05-17-2010
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#34 (permalink) |
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very sparkly
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 26
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Awesome Job on the report! Quick question...do you (or does anyone) know what activites they have at the resort that aren't included (like jet ski rental, etc). I've seen the list of things to do 'off proprety' but was wondering what they may offer right there.
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05-17-2010
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#35 (permalink) | |
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way into it
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Mustang/Yukon, OK
Posts: 109
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05-19-2010
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#36 (permalink) |
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way into it
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Mustang/Yukon, OK
Posts: 109
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Day 4 - Saturday
We woke up on Saturday morning to discover a beautiful sunny day! We got up and around fairly early (9ish) and headed down to play the towel game at the pool. We ran into Fred and Angelique and ended up getting 4 chairs together.
The pool was notorious for running out of towels. Fred was able to grab 2 towels (1 for Angelique and 1 for me.) We decided to use baseball caps and books to save chairs and go have breakfast. The 4 of us ate breakfast at Spice. They always come and offer orange juice. When I looked around at most of the tables it looked like people were drinking the orange juice. However, both me and my husband found their orange juice gross. It wasn't sweet at all. I tried it on 2 different days - once from room service and this morning at Spice - and it was just no any good. I had an omelet to eat which was very good. Spice allows you to choose your ingredients and then makes the omelet in front of you. (see picture below.) The chef making the omelets was very friendly and very talented. I made sure to give him a tip even though I didn't see anyone else doing this. Omelet Chef  After breakfast the four of us headed down to the pool for a day of relaxation in the beautiful Mexican weather! Early in the morning it was a bit frustrating because the pool bar is supposed to open at 10 a.m. However, it was 9:30 before they even brought beer to begin stocking the bar. The beer did not have enough time to get cold. They didn't really have the bar ready by 10 a.m. I know it makes me sound like some sort of an alcoholic - but I was on vacation, I had an early night the night before, and I was in the mood for another Rainbow drink. Instead, I had to start out with bottled water. That was probably a better thing really though. As you can see from the pics below - it was a GORGEOUS day!        When the sun is out in Playa, it doesn't take long for it to get hot, very hot. I think it was in the low 80's, but the low 80's in Playa vs. the low 80's here in Oklahoma are two different things. Lucas and I laid out for about an hour and decided to take a stroll in the beach. We walked down just a little ways and took a few picutres.  Looking to the Northwest from the Royal    Me and Lucas standing on the beach  Some people were rolling in the water inside these bubbles. I thought it looked neat so I took a picture.  We went back to the pool to hang out for a bit. I took a picture of the swim up bar. I had plans on getting in there, but never did. The water was a too little cool (however it felt really good when we were overheated.)  My husband Lucas enjoying a Rainbow drink  As the day wore on, we drank more and more Rainbow drinks... yumm-o  About 2 o'clock we realied that we hadn't eaten lunch yet - so we headed over to our favorite lunch spot - Pelicano's. There was a wait at Pelicano's for the first time since we had gotten to the Royal. I assume it's becuase it was the first real day of sun. We waited for a bit, but then decided to have lunch at Spice so that we wouldn't lose any time in the sun. Lucas waiting at the bar between Pelicanos and Tappas  The two of us...  After lunch we hung by the pool for another hour or two and then begin to notice clouds moving in!!  But, it was ok because we were ready to head inside and get ready for dinner.Since it was Saturday night, we had plans for an easy dinner and then to head over to Bad Boyz. We knew the music started at Bad Boyz at like 5 o'clock so we had to get around early. We got ready and headed for an early dinner at the Italian restaurant at the Gran Porto Real. We actually had to wait for them to open and stood outside with about 20 other people waiting to get in. (In a side note, the street was really gross that night. PDC had gotten so much rain over the last few days that the sewers were overflowing and the street stunk like sulpher. ick  )   The Italian restaurant was really good. They offered us a house wine or of course any other drink we might want. My husband ordered the white wine and I ordered the red wine. I tried both and neither were too great, but the read was decent. (I prefer a sweet wine and neither of these were sweet.) Lucas and I both ordered Caesar salads.  I ordered the lasagna and he had some kind of a chicken dish. Before telling you what I thought of my food, I should mention that I love lasagna. It's one of my favorite foods in the whole world. I make a great lasagna and I love eating lasagna at Italian restaurants here in town. The lasanga in had in Playa was so good. It was a little bit sweet and also had lots of cheese and fresh tomatoes in it. It was probably one of the best lasagnas I ever ate. My lasagna  Lucas' chicken  After our meal we had a cheesecake type dessert and cuppucino to drink.   Me drinking my cappucino  After dinner Lucas and I started walking down 1st Avenue toward Bad Boyz. 1st Avenue is a very quiet street in comparison to 5th Avenue. It was very pretty at night.  As we were walking along 1st Avenue we came upon this little pottery shop. The shop was more beautiful and more authentic than anything I had seen of 5th Avenue. We went inside and the lady running the store was an older Mexican lady. She spoke enough broken English that we were able to communicate. I loved being in her store because her items were all authentic looking and hand painted. She was so kind and seemed to enjoy watching us eww and aww over her stuff. I asked her if I could take some pictures of her shop and she was kind enough to allow me to do so. We bought 2 hand blown wine glasses that had specks of colored glass in them, 2 hand painted spoon rests, and a plaque that says, "Bienvenido Me casa es su casa" (in English "Welcome, my house is your house") We bought that for my mother in law because she always has lots of friends, family and neighbors over. She loves having a house full of people and makes everyone feel like they're part of the family. And so we knew that sign would fit her just perfect when we saw it. The shopkeeper wrapping our purchases.     She even came outside and took a picture of us standing in the window of her shop.  After purchasing all this stuff we decided to run back to our room at the Royal to drop it off. By the time we got done with that and over to Bad Boyz is was probably 8 o'clock. Which meant there would only be one more hour of music. We had read on playa.info many times that Bad Boyz is tons of fun when The Nasty Nastards are playing. I don't think we really realized just how good they would be. They played lots of Classic American rock 'n roll. The music was awesome and the crowd was pretty lively.    We met quite a few different Americans at Bad Boyz who were either in Playa on extended vacations (3+ months) or who had moved there. One guy that we met was in his mid-thirties and had found a way to retire to PDC. He tried to convince us that we could do this too... we tried to explain to him that we live in the real world, but he wasn't buying it. Truth is, I didn't try too hard to tell him about the real world becuase it was fun to dream with him that we might be able to actually move to PDC some day! (probably when were old though...  or if not then, maybe my kids could sprinkle my ashes on the beach somewhere...)After the band quit playing (I think that was around 9) we headed out. Some of the locals invited us to another bar at some hotel, but we didn't go. Instead, we roamed around 5th Avenue for a bit. We stopped in a cigar shop and my husband bought some Mexican cigars to take back home.  We took some pictures with the "bird man." He was some sort of a promoter for Coco Bongos. He was dressed in some sort of a Mayan outfit. It was kind of neat.  We stopped of at the Tequila Barrell to have a drink. We were going to sit at the bar, but they wouldn't let my husband smoke cigars at the bar.   Lucas sitting outside the Tequila Barrell smoking his cigar.  Lucas and I had one beer and continued on down 5th Avenue. Then Lucas came across a bar showing the UFC fights. He ended up standing outside this bar watching the fights and talking with a mechanic who said he makes a couple of trip to PDC every year. They must've stood there for over 30 minutes watching the fights. I walked around and looked inside shops right in the area. I was a little nervous to get too far from my husband though since it was night time. Once he finished watching the fights, we walked back toward the Royal. We didn't stay up too late Saturday night. We got up pretty early again on Sunday (our last full day ) which was another sunny day. But, I won't tell you about that now. Check back in a few days - hopefully I'll finish this report soon!!
__________________
Royal Playa del Carmen - April, 2010:  Trip Report RPDC April 2010 Barcelo Palace - July, 2012: 
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05-20-2010
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#38 (permalink) |
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very sparkly
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 26
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With just over 2 weeks 'till we're in Playa, this incredible narrative is keeping me spellbound. Great pics, great story and now I can't wait to go!!! I was just on Tripadvisor looking for best massages in town...anyone have a thought?
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05-20-2010
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#39 (permalink) | ||
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way into it
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Mustang/Yukon, OK
Posts: 109
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 I've spent at least 2 hours working on the trip report for each day we were in PDC. (Glad we didn't go for 2 weeks like a lot of people!  ... ok not really) As far as massages, we did not get one. However, I know that at the Royal the massages were pretty pricey (I'm sure all of the AI's are like this). I think close to $100 US if I remember right. We got pedicures there and the basic pedicure was $30, plus they charged me $10 extra to paint my toes in a french mainure style. I know here in OK, I can get that same pedicure for $23 including the french pedicure painting. Point is, spas at resorts are very expensive even if they are in Mexico. However, they are probably more trustworthy that the places on 5th Avenue.  Speaking of 5th Avenue, there were tons of signs of places offering massages from $20-$30 per person. I even had one guy offer to do one for $15! He said, "Come on! It's practically free." To which I agreed, but I still didn't want one at the time. |
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05-20-2010
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#40 (permalink) |
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way into it
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Republic of Texas
Posts: 224
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Great installment!
 You're keeping me totally mesmerized! Glad y'all had a great day of sunshine!!! Those rainbow drinks look awesome! Do you know what's in them? For massages - check out Veronica's on 5th between Constituyentes & Calle 20. It's right outside of the Royal. Last I checked I think it was $30 for an hour. GREAT place and amazing massages. Man I'm torturing myself now!!!  I can't wait for the next 12 days to be over to check out that pottery shop!!! Looks awesome!
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05-21-2010
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#43 (permalink) | |
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way into it
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Mustang/Yukon, OK
Posts: 109
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 and him from the humiliation!  No, it didn't rain the whole time. Just on Wed., Thurs., and Fri. It rained late in the day on Sat. and not at all on Sunday. It didn't rain anytime on Monday before we left - not sure about afterwards. |
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05-21-2010
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#44 (permalink) | |
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sandflea
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Ottawa Canada
Posts: 2
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YEAH!!
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05-21-2010
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#45 (permalink) | |
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aņejo
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Maryland
Posts: 2,959
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I sure hope it gets it out of its system by then!!! 
