Vacation Recap

Well, our vacation to Playa del Carmen (July 26-31) came & went in the blink of an eye...boohoo! We had a great time in Mexico with our friends Jenn & Jarod. Here's a little recap of our adventures...

Prior to our trip, Jenn & I had both been reading reviews on the travel website, Trip Advisor. The resort (Grand Riviera Princess) has only been open since December 2007, but there were/are a good number of reviews. It seemed like for every good review, there was a terrible one. For me, all it took was reading the words "traveler's diarrhea" one time before I began to worry. Just days before our trip, I prepared an emergency kit mostly consisting of anti-diarrheal products. I stocked up on loperamide and got Rhett's mom (a nurse practitioner) to call us in some ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic. Luckily, cipro is on the $4 generic list at Wal-Mart and we were able to get 20 tablets for $4. At 1 tablet twice daily for 3 days, each potential diarrhea sufferer would need 6 tablets. Lets do some math...6 tablets/traveler x 4 travelers = 24 tablets. Being 4 tablets short, this meant that only 3 of us could get sick. On the way to the airport, the group decided that Jarod could not get diarrhea.

We arrived at the airport to find a long line for checking baggage. Jenn & Jarod, the travel experts (Jarod works for Continental), had thought ahead & printed their boarding passes. Actually, we usually have this part taken care of...but for some reason we weren't on our game this time. J&J got in the speedy line for prepared travelers, and we resolved ourselves to the slow line for the less prepared. When Rhett's suitcase weighed in at 46.something pounds, I got nervous b/c I always pack way more than he does. Luckily, mine weighed just 47 pounds & we were able to move through to the security checkpoint. Rhett noticed that a group of about 30 students and chaperones were about to get in line, so we ran quickly and cut them off at the pass. We were short on time, so line manners did not matter at this point. We finally made it to our gate as they were calling for all remaining passengers to board. We didn't really cut it dangerously close, but close enough to where I was getting worried. The flight was fine...fast forward to our arrival in Mexico...

Rhett's suitcase did not make it to the Cancun airport on our flight. We've never had luggage problems, so this was kinda nerve-wracking for me. His suitcase contained both our cameras, so thats what we were mainly concerned about. After searching high and low for it, Rhett finally just filled out a baggage claim form & we went to catch our shuttle to the hotel. It took about an hour to get there. We were closer to Playa del Carmen, but not actually in the city.

The entrance to the resort was kinda "blah" due to a lot of construction (its a new resort), but the lobby was really nice. We got in line to check in and soon experienced one of the problems we'd read about on tripadvisor....sloooow check-in. After waiting our turn, we were told our rooms weren't ready. To compensate, they said they'd upgrade us from the Junior Suite (lowest end) to a Junior Suite Deluxe (only difference was slightly better location & a jacuzzi tub). While waiting, we went to hit up the buffet before meeting with our Fun Jet representative to talk about activities/excursions. We were not too impressed with the buffet spread (something else we'd read about). I won't go into much detail about the buffet here...it deserves its own paragaph...more to come. So after eating & talking to the Fun Jet guy, we went back to stand in line again..and they said that only our room was ready...not Jenn & Jarod's. So, we had our luggage (minus Rhett's) sent to our room & we walked down to check it out.

This resort was huge! Lots of walking! From the lobby to the beach was probably about a 15 minute walk...10 minutes if you're Rhett. The grounds were extremely nice with a lot of pool space. The rooms were also very nice. We all hung out in our room for a while...resting & waiting for J&J to get their room. We watched a random movie broadcast in English, but with Spanish subtitles. This allowed us all to brush up on our "Spanglish" before interacting with the locals. By this time, it was probably around 5pm or so. We were surprised to receive a call from the concierge that Rhett's luggage had been delivered from the airport! I was relieved that Rhett would have his clothes & our cameras were safe. J&J finally got into their room, and we all suited up to head to the pool. Like I said, it seemed like half the resort was a swimming pool...which was nice! We swam a little bit, then cleaned up & got ready for dinner. I will share some pics of the grounds & such before moving on to the buffet...

Now, more about the buffet. To sum it up in two words...it sucked. Or maybe I should say they sucked....there were like 5 of them total. They all served the same things every single day. Actually, the breakfast buffet was pretty good. I can't complain about breakfast, but the lunch & dinner buffets were "no bueno" as they say in Mexico. I guess I don't partake of buffets very often, so it was just weird for me. I like the various foods on my plate to compliment each other. I just don't understand the random selections of dishes they'd serve. I think my first meal consisted of cream cheese-stuffed peppers, chips & sucky queso, pizza, assorted rolls, watermelon, and ice cream. Over the course of our trip, I ate various combinations of the aforementioned selections, rice & beans, french fries, spaghetti, mystery meats, chips & guacamole, and unidentified deserts. Here is a picture of us on our first night there after dinner. We're not smiling because of dinner. We're smiling because of the yummy tropical coconut frozen drinks!

They did have various themed restaurants that were available for dinner. The crazy thing was that you had to make reservations for them only at specified times of the day, and you could only reserve 2 days in advance. The Saturday we got there, we were able to reserve the "grill" for Sunday night and "fondue" for Monday night. On Sunday morning, Rhett had to stand in line to reserve Tuesday night's "Italian" dinner. Then on Monday, Jarod reserved Wednesday night's "seafood" dinner. The dinner restaurants were much better than the buffets.

So anyway, moving on... Sunday was a lazy day at the pool & beach...it was great! We all read a lot & got in the pool off and on throughout the day. I read quite a bit of my book, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (on a side note, this is my favorite HP book so far & I'm upset that the movie release is delayed until next summer!) We tried lots of fruity drinks & ate soft-serve icecream from the poolside bar. It was a very relaxing day. After choking down a late lunch, we headed to the beach. Jarod played beach volleyball while the rest of us got in the ocean. The beach was a good bit more crowded than what Rhett and I are accustomed to from previous beach vacations, but still nice. It was a little rocky near the beach, but once you got past some rocks, it was fine. The water felt awesome. Jarod eventually joined us after dominating in beach volleyball. Here are some pics in the ocean...

Sunday night we ate at the "grill" restaurant. I had "baby chicken" (??) and it was decent. Rhett & Jenn both got the plate of various grilled meats & we spent most of dinner trying to decide which one was the rabbit meat, haha! Rhett cleaned his plate, but we still don't know if Jenn ate the rabbit or not!

Monday was another lazy day at the pool for me and Rhett. Jenn and Jarod took the ferry to Cozumel to do some shopping. We were close to going, but then decided not to because we didn't wake up early enough to catch an early ferry. For dinner, we had fondue and it was actually pretty good. This was an uneventful (but relaxing) day, so I don't have any pictures to share.

Tuesday was our busy day! We went to a water park of sorts called Xel-Ha (http://www.xelha.com/) then to Mayan ruins at Tulum. The Xel-Ha website describes it as an "open-sea aquarium." It was really cool! Because we also went to Tulum that day, we didn't get as much time as we really needed at Xel-Ha. We made the most of our time though and started out with some snorkeling. The water was absolutely FREEZING! I don't think I've ever been in water that cold. We swam around for 20-30 minutes and saw lots of fish. Then, we moved on to the lazy river. I liked the lazy river. Lazy is for me. We sat in two-person tubes and floated for a while. You could also get out of your tube and swim around if you wanted. I started baking, so I had to suck it up and get into freezing water. There was a cliff where you could dive off into the water, so Rhett did that. I don't do cliff diving, so I just watched! Jenn did some sort of rope thing where you walk across a rope while also holding onto a rope above your head. I was too lazy to do it, lol! This trip was "all-inclusive" so again, we found ourselves at another buffet for lunch. This was a buffet of Mexican food and was a good bit better than the hotel buffet. I think I was just really hungry. They did have some awesome ice cream, though! Here are some pics from Xel-Ha...

After eating lunch & changing clothes, we headed to the tour bus to go to some Mayan ruins at Tulum. Had I given 100% of my attention to the tour guide, I could tell you all about the city Tulum and it's ancient ruins. But I didn't, so you'll have to google it if you really want to know! I can tell you that it was hot. Luckily, we would periodically catch an ocean breeze as the site is located on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. Here are some pics from Tulum...

And here are pics of us before dinner that night...

Wednesday was our last day there, so we relaxed some more! We had more tropical coconuts and soft serve icecream, and I read more of my book. Not too much to write about, so here are a few pics...

Don't ask...

After sitting at the pool all day, Jenn and I forced the guys to dress for pictures on the beach. We felt a little goofy walking to the beach dressed all alike, but it had to be done in the name of cute beach pictures. They didn't turn out as good as we'd hoped, but here are a few of them. I think we waited a little too late and the lighting wasn't just right. I still think we look cute, though! :o)

And a cute one of our good friends, Jenn and Jarod...




Well, I think that about wraps up my detailed description of our vacation. I'm impressed if you've made it this far! We had a great and relaxing time in Playa! However, after traveling to Mexico and back, it was a unanimous decision to have dinner at Lupe Tortilla. I'm sorry, but you just can't beat good Tex-Mex food!