it makes the whole thing far more fun when there’s so many people in outrageous costumes. I also need to thank Jesse for bringing the pool beer pong this year, especially for making sure it was brought down to the pool every single day where he encouraged people to play – a great conversation starter and got a lot of people chatting around the pool. Dare I say it, I also owe Jesse one for getting in on the gangnam thing (well Russ thanks Jesse for that one!). I want to mention we spent a lot of our time with Heidi/John and Kurt/Roberta. These guys were great to just hang out with and our firm fixture drinking buddies. If it wasn’t for Kurt/Roberta planning their honeymoon for this time of year, it’s doubtful we’d have even made it to Cancun during Chaos Crew. We went out for a fantastic meal for Heidi’s birthday which turned out to be one of the few times we actually ventured off resort (apart from boobs cruises of course). I would’ve liked to have had more time with Nate, and Hilary and Scott, these guys got straight in and fitted well with the group. I’d have liked to have had more time to do more theme nights together - just unfortunate your dates were a lot later than ours. The two other singles that stuck out in our mind were Amber and Richard…go Richard for doing the belly flop contest! You surely went out with a bang. Mike/Linda and Jen/Chris, way to go on getting involved in all the games! Thought the lap dancing competition looked fun for Linda and Jen, and the couples contest looked a lot of fun, but must’ve been messy! I know there’s many more people Russ and I hung out with over the two weeks, so again to everyone thanks for making our stay so memorable. For those who are regular Nov/Dec repeaters and couldn’t be there this trip, just so you know you were sorely missed by everyone there and often talked of with fond memories of past trips. Phew. Now I’ve got the people out of the way, I’m going to write a bit about the actual resort. Being our second time, we’ve now got something to compare to. Our vacation began with an overnight stay at a hotel in Manchester International (UK). We had an early flight which meant a 4am start. Having worked right up to the holiday, and last minute packing, we didn’t get to bed until around 12am so the alarm going off only 4 hours later was not a great start. Worse still, upon check-in at the airport we got the bad news that our flight had been delayed by around 3 hours. Cue a long and tiring wait around the airport. After takeoff I’d planned to sleep on the plane. A flight from the UK takes around 11 hours, so that should’ve given me plenty of time to get some beauty sleep whilst crossing the Atlantic, but for the life of me I could not get to sleep on the plane. Spent the entire journey fidgety and exhausted. Finally landed at Cancun on a Saturday around 2pm, welcomed with a massive queue through immigration. Apparently this is normal for weekends (good to know in future). We also unfortunately seemed to bring the British weather with us as it was a cloudy day and threatening to rain. I’d emailed USA Transfers ahead to let them know there was a delay on our flight. Unfortunately the message didn’t get across, so they’d still been expecting our arrival at 12:30pm. Thankfully, this wasn’t a problem though, and they were able to get a car for us in around 10 minutes. My first port of call, after dropping cases in the room and putting valuables in the safe was, of course, the bar. However, navigating past the sexy pool we were swamped by Cancuncare folk who recognised me from the forum. Tired with exhaustion from the flight and being stone-cold sober, I have to say I probably didn’t make much of a first impression! It was lovely to meet such a large group early on in our trip though. I just want to point out how everybody made us feel so very welcome right from the outset of that first day. There’s no point me breaking down a day-by-day report any further than this, as we basically did the same things every day, with very little difference in between, so it’s easier to break down the rest of my review into categories. CHECK IN AND ROOM Checking in at the resort was fine. They asked if we’d stayed before, and confirming this was our second stay made the process much quicker to get through. I confirmed with the desk that I had no preference over room, as long as it was ground floor (I fall over A LOT so not having to negotiate stairs is a huge plus for me). I’m a firm believer that you can get further with the front desk staff if you are pleasant and polite over rude and demanding. We were approached by the time share lady, but just pointing out we’re from Britain stopped her in her tracks. I can’t believe they ask some people for a $10 deposit…must think we’re idiots! We were given room 5412, which is way over on the west-side of the hotel (right at the end of the resort). In all our room was fine. It’s one of those that has two beds and the sink is in the bedroom rather than the bathroom. Compared to our last trip (had room 2103 right outside Paty O) this room was much better in that it is practically silent at night, with not much noise from foot traffic, entertainment nor the busy road. Our room last January had a strange musty smell that I had thought was normal for the climate, but the 5000 block room smelled much fresher. About the only downside is that 5412 is situated as far away as you can get from the pools, restaurants etc, but even then it only takes 5 or so minutes walk to get to anywhere you want to be. Size-wise it was about average. Having two beds ate up a lot of floor space, but I don’t really need or care about size of the room. I liked that there was a load of vanity shelves next to the sink in this room, which was an ideal place for storing all the sunscreen, insect spray and theme accessories. Having the sink in the bedroom was generally ok, apart from when trying to floss in a dignified manner because your husband is in the room! The air con was incredibly noisy, but worked a dream – tended to put it on when we weren’t in the room, then enjoy the cool room without the air con when we were there. The two bed thing wasn’t much of an issue for me. Our bed at home is only slightly larger than the Temptation queen size, but Russ and I are both big people. We initially tried out sleeping in one of the beds, but I like my space and I was worried that because I’m used to our slightly larger bed at home I’d roll over in my sleep and fall out! Besides, it was much more fun to throw back the covers and ‘invite’ each other over to our respective bed for fun times. I also got to stretch right across the bed for two weeks which is a luxury I don’t have at home! I feel I do have to comment on the quality of the beds – if there’s one thing I dislike about Temptation it’s the beds. For me, they’re incredibly uncomfortable and after two weeks I find myself waking up with aches and pains where the bed digs in. Other features of the room, the TV reception is pretty bad. Channels that did have reception were pretty poor quality, with buzzing noises, lines across screen etc (except for Channel 12 which surprisingly never had bad reception – apart from when it froze mid-job for about 2 days!!). Thing is, we don’t come to Temptation to watch TV! My advice, if you’re planning to watch any TV, take a tablet or other portable device. My final point about the room – on one of the days, we’d woken up late and tired and decided to not bother tidying up instead heading out for a few hours to chill on the beach. I don’t like leaving the room in a mess when the maid comes, so that day I just hung out the ‘do not disturb’ sign because I was too tired to clean any of our stuff away. The maid came in and cleaned anyway because the room was done up when we came back. I was mortified because there was clothes everywhere, bed not made and God knows what else left knocking about, and we hadn’t left out a tip that day because we weren’t expecting her. Just glad we weren’t taking a siesta when she came in. In my world, hanging out the ‘do not disturb’ sign means stay the hell away. Left an extra large tip the next day though, as felt bad about the mess. SEXY POOL Apart from the first couple of days waking up early, we basically didn’t head out until around midday and then spent our time hanging out around the sexy pool. For whatever reason, the pool was not heated at all during our stay. I could cope with that (just takes a brave minute to submerge yourself), but lots couldn’t and on more days than not the pool itself was basically empty with people preferring to sit on chairs and surround the non-pool bit of the bar. Pool days mainly involved catching some sun, drinking and a hell of a lot of pool beer pong (thanks again to Jesse). The inflatable trays I brought as emergency pool pong worked well for holding drinks/ashtrays too. As others have mentioned, the sun sets fairly early in November, so most days the pool time ended around 4pm as the sun disappeared. Of course, if the pool had been heated, I’m sure people would have stayed out much later! I didn’t believe when other reviews said it can get a bit chilly in November, but those reports are true. It does indeed get a little chilly if you’re standing around in a swim suit! Bartenders that work the sexy pool are very friendly and work like crazy. No issue on strength of drinks at the pool either. On more than one occasion the drinks were actually too strong! One issue was the amount of wasps hanging about. I know a couple of people got stung, because the damn things kept dropping in the pool, then stinging anyone they knocked into during the throes of their watery death. The damn things would just float up on you without warning, so no real way to keep a good eye out for them either. Games around the pool were pretty subdued in my opinion. That being said, I don’t really go to the pool to watch the games. There’s only so many times you can whoop when they ask what country you’re from before you lose interest. I’d say that Iron Woman/Battle of the Sexes are the best ones to watch. They are still struggling to get participation in the games. *NOTE* if you’re a couple, and want to go in for a competition, but worried about being made to do something ridiculously crazy or below waist nakedness, I’d recommend doing the couples game. It involves cream and gets messy, but looks a lot of fun and you’re not going to be asked to do something you’re uncomfortable with. QUIET POOL Sorry, can’t comment on the quiet pool this time, as I didn’t actually make it over there this trip! Sexy pool was where it was at! BEACH Although I didn’t make it to the quiet pool, I did venture over to the beach on a couple of occasions when I wanted to relax and read my book. There’s a more chilled vibe over at the beach, and it’s a great way to say ‘I need some quiet time’ away from sexy pool craziness. The sand is pristine, with guys out shoveling up seaweed that gets beached every day. The water is also beautiful and very calm, so slim chance of ‘red flag’ being out. They offer water sports, but didn’t try anything like that. I think the reserved premier area on the beach is way too large. It’s practically empty as most premier members spend their time at the pool or up on the premier balcony overlooking the pool. Downsize it a bit and there’s more room for people to not have to sit at the far reaching corners of the beach. Over by the volleyball court there’s a really bad smell, which must be coming from where all the boats are parked up. It sucked when the only chairs left were ones over by the smelly boat bit! Also, when people were sat on the main section of beach, they were forced to move whenever the staff needed that area for soccer or whatever. The beach sellers are also amazingly annoying. No matter how many times you say ‘no gracias’ to the beach tat they’re trying to sell, they will still come back from the opposite way a few hours later offering the same stuff. I’m tempted to bring a sign with me next time saying ‘please don’t bother me, I’m not interested in buying beach souvenirs’. You will occasionally see children crossing through the beach too, so if that’s something you would be uncomfortable with (if you go topless etc) you might want to stay away from the beach. MEALS/RESTAURANTS/DRINKS Food at Temptation gets top marks from me. They can do no wrong. Even after two weeks, there’s still tons of meals we haven’t had a chance to try! The wait service is excellent, quality and quantity of food perfect. My favourites are the surf n turf and Caesar salad at the seafood place, and the pizza at Margaritas. This trip we tried everywhere, and did Margaritas at night. I never knew they change the menu in the evening and have a huge selection to try. Did the reservation restaurants (Asian and Italian) once during the two weeks. Can’t fault the Italian this time, but service was fairly slow at the Asian. Took 2 hours from start to finish. After an hour I’m antsy because I want to be in Paty O with a drink! I’m a quick eater, and I like to be done in 20 minutes, which is why we normally just go to the buffet where you can have a quick selection. Burgers served at Paty O at night are still excellent, and a great way to finish the night. You pretty much know the party is over when people are getting their burgers or fries! The only complaint on food (only tiny one!) is the dessert selection. I think the desserts (apart from the fresh fruit) are pretty tasteless. Everything is a ‘mushy’ creamy concoction and doesn’t taste like it should. The best I had was the muffins they serve at breakfast – they should put those out for all meals. We discovered they had ice cream in the buffet on our last night, and that was a nice change. Drinks were fantastic this trip. Last trip, some tasted a little too weak, and the wine was absolutely awful. This time, we never once had a bad drink (sometimes they were actually too strong) and the wine was vastly improved. So much so I did overindulge in the red wine on a few nights! PATY O AND NIGHTLY ACTIVITIES It took a while for me to get into the swing of things in the evening. I made a rule first couple of days not to go to bed until at least midnight to make sure we acclimatised to the time difference and started to talk to the people who stay out at night. Would have worked great except I kept waking up around 4am, then spending rest of the morning bored and tired. On third day of this, I gave up, took a sleeping pill and slept until lunch. Alongside the resort themes, our group had a ton of theme nights planned too. First up was ‘wear something orange’ night. This had a good turnout, and Sue left her orange boa for photo opportunities in her absence (being wiped out from her flight). Next up was uniform/fetish theme. This was a real success with tons of people turning up in all sorts of uniforms and fetish gear. Our next Cancuncare theme was Xmas (unfortunately landed same day as a huge French Canadian group were doing their own red theme so kind of washed ours out). Notably Jesse was not around that night, but still made the effort and turned up at 2am for a few drinks with the rest of us. There was another uniform/fetish night, then the masks theme night. That didn’t go down so well as most were wiped out from the cruise that day, and wearing a face mask was basically a pain after about 5 minutes! The glow/neon/80s theme has to be one of my favourites – great participation and so easy to do. I’m just terribly sorry Russ and I missed the first part of that night, as we fell asleep, only summoning the energy to get up, get theme on and out for around 1am. Was lovely though that people seemed pleased to see us and had noticed our absence when we did finally turn up. As always, the other memorable theme was lingerie night. Not that I remember much of the first one. Unfortunately I overdid it on the liquid courage and don’t remember much of that night! I’m usually safe and boring with my theme wear, and I wanted to wear something that was out of my comfort zone, just to say that I’ve done it once. Well, I did it, but don’t remember it! Russ has told me some of what went down, but I’ve closed my ears off…I think I’m happier not knowing all the details!! White night also gets a lot of participation, but I quite enjoyed defying white night (wearing something black) because I just don’t think I look good in white. Russ and I love the band nights that go down at Paty O. Unfortunately first band night was a washout and the band were put up in Nice Shoes. Just too hot and humid in there to enjoy much, and quite a few girls ended up slipping over on the dance floor as it got hotter and moister as the night went on. The next band night a week later went ahead at Paty O and that was much better. I’ll always remember dancing away to Metallica’s Enter Sandman singing word for word, whilst everyone else is humming along hoping it ends soon! Gangnam Style was a popular song this year, with Russ and Jesse going up a storm on the dance floor. There’s also a photo of a line of us girls giving it a go at one point too! Of course other memorable nights are when we just sat up after the DJ finished chatting having a few more drinks. We brought out our radio, but the sound it produced was so pathetically poor it may as well have not been there. Will have to get my thinking cap on for next year to get something with a bit more oomph. BOOBS CRUISES Yep you heard that right ‘boobs cruises’ because we did three this trip. If that’s not enough validation to recommend them I don’t know what is! We had our first Boobs Cruise on Day 3 of our trip. This was fantastic as it gave us plenty of time to hang out with people we met on the cruise. Omar, Chinos and the rest of the staff work extremely hard and deserve every tip they get. Our first cruise was sold out, so the boat got very busy. I promised myself I’d take it easy on the cruises this year because last trip I way overdid it and almost fell off the pier on the return. True to my promise, I indeed took it easy on the alcohol and if I felt I’d had too much I switched to soft drinks for a while. Crazy thing is, even taking it easy, the cruises completely wipe you out, so don’t plan anything important for evenings after a cruise! I love being out on the water – if the cruise was just out on the ocean all day that would be perfect for me! Second cruise I’m afraid I was a bit of a wet blanket as I was extremely tired from lingerie night the day before. Good thing is, everyone took good care of me that day, even Chinos made sure with Russ that I was alright. Third cruise was my birthday. I had a fantastic day, and can’t think of a better way to celebrate than out on the water with alcohol and music and great entertainment. There was an incident with whipped cream that had me in stitches for hours afterwards. My only complaint? Last cruise, one of my flip flops didn’t make it back. Must’ve got tossed over the side when they lay the shoes out at the end of the day. With the failing light, there’s no way I could’ve checked over the side to see if it was floating off anywhere. I’ve kept the one that survived as a memento. Who knows, in 5 years time I might be walking down the beach and find its mate washed up on shore! CONCLUSION What can I say? I had a great trip, many laughs, met lots of fantastic people. All round another memorable two weeks. November is a lovely time of year to visit Cancun. The weather is good, practically no humidity so my hair managed to stay presentable most of the time, and no mosquitoes! If there's anything I could change, I wish the beds were a bit more comfortable, and I wish there was a laundry room that you could do your own laundry in. I know the resort have a wash service, but that can take days. It'd be a blessing for the luggage allowance if there was a facility on site to wash and dry your own clothes for a fee. Will I be back? You betcha. Will I be back in November during Chaos Crew weeks? I can’t imagine going any other time now. Chaos Crew are a good bunch of people and I love the ambience of the group. Hopefully Russ and I made enough of an impression that the repeaters will be happy to have us back next year. We’re planning on doing even more next trip and getting Russ into some better theme wear. I have been back to work today, so reality is kicking in. I think it’ll take about a week before I’m dreaming of my next trip!!
Super TR! I hope I remember that much when I get to mine. I just got home after passing out for 14 hours at my friends house after he picked me up from the airport so it's time to get back to reality. It was a true pleasure and honor hanging out with you and Russ and can't wait untill next year. I kept my promise and didn't Gangnam the last night but Christa swore she saw a tear in my eye! :cry:
Great TR! Damn I'm missing the Crew! Hopefully I'll be back next year. Jesse......as always it sounds like you rocked the place.......as if there was any doubt! Merry Christmas everyone!! :ernaehrung015:
Lynn you should definitely try November! You and Shaun would fit right in with the crowd that goes then. Sorry for the great report...always next year! I'm sure Russ was doing gangnam in his head all last night. Swore I wouldn't go to sleep when we got home about 9am Sunday...two hours later I passed out and slept for about 8 hours. Now sleep is a bit f'ed up and not great when I have work in morning :angrymad:
Thanks for the TR. Really sad I missed this year, but glad Jesse picked up my slack by bringing the beer pong. Hopefully I'll see y'all for the 2013 Chaos Crew extravaganza.
Thanks for a great report. Good to read a report even we have been there 5 or 6 times. I will say that I admire your writing ability.
Fantastic TR...very, very in depth....Thanks so much for sharing. I was suppose to be part of the Choas Crew this year. Due to changes I am planning on joining the June Junkies in 2013 as a Brand New Groom. Cant wait:fish:
Trish, I remember the musty smell last january. Everything we took smelled when we got home. We were there Nov 9-16 and had room 2105, lower level at Paty O's, and there was no smell at all this year. Maybe a difference with the time of the year. Also, the pool was heated the whole week were there. Somedays I wished it hadn't been. A little too warm. Glad to hear you had such a great time. I guess you didn't make it to that biker bar again?
