Trip report, Feb 23--March 1st, 2012

I’m Jess, the female half of RnJ, and we just got back from our third trip in a year--Feb 2011, Sept 2011, and now Feb 2012. This was my favorite trip so far! I won’t bore you with details from the commute from Chicago to Cancun, but let’s just say that we actually made our flight this time! As you all already know, the people you meet at TTR make the trip such an amazing experience. We met an absolutely fabulous group of people. With this being my 3rd time to the resort, I was more relaxed and open to meeting lots of people. It’s pretty inevitable that people break off into “groups” at TTR, but this time, we knew several of the groups, so we never were bored or alone (unless we chose to go to the beach or something like that, say, on a recovery morning).

I want to make sure that everyone reading this knows that while Chinos is gone, all this stuff I’ve been reading about security being tight and the vibe of TTR changing from fun/sexy to boring IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. I think Sarah69 is doing a great job getting people into the atmosphere and the games during the early afternoon. Everyday was a party at the sexy pool. We had no problems with security, and not once did any staff at the resort even make their presence known when we were doing body shots, etc on the Idaho crew’s inflatable raft/drinkholder in the middle of the sexy pool. Well, that’s not entirely true since the bartenders would blow whistles and spray us with water and some sort of gas from a tank (CO2 maybe?) and that was all in the spirit of encouraging us to have fun and be crazy! We took 4 cans of alcohol whipped cream and got away with so much silliness and partying all week. We’re not jerks and aren’t pushy or aggressive or anything like that, but we also aren’t fuddy-duddies sitting at the quiet pool all day. So, those of you worried that things have changed--we didn’t experience anything different at all.

We did Steve’s cruise on Monday the 27th, which was our 2nd time, and a ton of fun! Omar and Chinos really know how to get things pumped up. There was a lot of crazy stuff going on. A LOT of crazy stuff. Lenni and Jodie were on our cruise, so need I say more? Love those 2!! We went to the bar at the 2nd Isla Mujeres stop, then after that they stop the boat and let you skinny dip in the ocean. The water was calmer than the cruise in Sept so I didn’t see anyone throwing up off the side of the boat from seasickness. Steve, thanks again for the trip, what a great time. Our group was up partying late after the cruise (except for me, as I just can’t go all day and all night like Ryan can, and instead I spent the night trying not to puke). Like last time, we took some Cup O’ Noodles that you can eat in the room (just heat the water in the coffee pot, although you’ll need to get some silverware from the buffet), great for hangovers.

We did The City on Friday night with the resort and Coco Bongo with a private group (not the resort) on Tuesday night. We got the VIP tickets and treatment at Coco Bongo, and I’d highly recommend that, even though it’s a bit pricey--we paid $110/pp but the drinks were flowing all night, the air conditioning was working well, and a bunch of girls in our group got selected to dance up on the top stage. It was way fun. The City was an 18 year old sausage-fest, but we were up off the floor in the area with the resort, so we didn’t care, and we had a great time, anyway. Every other night we were at Paty’Os and that is always tons of fun, too.

A lot of people asked us which time of year we liked best (Feb vs Sept) and I have to say that Feb is more of a crowded, party atmosphere, and the humidity is much lower than in September (which is a good thing for me, as I hate the heat, especially humidity). The weather was perfect; it only rained once. btw the day it rained, a bunch of us got into the Premier area hot tub, as Lenni talked security into letting us up there, and the two Premier members who were in the hot tub didn’t mind (thanks Megan!) So the rain CLEARLY didn’t bother us. We fit 17 people into that hot tub! Too bad I can’t post those pictures......

Downsides? We thought the quality of the food at the buffet had slipped a bit, but it was still good. Our last night (Wed) we went to dinner in the buffet (usually we go to the seafood place or get a reservation) but we found that the service is so slow in the restaurants and with it being our last night, we didn’t want to spend 1.5 hours at dinner and wanted to be with all our friends instead, so we hit the buffet. They were doing some sort of S&M theme, and it was hilarious! A lot of the servers were in S&M gear and they had brazilian style meat skewers on a cart and were wheeling it around to feed everyone. It was very sexy and candlelit in there, too. Unexpected fun for the buffet.

The omelets and everything else I had at the grill part of the buffet were great, so I’d recommend waiting in line for those items. The Asian, seafood, and Italian places seemed the same although again, a bit slower service than we rememvbered. We would also order wine every night as the house wine is *undrinkable* and it would usually take around 20-30 minutes to get the wine, which was a bummer. I also hate that there’s no room service or food allowed outside of the restaurants. Sometimes you just want to eat a burger on the beach or by the pool, but they reaqlly discourage you from taking food out of the restaqurants. At Paty’Os they sert up an appetizer buffet at 6pm and then you can get your late night hamburgers, hot dogs, and fries, but in the middle of the day there really isn’t any option for eating except getting out of the pool, drying off, and going to the buffet or Tex-Mex place.

We used USA Transfers for the ride to and from the airport; $55 plus tip for both trips. We got into the van on our way out to leave, and I realized that my 2 diamond rings (the most expensive jewelry I own, Ryan’s 10th anniversary present to me) were not on my hand. I FREAKED OUT. I went to the front desk and they gave me a key to my room (even though they had already checked us out and cut our bracelets) and I ran to the room. The housecleaning lady was there and the room was almost entirely clean; I was near tears. She didn’t understand English but I managed to get the point across, and she had found the rings in the open safe and gave them to me! I gave her a hug and was pissed I had no cash to tip her. She SAVED me. :xyxthumbs: I’ll avoid taking expensive jewelry next time; it’s just not worth that kind of scare.

This is the only time we’ve been there that there wasn’t a very obvious “creepy crawler” trolling around by himself. I mean, there’s guys with cameras taking pictures of girls they clearly don’t know, and haven’t been talking to, but this bothers me less and less with each trip we take. I think that at some point, you just have to accept that people are going to be taking pictures. However, it’s so hard to recognize people in those pictures,since everyone has on their hats, sunglasses, etc. I mean, it’s hard enough to recognize people who are dressed and made up at night, even if you’ve been talking to them all day long at the pool, because they look so different.That being said, we had no problems(nor anyone else that we talked to) had problems with guys stalking the girls, etc. For the first time, we took a waterproof camera, and I did most th picture taking as Ryan didn’t want people to think he was being creepy. We didn’t take pix of people we didn’t know or hadn’t been talking to an I almost always asked if it was ok to take pix.

Bottom line, a great trip. Big shout out to everyone we hung out with and talked to--MrandMrs Deeds, Arian and Joe, Troy and Joyce, Tom and Theresa, Dan and Kristeen, Amy and Travis, Scott and Lori, Hugues, Sabrina, Virginie (sp?) and Gino, Pepito, Caroline, Ryan and Michelle, Carolina, Lenni, Jodie, Ailee (sp?), JimnLisa, Scott, Eric, Chelsey, Britney, Rob, Angie and Darren, and the tons of others that my poor post-TTR brain just can’t come up with right now! Hope to see everyone next year! And to the gang--Ryan is figuring out the best way to send all the pix, we got a bunch of GREAT pictures.:lotsofmichaelfs:

 

Reading trip reports makes me even more excited for our trip. Can't wait till April 17!!! Thanks for the report.:xyxthumbs::clappyinghappy:

 

Great report!!!

 

Nice report...have to wait until November for our trip, but your report was very descriptive and well written. Thank you!

 

awesome to meet you guys this year and glad you had a great time!

 

Great trip report, bring on April

 

Cool trip report, thanks for sharing. Three trips in one year's time, we are so jealous!

 

Thank you so much for the great trip report! As was mentioned on a previous post it seems like there have been hardly any posted lately & it is really appreciated by those of us that still have awhile to wait (96 days!!) to help us pass the time. Sounds like you had a good time! Great thing you realized you're rings were missing before you had left the hotel!! I felt almost panicked when i was reading that so I can only imagine how u must have felt!! :icon_confused: Anyways like I said thanks again for posting!! :umbrella1: Jess

 

Thanks for the report.

 

Thanks for the trip report. Sounds like you had a great trip.