Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

[Dom_Wren]

did 6 days at the riu palace, in playa, it was great. did the dive trip to cozumel and senor frogs. all good stuff but the hotel, staff and food were awesome.

[Tayls]

Stevo what did you make of Xcaret??

[Kingman]

Ive done XPlor & Xoximilco, Going back to Cancun next month for the 6th time. Love it

 

http://www.xcaret.com/?langRedirect=1&_ga=1.174722212.782182759.1437331717 

 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g150768-Activities-Mexico.html 

 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g150807-Activities-c42-Cancun_Yucatan_Peninsula.html 

 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g150812-Activities-Playa_del_Carmen_Yucatan_Peninsula.html#TtD

 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g150807-Activities-c56-Cancun_Yucatan_Peninsula.html  (No One) 

 

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g150812-d1535337-Reviews-Xplor_Park_Cancun-Playa_del_Carmen_Yucatan_Peninsula.html  (No Twelve)

Edited July 19, 2015 by Kingman

[Stevo985]

did 6 days at the riu palace, in playa, it was great. did the dive trip to cozumel and senor frogs. all good stuff but the hotel, staff and food were awesome.

The palace was opposite ours (we were in the Tequila). Looked lovely. If we ever go back we'd probably upgrade to that one, even though ours was perfectly fine.

 

Stevo what did you make of Xcaret??

It was great. Something different!

 

They tell you when you go in that you'll never see everything in a day. We felt like we did. THe underground rivers are cool, but the novelty wore off pretty quickly, so we only did two of the three. But we didn't do any of the special stuff they offer, all the extra stuff you have to pay loads for. So robably if you did a couple of them it wouldn't leave you much time to do loads of other stuff in the park.

 

But the animals were cool, really enjoyed the snorkeling, the Paradise river, the monkeys and the big rotating tower thing.

 

Didn't think much of the horse show.

 

The big show at the end of the night was pretty amazing. It's almost worth the price of admission for that alone. The only negative about it was it was really **** hot in the arena and the seats were ridiculously uncomfortable. So even though the show was amazing, I couldn't wait for it to end.

 

Only negative about the whole thing was the guide on our bus there (we paid for special transport to the park)

The bus was mostly spanish speakers, it was only us who spoke Engish. So the guide told us she'd talk to everyone in spanish, and then she'd talk to us separately on our own in English. Fine.

She didn't. She spoke for about 20 minutes in Spanish. Then when we (very politely) asked if she needed to tell us that stuff in English, all she did was circle the lockers and the main arena on our map and told us what time the bus would pick us up.

 

Luckily, my very basic spanish meant I picked up a few things she told the rest of the bus (what restaurants we could and couldn't eat in with our wristbands, what time some of the shows were, what time the park closed etc), but it also highlighted that she told them a lot more stuff than she told us!

Not really a reflection on the park, but it annoyed us a bit. Obviously she has to cater to the Spanish speakers. There was loads of them, and we were in Mexico. We were just annoyed that she specifically said she'd tell us everything in English, and then didn't.

 

Oh, also, they confiscate your suncream and bug spray when you go into Xcaret if it's not "natural". Dunno why. They give it you back afterwards. As far as I could tell it was to make you buy their expensive "natural" suncream.

Luckily we had an almost empty bottle of suncream and a full one. So we just handed over the empty one, and sneakily used the full one when we got in there. They don't search you or anything.

 

Great day out though. The tickets seem expensive (ours were $125 each including lunch and transport and special entry (can't remember what they call it but it includes lockers and towel service and stuff)). But like I said, the show is amazing, and is about 2 hours long. If you went to the theatre to see a show like that it would probably cost you £50. So that's half the price of admission already. Well worth it.

 

Edit: just realised, after typing all that, that you've been there before so probably didn't need the review

But I'll leave it up in case anyone else wants to know about it.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Stevo985

[villa4europe]

is this just the general mexico holiday thread?

anyone ever done the day of the dead festival over there? is it any good or is it not really a touristy thing? im not sure if people get dressed up as skeletons and go to a massive carnival or if its a pretty somber mexican thing that they dont really wnt flooded with tourists 

[tonyh29]

did 6 days at the riu palace, in playa, it was great. did the dive trip to cozumel and senor frogs. all good stuff but the hotel, staff and food were awesome.

The palace was opposite ours (we were in the Tequila). Looked lovely. If we ever go back we'd probably upgrade to that one, even though ours was perfectly fine.

 

Stevo what did you make of Xcaret??

It was great. Something different!

 

They tell you when you go in that you'll never see everything in a day. We felt like we did. THe underground rivers are cool, but the novelty wore off pretty quickly, so we only did two of the three. But we didn't do any of the special stuff they offer, all the extra stuff you have to pay loads for. So robably if you did a couple of them it wouldn't leave you much time to do loads of other stuff in the park.

 

But the animals were cool, really enjoyed the snorkeling, the Paradise river, the monkeys and the big rotating tower thing.

 

Didn't think much of the horse show.

 

The big show at the end of the night was pretty amazing. It's almost worth the price of admission for that alone. The only negative about it was it was really **** hot in the arena and the seats were ridiculously uncomfortable. So even though the show was amazing, I couldn't wait for it to end.

 

Only negative about the whole thing was the guide on our bus there (we paid for special transport to the park)

The bus was mostly spanish speakers, it was only us who spoke Engish. So the guide told us she'd talk to everyone in spanish, and then she'd talk to us separately on our own in English. Fine.

She didn't. She spoke for about 20 minutes in Spanish. Then when we (very politely) asked if she needed to tell us that stuff in English, all she did was circle the lockers and the main arena on our map and told us what time the bus would pick us up.

 

Luckily, my very basic spanish meant I picked up a few things she told the rest of the bus (what restaurants we could and couldn't eat in with our wristbands, what time some of the shows were, what time the park closed etc), but it also highlighted that she told them a lot more stuff than she told us!

Not really a reflection on the park, but it annoyed us a bit. Obviously she has to cater to the Spanish speakers. There was loads of them, and we were in Mexico. We were just annoyed that she specifically said she'd tell us everything in English, and then didn't.

 

Oh, also, they confiscate your suncream and bug spray when you go into Xcaret if it's not "natural". Dunno why. They give it you back afterwards. As far as I could tell it was to make you buy their expensive "natural" suncream.

Luckily we had an almost empty bottle of suncream and a full one. So we just handed over the empty one, and sneakily used the full one when we got in there. They don't search you or anything.

 

Great day out though. The tickets seem expensive (ours were $125 each including lunch and transport and special entry (can't remember what they call it but it includes lockers and towel service and stuff)). But like I said, the show is amazing, and is about 2 hours long. If you went to the theatre to see a show like that it would probably cost you £50. So that's half the price of admission already. Well worth it.

 

Edit: just realised, after typing all that, that you've been there before so probably didn't need the review

But I'll leave it up in case anyone else wants to know about it.

I was looking at the Xcaret resort for Christmas with Mrs H and the kids  ( you get free entry to the park if you stay at the hotel)

Ultimately I didn't get my act together and the direct BA flights have gone   .. probably should have read this post sooner and then I might not have flaffed around   ..

Maybe next years Xmas sorted though ....

[Stevo985]

It's definitely worth a visit. Kids would love it I imagine.

I think if you were prepared to splash out on the extra activities (I touched on them in that post, but we didn't do any of them, but it's stuff like swimming with dolphins, speed boat rides, snorkelling that sort of stuff) then you could probably stretch the park visit out to a couple of days.

[hogso]

We finally booked 10 nights in Playa Del Carmen the other day - pending promotions for us both at work made it a bit fiddly with budget, but we've finally took the plunge. Thanks to all who have contributed to the thread, some really priceless info! I am desperate to see a lot of Tulum, a trip to Chichen Itza, possibly Cozumel too.

I don't know if anyone saw it, but there was a BBC three part Mexico documentary  over the last few weeks, with the second episode focusing on the Yucatan peninsula. Great stuff, really excited for it now, especially looking forward to the cenotes, having learnt more about them.

Few things; anybody do Xel-ha? Was there a definitive answer on dollars v pesos? And away from Mexico itself - this will be our first long haul flight, what should we expect? Any advice? (booked with Thomson, so we're on a Dreamliner)

[Stevo985]

11 hours ago, hogso said:

We finally booked 10 nights in Playa Del Carmen the other day - pending promotions for us both at work made it a bit fiddly with budget, but we've finally took the plunge. Thanks to all who have contributed to the thread, some really priceless info! I am desperate to see a lot of Tulum, a trip to Chichen Itza, possibly Cozumel too.

I don't know if anyone saw it, but there was a BBC three part Mexico documentary  over the last few weeks, with the second episode focusing on the Yucatan peninsula. Great stuff, really excited for it now, especially looking forward to the cenotes, having learnt more about them.

Few things; anybody do Xel-ha? Was there a definitive answer on dollars v pesos? And away from Mexico itself - this will be our first long haul flight, what should we expect? Any advice? (booked with Thomson, so we're on a Dreamliner)

Dollars vs Pesos: we did half and half. In reality, it probably doesn't matter as everywhere seemed to accept both, even the smaller stalls. However I got the feeling the stalls and market stands preferred Pesos.

Basically we paid for our excursions mostly in dollars, and then paid for small shopping bits in Pesos. 

 

We went on the Dreamliner with Thomson. Go online and select your seats as early as possible. When we went we could choose seats 30 days prior to the flight, with no extra fee. We chose the seats right at the front (as far forward as you can get without being in premium economy) by the bulkhead. You get shit loads of leg room.

However, we're on a Thomson Dreamliner this year going to Jamaica and none of that was available. Selecting any seat was £15 per seat, and the bulkhead seats were way more expensive than that.
So it may be that they've changed it for all their flights and that's not available.

Apart from that you should have free drinks all flight and a half decent meal.
However I thought the in flight entertainment was awful. Good selection of movies but the quality was like a cheap pirate copy from a dodgy bloke down the pub. So that was disappointing.