What the Riviera Maya taught me

For my first time out of the country, I really enjoyed it...much more so than I thought I would honestly (and I think that's because of all the drama that came with the planning, etc).  If you're ever planning a big trip like we went on, there's a few things I learned:

• If booking through a travel agent/company, pick one that is in your state, preferably near your city, so you can physically go in and talk to them about things if needed.  Then things like overcharging, using the wrong credit card, etc won't be an issue.
• Wear a water proof watch!  Esp if you have time frames like we did for wedding rehearsals, excursions, etc.  There are no clocks at these resorts and yes, "que hora es" does work but it gets tiring having to ask everyone.
• Do not buy a disposable water proof camera, buy a digital one if you can.  The disposable ones don't work as well in the end.
• Tan before you go...and sunscreen it up even on cloudy days.
• Don't bring a beach towel, the resorts provide them and its one less thing you need in your suitcase
• Sign up for excursions through your travel company, you can trust that a lot more than signing up for a random one (and you don't want to end up like people in some of those movies out there)
• Even if you don't drink the water, you will come back with some form of Montezuma's Revenge.  Trust me on this one...
• Check the dress codes of restaurants before you go.  We did, and we were ok but some in our party couldn't try a few places because they didn't have the proper attire.
• Don't try to tip at the resort, they won't take it but you can write recommendations for the ones who do the most for you.
• Make sure your shuttle back to the airport on departure day leaves at least 3 hours before.  You will want to duty free shop.
• Oh...and you'll want to start planning your next trip!

Can't wait for our next trip somewhere!

Hope you enjoyed reliving our fun trip :)

A lifelong dream

One of my lifelong dreams is to visit all 50 states.



To this date, I have visited the following:

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

The grand total is: 35 states out of the 50.

Not too shabby if you ask me.

A lot of those I traveled to as a kiddo and would love to get back to one day.  I know hubby hasn't been to many of the above so it would be fun to take him to some of them.

I hope that this dream does become a reality.

What's one of your lifelong dreams?

Riviera Maya dia cinco

 Day 5 came way too fast and that meant time to leave paradise:

We were able to eat one more breakfast at Carnival before the Apple Charter bus picked us up for the airport.  They picked us up at 830 and we were at the Cancun aeropuerto by 9ish.  Plenty of time to get through everything for a 10:30 flight right?

Wrong!

The entire charter was headed on this 1030 flight to STL.  Instead of giving us our own line, like the charters usually do, the airport people told us all to join the normal Frontier line.  Which.barely.moved!  I kid you not, finally someone said something at like 9:30 and they realized we needed our own line.  We all got in the new line and it took time but we finally got up to the ticket desk.  By this time my entire family, except for me, Keith and my stepsister Amanda, had made it to the gate.  The guy starts our process and I asked him to hurry.  He paid no attention.  A co-workers stops by and in Spanish they discuss their lunch plans (I know enough spanish to know that word) and he literally stops processing our stuff.  She leaves, he does something, hands me the 3 tickets and tells us we will have to hurry to the gate.  I looked him squarely in the eye and said, "no shit sherlock, had you not discussed lunch instead of our tickets we wouldn't be in this predictament."  I kid you not, he shooed me away with the back on his hand.  We made it through security with no problems (no having to get naked in Mexico apparently), get up through the crowds and the plane is already boarding.  Which meant no duty free shopping, nada.  The extent of me exploring the airport was:

which was right by our gate.  The 3 of us were not happy campers.

The flight back was faster than the flight down.  Now this being my first time arriving from another country in St. Louis I had no clue how customs was going to work here.  They were way more thorough than Cancun was, asking all sorts of questions about our bags and making them all go through xray machines more than once.  I felt more like being illegal in my home state than I did in another country!

We got home and were still disappointed that we couldn't get our hands on pure tequila but were happy to see that these were still intact:

For the record Coca Cola light tastes nothing like Diet Coke here in the states.

Come back on Wednesday for my final thoughts on the trip!

Riviera Maya dia quatro

To enjoy two more days in paradise, we decided to do another excursion on day 4.

This day, a more fun tour guide with a bigger white excursion van picked some of our group up to head to the Mayan Ruins in Tulum.

This excursion was an hour and a half south from the resort and took us past more hotels of both Riviera Maya and Playa del Carmen.  Our guide was hilarious, very talkative and told us just about anything we wanted to know about the country.

Tulum was formerly known by the name Zama, meaning City of Dawn because it faces the sunrise.  Tulum is on a bluff facing east towards the Caribbean Sea.  The walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to be defended against invasions.  Tulum had access to both land and sea trade routes, making it an important trade hub, especially for those in search of obsidian.

For the ruins, a guide is with you the entire time up until the end where they allow you to enjoy an hour or so exploring on your own.  It was very helpful because they gave you the history of each of the ruins as you pass through.

After you tour the ruins, you arrive to one of the most gorgeous sites ever:

This beach is a part of the ruins and once you make it through, you get to spend time here swimming in the bluest of waters.  It was pretty amazing!

After you exit the ruins, you arrive in a tourist complex.  There are plenty of souveniors here as well as a Subway of all things!  We shopped around a bit, getting some pure vanilla, a shot glass and a keychain. While we were walking around we all of a sudden heard chanting and noticed this:

This is the voladores.  Five men in costumes recreate a ceremonial ritual first started by the Totonac Indians from Veracruz.  The flyers begin by climbing the tall pole, then each of the gour of the men slip a foot into a loop at the end of a rope that is wound around the top of the pole.  The 5th team member performs a special dance to each of the 4 cardinal directions, dancing upon the top of the pole while playing a flute.  At the right moment, the four flyers release themselves from the small cap on the pole and fall to earth, circling the pole in expanding circles as the rope unwinds, eventually touching the ground.

After all our excitement it was time to head back to Now Jade.  We decided to eat at Capers for our last night:

before enjoying the Caribbean show put on for the hotel:

There were many vendors that night at the hotel also, kinda like what we stumbled upon in Tulum.  However we didn't feel the urge to buy anything that we hadn't already gotten.  So we headed back to the room to pack before our last day came way too fast.

Come back on Monday to read about our final few hours in paradise!

Riviera Maya dia tres

Day 3 was the start of our excursions as well as Amy & Brian's wedding day!

So while everyone slept in, woke up to be pampered at the salon (the ladies anyway), Keith and I headed to Dreams Cancun Resort, which was north of Now Jade about 30ish miles in the Zona Hotelera area:

to swim with the dolphins!  I have had several friends do this, but at other locations, so when Apple informed us it was something we could do via them while at Now Jade, we jumped at the chance.

Our little white excursion van picked us up bright and early and drove us to another resort to pick up another group.  While on this little trip, I got to see another Now resort (Now Sapphire) that originally was supposed to be the site of the wedding, as well as the resort called Ocean Corral & Turquesa.  Let's just say after seeing the locations of the above two, I'm glad they picked Now Jade instead.

Dreams Cancun was located on the end of the Zona Hotelera strip in Cancun.  I can now see why everyone goes there for spring break and a good party.  We past everything that you always hear about (Senor Frogs, Margaritaville) and saw lots of things going on.  We got to Dreams, got to the desk to confirm we were there and Keith immediately saw a photo op:

Yes, I am tall enough to swim with the dolphins!  They then got us suited up and they immediately got us in the water.

I will admit, once in the water, I started getting nervous.  I had always talked about doing this, and then the nerves hit because you really do not know when they are coming up on you.  However I wasn't the only one in our group that way and as the session got going, I became more relaxed.  Due to the safety of the dolphins, and the fact that they want you to purchase the professional ones, we didn't get to use our own camera however we wanted all the images anyway and they all turned out great...all my nervous looks and all!

Once done, we had ample time to explore the Dreams Cancun resort and we both agreed that we'd like to come back and stay in Cancun and explore that one day:

I mean who doesn't love a bar that has swings as its seats?

It was finally time to get back into our little white excursion van and trek back to Now Jade.  Once back at the resort, we grabbed lunch at Castaways and played on the beach for a few hours until it was time to get ready for wedding.

Amy & Brian did a first look while we all met in the lobby to be escorted down to the beach to be seated.  Nothing big with the decorations, just simple white with flowers.

Having been in Mexico by for 3 days by this time, we were use to seeing clouds and nothing happening.  So as we all were assembling, the clouds were rolling in.  The staff didn't seem worried about and kept telling us to continue on.  Each side had 4 people, and if you notice, Amy had a bridesman.  Her brother Mark is one of her best friends and she asked him to stand on her side and of course he did.

Amy's Dad escorted her to the altar, she takes her spot and as my Dad starts the ceremony, I felt a rain drop.  I look over at my sister who looks up to the sky as I felt another one.  Before I could whisper anything, my stepsister Amanda (3rd from left in the blue dress above) starts laughing as the sky opens up and it just starts pouring.  Everyone grabs something from the wedding and high tails it up to shelter behind us.

The resort staff ushers the bride to a private room while the rest of us dry off with towels as we see the sky clear up (of course, because it only rains for 15 min in Mexico).  Dad makes his way to the bride and Amy, visably upset with the weather but trying to stay positive, says let's try it again so we all go back down to the beach once the sun is shining.  Dad starts round 2 and this time:

They make it to Mr. & Mrs!

Then came time for pictures.  Now I know how it can be a pain to do this but when you're on a beach its a lot harder because you have people all around.  Somehow they got everyone together:

And since this trip was dubbed, "the photobomber trip", its only appropriate that the following happened:

Due to the rain, everything was a bit delayed and you could tell the resort wasn't happy about it as it meant more work for them.  After the wedding we were supposed to go up to the bar and have a cocktail hour with a signature drink...yeah they knocked all that out and ushered us to the Cin Cin restaurant to start the reception.

The dinner was amazing...so fresh and in your mouth delish!  They had a DJ who spun music for about 3 hours while they did the dances and of course cake:

We were then directed to the club if we wanted to continue the party but because we were going to go on yet another excursion the next day, many of us headed back to our room to literally fall on the bed from the day's festivities.

Congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Simeone :)

Day 4 to be posted tomorrow...sure hope you'll return to hear all about our final two days!

Riviera Maya dia dos

It was weird spending 4th of July in Mexico but they did their best to make everyone feel like home on this holiday.  This gorgeous display was in the lobby - there's just something really neat about their water centerpiece:

We met everyone for breakfast at Carnival, which was an amazing buffet of just about everything you could imagine.  Keith loves omelets and he filled himself up on them on a daily basis:

As we were leaving the restaurant, of course Keith would happen to find a cute little coffee shop next door.  They served fresh pastries, Starbucks type drinks and frozen Baileys:

We then headed to the pool and the ocean for relaxation the rest of the day.  The resort had towels for the guests in seashells.  Can you name the Disney character I was trying to be?

One thing that I never got use to is that the servers are always there to refill your drink and make sure you are good to go.  We did have a favorite pool server and he seemed to be there on a daily basis and every time I turned around.  One of my favorites was pina coladas and someone else enjoyed them too:

 

The clouds eventually broke and the sun started blazing through.  The ocean water instantly turned blue and everyone was just in a better spirit.  You can't beat a view like this:

After a day at the pool it was time for the wedding rehearsal.  My brother, sister and I were asked to be in charge of the sand ceremony, meaning we would carry the items up to the altar.  My dad was officiating Amy & Brian's ceremony so he was very excited for his side job:

Do you notice a trend in some of the pictures?  You'll see more as I post the next few days as well - our group seemed to be fond of photo bombers.

The rehearsal dinner was at Capers, which is the Italian restaurant at the resort.  Due to all the other guests, when you have a large group at these places, they do not shut the restaurant down but simply put your group in a part of the room and allow the other guests to fill in.  So we had the back of the restaurant reserved for us.  The dinner was amazing:

 

After dinner the resort set off fireworks from the beach.  The people setting off the fireworks weren't too experienced as they weren't going up high enough and they were going off while the people were still trying lighting them.  A few times the crowd gasped because we weren't sure if the workers were ok.  However sitting on a beach chair, watching them, was a great end to the night:

 

Day 3 was the start of our excursions so we headed to bed shortly after the fireworks.

Come back on Thursday to start hearing about all the fun excursions!