I'm Baaack
Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:48 am
Hi all, back from our daughter's wedding/vacation.
Had a great time, mostly. I reckon there's bound to be some little problems.
The trip into Cancun was uneventful. A tour group van picked a few of us up at the airport to take us to our hotels. So, there were about four stops to different hotels before getting to ours (Gran Porto Real in Playa del Carmen).
When we turned off the main road to head for the beach, it was like, uh oh, what did we get into.
The hotel was very nice, but lacked some things you'd expect to be in place for a 5 star resort. For example, a sister hotel across the street The Royal Playa Del Carmen), an adults only hotel, had daily newsletters for all the days activities. We had nothing, not even a dedicated tv channel, to list the activities.
I checked the pool out first thing, and there was a sign posted saying hours of operation were 7am to 9pm. The next morning I went out at 7 to swim laps, and asked the guy who was cleaning it if it was ok to swim now. Getting the ok, I dove in and after 15 minutes some manager comes around saying to pool was closed. Then he apparently removed the 7 from the sign.
Anyway, the wedding was great, even if the DJ did manage to keep my daughter's iPod with the dance music.
My wife and I took care of our grandson, Preston, for several days, which was fun. Took him swimming and got him to jump from the edge into my arms quite easily, for a 14 month old baby. My daughter had bought him a float that looked like a boat, which I soon found out tipped over very easily if he leaned to the side too far.
A pretty good storm rolled in Sunday night, leaving stinking sea weed on the beach. The hotel had a big crew out cleaning it, but the smell was overwhelming even when we left Wed. morning. The storm brought out the bugs too, so had to buy some Off.
The beach was quite disappointing near the hotel. Not much of one really. And where there was a better spot, many tour and fishing boats were tied to shore line. One had to walk further down to find a good spot, or go over behind the Royal. That alone puts me off from recommending the place.
We took a ferry over to Cozumel island on a Sunday. My wife collects Hard Rock pins, and wanted one from there, but due to the number of visitors, they had none in stock. We didn't try exploring the island, however.
Tuesday we visited Chitchen Itza, one of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan. One hot and humid trip. The great pyramid, "El Castillo", was impressive. A bit disappointing that they now have it roped off and you can't go inside.
Afterwards we cooled off in one of the cenotes (sink holes) which was underground with a number of stalactites, bats and even fish.
My tan doesn't fit the cold weather we returned to in D.C.
Images are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/11075169490 ... exicoTrip#
Had a great time, mostly. I reckon there's bound to be some little problems.
The trip into Cancun was uneventful. A tour group van picked a few of us up at the airport to take us to our hotels. So, there were about four stops to different hotels before getting to ours (Gran Porto Real in Playa del Carmen).
When we turned off the main road to head for the beach, it was like, uh oh, what did we get into.
The hotel was very nice, but lacked some things you'd expect to be in place for a 5 star resort. For example, a sister hotel across the street The Royal Playa Del Carmen), an adults only hotel, had daily newsletters for all the days activities. We had nothing, not even a dedicated tv channel, to list the activities.
I checked the pool out first thing, and there was a sign posted saying hours of operation were 7am to 9pm. The next morning I went out at 7 to swim laps, and asked the guy who was cleaning it if it was ok to swim now. Getting the ok, I dove in and after 15 minutes some manager comes around saying to pool was closed. Then he apparently removed the 7 from the sign.
Anyway, the wedding was great, even if the DJ did manage to keep my daughter's iPod with the dance music.
My wife and I took care of our grandson, Preston, for several days, which was fun. Took him swimming and got him to jump from the edge into my arms quite easily, for a 14 month old baby. My daughter had bought him a float that looked like a boat, which I soon found out tipped over very easily if he leaned to the side too far.
A pretty good storm rolled in Sunday night, leaving stinking sea weed on the beach. The hotel had a big crew out cleaning it, but the smell was overwhelming even when we left Wed. morning. The storm brought out the bugs too, so had to buy some Off.
The beach was quite disappointing near the hotel. Not much of one really. And where there was a better spot, many tour and fishing boats were tied to shore line. One had to walk further down to find a good spot, or go over behind the Royal. That alone puts me off from recommending the place.
We took a ferry over to Cozumel island on a Sunday. My wife collects Hard Rock pins, and wanted one from there, but due to the number of visitors, they had none in stock. We didn't try exploring the island, however.
Tuesday we visited Chitchen Itza, one of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan. One hot and humid trip. The great pyramid, "El Castillo", was impressive. A bit disappointing that they now have it roped off and you can't go inside.
Afterwards we cooled off in one of the cenotes (sink holes) which was underground with a number of stalactites, bats and even fish.
My tan doesn't fit the cold weather we returned to in D.C.
Images are posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/11075169490 ... exicoTrip#
