Hello everyone!
Well it’s been a bit since I had a new post but it’s for a good reason! I just returned from a week-long vacation in Mexico with my husband. It was lovely to get away – we really needed a break and we had been looking forward to this trip for a while.
Traveling is one of our favourite things to do and at least once a year we like to escape to a beach destination and just spend a week doing nothing. No excursions or activities, just being completely lazy.
This year we chose a brand new all inclusive, adults-only resort in Mexico by the name of Secrets Playa Mujeres in Playa Mujeres, Mexico. This resort is about 40 minutes from the Cancun airport and Playa Mujeres is a fairly secluded part of Cancun. There’s only 5 resorts in this area and there’s no restaurants or shopping nearby. We’ve stayed in this area twice before so we were familiar with it and personally we like it – I’ve never stayed in the “hotel zone” in Cancun but I’m not sure that would be our thing. We enjoy the seclusion and quietness this area offers.
Unfortunately our experience here was less than fantastic, which was really disappointing. I don’t want to get into too many details about our experience because I could literally be here all day, so here’s a quick summary of the good, the bad and the okay:
The GOOD:
– This resort itself is gorgeous. The pools, beach, rooms, landscaping, restaurants, etc. are all really lovely and brand new (the resort just opened in November)
Pool area
– Service at the restaurants and bars was generally very good. Prompt service with a smile.
– The layout of the resort is a little different than other all-inclusives we’ve stayed at. The lobby and a few of the restaurants plus the gym and spa were at the top of a hill, while the rooms, a few more restaurants, pools and bars were at the bottom of the hill. They had golf carts to take you from point A to point B (which only took a few minutes at most).
The OKAY:
– Food was hit-and-miss. We had some good food, some okay food, and some really not good food. I never really expect to have amazing food at an all-inclusive, but there was definitely some room for improvement here.
– Secrets typically brands themselves as a couples resort, however I think they are struggling with an identity crisis at this particular location. Lots of drunk and rowdy people at the pools and lots of large events that took over many of the public spaces at night. There’s also a very energetic entertainment crew that attempts to get people involved in their daily activities like Zumba and beach volleyball. They’d play loud music at the pools during the day and constantly be asking you to participate in events. None of this really bothered us (although the constant invitations did get a bit tiring after a while) but if you’re looking for peace and quiet this might not be the resort for you.
Infinity pool that overlooks the ocean
The BAD:
– Drinks were extremely watered down. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this anywhere but it was bad. They’d fill a glass half full of hard liquor like vodka or whiskey, add a mixer and you couldn’t taste the alcohol.
Drinks at the piano bar
– Our check-in experience was horrible. After being assigned our room, we received a 20 minute timeshare spell that we never asked for nor were interested in. Despite us telling the rep that we weren’t interested he kept pressing us and kept with his sales pitch. It was annoying, particularly after a long day of travel.
– Our room. We booked the lowest category room which was classified as a Deluxe Ocean View suite. This was our view:
It overlooked the roof of one of the restaurants and to the left there were a bunch of large ventilation systems that ran constantly and were extremely noisy. We could have overlooked the view but the noise was way too loud for us to be able to enjoy the patio. When we called the front desk to ask if it would be possible to move to another room (within the same category) we were told no (quite rudely). This, coupled with our check-in experience resulted in a bad overall first impression of the resort and it was hard to shake it the rest of our stay, especially given that there were quite a few other things that just weren’t up to par.
Ultimately though, we were able to enjoy the beach and pool, and ate and drank our fair share of pina colada’s and guacamole. We read books, worked on our tans and enjoyed the sunshine. Most of our issues were most definitely first world problems, but because we did pay quite a bit for our stay and have had superior experiences at other comparable resorts we most definitely won’t be returning to this resort.
I’m working on some posts later this week in regards to products I used while on this trip (more bad than good!). Going from single digit temperatures with very little humidity to ones in the low to mid-thirties plus high humidity required some major changes to my daily beauty routine! I applaud anyone who lives in an area with high humidity and looks great while doing it as I found it so challenging. I’ve been to Mexico before but never at this time of year and it was much different than visiting in the fall and winter months. Almost made me thankful for my dry climate back home (almost).
I also won a contest on Twitter while I was away and my prize is to arrive sometime this week. I’m so excited that I won something and I can’t wait to get it. More details to come!
If you have any questions about my travels please let me know – I’ll happily answer!
Have a great day!
Classic Maggie 