You know how it is when you’re a grown up and sharing another room with other grown ups with whom you usually don’t share a room?  You wake up and try to figure out how early is too early to start talking and moving around.  Should you just lay there for awhile longer?  Should you get up and do something?  Hmmmmm…

But eventually, someone starts talking.  (It was probably me), and you get ready for the day.  In Mexico, for me that involves taking preventative Pepto, other pro-biotics, and this trip, I added Liquid IV, which most definitely helped.  There was no first morning hangover.  I’ve never gotten “sick” in Mexico, but when I try all the fruity drinks and eat differently than usual, I for sure feel it.

We decided we were going to “start” at the golden pool since it was right outside our door.  This is the first time I’ve done a swim up pool at any resort.  (I’ve stayed at a resort I don’t remember way back in 1995, Live Aqua, Hyatt Zilara, Excellence Playa Mujeres, and Gran Caribe Royal.)   I am going to have a hard time doing something OTHER than swim up now that I’ve had the sweet taste of that!   The view from a room was always “nice,” but really… I get views all over resorts and am not in my room that much. The convenience of the swim up…  oh wow.

Since we wanted to get straight to enjoying, we figured we’d slather each other up with sunscreen, give it some time to sink in, and order room service.  I was kinda bummed at the lack of selection for room service.  You could choose one of 3 meals: spa, Americana, or Continental.  I sometimes like a side of French toast or pancakes or something.  I suppose I could have asked if they do that, but I just went with the menu as written.  The spa breakfast was excellent.  Spinach mushroom egg white omelet, celery juice, yogurt granola, fruit, and pastries.  PLENTY of food.  I just wish there were more choices.

I loved the Golden Pool.  As much as I appreciate the PARTY of the main pool, this really wasn’t that kind of trip.  Had we been there for a few more days… maybe?  Still not sure.  My last two trips have been to Excellence Playa Mujeres.  They also have activities at the main pool.   More than someone yelling into a microphone all day,  however, I prefer the live bands that EPM has up above the pool in the late afternoon.  That’s why Cancun area resorts are so great!   There’s usually something for everyone at all of them!

We were in room 8103, so the “lazy river” part outside our pool was about hip level deep… Just slightly too deep to just step in… but we could walk past two other rooms to our right and step in easily.  Outside our patio door were two chairs and a small table.  Then, you step down to an astroturf yard with two loungers and a table.  The rooms may not be IDEAL for 3 people because there’s really not a lot of room to move furniture around, but it was fine.  The pool has “rivers” surrounding islands.  It’s open to everyone at the resort and is definitely a quieter vibe.  It has a bar between the buildings, and you can order food directly to your chair.  For those with a swimup it is a great place to spend an entire day!   Even though that wasn’t our plan in advance, that’s what ended up happening.  The morning started with a spectacular sun shower and then cleared up for a glorious day!

The golden pool is a great place to be.  We had an excellent afternoon with our Denver neighbors sharing the amount of personal information you only share with strangers after you’ve had a massive number of mini beers.  We ordered salmon snacks and nachos directly to our deck for lunch.  Every so often someone would happen by and ask us if we wanted a drink or to sample some food.  It would be rude not to, right?  The service all day was outstanding!  It couldn’t have been much more relaxing.

Sometimes after that much “work” (read drinking), it’s hard to even convince yourself to go to dinner, but Susan had said something earlier about wanting to try a French dinner, and I had heard great things about l’Alsace, so we got gussied up, called for a golf cart, and off we went.

Oh, my… this dinner!!!!  Okay, so when I travel with my husband we often travel for food.  We like to go to Michelin starred restaurants and spend truly silly amounts of money on meals.  (I’m not gonna tell you how much, but we did the tasting menu at Robuchon in Vegas WITH the wine pairings. you can look for yourself.  Yes, I harbor guilt about this… but this is our main hobby and we have no kids… so… anyhoo…) So this dinner, even in comparison with other dinners,  was IMPRESSIVE.  Our service from Isaac was out of this world.  I mean they even brought us a stool for our purses.  You get your choice of breads… just YUM!  For an appetizer, I couldn’t decide between the foie gras and the escargot, so I ordered both.  They were both terrific!   That’s the thing.  People talk about the portion sizes being small.  Well, thank goodness!   Plus, it’s all inclusive.  If you want more, order more.  I went on my first cruise this last year and portion sizes at specialty restaurants were HUGE…  but you only get one.  Maybe that’s what people were expecting?

From there, I had the French onion soup.  I really was getting full, but then the filet.  It was slightly overcooked, but very tasty.  It was better than many of the other filets I’ve had in Mexico.  I know the meat is often different there, but this was yummy!  I ended it with the baked Alaska because I wanted the “show” with the flambe, and all that good stuff.  I’m too cheap to upgrade my WordPress so that you can see how pretty it was, but it was fun!   It was definitely too much booze to really taste the dessert, but I ordered it to see the show (an all inclusive resort is NOT Robuchon, and I don’t expect it to be.)

Speaking of shows and things that you really should see…  Don Miguel.  On our way over we paused in the plaza to listen to a beautiful rendition of Conte te Partiro by a 3 tenors group.  It was lovely.  Then, Don Miguel. We went in and sat at the bar…  The service there was excellent.  (When we went another time and sat at the tables, it wasn’t as good.)  I told them there that I wanted drinks that “did stuff” and specifically ordered the martini imperial and cotton candy mojito because I asked for suggestions on the Fans of Valentin Imperial facebook group.  They did not let me down and were loads of fun!

Again, I’m too cheap to pay for the actual videos, so if you see this on a Facebook page and want me to upload them, I can there.  :-).

We considered being the party types briefly as we went back outside to watch the groups who were enjoying getting their groove on… but then decided we were wiped out.   Back at the room, we knew we were probably breaking the rules a tad, but we did have a swim up and all… So back in the water for just a little bit.  We were quiet and not crazy (and looking down that lazy river, we also were clearly not the only ones.)

Finally, we hit the beds for the night at the end of our first full day.  I definitely had more than my share of the drinks… and would find out the next morning the liquid IV didn’t QUITE keep up… but much better than if I hadn’t tried at all…  Well, when you only go for three nights, ya gotta make the most of the two full days, amiright or amiright?