El Dorado Royale Trip Report

bmar · 08-15-2005

Thanks to everyone for the invaluable information I recieved before my trip.

Here's my little repayment.

After a nervous couple of weeks leading up to our wedding and honeymoon, we finally got on our way. The first leg of our flight went without a hitch, we even arrived in Memphis early. Shoulda known that was not a good sign. The plane finally arrived a little more than 2 hours late (not the airlines fault, bad weather in Minneapolis), then we sat on the plane for another hour, while they fixed a couple of mechanical problems. We were the second couple to board one of those big shuttle buses at the airport, so another 45 minutes of waiting. Thankfully EDR was the 2nd drop off. We were given our room assignment and dinner reservation and off we went in the golf cart.

Room - We were in building 4400 with an oceanview, well kinda, you could see a little bit of water. I think they put the old people in the farthest building to see if we could hang! Most of the time it wasn't too bad, but I think the stay might have been better if we had a more central location. I was usually happy for the long walk back to the room after stuffing my face at dinner. The room was really nice, only problems were the bed, ac and refrigerator. The bed was really really firm, my back is still screaming at me.

The ac blew directly down on the bed and we were either really warm or freezing. Thank goodness for the curtain! I found a paperclip in my purse and clipped the curtain together to help block the cold air blast. The refrigerator is apparently not supposed to keep the drinks cold, just cool them off. We ordered ice from room service to cool down the beer and water. (Don't leave the room after calling for room service, they'll leave your ice outside your door

)

Food - Make your dinner reservations as soon as possible. With our late arrival we couldn't make reservations for our stay until the next day and only got to chose between 2 restaurants with seating before 6:00 or after 9:00 for the first 2 nights. We ate late everynight, too hot to eat early. We went to the lobby to make our dinner reservations, there were several people waiting and we were told it would be awhile but we would follow the couple the guy had just talked to. So we checked out the shops, when we came back we didn't see the couple anywhere, but there were still some of the other folks waiting, then we hear them call a number. Wait a minute, they're giving numbers out...no one gave us a number! Another couple told us they were taking reservations by La Isla restaurant and there were only 3 couples in line, so we ran over there to stand in line again, but at least we knew where we stood. Everything we ate was wonderful! My favorite was Jo Jo's. At our last breakfast I was making myself a Mimosa when I knocked something off the counter onto the shelf full of glasses...made quite a scene.

Beach - We aren't really beach folks...we're more swim-up bar pool people. The beach was nice, but the whale things really distracted from the view of the sea. I'd heard they had beach beds at EDR, but we couldn't find any. Maybe they were damaged in the hurricane.

Shuttle to Playa - The shuttle was full for our entire trip, so make your reservations early. It goes to PDC at 6 pm and returns at 10:30 pm and goes to Cancun at noon and returns at 6:00 pm. It cost $18 - $20 for a taxi to PDC.

Worry Free Travel - We bought the Buggy trip to Cozumel. The rep. told us there were no cruise ships in Cozumel on Fridays! We saw 4 very large ships docked in Cozumel, but I'm sure they weren't cruise ships, I know that guy wouldn't lie to me! Anyways the Buggy trip was fun...had my first taste (pun intended

) of snorkeling. For whatever reason, we were told we had to wait until the day before we left to find out what time the shuttle would pick us up to take us to the airport, we didn't argue...trying not to think about leaving I guess.

We had the Buggy trip scheduled for that last day and the guy assured us that they would leave us a message with the time. As I'm sure you can guess, there was no message when we got back. We knew from previous experience about what time we would need to be ready. We were told Worry Free wouldn't open until 9:00 and I was figuring we needed to leave around 9:30...not so worry free anymore. We had our luggage taken to the lobby and ran into a Worry Free Rep a little after 9:00, our pick up was at 9:55. The shuttle back to the airport is always a lot quieter than the arrival shuttle!

Hurricane Damage: We didn't notice any real damage at EDR. There were some missing roof tiles, but don't know if those were from the storm or not. Some of the trees looked a little shabby, but that's about it at the resort. We didn't make it to the beach in PDC except at ****** and that was at night, so I can't really give any updates. We saw quite a bit of damage in Cozumel and couldn't go to one side of the island due to a road still being closed.

Time to go home.

When we got on the plane I thought it was pretty hot, but then I'd been melting for 6 days, so what do I know. Well, I guess NW sent a plane to Cancun that had a broken engine that ran the air conditioner! Not only did the engine that ran the ac not work, but none of the engines were running! They were going to have to jump start the right engine, taxi out, start the left engine from the right engine and then the two engines would take over the ac!!! I really don't know anything about such things, but this just didn't seem quite right to me! The pilot had them put some more fuel in, so we could make up some time in the air. The ground crew broke a fuel coupling and the plane had to be evacuated. To make things even worse, passengers had to tell the crew what had happened with the fuel thing! We finally reboarded and limped out to the taxi way, got the left engine started and the a/c flowing after about an hour. We had an 1 1/2 hour lay over for our final flight home, so I'm getting nervous about making our connection. When we had to fly around a storm that took us another 10 mins out of the way, I was really concerned. We ran through the airport carrying our shoes, not so easy for middle agers, only to find out our connecting flight was also delayed. More mechanical problems! It will be a long time before we fly Northwest again!

EDR wasn't really for us, too big, but it was really beautiful, the service was great and the food/drinks were wonderful! Hope my tips help a little and you all have great trips to EDR and PDC!!!

JustMarried · 08-16-2005

Thanks for the great trip report. I am getting so excited for our honeymoon in less than 2 weeks!! We were married on July 2nd, but due to work obligations we had to wait for the honeymoon!!

One quick question... would you advise to take the shuttle to Playa del Carmen one night to see the sights and eat in a restaurant there?

Also, what is the buggy ride in Cozumel???

Thanks!

bmar · 08-16-2005

Congrats on the recent marriage!

Going into PDC for dinner and shopping is a must! You'll find lots of great restaurant reviews on this site. We ate at the ****** because we were attending a "Peep Meet" there. The food wasn't that great but the fire show that starts at 11:00 is really cool.

The Cozemel Buggy Trip included transportation to and from the ferry in PDC to Cozumel. Once in Cozumel you're divided into groups of 4 and are assigned to drive either a dune buggy or jeep to a beach to go snorkeling for about 30 minutes. Then we drove to a small village a little bit inland for just a few minutes. Our group didn't want to do any shopping there, but it was offered. We then drove to another beach where we were served a Mexican buffet lunch and a chance to cool off in the sea. We then drove back to Cozumel where we had about an hour to shop and grab some drinks before the ferry back to PDC. We left the hotel at 8:45 am and returned around 7:30 pm. The only downfall is that you can't drink alcohol...I guess it's frowned upon to drink and drive.

The guids had lots of water and soda. I'm sure you can do everything that we did cheaper, but the last time we went to Cozumel we didn't know what to do and just wonder around for a few hours and left without doing anything, so the organized trip worked well for us. Maybe next time we'll venture out on our own.

Hope you have a great time. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.

PS - I found out that the beach beds are located in the casita section. By the time we walked from the main pool to the beginning of the casita section, we'd been out of the water long enough and headed back to the swim-up bar!

JustMarried · 08-17-2005

Just wondering, did you do the timeshare presentation while you were at EDR?

bmar · 08-17-2005

No we didn't. Our time there was way too short, so we didn't want to waste our time sitting through something we had no interest in. They started off offering us a $100 "Special Gift", but after a few days it went up to $200. They did call everyday at 9:00 am, so we quit answering the phone at that time if we happened to be in the room.

JJJ · 08-17-2005

Going down in September.... Are reservations needed for other than dinner?

What's your definition of "too big" We are just looking for a quiet, peaceful vacation...

bmar · 08-17-2005

Reservations aren't needed except for dinner.

We stayed at the Reef Coco Beach last year, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but we liked it more. Maybe it would have been different if we had been in a more central building, but it was quite a haul to get anywhere since we were in the farthest building. At Reef Coco you could just run to your room whenever you wanted to and the restaurants and lobby were all right there, EDR just wasn't as convenient for us. I also liked Reef Coco because of it's close location to 5th Ave. in PDC. Even though EDR is a large resort it never felt really crowded and we could always find an empty stool at the swim up bar.

Please don't get me wrong, EDR is a beautiful resort, I guess we're just lazy.

Hope you have a great time!

JJJ · 08-17-2005

Thanx for the info. If the resort is big I can handle it, just means I can have one more drink in the pool. Oh I still have to worry about the amount of the alcohol....

bmar · 08-17-2005

JJJ,
I don't think worrying about the amount of alcohol is allowed on vacation.

08-17-2005

.......... read my trip report JJJ and you'll get more info. we were in the casitas which were waaaaaaaaaaay far from everything, but would still go back. we're VERY old (49 & 51) :p , but the walk did us good. if we really couldn't handle it,

we called or flagged down a golf cart!

JJJ · 08-17-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmar

JJJ,
I don't think worrying about the amount of alcohol is allowed on vacation.

Oh yah the kids are staying home............ See I need this vacation really bad...

cpfstich · 08-17-2005

bmar:

You may want to try El Dorado Seaside Suites next time. It's also owned by Karisma, but is smaller than EDR. We stayed at EDR in 2003 & 2004, and though we loved it, we stayed at Seaside Suites in 2005. We are going back to EDSS in 2006!

bmar · 08-18-2005

Craig,
We were booked at EDSS, but after the hurricane we had to switch. This was our honeymoon, so we really didn't want to wait until EDSS was reopened. Fortunately have a wonderful TA (Shammy)

and were very thankful she was able to get us into another resort. Although EDR is a beautiful, I think EDSS might have been more our thing. There's always next year!
Bonnie

JJJ · 08-18-2005

well I will live and learn and make the best of any time away from the shores of Lake Michigan..

08-15-2005	#1 (permalink)
bmar way into it Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lee's Summit, MO Posts: 145	El Dorado Royale Trip Report Thanks to everyone for the invaluable information I recieved before my trip. Here's my little repayment. After a nervous couple of weeks leading up to our wedding and honeymoon, we finally got on our way. The first leg of our flight went without a hitch, we even arrived in Memphis early. Shoulda known that was not a good sign. The plane finally arrived a little more than 2 hours late (not the airlines fault, bad weather in Minneapolis), then we sat on the plane for another hour, while they fixed a couple of mechanical problems. We were the second couple to board one of those big shuttle buses at the airport, so another 45 minutes of waiting. Thankfully EDR was the 2nd drop off. We were given our room assignment and dinner reservation and off we went in the golf cart. Room - We were in building 4400 with an oceanview, well kinda, you could see a little bit of water. I think they put the old people in the farthest building to see if we could hang! Most of the time it wasn't too bad, but I think the stay might have been better if we had a more central location. I was usually happy for the long walk back to the room after stuffing my face at dinner. The room was really nice, only problems were the bed, ac and refrigerator. The bed was really really firm, my back is still screaming at me. The ac blew directly down on the bed and we were either really warm or freezing. Thank goodness for the curtain! I found a paperclip in my purse and clipped the curtain together to help block the cold air blast. The refrigerator is apparently not supposed to keep the drinks cold, just cool them off. We ordered ice from room service to cool down the beer and water. (Don't leave the room after calling for room service, they'll leave your ice outside your door ) Food - Make your dinner reservations as soon as possible. With our late arrival we couldn't make reservations for our stay until the next day and only got to chose between 2 restaurants with seating before 6:00 or after 9:00 for the first 2 nights. We ate late everynight, too hot to eat early. We went to the lobby to make our dinner reservations, there were several people waiting and we were told it would be awhile but we would follow the couple the guy had just talked to. So we checked out the shops, when we came back we didn't see the couple anywhere, but there were still some of the other folks waiting, then we hear them call a number. Wait a minute, they're giving numbers out...no one gave us a number! Another couple told us they were taking reservations by La Isla restaurant and there were only 3 couples in line, so we ran over there to stand in line again, but at least we knew where we stood. Everything we ate was wonderful! My favorite was Jo Jo's. At our last breakfast I was making myself a Mimosa when I knocked something off the counter onto the shelf full of glasses...made quite a scene. Beach - We aren't really beach folks...we're more swim-up bar pool people. The beach was nice, but the whale things really distracted from the view of the sea. I'd heard they had beach beds at EDR, but we couldn't find any. Maybe they were damaged in the hurricane. Shuttle to Playa - The shuttle was full for our entire trip, so make your reservations early. It goes to PDC at 6 pm and returns at 10:30 pm and goes to Cancun at noon and returns at 6:00 pm. It cost $18 - $20 for a taxi to PDC. Worry Free Travel - We bought the Buggy trip to Cozumel. The rep. told us there were no cruise ships in Cozumel on Fridays! We saw 4 very large ships docked in Cozumel, but I'm sure they weren't cruise ships, I know that guy wouldn't lie to me! Anyways the Buggy trip was fun...had my first taste (pun intended ) of snorkeling. For whatever reason, we were told we had to wait until the day before we left to find out what time the shuttle would pick us up to take us to the airport, we didn't argue...trying not to think about leaving I guess. We had the Buggy trip scheduled for that last day and the guy assured us that they would leave us a message with the time. As I'm sure you can guess, there was no message when we got back. We knew from previous experience about what time we would need to be ready. We were told Worry Free wouldn't open until 9:00 and I was figuring we needed to leave around 9:30...not so worry free anymore. We had our luggage taken to the lobby and ran into a Worry Free Rep a little after 9:00, our pick up was at 9:55. The shuttle back to the airport is always a lot quieter than the arrival shuttle! Hurricane Damage: We didn't notice any real damage at EDR. There were some missing roof tiles, but don't know if those were from the storm or not. Some of the trees looked a little shabby, but that's about it at the resort. We didn't make it to the beach in PDC except at ****** and that was at night, so I can't really give any updates. We saw quite a bit of damage in Cozumel and couldn't go to one side of the island due to a road still being closed. Time to go home. When we got on the plane I thought it was pretty hot, but then I'd been melting for 6 days, so what do I know. Well, I guess NW sent a plane to Cancun that had a broken engine that ran the air conditioner! Not only did the engine that ran the ac not work, but none of the engines were running! They were going to have to jump start the right engine, taxi out, start the left engine from the right engine and then the two engines would take over the ac!!! I really don't know anything about such things, but this just didn't seem quite right to me! The pilot had them put some more fuel in, so we could make up some time in the air. The ground crew broke a fuel coupling and the plane had to be evacuated. To make things even worse, passengers had to tell the crew what had happened with the fuel thing! We finally reboarded and limped out to the taxi way, got the left engine started and the a/c flowing after about an hour. We had an 1 1/2 hour lay over for our final flight home, so I'm getting nervous about making our connection. When we had to fly around a storm that took us another 10 mins out of the way, I was really concerned. We ran through the airport carrying our shoes, not so easy for middle agers, only to find out our connecting flight was also delayed. More mechanical problems! It will be a long time before we fly Northwest again! EDR wasn't really for us, too big, but it was really beautiful, the service was great and the food/drinks were wonderful! Hope my tips help a little and you all have great trips to EDR and PDC!!! __________________

08-16-2005	#2 (permalink)
JustMarried sandflea Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 5	Thanks Thanks for the great trip report. I am getting so excited for our honeymoon in less than 2 weeks!! We were married on July 2nd, but due to work obligations we had to wait for the honeymoon!! One quick question... would you advise to take the shuttle to Playa del Carmen one night to see the sights and eat in a restaurant there? Also, what is the buggy ride in Cozumel??? Thanks!

08-17-2005	#4 (permalink)
JustMarried sandflea Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 5	Timeshare presentation Just wondering, did you do the timeshare presentation while you were at EDR?

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08-16-2005	#3 (permalink)
bmar way into it Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lee's Summit, MO Posts: 145	Congrats on the recent marriage! Going into PDC for dinner and shopping is a must! You'll find lots of great restaurant reviews on this site. We ate at the ****** because we were attending a "Peep Meet" there. The food wasn't that great but the fire show that starts at 11:00 is really cool. The Cozemel Buggy Trip included transportation to and from the ferry in PDC to Cozumel. Once in Cozumel you're divided into groups of 4 and are assigned to drive either a dune buggy or jeep to a beach to go snorkeling for about 30 minutes. Then we drove to a small village a little bit inland for just a few minutes. Our group didn't want to do any shopping there, but it was offered. We then drove to another beach where we were served a Mexican buffet lunch and a chance to cool off in the sea. We then drove back to Cozumel where we had about an hour to shop and grab some drinks before the ferry back to PDC. We left the hotel at 8:45 am and returned around 7:30 pm. The only downfall is that you can't drink alcohol...I guess it's frowned upon to drink and drive. The guids had lots of water and soda. I'm sure you can do everything that we did cheaper, but the last time we went to Cozumel we didn't know what to do and just wonder around for a few hours and left without doing anything, so the organized trip worked well for us. Maybe next time we'll venture out on our own. Hope you have a great time. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with. PS - I found out that the beach beds are located in the casita section. By the time we walked from the main pool to the beginning of the casita section, we'd been out of the water long enough and headed back to the swim-up bar!

08-17-2005	#5 (permalink)
bmar way into it Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lee's Summit, MO Posts: 145	No we didn't. Our time there was way too short, so we didn't want to waste our time sitting through something we had no interest in. They started off offering us a $100 "Special Gift", but after a few days it went up to $200. They did call everyday at 9:00 am, so we quit answering the phone at that time if we happened to be in the room.

08-17-2005	#6 (permalink)
JJJ toe in water Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 59	Going down in September.... Are reservations needed for other than dinner? What's your definition of "too big" We are just looking for a quiet, peaceful vacation...

08-17-2005	#7 (permalink)
bmar way into it Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lee's Summit, MO Posts: 145	Reservations aren't needed except for dinner. We stayed at the Reef Coco Beach last year, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but we liked it more. Maybe it would have been different if we had been in a more central building, but it was quite a haul to get anywhere since we were in the farthest building. At Reef Coco you could just run to your room whenever you wanted to and the restaurants and lobby were all right there, EDR just wasn't as convenient for us. I also liked Reef Coco because of it's close location to 5th Ave. in PDC. Even though EDR is a large resort it never felt really crowded and we could always find an empty stool at the swim up bar. Please don't get me wrong, EDR is a beautiful resort, I guess we're just lazy. Hope you have a great time!

08-17-2005	#8 (permalink)
JJJ toe in water Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 59	Thanx for the info. If the resort is big I can handle it, just means I can have one more drink in the pool. Oh I still have to worry about the amount of the alcohol....

08-17-2005	#9 (permalink)
bmar way into it Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lee's Summit, MO Posts: 145	JJJ, I don't think worrying about the amount of alcohol is allowed on vacation.

08-17-2005	#10 (permalink)
pj4texas Posts: n/a	.......... read my trip report JJJ and you'll get more info. we were in the casitas which were waaaaaaaaaaay far from everything, but would still go back. we're VERY old (49 & 51) :p , but the walk did us good. if we really couldn't handle it, we called or flagged down a golf cart!

08-17-2005	#12 (permalink)
cpfstich el poli Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 10,661	bmar: You may want to try El Dorado Seaside Suites next time. It's also owned by Karisma, but is smaller than EDR. We stayed at EDR in 2003 & 2004, and though we loved it, we stayed at Seaside Suites in 2005. We are going back to EDSS in 2006!

08-18-2005	#13 (permalink)
bmar way into it Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lee's Summit, MO Posts: 145	Craig, We were booked at EDSS, but after the hurricane we had to switch. This was our honeymoon, so we really didn't want to wait until EDSS was reopened. Fortunately have a wonderful TA (Shammy) and were very thankful she was able to get us into another resort. Although EDR is a beautiful, I think EDSS might have been more our thing. There's always next year! Bonnie

08-18-2005	#14 (permalink)
JJJ toe in water Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 59	well I will live and learn and make the best of any time away from the shores of Lake Michigan..

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