[dbeauch6xx]

My wife and I just returned from Mexico last night. We had 15 beautiful days in Mexico. The first week we stayed at the Albatros Royale on the beach and Calle 8. Perfect location. Very nice ,clean room for $80US a night. Good AC , TV with about 20 chanels , fridge, microwave, nice beach.
Our two sons and their six friends stayed at Fishermans Village during that week and we visited them a few times. Their room was on the 3rd floor with a view of the pool and the Caribbean. Real nice room with plenty of space for eight college kids. They told us the food and service were good. The pool and beach were very well maintained. Sandy beach, no rocks. Enough beach chairs for everyone around the pool and on the beach. The walk to town took about 15 minutes. There are a few houses on the beach on the way that jut out into the sea so you have to walk up to the street to get around them but the rest of the walk is by beach to Senor Frogs/Town. They paid $35.00 a day for two meals and drinks. They felt it was a very good deal.
Our 2nd week we stayed at the Mayan Palace. Two friends met us there. We had a two bedroom unit in bldg 7. The room was beautiful and the grounds are very well maintained.
After spending a week at the Mayan Palace and visiting Fishermans Village and speaking to our sons we would not return to the Mayan Palace where we own a time share.
The Mayan Palace is a cab ride away from all the good things that we like about that part of Mexico. The food was excellent but very expensive. Breakfast for 4 with tip was $50.00. Drinks at the pool bars were $4-7 unless you migrated from bar to bar when the 2 for 1 bell went off. Dinner with a bottle of wine and tip was $200.00.
My friend wanted to play the golf course at 7:00 AM one morning. He was told it was $140.00. He told them he only wanted to play 9 holes. They told him it would still be $140.00. At that time there was only one twosome on the course. He asked the starter if he could play the last four holes for $70.00 and was told that he could not. No golf.
The pool is huge and nicely laid out but the water temperature is between 90 and 100 degrees during the day. Not very refreshing.
The beach is nice and there are a couple of places where you can enter the water and only step on a few rocks. Or you can walk 15 minutes north or south to sandy beaches. I heard a few people complaining about not being able to find chairs on the beach and saw a few couples dragging chairs down from the pool area down to the beach.
One day I counted the number of steps it took me to get from my room in bldg 7 to my chair on the beach.840.
I don't think we are going to sell our Mayan Palace weeks yet. We belong to RCI so when we return to Mexico next year we will exchange our weeks for rooms at another resort, either Fishermans or the Continental or just stay at the Albatros Royale again. We love Playa del Carmen but the Mayan Palace is just too far from everything and too expensive. We made a mistake three years ago.
A couple examples the cost differences-a can of Modelo Especial (beer) in PDC across the street from the Albatros was 8 pesos which I drank on the beach 40 steps away. A can of Modelo at the Mayan Palace pool bar was 45 pesos which I drank on the beach 250 steps away. A bottle of American wine at the Mayan Palace store was 220 pesos. In Playa del Carmen the same wine was 140.