The Royal PDC Feb 5-12

Fishin Nut · 02-13-2012

We just got back from our second trip to the Royal PDC. Last year was our first trip to Mexico and we loved it so much we decided to return the same week.

It all started on Friday morning at 12:05am for our online check in. We decided to go all out and upgrade from the one bedroom master suite that we had originally booked, to the presidential suite. We picked room 994. The online check in couldn’t have been easier…. What a great feature.

Now we move on to Sunday…. Our travel day. The day started nice and early as we had a car pick us up at the house at 5:15 am. Off to Newark airport we go. Check our bags curbside without a hitch and proceed thru TSA. I was one of the lucky winners or the random checks…. Really no big deal, at first they just wanted to check my shoes but I guess when the saw that I was wearing flip flops they moved their attention to my carryon bag which had my dive computer and regulator in it. After about 30 seconds of them looking into that we were back on our way. A quick stop in to the Continental President’s Club for a quick bite to eat and a cup of coffee and off to the gate.

The flight was perfect with a couple of Bloody Mary’s to start and then followed by a nice long nap. Woke up just in time to see our final approach.

We flew thru customs and were greeted by some nice warm weather and a waiting car.

We got to the Royal around 12:45 and did our check in but our room wasn’t quite ready. Off to grab some lunch at Pelicanos and have a couple of drinks while waiting for our room to be ready. We went back to the front desk around 2:45 and our room was ready so up we went.

WOW!!!! What a room. It was even bigger than I thought it was going to be. I had looked at a video of the Presidential suite on youtube and thought all the rooms in the building by the quiet pool were the same…. Not! Room 994 is laid out a little different than the other rooms.

After a quick unpacking we wanted to get to the Wha Wha bar so we could watch the Superbowl…. We rushed over there only to find that there wasn’t a seat in the house. What a great place and we were both upset that we got there too late but with waiting for the room to be ready we didn’t have any choice. We are both huge Giants fans so we decided to move on and find somewhere where we could sit down with a good view of the game. On our way down 5th ave we saw that Pez Vela had plenty of room right in front of the TV so we decided to start there.

We snacked on some nachos and had quite a few beers as they were really going down nicely.

They seated us upstairs surrounded by NE fans all wearing their jerseys….. oh boy!!!! As it turned out they were all very nice and we had a good time picking on each other as the score flipped back and forth.

At half time we walked back to the resort to watch the game on the big screen in the room without any distractions. After some high fives and jumping up and down we decided to hit the hay so we could be fresh for the next day.

Fishin Nut · 02-13-2012

Really busy playing catch up at work.... more to come.

Y2YTraveller · 02-13-2012

Great start! Loved the pictures of the room; looks like you were in the Chichen wing? How did you find the distance to the beach, etc. from there?

Keep it coming!

Fishin Nut · 02-13-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Y2YTraveller

looks like you were in the Chichen wing? How did you find the distance to the beach, etc. from there?

We were in the Chichen wing. The distance to the beach doesn't bother me at all as I'm not really a beach person and my wife spends most of her day at the quiet pool anyway. I spent most of my time diving and at the pool in our room. I actually like that location as it is closer to just about everthing but the beach.

colocpl · 02-13-2012

We are going for our first trip arriving on the 1st...looking forward to the resort and we appreciated your pics!

hollywood65 · 02-13-2012

Wow...what a room!

mrcool138 · 02-13-2012

Thanks for the pictures. WOW!! That room is incredible. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

janied · 02-13-2012

The Royal is my favorite resort ... but I've never stayed in the Presidential Suite ... WOW! it looks fantastic!

More, more, more ... please!!!

Fishin Nut · 02-15-2012

Day 2

We woke up early and went downstairs to get a cup of coffee at the coffee shop…. Back up to the room to enjoy the sunrise with a cup of joe…. We didn’t have any plans for the day so we took our time getting ready and went to Spice for a bite to eat. Just as we remembered good food and good service.

After breakfast we took a walk down to the dive shop (Dive Shop Mexico) that I had scheduled to do my Enriched Air and Advanced Open water certification with while down there. I filled out my paperwork and set up my 6 dives that I would be doing with them over the next 3 days. It was good to see everybody at the shop as I had done my Open Water Cert with them last year.

After that we took a stroll down 5th Ave and did a little window shopping. My wife got a few things for herself, friends and family and we continued down to Carboncito’s to grab some lunch. This was our first time there and I must say that it is everything good that has been said about this place and then some. The food was awesome and we stuffed ourselves. The beer is nice and cold too.

We finished our meal and made our way back to the room for a food induced coma….. we slept for a few hours and woke up just in time to get cleaned up for some dinner. We went to Maria Marie for a bite and then up to the lobby bar for a couple of cocktails. Back to the room for a dip in the pool and some star gazing and called it a night as I had to get up early for my dive day.

Fishin Nut · 02-16-2012

Day 3

DIVING TODAY!!!!

Woke up early in anticipation of diving, I went down to the coffee shop at 6am when they opened and got my morning fix. Showered, gathered up my diving stuff and went downstairs to El Mediterraneo for some breakfast. Beth had a day at the spa planned so we went our separate ways.

I was going for my Nitrox (EAN) Certification so I did some testing of the tanks and confirmed the O2 % and we were on our way…. Off to the Barracuda reef for the first of two dives…. Got to see tons of life on the reef and had a great dive. Up on the boat for about an hour and back down for our second dive. Not sure what the name of the reef was that we did our second dive on but it was close to the Barracuda reef. Again we saw a bunch of life and had another great dive. I love drift diving, no fighting the current and you just float along and observe.

Some diving pictures….

Y2YTraveller · 02-16-2012

There's only one way to say it: those diving photos kick ass! I am in awe....

Trev · 02-16-2012

Great report so far, keep those incredible photos coming!
That room is really something too.

Fishin Nut · 02-17-2012

Day 4

Two more dives for today…. Same morning routine… Coffee, shower, breakfast and off to the dive shop for two more dives. Doing my deep dive and underwater navigation dive for my Advanced Open Water Certification. Off to the Tortuga reef for the deep water dive, piece of cake. Saw some great life and the name of the reef didn’t disappoint as we got to see a turtle with his feed bag on.

While we were killing time between dives allowing for off gassing, we stopped by the pier to see if the bull sharks were still hanging around. We were able to find one of them still in the area and watched him swim around for awhile with our faces in the water and are bodies still on the boat. Everyone on board got a good laugh when I leaned over the edge a little too far and ended up ass over tea kettle falling in the water.

The second dive was just a shallow dive at the gardens, that we did some navigation skills using a compass and then swimming some patterns using a compass and counting kick strokes to form geometric patterns. My dive buddy who was also taking his AOW had some trouble with reading the compass but other than that all went well. After doing our required skills we spent the rest of the dive just cruising the reef….. It’s amazing how much life is there, I wish I could dive PDC every day.

Back to the hotel around 1:00 and met up with Beth for some lunch. We had a nice lunch at El Mediterraneo, we walked around the resort for a little bit stopping at all the bars for a drink, going to the actives desk and booking our zip line/ ATV adventure at Selvatica and headed back to the room. We hung out upstairs at the pool for a few hours. Nice relaxing afternoon.
After a little nap we went to Chef’s Plate for dinner. The food was great and was accompanied by a nice bottle of Brunello Di Montalcino…. Mmmmmmmmm
Back to the room for a little night/evening cap and off to bed. Yep, we must be getting old, no going out and ripping up the town.
Cenote diving tomorrow….. Can’t wait!!!!!

Here are a few more diving pictures from the day.

SharonD · 02-17-2012

Love your trip report! The diving pictures are amazing, thanks for sharing those with the unfortunate ones who are too chicken to dive (me!)

Fishin Nut · 02-20-2012

Day 5

Up early again……

Off to the Cenote to do my final check out dive for my AOW Cert. Peak Performance Buoyancy.
At the dive shop at 8:30… load up the truck and off we go to Chac-Mool. Wow, what a beautiful place. This is the second time I have been diving in a Cenote and I still can’t believe how clear the water is.

Andrea gave us some instructions and we put on our gear and headed down into the water. I had never been in a Cenote that there was fresh and salt water and was amazed how things look when the two meet. The visibility becomes very blurred as the water is stirred up and mixes together. I was the last in line and by the time I got thru the mix I could barely see the person in front of me….. I could see enough to see the outline so I just stayed close and followed.

After our first dive Andrea and I stayed in the water and we did a couple of buoyancy tests to finish up my AOW check out dives. I have said it before and I will say it many times again…. There is no better place to take a diving course then Dive Shop Mexico….. They really are the best!!! After I did my tests we met the others back up at the truck for a light snack and some drinks….. Then back down for our second dive which was better than the first.
We surfaced in an open cave along the way and Andrea showed us some cool fossils in the ceiling as well as the giant roots that have worked their way thru the limestone roof and down into the water…. So cool!!!
After our second dive we dried off and went over to see some of the pictures that the professional photographer had taken during our dive…. (See below) A quick beer and I purchased a tee shirt for myself and off we went back to the dive shop. Unloaded our stuff and I was back to the resort just in time to meet my wife for a bite to eat at Asiana.
We again had a few drinks and laid by the pool for a little bit and sleeping early in anticipation of another full day doing zip lines and ATV thru the jungle.
Some pictures of the Cenote dive.

02-13-2012	#1 (permalink)
Fishin Nut way into it Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 110	The Royal PDC Feb 5-12 We just got back from our second trip to the Royal PDC. Last year was our first trip to Mexico and we loved it so much we decided to return the same week. It all started on Friday morning at 12:05am for our online check in. We decided to go all out and upgrade from the one bedroom master suite that we had originally booked, to the presidential suite. We picked room 994. The online check in couldn’t have been easier…. What a great feature. Now we move on to Sunday…. Our travel day. The day started nice and early as we had a car pick us up at the house at 5:15 am. Off to Newark airport we go. Check our bags curbside without a hitch and proceed thru TSA. I was one of the lucky winners or the random checks…. Really no big deal, at first they just wanted to check my shoes but I guess when the saw that I was wearing flip flops they moved their attention to my carryon bag which had my dive computer and regulator in it. After about 30 seconds of them looking into that we were back on our way. A quick stop in to the Continental President’s Club for a quick bite to eat and a cup of coffee and off to the gate. The flight was perfect with a couple of Bloody Mary’s to start and then followed by a nice long nap. Woke up just in time to see our final approach. We flew thru customs and were greeted by some nice warm weather and a waiting car. We got to the Royal around 12:45 and did our check in but our room wasn’t quite ready. Off to grab some lunch at Pelicanos and have a couple of drinks while waiting for our room to be ready. We went back to the front desk around 2:45 and our room was ready so up we went. WOW!!!! What a room. It was even bigger than I thought it was going to be. I had looked at a video of the Presidential suite on youtube and thought all the rooms in the building by the quiet pool were the same…. Not! Room 994 is laid out a little different than the other rooms. After a quick unpacking we wanted to get to the Wha Wha bar so we could watch the Superbowl…. We rushed over there only to find that there wasn’t a seat in the house. What a great place and we were both upset that we got there too late but with waiting for the room to be ready we didn’t have any choice. We are both huge Giants fans so we decided to move on and find somewhere where we could sit down with a good view of the game. On our way down 5th ave we saw that Pez Vela had plenty of room right in front of the TV so we decided to start there. We snacked on some nachos and had quite a few beers as they were really going down nicely. They seated us upstairs surrounded by NE fans all wearing their jerseys….. oh boy!!!! As it turned out they were all very nice and we had a good time picking on each other as the score flipped back and forth. At half time we walked back to the resort to watch the game on the big screen in the room without any distractions. After some high fives and jumping up and down we decided to hit the hay so we could be fresh for the next day. __________________

02-13-2012	#5 (permalink)
colocpl sandflea Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 5	Thanks We are going for our first trip arriving on the 1st...looking forward to the resort and we appreciated your pics!

02-13-2012	#2 (permalink)
Fishin Nut way into it Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 110	Really busy playing catch up at work.... more to come.

02-13-2012	#3 (permalink)
Y2YTraveller life=playa Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 594	Great start! Loved the pictures of the room; looks like you were in the Chichen wing? How did you find the distance to the beach, etc. from there? Keep it coming!

02-13-2012	#6 (permalink)
hollywood65 beachaholic Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Dallas Posts: 290	Wow...what a room!

02-13-2012	#7 (permalink)
mrcool138 beachaholic Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: indiana Posts: 251	Thanks for the pictures. WOW!! That room is incredible. Looking forward to the rest of your report.

02-13-2012	#8 (permalink)
janied reposado Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 1,017	The Royal is my favorite resort ... but I've never stayed in the Presidential Suite ... WOW! it looks fantastic! More, more, more ... please!!!

02-15-2012	#9 (permalink)
Fishin Nut way into it Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 110	Day 2 We woke up early and went downstairs to get a cup of coffee at the coffee shop…. Back up to the room to enjoy the sunrise with a cup of joe…. We didn’t have any plans for the day so we took our time getting ready and went to Spice for a bite to eat. Just as we remembered good food and good service. After breakfast we took a walk down to the dive shop (Dive Shop Mexico) that I had scheduled to do my Enriched Air and Advanced Open water certification with while down there. I filled out my paperwork and set up my 6 dives that I would be doing with them over the next 3 days. It was good to see everybody at the shop as I had done my Open Water Cert with them last year. After that we took a stroll down 5th Ave and did a little window shopping. My wife got a few things for herself, friends and family and we continued down to Carboncito’s to grab some lunch. This was our first time there and I must say that it is everything good that has been said about this place and then some. The food was awesome and we stuffed ourselves. The beer is nice and cold too. We finished our meal and made our way back to the room for a food induced coma….. we slept for a few hours and woke up just in time to get cleaned up for some dinner. We went to Maria Marie for a bite and then up to the lobby bar for a couple of cocktails. Back to the room for a dip in the pool and some star gazing and called it a night as I had to get up early for my dive day.

02-16-2012	#10 (permalink)
Fishin Nut way into it Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 110	Day 3 DIVING TODAY!!!! Woke up early in anticipation of diving, I went down to the coffee shop at 6am when they opened and got my morning fix. Showered, gathered up my diving stuff and went downstairs to El Mediterraneo for some breakfast. Beth had a day at the spa planned so we went our separate ways. I was going for my Nitrox (EAN) Certification so I did some testing of the tanks and confirmed the O2 % and we were on our way…. Off to the Barracuda reef for the first of two dives…. Got to see tons of life on the reef and had a great dive. Up on the boat for about an hour and back down for our second dive. Not sure what the name of the reef was that we did our second dive on but it was close to the Barracuda reef. Again we saw a bunch of life and had another great dive. I love drift diving, no fighting the current and you just float along and observe. Some diving pictures….

02-16-2012	#11 (permalink)
Y2YTraveller life=playa Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 594	There's only one way to say it: those diving photos kick ass! I am in awe....

02-16-2012	#12 (permalink)
Trev way into it Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: up north, eh. Posts: 217	Great report so far, keep those incredible photos coming! That room is really something too.

02-17-2012	#13 (permalink)
Fishin Nut way into it Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 110	Day 4 Two more dives for today…. Same morning routine… Coffee, shower, breakfast and off to the dive shop for two more dives. Doing my deep dive and underwater navigation dive for my Advanced Open Water Certification. Off to the Tortuga reef for the deep water dive, piece of cake. Saw some great life and the name of the reef didn’t disappoint as we got to see a turtle with his feed bag on. While we were killing time between dives allowing for off gassing, we stopped by the pier to see if the bull sharks were still hanging around. We were able to find one of them still in the area and watched him swim around for awhile with our faces in the water and are bodies still on the boat. Everyone on board got a good laugh when I leaned over the edge a little too far and ended up ass over tea kettle falling in the water. The second dive was just a shallow dive at the gardens, that we did some navigation skills using a compass and then swimming some patterns using a compass and counting kick strokes to form geometric patterns. My dive buddy who was also taking his AOW had some trouble with reading the compass but other than that all went well. After doing our required skills we spent the rest of the dive just cruising the reef….. It’s amazing how much life is there, I wish I could dive PDC every day. Back to the hotel around 1:00 and met up with Beth for some lunch. We had a nice lunch at El Mediterraneo, we walked around the resort for a little bit stopping at all the bars for a drink, going to the actives desk and booking our zip line/ ATV adventure at Selvatica and headed back to the room. We hung out upstairs at the pool for a few hours. Nice relaxing afternoon. After a little nap we went to Chef’s Plate for dinner. The food was great and was accompanied by a nice bottle of Brunello Di Montalcino…. Mmmmmmmmm Back to the room for a little night/evening cap and off to bed. Yep, we must be getting old, no going out and ripping up the town. Cenote diving tomorrow….. Can’t wait!!!!! Here are a few more diving pictures from the day.

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02-17-2012	#14 (permalink)
SharonD life=playa Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 699	Love your trip report! The diving pictures are amazing, thanks for sharing those with the unfortunate ones who are too chicken to dive (me!)

02-20-2012	#15 (permalink)
Fishin Nut way into it Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 110	Day 5 Up early again…… Off to the Cenote to do my final check out dive for my AOW Cert. Peak Performance Buoyancy. At the dive shop at 8:30… load up the truck and off we go to Chac-Mool. Wow, what a beautiful place. This is the second time I have been diving in a Cenote and I still can’t believe how clear the water is. Andrea gave us some instructions and we put on our gear and headed down into the water. I had never been in a Cenote that there was fresh and salt water and was amazed how things look when the two meet. The visibility becomes very blurred as the water is stirred up and mixes together. I was the last in line and by the time I got thru the mix I could barely see the person in front of me….. I could see enough to see the outline so I just stayed close and followed. After our first dive Andrea and I stayed in the water and we did a couple of buoyancy tests to finish up my AOW check out dives. I have said it before and I will say it many times again…. There is no better place to take a diving course then Dive Shop Mexico….. They really are the best!!! After I did my tests we met the others back up at the truck for a light snack and some drinks….. Then back down for our second dive which was better than the first. We surfaced in an open cave along the way and Andrea showed us some cool fossils in the ceiling as well as the giant roots that have worked their way thru the limestone roof and down into the water…. So cool!!! After our second dive we dried off and went over to see some of the pictures that the professional photographer had taken during our dive…. (See below) A quick beer and I purchased a tee shirt for myself and off we went back to the dive shop. Unloaded our stuff and I was back to the resort just in time to meet my wife for a bite to eat at Asiana. We again had a few drinks and laid by the pool for a little bit and sleeping early in anticipation of another full day doing zip lines and ATV thru the jungle. Some pictures of the Cenote dive.