DAY 6 ~ TUESDAY We are checking out of the Royal today, and moving to another hotel. After another great breakfast we took a walk around the resort. The Royal has a 24 hour all-inclusive room. You can get food and drinks any time. You can play pool or ping pong or just relax and watch t.v. There is a balcony off the room, here's Norb relaxing ... Here's the view from the 24 hour room's balcony, looking across the street toward the Gran Porto Real ... Some parting shots of the beautiful Royal pool ... another ... and one more ... We sat at the pool for a while, and met a couple from Philadelphia. Of course, the conversation turned to football, and he said he didn't care for the Steelers! Well, thems fighting words where I come from ... I had to nicely remind him that the Steelers have FIVE ... count 'em 5, Super Bowl rings! That man had nuttin' else to say to me! Norb suggested a walk on the beach before things got ugly. He was worried that I might get physical with that Eagles fan. BEACH ... another shot ... another ... another ... and one more ... Norb on the swing at the pool bar ... Rosario from the entertainment team ... One last drink ... One last lunch at the buffet ... It's time to go ... Back to our room so I can finish packing, Norb decided to take one last swing in the hammock, doesn't he look lifelike? We're all packed and ready to check out. Cutting off the Royal bracelet (that desk clerk doesn't have to look so happy that we're leaving) ... It's sooo nice to know that we're NOT REALLY leaving Playa, we're just moving down the beach! The bellboy got a taxi for us, and in minutes we are at our hotel ... THE PLAYA PALMS! The Playa Palms is a small beachfront hotel. It is not an all-inclusive, in fact they don't even have a restaurant or a bar. We did have a mini bar in our room ... water, soda, beer, and snacks. When we arrived our room was ready. I had requested the first floor, and that's what we got. Playa Palms room 103, an oceanview studio ... Norb in our room ... Our kitchenette ... (those cigarettes are part of the mini bar, they did not belong to us!) ... Bathroom ... The room was always kept very clean, we always had clean bath towels and beach towels, and the bed was very comfortable. Me, Mitzy & Ditzy on our patio, looking toward the beach ... Norb on our patio, looking back toward the hotel ... And our FABULOUS VIEW for the next 5 days ... The Playa Palms webcam is located here, did you see us waving at you? We unpacked, and then headed to Babe's Noodle Bar ... Norb ordered the mango margarita, and he also sampled my mojito ... YUM!!! Babe's is one of our favorite restaurants in Playa ... We went back to the hotel, and headed out to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. When we left the beach we got cleaned up and headed to 5th Avenue for dinner. We ended up at Carboncito's, another of our favorite Playa restaurants. Tortilla soup and chicken fajitas ... DELICIOUS! It is really nice that the restaurants enforce the no smoking policy now. The tables outside are for smokers, and the nonsmokers sit inside ... ahhh, fresh air! I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke, and I especially don't want to be smelling or breathing second hand smoke while I'm eating. After we had dinner we started walking on 5th Avenue, and it was chilly! A few days we had chilly mornings and evenings, we wore lightweight jackets while walking around. But for the most part, our 10 days were just perfect! We stopped at Starbucks for a hot coffee, then went back to the hotel. At the Playa Palms we only got about 3 English speaking t.v. channels, and they were mostly very old movies in black and white! The hotel did provide the Cancun edition of the Miami Herald and books, there were at least 20 paperback books in our room, for entertainment on a rainy or chilly day. Tomorrow, a day spent on the beach!
I hereby nominate Norb as the official drink taster. That's a great photo! It was also nice to see a photo with you in it as well. It must have been much later following that Philly/Steelers confrontation. You seemed to be in much better spirits.
Welcome.. We love your trip reports too.. The pictures make it even better!!! Makes me want to go right now.. The thing is, if I ever went to Playa, i'd feel sick for not going to Cancun lol...
Great read as always Janie! I can't wait to hear more about the Playa Palms. I have spent more time in the Playa area than Cancun for the past few years and I'm always interested in finding out about different hotels in the area. Babes is one of my favorite places in Playa. They have the best lemonade on earth!
