Overdue Trip Report - Aventura Spa Palace Supplement-Part 1

[djcmo]

I will be posting my trip reports on the general forum, but as promised, here is some info on the resort. It's in story format, so forgive me if it gets a little boring! If you have any specific questions, send me a message on this forum with your e-mail address and I will be glad to answer them. I also have several photos that I would be glad to share with anyone. I hope to have them uploaded to my website soon.

Well, here we go....

Aventura Spa Palace – Trip Report Supplemental – Part 1 or who knows how many (probably 2)

We arrived at the Aventura Spa Palace on Saturday, November 16, 2002 for an eight day/seven night stay booked through Funjet Vacations. This resort is essentially two resorts in one. The original resort was the Aventura Palace. Palace Resorts added a second resort to the property and then merged to two together. The architecture and finishes are the same so unless you’ve been to the resort before or have read other trip reports, you probably wouldn’t know the difference. The main lobby of the resort is on the “Spa” or new side of the resort.

When we first arrived we we’re greeted in the lobby with a glass of champagne while we waited for an available clerk. Once at the desk we were offered cool compresses (it was 89 degrees outside) while we checked-in. We were issued pink wristbands, room keys, a room safe key and lock, and towel cards. The counter clerk mentioned that we should stop by the honeymoon desk some time today. We weren’t really sure what that was about but we would soon find out. A porter drove us to our room in a golf cart and carried our luggage our room.

The room was very clean with a king size bed, mini-fridge with beer, bottled water, and soda, a wall mounted liquor dispenser with tequila, whiskey, rum, and something else, a two person Jacuzzi next to the patio doors, a huge walk-in shower with glass doors, coffee pot, more bottled water and hair dryer. The resort provides you with two robes to use during your visit. The TV had with several channels to choose from, however, only a couple were in English. On the dresser was a bottle of wine! Within ten minutes of our arrival, a guest services representative showed up at our door with a plate of cheese and crackers, a fruit basket, another bottle of wine, a bottle of champagne, and a corkscrew. We learned that this was part of our “honeymoon” package. We had teased our travel agent about this being our combined honeymoon and twentieth anniversary trip since we were never able to take a real honeymoon when we first got married. She apparently booked us as a honeymoon couple. I checked our receipts when we got back home and discovered that we were not charge any additional money for this package!

We changed into our swimsuits and set out for the pool but as we did the clouds were starting to build up and it looked like rain. It was around 3 pm and since we hadn’t eaten since 5:30 a.m. at the airport, we decided to check out the food at the pool bar. They had a little bit of everything including hamburgers, pizza, rueben sandwiches, BLT’s, fries, totopas (authentic nachos!), fresh salsa and guacamole (fantastic stuff!). After getting a bit to eat and knocking off a couple of beers and margaritas, we decided to explore the resort. We had only gotten a few yards from the pool bar when the rain cut loose so we retreated inside and decided to check out the inside amenities.

We made it to the south lobby (the original lobby for the Aventura side) and looked it over. The lobby has a beautiful stained-glass ceiling and there are several stained-glass frescos along the upper walls. From the lobby you can look out to an open courtyard area. The courtyard or “El Patio” as it was called, had tables and chairs, lots of vegetation, and a lovely Mexican fountain in the middle. Around the outside of this patio area was one of our favorite parts of the resort, the “Q” Bar. This is a happy hour bar complete with appetizers, pool tables, table games and perhaps the most affable member of the staff, Jośe the bartender. Not only was he the tallest of all the Mexican staff (over 6’) but he made a killer Miami Vice (combination Pińa Colada and strawberry daiquiri). In addition to the Q, there is another bar, a gift shop, and two of the three restaurants on the Aventura side; La Hacienda and Ventanas (more on restaurants later).

At the airport that morning the Funjet agent gave us a packet of information. In the packet was a note instructing us to meet Gerardo, one of the many Funjet (Lomas Travel) agents that are assigned to the resort, at 4 p.m. Since it was almost time, and we were already in the area, we decided to head over to the hallway where the travel reps have their offices. Gerardo was a very nice young man (early twenties) who would be responsible for setting up our return trip to the airport the following Saturday and who generally briefed us on the amenities of the resort and surrounding area. After that he sent us to see Alfredo at Guest Relations in the Main or “Spa” lobby.

If you don’t want to walk to the other lobby, you can go via golf cart. There is almost always an attendant available to drive you. We caught a cart and were soon in the Spa Lobby where we met Alfredo.
He gave us additional information about the resort and also talked to us about how we could earn “$100 in Palace Money” for taking a VIP tour. Palace money can be used in gift shops or for spa treatments. I had already been pre-warned about timeshare and RCI travel membership sharks. The last thing I wanted to do was waste several hours listening to high-pressure sales talks. He said he would call us the next day to set up the tour, but fortunately the call never came and the subject never came up again during the week.

After Alfredo, came a trip to the Chaza Travel desk. Chaza Travel handles all of the trips offered by the resort. If you stay 3-4 nights you receive one tour, if you stay 5 + nights you get two tours which consist of Chichen Itza, Chichen Itza Light & Sound, Xpu-Ha/Tulum, Isla Mujeres, Coba, and Ek-Balam.
Alfredo told us that in reality, you can literally go on one every day if you want, particularly in the off season when occupancy is low. We booked a tour to Xpu-Ha/Tullum for Monday.

The resort offers free shuttle service daily to Playa del Carmen and Cancun. The shuttle leaves each morning at 7:50 a.m. from the Main Lobby.

The next stop was the honeymoon desk where we met Ofelia. Ofelia informed us that there would be a reception for all the honeymooners at 5 p.m. on Tuesday and a special seating for us on Thursday at La Hacienda. She then went and got us our own “Recently Married” t-shirts!

Before heading back to the Aventura side, we decided to check out the Spa side of the resort. The lobby area complete with open courtyard is somewhat a mirror image of the Aventura side although the amenities surrounding the courtyard are a bit more upscale including a jewelry store, spa and golf stores, two more restaurants and the entrance to the workout facilities. As a parks and recreation employee, I had to check out the workout area. I was very impressed. They had a spacious aerobics area, spin cycle facility, weight room with state of the are weights and cardio equipment which overlooked an indoor pool with 3 hot tubs.

The rain had subsided some so we decided to walk back to our room via the beach side of the resort.
The pool on the Spa side is smaller but has a swim pool bar similar to the one on the Aventura side. The El Greco restaurant is located next to the pool bar. Both sides of the resort have a man-made lagoon, however, the Spa side really doesn’t have much of a beach. In addition, the have these little message huts sitting out in the lagoon. Some of the other amenities included a cross current pool, Zen labyrinth (don’t ask, I didn’t get it either), an obstacle course, rock climbing wall, and a large, glass walled palapa hut with weightlifting equipment overlooking the lagoon and ocean.

We each grabbed a drink at the Spa side pool bar for the walk back. we got back to the Aventura side and investigated the beach and pool area more thoroughly. We both thought the beach could use more sand. The pool is spectacular. Lots of vegetation, plenty of lounge furniture, palapa huts and shade umbrellas, water volleyball court, water polo court, and even a water basketball hoop! Towel could be checked out at a small building which also doubled as the office for the resorts scuba instructors. These instructors give you a free basic lesson and then try to sell you a diving tour!

Next to the pool bar is the activity hut where the recreation staff host a variety of activities throughout the day including but not limited to Spanish lessons, cooking lessons, bike tours, volleyball matches, crafts, etc. At the north end of the pool is the Mundaca restaurant.

The beach has an assortment of loungers, kayaks, and paddle boats. Inlets at either end of the lagoon allow fresh ocean water to come in as well as an assortment of sea creatures to look at while snorkeling.

We stopped again at the Aventura Pool Bar and got a couple of drinks to go and a carry out foam container of totopas/salsa/guacamole and headed for our room. Just as we reached our building, the sky once again opened up. We filled up the jacuzzi, relaxed to some nice music while we knocked off our food and drinks. After that we went out on the balcony and jumped into the hammock together (commando style if you catch my drift). Did I mention that each room has a balcony (patio for the ground floor dwellers) and a hammock? We were in room 2034, which translated means, 2nd floor, building 0, room 34. The odd numbered rooms in building 0 look out to the pool area, while the even numbers look out toward the city of Puerto Aventura, although you can still see the ocean from the room. A lot of people might not like this side, but we didn’t mind because it provided us with more privacy (us little devils!)

After hanging out in the hammock, literally and physically, we jumped into the large over-size shower.

By the time we got out of the shower, it was all of 7 p.m. and the full day of traveling (we were up a 3:45 a.m.) and the many drinks along the way had caught up to us. We decided to call room service instead of going out to eat, but we decided against it because we figured we’d be asleep before it got to us!

Each night the resort offers entertainment or activities in the Aventura side lobby (remember El Patio!), but to be honest, we never saw or enjoyed any of it. Most of the activities started at 9 p.m. or later. With all the daytime touring we did, we were too tired to want to get cleaned up and go back out. Most nights, we didn’t even get back to resort until after 7 p.m. We would often stop by the Q bar on the way in, let José hook us up with a couple of drinks each and a “to-go” box of appetizers and then we would head to our room. In fact, I think we only ate three dinners in the restaurants at the resort. We would either order room service or get by on happy hour fare.

More later!

DJ

[Munichchick]

Wow DJ! What a great, detailed and informative report. Sure sounds like the resort has excellent amenities and service and you must have had a fantastic vacation (anniversary). We stayed at the Iberostar Quetzal for our 10 year anniversary and will be in Akumal for our 14 year anniversary this May. I have a question about Xpu-Ha. Of course you got access to the Xpu-Ha Palace because it is a sister resort to the Aventura Palace but do you know if people can pay an entrance fee to enjoy the lagoon there? It used to be an eco-park before they built the Xpu-Ha Palace.

We didn't stay at Xpu-ha Palace, but we wandered through one day as we were staying next door at Barcelo Maya. It appeared that the lagoon was integrated with the resort (ie for the guests), not something separate. It is in quite a unique setting.

We are so excited about going to Xpuha in March. Would lo9ve to hear your re port and about your stay thanks