Aquamarina Cancun January, 1997 Costa Real Cancun February, 1998 Casa Maya Cancun April, 1999 Day 1-Me, my husband Scott & our daughter Nikki met my brother Dan at DIA. Flight leaves on time, nice smooth 3hr 20min ride. We cleared immigration in record time (5 min), waited 10 minutes for luggage & even got the green light. Breeze past the peddlers ( no rookies here!) to the man holding the Suntrips sign and board the bus. Took the hotel zone route, only 2 drop-offs and we are deposited at the hotel. Immediate check-in but small glitch, the bar & meal deal we requested at booking does NOT exist. Meal deal yes, but not at the price we were quoted either. Oh well, maybe we can get somewhere on this issue tomorrow at the Suntrips orientation meeting. The one bedroom suite we had was very spacious and clean, but showing signs of wear & tear. Nice balcony overlooking garden area with a gorgeous view of the ocean, lagoon and the HUGE flag. Everyone changed and went down to the lobby bar for tequila shots & cervezas. (Happy hour-cervezas=11.5 pesos, margarita=20 pesos, coke 5 pesos) Day 2-Terrible bad hangover, Dan & I have sworn off alcohol for good! Scott went to the orientation meeting and confirmed there was no bar & meal deal to be had. That's OK, Suntrips will hear about it when we get home, no sense getting upset with the Casa Maya, they didn't print the brochure. We all lounged on the beach then had lunch at the Coco Loco snack bar, club sandwiches & shrimp cerviche (why didn't I know about this stuff sooner?? YUM) Starting to feel human again so we freshen up & grab a taxi to Forum by the Sea and wander around. Got Nikki's hair braided at Coral Negro, didn't bother to ask the price first and ended up paying 800 pesos!! Ouch-but in all fairness it took the lady 1 3/4 hours and lasted 2 weeks! While we were waiting I went into a shop and priced a silver lighter case and a wall hanging-$100US. I don't think so amigo, don't want or need the stuff that bad! An exhausting hour later I walked out with those two items for $60US. I wasn't even trying to haggle, just wanted out of the shop!!! Day 3-Breakfast buffet at the hotel-excellent! (boofet is how they pronounced it-77 pesos for adults, 1/2 price for kids. Time for a walk to Caracol Plaza, made it half way before the kid's feet gave out (wrong shoes). Taxi back to the hotel for tennis shoes, taxi to Kukulcan mall to shop for swimsuit and floating pool toy. Decided to check out the big waves on Playa Marlin right behind the mall, stayed there for a while enjoying the sound of the surf and the extreme beauty of the Caribbean then back to the hotel for some more beach time. We witnessed a nasty jet-ski accident, fortunately there were no fatal injuries but one of those guys was definately hurting. Enjoyed the Italian buffet in the hotel for dinner-145 pesos each, cokes are 12 pesos here. Day 4-Caribbean Fun Day! Left from Fat Tuesdays over to Isla Mujeres & just hung out all morning on the beach and sampled the buffet and drank pina coladas (yes I know we've sworn off alcohol but believe me there is little to none in these drinks.) Back on the boat to the main pier of Isla for shopping time-instead of shopping we headed over to Playa Norte to play in the water. I saw one lady sunning topless so I had to set mine free too. My daughter is used to me tanning topless at home so it was no big deal for her, and my brother said he was OK with it, BUT if one single person shouted out "Hey raisin tits" I was to put my top back on! (Fortunately that didn't happen) Boarded the boat at 3:30 for the party back to Cancun. Got cleaned up and decided it was a Shrimp Bucket kind of night-745 pesos total for dinner & drinks. Day 5-Breakfast boofet and a walk to Caracol Plaza, did a lttle shopping and rode the bus back. Very hot so we stopped in the lobby bar for a cerveza, the pool was calling to us so we changed and swam & sunned the rest of the afternoon. Shower up and hit the lobby bar for pizza & margaritas, then off to Carlos & Charlies to party! Day 6-Terrible bad hangover, sworn off booze the rest of my life (again.) Made it to the pool & didn't move until supper. Freshen up & go to Outback for prime rib, $60US including tip. Dan never made it out of bed this fine day so it was just Scott, Nikki & Me. Wandered around Flamingo Plaza for a while than taxi back to the hotel. Day 7-Breakfast boofet then hit the pool all day, won bingo 3 times and collected 3 free drinks for prizes. Dined at Mr. Papas for dinner, $50US covered the 4 of us. Food was nothing special but the waiters were very entertaining! Day 8-We savor our last breakfast boofet, took our last swim and walked the beach then back to the room to clean up and finish packing. The shuttle arrived, dropped us at the airport and for the first time (for us) the flight left on time! Arrived in Denver and were held captive on the plane because only an Immigration official can hook the air gate to the plane and there wasn't any such official available (must have forgot we were coming.) The pilot was very apologetic and within 15 minutes we were allowed to de-plane. Drove back to Cheyenne in a dumping rainstorm and woke up to freezing rain and snow-Reality Check! I don't think we are in Cancun anymore! Blue Bay Getaway Cancun April, 2000 Blue Bay Getaway Cancun Janurary, 2001 My husband Scott & I just returned from another fantastic vacation in Cancun, we didn't do any tours and the weather wasn't the best but it was still a great time! Just a little background information, we are in our mid-30's and this was our 5th trip to Cancun, second time at this resort. In the past we have always used SunTrips/Ryan Air, this time Apple/Allegro had the better deal so we booked with them. Both companies do a great job but if you want to enjoy a movie on your flight go with SunTrips, no movies on Allegro. Tuesday the flight was supposed to leave Denver at 8:00am but due to snow we were delayed an hour while they de-iced the plane. Arrived at the old terminal and took our place in the no passport side of the line. 10 minutes to clear immigration then off to wait for the luggage. Some people got bumped to the end of the line for not completely filling out the immigration card. Fill out top and bottom and sign both places on the back! Collected our luggage, got the green light & went to find the right bus-45 minutes later we were "home". Check-in was a breeze but they were out of green arm bands so we were told to come back tomorrow for it. FYI, the color of the arm band has no relevance on the service you receive, (everyone gets the same wonderful treatment) it's mostly for you to flaunt in front of the other guests so they know you've been there before! Our room was 202, just steps away from the courtyard bar and very convenient to everything, king size bed, ocean view, overlooking the gym & sports pool. If you can't put up with late night whooping and hollering you probably don't want a room in section A or B, these all face the courtyard area & it's pretty loud. Quick change of clothes and off to the pool bar! From this point on my recollections are quite fuzzy & I think alcohol is to blame! LOL Just one of the dangers of all-inclusive I guess. Went to the Apple orientation meeting and hooked up with the Nebraska people I'd met on the mssg. boards. The guys all wanted to go fishing so they chartered a boat for Friday. Had some dinner then strolled into the video bar to see what kind of trouble we could get into. Tuesday night is the kissing contest and it was quite tame compared to last time I watched it, still fun though. We decided to call it a night, it had been a long day! Wednesday was bright & sunny so we grabbed some breakfast then hit the beach. I was sporting a bit of a hangover and assumed my tummy rumblies were part of it-NOT! For the next 5 hours I got to enjoy the lovely ambiance of the bano. Finally the stomach settled down so we decided to take advantage of the free transportation & dinner the hotel offered at Carlos n' Charlies. They seated all us Blue Bay people together and we had a nice little buffet to choose from. Lots of dancing, congo lines & fun but we left early so we girls could take in the Chippendales show at the hotel, can't give any details because women who see this show are sworn to secrecy! Thursday was another sunny day so after breakfast we parked on the beach to receive the daily dose of carcinogenic rays. Did some snorkeling right by the dock then spent the afternoon drinking frozen "girlie" drinks and meeting new people, then it was time to get ready for Casino Night. We picked Chinos blackjack table knowing full well nobody wins at his table, but it's all for fun anyway and he is so very entertaining. I managed to stay in the game 45min then figured it was time to let someone else play. After the gambling was over we danced for a while then off to bed, tomorrow was Scott's big fishing adventure. Friday the wake-up call startled us awake at O'dark thirty. "You have a nice time fishing dear, I'm going back to sleep!" For those of you that book early morning tours there is a continental breakfast available in the courtyard in the early am. No need to go hungry if your tour leaves before the breakfast buffet opens. I woke up about 9:00 and decided I needed sunshine more than I needed breakfast, so off to the beach to bake and snooze. My first thought when I walked outside was those guys are having a rough ride on that boat, the wind was really blowing and the ocean was covered with white caps. The weather history claims the max wind speed was 10mph, maybe in downtown Cancun but there on the beach it was at least 25mph. I dozed, people watched and got sandblasted until noon then went and found the rest of the Nebraska wives so we could go greet our mighty fisherman at the dock. The guys all had big smiles on their white faces and I'm not sure if it was because they caught fish or the pure joy of being back on land. They did have the boating adventure from hell, a scene straight out of "Perfect Storm", walls of water surrounding them and not a dry place on the boat BUT they caught fish and that's all that mattered. 2 of the Barracuda were close to 5' and Scott got to land the trophy, an 8' Sail Fish! He had no intentions of keeping it & nobody else wanted to dish out the $1,000 quoted to bring it in and mount it so back in the ocean it went. We all headed to the snack bar for lunch and fish stories then out to the pool to catch the last bit of sun before it dipped behind the hotel. Scott & I got cleaned up, went to dinner then headed for the video bar for Anything Goes. A great time was had by all as usual and we ended up dancing until the wee hours. I always thought they closed the video bar at 2:00 but we were partying well past 3:30. Saturday morning was more clouds than sun but since I'm the optimist we gathered all the beach supplies together and went to breakfast. Finished eating and settled in by the pool-it was a rather short stay, the clouds took over and without the sun it was too chilly to be laying out in a swimsuit. Tonight we had reservations at the Village Wok, I ordered the duck and Scott had sweet & sour pork, followed by cheesecake and sexy coffee-very delicious! The sexy coffee is a complete show in itself, a must do at BBG. Saturdays they have the men's sexy legs contest and Crystal (from Toronto eh?) and I insisted on being judges for it. Anyone who has been to the BBG before knows the sexy legs contest has nothing to do with legs. They made the contestants change into boxers that had the buns cut out and Caesar told us to try our hardest to get those boxers off of them. I had to apologize to every man I molested plus buy back all the incriminating pictures! I didn't know the hotel photographer runs around taking pictures all the time then wanders around with the album full of obscene pictures for people to buy-now I do! Sunday I woke up feeling "off" (no it wasn't the 200 Black Russians I drank last night) and the sun was hiding so we did the breakfast thing and went for a "little" walk-5 km to be exact, to Plaza Caracol to get our souvenir shopping done. Strolled around there until I found the perfect gifts for the gals at work then hopped a bus back to the hotel. Had dinner, cocktails and conversation then off to bed to recuperate. Monday was our last full day in paradise and I desperately wanted to spend it in the blazing sun. Enjoyed a leisurely breakfast then claimed a prime location by the pool. The sun was playing peek-a-boo so we found Denise & Allen from the UK and the four of us went off in search of bottled cerveza. First stop was Caliente, the huge sports bar next to Aquamarina. Not many people there but the beer was cold & tasty. Next we went to Stonny's Pizza for a round. Drank that quickly because the sun was making an appearance & tanning took precedence over the quest for bottled beer. We all agreed 2 bottles of beer is the equivalent to 15 cups at BBG which leads me to believe they mix the keg beer with carbonated water. It's probably for the best, help the people pace themselves! We soaked up the last of the sun then got ready for the evening. Sat around the courtyard bar visiting with people and watched Alfredo do his thing! He is the most entertaining bartender I've ever seen, twirling & juggling bottles & getting the crowd pumped up. When he gets up on the bar and starts pouring tequila punch in peoples mouths you either run away or drink up, he doesn't take no for an answer! Every 2 minutes or so (no exaggeration) Alfredo would burst out with, "Who Let the Dogs Out" and everyone around the bar chimes in on the Who Who Who part. This gets REAL old after the first 10 minutes and by the end of the week it about drives a person insane, I recommend drinking heavily to cope. We had dinner then moved into the video bar and finally found the elusive photographer and his book of x-rated pictures. Oh look there's Scott wearing nothing but a strategically placed sock, and there's me sitting in a room full of people with no top on, and another pic of me, oh my, I was not doing to that man what it looks like I'm doing-honest! Many pesos later I have the worst of the pics removed from the album.  Tonight is Karaoke night, there were two people that could carry a decent tune, two that were quite good and one that prompted Enrique to pass out napkins to wad up and use as ear plugs! We did lots of dancing after the show then started the painful packing process, tomorrow is go home day. Tuesday was partly sunny, cool and breezy. We ate breakfast, finished packing then took a final walk along the beach. Checked out a little before noon then visited with our newfound friends until the shuttle picked us up. The flight departed on time and we had a smooth flight back to Denver. Cancun Withdrawal Syndrome sets in immediately so I'm already planning the next trip to the Blue Bay Getaway! Reef Club Playacar April, 2003 Cameleon Marival Puerto Aventuras January, 2004 This was our 7th trip to the Mayan Riviera and our favorite resort yet! My husband, daughter and I were there Jan 24-31, we got a great room (7034) that overlooked the courtyard and was very close to the restaurants and pools. Housekeeping had the room done before noon every day and there were always plenty of towels & wash cloths. We had hot water all the time, even during peak shower times. There are always enough lounge chairs at any time of the day around the pools and beach and lagoon areas, and plenty of room to spread out, no one needs to be in your bubble! Many international guests so topless sunbathing is quite common at the beach and pools. The food was very good with great variety! We really liked that they seat you at peaks times in the buffet restaurants, this way there are no international incidents over seating. The waiters and bartenders were all wonderful, communicating was never a problem, most spoke 2 or more languages. We did eat at the Italian specialty restaurant once and were not impressed. All the reviews I had read said it was great so I think we just hit it on an off night. They also turn the beach snack bar into a specialty steak house once or twice a week and we ate there once, nothing special but it filled us up! The kids disco is really fun to watch even if you don't have your kids dancing in it and the nightly shows we watched were really good (absolutely amazing when you consider it's the animation staff performing in them and they have already put in 12 hours of work that day!) We never did make it to the disco because after a full day of fun & sun we were in bed by 11:30 when the place opens-oh well, just have to check it out next time we go! Puerto Aventuras is a great community just a 5-minute walk from the resort. There are enough shops around the marina to get your souvenirs with none of the carnival-like barking to come see their "treasures" (just NOT our thing). We had so much fun watching the dolphins, manatees and stingrays in the marina, seeing the boats come in with their daily catch and just people watching in general. My husband played a couple rounds of golf at the Puerto Aventuras public course and really enjoyed that too. The hotel does bring in vendors that set up in the courtyards in both the Cameleon and Lookea sides so you wouldn't even have to leave the resort to do your souvenir shopping. (But definitely do!) Take advantage of the entire resort, you are just at welcome at the Lookea side, in fact the place was at full occupancy and they will put you where ever there is room-no biggie! It appeared only French guests got a red bracelet and that just makes it easier for the staff to know what language to speak-Everyone gets top-notch service and treatment! Take the time to write down names of your favorite staff members and jot them down on the comment card the hotel slides under the door-this really helps them recieve promotions and raises! We will return to this resort! Blue Bay Getaway Cancun June, 2004 Copacabana Xpu-Ha April, 2005