AKA: Heaven on Earth!
Chris and I went to the El Dorado Royale in Mexico for our 5th wedding anniversary! This is also where we went for our honeymoon and 2nd anniversary...so it was our 3rd time there and it gets better everytime. I was literally giddy when I saw that our room was right on the beach. This was the view from our back door:
The little pool outside of our room was actually a "lazy river" that led to the big pool.
Here we are on the first night...so excited to be at our favorite place!
When we checked in, they gave us three vouchers that were each good for either a couple's massage, a candlelight dinner on the beach, or an expensive bottle of wine. We had no idea we were going to get the vouchers so it was a very nice surprise! Evidently it was a promotion they were doing when we booked the trip. Anyway, we opted to get three massages...so we did that 3 of the 5 days we were there. The best part? This is where we got our massages each day:
So almost everyday we woke up, went to breakfast (huge buffet that even had cheesecake...for breakfast!), read/took a nap on our beach bed, went to our massage, ate lunch, went for a swim through the lazy river, back to the beach bed for a nap, cleaned up for dinner, ate dinner, then went to sleep! Could it get any better?
The pool even had beach beds around it...this was new since the last time we went there! The first couple of days we were there, the wind was really bad right on the beach so we moved to the beach bed around the pool after we got tired of the wind.
The resort is referred to as a Gourmet Inclusive rather than an All-Inclusive because the food is delicious gourmet type food, but still free (well, included in what you pay to stay there)! There are 7 different restaurants to choose from and each one serves a 5 course meal. Some of the food is different...but very good! We ate way too much.
This was our dessert the last night we were there. We love it that our waiter wrote "nope to see you soon." :) Did I mention that the waiters, actually almost everyone that works at the resort, are the happiest people you will ever meet? They are so nice and friendly...and really try to do everything they can to make you happy.
And here we are the last night there...the night of our 5th anniversary! I am so lucky to have Chris to spend these special times with. He is such a great husband and provider for our family. I will never forget this anniversary! I love you, Chris!!
I was really nervous about leaving Will for a whole week...I thought I would be worried about him a lot and not be able to fully relax. But that was not the case at all. Once we got there, I was just so happy to be there with Chris and I knew Will was in good hands (thanks Mom and Dad!). This was a much needed vacation for just the two of us and highly recommend that every married couple with kids get away together at least once a year or so...it was so good for our marriage!
So who is giving me my massage tomorrow? Oh wait, back to reality... :)
Update: Since several of you have asked, I am going to give y'all the info for booking. First, go to funjet.com. Cancun (CUN) will be your destination (it is actually about 30 minutes from Cancun...but you fly into Cancun then a Funjet car or bus will take you to EDR). We drove to Dallas and flew to Cancun from DFW the last two times we went. If you fly out of Lubbock, like we did for our honeymoon, you will have a layover in Houston...and I would prefer to just drive to Dallas and then fly straight there without stopping.
Anyway, once you've selected Cancun as your destination, El Dorado Royale should come up on the first page of hotels. We booked a swim-up suite this time. Our building (#55) was the only one that had swim-up suites right on the beach...so maybe you can try to request it when you book or check in. After you have made all your selections, you should get to a page where it gives you the final price with insurance (you definitely want trip insurance). I always look at leaving different days because the price does vary for whatever reason depending on the day of the week you leave. Monday was the cheapest for us this time.
Once you see the price that you like, print that page and call Whitney Norman with Bell Travel at 806-796-2355 and give her the dates and flights you chose. She can get the exact same price through Funjet and can even take your credit card info over the phone, but I think it is best to have a real person to talk to rather than just booking on the internet just in case something goes wrong. For example, all the swine flu stuff happened right after I booked and Whitney kept me very informed by sending email updates. And if something does go wrong, you can use the trip insurance to book something else at the last minute...Whitney would take care of all that for you.
We only spent $150 the entire week...mostly on tips. We tipped a lot for our massages since they were free. We also tipped the maid a total of about $20 and $1-3 for each meal. We pretty much tipped everyone...you don't have to, but after you see how nice the people are, you will want to tip them too! We also spent about $20 to use the internet while we were there and we bought Will a shirt. However, we didn't leave the resort or do any excursions, jet skiing, parasailing, etc. That kind of stuff does cost extra...we were just happy to be not doing anything at all!
I think that covers everything...but feel free to ask more questions in the comments and I will answer!
Another Update: I just looked at the Funjet website and it looks like the promotion we got for the vouchers is good through December. Apparently, we got a voucher for each upgrade and since the swim-up suite is 3 levels up from just the normal suite, we got 3 vouchers.
