Greetings from Cancun!
Devin and I are on our first vacation as a married couple, just a few weeks shy of our first anniversary. Given the passion we both share for traveling, we are committed to documenting our trips and sharing that information with our family and friends. Not only are we planning to journal online, in order to capture the events as they happen, we are also going to hang a map of the world in our new house and identify all of the place we have visited.
We are four days into our first trip to Cancun and absolutely loving it! With everything that we've had going on over the past few month, we hadn't exactly put a lot of thought or energy into our upcoming trip. We did manage to check the weather once and awhile and were a tad disappointed to see that it was going to be rainy and thunderstorms throughout the entire trip. Although, coming from AZ, rain is not necessarily a bad thing!
Prior to leaving, we had so much stuff to do that we decided to pull an all-nighter. Well, not exactly "decided", it's just how it worked out! Although D did manage to get an hour and a half sleep before we left. My plan was simple - just sleep on the four hour flight from Phoenix to Cancun. Didn't quite end up working out the way I had planned, though. I've been completely spoiled flying United and getting my automatic upgrade to Economy Plus. Because we had no choice when we booked this trip, we got stuck on US Airways (aka America Worst / Welfare Bus of the Sky). I can't imagine how some travelers handle it. I'm all of 5'2", 120 pounds and I feel completely suffocated. There is no room between the seats and it doesn't help the situation that the majority of people are completely off in their own little world with no regard to anyone around them. Because this is not a venting blog, I won't go into detail here, but suffice to say somebody wanted one of our seats (rather, just assumed they could have one), the woman in front of me kept her seat reclined into my lap the entire trip, and then her kid spilled iced coffee all over my feet and D's backpack (and no, she didn't even attempt to apologize to us). So no sleep on the trip.
We arrived to cloudy skies in Cancun and had a bit of a time figuring out transportation. We were looking for just plain old ordinary taxis, but they only had private taxis at the airport. Despite the high cost ($45+ tip) we jumped in and headed to the hotel. The cabbie was very friendly and was asking us how much Spanish we spoke (paquito - LOL). Much better than a cab ride you would get in the US! The 10 minute ride to the hotel was relatively uneventful and gave us an opportunity to check out the local landscape. Similar to Costa Rica, the terrain was flat with somewhat tropical vegatation. While the majority of the businesses and signs gave us no doubt that we were in Mexico, US businesses were also quite common: McDonalds, 7-Eleven, etc.Our reservations were for Moon Palace, however, there are two parts to the hotel: Nizuc and Sunrise and I had no idea which one we were in, but our cabbie figured it out pretty quickly and dropped us off at the Nizuc lobby.
The hotel was beautiful and everyone was incredibly friendly. Check-in was in a conference room and despite the wait, it was an enjoyable experience, thanks to friendly people and free drinks! Definitely a thumbs-up for the all-inclusive concept - it was so nice to just order a drink and not think about the cost! Despite the wait for our room, we enjoyed the time to sit and relax, talk with the hotel staff, and people watch while sipping on our tropical drinks. There was a family in from New York with a wedding and they were an interesting cast of characters. The grandfather would be walking the bride down the aisle and he was well into his 90s - absolutely adorable. The mother was a wreck trying to keep everyone and everything organized. And the groom was more focused on the fact that the waiter brought him pina coladas instead of the drinks he ordered (again, remember, these are the free drinks they are handing out in the registration room.)We asked for an upgrade on our room to ocean-view (I read that's what you were supposed to do!) and we were able to move up to the 2nd floor from the first. Not a big upgrade, but definitely still better.
The resort grounds were absolutely beautiful and huge. Green grass, palm trees, water features, bridges, gazebos, beautifully groomed walking baths, and most notably, everything was immaculate. No trash anywhere, everything landscaped perfectly. Our room was fabulous!
Marble tile floors, flat-screen tv (although the stations are somewhat limited), and the centerpiece of the room was a HUGE jacuzzi tub in the center of the room. The wall facing the ocean was all glass - with a nice little patio. Our view? Well, technically it would be considered an ocean-view, however, there is a big coconut palm trip right outside of our patio! But it's still nice and if you shift around you can see ocean through the palm leaves!
Devin and I are on our first vacation as a married couple, just a few weeks shy of our first anniversary. Given the passion we both share for traveling, we are committed to documenting our trips and sharing that information with our family and friends. Not only are we planning to journal online, in order to capture the events as they happen, we are also going to hang a map of the world in our new house and identify all of the place we have visited.
We are four days into our first trip to Cancun and absolutely loving it! With everything that we've had going on over the past few month, we hadn't exactly put a lot of thought or energy into our upcoming trip. We did manage to check the weather once and awhile and were a tad disappointed to see that it was going to be rainy and thunderstorms throughout the entire trip. Although, coming from AZ, rain is not necessarily a bad thing!
Prior to leaving, we had so much stuff to do that we decided to pull an all-nighter. Well, not exactly "decided", it's just how it worked out! Although D did manage to get an hour and a half sleep before we left. My plan was simple - just sleep on the four hour flight from Phoenix to Cancun. Didn't quite end up working out the way I had planned, though. I've been completely spoiled flying United and getting my automatic upgrade to Economy Plus. Because we had no choice when we booked this trip, we got stuck on US Airways (aka America Worst / Welfare Bus of the Sky). I can't imagine how some travelers handle it. I'm all of 5'2", 120 pounds and I feel completely suffocated. There is no room between the seats and it doesn't help the situation that the majority of people are completely off in their own little world with no regard to anyone around them. Because this is not a venting blog, I won't go into detail here, but suffice to say somebody wanted one of our seats (rather, just assumed they could have one), the woman in front of me kept her seat reclined into my lap the entire trip, and then her kid spilled iced coffee all over my feet and D's backpack (and no, she didn't even attempt to apologize to us). So no sleep on the trip.
We arrived to cloudy skies in Cancun and had a bit of a time figuring out transportation. We were looking for just plain old ordinary taxis, but they only had private taxis at the airport. Despite the high cost ($45+ tip) we jumped in and headed to the hotel. The cabbie was very friendly and was asking us how much Spanish we spoke (paquito - LOL). Much better than a cab ride you would get in the US! The 10 minute ride to the hotel was relatively uneventful and gave us an opportunity to check out the local landscape. Similar to Costa Rica, the terrain was flat with somewhat tropical vegatation. While the majority of the businesses and signs gave us no doubt that we were in Mexico, US businesses were also quite common: McDonalds, 7-Eleven, etc.Our reservations were for Moon Palace, however, there are two parts to the hotel: Nizuc and Sunrise and I had no idea which one we were in, but our cabbie figured it out pretty quickly and dropped us off at the Nizuc lobby.
The hotel was beautiful and everyone was incredibly friendly. Check-in was in a conference room and despite the wait, it was an enjoyable experience, thanks to friendly people and free drinks! Definitely a thumbs-up for the all-inclusive concept - it was so nice to just order a drink and not think about the cost! Despite the wait for our room, we enjoyed the time to sit and relax, talk with the hotel staff, and people watch while sipping on our tropical drinks. There was a family in from New York with a wedding and they were an interesting cast of characters. The grandfather would be walking the bride down the aisle and he was well into his 90s - absolutely adorable. The mother was a wreck trying to keep everyone and everything organized. And the groom was more focused on the fact that the waiter brought him pina coladas instead of the drinks he ordered (again, remember, these are the free drinks they are handing out in the registration room.)We asked for an upgrade on our room to ocean-view (I read that's what you were supposed to do!) and we were able to move up to the 2nd floor from the first. Not a big upgrade, but definitely still better.
The resort grounds were absolutely beautiful and huge. Green grass, palm trees, water features, bridges, gazebos, beautifully groomed walking baths, and most notably, everything was immaculate. No trash anywhere, everything landscaped perfectly. Our room was fabulous!
Marble tile floors, flat-screen tv (although the stations are somewhat limited), and the centerpiece of the room was a HUGE jacuzzi tub in the center of the room. The wall facing the ocean was all glass - with a nice little patio. Our view? Well, technically it would be considered an ocean-view, however, there is a big coconut palm trip right outside of our patio! But it's still nice and if you shift around you can see ocean through the palm leaves!
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