Couples Trip to Mexico

Author: dt12201
Date of Trip: October 2010

Trip Notes — Trip to Secrets Maroma – Riviera Maya Nov 3rd Wed Fly to Cancun/Shuttle/Hotel

• Delta Airlines – Check in was fairly easy and the security line was quite short.

• Cancun Airport Review — 3 different flights landed at Cancun at close to the same time (we were the 3rd), so the lines to immigration were fairly long and took 15-20 minutes. Once we got thru immigration our bags were off the carrousel and waiting for us to take them thru customs. Customs had a 6-7 lines going and it only took a few minutes, the line was long but never really stopped moving. Then we were off past the timeshare people to head to our shuttle.

• Cancun Transfers Review — Once we were past the timeshare people we hit the large group of Shuttle drivers. Luckily we found my name in the crowd and were off to the pickup zone. They picked us up in a large SUV that held 4 people and our luggage. Our driver was very nice and we were off to Maroma. It was about a 20-30 car ride at most.

• Secrets Maroma — Arrived around 1:30-2pm to check in the resort. Our reservations were a little weird with Char and Gary in a room and Amy and myself in another room, but we did manage to use Gary’s credit card for room 1620 and our credit card to room 1624. We were upgraded to a Junior Suite Partial Ocean View in building 16 — 2nd floor. We were behind building 17 which was the ocean front rooms. We also had free wireless and concierge in our building. Our room had a great view of the pool and ocean. The Penegar’s room had a similar view but a little less ocean. We had a large bathroom with a huge hot tub, large TV, a king size bed, a desk, a couch, large deck with tub and couch. Overall this room was top notch and had everything we needed including a minibar. We put on our swimsuits and headed pool for lunch. We ate at the poolside restaurant and Gary had a small communication problem with the waiter. He wanted salmon but ended up with a sandwich. We made friends with one of the pool/chair guys in Palo, he made sure everything was great for the whole trip. That night we ate at the Seafood restaurant down by the pool, there was no wait. They had a good selection of seafood and some none seafood items like surf and turf. That night they had a rock and roll show in the out door theater. They played a lot of good rock music and the dancers were Ok. We spent some time in the lobby bar before the show.

• Overall Resort Review — Overall the resort included a large main building and 17+ out buildings for the rooms, with each connected together by a covered walkway. In the main building there were shops, bars, a night club, several restaurants and the SPA. Towards the beach there were more bars, multiple pools, hot tubs, restaurants and various activities. The daily activities include yoga, workout room, ping pong, pool, volleyball (beach/water), kayaking, sailing and beach Olympics. We participated in most of the daily activities and the entertainment staff was top notch and very active. Pants were required at most restaurants at night. Each night the resort has some type of entertainment, like movies, dancers, bands, shows, etc…

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• Overall Bar/Restaurant Reviews o World Cafe (Buffet Style) — Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (Casual) — Only breakfast (multiple times), included normal breakfast foods (fruit, eggs, rolls, cereal), but also had omelet stations and Mexican items like beans, tortillas, etc. o Portofino (Italian) — Dinner (Casual Elegance) — Dinner one night. Food was excellent and service was great. o El Patio (Mexican) — Dinner (Casual Elegance) — Did not use o Oceana (Seafood) — Dinner (Casual) — Dinner one night. Overall had a good selection of seafood and limited other items. o Seaside Grill — Lunch and Dinner (Casual) — Lunch (multiple) and Dinner one night. Lunch had a good selection of items to pick from including sandwiches and entries. Dinner it turned into a steakhouse, with various ok cuts of meat. o Himitsu (Asian) — Dinner (Casual Elegance) — Dinner one night, made reservations the day we arrived. Six different entries were available to eat. o Bordeaux (French) — Dinner (Casual Elegance) — Did not use o Coco Cafe (Snacks/Coffee) — Coffee and snacks (cakes and muffins) — we stopped almost every night. o Rendezvous Lobby Bar — Very good service while relaxing for dinner or between shows — we stopped by almost every night. o Showtime Bar (Nighttime entertainment) o Sugar Reef (Pool/Beach) — had a soft serve ice cream machine o Manatees Swim-up Bar o Barracuda Beach Bar o Desires Night Club and Sports Bar o Revive SPA Bar — Did not use

Nov 4th Thur Secrets Resort • Secrets Maroma — Spent the day at the resort. We got chairs by the pool around 8am and had breakfast at the World Cafe. It was buffet style with cook to order eggs/omelets. The buffet had a lot of good fruit, baked items and hot items. It also had traditional Mexican breakfast foods like beans, tamales, etc… Spent the day laying by pool and heading to the beach for some swimming and sailing. All four of use went sailing on a small Cobe Cat. The bar service was really good and they had food at a bar and grill and several other locations around the pool. They even had people delivering all types of food to your beach chair (like tacos, sushi, fruit bars, etc…). We participated in several of the resort activities like beach volleyball. Around 5ish we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Tonight we decide to head to the Italian Restaurant, there was no wait for an inside table. The food and drinks were excellent. Service was top notch and we had a great time. That night they had an Authentic Dance show at the theater and it was pretty boring, so we skipped out. We had a few drinks at the bar and heading in for the night.

Nov 5th Fri Secrets Resort • Secrets Maroma — Spent the day at the resort. We got chairs by the pool around 8am, but had to get chairs in the middle of the pool area and had breakfast at the World Cafe. Spent the day laying by pool and heading to the beach for some swimming and sailing. The bar service was really good and they had food at a bar and grill and several other locations around the pool. They even had people delivering all types of food to your beach chair (like tacos, sushi, fruit bars, etc…). We participated in several of the resort activities like beach volleyball and sand Olympics. The egg toss was my favorite. We made friends with another couple by the pool (Brian and Jennie from NJ). Around 5ish we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Tonight we had reservations at the Japan Restaurant and luck had it Brian and Jennie also had reservations at the Japanese Restaurant. The food and drinks were excellent. Service was top notch and we had a great time. That night they had a fire twirling show out by the pool. Later on they had the same rock band at the disco and we danced the night away.

Nov 6th Sat Secrets Resort • Secrets Maroma — Spent the day at the resort again. We got chairs by the pool around 8am, but had to get chairs in the middle of the pool area due to a wedding on the far side of the pool and had breakfast at the World Cafe. Spent the day laying by pool and heading to the beach for some swimming and sailing. The bar service was really good and they had food at a bar and grill and several other locations around the pool. They even had people delivering all types of food to your beach chair (like tacos, sushi, fruit bars, etc…). We participated in several of the resort activities like beach volleyball and sea turtle release. The six of us hung out at the pool and the beach. We even played Bocce on the beach. We decided to head in early to go to Playa de Carmen for some shopping. Around 3:30ish we took a cab to Playa ($20 — one way) we then spent the next 2 hours walked up and down 5th avenue. The north end of the avenue is pretty quiet and get busier more expensive as you head south. Bought some stuff like wrestling mask, ornaments, soccer jersey, etc… Around 6 we headed back to the resort for dinner. Tried to go to the French Restaurant but the wait was 45 minutes, so we headed to the steakhouse, they tried to sit us outside by wedding, but we finally we able to sit inside. Overall our steaks were OK, not the best cuts of beef. My Kobe beef was nothing more than a roast cut thin. We headed fairly early to pack to because we were leaving the next day.

Nov 7th Sun Shuttle/Fly to KC • Secrets Maroma — Spent the morning at the resort again. We got chairs by the pool around 8am, but had to get chairs in the middle of the pool area and had breakfast at the World Cafe. Spent the day laying by pool and heading to the beach for some walks. Had our luggage picked up around 11 for the shuttle pickup at noon. Luggage pickup was right on-time and we headed to the front to checkout. Checkout was easy and we had no problems with the bill.

• Cancun Shuttle Review — Shuttle was right on-time to pick us up at noon. This time they had a full size van to pick us up. We headed right to the terminal and discovered that we had left a camera bag at the hotel. So we were able to send a taxi from the hotel to the airport with the camera bag.

• Cancun Airport Review — Check in at Frontier was very quick and easy. No real line and no baggage fees. We then headed upstairs to security. The overall line in security was not that long, but they were doing random baggage checks and it took forever. We were able to get some food at the airport (pizza and burgers) and we headed to our gate. I also had a random baggage/personal search at the gate before getting on the flight home.