It was the long President's Day weekend (and Valentine's Day!), a perfect time to get away. Babe and I took Friday off to make it a 4-day weekend. We were headed down to Cancun; more specifically, the Riviera Maya region, which is a bit further south. I had always wanted to try out an all-inclusive resort. I've been on a lot of cruises but they truly aren't all-inclusive, ie. no booze (except the really fancy lines like Silversea). I'm not a big drinker, so I didn't expect to get my money's worth at an all-inclusive, but wanted to get the experience so that I would be more knowledgeable in describing all-inclusive trips to potential clients. :)
Getting to Cancun, I did the unthinkable...I flew American Airlines! I know! How could I be disloyal to United? United's fares to Cancun were over $100 more than AA and I couldn't justify the extra expense, plus I had a 10% off coupon for AA. I also didn't have any CR-1's (confirmed regional upgrades) in my account either, which are good for Mexico. So I betrayed United to save $200+, since I was going to sit in coach anyway.
I have no status on American, so I had to become a "gate louse"! (I explained this in my 2nd blog post, how people vulture around the gate before the boarding process begins) I wanted to make sure we had overhead bin space. Since this was just a long weekend, we only brought carry-ons to avoid paying baggage charges, not only because I wasn't an elite, but I also didn't want to waste time checking in nor waiting for luggage on this short getaway. I also lamented that I could not board early due to non-status...Babe laughed at me. What's worse was we were seated further up front on the airplane, which meant we board late with American's boarding priorities. :( I was getting anxious, a fish out of water. Finally our seating number was called and we board, hoping there will be space, as you know, people do this all the time, the ones that sit in the back put their bags up front so they don't have to lug it all the way back with them. They aren't even worried that someone will take their bag? (it's happened to people) Fortunately, people didn't have too many big carry-ons.
I sat in the middle seat of a 3-seat row as Babe prefers the window. He'd offer to sit in the middle, but it's better for me to lean against him in case I needed to get away from a possible person-of-size/stinky/sleepyhead-bobbing-on-me person in the aisle seat; it'd look funny if it was the other way around, a 6' 1" guy leaning into me, hehe. American's coach seat pitch and legroom wasn't too bad, wasn't far off from United's Economy Plus. Though I have been spoiled by sitting in first class and exit rows, I can occasionally "rough it" in the back. Fortunately, I had no problems with the person in the aisle seat.
Our flight was not direct; we had to go through Miami. I was lucky to have chosen to fly through Miami, not only for the extra miles (Babe complained why we had to fly all the way east and then southwest), but we also avoided the snowstorm that was going on in Dallas (I didn't know it could snow there!) that delayed and/or grounded a lot of flights. Our vacation could've been ruined. Normally I'd pick the most direct route, but the mileage-accumulating side of me saved the day.
Miami airport is bigger than it seems. We had to walk quite a ways to get to our next plane. It felt like we walked for miles. We had enough time to grab a baguette sandwich for lunch before we had to board again. Repeat the gate louse activity. Bin space secured. Sit in middle seat again. Cancun here we come.
I've been to Cancun before, but not to the Riviera Maya. If you're headed to the hotel zone in Cancun, you can pick up a cheap transfer when you arrive at the airport, but it's a longer drive to the hotels in Riviera Maya. I decided to shop around on the internet to find a private car since I didn't want to wait who knows how long before they fill up a shuttle, and didn't want to stop by multiple hotels for drop off, not on Valentine's Day weekend. Of all the websites I scrutinized, along with reading reviews off various boards, I settled on Cancun Transfers. It was very easy to book, prices were reasonable, and I paid with PayPal. You can pay cash when you arrive if you're not thrilled with pre-paying someone in Mexico. They have someone waiting for you when you exit the airport. Note, walk straight out of the airport and don't let people trick you into attending a timeshare presentation. They're hanging out right before the exit doors of the airport, sidling up to you, asking if you want to partake in some free activities or if you need a transfer, and so forth. Just keep walking until you exit. Then look for a guy holding up a sign with your name on it. Our guy received us and called a driver to come pick us up. After a few minutes, he led us to the car - it was a Cadillac Escalade, very cool! Francisco was our driver and we made our way to the hotel within 30 minutes, driving fast, yet still safe. I liked his urgency, as I was excited to get to the hotel. As Francisco was nearing a slower car in the left lane, he'd flash his headlights to warn them he was coming up, and they'd move over. It wasn't aggressive, more like "hey, I'm catching up". Eventually we make it to the hotel area, and he had to drive through two guarded gates where he was questioned about where we were going. The road started getting bumpier as we were approaching private property. The final road to the hotel was well-paved, one-lane, with small turnouts for exiting cars. We get to the hotel, and Babe tipped Francisco $10 and he was wide-eyed and thankful. Babe was happy with the swift transportation too. ;) The bellhops immediately take our carry-ons and give us a tag. They did ask "That's all?", referring to our lack of luggage. I guess they are used to people carrying the kitchen sink with them.
Now which hotel did we go to? Inquiring minds want to know. We were staying at Secrets Maroma Beach. It's exactly like the pictures. Walking into the beautiful lobby, we were directed to two seats in front of a desk (literally a "front desk"!), where the hostess met us, offered us refreshments which we declined, gave us our room information, and took our credit card info. She warned that the charge was in pesos, and not to get a heart attack to see so many zeroes, haha. They also charged USD$350 or so for "incidentals", which she claimed would be removed from the card after the final check-out. I had read in a review that they didn't take off the charge once, but I was hoping it would all work out.
Disclaimer: I didn't take a ton of pictures while on this vacation because it literally looks like the website, and all we did was hang out in the room, eat, or go to the beach. The website didn't have a picture of the toilet paper, so I included one, haha.
We were starving, so we hit the Japanese restaurant as it was the closest to the room. I was hoping to get a seat at the teppanyaki table, but you have to make reservations ahead of time. The people at the teppanyaki table were just having a ball; they must not have a "Benihana" where they live. They were totally entertained by the chef's performance. I just wanted the food. :( We ended up ordering off the regular menu, which was Asian-inspired. The food was okay, nothing special to blog about. Too bad I hadn't chosen the other restaurants instead, as I found out later in the weekend. After dinner, it was time to retire to the room. Today's entry ends here. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment