08-14-2012
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#1 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 276
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The Trip Report That Refuses To Write Itself. Grand Luxxe/Playa 7/28-8/4
Hello everyone! I’m new here but I figured I would just go ahead and jump in with my trip report. I always swear Im gonna write a trip report after vacations and then I procrastinate and it never happens. But reading the reports here were a huge part of my planning, so I'm really doing it this time!!
Let me tell you a little bit about us. I’m a (old) law student and my husband Dave is a dental lab technician. We live in Pittsburgh. We like to drink and we like our food…a lot (we both used to be chefs). We’ve been married for three years and I have two children who are 10 and 12. They were not invited on this trip! This was the first trip to Mexico for both my husband and me. I traveled quite a bit when I was younger, but a randomly developed fear of flying kept me land bound for more than 10 years. Two years ago, I took a leap and booked a trip to Jamaica (and heavily armed with alcohol and Xanax) got back on a plane. We had a great time there, went back again and had less of a great time, so I started researching new vacation spots. As luck would have it, my parents own a timeshare at the Grand Luxxe, which is the residence club at the Grand Mayan, and they invited us to come down and spend the week with them. I’m what you might call an over the top, obsessive to the point that I’m unbearable to be around, trip planning freak. On occasion I’ve wondered if I actually enjoy the research and planning more than the actual trip. So, of course I took to the Internet and read everything I could find and have been lurking here for months. Having read possibly every restaurant and bar review and every trip report ever in creation, we happily embarked on our trip. |
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08-14-2012
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#2 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 276
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DAY 1
Flying out of Pittsburgh is a bitch! There are no non-stop flights to Cancun that aren’t charters, and considering my previously mentioned aversion to flying, we drove to Cleveland the night before so we could take a non-stop on United. Was cheaper anyway and Dave’s mom live there so we had a place to stay and a ride to the airport in the morning. I’m proud to say that this was my 1st un-drugged flight and it went just fine. I used to break out in a cold sweat just thinking about a plane. Landing in Mexico…      Truthfully I was a little worried about arrival after reading how people will lie to you and try to trick you with transportation, but it was a breeze. Took about an hour to get through immigration and customs (huge improvement over the 3 hours it took on our last trip to Jamaica), no one said a thing to us and we just walked outside to meet our ride. Mayan provides free transport to the resort and we knew we were looking for a guy in a blue shirt and pants holding a Mayan Group sign. It took a few minutes, but we found him. There were already about 10 people (and a gaggle of children) waiting and they apologized and told us we would need to wait for the next van. No biggie at all because it gave us time for an expensive beer and we got to ride by ourselves in the next shuttle and we only waited about 10 minutes. Transportation area…  Dave having just consumed his first beer in Mexico…  Me…Facebook style cause my husband can’t manage to take a picture that include my entire head…  When we arrive at the resort I’m kinda blown away by how massive it is. I mean, its HUGE and obviously designed to be confusing with no signs and no pedestrian walkways so that 99% of guests will never find a way off the property. We get dropped off at the Grand Mayan because there is no driving road to the Grand Luxxe, only golf carts. Yes, this is annoying. I was prepared for it, but I wont lie, I hated it. We arrive the Luxxe around 1pm and check in, but our room isn’t ready yet and they suggest we go eat. We ask where the bathroom is so we can change into our swimsuits and they direct us to a janitor closet with a bathroom in it. I change, and then Dave goes in to change and is walking in on twice by staff. I still don’t know what that was about because there was a lovely bathroom right down the hall. Palapa over the Grand Mayan entrance…  Driveway…  Walkway to the Grand Mayan lobby…  The lobby at the Luxxe isn’t finished yet, so they checked us is out on this patio and brought mimosas…   We head to the pool (which requires another drive in the shuttle) and hit their restaurant Burgers Custom Made. I ordered fish and chips and Dave had a shrimp burger, which was a bunch of huge grilled shrimp with bacon wrapped around it to form a patty. Of course I forgot to take a picture of it until he was half way through, so ignore the gross half eaten picture that will follow this. The food was delicious and reasonably priced for resort food, however the drink prices were absurd and our lunch with 2 entrees and 3 cocktails came to over 65$. We took a dip in the nearly boiling pool water and walked down to check out the beach. Its really beautiful, but rocky and un-swimmable. The pool concierge informs us that our room is ready and we wait for the shuttle to take us back to our building. I’m gonna stop mentioning the shuttle now because I’m sure it will get annoying, so in your mind just imagine me annoyed every time I go anywhere because I have to stand outside waiting in the HOT for the darn shuttle. Grand Luxxe restaurant Burger’s Custom Made, right off the Luxxe pool…  Half eaten shrimp burger…sorry…  Fish…so good…  Luxxe pool…  Beautiful beach…  Ocean entry…  The room is amazing! Possibly the most beautiful hotel room I have ever seen. Of course I forgot to take any pictures of it. We had a huge bedroom, huge living room and kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a plunge pool on the massive deck, a Jacuzzi tub and a rain shower. I will get the rest of my complaining out of the way now, because I don’t want you all to think I’m just a negative person and I have nothing bad to say about the next week of my trip, but noise was a big issue here. There was construction right outside the building and we heard jackhammers all day longer and bad heavy metal and karaoke at night from our balcony. If you stay here, request a room on the side of the building away from the construction. We loved loved loved Playa, but the resort was just not our style. NEGATIVITY DONE! We showered and headed over to the 6pm shuttle to Playa. It’s 50pesos and they drop you off in the garage under the Wal-Mart. On the shuttle ride there I listened to the group behind us talk about how Playa is really gross and not worth checking out and how they only go to stock up at Wal-Mart. They fear that in the 3-hour wait to get the next shuttle back to the resort they might be accosted by drug cartels and decide to just get a cab back. I roll my eyes. It’s a bit disorienting when I get off the shuttle because even though in theory I know exactly where I am and how the streets are oriented, I have no idea which direction I’m facing. Another couple from the shuttle seems to be having the same issue, so we team up and ask for directions to the Mega. I need to stop at the ATM to get pesos and then we were heading to El Fagon. The couple asks if we know of a good place to eat and say that they were just planning to look for someplace with a lot of Americans, so we invite them to go along with us. I ordered the arrachera especial, Dave ordered the arrachera torta, and we shared a bunch of al pastor, and a few XX. Yum! I loved the bean soup and ate it all even though it was entirely too hot to be eating soup. Grilled onions may possibly be my favorite food on earth, so I was happy. I wasn’t a huge fan of the meat, a little too much tenderizing for my liking, but it was still pretty tasty. Dave said the meat on his torta was better than mine, maybe because it was cut smaller. And I’m all about the green sauce. We all really enjoyed ourselves and it was a great meal to start our trip and I was really glad that my planning paid off for other people. El Fagon bean soup and arrachera especial. Somehow I managed to miss taking photos of pastor tacos during my entire trip. Probably cause I shovel them into my mouth at top speed!…   We decided with the other couple (whose names I cant recall) to hit the Mega and then just grab a cab back because its pretty much the same price as the shuttle for 4 people and much easier with all the groceries. We stocked up on liquor (I love my Havana Club), diet coke, water and dulce de leche candy bars. Oh, and the pot limes. I don’t know what it was, but the limes reeked of pot. Every time we opened the fridge it smelled like someone was smoking a joint. They were really good limes though! Epic Mayan ruin of feminine hygiene products at Mega…  Cab back to the resort was 200peso, which is great because the listed rate is 225 and we were at Mega. It was a long day and since I had only slept for an hour the night before we said a quick hello to my parents who had arrived while we were gone, had a cocktail and headed to bed. Wow. I’ve never written a trip report before and it’s a lot of work. More tomorrow! More pictures, less snark! |
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08-14-2012
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#7 (permalink) | |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 276
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08-14-2012
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#10 (permalink) | |
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PROUD RANDOMITE
  Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Oregon
Posts: 18,950
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