Catalonia Royal Tulum 6/12/19 - 6/19/09

[emc]

First a little background.
I traveled with my bestie, Sue. This is our 7th girls only trip. No husbands, no kids. It’s great! We have it down to a science. I do all the arranging and planning before we go. Once we land I become stupid and am no longer in charge of anything. We have a little ritual that we do every trip. Because I live fairly close to the airport, Sue spends the night before we leave at my house. We have a little pajama party talking about what we packed, what she forgot and just the anticipation of our trip.
Get up before the birds, my husband takes us to the airport. In days gone by, we would have long, sort of sad goodbyes, now he barely comes to a stop. Get’s out long enough to toss our bags to the curb, a quick kiss, ‘have a safe trip”, and he’s out of there. We usually fly non stop on Continental or USA 3000 but this year no luck. We fly US Scareways (not a big fan) with a change of planes in Philly. I happen to love the Philly airport. Clean, easy to get around with lots of good stores. Both flights were full, plane from Philly to Cancun was cramped and could use a good cleaning. No movie and most everything costs 7 bucks. Drink - $7.00, Comfort kit - $7.00, meal - $7.00. There were snacks available for $5.00. We bought lunch mostly because it is a time killer.
Upon landing we were handed a questionnaire regarding flu symptoms. I can only remember a few of the questions.
In the last week, have you had a headache? Uh yes, I just spent 3 ½ hours in a sardine can. Red eyes? Uh yes, I’ve been up since 3:30 am and my contacts feel like they have been welded to my eyeballs. Fever? Maybe, I am hot to get to the beach. Customs, luggage, dog sniffs, green light and finally out into the heat of Mexico!
We booked with Funjet, walked through the throngs of people trying to “help” us and found the Lomas reps. The rep started to give me instructions on what to do while we were in Mexico. I told him, “you better tell her” (pointed at Sue) “I’m not listening”. I’m in Mexico, I am officially stupid. We upgraded for something like $40.00 for a private transfer. They picked us up in a Lincoln Navigator and after the prerequisite stop at 7 11 for cerveza, we are off to the Catalonia Royal Tulum. It rained/poured most of the way there.

Side note: We always stay at an all inclusive because, well because we are just lazy. The thought of stopping at Wal-mart or Mega to stock up on anything makes my blood run cold. In the past we have stayed at the IB Quetzel twice and once at the Royal. Most nights we would have dinner in town and visit the local haunts. This trip would be a bit different.
It took about an hour and twenty minutes to reach the resort. Upon arrival we were greeted by a smiling bellman who appeared to be genuinely happy to see us. We were welcomed at the front desk with a cool towel presented on a silver tray and a fruity drink in a champagne flute (I think I‘m going to like it here). Sue took care of check in. I am not in charge and I am stupid. Well I did get involved a bit. They had us booked in bldg. 2 (close to the lobby) on the third floor. I asked for bldg. 6 (closest to the pool and sea) with a room on the first floor. Those treks up to a far away 3rd floor room after a long day in the sun kill me. After that request I went back to the land of stupidity.





Our room wouldn’t be ready for a couple of hours so they sent us on our way to have lunch. We didn’t quite make it to lunch as we spotted the lobby bar off to the left.

We had a couple of cocktails and got to know the staff a little bit. After awhile I noticed I had not seen any guests, just staff. After a couple of drinks, the nice bellman Marco who would soon be known as Marco Polo came to let us know our room was ready and he would take us there when we finished our drinks. After a couple more drinks he returned looking a little nervous to take us to our room. We told him we would be right there but this time he stood and waited for us to finish. He gave us a little tour of the property before taking us to our room so we could get a feel where everything was. He dropped us off and told us to call him when we were ready for dinner and he would pick us up. (I think I’m really going to like it here). The room is your average hotel room, two double beds with a nightstand between them. Armoire with a small TV, mini bar and safe and a desk with a coffee maker and a mirror above it. The bathroom is pretty big with a huge shower. Good water pressure and lots of hot water. Small powerful hairdryer and shampoo, lotion etc. There is a full length mirror across from the closet and an iron, ironing board and umbrella in the closet. In order for the electricity to work you had to stick your key card in a slot by the door. We got a great tip to take another card (we used an old iTunes card) and leave it in there our entire stay so the air would continue to run. They offer a pillow menu with about 6 choices. The pillows on our beds were fine. Yes, the bed was hard, we’ve all heard it a thousand times. So what, get over it. Sue’s had a foam pad on it which made it a little softer.








We unpack, get cleaned up and Sue reads the hotel info to me. I am stupid and not in charge of reading anything. By this time we are ready for dinner, should we walk? No, let’s call Marco Polo. I told you, we are lazy. She wants me to do it but that would entail me learning to use the phone and I just can’t do that right now. I lay on my bed and stare at her until she finally calls. Marco Polo was gone for the day but another nice bellman came and got us. They told us when we checked in, (really they told Sue and she told me) that due to low occupancy they were on a two restaurant per night rotation. The nice bellman told us what choices we had and explained where they were. We thanked him, gave him a few bucks and went to dinner at La Selva. This restaurant serves breakfast and dinner. Breakfast consists of a large variety buffet or you can order off the menu. Dinner is strictly off the menu, there is no dinner buffet at the resort which suited us just fine. They do have a wine list but since Sue doesn’t drink wine, I had the house white. While not the best, it wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had. After the first glass it was fine. I had the chateaubriand and Sue had a pasta in a Porcini sauce. Mine was just ok, her dish was delicious. The service was excellent. I am not sure if it was because there were only a few tables seated or if that is the norm but we were both impressed. After dinner, we had a drink in the lobby and called it a night. Just so you know we are not totally lazy girls, we walked back to our room. The resort has six buildings that are staggered through the jungle. Buildings 1,3 and 5 are on the left facing the sea and 2, 4 and 6 are on the right. There is a lighted stone path down the middle with some benches along the way and some piped in music.

[emc]

Woke up early the next morning and decided to take a look around before breakfast.
View from our balcony



As I mentioned, there is a coffee maker in the room but as I also mentioned, I am lazy. I hate making coffee at home, I don’t want to make it on vacation. Walked down to the beach……wow. Beautiful.

I was told we could get coffee at the grill by the pool which serves a continental breakfast but due to low occupancy it was closed. If you want coffee in the early morning they have a banquet table set up on the side of the lobby with coffee, tea and some pastries and cookies. They tear it down when La Selva opens for breakfast. The breakfast buffet has everything from cold cereal to smoked salmon. Everything was the plentiful and all at the proper temperature. It was by far the most abundant buffet I have seen.

Finally beach time. We headed down about 8:30. The towel place wasn’t open yet but every chair at the pool had a rolled up towel on it. Someone on staff told us the resort puts them out every morning and we should help ourselves. Perfecto! We get to beach and there is no one there. I mean not one person. We grab two chairs, plopped ourselves down and here was our view.



The Xpuha beach is perfection. Sugary sand, crystal clear blue water, no rocks. Just perfect. I really, really like it here. There are schools of angel fish that come in with the surf. They surround you and will take food right out of your hands. We took a couple of bananas with us every day to feed them. If you do this, please don’t leave the peel in the water. Nothing eats the peel and it ends up rotting on the beach. I told one guy that and he not so politely told me to “go hug a tree”. Hahaha. I ended up taking his and others peels with me to throw away. Drink service on the beach was great. The waitress came around about every half hour but if you need something sooner, the pool bar is just a short walk away as are the bathrooms.



For lunch you have a choice of the buffet at the Royal Grill which is turned in to the steak house in the evening or La Palapa which serves pizza, burgers, hot dogs, chicken and a few other things. Both are pool side. The buffet had choices ranging from sushi to pasta made to order. The choices varied everyday and we didn’t have anything we didn’t like. You do have to wear shoes and a cover up/shirt to be seated. Service was again excellent. If you are lazier than we are, you can order food from the grill from the server at the pool and they will bring it to you.

After lunch we decided to hang out at the pool. This was our routine most days. Since there was hardly anyone at the resort there were plenty of chairs to be had, either in the sun or under a palapa. The pool is beautiful. Big but not too big and sparkling clean. There is no swim up bar which pleases me. Did you ever notice that some people at a swim up bar never get out to go the bathroom? That concerns me. Service at the pool is great. At the beginning and end of the day the servers come around with skewers of cold fresh fruit on silver trays. Nice touch.
Pool bar




We stayed at the pool until 5:00 and headed up to our room. We showered and started to get ready for dinner. Started to get ready is as far as we got. After spending 8 ½ hours in the very hot tropical sun on our first day (we are not exactly brain surgeons) we were toast. We ended up ordering room service and watching television. The room service menu consisted of salads, sandwiches and a couple of Mexican dishes. I think pizza was offered after 10:00. The food arrived promptly. Cold food was cold, hot food was hot enough. I think we were both asleep by 9:30.

The next day was more of the same. Breakfast, beach, lunch, pool.
Another beautiful day. We met a lot of very nice people. It appeared that most guests were from the U.S. with a few from Mexico and Europe. In order for us to remember who we are talking about, we make up names for people.
Example, there were two couples there together. Both men were body builders, both wearing speedos I might add. To tell them apart when referring to them, one was Joe and Mrs. Atlas, the other Brutus Beefcake and the lovely Mrs. Beefcake. We have always done this and to this day when we mention someone from a previous trip we know who the other person is talking about. We have amassed quite a list of characters in our travels. This day we met a man traveling by himself celebrating his birthday. I think his name was Chuck but it doesn’t matter, he will always be Chuck to us. Since it was his birthday and he was alone we decided to have dinner with him. We met him at the Terrace Restaurant which serves Tapas. It’s in a beautiful setting, outdoors with lot’s of vegetation, wicker furniture and laid back music. There is a bar and lit only by candle light and maybe some little white lights. There are a lot of choices on the menu but the menu is written in very small writing and it’s very dark so it was a little hard to order. I wasn’t very hungry so I had grouper and some potato business. You are probably thinking, so much for not being very hungry. Tapas basically means small. It was literally two bites of each. Both were delicious. After dinner we went to the lobby for a couple of cocktails. Now Chuck had evidently gotten a head start while he was waiting for us to meet him. Well, you know how when someone is drunk and your not they become annoying? At least that’s how I feel. At this point I was done with Chuck for the night. All day he kept offering to buy us a massage and couldn’t get over the fact that we didn’t want to “get rubbed”. At night it turned in to a bottle of champagne. When we said no thank you to the champagne 47 times, he started on the rubbing thing again. I have a habit (not that it’s a good one) that when I am annoyed with people I just quit talking. I can’t help it. Maybe subconsciously I think they will go away if I don’t talk. I don’t know. All I know is no words would come out of my mouth. Finally Sue noticed that I hadn’t said a word for an hour and she was digging deep for conversation so we said our good nights. Chuck went off to the disco and we went back to our room. Don’t get me wrong he is a very nice man.

[emc]

The next morning I got up before the sunrise. Took a walk and took some early morning pictures.








The rest of the day was more of the same. I should mention the entertainment staff. There are not many of them and they are low key. The days activities went something like this. Beach volleyball in the morning, aqua gym at noon or as we called it, aqua jeem.


Usually there was a Spanish lesson or guacamole making lesson after lunch followed by darts or water polo with bingo at 2:30 around the pool. They bring you the cards cause God knows, we wouldn’t want to have to get up to play and they call the numbers at the pool. Sue hit a bingo and won a gift certificate to the spa for the wet services and a Coco Bongo tee shirt that might fit her 8 year old. Oh goody, it’s 110 degrees, let’s go get a sauna. We ended up giving the gift certificate to “The Cruisers”. This was a very nice couple that have never been to and AI before. They have been on many cruises, hence their new name. The prizes were the same everyday so we didn’t participate after that. There are three dogs that run around on the beach. I knew two of them by name from reading trip reports, Vanessa and Yoda. I believe Michelle took them to be fixed. Well there is a third whose name I didn’t know so we called him Sandy. Sandy is very cute but he is a jumper and a nipper. The morning I was out early he came running over jumped on me and left me with a lovely scratch running down my leg. Anyway, Sandy liked to come up to the pool at bingo time each day for a drink out of the pool. You could see the staff tense up every time he showed up and they would try and shoo him away but not too aggressively in front of the guests. It gave me a good laugh everyday.




I should mention that the resort offers free Wifi. I had my iPod with me and had no trouble accessing it anywhere on the grounds or in our room. I was very happy to discover this so I could check out the world news. For days the only current thing we saw was Entertainment Tonight and the whole week was about Chastity Bono’s sex change.

That night we had dinner at the Italian restaurant, La Dolche Vita. Everything was delicious. Pasta was cooked al dente and everything was piping hot. They offer an appetizer course, pasta course and an entrée course. I bought a new point and shoot before I left and that day discovered there was a culinary setting so here are a few shots.











That was the only time we had to wait to be seated and that was all of five minutes. After dinner we went for a couple of drinks, people watched and chatted with those we knew. We couldn’t get over how few people there were around. I asked the front desk how many rooms there were on the property and they told me they were 30% full. Let’s see, 280 rooms divided by three times two, never mind, I am stupid and no one told me math would be involved. Let’s just say there was very few people around. Good for us, bad for the staff. Due to the economy and the flu business they were forced to take an extra day off without pay each week. That night turned in to one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor. We ended up asking the bellman for a ride home which he happily obliged.

[emc]

The next day we awoke to rain. Went up for breakfast, back to the room for awhile and decided to head to the beach. The waves were roaring so we sat at the pool. They have a cart by the pool for painting ceramics. We walked over to check out what they had and the prices. Sue chose something and I was looking but decided not to. Being that I have the attention span of a gnat I knew I would get half way though it and get tired of it. The prices were very reasonable and after you are done painting your item the guy that works there touches it up and adds more to it so they come out beautiful. He fires them over night and you pick it up the next day. She painted and I read and surfed the net.


It was cloudy all day with on and off rain so we headed to our room, took a nap and went to dinner. We planned on going to the Mexican restaurant, Centenario that night but it wasn’t open. Sad to say we never did make it there. That night we ate at La Selva again and once again it was excellent. After dinner we wandered over to the theatre. It’s a very intimate setting and that night was the Michael Jackson review. The performers did a great job. We had a couple of drinks and back to the room. Oh yea we were setting the world on fire that week.

[emc]

The next day was overcast but nice. Usual beach, lunch, pool.




Beach side massage area. Not too much massaging going on while we were there.


We planned on going to town that night so we went up about 3:30 and took a nap. I’m telling you, that heat is a killer. We woke up too late to make the shuttle. The resort offers two shuttles in to Playa a day. The first one is at 11:00 and the second at 6:00. Since we didn’t make the 6:00, we exchanged our dollars for pesos and took a cab. Since I was too stupid to figure out the money I left it to Sue. I think she said it worked out to be $18 US. We walked around a bit and went to Antica for drinks and dinner. Just delicious. We ate there last year and I have been thinking about that dinner for a year. I highly recommend it. After dinner we walked down to PG’s sandbox for the Peanut Pet Shelter night. We got there at 10:15 and sadly everyone was gone. We stopped at Au Cacao for desert and waited for the return shuttle. The return shuttle picks up right next to Au Cacao. There are three Catalonia resorts and all three busses arrive at the same time. Since we didn’t take the shuttle in we made sure to ask which Catalonia the bus was going to. They are old tour busses so lots of room but I think the shocks wore out in 1984.

[emc]

Our last full day. I woke up early with that sad feeling that you get when you know vacation is almost over and you have to go back to your real life. Went up for breakfast, took extra bananas to feed the iguanas. The resort is full of them and they LOVE bananas. When you stop to feed one you can hear the rustling of the others running to get theirs.





They will fight over the bananas and the big ones are always the victor. As you can see by this little ones tail




The rest of the day was the usual routine.







We had dinner that night kind of late at the Royal Grill which is the steak house by the pool This was probably the only meal we didn’t care for although the service was again excellent. We walked around, took some pictures and headed up to pack.
Cold crab cake, not so good

[emc]

Our last morning, we walked around one last time, called the bellman for a luggage and sad girl pick up. We had breakfast, took some parting shots and our Navigator arrived to take us back to reality.

The Catalonia Royal Tulum is a great place. It is beautiful, well kept and everyone is friendly and always willing to help with a smile. Go there, you will love it. If you have any questions, just ask.
Some random shots around the property.






















One last note. In line at the Philly airport, the man in front of me asked the ticket agent a question, she rolls her eyes and points at the sign behind her. No answer.
Welcome back!

[Bbbethie]

Thanks for a great trip report! My husband and I stayed there six years ago when it was the Copacabana...by far, it had the best beach of any place we've stayed at in the area! Looks like that hasn't changed!

[emc]

Originally Posted by Bbbethie

Thanks for a great trip report! My husband and I stayed there six years ago when it was the Copacabana...by far, it had the best beach of any place we've stayed at in the area! Looks like that hasn't changed!

Oh the beach.....it is fabulous. Sue has more pictures on her camera. When I get them, I will add them.

[Kellyk]

I loved your report! I stayed at CRT last year with the family and LOVED it! Even though I'm not really an AI kind of girl I would definitely stay there again. The beach can NOT be beat. I miss it so much I could cry! lol

Our favorite meal of the week was at the Mexican restaurant. BEST mole ever! Margies were excellent as well!

[emc]

Thanks Kelly!
I knew I had a few more pictures of the beach.

[playahokie]

Great Review! My wife and I will be at the CRT this Friday!

[schmerl]

Great reports. My friends and I also make up names for people wherever we go!!

[Eileencc]

Thanks for the great report...beautiful pictures! Did you say that the resort is on Xpu-Ha Beach? I have heard that Xpu-Ha is gorgeous, and your pictures prove it! Looks like you had a really fun time!

[emc]

Originally Posted by Eileencc

Thanks for the great report...beautiful pictures! Did you say that the resort is on Xpu-Ha Beach? I have heard that Xpu-Ha is gorgeous, and your pictures prove it! Looks like you had a really fun time!

Thanks, Eileen!
Yes, the resort is on Xpu-Ha and everything you've heard is true. The beach is incredible.