Restling Trip Report 10/26/17 - 10/31/17

We just got back from our second trip to TTR. I've read every trip report and follow the reviews, and find them very helpful, so I'll give mine as well. This will be strictly my opinion, and I'm not trying to judge or change anyone's minds. I won't really do a day by day breakdown, and instead make this more informational. I'll give a spoiler alert here, that we did have a great time, if you don't want to read a long report without knowing how it went. I'll give as much detail as I can, as you never know what little thing someone may find useful. I had a lot of conversations with people during the trip, and we would talk about the renovations and stuff. Mostly we talked about what was wrong, and then at some point we would say we sounded like Americans with "First World Problems" bitching about little things while drinking at an all inclusive with mostly naked people everywhere, LOL.

First about us. Fairly vanilla couple. I do however like boobs a lot, so TTR seems like a pretty good destination point for that. We are 47, and high school sweethearts. We have two kids. A 17 year old son, who is very active in sports and school, and a 22 year daughter who has severe Cerebral Palsy. We enjoy all of our sons sports, and sympathies with families that can keep that kind of schedule with more than one kid, but everything with him is gratifying. Our daughter is a great part of our family, and she does everything with us, sporting events, shopping, vacation, etc... Her condition leaves her with the function of a newborn, so she is a lot of work both physically and mentally. She is however, very socially aware, and has a smile that can light up a room.

As I said we are pretty vanilla, but we do like to have a good time together, and most all of the time do. Meri will flash plenty, and night golf with basically nothing on, but that's about the extent. She describes herself as a text book introvert. On top of that, she never thinks anyone would ever care to listen to anything she would say. I jokily told her that at least she doens't have "resting bitch face". Course maybe she wishes she does, and then she wouldn't have to worry about people talking to her... anyway not a good combination, for a social vacation. I'm more outgoing, but not the leader of the party. I can be a good number two or three guy. I do like to go up to people and have conversations though, and TTR is a great place for that. That's enough about us, and I'm sure that's not why you're here.

Flight: We booked thru Orbitz, always have, for Disney World trips, and three other Cancun trips. I check all the sites all the time, and Orbitz always wins out. I've heard prices for different companies can be a regional thing? We had a trip booked last year, for the Sens, and had to cancel. Didn't buy the insurance, but Orbitz refunded our hotel with no problem, and gave us a flight voucher to be used for one calendar year. The only problem with that ended up being, when we re-booked for this year, we weren't allowed to use the voucher with a hotel purchase together, and get the better bundle price that makes vacations affordable for the common folks. So in order for us to get a price that worked, we had to go on a referral.

With all of our trips we have always done like Orbitz has said, and did the online check-in 24 hours in advance. This time unfortunately there were no seats available to choose to sit together, and they said we would be assigned seats at the airport. Meri is a pretty nervous flyer, and really wasn't going to like that. We leave from a small regional airport (Moline), that took us to Chicago. The flight was booked, and the plane had one seat on the left, and two on the right, pretty small plane. As it turned out, one person missed their flight, and it was the single seat next to Meri, so I ended up taking that one.

We get to Chicago, and asked for seats together, and the said the best they could do was same row, both on the isle, but the isle was between us. We sit down, and the man next to Meri, was the husband of the lady next to me. Simple switheroo, and Meri had a shoulder to sleep on for the flight down. We're Dodger fans so the previous night we go to bed at 1:00 a.m. from watching the long game two, and were up at 3:30 a.m., so we were a little tired to start. Easy flights no problems. We talked to the lady next to me, and she said that she felt American Airlines was doing that seat stuff, to make you buy the "premier" tickets to pair up. I will say I called AA the day before to see if they could fix this, and they said don't listen to your third party site that says check-in is 24 hours in advance. Pick your seat out way in advance, as soon as the flight is posted you can do that. Lesson learned, but it worked out anyway for us, going home too.

Got to Cancun, hit the green light, and walked head down to USA Tranfers. We were traveling by ourselves, but did meet some other couples on line. One of them was actually on our Chicago flight, and we talked a lot at the airport before departing, and while waiting for the transfer. Then another couple shows up. So you have three couples, all going to the same place, by the same company wanting to share the ride. Transfers said no. Seems odd, they were going to get all of our money anyway,why not take the bonus of taking us in one trip, and let the other van pick up more people? No biggy, just an observation.

Check-in: Didn't take long. They said they had our room ready,we had booked a Jacuzzi suite around the quiet pool. I asked, at the desk, where it was, and they said it was in the corner behind the Italian 7330. I asked for one side that was closer to the sexy pool, because I didn't want to be in the corner blocked by the restaurant. It was little after 1:00, and this point, and they said another room would be ready around 3:00 it was 7316. Sounds great we'll it some lunch first. Ate lunch, walked a bit, and sat down at the pool in our traveling clothes. Our butler Edgar found us and said our room wasn't ready, but another one was 7312, but he couldn't find that couple, so he was giving it to us. We get to the room, and it's the wrong one, I mean not even Jacuzzi, and it was facing the gym. 7316 (our room) was just down the same hall, and the cleaning person was still there. We poked in with Edgar, and they said :30 minutes, and it would be ours. We dropped our jackets in there, no luggage yet, and said we'll go back to the same spot at the pool, and wait the :30. It was warm enough Meri took her top off, when we went back out, but it wasn't really like we were laying out. We thought it was going to be a short time, so we weren't that upset about it. I know people bring a change of clothes on their carry-on, we actually never do checked baggage, so we could have done that as well. Meri's kind of detailed, and really just wanted the room locked down, before we continued.

Tired from the trip, and late night, we dozed a bit. Hour and a half later, we think, what's going on? I went up to the desk, and they said Edgar had left, and they didn't know anything about our room situation. They even said someone else was in the room, but took us anyway. We get there, and it was empty except for our jackets, and we said, we'll take it. Room was fine for us, except the safe was broke, and there was no tool for raising and lowering the outside shade. They said we had to stay in the room until those were taken care of, mostly the safe, so we could make sure the code worked. Took about :30 for the safe to get fixed. Shade handle not so much. I called back about that, and they said someone was on the way. We waited another ten minutes and said screw it, since it was already 6:00, and headed to the hot tub. I will say, we were in the hot tub for two hours. When we came back to our room, there was a guy standing there with the shade handle. I said, "how long have you been here" he said, "the whole time". Wow, felt a little bad for him, but since we had wasted 5 hours of our first day, not reeeaallll bad.

It really seemed like we weren't check in. We had our bands, but were given no site maps, vacation tips, restaurant times, and since we were on a referral, no follow up on that. Odd....

referral: I've read all the stories of how the hound and hound you. We went two years ago, and said no at check-in one time, and that was it. Easy. This time we knew we knew we had to do the presentation for our the guy that gave us the referral could get his credit, but I wasn't reaching out, they had to find us. They never did. We stayed five nights. On the second to last day I found the guy that gave us the referral and explained everything to him. Zero chance we were ever going to buy, we were only doing it for the discount. He got Premier to sign a paper that they screwed up, and he was then covered. So once again, we lucked on the whole Timeshare sales pitch. Didn't have to do it, and one no!, was all it took. Your results may vary....

Room: 7316 Suited us fine, great location. As you are walking to the bathrooms, our room was right there at the first hallway next to the ladies room. Second door. In the morning it was like we were back home with two bathrooms. Meri could use ours, and I could use the one right outside our door. Plus during the day it was just as easy for Meri to use ours as apposed to the "general population" one. The floor was never slippery in our room. The air conditioner seemed to have the capacity of a walk-in freezer at the meat market, and it took a little bit to figure out how to keep the room from being too cold.

Bathroom, could have been better. Shower is huge, and why they don't do double showers anymore is as much of a mystery, as why the didn't utilize that unused space better. If you're not going to do double showers, why not extend the sink counter top, so there is actually room for things that every person on a trip needs? There is also no shower door, so a lot of water sprays on to the floor. We just kept all of our old towels there, and let them soak up most of the water. Sure the cleaning people love that big heavy mess?!

Hot tub filled quick, and was warm enough to boil lobster, but we never used it more than once.

Storage space is all behind the cabinets on the wall. Plenty of room for us, for what we bring, but the doors are a weird design. First of all it's hard to tell exactly where one door is. They have sort of a "push to latch and un-latch" mechanism. Almost every time I was pushing the hinge part of the door, and not the latch part, and the were difficult to have them stay latched. Another guest gave us a little tip about pushing as close as you can to the mechanism, and that did work better.

Bed was comfy.

Shades were the worst part of the room. I'm speaking of the ones in the room. They seemed to always be closed (down), whenever we got back to the room, and automatically opened (raised) when you opened the door. The air didn't work unless the sliding door to the patio was closed. There is no control over the patio light. Always on, and very bright. So, here is what happens. You have to close the door, to turn on the air, now you have to close (lower) the shades to block out the patio light. Morning comes... I get up early, and want Meri to sleep, I would love to quietly go out to the patio, to start the morning. I have to raise the shade to get out the door. Now the air is off, can't close the shade from out there, because the control is on the other side of the room, and Meri has bright light in the room with no air on, and no way to remedy this while I'm on the patio. Horrible design, that really kind of sucked, and it has too many moving part that will just break down. Give me a sliding shade, and it's all good. I know "first world problems...."

Food: We are not "foodies" at all! We have also been doing low carb, and lost 20 pounds each on that. Meri is a very picky eater, and will never try anything new. I only like to eat to keep me going thru the day, and I don't need anything fancy, just sustenance. For me the buffet works great, I really loved all the food. Meri found what she wanted there, and that is where we ate most all of our meals. One supper at the Italian, and got right in with no reservation at 7:00. We didn't do the "coffee" thing. Meal didn't take as long as I was dreading about, and was good, but not as much as a "feed bag" I would get at the buffet. That lead us to have Bash Burger that night, and it was good. Had another one another night when we were in the hot tub from 4:00-11:00 (not a typo) and missed supper.

Beach: meh, not why you come, and was rarely used. We did sit there one morning for a bit. Got offered weed, jewelry, and a scarf. Passed.

Staff: They were fine, and always asking to help, or get you something, but unless you got a drink at the Quiet Pool bar, or Score, get ready to stand in line for a while. That's definitely a first world problem, but waiting in line for drinks sucks... get more workers.

Being on a referral we were supposed to have a butler. Edgar was bad. He left before even getting us a room, and never found us again until after I talked to our referral guy, and told him about our experience on the last day of our stay. Not a big deal at all, as we are very(!) low maintenance, and really prefer do do stuff ourselves anyway.

Furniture: The loungers around the pool were fine for laying on your back, not so much, at all, on your front. We were premier, with the referral, so we did use those nicer reclining ones on the deck a couple days. Bar stools are terrible on both sides of the pool bar inside and out of the water, and at the bar at Bash, and not many people used them. That has to get fixed some time, I would hope. The stools at the Lobby Bar, and at Score were much better, and kind of swayed a little. They reminded me of playground ones at McDonalds with the springs, but easy to sit on. Bash furniture was do-able, but not great. The little tables that people would stand around were very small with sloping sides, that were hard to keep drinks on, and one time a wine glass fell off and broke. They could use some improvement with the furniture for sure.

Drinks. I pretty much just drank Vodka and club soda, except for one day of Captain and Coke. Usually Kettle One or Skol is what I would ask for. Drinks didn't always taste the same which I thought was odd. Meri had Malibu and Pineapple, and sometimes a blender drink in the morning.

They had some Fireball. Ran out (how does that happen, just get more) the last two days, which was disappointing, as I like that.

Pool/hot tub: The pool is too deep, and too cold. Not enough to keep us out, because we really like the water. Many others didn't go in. It is heated, just not very well at all. The jets on the lowest level were pumping out "warm" water, but the upper ones weren't. I don't know if they can make it warmer, but we would never go in the winter, and our end of October time frame pushes it as far as what the sun can do to compensate. The good news is, heating the water better is a fixable issue. Water depth likely is not. Meri is 5'1" and the old pool water height was nipple depth. Now it's top of the shoulder, and just makes it much more difficult for a short person to have a drink in hand, and it does kind of suck it covers the boobs.

There are stairs in a few location to get in the pool, but for where we were sitting they weren't the most convenient. We found ourselves getting out near the "fun holes", and getting to the first level up is quite a step for a short person.

We have a hot tub at home, and know what a good temperature is. Too hot and you can't be in for the long haul, and too cold, is well, too cold. I found it just about perfect. I think it weeds out the "hot tub soakers" which isn't what TTR is about. We were in it 4 out of 5 days, for between 2- 7 hours each time, and was probably the best part of the trip. Looking forward to a return.

Bash: I don't dance. Maybe I can, and I don't know it, but I just don't. Meri can dance better than she thinks, but is not a "look at me on the dance floor' dancer, just more of one in a group. Most of the good dancers are on the stage, and end up being entertainment for us flat footers that surround it. I think it works just fine. I don't feel like it separates the group, and it's not really that hard to just walk around at meet people on the other side. I did always use the Lobby bar for drinks, as the Bash bar was very crowded. The raised dance floor does look like a fall hazard at some point, and I'm sure it will happen, but never did on our trip. Didn't find anything remotely slippery at Bash.

Speaking of slippery, I guess I'll just add that part in here. There were lots of reports of it being slippery everywhere. I found that way overstated. It hardly ever was slippery at all, except when it was, it really was. A couple times the ramp by the bathrooms were slippery, but most of the time not. One time I went into the buffet and it was slippery, but not ever again. Our weather was the exact same every day of the entire trip, so I don't think it's weather related. Maybe it's a cleaning issue? Not sure, but it wasn't near as bad as reported. Never saw, or heard of anyone fall.

Back to Bash. The shows start at 10:00, and last for :30 minutes, and are pretty good. The rest of Bash time is great. Music is great, please don't bring back the violin guy, or change it much.

Vibe: We have very little to compare it to, as we just can't travel that much at all. Kyle has said many times, how he has wanted it a little more higher scale, and I know what he is saying, not sure how to say, but I think they have done it. Except for the pool games and JJ, in particular. I'm just not a fan of his, and I think the younger kid with the child like voice would do much better, just my thought, but the games just don't do it for me. Hopefully however, maybe they'll keep the games, and not come up with something new and "chic", that the money people like, and it will keep the prices down?

There is one female entertainment worker that I think leads morning workouts, and dances on the bar in the afternoon. She has some quality about her, that if you could bottle it up, and sell it, you'd never work again. To me, she exemplifies what they are looking for.

However you wan't to define "vibe" is up to you. I like it, it works plenty good enough, and there are places to go if you don't like the vibe where you are.

One negative, and it was HUGE. Music at the pool was great, and each day they seemed to keep building it up to the point when the girls started dancing on the bar, late afternoon. Lots(!) of fun. Our last day they did known of that at all. The music was beyond horrible. From the time of the last game around 1:00 they never again played music that had any works. Just some horrible piped in background music (not dance house music either), that is basically describes as a slighter faster yet equally annoying version of what was playing at the quiet pool. Nobody dancing on the bar, no energy, just a really, really quiet, boring time. Pretty sure that is what lead us to the hot tub for our 7 hour adventure.

When the music is really playing at the pool or Bash the sound system sounds incredible with tons of base. I feel like I'm kind of an audio guy, and I really liked it.

People/experience: I'll start this by saying it took a little time for Meri and I to figure out how to make this work. Our life is very demanding and tiring, so we need some rest as some point. Meri more than me, though. I get bored pretty quick. We were there when a very large group was. "Joined" as much as you can say you have joined something online. While online we met some more people, so we had a little connection with a few more couples going in. Last time we went to TTR we traveled with two other couples, so our time was pretty much spent with them. This time we were on our own, so we had to find a way to make this work,with her being an introvert who needed rest, and me being a more outgoing guy who wanted something to do.

What worked for us was mid morning breakfast, and then let her lay out all thru lunch, and then some after lunch. I walked around for exercise, and to meet people, and not just lay around and get wasted.

Side not on the walking around. We both elliptical every day at home, but didn't want to do that here, but I did find I needed some exercise so I walked the resort... a lot. As I'm doing that I'm thinking how nice it would have been if they would have designed a ramp on both sides of bash. It would access the quiet pool to Bash much better, as you wouldn't have to walk to the other side, or go thru the buffet, and would just have centered Bash more as a focal point, much like an old southern house with stairs on either side of the entry way leading you up. (listen to me talking like a designer...)

So back to our routine. Sometime mid afternoon we would hook back up and head to the pool, as that is where the pre-bash party seems to start with girls dancing on the bar, then to the hot tub, then supper and Bash. It worked... great, just took some time to figure out.

We met lots of people and had a great time with all of them. We wrote the names down for something to do on the plane (as well as some other fun plane stuff). No particular order, or ranking.

Danny and Sherri- I accidentally bumped into her twice in the hot tub our first day. They were actually talking to other couples at the time. They floated over and talked to us, and we ended spending a lot of fun time with them that day, and the next before they left. We're now Facebook friedns, and they want to come back and play golf with us this summer. They were great.

Auturo/Ana, Nasir/Rania, Esse/Mehre, Brad/Shonda- different couples we met in the hot tub, all very different, yet incredibly fun to talk and do whatever you do in a hot tub with. We are still vanilla, but it was a great time none the less...

Heidi/Shannon, Rob/Rosa, Heidi/Aaron, Chris/Angel, Lisa/Paul, Will/Laura- people we knew or ended up knowing from online. They were as close as we would call a "base group" for us. They traveled with other groups and certainly not us, but would welcome us in at anytime, are great people, and I'm thankful that there are people like that. We never felt like we were on our own.

Steve- The CCC ringleader. I got to sit with him and chat a bit, twice. Amazing guy. I'm a nobody from nowhere, and he remembered who I was, that I had done trip reports on the Golden Parnassus three years ago, and knew my last name. People like that amaze me.

John/Stacia- one of the better trip report givers on here, and someone I was hoping to find a chance to say hi to. I managed to meet them around lunch time our last day at the premier bar. Me and Meri talked to them for about :30. Like everyone else just a great couple to talk to. We shared some "low carb" stories.

Andrew-talked a lot of sports and betting in the pool while my wife was relaxing.

Guy who is super tan and muscular who usually wins the belly flop competition and pole dancing (forgot his name) and his wife but we did shots once. We'll talk more next time.

Houston Astors fans in the Sports Bar (we're Dodger fans)-funny guy, hope he's sad tonight... game 7

Gary/Jennifer- our referral couple very understanding of our situation, and helped us in not having to do the presentation, great couple.

Guy with a goatee (forgot his name) and his wife who I would describe her look as always being "on point"-She was very attractive, and had a great look, she was also a great dancer to watch (giving a compliment, not trying to sound like leerier), and I remember seeing her two years ago. We talked in the pool some.

Crazy dancing couple at Bash- we didn't get their names, but did talk to them as they were leaving one night. If I were ever trying to describe "dance like nobody is watching" and have a great time, I would point to them.

one other guy, everyone knows who he is, he hates me for some reason, turned his head as he shook my hand, and later his cigarette ashes landed on my lounger on the premier deck, not what ttr is about, didn't effect me at all, just throwing it all out there... and done.

Summary: the whole "swinger" thing, and the resort being labeled as such. Last trip it didn't seem like that at all. This time was a little different. Lots of offers to "play" at times thru the trip. Didn't happen, but I will say everyone was extremely respectful of everything, and no means no. No pushing at all. It was pretty nice of one couple though. We talked with them everyday, and found out early on they were interested. He told me that when you get to be our age it's always nice to get any compliment you can, and he said, "I made the cut" That actually did feel really nice, so I got that going for me... Meri was told she made the cut many times, but she is very easy on the eyes.

I think that about sums it up, if you've made it this far... bottom line is, this was our fourth trip in five years, and it was by far the best one for me. I hope to be back, and if we are it will be the same time, hopefully with the same great weather, and great people.

I'll try to add a few pics later, and maybe cross post on Facebook if that seems like a something I should do.

 

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post post your your trip report, it was very informative.

T

 

Thanks for taking the time and writing the trip report (it was damn near Scuba sized, and that's saying something ). Glad that you guys were able to get away,and enjoy your vacation. Probably most happy that the hot tub situation worked out to your liking, as I know that was a big concern.

The shades are a bummer for anyone that is in a situation similar to you guys. But for Elyse and I personally it isn't an issue, as the first one awake will typically hound the other and molest them in their sleep until they get up and start getting their shit together. Maybe if they could add some type of manual override to the control, the problems would be solved. I like the automated way in which it featured, but maybe they should allow it to be deactivated based on your preferences.

Very glad to hear you didn't experience the slippery issues. Maybe some of them are going away as the floors get a little more wear on them, and since you didn't indicate it rained at any point, maybe that made a huge difference.

Guess it's time to start planning the next one!

 

Thanks for the report. Interesting and funny. Glad you enjoyed it. We return in 8 hours.

Re your nemesis ha, just kidding, all you need is someone to bring you two together. Wish I was there to act like Switzerland so I could of maybe first poked the bear some and then brokered peace between the US and Canada

 

Great trip report and very informative. Has us ready for our June trip.

 

Great trip report. Getting ready for our trip!

 

Excellent trip report. Hit everything right on the money.

As for the shades.. Chris and I figured out that if you turn off all the lights in the room EXCEPT for one of the underbed lights, then the shade WILL NOT rise up when you enter the room. The only exception to this is when the front desk sends you a message on your TV.

Jamie

 

Great Report!!!