This trip was a first for us of it's kind for us. The theme was relaxation. Normally on trips we do a little of relaxation and a lot of activities. That's just who we are. But we thought with the stress of life lately we'd just try for the most part doing nothing! Bringing Rachel was a good excuse too. An all inclusive resort is the perfect place to do this. It felt AMAZING! Like, wow, it was so rejuvenating! We took one day to go to Xcaret the whole day but the rest of the time was relaxing. Nice for a change.
The weather was pretty good. We had a few days where it was pretty overcast and windy, but the rest were sunny an in the high 70s low 80s. The first day we got a little sunburned but that's it.
The ocean was a bit rough some of the days but there were enough days when we could snorkel, and bodysurf that it was fine! The snorkeling wasn't good. We saw some fish but nothing out of the ordinary. The best part of snorkeling was finding a variety of sized conches! Darrin found some as big as my head!
We stayed at two different resorts during our time in Cancun. The reason for this was because we went with my brother and sister in law who had a free stay at Iberostar. Even though it was very pricey we decided to stay here while they were here so that we could spend time with them. When they left we switched to a cheaper hotel for the last three days. This was kind of fun to try to resorts out to compare.
The entertainment was sub par. Iberostar start had one good show which was the magic show (excellent!) And the Royal Solaris did have two out of three good shows the good ones being their Mexican heritage one and they're Disney/superhero one. Their daily activities were confusing as to when and where they were and when we did know they weren't great activities.
Tuesday 5: woke up at 4:45am to get ready since Jason and Patti picked us up at 5:15am. Flight left at 8:10am. Rachel has been great. She slept in the shuttle to the airport until we had to wake her up to take her out of her carseat to go through security. Then she was awake until the flight took off. I fed her and shortly after she fell asleep in my arms. All three of us got to sleep! It was only an hour flight. We had a short 45 minute layover in Denver and then our flight to Cancun was about 4 hours. Rachel ate, then slept for about 2 and a half hours, played for a bit, and then slept some more and chilled some more until we landed. We'd set up a ride to our resort through Lomas. It was a 35 minute drive to Iberostar resort. Fresh fruit basket delivered to our door, rose and chocolates on our bed, Live music at our dinner table, moonlit walk on the beach... You could say we're enjoying ourselves 😊. Our room is really spacious, two showers, two sinks, king bed etc. The resort is great-very luxurious. The food we had tonight was at the buffet and it was decent. Loved the coconut ice cream and dark chocolate corn flakes. After our moonlit walk on the beach we came to our room, had room service and went to bed.
Wednesday: today was amazing! We slept in until 9 when we were awakened by two spam phone calls. We lazily made our way to the breakfast buffet, went out to the ocean, played in the ocean for a while and found a bunch of conch shells, swam in the pools, ate some snacks, got in the jacuzzi which was warm but not hot, and then headed to our room to get showered, take a nap and get ready for dinner. We had dinner reservations at the Japanese restaurant where they cook the food right in front of you. It was DELICIOUS!! Then we walked around the property a bit, went to their show frozen, and then after that was a magic show. Their magician was Sebastian and he was SO good! What a great, QUICK magician and very entertaining. He also called me up to the stage to help for a bit. He had me tear some newspaper and do a few things and then all of the sudden a dove appeared into my hand full of newspaper!! No idea how he did it! So fun!
Thursday: had to wake up early at 6:15 to way breakfast and get on the bus to go to Xcaret. It was about an hour bus drive on which we slept for the most part. Xcaret was a fun day! We went on beautiful a boat ride through a river, got to see lots of animals like birds (even ones that JUST hatched!), jaguars, lots of turtles including Tiny tiny baby ones, and much more. We also got to go to the beach where Darrin and Jason did some snorkeling, and one of the big highlights of the day was the river/cave swim. They warned us that it was terribly cold and that Rachel could get hypothermia. We decided to try it out and they'd have exits along the way if it were too cold. It was a bit hard to get in but not bad! Swimming pool temperature. It was so much fun and Rachel did great! No crying at all. It was a beautiful swim and the fins they provided us made it easy to swim it. The lunch buffet that was included was not good. Little too choose from and pretty gross. To end the night they had a phenomenal 2 hour performance about the culture of Mexico. They were like an army of performers-perfectly together and incredible voices. Then we went to the bus for another long drive back.
Friday: had a day like Wednesday. Swimming, sleeping, eating, and lounging. Which is so perfect! Ate at the steak House for dinner and it was super good! Then we tried to go to the couple's show but it was to inappropriate do we left and came back to our room.
Saturday:
Today was windy and pretty cold. Went to breakfast, hung out inside the lobby area for a bit and then decided to try to go check out the El Ray ancient Myan ruins. It was a 20 minute walk. It was $3/person to get in. Lots of ruins-a few with plaques explaining a bit but mostly just the ruins to look at. Quite a few iguanas there. Then we checked out dolphin beach for a minute but it was pretty much the same as our hotel so we walked back to the hotel. We got lunch and then Darrin went snorkeling for a bit while Rachel and I got blasted by sand from all the wind 😁. Then we went back to the room to binge watch breaking bad. Then off to dinner at the Japanese restaurant again which was wonderful! So good! Then we went to the boogie nights 70s show. We only stayed for about half hour-it was pretty boring and they gave me alcohol when I asked for a virgin drink! I only had one gulp before I knew but my throat burned for about an hour! Then we finished out breaking bad.
Today was windy and pretty cold. Went to breakfast, hung out inside the lobby area for a bit and then decided to try to go check out the El Ray ancient Myan ruins. It was a 20 minute walk. It was $3/person to get in. Lots of ruins-a few with plaques explaining a bit but mostly just the ruins to look at. Quite a few iguanas there. Then we checked out dolphin beach for a minute but it was pretty much the same as our hotel so we walked back to the hotel. We got lunch and then Darrin went snorkeling for a bit while Rachel and I got blasted by sand from all the wind 😁. Then we went back to the room to binge watch breaking bad. Then off to dinner at the Japanese restaurant again which was wonderful! So good! Then we went to the boogie nights 70s show. We only stayed for about half hour-it was pretty boring and they gave me alcohol when I asked for a virgin drink! I only had one gulp before I knew but my throat burned for about an hour! Then we finished out breaking bad.
Sunday: breakfast, Darrin swam in the ocean, then he played beach volleyball with some people, we went to lunch with Jason and Patti, Darrin and I went hot tubbing, and then we took a nap before dinner. Dinner tonight was at the Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good! Our favorite was the Japanese restaurant and then the steak House though. After dinner we played category 5, a card game, with Jason and Patti for a couple hours before the show. The show was a Las Vegas style show and it was a variety of acts. Our second favorite show below the magic show although it didn't even come close to the magic show. Their entertainment was pretty bad. But tonight was at least entertaining. Then went to the room and watched a Christmas movie.
Monday: got breakfast, packed up and headed to our next resort for the next three days. We stayed at Iberostar because that's where Jason and Patti were staying but some they left today and we have a few days left we downgraded to a cheaper resort to save some money. It's about half the cost per night here at the Royal Solaris down the street. When we got here they didn't have our room ready yet (we were there hours early before check in) so we explored the resort for an hour before our room was ready. They upgraded our room to an ocean view for free since that's all they have left. While we waited we walked around to see the theatre, the pools etc. Seems much much smaller than the last resort and more run down but most of the same amenities. When we got to our room they had a crib waiting for us and pushed together two double beds. The view is spectacular. We got our suits on and headed to grab some food for lunch. Right by the pool they had a sushi bar where someone served you sushi. Darrin said it's some of the best sushi he's ever had! They also have a pizza bar where you choose what kind of pizza and they cook it in their fire oven right there by the pool. I got Hawaiian pizza and it was delicious! It was pretty cold, overcast and light raining. But then the sun came out and we all got on the ocean. Rachel's first time all the way in the ocean! Soon after we got in we found A pink seashell. Perfect for Rachel's first time. Then soon after we were in (she was in her floatie) she feel asleep to the waves 😂. We went hot tubbing and net a family from Mexico that didn't speak much English but they had a 5 month old baby too so we tried our best to communicate and had a great conversation. The babies were only 7 days apart. We have their little girl Rachel's bracelet because it matched her swim suit. Way to light the world Rach 😊. Then we came to the room to get ready for dinner. Dinner was decent. My steak was almost rare when I asked for medium well. Couldn't eat it. But other than that good! Then we went to the first show. The first show was on the beach. It was really cool that they did it on the beach but it was just some dancing with no narration so pretty boring so we left early to get a good seat for the next show. The second show in the theatre was actually really good! It was kind of a mini version of the Xcaret show off different Mexican traditions. They had a guy who did amazing lasso tricks. Then we went to the buffet to check out the desserts since we didn't like our dessert at dinner. They didn't really have any good options at the buffet either.
The water here though is AWFUL!! Like our shower smells, and the water they serve you at the restaurant and buffet tastes like pure dust mixed with dirty socks. For reals. So we're just trying to bring bottles with us. Other than that, it's been a great experience.
The water here though is AWFUL!! Like our shower smells, and the water they serve you at the restaurant and buffet tastes like pure dust mixed with dirty socks. For reals. So we're just trying to bring bottles with us. Other than that, it's been a great experience.
Tuesday: breakfast was good!, Then we crossed the street to check out the kayaks and paddle boats that are included in our resort on the lagoon side. The guy said we couldn't bring Rachel and it was pretty choppy so he didn't recommend going right then. We noticed signs that said no swimming. We asked why and he told us there are alligators! Sheesh-scary! Don't really want to kayak in that water anyways if there's Gators 😁. We went in the hot tub,
grabbed some lunch, satin swam in the ocean for a long time while Rachel and I napped a bit on the beach. Then we joined him and swam for a while in the ocean. Then we jumped in the hot tub where there were a bunch of drunk people talking about how cute the baby was. Just as I was getting out one of them asked to hold Rachel. Are you kidding me?! Good thing we had the excuse that we were getting out right then. We came back to the room to shower and went to dinner. Darrin got sent away with flip flops and had to change into tennis shoes 😁. Dinner was decent. Then we came back to our room to finish watching the movie we fell asleep in last night. Then went to the show which was Disney/super heros tonight. 
Wednesday: beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky and little wind. breakfast, beach for a long time, we all went snorkeling, Darrin found lots of huge conches, sushi and pizza for lunch, swimming in the pool for a while, got a drink at the swim up bar, played bingo where I thought I got blackout but was actually missing one number and got made fun of 😂, hot tub, showered and ready for dinner. We tried dinner at the outdoor Mexican restaurant today rather than the Marco Polo. It was really good and nice for a change. Then we went to the show which was a Latino dance show. We left after a few numbers-they were practically naked costumes! We went back to the room.
Thursday: woke up and packed up, breakfast, layed in the shade by the pool and did some Christmas shopping, ate a quick lunch and had our last virgin drinks, and then Lomas transportation picked us up and took us to the airport. Once we got settled at the airport we had a boring 3 hours to kill. Plane took off to Denver.
Our flight got in around 12:30am, we grabbed a Lyft home and picked up the kids in the afternoon after we got some shut eye. So great to see the kids and be immersed into Christmas activities. Although having only 10 days before Christmas was INTENSE to get everything ready :)
