Royal Caribbean Trip Report 8/10 - 8/18

[LadyLegs]

First let me start by saying that I love reading trip reports but I do not have the patience to write them so here is my attempt...

Day 1

Woke up at 3am (30 minutes late) ran around franticly trying to get all last minute things packed before dashing out the door at 3:50am headed for (SFO). Got to the long term parking garage parked car, took shuttle to our terminal and stood in line to check our bags. After about 15 minutes of waiting in line we find out that our connecting flight in Dallas to Cancun had been CANCELLED!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: The family in front of us in line was also going to Cancun and they said they received a phone call from American Airlines informing them of the cancellation so they were able to rebook. We unfortunately weren’t given that opportunity. So when we finally got to the ticket counter it took two agents on two different computers to finally find us a flight out of Texas that day that would get us to Cancun. We made our 6:20am flight to Dallas then flew to Houston where we hung out for a while. While there we ate at Pappadeaux Seafood kitchen upstairs in the terminal and I was impressed…best airport food I’ve ever had. We left Houston around 6:30pm and arrived in Cancun about 5+ hours later than we were supposed to. Our USA Transfers Driver was their waiting on us and we were on our way….

We arrived at the Radisson Hacienda at about 9 pm, checked in and went to their little hotel restaurant which left much to be desired…I had a chef salad and Ronnie had a farm salad. Ron liked his salad but as for me, hated it!! We kept thanking God that we were only staying there for one night. We were pretty exhausted from the long day of travel so after dinner we decided to turn in.

Day 2

Woke up refreshed around 9 am and reluctantly went down to the breakfast buffet and of course not to our surprise there was nothing on the buffet that looked appetizing so we decided to order from the menu I had pancakes, bacon and eggs and Ronnie had a waffle with chocolate and ice cream on top…now that was actually good. Surprise!!! After breakfast we killed time at Market 28 until it was time to go to the Royal Caribbean. Came back to the Radisson around Noon and hung out in the lobby bar area to cool down a little bit. How do you determine if a hotel in Cancun sucks? When you order a strawberry margarita at the lobby bar and the bartender tells you “let me see if I can find the blender” :shock: :shock: :shock: It that point I knew it was time for us to go…

We arrived at the Royal Caribbean around 2pm.

view from our room



We checked in, checked out our villa, changed and headed down to Tradewinds, the restaurant by the pool.



I had lasagna and Ronnie had a double cheeseburger and about 3 margaritas a piece. Yum!! We did our grocery shopping for the week and then we chilled by the pool for most of the day. We decided that we didn’t want to do anything too stressful for dinner so we went to Bubba Gumps. I had shrimp tacos and Ronnie had a shrimp platter they were both tasty.

Ron and I at Bubba Gumps


We decided to go hang out next door at Pat O’Brien’s after dinner. We partied their for a while and participated in the “longest conga line in history”

me and conga line leader


Then walked down to Margaritaville before falling into a cab around 1:30 and then light’s out….:wink:


Day 3

Woke up around 10:30 cooked breakfast and ate on the balcony. Our friends Phil and Traci were scheduled to fly in today so we lounged by the pool drinking Margaritas all day waiting on them to arrive. They were scheduled to land at 11:45 but they didn’t get in until about 3 pm because their flight from New York on Jet Blue was cancelled. Once they got settled we hung out on the terrace drinking and catching up. They were also celebrating their wedding anniversary. Ours was on 8/2 and theirs was on 8/3. Dinner was at the Captains Cove which was excellent.

intoxicated at dinner


Ronnie and I dinned alone since Phil and Traci were tired from a stressful day of traveling. I had crab stuffed shrimp and Ronnie had baby back ribs and shrimp with plenty of libations to boot. After dinner we decided to go hang out at Senor Frogs and we had a blast!!! In about 2:30 am and….…..lights out :wink:


Day 4

Up around 9 am went to the breakfast buffet at Tradewinds. Caught the bus to the Kukulkan Plaza mall. Then walked next door to the Royal Sands Spa and got relaxing massages and then spent the rest of the day back at the RC by the pool working on my tan. :lol: After dinner we decided to go out with the Royal Resorts party bus. This particular night the bus was going to Daddy Rock and Daddy’o. We had a good time getting drunk and parting with the youngsters!! :lol: We have a bottle of Tequila with our picture on it to prove it!!





I have no idea what time we got back to our room the last thing I remember is the silver man upstairs saying “SEX, DRUGS AND HOUSE” …………………………..next thing I know it’s day 5.

Day 5
Woke up around 11’ish, cooked breakfast and then headed down to the beach. The red flag was up so we played around for a little while and then came back up to the pool to hang out. We ate lunch at the taco party around the pool then cleaned up and caught the bus to La Isla Mall.





Didn’t buy too much as I refuse to pay tourist prices. However we did bump into a few timeshare sharks and decided to use them in order to get some freebies. We ended up with some $, free Caribbean Carnival tix, a couple of bottles of tequila and a one day pass at the Vida Real Spa in Playa Del Carmen. Not bad!! After leaving the mall we headed back to our place and caught the tail end of happy hour. Cleaned up and went to dinner at El Shrimp Bucket and then partied at Carlos and Charlie’s until about 2.

Day 6
Woke up at 11 went to breakfast at the Royal Islander. It rained all day today but that didn’t stop us. Had lunch at Paco’s Tacos in the Royal Mayan and then went out to Walmart, the Mexican Outlet and La Fiesta shopping for souvenirs. Across the street from La Fiesta we noticed a Mexican restaurant named Margaritas y Marijuana and thought it was interesting so we decided to eat dinner there. Come to find out it was a new restaurant and they weren’t officially open but they were celebrating their pre-opening. I ordered their signature drink the marijuana which consisted of rum, pineapple juice and something else I can’t remember (I guess I had too many) served inside a whole pineapple. It was good. I took lots of pictures there but they didn’t come out to good because my flash was off but here it is one anyway.



The food was good. I had chicken fajitas, Ron had chicken enchiladas, Phil and Traci and vegetarians so I have no idea what they were eating. :lol: :lol: I definitely recommend this restaurant. We were supposed to go out but we were all tired from a long day fighting the rain. Plus Ronnie felt like he was catching a cold. So I had to go play nurse. :wink:

Day 7
We had breakfast at our timeshare tour. blah blah blah. The weather cleared up today so after our boring morning we had a very lazy day by the pool getting drunk. We did the Caribbean Carnival Booze Cruise in the evening. It was nice. The food was good but I guess if you’ve done one party cruise you’ve done them all. None of my booze cruise pix came out because my flash wasn't on :evil: :evil: :evil: After the Cruise we came back to the room picked up our friends and headed down to Coco Bongo for the evening/morning. It was a very good show.

Day 8
The day before departure is always sad. Our friends headed home today so Ronnie and I went to Playa Del Carmen to the Vida Real Spa and pampered ourselves in their spa and got another massage. When we returned we went out and did out last minute souvenir shopping and site seeing. Our final dinner was at Lorrito Joes and it was delicious. We did the Joe’s Special where they just keep bringing out food until you say “no mas” I was full by the second round after my lobster tail and grilled shrimp. Ron did about 4 rounds and ended with the Steak. We Didn’t really feel like parting too much tonight so we just went to the lobby bar at RC, listened to karaoke and had some drinks and headed back to the room to pack.

Day 9
We checked out the day before se we wouldn’t be caught up in the check out rush. Up at 8 and our transfer was there at 10 to take us to the airport for our 12:40 flight home. When we got to the airport the line was soooooo long I just knew we were going to miss our flight!!! But we made it through. The confusion didn’t start until we got to our gate. Our boarding pass said our flight was leaving from C11 so that’s where we were headed until we looked up at the computer and it said our flight was leaving from C19. Okay off to C19 we go. Once we get to C19 they are boarding a flight to Denver on a different airline. :evil: so we asked around and no one could tell us where our flight was leaving. So they told us to just stand to the side. You had to be there to see all 300 of us “standing to the side” in that crowed airport. So while we’re standing to the side we hear that our flight is in fact leaving from C19 but we just have to wait until they finish boarding the Denver flight. By this time it is about 20 minutes before our flight is “scheduled” to leave. So at 12:30 they tell us that our flight will be leaving from gate C18 luckily it was just one gate over but still boarding passengers to Phoenix.
We finally we made it to Charlotte with about 10 minutes to go through customs, re-check our luggage, go through security and find our gate. :angry: the flight from Charlotte to SFO was uneventful but long. We finally made it home at 9:00pm

In summary, we had a great time in Cancun and will most likely be going back some time next year!!

[Michael F.]

Great report, Natasha! thanks also especially for the pics!

Would you go back to that particular resort again?

[LadyLegs]

Originally Posted by Michael F.

Great report, Natasha! thanks also especially for the pics!

Would you go back to that particular resort again?

ABSOLUTELY!!!!

[Klaw]

Love the report, Natasha. Definitely worth waiting for. :wink:

Great pics too.

I'm curious too...would you back to the same place?

[janie]

:clap: :clap: BRAVO! BRAVO! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Great report and LOVE the pix!

Since Michael asked and then Karan asked, it's my turn to ask ...

would you go back to the same resort??? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[LadyLegs]

Thanks you guys! I would definitely stay there again!!!

[dmac]

:lotsofmichaelf: :bigband: Luv the T R and the pix.

[osiferrick]

natasha....looks like you guys had a blast....do you think the flash was always off due to having to many margaritas???? ;-)~ great trip report.....excellent job...loved the pics..

[stones902]

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to share it!

Going to the Royal Islander (1st time) next month. I assume most of the Royal resorts are pretty similar? Did you find one nicer than another? Any special recommendations on the properties?

Thanks again!!!!

[Tbonita]

Wonderful pics Lady Legs !

I love the pic of Ronnie in the poncho and sombrero.

[LadyLegs]

Rick: Good observation!!! That very well may have been the case!!! :lol: :lol:

Tammy: That's one of my favorites too!

Stones902: The Royal Mayan, The Royal Islander and the Royal Caribbean are very similar. The Royal Caribbean has the biggest swimming pool. The Royal Sands which is the newest property, has the spa which is great. The Sands is probably the best. However, they are all 5 star properties in my opinion. As far as restautants, I recommend Paco's Taco's at the Royal Islander and Captain's Cove which is across the street from the Royal Caribbean but still apart of the Royals and the Royal Islander has the best breakfast buffet. I loved the fact that you don't need cash at any of the Royal Resorts all you need is your room card key to make purchases. They also have a free shuttle that takes you to all 5 of the Royal Resorts throughout the day.

Let me know if you any other specific questions that I can answer.

[stones902]

Ladylegs,

Thanks again for your response. I do have a specific question for you. As I mentioned before, we are at the Royal Islander. Do you know if they have a health club / fitness center? If they don't, I understand at least one of the Royal properties has one that we can use.

Can you tell me if they have several pieces of equipment or only a couple of treadmills? Also, if there is only one shared fitness center where is it located and how long does it take (by shuttle or otherwise) to get there?

Finally, is there a small store nearby that we can walk to and get some liquor and mixers? (Weird, I know but we like to get our workouts in early and relax the rest of the day).

Thanks again!!!

[tele65]

I think there is a fairly well equiped fitness center at one of the Tri-Royals. You can go to their website and ask for sure, either of the online help or do an email. The information itself might be found there without contacting them.

www.royalresorts.com

By the way. . .GREAT trip report. thanks for sharing it.

[LadyLegs]

Originally Posted by stones902

Ladylegs,

Thanks again for your response. I do have a specific question for you. As I mentioned before, we are at the Royal Islander. Do you know if they have a health club / fitness center? If they don't, I understand at least one of the Royal properties has one that we can use.

Can you tell me if they have several pieces of equipment or only a couple of treadmills? Also, if there is only one shared fitness center where is it located and how long does it take (by shuttle or otherwise) to get there?

Finally, is there a small store nearby that we can walk to and get some liquor and mixers? (Weird, I know but we like to get our workouts in early and relax the rest of the day).

Thanks again!!!

I don't know if the Royal Islander has a fitness center but I do know that the Royal Caribbean has a very nice fully equipped fitness center that you can use. The Royal sands has a much larger fitness center as well that you can take the shuttle to. all the Royals have a convenient Market on site where you can pick up liquor and mixers. I found the prices to be not that much more than the stores in the Hotel Zone.

Have fun!

[janie]

Natasha, I forgot to ask before ...

what kind of camera did you use?

That first picture of the resort looks like a postcard, it's beautiful!

[tele65]

Janie. . .I think I owe three trip reports. . .LOL. . no. .just two. . .last October and this past March. doh!!

we're going back on October 13th and I PROMISE I'll do one when I return this time

http://community.webshots.com/user/tele65

[janie]

tele, I'll be waiting .....


:lol: :lol:

[svtcobra242]

Very Nice TR Lady!
I just got back Yesterday
I will be making my report soon. since I was there one day after Dean hit Chetumal.

[LadyLegs]

Originally Posted by svtcobra242

Very Nice TR Lady!
I just got back Yesterday
I will be making my report soon. since I was there one day after Dean hit Chetumal.

Thanks svtcobra242!! I can't wait to hear all about YOUR trip. Don't forget about the pix.

[Rich and Linda]

Sweet report LL! You can't beat the Royals, IMHO ! Can't wait for our February trip!