Trish's Trip Report Jan 10 - 25

[Trish]

Now I’ve finally got over the time difference again, I figured I’d write my trip report. May be a bit long by the time I get through so apologies for that! This was our first stay at Temptation and in Cancun. We stayed for 2 weeks. I went with a bunch of people, but this review focusses mainly on me and my husband’s experience.

First off I have to mention that meeting and talking to people from cancuncare really made our stay! There wasn’t one day of our trip we felt left out, as we were meeting new people to chat to all the time. I would have no qualms going back to Temptation with just my husband, because cancuncare roll call means you’re never alone. I won’t mention names here because I don’t want to offend anyone I accidentally leave out, but we met so many great couples – you know who you are!

With a 4:30am start, 11 hour flight, and the 6 hour time difference to contend with, we were pretty wiped when we arrived in Cancun. After a massive wait to get through security, we were accosted by touts trying to sell souvenirs, tours, carry our bags, taxis etc. It’s really overwhelming and you just have to keep your head down and say “no gracias” until they get the message.

Checked in around 4pm. Asked for a ground floor room, and all they had was one right next to Paty O’s. They warned us it could be loud, but decided to take it anyway because of the convenience. Other people in our party asked for rooms near the quiet pool. They were allocated rooms next to the main road, which one group complained about and changed rooms immediately. The other couple complained a few days later. They were both then allocated rooms on the 3rd floor overlooking quiet pool.

Our room had both good and bad points. First off, it was damp when we first moved in. I think this is because being right next to Paty O’s it doesn’t get used often. After leaving the air conditioning on full blast for a day the damp had gone. Also, it was very noisy. Mostly I could handle this, but when a band was playing the noise level was beyond reasonable. Even with ear plugs in I couldn’t sleep through it. For a 5-7 night stay this might have been ok, but we were in there for 2 weeks. I’m sure if I’d asked they would have moved us, but the room was so conveniently located I couldn’t give that up. Our room was less than 2 mins walk away from everything! If we forgot something going to the pool, it was literally 2 mins to go back and get it, and whilst in Paty O’s we could use our own bathroom instead of the communal restrooms.

We had a room that had 1 bed in it, and it was massive! I could stretch my arms out to full length and still not be near enough to touch Russ. It was too hard for my liking. I’m not fussy, and we have quite a firm mattress at home, but after about 7-10 days I started developing bruises from where the mattress was compressing on me. If we hadn’t had such a long stay maybe this wouldn’t have been a problem. The bedding was also rough and scratchy. The pillows were fine though and not too hard.

There was a minor drainage issue in our bathroom too. I did a bit of hand washing in the sink, which required filling the sink to full capacity. When I let the water out a load of black gunk over-spilled from the drain beneath it. I figured this was purely from filling the sink too much, so didn’t worry about it – just felt really bad leaving that mess for the maid to deal with. We did get some suspicious smells from the shower drain too. Didn’t see any overspill from that, but then again didn’t look too hard for it either!

My viewpoint is that the entertainment is neither great nor bad. It’s just so-so. Daytime activities suffer from a lack of enthusiasm and this could be blamed for the lack of participation. They struggled to find people for the games, and those who were persuaded to participate were for the most part drunk student types who weren’t particularly entertaining to watch. Entertainment staff work hard, but there’s just not that ‘fun’ feeling about it that we got from watching Chinos and Omar on Steve’s cruise. I am very sorry I missed Chinos in action at the resort. I’m sure he is sorely missed.

We spent most of our days at the quiet pool, as we got fed up with the sexy pool games and the constant hollering from drunk people in the pool. The quiet pool was much more to our liking, and we were able to have a laugh and a drink over there. The fact that the sexy pool is heated was also part of our decision where we sat. I know some people appreciate it being heated, but for us, when the weather was really hot, getting into a pool that was at bath temperature didn’t feel right. We sometimes went over to the sexy pool around 4pm when the warmer water was appreciated. We were at the sexy pool the day it rained, and enjoyed that because it was almost empty. We got out about 3pm, got dried in our room and returned about half an hour later, when they were pulling out a guy who’d sunk unnoticed to the bottom of the pool – really makes you appreciate how dangerous drinking and swimming can be in a pool with no lifeguard.

I had a great view of the sports pool from my room, and apart from the Saturday pool party and Miss Temptation final, never once saw the pool used for night time activities (i.e., tequila volley ball). The sign saying it could only be used 9am – 4:30pm was still out. I can however confirm that when it is used, it is heated. When we jumped in on the night of the Miss T final, we’d been around the quiet pool all day and the water was freezing – in the sports pool it was just cold.

I missed most of the nightly entertainment in Nice Shoes. Saw Temptation Idol which was good. Attempted to watch the erotic show, but the place was so packed couldn’t see a thing so left after a few minutes. Didn’t go to any of the other stuff, but gutted I missed lingerie night. We had partied hard for 3 solid days and just crashed on the first lingerie night. The second one, it was the Miss Temptation final and we wrongly assumed that lingerie night had been cancelled. Paty O’s entertainment was ok, but got a bit repetitive. When we watched bands we had a good time, but on general nights we did get sick of the same dance music played over and over. If I had any suggestion for the resort regarding nightly entertainment – I think they should have another bar of an equal size to Paty O’s playing a different type of music (i.e., hits from 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s), to give those people who don’t like the international top 10 a break.

I was impressed by the quality of food. The only time I had a problem was at the Italian restaurant. The service wasn’t great. After the mains had been taken away we weren’t offered dessert or coffee or anything. After 15 mins we just got up and left. I also got sick that night, which I’m putting down to my stomach not agreeing with the raw salmon starter. I don’t blame Temptation for that, because later in the week I noticed signs next to the sushi and salmon stating you eat any raw food at your own risk. My stomach obviously wasn’t accustomed to the microorganisms that hang about in raw food over there. The Asian restaurant was excellent. You couldn’t ask for better service and the food was fantastic. We also enjoyed eating at the buffet, because you could choose whatever you wanted. Breakfast was ok. There was enough choice so that if you got fed up with something, you could go for a different meal i.e., scrambled eggs one morning and yoghurt and fruit the next. I had no problem with the coffee served at breakfast. Variety in food was not a problem for me during my stay.

Service at the resort is excellent. Any issues we had were dealt with immediately, and service staff couldn’t be more helpful. Bar tenders work their ass off and get to know you by face and name really quickly. We mostly spent our time at the quiet pool and the tenders there were fantastic. As mentioned above, the only time we felt that service wasn’t 100% was at the Italian when we were left for so long and decided to leave. Also there was a pretty surly waitress in Margaritas (we can understand this she was always very busy).

As a side note, the hotel gift shop is really expensive. My sunglasses broke in the first week and I needed a new pair. Cheapest I could find that didn’t look ridiculous in the hotel gift shop were $400 pesos, so I nipped to the shop over the road and found a great pair for $190 pesos. The shop over the road sells everything the gift shop does. It’s 5 mins away and definitely worth checking to get a better price.

That’s my review of the resort, but I thought I’d also give a quick review of the other things we did and general stuff we saw on our stay too.

Steve’s Boobs Cruise – no complaints. Had a fun time, Chinos and Omar are a blast. Steve and Janet are really nice and friendly and we really appreciated the effort they put into these cruises.

Isla Mujeres – we took a ferry from Puerto Juarez back over to Isla a few days after the cruise. The beaches there are just breathtaking. We snorkelled under the Hotel Avalon bridge and swam in the sea. We stopped in at the same bar we’d been to on the Boobs Cruise for a few beers, and may have been ripped off – they charged us more for the beers, saying that the prices from the cruise a few days before were ‘special Sunday prices’.

Xel-Ha – this place is amazing. Snorkelled pretty much the whole day. There’s loads of fish to look at. The price was reasonable considering the amount of activities to do, and with food and drink all inclusive. Quality of food/drink was fine. Make sure you attach the life jacket properly. We didn’t the first time, and Russ fell off the inflatable on the lazy river and struggled with his jacket until we found dry land to fix it. Wearing a life jacket in the water is mandatory and this was pretty annoying for me – I could have swum better without it.

Rio Steak House – this is the restaurant opposite Temptation. It was fantastic. The food was great, very tasty. They bring out skewers of meat and you select which ones you want a piece of. We did pass on the frog’s legs though! Just a note, they include gratuity on the bill.

Senor Frogs – we took a trip down to the hotel zone party zone and to be honest, didn’t think it was worth it. The drinks were expensive (bottles of beer were an equivalent price to what we’d pay at home, whereas beer on Isla Mujeres was half what we’d pay at home) and what you get in return for paying extra isn’t much. We sincerely wish we’d taken a trip down to centro that day instead of hotel zone.

Carlos & Charlies – as with Senor Frogs it was expensive and far too crowded for our liking.

Pancho & Willys – Pancho & Willys is a restaurant/bar located near the airport side of the hotel zone on the lagoon side. It looks lovely, and you can sit next to the lagoon and watch the sealife. We even saw a crocodile. However, it was boring and service was bad. Even though it was almost empty, the waiter took ages to do anything, including waiting about 15 mins for the bill after we asked for it. Also suspicious they overcharged us. They gave us the bill, which we paid, and included a reasonable tip comparable to the service we received. They then brought the bill back and said it didn’t include gratuity of a certain percent (even though this wasn’t stated on the bill) and wanted more money. I assumed wherever you go, a gratuity charge should be either presented on the bill in the final total (as they did at Rio Steak House), or it is at your discretion what you give, however we paid up to save arguing over it. Also, the reason we went all the way down to P&W’s was because we’d read they do karaoke every night (one person in our group is really into karaoke). This isn’t the case – it’s only on certain nights of the week.

Mercado 28 – not sure on this place. We didn’t like the hard selling that goes on here and felt pressured by almost every seller here. I wouldn’t recommend this market for people inexperienced in handling Mexican market traders like we were. We probably overpaid for some of the stuff we bought, but I did get a great deal on a silver bracelet – bargaining down from $3,500 pesos to $500 pesos.

Taxis – we found a great strategy with taxis. Never approach them, let them approach you. Make out like you’re getting the bus and happy to do so. On every occasion we did this, they lowered the price. It’s also cheaper to pay in pesos because they always quote in dollars, and then just add a zero for the price in pesos.

Money/Currency - We took mainly pesos to pay for stuff and only dollars to pay for Steve’s cruise. For the most part, paying in pesos works out great, and things are cheaper in pesos than dollars. However, I think that for tipping, I got the impression that American dollars are genuinely preferred over pesos. Also the notes we received from the currency exchange were big notes (500’s and 200’s) and we had difficulty exchanging these for lower notes to pay for tips. We had to keep asking reception and the gift shop at the hotel to exchange these high notes for smaller ones, which must have got on their nerves a bit.

Swingers – yes it did go on, and obviously being on this site we kinda knew who was into it before we went. This was fine. Sometimes it came up in conversation and once we’d said we weren’t into this it was left and not mentioned again. However, sometimes we felt a little uncomfortable with couples who didn’t initially take the no as a genuine no. Seriously, no amount of persuasion could change our minds on this. We may have given the wrong impression at times, because we do love to go out and have fun. We did push personal boundaries with some of our activities, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring our ‘dare to be tempted’ side (which was mainly on Steve’s cruise!). We like to have fun, and we can party equally if not wilder than a lot of people, but that’s it. When we go home we go home alone.

Drugs – I was pretty perplexed by this, we were offered drugs from touts, taxi drivers and salespeople on a number of occasions (only once whilst on the beach at the resort though). I was genuinely shocked how frequently they approached us with this.

So to sum up, we had a great time. We got into the spirit of the place, made some great friends, and really enjoyed ourselves. The resort is beautiful, the food and service is great, and it truly offers value for money on what you pay. Mostly our day trips were fun and we like Cancun. We did most of what we intended to, however sincerely wish we’d had time to go to some centro bars and had made it to one of the lingerie nights. Will we be back? I think so. We are provisionally looking at May 2013. I think we’ll book a week next time rather than 2, because after 7 days we were partied out.

[lynnshaun]

HI Trish!!! Great report! We looked for you both to say good-bye, it was great to meet you both and thanks for all your help in that first day! ; )
Maybe we will see you again in May 2013!! We are also planning our next trip back!!

[Trish]

Hi Lynn - glad you finally got your bags!! We had a great trip too.

[Pat&LaDonna]

Great Report! We had a great time!

[Andre]

Trish, great trip report! Glad you had a good time. It's to bad that you weren't at the resort when Chinos was there because he really made a huge difference in the activities and participation as you noticed on the boobs cruise. Hope to see you again!

[Trish]

By the way, anyone interested I've added an album of pictures from our trip to my profile. Cheers, Trish

[Pacnate]

Very helpful. We leave this Friday! Is ther a safe in the rooms?

[Trish]

Yes there is a safe in the room. It is a reasonable size, about the size of a small toaster oven.

[Griffrhys]

Nice report guys we added a new album our two also

[The AC/DC Guy]

Some of the people we spoke to didn't get a safe in their room, but if that's the case they'd be more than happy to move you to a room that did. It was very handy for keeping essentials in (money, passports etc) and it just gave us the extra peace of mind so we could relax without worrying.

Russ

[Jeff n Jill]

"We got out about 3pm, got dried in our room and returned about half an hour later, when they were pulling out a guy
who’d sunk unnoticed to the bottom of the pool – really makes you appreciate how dangerous drinking and swimming can be in a pool with no lifeguard."

So do I take it that someone drowned in the Sexy Pool?
"Sunk unnoticed" sounds like a they died as a result.

I haven't been on here in a while...did I miss this?

Jeff n Jill

[summerbum]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a good report, Trish! I'm sad to hear about the frat-house types being the only ones participating in the pool games, though.

As for the drugs...I've been to Mexico a few times, and it's pretty routine. We just tell them, "No thanks, we're alcolics!"

[mrmrsranger]

speaking of alcohol, what beer does the resort use?

im hoping its corona....

[Kat&Elek]

Dos Equis

[BIG JOEP]

Was wondering if the guy drowned to? Great trip report! Love the honesty...

[The AC/DC Guy]

RE: Guy in pool: Details are pretty vague. Apparently, a couple came across a guy lying at the bottom of the pool (not sure how it happened). They say that he was blue and not breathing when they pulled him out, but were able to resuscitate him with CPR. When we arrived they were still working on him, but by the time the ambulance arrived at the pool, he was breathing and conscious. No one knows how long he was under, and he was pretty out of it when he was revived so there's no telling what his condition was after they took him away. We're all hoping that he made a full recovery with no ill effects.

Russ

[E & G]

Great trip report, appreciate all the insight, we are 25 days out and counting, can't wait to get there!!!

[freakygeek]

Finally made it back to comment on your trip report!
It was so great meeting you guys at TTR I was so sad our dates didn't overlap for a longer visit. Hope to see you back there soon!