Head Tale

Some people go every year, some people go whenever they can afford it, and some people will never go to one, thinking they’re fake, inauthentic holidays.

Shea and I are in that middle category – though we don’t go every year [edit: I lied – as of January 2020, we’ve been five years in a row  – 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 – and since I originally made this retro post in 2015, I wonder if that line about not going every year actually inspired me to try to keep going every year?!?), we’ve been on a handful of all-inclusive vacations over the years – averaging out to one every three years or so basically (but we’ve also been to Hawaii twice in that time though not for all-inclusives.  And our other “hot” holidays during past winters were to Edmonton and Winnipeg so we’re not counting those either!) 😉

Here’s the rundown…

February 2000 – Oceano Palace – Mazatlan, Mexico

• 19 of 76 Hotels in Mazatlan on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 260
• Booked a few months ahead of time through CAA I think but can’t remember carrier – possibly Sunwing?)
• Price Paid: ~$900/person maybe?
• Why we went: Shea’s parents had gone the year before on their first all-inclusive vacation (technically, they were on European plan and only got breakfast and lunch but not dinner) and highly recommended it to us.
• Who we knew: A high school classmate of mine happened to be there with his cousin.  In those pre-Facebook days, I have no idea how we knew we’d be there at the same time.  But we were and even though we were in different hotels, we still connected for a couple meals, some beach time and a pub crawl.
• Other Resorts Visited: Oceano Palace had a sister resort called Luna Palace (?) but I don’t think we got to it for some reason.
• Memorable moment: This was definitely our “Spring Break” getaway.  From seeing one party animal guy who passed out on the beach the first day who was lobster red the rest of the week to doing a pub crawl with my classmate and his cousin which ended up with more than one person in our party vomiting to the fact that we were woken by the sounds of blaring soca music by the pool below us every morning, it was a non-stop party.
• Unique feature: Everything felt unique since this was our first trip – all you can eat buffets!  Unlimited drinks!  Poolside activities!  Oceanview room!  Beach vendors bugging you to buy stuff!
• Villas or hotel style?  Hotel style.
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Tie: Attended a bull fight/Seeing the skinned animals hanging unrefrigerated in the central market stalls/Saw a dolphin that had washed up on shore one morning and was left for most of the day before it disappeared.
• Injury Report: Broke a toe when the waves pushed me into some submerged rocks just off shore.
• (Un)sexy moment:  A severely intoxicated woman on an all-you-can-drink harbour cruise falls out of her top while riding a wave rider.
• Beer of choice: Pacifico
• Internet access?  Nope.
• Book(s) Read: a variety of Mazatlan/Mexico guide books, “Life After God” – Douglas Coupland
• Best Feature: We had a great ocean view room and could also look down on the action around the pool as well.
• My Subjective Rating: 2/5 (though this is in hindsight after visiting many others.  As my first resort, I probably thought it was 5/5 at the time!) 😉  (No review but here is a list of some of my memories of my first all-inclusive.)

March 2003 – Copacabana (now Adults-only Catalonia Royal Tulum) – Mayan Riviera, Mexico

• 3 of 4 Hotels in that area of Mayan Riviera on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 288
• Booked through CAA on October 30 but can’t remember which carrier we traveled with.
• Price Paid: ~$2000/person (or was that for both of us together?)  I can’t remember but I do know we got a bit of a discounted group rate for having a party of 10 or more for our wedding
• Why we went: To get married!
• Who we knew: We had a wedding party of fourteen in total – Shea and I, both sets of parents, Shea’s brother and a buddy, two of my aunts, one of my mom’s cousins who ran a small hippie B&B three hours south of where we were plus one of her guests who happened to be from Saskatchewan (and who ended up taking better photos than our wedding photographer!)
• Other Resorts Visited: I don’t think we got to any other resorts though we were pretty busy most days with wedding stuff and excursions.
• Memorable moment:  Other than getting married?  The whole trip was one memory after another!
• Unique feature:  Had an amazing wedding supper where they closed off a section of their outdoor a la carte Italian restaurant and we had an awesome Italian-via-Mexico meal featuring great wine, tres leches cake for dessert, flaming coffees, hand-made flower roses for Shea from the staff and much more.
• Villas or hotel style?  Villa style.
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  My brother-in-law claims the black eye he showed up with after a late night out came from a tropical insect’s bite. 😉
• Injury Report: I got sun stroke at Tulum on our second last day and had to leave our Mexican a la carte that night to go back to the room to shiver in between bouts of Montezuma’s Revenge – knock on wood, that’s the only time I’ve gotten really sick on a tropical holiday. 🙁
• (Un)sexy moment:  Briefly consider hitting a strip club of dubious provenance (I even remember the name – Chilly Willy’s) the night before my wedding ceremony but think better of it after realising the high entry fee might be for more than just paying to see the strippers dance! (Full disclosure: my wife was with us, she was offered free admission and that made me even more nervous for some reason!)  I also got distracted by a topless woman on the beach while doing the walk-through/rehearsal the day before our wedding so that’s my excuse for any screw-ups during the actual ceremony.
• Beer of choice: Dos Equis, Regular and Dark
• Internet access?  I don’t think so.
• Book(s) Read: “A Leg To Stand On” – Oliver Sacks
• Best Feature: As a soon-to-be-married couple, they gave us a suite that was twice as large as what our guests had.
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5  (very nice but loses a point for long distance to the beach.  No review but here’s some grainy pics I took of the TV while watching our wedding video.)

March 2004 – Riu Cancun – Cancun, Mexico

• 28 of 178 Hotels in Cancun on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 956
• Booked on March 10 through CAA, possibly Sunwing again?
• Price Paid: ~$1250/person after using a travel voucher for a mess-up the year before with our wedding booking plus waiting for a last minute deal for a resort that would normally be double what we paid.
• Why we went: A scheduling snafu with our wedding trip the year before led to us getting a travel voucher which we had to use within 12 months.  We booked a week off, waited until only a few days before our scheduled days off then booked the best deal we could find which was a newly opened, high end resort marked down to ~$1500/person (I can’t remember what the normal price for this resort was.)
• Who we knew?  Nobody.
• Other Resorts Visited: I think we went to a sister resort – maybe Riu Palace – for a quick look around and pina colada.
• Memorable moment: Actually, the trip across to Isla Mujeres was the most memorable part of our time in Cancun – just one of those days with perfect moments you remember forever.
• Unique feature:  The only all-inclusive that had not just beer, pop and water in the in-room fridge but also in-room hard liquor dispensers (which unfortunately were local brands that tasted like paint thinner so we didn’t indulge too much after trying them the first time). Also the only infinity pool we’ve been in so far as well as our first (but definitely not last) swim-up bar.
• Villa or hotel style?  Hotel style (and we were on the top floor with an ocean view which was amazing!)
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Paid to get our photo taken holding a lizard on the beach.
• (Un)sexy moment:  Sitting at swim-up bar, the bartender goes “Look at that” and gestures.  We look up and see two people copulating on their eighth floor balcony.
• Beer of Choice: Corona at the time but now Dos Equis I think
• Injury Report: Is this the trip where I once again broke a toe, this time tripping over a cable that was running from a telephone pole to the ground?
• Internet access? I paid to use Internet on a desktop computer at a mall across from our hotel, maybe $5 for half an hour or something?
• Book(s) Read: “Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping” – Paco Underhill, “Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta” – Aritha Van Herk
• Best Feature: Great ocean view room on close to the top floor.  Excellent food.
• My Subjective Rating: 4.5/5 (loses half point for beach being reclaimed and not very swimmable.  Everything else was amazing.)

March 3-10, 2011 – Blau – Varadero, Cuba

• 4 of 48 Hotels in Varadero on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 395
• Booked in October through CAA and flew on Air Transat maybe?
• Price Paid: (don’t remember – maybe $1500 each?)
• Why we went: Family vacation on Shea’s side
• Who we knew?  Her parents and her brother and sister-in-law plus their son who is Pace’s age
• Other Resorts Visited: None.
• Memorable moment: Doing a private tour into Havana with a local “tour guide” 
• Unique feature:  Drunk Russian tourists singing at the lobby bar to all hours of the night which was awesome considering the hotel had an open atrium running from the top floors to the lobby.  The first resort we visited that had a bidet? 😉
• Villas or hotel style?  Hotel style.
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Went swimming with penned dolphins.
• (Un)sexy moment:  Well, it’s embarrassing to say but I was at one of the heaviest points in my life during this trip so I think I was the unsexy moment on a daily basis. 🙁
• Injury report?  I probably broke a toe at some point.
• Beer of choice: Cristal
• Internet access?  It was expensive and basically like dial-up in Cuba so we didn’t bother even trying.
• Book(s) Read: Cuba Travel Guide, “Chavez: Venezuela & The New Latin America” – Aleida Guevara March 
• Best Feature: Amazing beach.
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5 (loses point because Cuba doesn’t have same supply lines as other areas with all-inclusives.  No review but here’s a pic of Pace being cute on the beach.)

February 19-26, 2015 – Grand Palladium Palace – Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

• 30 of 102 Hotels in Punta Cana on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 1815 (across three sister resorts with full access to all)
• Booked through in January on Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with Air Transat
• Price Paid: ~$5000 for four people including two kids, one under 2 who flew free.
• Why we went: Shea’s parents were talking about a trip back to a resort they’d previously visited.  We said we’d join them since Sasha flies free, not being quite two yet.  My parents decided to go as well so it turned out to be a bit of a re-visit of our beach wedding twelve years ago.
• Who we knew?  My parents and Shea’s parents.
• Other Resorts Visited: Well, this was a mega resort where we had access to three different, linked resorts – Grand Bravaro, Grand Palladium, and Grand Palladium Palace.  Also Harc Rock Punta Cana (see next bullet point).
• Memorable moment:  Seeing Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band live at the Hard Rock Resort in a beautiful outdoor setting.
• Unique feature:  The Grand Palladium is three resorts in one and you can use all three resorts’ restaurants and amenities interchangeably (many resorts like the Riu chain in Cancun allow clients in the “upper” resorts to use the “lower” ones but not vice versa.)
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Sasha may or may not have chased the on-site flamingos.
• (Un)sexy moment:  My dad had a Montezuma’s Revenge-type moment that could’ve ended *really* badly but luckily was fine in the end – er, pun not intended – due to a nearby empty hotel room that was accidentally (and almost unbelievably) left unlocked by the cleaner after his own room card didn’t work! My mother-in-law also made me some knitted swim trunks as a joke that were anatomically correct. Oh, and Sasha accidentally pooped in the main pool so I had to take quick action to minimize that disaster too!
• Injury report: Shea’s mom broke bones in her foot slipping on the boat during a snorkeling excursion on our second last day.  Didn’t go to the doctor on-site as we heard it was expensive and paperwork to get reimbursed could be complicated. So she gritted it out with rum for medicine until we got home.
• Beer of choice: Presidente
• Internet access?  Our rooms weren’t supposed to have it but we got upgraded to a higher end resort of the three and ended up with really good signal in our room.
• Book(s) Read: None 🙁
• Best Feature: First resort we’d been to that had pool chairs that sat right in the water on a lip on the edge of the pool which we loved.
• My Subjective Rating: 5/5  (No review but here’s a farewell photo)

December 27, 2015 to January 3, 2016 – Iberostar Varadero – Varadero, Cuba

• 3 of 51 Hotels in Varadero on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 386
• Booked in September (?) through Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with Air Transat
• Price Paid: My parents actually paid as a (very!) generous Christmas gift (but let us use our own Travel Visa Card to get tons of points too!) I think the cost for four of us – two adults and two kids – was around $10,000 at one of the highest seasons of the year at resorts which makes this easily our most expensive resort by far.
• Why we went: As mentioned, my parents offered to take us as a Christmas gift (of course, they also said they were using our inheritance to take us so there’s that!) 😉
• Who we knew?  My parents (we didn’t see them though we looked as we were de-planing and they were waiting to fly home but my sister and brother-in-law had gone over Christmas week with their kids then we checked into the room that they checked out of to be there with my parents for New Year’s.)  Two of my regular library patrons were on our flight down and back but their family stayed at a different resort.
• Other Resorts Visited: None.
• Memorable moment: Being at a resort over Christmas/New Year’s is both new and memorable compared to always going in February/March before.  In fact, the entire New Year’s Eve day is pretty special – we did family pictures throughout the resort then went for appetizers, an amazing supper and then a massive entertainment show, just for NYE, that ends up with everyone from the crowd being invited on the stage which temporarily transformed into a nightclub!
• Unique feature: Possibly the biggest pool of any resort we’ve stayed at?
• Regrettable animal abuse moment: Watch a man bring in a freshly caught fish to a restaurant where a chef eagerly take it from him.  Also, I think a small sand crab that Grandma caught for the grandkids to look at may have met an untimely end?
• Injury Report: I probably broke a toe.
• (Un)sexy moment: She took a lot of teasing for it but Shea having enough bathing suits to wear a different one every day (plus more!) was definitely a sexy moment in my eyes!
• Beer of choice: Cristal
• Internet access?  Apparently it was free in the lobby but I don’t think I even bothered to try to connect.
• Book(s) Read: “Motorcycle Diaries” by Ernesto Che Guevara
• Best Feature: Being there over the holiday season meant the whole place was very festive in decorations and the NYE spread was unbelievable.
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5 (loses point because, as I already mentioned, Cuba has worse supply lines for things than other resort areas.  For example, weirdly, you can get Coke but not Pepsi.)  (Also, to be fair, this is the resort Shea says is her favourite – great beach, nice size, being there over holidays, including an unbelievably good NYE meal – were all things that put this resort in that top slot for her.  No review but here’s a video of the NYE countdown.)

February 22 to March 1, 2017 – Sandos Caracol Eco Resort – Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

• 67 of 211 Hotels in Playa del Carmen on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 956
• Booked on October 12 through Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with WestJet Vacations
• Price Paid: $5600 for two adults, two kids
• Why we went: Not having had to pay for our trip last year (thanks again mom and dad!), we’d managed to save enough so that, along with accumulated Visa Reward points, this trip was relatively affordable.
• Who we knew?  My parents and also a former co-worker of Shea’s was there with her family (including three boys around Pace’s age) plus her cousin’s family so there were lots of people we knew.
• Other Resorts Visited: Sandos Playacar a couple times during our 7-day stay since it had a *much* better beach.
• Memorable moment: Seeing monkeys in their natural habitat every day was pretty cool as was the outdoor “Fire of Life” Mayan history show on Saturday night.  We knew the ocean at Sandos Caracol was rocky but a day trip to sister resort, Sandos Playacar, might have given me a new #1 for “Best Beach ever” – calm turquoise waters and bright white sand.
• Unique feature: So many – this resort has a cenote and a small river we swam in, authentic Mayan ruins on site, bikes that are free to borrow (but we never got to this activity), jungle trails and probably lots more I’m forgetting (and all of which are things you’d have to pay for as an off-site excursion at most other resorts.) Because there was so much above and beyond what a typical resort has, this was one of the first times I really regretted not doing two weeks instead of one.
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Seeing some young kid holding a large iguana by its tail as he walked towards the lobby yelling “Mom!  Mom!” was disturbing – doubly so when he dropped it and we saw blood on the animal’s head. 🙁
• Injury report:  Mom had a heat rash and my dad also had a rash which we later learned might be due to a resin from one type of tree that’s in the resort (and could’ve apparently been cured earlier by the resin of yet another tree if we’d thought to mention the rash to local staff.)
• (Un)sexy moment: Shea and I took a “romantic boat ride” on the Jade River and when we told our tour guide that we’d gotten married in Mexico fourteen years ago, he asked if we’d “made the magic” during that trip! 😉
• Beer of choice: Dos Equis and Sol
• Internet access?  There wasn’t supposed to be Internet in our base-level, standard room but we managed to pick it up on occasion, especially early in the morning or late at night and if we (funny enough) were in the bathroom over any other part of our otherwise large room!  If we got really desperate for a Facebook fix, we could also pick it up at the lobby and a few other spots around the resort.
• Book(s) Read: “Brave New World” – Aldous Huxley
• Best Feature: Monkeys!!!
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5 (loses point for shitty beach though sister resort, Sandos Playacar might also be best beach we’ve ever visited – my review.)

February 27, 2018 to March 13, 2018 – Moon Palace Cancun – Cancun/Mayan Riviera, Mexico

• 15 of 176 Hotels in Cancun on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 2433
• Booked on October 17 through Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with WestJet
• Price Paid: $3300 (once again, my parents offered to pay for our first week which was a lot more expensive – $6600 – as you’re paying for return flights whether you go for one week or two but which meant we could choose to pay for a second week ourselves at a significantly lower price!)
• Why we went: We had picked a different hotel in a different country and in making small talk with my parent’s travel agent, we ended up picking this one *very* spontaneously!
• Who we knew? My parents
• Other Resorts Visited:  Moon Palace Grand for a couple day trips, Beach Palace in Cancun once for a much better beach.
• Memorable moment: Parasailing in front of sister resort, Beach Palace, with Pace and Shea
• Unique feature: Flow Rider Surf Simulator
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Not regrettable but this resort had a falconier going around the resort to keep other birds from hanging out/bugging people/stealing food which worked great.
• Injury Report: I came off the FlowRider with a pretty nasty scratch across my belly.  Not sure how I did it, it didn’t hurt when it happened or after I came off the ride and it disappeared within a few days but it looked pretty ugly.  Shea ran across to shut it off when the half full jet tub in our room started doing a jet cleaning thing and slipped in the spraying water, luckily not breaking anything!
• (Un)sexy moment: Deciding that since it was an all-inclusive and they all looked so good, ordering all four desserts on the menu at one of the a la cartes for myself was a smart idea! 😉
• Beer of choice: Corona/Amber Beer (? – a dark beer was a nice option though I’m not positive what kind it was – possibly Modelo Amber?)
• Internet access? Yes, everywhere in resort and very reliable except when our entire resort (Nizuc) dropped for one evening while two other areas – Sunrise and The Grand – apparently stayed up.
• Book(s) Read: “El Narco” by Ioan Grillo
• Best Feature: Massive pools everywhere.
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5 (An otherwise perfect resort gets ruined by a shitty beach – my review)

February 24, 2019 to March 3, 2019 – Hyatt Ziva Cancun, Cancun, Mexico

• #6 of 176 Hotels in Cancun on TripAdvisor (I think I saw it rated as high as #2 when I first started looking at it though?)
• Number of Rooms: 546
• Booked on September 20 through Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with WestJet
• Price Paid: At ~$8000 for a family of four (and I booked as soon as I saw the price drop by a couple grand – I’d been following this resort almost daily but was getting prices in the $10,000 range.  I suspect the Expedia algorithm noticed I was checking regularly and threw a big discount at me to see if I’d bite – which I did!)  Anyhow, this is easily the most expensive resort we’ve stayed at (outside one we went to in Cuba but that was a gift from my parents *and* over the Christmas/New Years season.)  But after a tough year of death and illness and other life stresses, I had a “you can’t take it with you” mentality and decided it’d be okay to blow the budget this time around.
• Why we went:  It was in the back of my mind as soon as we got back from Moon Palace that I’d like to swing another trip the following year if we could afford it.  But various deaths and health scares for people we knew really put us in a “live for today” frame of mind.  Plus we’ve been fortunate to go four years in a row now so it was nice to keep the streak alive! 🙂
• Who we knew?  We knew a couple people in the airport in Regina, some of whom also happened to be on our flight but otherwise, I don’t think we even met someone from Saskatchewan the entire trip. Since this resort is fairly compact after a few years of staying in huge mega resorts, we did however, end up making friends with people from Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Edmonton, Calgary and various other places who we kept bumping into regularly.
• Other Resorts Visited: We could’ve gone to Hyatt Zilara but it was adults only and we didn’t want to leave kids that long so didn’t.
• Memorable moment:  Renting a double-decker cabana on the beach for a day for one of Shea’s belated birthday gifts was a pretty cool experience.
• Unique feature:  Hyatt Ziva has the only all-inclusive craft brew restaurant anywhere in North America so that obviously appealed to me.  It also has a “restaurant” that’s nothing but all-you-can-eat candy/cookies/ice cream/sweets so that appeals to the kids.  And after two years in great resorts but without great beaches, the fact that this resort is on the tip of the Cancun peninsula means it has not just one beach but two (plus a third unswimmable one right on the point over a rocky outcropping), one on each side of the resort, which appealed to Shea.  (As one person we met said, “This is the closest to being on an island you can get without going to Jamaica!”)
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  This hotel has a dolphinarium right on site so that’s…problematic.  And watching the Mexican heritage show one night, I couldn’t help but think that with the Mexican dancing horses, anytime you have an animal doing something unnatural, it probably didn’t learn that trick because it was given hugs and kisses. 🙁
• Injury Report: Not sure what the cause was (likely too much sun on the first day?) but I got laid up for half a day with Montezuma’s Revenge and which left me weakened state for a couple days after (luckily one of those was our double-decker cabana day so I was planning to lay around all day anyhow!)
• (Un)sexy moment:  Me trying to clamour into the tube in the lazy river while the current is pushing against me was probably not too sexy.
• Beer of choice:  The resort has Tescate Dark and Light in rooms, those plus Sol and Heineken at poolside and obviously the craft brews at Tres Cervezas are a unique highlight!
• Internet access? Yes, everywhere in resort and very reliable.  There’s apparently a “premium” package to maintain decent speeds after using a certain amount of bandwidth but we never noticed any lag, even with all of us using devices to different degrees (and I think you can connect up to 7 devices per room as well which is more than most people should ever need.  Okay, we hit five between the four of us because we all had a device plus I had my phone and laptop!)
• Book(s) Read: “The Official Rules of Hockey — And How They Got That Way” by James Duplacey and started “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” by Yuval Noah Harari
• Best Feature:  Hard to choose on such a full featured resort but the word “stunning” kept coming into my mind everywhere I looked – the crystal clear water on the beach, the view from the lobby, a balcony with waves crashing below, the beachfront restaurant where you can dine with your toes in the sand, the top of a double-decker cabana overlooking Cancun, the view from the wedding gazebo as the onsite photographer takes some family photos for free at sunset, even looking out the windows as you descend the stairs in your building – so many great views.
• My Subjective Rating: 5/5 (My Review)

February 23, 2020 to March 1, 2020 – Crown Paradise Club Cancun, Cancun, Mexico

• #52 of 215 Hotels in Cancun on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 617
• Booked on January 12, 2020 through Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with WestJet
• Price Paid: $5300 which is three grand less than than last year – and almost half price from the top price we saw quoted for the resort we were at last year!
• Why we went:  We moved into a new house this year and with various expenses related to that, we thought our streak of annual tropical trips would probably end.  But a cold snap in January plus the realization that paying a lot of those expenses with our Travel TD card meant we had more points to use than ever before by a large margin *plus* our willingness to go to a much cheaper resort than we’d recently been going to all added up to the streak continuing!
• Who we knew?  We always bump into people we know at the Regina airport and this trip included a former RPL co-worker whose daughter is the same age as Sasha so they hit it off.  Unfortunately, we were headed for different resorts (coincidentally, they went to one that was probably our top choice before we decided to go a bit more downmarket!)
• Other Resorts Visited:  Does the ruins of a demolished resort next door on an iguana tour count? 🙂
• Memorable moment: We had a pretty calm, quiet trip overall so nothing really stands out as overly memorable.  Nothing to do with our family but I chuckled at the toddler standing below the stage copying the moves of the man on stage during the Michael Jackson show.
• Unique feature:  Very family friendly resort has a kid’s zip line onsite which was new to us.  Also maybe the first that had a full designated kids’ mocktail menu?
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Sasha was convinced I could catch a fish with my hands for her since there were so many when we went snorkeling at Isla Mujeres.  Luckily for the fish, I’m not that quick! 😉
• Injury Report:  It’s a running joke that I break/bruise toes on vacation and this trip, I managed to outdo myself by bending back a toe after slipping while getting in the tub (no tequila involved, honest!) so it was black and blue right up until we got to Mexico for a change.
• (Un)sexy moment: I had an upset stomach on day two which I suspect was a combination of overindulging in booze, food and sun all day which led to me puking in the middle of the night.  Luckily, this wasn’t a long lasting condition and I was good to go on a self-guided excursion to Isla Mujeres the next morning (Shea’s tone of voice when she asked if I was feeling good enough to go the next morning probably encouraged me to feel better even if I wasn’t at 100%!)  And you’d think that would caution me but I think I continued on an unhealthy level of gluttony for most of the rest of the week – booze, food, sun, super long sweaty walks on the beach (just like I wrote about in my Playboy profile!) 😉  Luckily no repeat porcelain microphone performances but there were a couple nights I felt pretty bloated when I finally crashed for the night.
• Beer of choice: Corona Light in the rooms and on tap, Modelo was available as well.
• Internet access? Yes, everywhere in resort and very reliable.
• Book(s) Read: “Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World” by Stephen Brusatte (I often try to read a book connected to where I’m visiting but didn’t make the connection until near the end of this book where he writes about the comet impact that ended the dinosaurs’ reign and hit in Quintana Roo state, only a few hundred miles from present-day Cancun!) plus “Across The Wire: Life and Hard Times in Mexico” by Luis Alberto Urrea about a hardcore Christian missionary group who provide aid into the slums of Tijuana among the most lawless, impoverished people on earth.
• Best Feature: There was some sort of traditional Mexican broth soup with stew beef and spicy sauce [edit: carne en su jugo] at the steakhouse a la carte that I’m still thinking about a week later!
• My Subjective Rating: 3/5 I mean, this resort was definitely a lot more downmarket than the resorts we’d stayed at the last few years but, at the same time, there was nothing horribly terrible about it either.  I keep thinking about how Shea and I always like to try new resorts but last year we said Hyatt Ziva was the first resort we could see ourselves going back to as it had everything that’s important to us in one stunning package.  I sort of feel the same way about this resort from the other end of the spectrum – if I wanted an inexpensive, family-friendly resort with all the basics covered, I could see myself going back here. (My Review)

Sunday February 19, 2023 to Sunday February 26, 2023 – Grand Sirenis, Mayan Riviera, Mexico

• #2 of 9 Resorts in Akumal on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 948
• Booked on January 5, 2023 through Expedia.ca with our TD Travel Visa, flew with WestJet
• Price Paid: $8450 for just Shea and I.  We were shocked when looking at how prices had jumped – $8000 got all four of us the Hyatt Ziva, the nicest resort we ever stayed at, only three short years ago!  Luckily we had thousands in travel points after basically two full years without a trip which came close to halving that price.  (Admittedly, we were hesitating because prices had gone up but when Sunwing began cancelling trips out of Regina, we had to jump as we figured a lot of those customers would rebook on WestJet and we didn’t want to end up not being able to book because all seats were full.)
• Why we went:  This year is our 20th anniversary of getting married on the beach in Mexico.  We’re not going to the same resort (been there, done that!) but to one in the same area of Mexico that Shea found after a lot research (usually I’m the big researcher!) Big difference is this is our first hot holiday without the kid(s) since they were born.
• Who we knew?  Talked to my cousin who had been here in November with his wife and during our week, a couple from my hometown in the airport going to a different resort but otherwise, no one at the actual resort even though every second person we talked to seemed to be from Saskatchewan.
• Other Resorts Visited:  None.  Thought of a couple day trips to Akumal or Xpu-Ha beach but only I left the resort and only to run to a souvenir stand basically across the highway.
• Memorable moment:  “Vamonos!  That’s what he always says back in Colorado!” (a clueless American tourist on our bike tour had a number of gems and actions that could’ve ruined the experience if we didn’t have a sense of humour about her cluelessness.  This phrase, slightly modified “Vamonos as they say in Colorado!”, has become a catch-phrase for Shea and I.
• Unique feature:  Actual Mayan Ruin on a rocky outcropping just off-shore
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Dolphin Swim on Site and we didn’t even bother to go to the free show (but saw a dolphin from the patio of the Spa)
• Injury Report:  Really bad papercut (like you could see the fatty tissue under the skin!) right before we left reaching for a folder of trip paperwork in my backpack)
• (Un)sexy moment: One heavyset lady is so drunk, she falls off the side of her pool lounger and loudly cracks her head on the concrete.  Uhm, come to think of it – that’s neither sexy or unsexy but just sad and scary.
• Beer of choice:  Sol.
• Internet access?  Were a bit worried as some reports we read said you had to pay extra for Internet but turns out that Internet is now free for up to five devices per room and strong throughout the resort (recent upgrade enhanced reception everywhere including beach which had apparently been lacking previously.)
• Book(s) Read:  “The Last Resort“, “All Inclusive“
• Best Feature: A really long lazy river through the resort is very appealing as we’ve only had one at any other resort we stayed at – and that was a relatively short one at the Moon Palace Grand where we also had to pay a premium fee to access that resort from the regular Moon Palace where we were staying.
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5 (My Review – coming soon!)

Monday February 19, 2023 to Monday February 26, 2023 – Dreams Playa Mujeres, Playa Mujeres, Mexico

• #2 of 4 Resorts in Akumal on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 502 Suites
• Booked on November 19, 2023 through CAA for a family trip with my parents, my sister’s family and my family.  Used our TD Travel Visa, flew with WestJet
• Price Paid: $16000 for the four of us.  We paid $8000 last year for the two of us but still wild to pay this much.  Luckily, this was a very generous family trip that my parents were footing basically all of the bill on so that helped.
• Why we went:  To be completely honest (and knowing dad or her will likely never see this as it’s the first place I’ve mentioned it directly on my blog), my mom was diagnosed with dementia this year.  But it has been progressing, likely for the last few years when we first started to see small signs.  Mom really wanted to do a trip but as she regressed, didn’t even realise how much her memory had failed or how hard it would be to travel with her in her condition.  Dad spoke to my sister and I and, without saying it aloud, offered to take us on one what will very likely be one last huge family trip before they can’t travel anymore.  We knew this wouldn’t be a typical holiday as we’ll be helping them quite a bit with it being a “working holiday”where each family would alternate days spent with/watching my mom.
  And obviously, it would be very bittersweet knowing this is the first time we’ve done a trip with my sister and her family (husband, son, daughter, son’s girlfriend) in maybe a decade or so and would also likely be the last trip where we’re all together in this way.
• Other Resorts Visited:  Shea and I went to the Adults-Only Secrets next door a couple times on the days we weren’t charged with watching mom.
• Memorable moment: Even though mom has dementia and wasn’t fully with us mentally, we still had many moments that will create lifelong memories for the rest of the family with sunset family photos being one particular highlight.  Also doing tequila shots with her one evening on the main patio!
• Unique feature:  A bar behind a waterfall in one pool sounds cool but we rarely used it as it was super-loud inside it!
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:  Sasha finds a gecko on the edge of one pool and plays with it for awhile until it stops moving – playing dead?  Dead?  We don’t stick around to find out after she puts it back on the pool deck!
• Injury Report: Honestly, in some ways, the whole goal of the trip was to make sure my demented (her words for her dementia) mom got through it without hurting herself, wandering way, falling or otherwise ending up in a worse condition than we arrived.  And other than a bit of sun rash, we succeeded.  My nephew fell on ice right before our trip and broke his nose pretty badly.  He was still able to come but it definitely affected his trip.
• (Un)sexy moment: The grandkids have a “dance off” which mostly consists of them each impersonating their Grandpa’s moves.
• Beer of choice:  None on tap which was something we had never seen before.  But they had up for it with a wide selection of cold cans available at all bars including non-alcoholic and Heineken Silver (eg. light) that we can’t get in Canada.
• Internet access?  Yes.  Strong everywhere.
• Book(s) Read:  “Cujo” by Stephen King.  Re-read this as I wanted something light and engaging that I could pick up and put down easily.  Still didn’t do a lot of reading on this trip.
• Best Feature:  Probably the single most luxurious resort we ever stayed at (seeing multiple weddings daily speaks to how beautiful it was) with the pools and white sandy beach both being particular highlights.
• My Subjective Rating: 4/5 (My Review – coming soon!)

March 2, 2025 to March 9, 2025 – Ixchel Beach Hotel, Isla Mujeres, Mexico

• #1 of 50 Resorts on Isla Mujeres on TripAdvisor
• Number of Rooms: 117 Rooms
• Booked on September 16, 2024
• Price Paid: $5500 for three of us (but actually $2500 once we used accumulated TD Points)
• Why we went:  We had saved a lot in the past couple years with only doing a Shea and I trip two years ago, my family paying for us last year and a few years without any big trips due to Covid.  So we
• Other Resorts Visited:
• Memorable moment:
• Unique feature:
• Regrettable animal abuse moment:
• Injury Report:
• (Un)sexy moment:
• Beer of choice:
• Internet access?
• Book(s) Read:
• Best Feature:
• My Subjective Rating: x/5 (My Review – coming soon!)