Cliff, Leslie (Cliff's daughter/my bonus daughter), Jordan (Cliff's son/my bonus son), and I went to the El Dorado Maroma (about 15 miles from Playa del Carmen) June 30 - July 4 to celebrate Jordan's high school graduation (and my birthday happened to land in there too). We booked the "El Dorado Fun for Less" trip through FunJet, which meant we would stay at one of the El Dorado resorts (Royale, Maroma, or Seaside). We found out about 5 days before the trip that we would be staying at the Maroma, which Cliff was rooting for because it only has 72 rooms and it is the most expensive of the resorts. I was rooting for the Royale (where Cliff and I stayed in January) because it is bigger, and I figured there would be more to do.
We ended up staying "on campus" at the resort for all five days. We had talked about driving into Playa, but each day someone didn't feel well, and there was also a timing problem with the elections (apparently they don't serve alcohol 48 hours before the elections). It was really nice to just relax on the beach and in the pools, spend time together, and eat and drink (two of my favorite hobbies). The best parts about this resort were the amazing customer service and the beach (the Travel Channel voted Maroma Beach one of the top 10 beaches in the world). The staff did an amazing job, and we joked about how they never said "no" to anything. The downside was the food. I was a little disappointed, especially since we had such a great dining experience at the Royale. The food options were more limited because of the size of the resort, and everything was very rich. The gourmet (sit-down restaurants) all-inclusive was still much better than the standard buffet-type all-inclusive though.
We ate breakfast every morning in the restaurant. Cliff and I ordered a lot of room service at the Royale, but it was easier to meet at the restaurant since there were 4 of us. We usually ate at the standard restaurant for lunch, although the restaurant by the ocean had some specialty foods (some amazing tacos the first day and a wide variety of fish the second day) that were good. We tried the Japanese restaurant the first night, and that was my favorite. Jordan even liked the sushi. The second night we did the Italian-themed dinner, the third night we did the actual Italian restaurant, and the fourth night we did the Mexican-themed dinner.
After dinner, we headed to Rick's bar. I was a lot more fun the first and last night because I had my afternoon nap. The bar was pretty empty since the resort was so small, but we still had a good time. One night there was a Michael Jackson show, and the last night we played casino games. When we were the only ones left in the bar, we played Jenga with the bartender. That was a lot of fun. The loser had to take a shot of tequila, and Cliff graciously took mine for me. I think he was cursing me the next day though.
Our travels went pretty smoothly. When we arrived in Mexico, there was no line in Immigration or Customs, and we sailed through. Our flight was delayed returning home, but it actually worked out for the best. We got to stay at the resort for 2 extra hours (until 5:25 pm), and we didn't have to wait at the airport at all. We saw some fireworks from the plane as we were descending into DFW. That was pretty neat.
I did okay with my vacation workouts. I got up super early (4-something) on Wednesday morning to run the 5K course around my neighborhood before we left for the airport. Cliff and I hit the gym at the resort on Thursday morning, and I lifted weights for 22 minutes and then ran on the beach (amazing!) for 22 minutes. On Friday morning we walked on the beach for just under an hour. Somehow I managed to lose 3+ pounds on the trip. I'm not sure how that happened, considering my vast intake of gorgonzola cheese and alcohol.
My home computer won't let me paste in Blogger (very odd), so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post some pictures.
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