Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda 6/6/09-6/10/09

playa4eva · 06-11-2009

I am going to do my best at a 2nd trip report. This was our 3rd trip to Playa del Carmen. Our 2nd trip report never happened because we lost our camera in a fight with a sand whale

in front of Iberostar Quetzal last year, and who wants a TR without pictures?

After a really bad month of April I told my husband we had to go back to Playa. At first he said no

but let us be realistic, no one can really say no. It is true, once you go you'll fall in love and have to come back as much as you can!

I'm going to start without pictures because they are currently uploading and taking forever. I'll edit to add.

Day 1
We woke up at 3:25am on Saturday morning to drive the 45 minutes or so to the MSP airport. Our flight was scheduled for 7am so I wanted to leave at 4:15 at the latest. The drive was fast and we didn't hit any deer (I had a fear of that because all week I had been seeing carcuses (sp?) on the side of the road). We ended up parking in long term parking

instead of going to a Park and Fly or parking at the Humphrey terminal ($4/day cheaper) because I didn't feel like dealing with it and I knew we'd be returning late and I definitely wouldn't feel like dealing with it on the way back. We ate our fast food breakfast as a tradition (usually it's BK, this time we walked further to get McD's) and I got a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and the hubby got a double chocolate chip something for the road. Yeah, just what I need...more calories.

Oh well, it's vacation! (Sucks that vacation includes wearing a swimsuit, but what can ya do?)

We had a quick flight to Chicago where we had the 2nd to the last whole row to ourselves, woohoo! There was a quick layover at O'hare and then we were on our way to Cancun. As luck would have it, the flight was completely packed and they had to give us the "Economy Plus" seats and we didn't pay!

It was nice having the extra leg room, especially for my 6'3"ish husband, but I do find those to be such a crock at $24 more per seat (or so I thought I did)...

(See, he had plenty of room!)

We got into Cancun and it was pretty quiet. The quietest we have seen it. We got our luggage right away and headed to the red/green light and got into line. Green. Green. Green. *Me starting to get nervous* Green. GREEN! Yes! Even the people behind us got green. That was #2 for our good luck. We sailed through the sharks (not one person bothered us!) and found our Lomas guy right away. There is nothing better than stepping out of the terminal into that warm (hot) air! Our van came right away and since we were waiting for a couple more people we got dos cervesa and chilled in the a/c. Ahhhh!

Two more couples got on, both new to Playa, and one was on their honeymoon! They said they got sucked into a timeshare thing and were delayed for almost an hour. Oh no. They were staying at the Royal. We had good conversation with all of them and then dropped off the other couple at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. As soon as they got out they were greeted with a towel and the couple told us we could come visit for $75/day. Next stop...Blue Bay...

playa4eva · 06-11-2009

We pulled up to the lobby and it was nice. As we got out of the van and started to look around, we had no idea where to go. At the Iberostar T/Q, the welcome area is on the right so I assumed that's where it would be. We must've looked like this:

. When you approach the lobby there is a huge, raised, circular platform in the middle. Each side has long tables. I'm not sure if this is where the timeshare sharks sit or not. Our Lomas guy at the airport warned us about the timeshare people and said they are in cohoots with the bellboys, which made me a little nervous, and definitely not sure who to trust, but we never had anyone ask us anything or bother us in any way while at the resort. They put little tags on our bags and gave us the stubs and pointed us to the check in counter, which is located at the back of the lobby. There were no other guests in the lobby and it seemed pretty dark. Honestly, I didn't have a good first impression and was getting very nervous about the decision I had made. I also didn't really feel welcomed. We began to check in with Jorge and he had us fill in a form that asked for a credit card number (just the number, not if it was a Visa/MC, or anything else). He verified that we wanted a King bed and we said yes. He said that one wasn't ready yet, but we could wait or get a double right away. I said we would wait. He got on the phone and it turned out that a room was available. He told us to go to the doorway and wait for a cart. He gave us 2 room keys and 2 towel keys and we were officially checked in! We waited with another couple for a cart. It didn't seem like it was too long before one came and he wrote our room number on the tags that they had put on as soon as we checked in. On the way he pointed out the sports bar, the buffet, and the ala cartes. I realized at this point how big the resort really is! We were in building 5 along with almost everyone else that was there. He told us to go up to our room and he'd bring our bags up. We opted for the stairs instead of the elevator. We were on the 4th floor (I thought I read somewhere before that resorts were limited to 3 floors or is that only Playacar?) I opened the door and was so happy! The room was great.

Here's the famous showerhead!

I ran to the balcony and stepped outside. I let out a OMG woohoo! Jumped up and down.

This was our view:

We hadn't paid for an Ocean View or anything so I was surprised and extremely excited. I guess that's what we get for booking during the height of the Swine Flu hysteria. At that point I decided we had really good luck and I was going to try to not complain about anything because the room was really awesome.

m_french · 06-11-2009

Great start

The view is Awesome..We have a very short layover (45 min) @ O'Hare and I am concerned about having enough time. How long did you have between flights?

playa4eva · 06-11-2009

I'm sure you will have plenty of time - as long as it's on your way there

m_french · 06-11-2009

Thanks Jill....Yes on the way there....Who cares about the way home

Looking forward to the rest of the report and the pictures....

Bontongrl · 06-12-2009

Loving it already,,,,,, and can't wait for the rest

playa4eva · 06-12-2009

After checking out our room and being happy with it, we decided to go walk around and see where everything was. We had to meet our Lomas rep at 5:30 behind the sports bar, so we had a couple hours to spare. They had all of the rooms and the pool/snack bar by the lobby blocked off so we couldn't even check them out. That was kind of a bummer because I wanted to see what stuff looked like over there. One thing I noticed is that I would DEFINITELY not want a 1st floor room. They are close to the walkways and also have no separation between them.

This is looking at the other building with swim out rooms and one with a jacuzzi (we saw a maintenance man come, they seemed to be having trouble with the jets).

Here is a pic of the swing bar:

Loooooooong walk:

Here is the lounge outside of the ala cartes:

Sports bar:

playa4eva · 06-12-2009

After taking some pictures we met with the Lomas rep. He gave us a ton of brochures and we said we had already booked our own excursion- the Fat Cat. He asked if we could bring him a copy of the paper for his records and so he could tell his boss that we had booked an excursion elsewhere??? We said yeah, but never did. I thought that was weird, but he said it was for our safety so they would know where we were? I don't know...we knew we'd check back with him the day before leaving to find out our pickup time and make sure our flight hadn't changed.

After that, it was time to drink!!

The beginning of a long night. Sometimes our cervesa had limes, sometimes it didn't.

We went back to our room and changed into our suits so we could take a quick swim. The pool was pretty much empty because it was late and we were surprised that it was so shallow. I think it was posted that it was 4 feet deep, but I'm not sure that it was even that deep. We went back to our room and showered and then it was time to go eat. The buffet had a nice salad bar. Every other day it seemed like they had a different type of lettuce and salad dressing as well as some different kind of made salads (like a shrimp salad). The first night they had ceasar dressing, but I don't think I saw it ever again. I was a little nervous, because I am picky, and I couldn't find too much that I liked that first night. I think I ate french fries.
But never fear, I drank my dinner! Vino blanco por favor. It seems like we said that at least 3-4 times each. We were feeling pretty good (the wine is terrible, but after the first glass it doesn't seem to matter....I should know better that one glass turning into 4 never ends well...). The buffet offers a pasta station where you can pick which type of pasta you want- spaghetti, bow-ties, or spirals (sorry, I can't spell the real names) and he puts that in boiling water. In the meantime you can select onions, carrots, corn, etc and put them on a plate to give to the chef. He sautes them in oil. When they are cooked he asks what kind of sauce you want...they had tomato, bolognese, and a white cream sauce. He mixes it with the veggies and pasta. They had quite a few desserts as well. My hubby loved the chocolate cake. They had cheesecake, little creampuffs, pineapple cake. They also have an ice cream cooler for dessert with 6 different kinds in it. You can also put sprinkles, cherries, caramel sauce on it.

After eating (*cough*drinking*cough*) we went over to the sports bar for some more drinks.....................

TAPPY · 06-12-2009

Very nice report .....did you book with funjet ?
The resort looks great.

Eileencc · 06-12-2009

Oh great! U've been looking forward to your report Jillianbee! Great start! Boy, what a pretty place that is! How's the beach? What a ginormous pool! And your room looks great! I love when they do those artistic things with the curtains!

Looking forward to the next installment!

playa4eva · 06-12-2009

Thanks Tappy, yes, I always use funjet! They are great.

Eileen

The beach was great, the water by the beach was not so great. It is very rocky and very muddy - freaked the hell out of me! I kept thinking the swamp thing was going to get me...or that there were big creatures under the mud that I was going to step on. Plus you can walk realllllllllllly far out and it still be only up to your knees. But I knew all of this going in so I wasn't super disappointed.

I'll try to finish up Day 1 tomorrow - it really was a long day!

dosXXs · 06-12-2009

Okay, great trip report, but omg that window would scare the crap out of me on a darn night after waking up drunk. lol But seriously you are a pro at these trip reports. I type one little sentence and you are over here giving incredible details. Okay, I better step up my game. lol

dosXXs · 06-12-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by jillianbee

Thanks Tappy, yes, I always use funjet! They are great.

Yes, I agree funjet is great! We have always used them and have never had any trouble.

btodd · 06-13-2009

Great start! Love all the photos..........you are so right, Day 1 always seems to last FOREVER!

playa4eva · 06-14-2009

We were surprised to see that the Sports bar was really busy.
It appeared that everyone was gathered for a soccer game since Mexico was playing.

We ended up sitting outside and a waitress came and got us drinks. Also, "The Crew" (this is what BBGE calls their entertainment team) was coming around with little slips of paper to fill out for the upcoming Lip Sync competition. They asked us to guess the order of who would win the competition. The choices were Shakira, Madonna, Blues Brothers, Prince, and someone else that I can't remember. I just remember I got them all wrong. Haha. We went inside to watch this Lip Syncing show and I can tell you it was horrible, but hilarious. I don't even think they were close on the words. We laughed quite a bit.

Here you can kind of see how the theatre is set up (it's on the right side of the Sports Bar) - the left side has tables, the middle has just rows of chairs.

"Prince" brought up an audience member while singing purple rain and they poured water over...it was pretty funny.

After the show we went up to the bar to try to get a drink. This was our first bad experience at BBGE. We stood up there for a few minutes and didn't get helped. I said I was going to go to the restroom, told my husband what I wanted to drink, and then left. When I came back, he still hadn't been helped. The bartender helped the guy to the left side of us, walked right past us, and helped the guy on the right of us. Finally someoone asked what we wanted, we told him, and HE WALKED AWAY. It was unbelievable. Finally the guy next to us said something to them about how long we had been waiting. We were pretty upset and pissed off. I was actually pretty offended. After finally getting our drink, we decided to get the hell out of there. We walked back to the swing bar, but they were just closing. The bartender said we could go over to the "Beach Party" behind the restaurant Jaal Ha. We just followed the techno music that was thumping. I don't know if this is the beach area for the Club Be+ members or not. It was pretty fun to listen to music, have a drink, and have your feet in the sand. There was a girl passed out on one of the chairs. lol

We went and sat on these comfy chairs

Judging by the quality of my pictures, I think I had maxed out my drink capacity...

We went back to the room. I ended up getting out of bed and

DAMN WINE never ends well!!!

06-11-2009	#1 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda 6/6/09-6/10/09 I am going to do my best at a 2nd trip report. This was our 3rd trip to Playa del Carmen. Our 2nd trip report never happened because we lost our camera in a fight with a sand whale in front of Iberostar Quetzal last year, and who wants a TR without pictures? After a really bad month of April I told my husband we had to go back to Playa. At first he said no but let us be realistic, no one can really say no. It is true, once you go you'll fall in love and have to come back as much as you can! I'm going to start without pictures because they are currently uploading and taking forever. I'll edit to add. Day 1 We woke up at 3:25am on Saturday morning to drive the 45 minutes or so to the MSP airport. Our flight was scheduled for 7am so I wanted to leave at 4:15 at the latest. The drive was fast and we didn't hit any deer (I had a fear of that because all week I had been seeing carcuses (sp?) on the side of the road). We ended up parking in long term parking instead of going to a Park and Fly or parking at the Humphrey terminal ($4/day cheaper) because I didn't feel like dealing with it and I knew we'd be returning late and I definitely wouldn't feel like dealing with it on the way back. We ate our fast food breakfast as a tradition (usually it's BK, this time we walked further to get McD's) and I got a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and the hubby got a double chocolate chip something for the road. Yeah, just what I need...more calories. Oh well, it's vacation! (Sucks that vacation includes wearing a swimsuit, but what can ya do?) We had a quick flight to Chicago where we had the 2nd to the last whole row to ourselves, woohoo! There was a quick layover at O'hare and then we were on our way to Cancun. As luck would have it, the flight was completely packed and they had to give us the "Economy Plus" seats and we didn't pay! It was nice having the extra leg room, especially for my 6'3"ish husband, but I do find those to be such a crock at $24 more per seat (or so I thought I did)... (See, he had plenty of room!) We got into Cancun and it was pretty quiet. The quietest we have seen it. We got our luggage right away and headed to the red/green light and got into line. Green. Green. Green. Me starting to get nervous Green. GREEN! Yes! Even the people behind us got green. That was #2 for our good luck. We sailed through the sharks (not one person bothered us!) and found our Lomas guy right away. There is nothing better than stepping out of the terminal into that warm (hot) air! Our van came right away and since we were waiting for a couple more people we got dos cervesa and chilled in the a/c. Ahhhh! Two more couples got on, both new to Playa, and one was on their honeymoon! They said they got sucked into a timeshare thing and were delayed for almost an hour. Oh no. They were staying at the Royal. We had good conversation with all of them and then dropped off the other couple at the Excellence Riviera Cancun. As soon as they got out they were greeted with a towel and the couple told us we could come visit for $75/day. Next stop...Blue Bay... __________________ Missing my sweet baby boy: 7/13/10-1/24/11 Iberostar Quetzal - 11/11/06-11/18/06 Iberostar Quetzal - 9/17/08-9/22/08 Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda - 6/6/09-6/10/09 Iberostar Quetzal - 5/2/11-5/7/11 Iberostar Lindo - 10/27/12-10/31/12 Riu Yucatan - 9/3/13-9/7/13 Last edited by playa4eva; 10-04-2012 at 01:10 PM..

06-11-2009	#2 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	We pulled up to the lobby and it was nice. As we got out of the van and started to look around, we had no idea where to go. At the Iberostar T/Q, the welcome area is on the right so I assumed that's where it would be. We must've looked like this: . When you approach the lobby there is a huge, raised, circular platform in the middle. Each side has long tables. I'm not sure if this is where the timeshare sharks sit or not. Our Lomas guy at the airport warned us about the timeshare people and said they are in cohoots with the bellboys, which made me a little nervous, and definitely not sure who to trust, but we never had anyone ask us anything or bother us in any way while at the resort. They put little tags on our bags and gave us the stubs and pointed us to the check in counter, which is located at the back of the lobby. There were no other guests in the lobby and it seemed pretty dark. Honestly, I didn't have a good first impression and was getting very nervous about the decision I had made. I also didn't really feel welcomed. We began to check in with Jorge and he had us fill in a form that asked for a credit card number (just the number, not if it was a Visa/MC, or anything else). He verified that we wanted a King bed and we said yes. He said that one wasn't ready yet, but we could wait or get a double right away. I said we would wait. He got on the phone and it turned out that a room was available. He told us to go to the doorway and wait for a cart. He gave us 2 room keys and 2 towel keys and we were officially checked in! We waited with another couple for a cart. It didn't seem like it was too long before one came and he wrote our room number on the tags that they had put on as soon as we checked in. On the way he pointed out the sports bar, the buffet, and the ala cartes. I realized at this point how big the resort really is! We were in building 5 along with almost everyone else that was there. He told us to go up to our room and he'd bring our bags up. We opted for the stairs instead of the elevator. We were on the 4th floor (I thought I read somewhere before that resorts were limited to 3 floors or is that only Playacar?) I opened the door and was so happy! The room was great. Here's the famous showerhead! I ran to the balcony and stepped outside. I let out a OMG woohoo! Jumped up and down. This was our view: We hadn't paid for an Ocean View or anything so I was surprised and extremely excited. I guess that's what we get for booking during the height of the Swine Flu hysteria. At that point I decided we had really good luck and I was going to try to not complain about anything because the room was really awesome. Last edited by playa4eva; 06-11-2009 at 09:54 PM..

06-11-2009	#3 (permalink)
m_french very sparkly Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 31	Great start The view is Awesome..We have a very short layover (45 min) @ O'Hare and I am concerned about having enough time. How long did you have between flights?

06-11-2009	#4 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	I'm sure you will have plenty of time - as long as it's on your way there

06-11-2009	#5 (permalink)
m_french very sparkly Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 31	Thanks Jill....Yes on the way there....Who cares about the way home Looking forward to the rest of the report and the pictures....

06-12-2009	#6 (permalink)
Bontongrl beachaholic Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Kingwood, Texas Posts: 338	Loving it already,,,,,, and can't wait for the rest

06-12-2009	#7 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	After checking out our room and being happy with it, we decided to go walk around and see where everything was. We had to meet our Lomas rep at 5:30 behind the sports bar, so we had a couple hours to spare. They had all of the rooms and the pool/snack bar by the lobby blocked off so we couldn't even check them out. That was kind of a bummer because I wanted to see what stuff looked like over there. One thing I noticed is that I would DEFINITELY not want a 1st floor room. They are close to the walkways and also have no separation between them. This is looking at the other building with swim out rooms and one with a jacuzzi (we saw a maintenance man come, they seemed to be having trouble with the jets). Here is a pic of the swing bar: Loooooooong walk: Here is the lounge outside of the ala cartes: Sports bar:

06-12-2009	#8 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	After taking some pictures we met with the Lomas rep. He gave us a ton of brochures and we said we had already booked our own excursion- the Fat Cat. He asked if we could bring him a copy of the paper for his records and so he could tell his boss that we had booked an excursion elsewhere??? We said yeah, but never did. I thought that was weird, but he said it was for our safety so they would know where we were? I don't know...we knew we'd check back with him the day before leaving to find out our pickup time and make sure our flight hadn't changed. After that, it was time to drink!! The beginning of a long night. Sometimes our cervesa had limes, sometimes it didn't. We went back to our room and changed into our suits so we could take a quick swim. The pool was pretty much empty because it was late and we were surprised that it was so shallow. I think it was posted that it was 4 feet deep, but I'm not sure that it was even that deep. We went back to our room and showered and then it was time to go eat. The buffet had a nice salad bar. Every other day it seemed like they had a different type of lettuce and salad dressing as well as some different kind of made salads (like a shrimp salad). The first night they had ceasar dressing, but I don't think I saw it ever again. I was a little nervous, because I am picky, and I couldn't find too much that I liked that first night. I think I ate french fries. But never fear, I drank my dinner! Vino blanco por favor. It seems like we said that at least 3-4 times each. We were feeling pretty good (the wine is terrible, but after the first glass it doesn't seem to matter....I should know better that one glass turning into 4 never ends well...). The buffet offers a pasta station where you can pick which type of pasta you want- spaghetti, bow-ties, or spirals (sorry, I can't spell the real names) and he puts that in boiling water. In the meantime you can select onions, carrots, corn, etc and put them on a plate to give to the chef. He sautes them in oil. When they are cooked he asks what kind of sauce you want...they had tomato, bolognese, and a white cream sauce. He mixes it with the veggies and pasta. They had quite a few desserts as well. My hubby loved the chocolate cake. They had cheesecake, little creampuffs, pineapple cake. They also have an ice cream cooler for dessert with 6 different kinds in it. You can also put sprinkles, cherries, caramel sauce on it. After eating (coughdrinkingcough) we went over to the sports bar for some more drinks.....................

06-12-2009	#9 (permalink)
TAPPY añejo Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 21,148	Very nice report .....did you book with funjet ? The resort looks great.

06-12-2009	#10 (permalink)
Eileencc añejo Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of Boston, Mass Posts: 7,354	Oh great! U've been looking forward to your report Jillianbee! Great start! Boy, what a pretty place that is! How's the beach? What a ginormous pool! And your room looks great! I love when they do those artistic things with the curtains! Looking forward to the next installment!

06-12-2009	#11 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	Thanks Tappy, yes, I always use funjet! They are great. Eileen The beach was great, the water by the beach was not so great. It is very rocky and very muddy - freaked the hell out of me! I kept thinking the swamp thing was going to get me...or that there were big creatures under the mud that I was going to step on. Plus you can walk realllllllllllly far out and it still be only up to your knees. But I knew all of this going in so I wasn't super disappointed. I'll try to finish up Day 1 tomorrow - it really was a long day!

06-12-2009	#12 (permalink)
dosXXs toe in water Join Date: May 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 45	Okay, great trip report, but omg that window would scare the crap out of me on a darn night after waking up drunk. lol But seriously you are a pro at these trip reports. I type one little sentence and you are over here giving incredible details. Okay, I better step up my game. lol

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06-13-2009	#14 (permalink)
btodd añejo Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada Posts: 2,359	Great start! Love all the photos..........you are so right, Day 1 always seems to last FOREVER!

06-14-2009	#15 (permalink)
playa4eva way into it Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 244	We were surprised to see that the Sports bar was really busy. It appeared that everyone was gathered for a soccer game since Mexico was playing. We ended up sitting outside and a waitress came and got us drinks. Also, "The Crew" (this is what BBGE calls their entertainment team) was coming around with little slips of paper to fill out for the upcoming Lip Sync competition. They asked us to guess the order of who would win the competition. The choices were Shakira, Madonna, Blues Brothers, Prince, and someone else that I can't remember. I just remember I got them all wrong. Haha. We went inside to watch this Lip Syncing show and I can tell you it was horrible, but hilarious. I don't even think they were close on the words. We laughed quite a bit. Here you can kind of see how the theatre is set up (it's on the right side of the Sports Bar) - the left side has tables, the middle has just rows of chairs. "Prince" brought up an audience member while singing purple rain and they poured water over...it was pretty funny. After the show we went up to the bar to try to get a drink. This was our first bad experience at BBGE. We stood up there for a few minutes and didn't get helped. I said I was going to go to the restroom, told my husband what I wanted to drink, and then left. When I came back, he still hadn't been helped. The bartender helped the guy to the left side of us, walked right past us, and helped the guy on the right of us. Finally someoone asked what we wanted, we told him, and HE WALKED AWAY. It was unbelievable. Finally the guy next to us said something to them about how long we had been waiting. We were pretty upset and pissed off. I was actually pretty offended. After finally getting our drink, we decided to get the hell out of there. We walked back to the swing bar, but they were just closing. The bartender said we could go over to the "Beach Party" behind the restaurant Jaal Ha. We just followed the techno music that was thumping. I don't know if this is the beach area for the Club Be+ members or not. It was pretty fun to listen to music, have a drink, and have your feet in the sand. There was a girl passed out on one of the chairs. lol We went and sat on these comfy chairs Judging by the quality of my pictures, I think I had maxed out my drink capacity... We went back to the room. I ended up getting out of bed and DAMN WINE never ends well!!!