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A Vacation Well Worth It
Published on 06/05/07
by John Phillips
In no way am I glad to be back in Michigan after being in Cancun for a full week. I thoroughly enjoyed being bummy near the pool and not having to work. But that’s what vacations are for, and now it’s time to get back to reality. But damn was it a good time, and was exactly what I needed. I hit my quota for taking at least 200 pictures, and most of them ended up really good, so I’ll link to them throughout this post. But here’s the recap of the trip…
The Arrival
Excitement couldn’t have been much more than what we had to finally have a chance to go on a long vacation. Luckily we weren’t in the airport for too long before boarding the flight. There were only like 50 (max) on the flight, so we got our own rows to ourselves, which was very nice and comfortable. I just slept a little bit and listened to my tunes to get me in the zone.
The minute we landed, we could feel the steaming tropical humidity, which was like a breath of fresh air, and I was dying to change out of my jeans. It was also nice having a frosty juice on the way to the hotel.
The Resort
The place that we were scheduled to stay is where we obviously went first. While we were working on checking in, the lady insisted that we go to their other resort because of some promotion, and that we would like it better. I found it a little odd that she was trying to push it upon us, but we decided to follow suit. The outcome, was plently worth it.
It was a ton bigger than the first place, there seemed to be more people our age, and it was just all around gorgeous. We had a decent room, with a king size bed and a balcony over looking a good chunk of the resort. Only thing that I didn’t like about the rooms were that it was a cold ass marble floor, which is not fun to walk on barefoot. But who wants to wear socks when it’s 90 degrees out.
The pool at the resort was huge. We spent a whole lot of time there throughout the week. There were about three different swim up bars which came in handy quite a bit, especially since the juices were apart of the all-inclusive deal. It was well worth the money.
The resort was also right on the beach, so right when you get out of the pool, you were a few feet away from the stairs that lead to the beach. We didn’t spend a ton of time on the beach, but we got our ocean swimming on, which was fun, but the waves were like 7-8 feet high, so it beat up on you a little bit.
The Food
I’d be lying if I said we didn’t eat good. In the resort we had a few of the restuarants that were included in the al-inclusive. One of which was this Brazillian place where every few minutes they bring out different kinds of meat (turkey, lamb, steak, chicken, etc.) to sample. The first time we went, I got a little rowdy with the eating and stuffed myself silly. I literally could not eat another fork full of anything. The second time we went there, we were a little more stragetic with the eating, so we weren’t in a coma when we were done eating.
We went to this seafood place called the Crab House that was some of the best seafood I’ve ever had. I ordered this ceasar salad, and the guy actually made the dressing from scratch right at the table. It tasted amazing. I want more! The best part apart about eating at this place was being able to see the sunset right from our table.
Of course, being in Mexico, you have to get some authentic grub. So after one of our snorkeling trips, we got to eat that this little food spot at the resort and the food there was damn near perfect. I already love Mexican food, so when it’s authentic like that, you just can’t go wrong.
The only food that wasn’t good was one of the buffets in our resort. The breakfast they had was fairly decent, but the dinner was awful at best. I guess everything can’t be great in an all-inclusive package.
The Nightlife
Cancun has it’s reputation for a reason. Some places you hear a lot of hype, and it’s disappointing when places don’t live up to the hype. Cancun lived up to it. Granted, we weren’t on any kind of spring break trip, but we went to a few places that were really fun.
Coco Bongos was definitely the best place that we went to while we were there. It was this huge ass club, that had music, as well as these music performances. There tons of people there too, easily over a thousand people. That was probably the funnest night we had.
Senor Frogs was pretty fun, though there were surely a lot of older people there. Not early 30s old, we’re talking late 40s and 50s old. Don’t know what the deal was with that, but none the less, good times. I wonder how they house the people there for spring break because it’s a whole lot smaller than I thought it was.
Margaritaville wasn’t too bad. Again, lots of older people there, but they had a decent band and whatnot. We weren’t there for too long, but I like it. They had this ceiling of one dollar bills that people signed to get put up there. I really wanted to put one up there, but didn’t have any singles.
Carlos & Charlies was pretty hot. We went there on our last night. They played very good music, and the waiters were cool as hell. Me and Jeff split this table tab where it’s like 3 liters of beer that sat in the middle of the table. It was pretty convenient not to have to order a beer every few minutes.
There were a ton of more places we could have gone too. The downtown area was packed with a bunch of clubs and bars that were open very late. So I’m quite sure that Cancun keeps it’s elite name through those clubs.
Snorkeling
Since Lola was sick one of the days, me and Kell went on this snorkeling trip. I have to say that this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. The minute you hopped into the water, there were just schools of fish right in your face. You would think they would get scared and swim away, but it was a trip seeing these fish just swim in your face. I bought this $20 underwater camera so I was able to get some cool shots underwater.
Wet & Wild Waterpark
There are only so many things you can do these days to feel like a kid again, and being at a waterpark was definitely one of them. The water slides were pretty damn fun to go down, and I haven’t done that in years. Definitely good times.
This is where we swam with dolphins too. Unforunately I couldn’t really take pictures there since we were in the water the whole time and doing stuff. But the dolphins were cool as hell. I think I was more amazed at how smart these things were more than actually swimming with them. I have no clue on earth how you can possibly train a big ass fish to do tricks and interact with people. I guess that’s not for me to know, but it was sweet, and wel worth a trip to the water park.
To Sum Up
Great vacation. Cancun is awesome, and I’d definitely go back some time. We all had a great time, didn’t run into any issues or shady ass locals trying to hustle us. I’m really glad that I took the amount of pictures that I did. That was one thing I was really looking forward to, and I had my camera on me at all times.
I would highly recommend anyone to go there, and definitely stay at the resort we stayed in. You can’t go wrong with all inclusive, and nothing beats not paying more for food and juices. It was truely paradise, and I’m glad the trip didn’t fly bye. So in case the bunch of links in this blog post weren’t enough, here is the whole set. And now it’s back to the real world….
Peace