11-01-2011
|
#1 (permalink) |
|
lost on fifth
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Missouri
Posts: 12
|
La Amada, semi-live, and then, Not!
Trip Report to La Amada. * (10-30-2011 to 11-6-2011)
Sheltielover and I have been loooong time lurkers on playa.info. *We have read countless trip reports and threads authored by many of you. *(One of UnoMasMescal's is prolly my all-time favorite trip report) *We feel that we almost actually know some of you but have never corresponded with or 'met' any of you. *For us, it has certainly been a one-way street. *As a meager form of payback for the informational benefits we have received from this site, we have decided to take the time to do a trip report regarding our early November 2011 stay at La Amada Hotel. *We realize this hotel is not geographically close to Playa Del Carmen. *Its maybe ten or fifteen miles north of Cancun, immediately next door to Excellence Playa Mujeres, with Isla Mujeres in plain site across the channel. *Nonetheless, we will use our many trips to Playa and the Riviera Maya, and a few trips to Puerto Vallarta, as our basis for reporting on the La Amada Resort. This is what a trip report is used for, right? *Using someone else's judgement as to whether you'd like to go somewhere in particular! (right Shammy?) First, let me say upfront that this will end up being a long, stretched out, trip report. *Second, I am sure I will submit it in installments. *In all likliehood this report will only be displayed on playa.info. *Since this resort will not be 'searched for' very often, I am attempting to write it for someone that may find it, and read it, on a cold winter's day. *This, when the reader is pining away for warmer climes, close to places that they may have stayed in days gone by. *The pining thingy I mention...........Sheltielover and I do frequently ourselves........over the winter months. *Future trip selections have literally been made on the basis of some of the reports authored and contributed by some of you!!! (you see, Babaloo, some people do use the search function!) At the time of this particular writing I am sitting at the outdoor beachside bar of the hotel nursing my second tequila sunrise. *Its about noon, today is Tuesday. *We arrived from Kansas City last Sunday afternoon. *There was a heavy rain this morning and still, a light mist is falling. *I'm almost, but not quite, chilly. *That is why I'm writing now. *There is Not much else to do!! The very short version of this trip report (review) so far............... Pros. ** * The food is........world class. *I have read many trip reports where food is a huge concern to certain individuals. *I am personally not a 'foodie'. *But let me tell ya, the food here is damn good. *Some of the best we've ever had. ** * The service is.......impeccable. *These folks are good at what they do. *I think they genuinely care about us and care about all the clientele. *I have instructed some of the waiters to call me by my first name. *So, they now call me Mr. Paul. ** * The room is.......close to awesome. *We are staying in a two-story beach front casita suite. *Visit the hotel website laamadahotel.com for descriptions better than I could provide. Cons. ** * The beach is......a little trashy. *I know this topic is very subjective, as is food. *There are almost no waves and some seagrass is washed on shore at the water's edge. *I have been to lakes in the midwest USA with better looking beaches. *Here, pictures will be worth a thousand words. *More on this later. ** * The place is.......a little boring. *The real purpose of this trip was to get away from work. *That, we are doing. *We will make of it what we will. *We alone are resposible for having a good time. *We never rely on the resort to take care of this for us. *We are getting what we expected. ** * *You have to sign for........everything. *Every drink tab and every meal. *We opted for the all-inclusive plan. *It would be beyond our financial means if we had not done AI. *I can see where it would get damn expensive around here otherwise. But signing for every meal or drink is a pain in the ass. *It is probably how they track a guests' intake of benefits. *But it is indeed..........a PIA. Well, the rain is picking up again. *More to come later. *But before I go. *To me, this resort is absolutely perfect for someone who wants really, really good food, really good service, and very nice, laid back, care-free surroundings........for about a three or four day stay in length. *We will be here for a full seven nights. For now, another tequila sunrise!!!!! *Then, back to the room for a siesta. *I'm in my fifties and I've always just loved some of these Mexican customs. *You can learn something wherever you are. BTW. *Sheltielover and I intend to do a day-by-day trip report to add to this introduction, as time allows. *Right now, I do not know for sure when these additions will take place. *(I can remember one of Missixty's trip reports dragging on for weeks, but it still remained very interesting, almost captivating. *Or was it just her? *Sorry, Ste!) *I also intend to include a few snapshots, and an explanation of how "Hurricane" Rina affected our trip. 2PuttPaul |
|
|
| register to remove these adverts | |
|
11-06-2011
|
#7 (permalink) |
|
lost on fifth
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Missouri
Posts: 12
|
Winterset. Thanks for inquiring. Not up to my normal self on the tequila aspect, actually. I was practically a tea-totaller on this trip. Basically, I know a picture is worth a thousand words, and am waiting until we get home to figure out how to do just that. Post pictures.
At the moment, we are in the hotel lobby awaiting our transportation to the airport. So, probably some evening this week before I post anything else. It has been a good trip....and am sorta ready for home, I guess. 
|
|
|
|
|
11-12-2011
|
#11 (permalink) |
|
lost on fifth
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Missouri
Posts: 12
|
 It is Sunday morning, departure day!!"Jack" the snowshoe hare, is making ready for our flight from Kansas City International to Cancun. I feel lucky to have these seasonal direct flights to Cancun from KC. This smallish jet was only about half full, perhaps because of (category 2 or 3) Hurricane 'Rina' that was luckily downgraded to a tropical storm days before our departure!!!!!  Me, relaxing with the new Ipad in the terminal prior to take-off. I'm sure I was checking the lastest carribean sattelite imagery. And it's lookin' good.  I love flying............. Last edited by 2PuttPaul; 11-13-2011 at 12:28 AM.. Reason: added pictures |
|
|
|
|
11-12-2011
|
#12 (permalink) |
|
lost on fifth
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Missouri
Posts: 12
|
These are my first attempts at posting pictures on any website. Add this to the fact that we very recently switched to Mac, across the board, and things look a little screwy to me on the previous post.
Back to the trip..............I think most peoples' vacation trips start like this. Sheltielover and I generally make a week long trip to the Riviera Maya in the late fall time span. When work and funds are good, we try to make an additional, shorter trip, in about the first week of February. The fall trips, though lengthier, usually cost less than the shorter, winter trips. Low season versus high season and all that. We had a fairly good summer with few of the surprise expenses we all encounter from time to time, so we decided to stay at a higher end, more expensive, type of resort for the fall trip this time around. We read a lot of trip reports on this site and others and have wondered if we were not missing out on some of the pampering you here about. We felt if we persued the pampering we would get a bigger bang for our buck in the fall. Our winter trips of the past have been primarily to get out of the midwest 'deep freeze' that seems to suck a little worse with each passing year. So, our upcoming trip research had led us to the usual higher end resorts that you here so much about, like Secrets Maroma, El Dorado Royale, Excellence, The Royal, etc. We almost always find our own trips with the price, and then actually book the trip through a travel agent that handles Funjet. From Kansas City, Funjet is almost always the winner in value. I stumbled across La Amada somewhere during the research phase and found, at the time, that it was actually cheaper to book both the hotel and the Frontier flight direct with the hotel website, than it was to book nearly the exact same trip through Funjet. So, I let our travel agent know of this find. It was to her credit that she requested a price match, from Funjet, equalling the thousand dollars or so in price difference. Funjet matched the price!!!! We did the deal. Wow! At the time (about two months prior to departure) we thought we made a killer deal, only to find out later that our killer price became the standard published price on the Funjet website about two weeks later. But hey, maybe fuel prices dropped or something. I was very busy with work at the time and honestly couldn't say for sure what actually happened. Other than our killer deal, was.................just an ordinary deal. Oh well. For those that have not visited the hotel website, La Amada is a development that includes a hotel. There is a marina/harbor with yachts very nearby, many condominiums, and of course the hotel. The hotel consists of about 104 rooms. Not what you could call boutique, but not a mega-resort by any stretch. The condos mentioned seemed virtually vacant. The hotel was at somewhere near 35% capacity. Meaning, there were maybe 35 couples, or seventy guests, at the hotel. It seemed empty......and felt empty. More on this later. I'm struggling with the pictures. Dammit!!!!!!! |
|
|
|
 |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
