The Honeymoon is Over :(

Our trip was fantastic! The weather was VERY hot but you're not far away from an air conditioned room, an ocean, or a pool if you need to cool off. It did rain, but it wasn't often or very long at all. For example, we drove through a 3 minute cloud of heavy rain once. The other side of that cloud was blue skies. The locals didn't seem to care much but why would they? It's not like up here where we'll get an entire week of it.

We were very pleased with our resort in all aspects. All rooms offered a 2 person jacuzzi which we used about every other day. It was something we planned on using once a day but we were too busy and when we finally did make it back to our room it was bed time.

The mini bar was stocked with tequila, rum, scotch, and brandy. No rye, but I did do some damage to the rum bottle. We also had a mini fridge stocked with Pepsi, 7-up, bottled water, 2 types of canned beer, and club soda. They were very good about getting you stocked up with whatever you were using.

We had access to room service 24 hours a day which was covered in our all inclusive. We took advantage of this several times just for the convenience. They were very quick getting the food to our room as they were with any call down to the front desk. The delivery was followed up with a call to make sure everything was to our satisfaction.

The maid service was also great. We tried to make sure everything was clean as possible but we returned to a fresh spotless room every time - accompanied by daily towel art.

We had access to 7 a la carte restaurants from 6pm to 11pm which we were blown away with. We really didn't expect the quality of food that we received. We can't say enough about the food at all the restaurants we tried whether it was the steak house, Italian cuisine, Oriental, or Mexican. We tried to get to all of them but we enjoyed a few of them so much that we returned.

The service throughout the resort was so good that it was almost annoying. From the time you check in until check out the main theme seems to be all about you and your experience while you're there. There was a few exceptions but they were minor.

The only downfall with our resort was the occupancy. Aventura Spa Palace was only at 30% capacity due to it being their 'low season'. It was nice not being over crowded and there were certainly enough people around to meet and enjoy their company, but they had the south end of the resort closed for repairs. Some restaurants were closed until dinner because of this reason - which is understandable, but it came as a surprise to us nonetheless.

Booking with one of the 'Palace' resorts gives you access to ALL the Palace resorts. Your wristband gives you full access with the exception of a room. Food, drink, and facilities are all yours and you're treated just as you are at your own resort. We took full advantage of this and traveled to as many as we could with the time we were given. Our second day we took off to Playacar Palace which allowed us access to a great beach and was located just steps from 5th Avenue in Playa Del Carmen and the pier.

We took the shuttle bus to Moon Palace for a day and were blown away by the size relative to our resort. Aventura is pretty big - but Moon Palace was HUGE. We spent a day there enjoying their large pool and had a great lunch before returning to our resort. While we were there we ran into our first iguana. He caught us off guard be was pretty cool when approached.

One of the trips we really wanted to take was Cozumel. We were fortunate enough to have access to the Cozumel Palace resort on the island because we really needed it due to the heat. We took the trip over with our new friends from Springfield, Illinois - Steve & Paula. We could have spent our whole time with you two down there. I'm glad we enjoyed our longest trip with you both over there. We'll see you soon and thanks again for the Crown Royal shirt and the silver shopping tips! Who knows - maybe we can join you again in Mexico for your wedding!?

George & Violet - I wish we could have spent more time together. Staying up late with you two the night before we checked out was well worth being extremely tired the next day. I wish we could have spent more time, but perhaps we'll leave that for another occasion. You're not that far! Thanks for the snorkeling tips and for making the effort to see us before we left. George, stay away from those sting rays and if you're gonna chase them, make sure he's not cruising by my feet!! Good times for sure!

There's so much more to write about but we'd like to leave some for conversation. I'll be posting more pictures in the future.

All in all we had a the time of our lives and it was the perfect honeymoon!