Colonial Fiesta Grand Trip Report

[Ruth]

Well since it was so helpful for me to read trip reports that were posted before we left, I wanted to return the favor and post a report of our trip to Colonial Fiesta Grand.

We arrived at the resort at about 3 PM on Nov. 25. Check-in took just a few minutes and then we were driven in a golf cart with our luggage to our room (1228). We had made our dinner reservations for the week, had a snack at the beach bar and took our first dip in the ocean before dinner at the buffet. The flag was red that day, but we swam anyhow. Every other day the flag was yellow although some days it was so calm I thought it should be green. I have a feeling they never use the green flag! It was a bit cool that late afternoon as it was the next morning, but by 10 AM on Tuesday it was nice and warm. The weather was great for most of the trip. There were a couple of mornings it was too cool at first for me to get in the pool or ocean, but it always warmed up enough by late morning. Since we took tours of Mayan ruins I was really glad on those days it wasn't super hot. It rained a couple of times over the nine days for very brief periods of times. The first time it rained during dinner. Only one time did it rain while we were outside - it never interfered with our plans in any way.
We are in our early 30's and have never been to an AI or gone on a cruise before. It's my husband's second time in the Caribbean (we honeymooned in St. Lucia) and my third time as I went to Cancun for a week when I was in high school with my family. I felt VERY pampered on the trip - it was a very special week for us...it seemed very luxurious to me but wasn't nearly as expensive as it felt.
We spent Tuesday at the resort all day and did participate in some of the activities like aerobics in the ocean, salsa lessons, and taking out a kayak.
Wednesday we rented a car. We had planned to just rent for two days, but Budget was having a special that if you rented for 2 days the third day was "free" (meaning you only pay insurance). So we rented it for three days (a Nissan Tsuru with AC). Wednesday we drove to Akumal. First we snorkeled in Yalku Lagoon for a couple of hours - it cost 60 pesos each. We brought our own snorkels, masks, and fins. I accidently forgot our ecological sunscreen that we had bought at the resort (about $13 US) and I forgot a t-shirt so I my back was FRIED by the time we were done. My husband had a t-shirt so he only burned the back of his legs. Anyhow when we first were in the lagoon we didn't see much in the way of fish and all, but after some time we did see quite a bit of sea life.
We then drove to La Buena Vida for lunch. This was delightful - our table was near the beach and it was a most beautiful view! After lunch we drove to Akumal Bay where we met Alejandro of CEA who gave us a private over one hour snorkel tour for 140 pesos. It was outstanding! We saw 5 sea turtles, a barracuda, lobsters, conch, different kinds of coral, and many, many different kinds of fish. I highly recommend having him take you on a tour of Akumal Bay!
That night we had our first dinner at an alacarte restaurant - we went to the Italian one. The service was very impressive and the presentation of the food was excellent but I personally didn't like the food. My husband liked his meal (seafood) but I was disappointed by the salad bar and dessert bar (after being spoiled at the buffet restaurants) and I didn't like my main dish at all. I stopped at one of the buffet restaurants later for a snack.
Thursday we had breakfast at 7 and then drove to Coba. The road from Tulum to Coba is horrible. There are MANY HUGE potholes. Really they are the problem - not the "topes" (speed bumps) as the speed bumps are marked with signs and you can slow down. It was at times hard to dodge all the potholes. At Coba we paid for parking, paid to use the bathroom, and then paid to enter the site. We didn't hire the tours that were at the very beginning as they were priced much higher than the guides who were found just a little ways into the site. Our guide was excellent. It cost us 200 pesos for a 1 1/2 hour tour. I personally would have liked to rent a bike (25 pesos) or hire a driver (75 pesos for a ride in a tricycle) but we walked. It's quite a bit of walking! It was excellent though. He ended the tour at the pyramid which we then walked up - about 120 steps...hard to count as the steps are not all level. After walking back to the entrance we had lunch at one of the restaurants there - very reasonably priced.
We then drove back toward Tulum and stopped at the Grand Cenote on our way. We snorkled there for 50 pesos each. That was an excellent experience (cold!). We then drove to Tulum and toured the ruins there and also swam at the beach. The waves are VERY strong!
We had dinner at the buffet on Thursday and Friday night. The breakfast buffet was in general my favorite. They have pretty much every kind of breakfast food you can think of except maybe waffles. The breakfast menu seemed to be the same every day. We ate lunch on the days were at the resort at the Gran Azul -outdoor restaurant near the pool. My husband liked their salad bar better because they had a ranch type dressing whereas the buffet restaurant had only thousand island and italian. The highlight for me at lunch and dinner were the desserts - I have a serious sweet tooth! The exception would be on Sunday night when the buffet restaurant had a Mexican theme - wow the food was incredible that night. I enjoy Mexican food so it was hard to know what to pick. That was probably my husband's least favorite dinner - I think he had a slice of pizza and maybe some pasta. The crepe station was also something I really enjoyed at dinner.
On Friday we left around 6:00 AM (had croissants and OJ in the lobby as the buffet doesn't open til 7 AM) to drive to Chichen Itza. After we endured the stretch of road between Tulum and Coba the road was fine (meaning the potholes had been filled in). At Chichen Itza a gentleman from England was trying to get a group together for a tour. No one else joined us so we split the cost -he paid 200 pesos as did we for a 2 hour guided tour. At the conclusion of the excellent tour we climbed the inner and outer pyramid. The ball court there and many other buildings are very impressive. This site is much more rebuilt that Coba is. Coba is pure Mayan. Chichen Itza has Mayan structures as well as Toltec structures. We then stopped for lunch in Valladolid. My husband did NOT enjoy driving in that town! We asked for directions to Ek Balam, but unfortunatley we couldn't find the road to get there even though it was only about 20 KM away. So we just decided to go back to the resort as it's a LONG drive.
The next three days we spent at the resort. We had planned to go to Cozumel on Sunday but decided to just stay put because we wanted to relax and not go anywhere and also because we were enjoying the snorkeling at the resort. We saw MANY different kinds of fish right at the resort. I was thrilled. I would have enjoyed snorkeling off of Cozumel again...but we were enjoying a more relaxed schedule.
Saturday we went to the Mexican a la carte restaurant - it was my favorite. The Azteca soup was outstanding, I liked the salad bar better than the Italian restaurant, and the main dish was great as well. The dessert was not what I was expecting and was very, very tiny - but everything else was wonderful.
Monday we went to the El Dorado -steak restaurant. This was not my favorite as I am not a big steak eater, but my husband enjoyed this meal the most of any we had there. We both had rib eye steak. I had onion soup. For dessert I had a brownie (didn't like at all) and he had cheesecake which he enjoyed.
These three days at the resort we enjoyed reading under a palapa, swimming in the ocean, snorkeling in the ocean, kayaking in the ocean, and swimming in the pool. We didn't participate in many of the activites. Actually over the course of the whole 9 days we only participated in four events - aerobics in the ocean twice and dancing lessons twice. They do offer a wide variety of options though from water polo to vollyeball to Spanish lessons to scuba diving lessons, etc.
Other misc. info... the car rental was expensive at the resort. I know we could have gotten a better deal in PDC, but we opted for the ease of just having the car delivered to the resort. It still was cheaper than taking a bus tour and we were on our own schedule. As far as tipping goes - it was never asked for...and we didn't do it much. We tipped the maid a little almost every day. She made a swan one day in the bathroom with the towels and a turtle on the bed another day. She did an excellent job and would even straighten things up like arranging our shoes or whatever. We used the safe and don't wear expensive clothes so I never worried about anything being taken. We never tipped in the buffet restaurants - and frankly I never noticed anyone else tipping there either. We don't drink alcohol. We never tipped at the bars. My husband drank soda all the time; I had water at the restaurants and various non-alcoholic fruity drinks at the bars. We did tip at the a la carte restaurants.
Things I found helpful that we brought included a travel alarm clock and a water safe watch...there are hardly any clocks to be found anywhere at the resort! We also made good use of a collapsible cooler that we filled with ice from the ice machine and the drinks from the refrig in our room when we were going on trips off of the resort. It was also nice to have our own snorkels, masks, and fins and a bag to carry them in. We also made good use of our underwater camera and water proof money container. Things we didn't end up needing...the maps, a roll of toilet paper (I never was in a bathroom that didn't have any), moist towlettes (preferred just to wash my hands in a bathroom), and inflatable raft (ended up being a nuissance to carry to the beach once it was inflated). We also probably could have done without the Aquapac I purchased for the camera since I took along a water proof camera as well.
I cannot speak to the quality of the entertainment as we always were asleep before the show started! We kept meaning to stay up - but the sun seemed to make us want to go to bed earlier than normal. Plus it meant we had a more restful vacation.
Well post any questions you might have and I will try to be as helpful as everyone was to me when we were planning our trip. If you have booked a trip to Fiesta, I think you will be VERY pleased. We certainly were and would highly recommend the resort!!!

[pun]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time, Ruth. Thank you for the great trip report!

Vince

Thanks for posting such a detailed account of your trip.
My husband and I are heading there in 2 days and can't wait!!! It sounds so great! We've never been on a trip like this before so we are very excited about it!!