Trip Report January 13-27 We both are doing this report in parts...We booked with Sunwing Vacations departing from Kitchener, originally we were to leave at 4:05 pm they changed our departing time to 11:00 am which we felt was better as we were now getting into Cancun at 2:00 pm instead of 7:05 pm. We arrived at the airport at 8:00 am after checking in Sunwing changed our departure time to 12:30, and then 2:30. After a long wait at the airport we finally walk on the plane....yes I said walked....we walked out on the tarmac in the freezing cold and into the plane, We flew out with Mikferd (Fred and Mikki). We both pre-booked our seats at the front of the plane as to get off first. We arrived in Cancun about 5:30 pm, got our checked bags and away we went, green light thank goodness. Then the guy on the other side stops us and asks us to open our bags and asks if we have any food with us. I forgot about the coconut oil for tanning and horseradish for my Caesars. The process we short and sweet he didn’t take any of it from me just wanted to see it. As usual we had to walk through the crowd of timeshare and others that wanted to stop until we reached the outside where we found our USA Transfers guy. The Sunwing Rep kept trying to get us on the bus and we had to tell him we had our own transportation a few times before he got it right. Finally we got to TTR about 6:30pm check in was unbelievable....we did the express check in before leaving on the TTR website waste of time just to let everyone know. The girl behind the desk was so unorganized and kept taking off, finally got our room by the quite pool but facing the parking lot. The nice guy that helped with our bags called down from the room and told them we are repeaters and could they do something better than this and told them we did not like the room. The front desk told him the only thing available facing the quite pool at the time was the rooms with the Jacuzzi tubs on the main level, so we took it the deal we got was roughly $35.00 a night extra for the room for the 14 nights. We changed and made our way to the sports pool they were have the outdoor BBQ. We were starving so starting filling up our plates when we heard ...”it’s about time you guys got here” it was G&B (Gary and Belinda). After telling them our ordeal with the flight and check in we sat down to eat and watch the show. We were up since 5:30 am so we were pretty tired first night was early to bed after the show. A few days later a group of very loud people moved into the quite pool area...so anyone thinking that is the place to be to get away from the noise forget it. Wednesday we headed into town with Gary and Belinda, took the bus the wrong way then got on the right bus heading to Coco bongos....note have to cross the street in front of the resort to get to Coco bongos area. We got there and there was some guys dress as Captain America, Spiderman and so on, they are more than happy to take pics with you but they also want to be paid and not only a few bucks either...so be warned before taking pics with them it is going to cost you. Went into the mall there started shopping when Gary noticed his wallet was missing...at first he thought he dropped or it was lifted when the guys at Coco Bongos lifted him up to take a pic, after a bit of thought he thought perhaps he left it at the resort. Being stressed out we all hoped into a taxi and back to the resort to make sure it was in the room safe and not lost or stolen...the stress melted away as Gary open the safe to find his wallet...his name that day became dumbass lmao. So we headed back into a taxi to the mall again, we spent the day shopping and window shopping as well, had lunch at Hooters, and started walking back when we came upon GOV. Well the site did say if you are in the neighbourhood drop in and take a tour, so we did. The security at the door stopped us right away asked us what we were doing there and when we told him we wanted a tour he brought us into the lobby and got a hold of Valentina for us to take the tour with. The lobby there reminded us of a lounge area all open concept with chairs and sofas, there was a lot of people there as it was windy and cooler out that day. In no time at all Valentina was there to take us on our tour...unfortunately they we were all booked up and we were unable to see any rooms but we toured the resort. It is a very nice resort without a question, not many rooms have balconies at GOV as well, coyote bar was very nice and big, not sure we all like the white box restaurant seemed to have a bit of a stuffy atmosphere to it. One thing we did notice was there was really no one outside, no party goers at the beach bars, no activities going on that we saw either and it was extremely quite. It was very windy outside though so that could be the reason. After the tour we thanked Valentina for her time, we took a taxi back to TTR where rain, wind and cold couldn’t keep the party goers from being outside at the sexy pool bar, big difference from GOV. This is when we finally met up with Jack & LaVonne and met another couple Chris and Melissa. On Wednesday we also met up with the rest of the group... Randy and Angie (r&a1964) caught up with us as we were sitting at PatyOs that afternoon while we wait for Gary and Belinda. Annie and Manuel grabbed us on the dance floor at PatyOs after they checked in that night. Thursday night, Lingerie night was a blast....that poor guy they dragged on stage to only get lap dances by the men and not the women was too funny. We pooled our chip money together and got the last auction item for 9000. It was cold that night so not many at PatyOs stayed dressed in Lingerie. Xplor-- all 12 of us packed in the USA transfer van and head out at 8:00 am on the Friday by the way if you can get a group together and get a private tour it is worth it...nice day but a bit cool to be getting wet all day, we started out on the hand paddling rafts through the caves on 2 person rafts...15 minutes of paddling wasn’t sure Don could handle the paddling that long since he had dislocated his shoulder the day before on the volleyball court, but he was fine. We had all of us following each other with Gary and Belinda leading the pack a few times we came up on them and started sinking their back end. Next up was the amphibious vehicles....the guys being guys of course didn’t know what a brake pedal was...lol. The amphibious vehicles were great but a bit gutless going uphill. We then had lunch which was very good, huge buffet there. We decided to go on the zip lines after lunch figuring it would be less busy, think it was the first time for most of us, I even volunteered to go the same time as Jack, so that my screams would drown his out ...but all was good the first leap was the hardest after that it was a piece of cake. Getting from one zip line to the other is a workout the climbing is a great cardio workout for sure, so be prepared if you go. I am not a swimmer and the last zip line you go through a waterfall and into the water, if you are coming in to fast there is a guy at the end of the zip line that will pull down on the line so that you go into the water to slow you down. It was a lot of fun and a great day all around. White night, was another great night at TTR... other than this one guy trying to kick us out of the deck area which is now for premier only...out of the 5 couples up there, 3 where premiers and 2 were red bands....Belinda piped up and basically told him that we were not leaving and the red bands were guests and invited to be there. This now started the constant harassment by this one guy with us. We didn’t have an issue with him doing his job but if he was going to start kicking red bands off the deck area, he needed to do it across the board not just center out one area up there which is what he did. Red Dress night was okay but cold out, so not many came dress for the night that was the same night as the foam party at the sport pool if I remember correctly, didn’t turn out so well as not many participated with it being cold...not sure why they do the foam party at night verses during the day when it is warmer out. This was the night Manuel was introduced to Janet and got a whole new education...not our beloved Steve’s Janet lol. We all stood back and just watched the expressions on Manuel face as Janet talked to him...this was one of those had to be there moments to understand what we are talking about. Either way it was good meeting Janet and her hubby. Sunday morning Jack & LaVonne left for home, the rest of us planned our day out on the Island...we headed down the road got the ferry and rented our golf carts... we toured the Island for the day had lunch on the beach and did some shopping, it was a beautiful day not a cloud in the sky and hot. Came back had a great dinner with all us at Margaritas. Monday morning Gary and Belinda headed home, their room was right next to the rooms that all share a balcony facing by the quite pool and a bunch of really loud partiers moved in the night before, so they were happy it was their last night. The rest of us just hung out around the beach and sexy pool area during the day. I believe this was night we met Carolyn and Chuck it was the outdoor BBQ night at the sports pool again. We turned in early as my eyes were burning and it was time for some long overdue sleep. Next night we met sexyred (Pat and Christeena) at PatyOs, and again yet another run in with the same guy from White night...we were sitting at the tables in the middle of the bar area when he came over to clear some plates off the table I asked him if he could get us an astray and he rudely barked back at me that he was not a waiter and then took off, we laughed it off and continued our conversation. Over the next few days every time he saw us he would make it a point to try and have some sort of confrontation with us...not really sure what we did to have such a lasting effect on this guy but it was very apparent that we got under his skin somehow and to be honest we were the quite ones compared to most. As the week went past our group became less and less Wednesday Randy and Angie left in the afternoon, after a tearful good bye, we walked to the Americas Mall and walked back...it was a bit of a hike. Thursday we had our photo shoot the photographer was really good and made us feel comfortable...he took a lot of great shots just wished we would have gotten some shots on the dock as well. Another tearful goodbye on Saturday as Annie and Manuel left for home that night was a quite night for us as we again needed to catch up on some long awaited sleep, had dinner at the buffet restaurant, played some pool and then headed to relax in our room for the night. Sunday our last night, dinner at the Italian restaurant anyone who has been at TTR before knows that the Italian restaurant is the better of all of them on the resort. With that said that night while we were having dinner there was a large group in the middle of the restaurant that was very loud, obnoxious and definitely changed the atmosphere in there. Louder they were the louder the rest of us had to be in order to be able to hear each other...oh yea cannot forget that one of them took it upon themselves to throw one of their small pillows that usually sits in behind them on their chair across the room as well. We get that everyone is there to have a good time and enjoy themselves and we are all about that but this was a bit over the top not only for us in the restaurant at the time but many others. We headed over to PatyOs where we met up a very interesting and funny fellow sorry can’t remember his name sitting in the now premier section, we chatted for a while and again that same guy came up and was there telling us to leave again, by this time I had my fill of this guys and my patience with him was warning thin...to make a long story short...after my very loud conversation with the night manager in the lobby, the manager ended up apologizing for this guys behaviour over the course of our stay there and told us to enjoy the space for the night. Now came the fun part, there was a group that felt well mostly the one woman in the group felt she deserved the space we had up there...yes she was a premier and snooty one at that (the very few as I mentioned before on several other posts), we told the manager they were more than welcome to the space but he set up some chairs next to us in the space between us and the other instead. Which by her actions did not sit well with her, as time pasted they tried crowding us out by standing in front of our space so we could not see the dance floor and so on. We are the type of people that for the most part get along with everyone in other words we play well in the sand box as long as others do not through the sand back in our face...if you know what I am getting at. With that said we kicked up our own sand and invited more people to join us and crowded them back to their own space. Our room was 1130 right beside the Italian restaurant and the walkway going to the quite pool...the room itself was nice and big the only problem was that people walking by left their cups and cigarette butts on our balcony hmmm they must of missed the garbage can and ashtray right in front of the next room so we kept the blind closed most of the time. Although our report may sound like more of a bitch fest we did have a lot of fun with the group of people we met up with there and those we met along the way while there Phil & April, Jeff & Beth, Carolyn & Chuck, Chris & Melissa, Bill, and so on. This year the crowd seemed to be different than last year...there was a lot of single guys there a group of about 10 or so were there for a bachelor party from England, they were loud but mostly harmless, there was another group of guys there were pretty creepy though and kept coming onto all the woman. One of these guys while on the dance floor went right up to a younger couple and told the girl he want to fuck her...I was totally unaware of want was going on until Don pushed me out of the way as he saw the boyfriend and this guy come nose to nose together and about to start a fight and didn’t want me in the middle of it. The couple left the dance floor for awhile and later returned once things calmed down. More couples having their own arguments and fights and bringing the crowd around them down. A few older men there and I mean older with what seemed to be hired escorts for their stay at TTR and to not rock the boat a few and I literally mean a few premier members that thought they owned the resort right out. The changes that have been made since our last visit last year in our opinion is going to cause more damage than good...the resort needs to remember that the repeaters and other guests are also just as important as their premier members....again not trying to ruffle any feathers here just stating facts. The breakfast in the morning was always good, lunch at either the buffet or Margarita’s became a bit repetitious over the course of our stay but the food was always good. Seafood and Italian restaurant was very good, we were not fussy on the Asian restaurant maybe it was just what we had that night, Margarita was a totally different menu for dinner and also very good as well. We found if you tipped the bartenders well at the beginning of the day or night...they will take very good care of you. We found the entertainment to be on a one week cycle, so the second week we didn’t attend most of the activities, the entertainment staff are great even Dancing Shawn gave us a good show the one day during the Iron man contest, although he got sick after that for a few days he was still entertaining during the show. We found a lot of people ignoring the no pictures taken during activities rule as well several times the entertainment staff took cameras away and deleted the picture themselves. People need to respect others at the resort and their privacy. We get the no one knows you no one gives a shit thing at the resort but honestly some people don’t want their picture splattered all over the internet either just because someone else thought what they were doing at the time was funny enough to take their picture doing it....remember people have lives outside of the resort. Guess what we are basically saying is that this year we found more people being disrespectful towards others at the resort then our last trip and we hope that this is not going to become the norm there.
Thanks for the honest report. We had a ton of issues this time too, and our stays overlapped. It was almost to the point of the bad out weighing the good. Thank goodness for our friends we went with again this year, or it really wouldn't have been a good time. I have been debating on doing a trip report for this trip because I am afraid of the lynch mob when I say it wasn't great and we don't know that we will return lol
Last year about the same time although last year it was only for one week there but the one week this year was around the exact dates as last year.
Same as last year as well. It was very different this year. We went with the same people, so our little group was as awesome as ever and we had a great time with them. However, we would have had a great time with them no matter what. TTR on the other had wasn't great by a long shot.
We wwere there over New Years and you r right that premiere seating at PatO's is a clusterf#*k. Source of drama, combined with new chairs that take forever to.dry out. As far as camera creeps and sausagefest, the hotel turns.over about Jan 3 cuz the rack rate drops. So you get some unsavoury jackasses at the lower rate. We say it every year after NY, 'ohh hear comes the rif/raf' as we find ourselves amongst strangers 2 nights after partying with NY regulars.(most are gone home by jan3) So I would.suggest trying a different month. Nightly rates higher = bigger ratio of good ppl.
Another question. . .Sorry. But very curious about Jan18. Event calendar says 80s retro rock.band pooside. How was this? Better or real.lame thwn compared to DJ? What band was it? Any good? Sorry but very intriguing to me
I'm assuming that the new premier section at patyO's is the "upper level" area? Is it the whole space up there? Not a fan of this change!
Thanks for the tip about dates marshe...they had the 80s thing going on through the resort website there was a few people dressed up for that but not many we only saw a hand full of people...the music this time I think it was due to the 70, 80 90's thing was different then last year they played a lot of music from that time period throughout the resort. Not sure what the band name was, they were good but alcohol does make ones perception change, much like the 2 at 10 and 10 at 2 thing lmao...the resident DJ played the same music each night we noticed mixture of again the time periods...I think it was the guest DJ the one night that tried mixing up some techno crap with ACDC and Journey....for us being rock fans it didn't sit so well lol
