It was my turn to be surprised by our destination, which meant Sam had done all of the planning for our long weekend trip in January of 2023. After exploring all of the options, he decided to go with a Costco trip because he could get cash back with his Costco card and also because it was high season and the options were cost-effective. This meant the flights, hotel and transfers were part of a package.
So, we showed up at the airport and he unveiled the mysterious destination - Cancun! We arrived in sunny Mexico after a quick four hour direct flight from Philly, made our way to the transfer bus, and arrived at our hotel, the Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach. Our hotel-zone resort was huge and offered us champagne when we checked in - why not! We got the run-down about our all-inclusive resort and I went straight to the reservations desk to ensure we had reservations for dinner for the nights we planned to be at the resort. Normally I wouldn't go for an all inclusive, but it certainly made everything extremely easy.
First, a BIG surprise...
After dropping our bags and getting ready, we were off to dinner at Restaurante Hacienda El Mortero just down the street in the middle of the action. The food was good and the margaritas were exceedingly gigantic.
Once we wrapped dinner, we headed back to the room and I was in for quite the surprise. Our room had rose petals everywhere, a "happy anniversary" cake, and a bottle of champagne. Sam played it cool, but he must've been sweating because he had this planned all along. The result...a ring and question...and a YES!
Now that we were off to a memorable start, we were ready for a few days of adventure in Mexico. Aside from relaxing at the beach/pool and enjoying unlimited drinks and food, we did two major activities.
Xcaret Mexico...
I have always wanted to go here, and Sam had heard me talk about it enough to book our tour ahead of time. We did the day tour and were picked up bright and early at our resort on a big bus. The drive took about an hour and then we got in line to purchase "add-ons", which was sort of unavoidable based on their aggressive sales skills. We bit the bullet and got the photo package (highly recommend) and Snuba activity (highly don't recommend).
My favorite part of the park was the river adventure that was included in the basic ticket entry. We geared up, jumped in the "river", and floated for almost an hour through the park. With our photo package we got wristbands that we scanned throughout the park at designated stations to automatically take our picture. Disney - take notes! These were genius and we had so much fun using them.
The Snuba was certainly my least favorite. I don't normally get panicky but I almost couldn't do it. The helmets were heavy and umcomfortable, and there wasn't a ton to see down there because we stayed together in a designated zone. At least I've done it and never have to do it again.
Snorkel and Catamaran Tour...
Aside from the long car ride to get to the catamaran launch, we absolutely loved this tour. There were only about 8 others on the tour and we started with snorkeling. We saw all kinds of fish and stingrays on this 45 minute portion. Then we headed back onto the small boat to our catamaran where we enjoyed unlimited drinks, lunch, and continuous sunshine during our 3 hour cruise.
Overall, Sam did an excellent job with our long weekend trip. It was exciting (duh), sunny, and gave us time to adventure and relax. Going through Costco was certainly a deal, but in the future we would want to stay outside of the hotel zone without the all-inclusive option (unless it's amazing). I absolutely can't wait to go back down since it's only a short flight away...and an excuse to go back to the scene of the engagement each and every January (hint, wink, Sam).
No comments:
Post a Comment