Cancun - Crown Paradise Club - Mar 4 - 17

This first week of March, pretty quiet here at the lake. I've been fighting a cold all week. Ray had minimal symptoms until Friday, when it hit him. Other than packing for our next trip to Cancun and doing some errands, not too much happening.

Lake level is up again with all the rain we've had.

Tuesday, March 11th we headed to Victoria to the Day's Inn, so we're ready for our morning flight to Canucun. As we arrived in Sidney early, we ate lunch at the Stonehouse Pub. Great atmosphere and good food.

We ate dinner at the Dickins Pub, next door to the hotel. We get a 20% coupon off of food for staying at the Day's Inn and the food at Dickins is pretty good. We relaxed for the rest of the evening.

On the shuttle to the airport for 6:30 am. Not too busy and we were through check-in fairly quickly. We were told we had to carry our computers and couldn't have them in checked luggage, so something else to carry. 

At Security, Ray set off the alarm after telling him about his new knees and hardware in his back, but they also thought he had something in his pocket, so he was scanned and checked for drugs residue! It was me last time, because I had liquid cough medication in carry-on.

Even though this all took awhile, we still had an hour and a half wait to board. I'm glad we are priority boarding as we get loaded first. We left a little late, as apparently Cancun did not want us any earlier than scheduled as they were busy. The flight was uneventful and the time seem to go quickly. The only down-side is our flight attendant isn't very attentive and spent more time yapping to co-workers than checking us for drinks etc. We arrived on time, 5 hours and 21 minutes flying. Arrival 5PM. Again, we waited 15 minutes on the runway for the flight deck crew with the flag to come and guide us to the gate.

Trouble started when went through customs. Cancun is a very slow airport for getting your luggage. It must have taken an hour waiting for our bags to come. Ray finally grabbed them and we through our 2 laptops into one checked bag and carried on to the exit. Unfortunately, we were nabbed by customs for a random search of our bags. Long story short, because we put the 2 laptops into one bag we were charged $78 CAD for not declaring extra electronics! Ray's extremely pissed off at this obvious cash grab, but had to pay the money so we could get going. Everyone else pretty much left the airport and of course we had to wait again for our transfer to the hotel as I'm sure a lot of vans already left. NOTE TO SELF, if we'd tucked in with a large group in front of us and not left space between, I'm sure they would not have chosen us. It's because we were easy pickins.

Finally arrived at the Crown Paradise Club at 7:15 pm. 2.25 hours after landing and the hotel is only 15 minutes from airport! We passed a police checkpoint (didn't stop), but the van driver told us that all police are crooks and not to trust any of them except the Marines. He went on to say they make a habit of stopping anyone in a rental car driving from Cancun to Tulum. They find something, anything, to "fine" you for.

Check-in took about 20 minutes and after getting our bags to our room we went down to the buffet for dinner. What a day!!! View from our room. It's hot outside at 28C (82F) and humid. Certainly not used to this. :)

First morning view.

We managed not to cough the whole plane trip surprisingly. Once we got into the hot, humid air by morning we both were coughing again. It's really hot and humid here. 30C and 75% humidity. Unfortunately the A/C in our room is just ok at those temperatures. Debbie is melting!

First sunrise. Pictures taken from our balcony.

The resort property is half the size of Krystal Grand in PV, but has tons of stuff for kids with a play park, mini golf and a kid zone. There is only one adult only pool, and it's small, and it doen't face the ocean and with only one lounger beside the daybed, wouldn't work for us. Also major construction next door.

My cold come back a couple of days, worse than my first one. A few days after me, Ray became sick again with his cold. We've basically been sick for a whole week so stayed at the hotel. The first couple of days we were not so bad, so Ray took our towels down early to reserve spots in the loungers poolside. The noise from the pool games etc and constant boom boom of techno Spanish music gave us headaches lol. We ended up wearing earbuds and headphones to block out the noise.The next couple of days, he found us a secluded spot with shade sails, between the beach and the pool, so we kept away from everyone else. Other than jumping in the pool to cool off, I basically dozed for 2 days.

Rant time!

The food here really sucks big time. This resort is obviously set up for families with younger kids and the food reflects that. Even the snack bar pool side has terrible stuff, all greasy, not like the one with fish tacos in PV. The buffet is poor and we've tried the Seafood a al carte which was just ok. The Italian one is horrible. Fortunately the French one is the best so far. We've yet to manage a reservation at the Mexican and the steakhouse a la carte. Other guests tell us the steakhouse serves tough steak, but the ribs are good. Good thing I'm sick so I don't feel like eating anyways and Ray manages to find something. Even the beverages are the bottom of the line. I did find out to ask for more expensive brands though, so that improved.

Monday, March 17th. A rainstorm hit last night and it today is quite windy and cloudy. I had had enough of bad food. We took the bus for $1 USD each to the La Isla Mall stopping first at the Kukuclan Plaza, which obviously is newly opened as most of the store fronts have window paintings to cover remodelling inside. They did have a cool stained glass dome. 

Our first Mexican bus

Back on the bus to La Isla Mall. We wandered around past the stores and Ray took some pictures. Very pretty here, with part of the mall dedicated to high end think Tiffany's) stores. I didn't bother looking as I really don't need any more clothes lol. The high end stores were inside, but there were lots of stores in the outdoor mall.

Finally found a place to eat a good meal, Mochomo. The service and food is fantastic. Debbie is a happy camper again! lol There are 2 halves to this restaurant. Mochomo which is kind of a steak and seafood with a Mexican twist and the other side is Japanese, Ryoshi.

Back on the bus to the hotel and just hung out in our room and then down at the bar for a bit, people watching. A lady beside me heard me cough, and through her google translator told me to drink a straight shot of tequila it as it is good for a cold lol She even showed me on google that it said so. Her husband took Ray over and pointed to a more expensive tequila, Cenenario Tequila (reposado) they on the shelf, so that is what I did. It was pretty smooth and I did quit coughing lol We went to the Buffet tonight for Ray to get a bit of food and I ate one tiny bowl of ice cream lol.