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Trip Reviews, Ratings and Comments - Trip Review - Aventura Palace
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Bill &Deborah have done a great job in describing this resort, so I won't bore you by repeating. but there are a few thhings I'd like to add.
we were there 12-8-00 to 12-17-00.We had two tours,manicure, pedicure, and massage with our package. The manicure and pedicure were ok, the massage wonderful. We chose Chichen Itxa abd Isla Mujeres for our trips.
Chichen Itza-If you've never seen Mayan ruins this is a must. If you have a bad back, the 3hr bus ride is going to kill you. The bus has A/C, a bathroom and drinks (water, pops, and corona), all were $1.00 us. they will stop for about 30 minutes to let you shop,(silver, blankets,mayan cravings,ect..).Then on to the ruins. Your guide will walk you thru wiyh info on the ruins but, if you stop to climb the pyramid, they will not wait. But you can always hook up with another group. they don't seem to mind. Lunch is served at the hotel resturant ther at the ruins. It was buffet style. They even put on a little show.
Isla Mujeres-anouther 50 minute bus ride into Cancun to Auqa World. About a 30 minute boat ride to Isla to their little resturant and beach area. All meals and drinks were included. You could swuim, snorkle ect... or you could snorkle the reef for$12.00us. We snorkled the reef. They take you in groups of eight with a guide. The seas were a little rough that day and the reef was a little disappointing (having snorkled part of the same reef in Belize). WE saw fish and coral but not with any great abunace.
After snorkling and lunch, we went to the other side of the island for shopping.
Let me say, shopping in Isla or Playa del Carmen was a lot more laid baid then in Cancun.
Cancun shopping and Bullfights-we took the shuttle to Beach Palace (more on this later), and then a cab into downtown. Shopping was a disaster. I would much rather pay a couple dollars more than be hasseled that much. You couldn't even look for people trying to get you into their shop. Some would even grab your arm.
Bullfights- Don't waste your money. The show they put on before the actual billfight were quite good. The bullfight was not like anything you might have seen on tv. The matador did not have a great deal of finesse and the poor bull was tranquillized as it came into the ring. We left before the bull was destroyed.
The resort- Aventura Palace is beautiful, and I would stay there again. The food was good with many choices.
Ask for the mexican coffee at La Hacienda, it's served with a great florish. At the Mudaca resturant, ask for Serigo. He's a great waiter and he loves his job(and it shows). I had read about him on the message boards and they were right. Be sure and tell him he's on the internet as a good waiter and please tip. These people work for a fraction of what we consider minimun wage and if the service warrants, then tip.
Be advised they cut and name their cuts of meat a little different than us. Serigo brought me a flank steak,(he ordered for me) that I'm pretty sure was a prime rib cut the wrong way. It was the best steak I've ever eaten.
Lobby Bar-Great meeting place. We met so many wonderful people from all walks of life.
Night life- there's not any. We went to one theme show and it was enough.The folks that went to the disco said there wasn't but a handful there. Of course the resort was only at one-third capacity at the time we were there. The resort winds down about 1am.
Lagoon- I liked it. You can swuim, snorkle (they have mask and fins) or paddle around without fear of rough seas or rip tides ect.. We went to Beach Palace's beach, and to be truthful theirs is more of what we're accustomed to. But the day we were there the seas were rough and the red flag was up and you could not swim.
There were some things that went wrong with our vacation. My husband became ill.(don't know why, we ate and drank pretty much the same thing), we got locked out of our room, because the keys are set for seven days and we stayed ten, and the bus rides got old. There was some construction noise for a couple of days, they had a hammer hoe digging either the pool or lagoon at the new Spa Palace. Noisey but not deafning. Other than my husbands illness (lasted about 4 days), none of the above was enough to spoil our trip.
Check out-Our shuttle didn't leave til 3:30pm, check out is at noon. We had express check out card(meaning we didn't owe a balance), and called a bellmen who came and picked up our baggage and it was stored in a holding area. We were given a card (that we didn't need), so we could eat, drink or get towels.
This has turned out much longer than i had intended, and theres still a million things I could tell. Let me finish with, everyone's vacation is what they make it, and I hope yours is all you want it to be.
Submitted by: Suzie Hayre -- Caribbeansuzieq@aol.com
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