Jet Setting Off To Mexico: Part I

I honestly cannot believe it's been a WHOLE month since our wedding and turkey day is just on the horizon!  (How excited is everyone for stuffing and cranberry sauce!?)

Less than 36 hours after the end of our ceremony, the newly-jets boarded a plane on a freezing cold Boston morning bound for Cancun!

Way too early for both makeup and completely open eyeballs.

After a half-day's travel, we landed in Cancun and promptly...stripped off our New England layers to find this:

Not half bad, eh?  If you'll remember, we opted for a relaxing, all-inclusive vacation at Excellence Playa Mujeres.  Playa Mujeres is a very small resort area about 25 minutes North of Cancun and was the perfect adults-only, honeymoon-lovers getaway we were looking for.  

Since I base all of my personal travel on the reviews I read on TripAdvisor and from trusted friends, I thought it prove helpful for me to breakdown our trip into categories and give them a each 1-5 rating.  Stick around if you're looking for some all-inclusive honeymoon fun!

TRAVEL AGENCY: 5

I worked with Global Excellence, an American Express Travel affiliate, based in Warwick, RI and cannot speak highly enough of their services.  They book all of our company's work travel, so I knew right away we'd be in good hands.  As you can probably imagine, I'm quite the stickler when it comes to traveling and saving a buck - so when I spewed out my list of "must-haves" and my "will-not-pay-more-than-$" diatribe and received a positive response back, I knew I had made the right choice.  We got the following included in our travel package for below our seemingly limited budget:

• 7 nights in a deluxe suite with rooftop deck and private plunge pool
• Roundtrip airfare
• Semi-private airport transfers (we only traveled with one other party both from the airport and back, not on a huge bus that made tons of stops)
• Excellence honeymoon package (champagne breakfast in bed, 2 hour hydrotherapy & massage circuit, private dinner on the beach, welcome bottle of champagne and fruit.

ACCOMMODATIONS/RESORT LOCATION: 5

A little off the beaten path, but as we cruised past the strip of resorts that were nearly on top of one another in Downtown Cancun and Playa del Carmen, it felt relieving to reach the end of a long road with double security gates to find only two resorts - both of whom are owned by Excellence Group.

I am still missing our suite complete with 4(!!) beds, a wrap around couch, fully-stocked mini bar, indoor/outdoor jacuzzi, private plunge pool, ocean views, nightly turn-down service with rose petals and the cutest towel animals, and the feeling of utter relaxation.  Seriously, my most difficult decision most days was which bed to lay on.  The room was clean, bright and modern - as was the entire resort.  I swear, they cut the grass down there with tiny scissors or something.  The grounds were beautifully manicured and always smelled like fresh flowers.




THE FOOD: 3

I wish I could give the food a higher overall score, because we certainly had some GREAT meals while we were there, but a few of the restaurants left a lot to be desired!

Here are a list of all of the resorts restaurants and our individual score for each...feel free to skip over if you don't give a hoot!

• Agave (Mexican): N/A -- We never actually ate here, go figure!
• Barcelona (Mediterranean): 4 -- Mr. Jet loved his huge portion of Paella and I had some of the best falafel I've ever tried!
• Basmati (Indian): 5 -- This restaurant was so good, we ate there twice!  From authentic Beef Samosa to Lamb Vindaloo, they were on point with all of the complex flavors that come with Indian food.  This was by far our favorite restaurant.
• Chez Isabelle (French): 3 -- For the busiest restaurant on the resort, I didn't think it was the best flavor-wise.  The ambience was very romantic and warm, but the food wasn't up to our high French-loving standards.  The Filet Mignon let me down a bit, but their mushroom soup brought me right back up.
• The Grill (Steakhouse/Grill): 3 -- We ate here for lunch one rainy afternoon and while my Chicken Tacos delivered some good flavor, the Calamari Nachos we started with...did not.
• Flavor Market (Tapas): 5 -- We ate here almost every night before dinner with some small shared plates.  They immediately bring you out an amazing cheese and olive plate that changes daily and we dined on Mushroom Risotto, Chilled Canteloupe Soup, Seared Scallop with Rosemary - just to name a few.  We'd often hit this place up with a Flirtini just before dinner.
• The Lobster House (duh.): N/A -- This is the other restaurant we didn't try.  We're from New England.  Not trying to be a snob or anything, but nothing beats our lobster...we couldn't even let them try. ;)
• Las Olas (beach bar): 3-4 -- This makeshift restaurant set up every day on the beach and had a different theme each afternoon.  We tried the Taco Day and the Rock'N'Roll American Day.  Neither were great...but neither were awful!  Other days, we opted for room service or the brick oven pizza stand next door.
• Spice (Asian): 1 -- This restaurant really blew it for us.  Our first night there, we felt like Asian and were sorely disappointed by fat-laden duck and a Pad Thai with a tomato(?!) sauce.  Needless to say, we did not return.
• Toscana (Italian): 4 --  I had an amazing Duck and Goat Cheese flatbread here which made up for my less-than-stellar Gnocchi dish.  Mr.  Jet's Braised Leg of Lamb filled his tummy up good as well.  Toscana also doubled as the resort's breakfast buffet which was always consistent and filling!
• Room Service: 3 -- While insanely convenient, nothing from room service blew us away.  I did love that I could take advantage of eating on all 4 of our beds, in our jacuzzi tub, in our pool or even in our bathroom as I got ready.

THE DRINK: 5

The Jet Setters never wanted for any drink the entire week.  Our Mini Bar was stocked with Jose and Smirnoff as well as local rum and soft drinks.  We also visited all of the resort's bars for some pretty great cocktails and cervezas.   I've heard bad things about watered-down bottom shelf cocktails at all-inclusive resorts - but we could not complain about Excellence!


Up next, I'll review our off-resort excursions!