First timer trip report – albeit a lil lengthy: Painless flight from New Orleans to Cancun on Wednesday, July 15. Wasn’t hassled by time share folks @ airport at all. Breezed right thru the airport to find our private transportation via Ford Excursion (booked thru entertainment plus @ the link @ the bottom on cancuncare forum) waiting at the door. Hopped in and we were off. Cab driver stopped and let me exchange currency en route to Temptation. Check in was a breeze (occupancy was at 53%). Receptionist sent us to talk to “VIP” aka timeshare folks. We gladly inhaled the info of the resort, grabbed our map, accepted the “VIP breakfast” BC she wouldn’t take no for an answer, “giving” us $100 gift certificate to the spa as a bonus… wink wink. Our initial room was right between patyo’s and sexy pool. Not enough privacy and way too loud for moments we wanted downtime, so we asked to be moved as soon as we entered the door and it was no problem. We were moved immediately to room 1257 by the sexy pool behind Bella Vista restaurant on the 2nd floor. Great view of the ocean and pool. Perfect for us. The room did have a slight musty smell but thanks to Cancun care forum, we brought some febreeze and fabric softener sheets. We put the sheets around in different places in the room and our room was fresh all week long. I do have some complaints about space to put clothes and hangers. I used most of the drawer/closet space while my girlfriend had to live outa a suitcase for 8 days. Also, the a/c seemed fine at night and in the morning but even with curtains closed, when the sun would set facing our room, it made evenings just plain HOT and our floor slick with humidity. We unpacked what we could, put on our suits and headed to the quite pool as that was the first bar we could get to – it was 4pm by now. I had a drunken monkey and my girl had an amazing corralejo margarita served up by Lulu (who IMHO was the best bartender). We met a sweet fella named Jorge from Ft. Worth and visited with him that entire evening. We had dinner @ Bella Vista and it was DEELISH! We went to PatyO’s and met a sweet group from Chi-town. We didn’t show up to the VIP breakfast; but the Thursday morning when we went to get our towels, they had a note by our room number that we were supposed to go and he reminded us. We told him we were cancelling… and headed to the beach. Next thing we know there is some VIP chick hollering at us on the beach from the sexy pool saying we had to come to the breakfast. I told her we were not interested and she claimed that they already gave us our “gift”. Basically trying to make me believe that we HAD to go! I just laid my head back down and put my nose back in my book and she eventually left. Hated to be rude but no means no, right? We weren’t bothered again. We spent the day @ the sexy pool and on the beach. Occupancy was low… so the sexy pool was NEVER packed. Chairs would have towels on them but I never saw some of them used at all. Sometimes games couldn’t even get played BC there wasn’t anyone joining in. After the 2nd day, most of the days kind of run together... but here is a synopsis of the rest of our trip: Took the bus to Mercado 28 in downtown Cancun. However, just took a bus that read “downtown” instead of waiting for the “Mercado 28” bus… and got dropped off FAR away and had to walk thru some not so great parts of downtown Cancun. Passed one hotel that musta had some drug cartel staying there cuz it was being guarded with dudes packing AK47’s. Pretty scary! But the market itself was TONS of fun!!! Hotter than Hell but tons of fun! Offer them HALF of what their asking for all their goods. They’ll take it. Got up one morning and took the bus down to Playa Delphines and spent the day. I am a huge beach person so I wanted some beautiful beach time in and boy did I get it. It was GORGEOUS!!!! Rented chairs and an umbrella from a local for around $15 usd. Bought some yummy mango from a local for a couple bucks. Was able to sunbathe topless there too. Spent one full day @ Isla Mujeres. Took the ferry there right down from Temptation where the pirate ships are. Had lunch @ Jax Bar & Grill – Jackie was GREAT!!!! Rented a golf cart and explored the entire island. Paid $80 for us to both get into Garrafoon Park (RIP-OFF!) as it appeared from the map that the entire south end of the island was part of garraffon… which is not the case. Cliff of the dawn is absolutely breathtaking. Turned our golf cart in @ 5pm and walked around the entire northern end of the island and waited for sunset… again... breathtaking. Got ripped off ($50 on a liter) on “Mexico’s best tequila” (which I found at the flea market a few days later for $10 a 5th) lol – ya live n learn right? We took the Puerto Juarez ferry back to about 8:30pm. It was just us and local Cancun folks. No other tourists. Once we got back to Cancun and to the street… I was a bit frightened. It was very sketchy! Luckily there was a cab driver right there… I quickly offered him 300 pesos to take us back to the hotel zone and he agreed. There were two military trucks packed with dudes packing AK47’s guarding the street. I found out later that Puerto Juarez has very high drug crime due to the fact that when people transporting drugs from Columbia or wherever that toss their drugs overboard, due to the shape? of the peninsula there, many drugs wash up there. I was just glad that we got in and outa there safely. One day we left the hotel @ 7:45 am and went on an ATV/Cenote/Snorkeling excursion (booked via entertainment plus @ the bottom of the forum) and this was one of my favorite things about our vacation. We ended up being the ONLY people who booked this excursion on this particular day so basically it was a private excursion for the same price as if we’d have had 15 other couples with us. My girlfriend is not a huge water baby like me, and our tour guide, Jorge of the Jungle took the most amazing care of my girl! He made sure that she was comfortable every chance he got. He made this day so memorable for both of us. The cenotes that we went to were breathtaking! We got to explore the Mayan Family’s land, way of living, farm, etc. We brought Mardi Gras beads for them and they just loved it. We had lunch and beers @ a quaint little café with a beautiful ocean view. The snorkeling there (2nd largest coral reef in the world) was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! We didn’t get back to our hotel until about 7:30pm but it was indeed a divine day! Thanks to Jorge who made it utterly amazing! He is THE BEST! Be sure to take hobie cat lessons. We sailed one morning and had a blast doing that as well!!! The buffet was only open for breakfast until the last few days when a large group of swingers came in. We did outings our last few days there so weren’t around the pool that much once they got there. THANK GOD! Friends we had made said that they were having sex right in the pool. To each their own, but when there are signs that say no public sex, it’s not really fair to the rest of us who aren’t into that sort of thing to HAVE to be subjected to it when everyone has their own rooms. Also, our last few days there, there was DJ @ the QUIET POOL. I didn’t mind so much but I think some others did. HELLO, it’s called the QUIET POOL. there’s plenty of techno @ the sexy pool. and one night, we were run outa the pool after a certain time, however; the swingers stayed in the pool ALL NIGHT LONG buck ass naked and having public sex in a community pool! Another complaint I have is that there was no booze cruise Friday night… and only like 5 or 6 people wanting to go to clubs at night. But I know that couldn’t be helped… it was only because occupancy was low. Nearly missed our flight home! Arrived @ airport @ 1:30 as our original flight was to leave @ 4:25. Got boarding passes and boarding time was 2:10! Yes… 40ish minutes!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently our initial flight was cancelled and no one bothered to tell us! THANKS ORBITZ! Ended up having to throw out the bottle of tequila I got ripped off on cuz it was in my carryon! grrr! All in all, we had the best vacation ever. We will definitely be back. Just hopefully not when there’s a large group of swingers there. There are resorts that cater to their lifestyle specifically. The resort was super clean and well manicured!!! Even though occupancy was low, the staff tried super hard to keep it fun for everyone! TIP these people… they work very hard for their money. I noticed a lot of people didn’t tip at all. (
Sounds like an interesting trip :shock: It is crazy that TTR throws a fit when someone does a bodyshot at the wrong time or in the wrong area, or when someone goes for a late night romp in the ocean, but they are fine with a group doing whatever, whenever, and wherever.
Great TR. Loads of good info. Too bad about the low occupancy, but that seems to be a common theme around all resorts but really bad on the Mexican resorts. Thanks for the TR.
Great TR . Really informative . We did have a blast at Market 28 haggling the price on everything we bought . Sounds like you guys had a great time. Next year after all this swine flu is over I would say that attendance will pick up .
Really nice TR, and sounds like you had a great time. It is puzzling to me how inconsistent the resort is about behavior.
Great trip report. A lot of information I was looking for. We've always talked about the ATV tour but never seemed to find the time or was afraid we would miss something at the resort. Looks like a must do now. We've been to Ilsa several times but never for the whole day or rented the golf carts. I think we will this time. We pulled the same bus boo-boo that you did & since we survived it I glad we did. It was scary & don't wish to do it again. Thanks again for all the info & glad you enjoyed your trip Scott & Lori
