Del Mar/ Lindo trip report

babs31 · 02-28-2005

The day had finally arrived. We left for Milwaukee on Saturday Feb 12. It was nice not to rush as we were staying overnight at the Baymont Inn in Milwaukee. After checking in we went to Red Lobster for Dinner and there was an hour wait at four in the afternoon, unbelievable. We were expecting to get to dinner early and then early to bed for our 5 A. M. wake up call to catch the shuttle to the airport. Flight time 8 A. M. Goodbye Wisconsin, hello fun in the sun!

Landed in Cancun and were bused from the plane on the tarmac to stand in line to go thru immigration. The wait was about 30 minutes and organized. Then we found/picked up our luggage and headed for the green/red light....pressed it, yes it was green. Getting to the door seemed to be like running the gauntlet. Do not talk to anyone - keep walking. It is so amazing that all these people seem to be employees of the airport and were there to help you. But they are all time share people. And there are many! Got outside and found our Apple rep who pointed us towards our transportation. The weather was beautiful, blue sky and sunshine!

We were at the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar by around two. The bell boys took our luggage and we proceded to check in. A very friendly gentleman helped us. I thought the Del Mar was full so I took the advice of someone who had posted previously about asking for an upgrade. I started with asking if we could have a complimentary upgrade to the Maya. I told him I have heard many wonderful things about it. That is was just beautiful, smiled smiled smiled (I really did not expect to get that upgrade). The gentleman responded with No that only the Lindo guest are upgraded to the Maya. So I asked for the upgrade to the Lindo. And that they could do. I forgot to tell him this trip was for our 25th wedding anniversary, and probably did not matter. They called for the bell boy to take us and our luggage to the Lindo where we were greeted with a refreshing drink and checked in.

They gave us building 50 which is down by the beach which was fine with us. We asked for something away from the front of the resort, king room and on the second or third floor. We had a 2nd floor room. The room was a beautiful junior suite, which gives you a couch, two chairs and table in a sitting area. I believe also your balcony is larger as the balcony to our left was much smaller than ours. Also on the balcony off the wall is a little clothes rack for drying your suits and things. The room had an iron, ironing board, coffee and coffee maker. The view from our balcony was beautiful. It faced the Beaches/ Del Mar side of the resorts. We enjoyed opening our patio door at night and in the morning and listening to the waves on the beach.

babs31 · 02-28-2005

Each building has it's own concierge. We made our reservations for dinner for the week. At the Lindo you are able to make reservations at the ala carte restaurants every night if you like. If we stayed at the Del Mar we were only given two for our stay. The we realized we were suppose to be at our orientation with the Apple rep and off we went.

As far as the restaurants go, we ate at the Cajun, Mexican, Steak house, Italian, the Beaches buffet, and the Steak house again Joe really liked the Steak house. Neither of us liked the Mexican. The steak house was located at the Maya resort. Breakfast we ate at Beaches buffet. We really enjoyed sitting outside and eating breakfast. Breakfast is wonderful, fresh fruit, smoothies, fresh squeezed orange juice and of course bacon, eggs and pancakes etc....it was interesting to see the european foods also.

It seemed as the majority of guest were from Canada or european. My estimate (and only a guess) would be about 1/3 American.

Nightly we explored the resorts. Daily we were at the pool on the Del Mar side when we did not leave the resort. The Maya is magnificent. But does not have the atmosphere that the other resorts have. All the resorts are beautiful. We caught the nightly entertainment, but never went to the disco. We spent the majority of our time on the Del mar side of the resort. Service everywhere is top notch. I cannot say enough about this resort, it is just absolutely stunning. Every day there was something I had not seen before. I was amazed at the peacocks sitting on top of the balcony walls. Can you imagine getting up and opening your patio door?

We really liked the location of our room. It was almost just as far to the Del Mar pool as the Lindo. We primarly used the Del Mar pool. It was hot in the afternoon by the Lindo pool as there is not as much shade. Joe's main objective of the trip was to sit pool side. I got a massage half way thru our stay. That was wonderful. I had my massage at the spa. You could also get a massage by the pool or the beach. The beach was beautiful. Lots of chairs and palapas. We never went down and "researved" a spot.

The resort provides transportation hourly to Playa Del Carmen.There are two travel buses that pickup. Be sure to note on the return trip, there is a 4:30 pickup an not again until 6:30. Buses ran a little late, just so you know in case you are pushed for time getting back. There are a lot of people going back but there were two buses. The first time we were waiting to come back and there were all these people I was starting to get worried we would have to wait for the 7:30. We went into Playa one day for shopping, and another day to Cozumel for snorkeling. The ferry to Cozumel was only $4. If you get airsick, take dramamine. I should have. We hired a snorkeling tour ($25) off the pier. I would have done that different. So if you want to snorkel on your own I would research it first. We had never snorkeled before and did not know what to expect. I am sure there are better places to snorkel at Cozumel. I swallowed some water while snorkeling which did not sit well with my stomach and after being seasick on the ferry....I ended up heaving over the side of the boat.

!

The end of our stay came too soon.

We had our bags picked up on the 19th at 6:45 A. M. Checked out at the main desk. The concierge said she would be there at 7 but the desk said 7:15. We needed to get breakfast before our 7:40 departure with Apple Vac. Apple was 15 minutes late. We stopped at another resort which then filled the bus. We got to the airport around 9 for our 10:35 flight. At 10 we were just to getting our luggage searched. And then check in. The computer breaks down and there is about 7 couples behind us yet. We finally get checked in at around 10:15 and still need to go thru security and find our gate. No duty free shopping for us! Needless to say our flight was delayed and yes our baggage made it. Our trip home was uneventful. And the only thing good about coming home was that we did not have to dig our van out of snow at the hotel.

Our vacation was wonderul

, thank you to our friends who suggested this resort to us. Oh yeah, my favorite drink...mojetos (sp) , but you could not get them at all the bars as I often ran into the problem that they did not have the mint leaves there.

Pictures here:http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4265609&a=31648927&f

Movie (until March 3) http://babsjvd.neptune.com

babs31 · 02-28-2005

lets try this again!

Movie: http://babsjvd.neptune.com/

Calimari · 02-28-2005

OK - now I'm feeling guilty for not getting my trip report done yet. We went down to the DelMar from Feb 12 - 19, but we were upgraded to the Maya halfway thru the trip. I'll get starting on a report soon!

babs31 · 02-28-2005

did you enjoy your trip?!!! I know you did. What were the rooms like at the Del Mar? I kind of wish we started there and then moved because I would have liked to experienced both rooms.

NorthMinnesota · 02-28-2005

Great report and nice slideshow!

Hope to visit Iberostar resorts sometime soon!

Banzoomba · 02-28-2005

Wow great report, and good insight on the upgrade congrats on the great trip.

AngieO · 02-28-2005

Great trip report..

Brings back memories. We were at the Lindo last year in the same building. Since you spent so much time on the Del Mar/Beach side would you book the Lindo next time or the B/DM. We didn't even go over to the Del Mar during the day just went to the disco at night. I wish we had. This years trip planning would have been alot easier..lol. After much thought we opted for the Ibero* Tucan this year so we can be closer to town. We felt we missed out on the "Playa experience" being so far away from town. We just kinda vegged out all week. Not that its a bad thing but maybe being closer to town will get us moving out of the beach chair..lol.. I loved the pics...Thanks

Angie

Robino · 03-01-2005

We head to the Lindo in July -- thanks for sharing your movie!

ZAEM · 03-01-2005

Thats a great video. Im going to show my parents they head to the Lindo on the 26th.

Calimari · 03-01-2005

Love the video slideshow! Especially the sunrise over the water shots. We had a great time - our trip review is underway for the Del Mar/ Maya now.

SunDowner · 03-01-2005

Nice trip report. Loved the slideshow

babs31 · 03-01-2005

Angie, I would still book the Del Mar.

It is hard because I never saw a room from the Del Mar. The down side to having access to all the restaurants is you are on a time schedule for dinner. It was difficult to get a 7 P. M. time slot. Only had it once, one at 8:30 the rest were 6. After getting home I realized it would have been nice just to go eat whenever! Our room at the Lindo was beautiful, and very nice. We ate Breakfast everyday on the Del mar/ Beaches side. Went for lunch once at the Lindo restaurant by the pool decided to go up to the lunch buffet where they have the Italian dinner. Much nicer. I agree about the Del mar / beaches side is just more beautiful. I never steped foot in the Lindo pool outside of the lazy lazy river. It was a wonderful vacation!

Calimari · 03-03-2005

Hey - I sent your slideshow movie to my husband to see. He looked at it and said - "Hey - I was taking pictures of those peacocks the same time this guy was. I didn't realize I was in his way!"

Small world!

02-28-2005	#1 (permalink)
babs31 life=playa Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: south of Green Bay Posts: 849	Del Mar/ Lindo trip report The day had finally arrived. We left for Milwaukee on Saturday Feb 12. It was nice not to rush as we were staying overnight at the Baymont Inn in Milwaukee. After checking in we went to Red Lobster for Dinner and there was an hour wait at four in the afternoon, unbelievable. We were expecting to get to dinner early and then early to bed for our 5 A. M. wake up call to catch the shuttle to the airport. Flight time 8 A. M. Goodbye Wisconsin, hello fun in the sun! Landed in Cancun and were bused from the plane on the tarmac to stand in line to go thru immigration. The wait was about 30 minutes and organized. Then we found/picked up our luggage and headed for the green/red light....pressed it, yes it was green. Getting to the door seemed to be like running the gauntlet. Do not talk to anyone - keep walking. It is so amazing that all these people seem to be employees of the airport and were there to help you. But they are all time share people. And there are many! Got outside and found our Apple rep who pointed us towards our transportation. The weather was beautiful, blue sky and sunshine! We were at the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar by around two. The bell boys took our luggage and we proceded to check in. A very friendly gentleman helped us. I thought the Del Mar was full so I took the advice of someone who had posted previously about asking for an upgrade. I started with asking if we could have a complimentary upgrade to the Maya. I told him I have heard many wonderful things about it. That is was just beautiful, smiled smiled smiled (I really did not expect to get that upgrade). The gentleman responded with No that only the Lindo guest are upgraded to the Maya. So I asked for the upgrade to the Lindo. And that they could do. I forgot to tell him this trip was for our 25th wedding anniversary, and probably did not matter. They called for the bell boy to take us and our luggage to the Lindo where we were greeted with a refreshing drink and checked in. They gave us building 50 which is down by the beach which was fine with us. We asked for something away from the front of the resort, king room and on the second or third floor. We had a 2nd floor room. The room was a beautiful junior suite, which gives you a couch, two chairs and table in a sitting area. I believe also your balcony is larger as the balcony to our left was much smaller than ours. Also on the balcony off the wall is a little clothes rack for drying your suits and things. The room had an iron, ironing board, coffee and coffee maker. The view from our balcony was beautiful. It faced the Beaches/ Del Mar side of the resorts. We enjoyed opening our patio door at night and in the morning and listening to the waves on the beach. __________________ waiting for the next wonderful vacation you can take the girl out of the desert but you cannot take the desert out of the girl!

03-01-2005	#10 (permalink)
ZAEM life=playa Join Date: May 2004 Location: Northern Massachusetts Posts: 659	Your video Thats a great video. Im going to show my parents they head to the Lindo on the 26th. Last edited by Cutter Family : 03-01-2005 at 11:29 AM. Reason: typo

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02-28-2005	#2 (permalink)
babs31 life=playa Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: south of Green Bay Posts: 849	Each building has it's own concierge. We made our reservations for dinner for the week. At the Lindo you are able to make reservations at the ala carte restaurants every night if you like. If we stayed at the Del Mar we were only given two for our stay. The we realized we were suppose to be at our orientation with the Apple rep and off we went. As far as the restaurants go, we ate at the Cajun, Mexican, Steak house, Italian, the Beaches buffet, and the Steak house again Joe really liked the Steak house. Neither of us liked the Mexican. The steak house was located at the Maya resort. Breakfast we ate at Beaches buffet. We really enjoyed sitting outside and eating breakfast. Breakfast is wonderful, fresh fruit, smoothies, fresh squeezed orange juice and of course bacon, eggs and pancakes etc....it was interesting to see the european foods also. It seemed as the majority of guest were from Canada or european. My estimate (and only a guess) would be about 1/3 American. Nightly we explored the resorts. Daily we were at the pool on the Del Mar side when we did not leave the resort. The Maya is magnificent. But does not have the atmosphere that the other resorts have. All the resorts are beautiful. We caught the nightly entertainment, but never went to the disco. We spent the majority of our time on the Del mar side of the resort. Service everywhere is top notch. I cannot say enough about this resort, it is just absolutely stunning. Every day there was something I had not seen before. I was amazed at the peacocks sitting on top of the balcony walls. Can you imagine getting up and opening your patio door? We really liked the location of our room. It was almost just as far to the Del Mar pool as the Lindo. We primarly used the Del Mar pool. It was hot in the afternoon by the Lindo pool as there is not as much shade. Joe's main objective of the trip was to sit pool side. I got a massage half way thru our stay. That was wonderful. I had my massage at the spa. You could also get a massage by the pool or the beach. The beach was beautiful. Lots of chairs and palapas. We never went down and "researved" a spot. The resort provides transportation hourly to Playa Del Carmen.There are two travel buses that pickup. Be sure to note on the return trip, there is a 4:30 pickup an not again until 6:30. Buses ran a little late, just so you know in case you are pushed for time getting back. There are a lot of people going back but there were two buses. The first time we were waiting to come back and there were all these people I was starting to get worried we would have to wait for the 7:30. We went into Playa one day for shopping, and another day to Cozumel for snorkeling. The ferry to Cozumel was only $4. If you get airsick, take dramamine. I should have. We hired a snorkeling tour ($25) off the pier. I would have done that different. So if you want to snorkel on your own I would research it first. We had never snorkeled before and did not know what to expect. I am sure there are better places to snorkel at Cozumel. I swallowed some water while snorkeling which did not sit well with my stomach and after being seasick on the ferry....I ended up heaving over the side of the boat. ! The end of our stay came too soon. We had our bags picked up on the 19th at 6:45 A. M. Checked out at the main desk. The concierge said she would be there at 7 but the desk said 7:15. We needed to get breakfast before our 7:40 departure with Apple Vac. Apple was 15 minutes late. We stopped at another resort which then filled the bus. We got to the airport around 9 for our 10:35 flight. At 10 we were just to getting our luggage searched. And then check in. The computer breaks down and there is about 7 couples behind us yet. We finally get checked in at around 10:15 and still need to go thru security and find our gate. No duty free shopping for us! Needless to say our flight was delayed and yes our baggage made it. Our trip home was uneventful. And the only thing good about coming home was that we did not have to dig our van out of snow at the hotel. Our vacation was wonderul , thank you to our friends who suggested this resort to us. Oh yeah, my favorite drink...mojetos (sp) , but you could not get them at all the bars as I often ran into the problem that they did not have the mint leaves there. Pictures here:http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4265609&a=31648927&f Movie (until March 3) http://babsjvd.neptune.com

02-28-2005	#3 (permalink)
babs31 life=playa Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: south of Green Bay Posts: 849	lets try this again! Movie: http://babsjvd.neptune.com/

02-28-2005	#4 (permalink)
Calimari toe in water Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 57	OK - now I'm feeling guilty for not getting my trip report done yet. We went down to the DelMar from Feb 12 - 19, but we were upgraded to the Maya halfway thru the trip. I'll get starting on a report soon!

02-28-2005	#5 (permalink)
babs31 life=playa Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: south of Green Bay Posts: 849	did you enjoy your trip?!!! I know you did. What were the rooms like at the Del Mar? I kind of wish we started there and then moved because I would have liked to experienced both rooms.

02-28-2005	#6 (permalink)
NorthMinnesota añejo Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Minnesota Posts: 5,599	Great report and nice slideshow! Hope to visit Iberostar resorts sometime soon!

02-28-2005	#7 (permalink)
Banzoomba big sexy speedo guy Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Top of the Chesapeake Bay, Md Posts: 9,276	Wow great report, and good insight on the upgrade congrats on the great trip.

02-28-2005	#8 (permalink)
AngieO lost on fifth Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 17	Great trip report.. Brings back memories. We were at the Lindo last year in the same building. Since you spent so much time on the Del Mar/Beach side would you book the Lindo next time or the B/DM. We didn't even go over to the Del Mar during the day just went to the disco at night. I wish we had. This years trip planning would have been alot easier..lol. After much thought we opted for the Ibero* Tucan this year so we can be closer to town. We felt we missed out on the "Playa experience" being so far away from town. We just kinda vegged out all week. Not that its a bad thing but maybe being closer to town will get us moving out of the beach chair..lol.. I loved the pics...Thanks Angie

03-01-2005	#9 (permalink)
Robino beachaholic Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 282	We head to the Lindo in July -- thanks for sharing your movie!

03-01-2005	#11 (permalink)
Calimari toe in water Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 57	Love the video slideshow! Especially the sunrise over the water shots. We had a great time - our trip review is underway for the Del Mar/ Maya now.

03-01-2005	#12 (permalink)
SunDowner beachaholic Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: West Virginia Posts: 493	Nice trip report. Loved the slideshow

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03-01-2005	#13 (permalink)
babs31 life=playa Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: south of Green Bay Posts: 849	Angie, I would still book the Del Mar. It is hard because I never saw a room from the Del Mar. The down side to having access to all the restaurants is you are on a time schedule for dinner. It was difficult to get a 7 P. M. time slot. Only had it once, one at 8:30 the rest were 6. After getting home I realized it would have been nice just to go eat whenever! Our room at the Lindo was beautiful, and very nice. We ate Breakfast everyday on the Del mar/ Beaches side. Went for lunch once at the Lindo restaurant by the pool decided to go up to the lunch buffet where they have the Italian dinner. Much nicer. I agree about the Del mar / beaches side is just more beautiful. I never steped foot in the Lindo pool outside of the lazy lazy river. It was a wonderful vacation!

03-03-2005	#14 (permalink)
Calimari toe in water Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 57	Hey - I sent your slideshow movie to my husband to see. He looked at it and said - "Hey - I was taking pictures of those peacocks the same time this guy was. I didn't realize I was in his way!" Small world!