Author Topic: Cancun on a glitch (2014)  (Read 10436 times)

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« on: November 25, 2016, 08:30:04 AM »
I just want to point out that this trip was taken in 2014 and I am writing this to the best of my memory.
Let me start by saying there was a lot of speed bumps when it came to planning this trip, so if you aren’t interested in reading through all of the troubles that I had to go through prior to the trip, I suggest you skip to the part where the actual trip starts.
A little bit of a background.  For our honeymoon we went to Atlantis in the Bahamas.  We paid through the nose, but had the time of our lives.  After the trip I settled on 2 things.  1. I love tropical destinations; I must go as often as I can to tropical places.  2. I am never paying so much money for a trip ever again.  It was after this trip that I decided to find extremely cheap deals, or start playing the miles game (or a mix of both).  Upon returning to New York, before I started applying for credit cards, I decided to find a nice destination for a low price.  My research led me to Cancun.  It was settled, we were going to go to Cancun summer 2014.  (Winter we were going to Israel and London).
So it was a cold February day, I was visiting a friend in the hospital, the psych ward no less (no joke).  I get a text message from @dansdeals: $7.77 a night for the Barcelona tower Suites in Cancun through Orbitz.  I said, yes please.  I immediately tried to book.  The security guard walked over to me and said “you can’t use your phone in here.”  So I asked him where the bathroom was.  He escorted me to the bathroom and in there I booked 4 nights in May, awesome!
All of the people that booked were afraid that the hotel wasn’t going to honor it.  People that got this deal have different stories of the hotel refusing to honor it prior to their arrival and Orbitz not helping out, some people said Orbitz fully refunded them after their trip, some people showed up to the Hotel and weren’t given a room, etc.  I didn’t want to have to deal with any of this.  I didn’t even call up the hotel.  As soon as I could I called Orbitz and told them that the hotel wasn’t going to honor it.  Their response after a long conversation was I can choose any hotel in Cancun that I wanted, pay for it up front, then they would refund me the difference of the two hotels, then refund me what I paid for the Barcelona Tower Suites.  Amazing!  So as I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t too keen on using credit cards yet, so I had about $400 in my checking account at the time of that phone call, so I told them to book me at this hotel called the Flamingo Resort, I’m not sure why I chose that place, but hey, it was a free hotel in Cancun.  Problem 1 solved.
At the time that I booked, I had a job where I was getting paid hourly, so I was able to take off whenever I wanted for a long period of time, so the trip was going to be no problem.  Right after I booked the deal, I was actually promoted, but with that promotion came 4 weeks of paid time off, but the job was lousy.  Regardless of the job being lousy, I was still able to take the time off to go away.  Come a month and a half later, I was offered a job somewhere else.  I took the job and began in the beginning of April.  I had a problem; I was on a 3 month probation which means I wasn’t able to take off in May for this trip.  Not a problem, a few phone calls to Orbitz, and I changed the dates.  We were officially booked to go the 2nd to last Sunday in August, great.  Problem 2 solved.
Summer came along, and my wife got a job in a nursery.  She was allowed 2 off days the entire summer.  Her last two days of work were Monday, Tuesday, the two days after we were supposed to be in Cancun.  Not a problem, just save the two off days for the 2 last days.  Alas she told her bosses her plans of taking off on the last two days.  They said no!  We need all staff to be here!  It’s the end of the summer and we need to pack up the place!  What was I to do?  Call up Orbitz yet again?  That’s exactly what I did.  I called up Orbitz and explained to them that I will need to change my check in day from Sunday to Wednesday.  They said not a problem; we will send a FAX to the hotel.  I said great, not realizing they said they will fax the hotel of the change in reservation.  Problem 3 solved.
So since we changed our travel plans and we were supposed to be in Cancun for the weekend, I decided to extend our trip without telling my wife.  I had a nice amount of JetBlue miles, and I booked us from Wednesday to the following Tuesday.  I told my wife the good news.  She said WTH?  My orientation is going to be scheduled for that Tuesday, you need to change the reservation.  Fine.  I called jetblue and they were kind enough to change it for me on the spot.  We were now traveling Wednesday-Monday.  Problem 4 solved.
So it’s the Sunday before the trip.  DW and I decide to go shopping for the trip that day.  We are walking down one of the aisles in the supermarket and DW says to me, “call the hotel to make sure they provide refrigerators in the room.”  I call up the hotel and asked to which they responded that they do.  Then they said, “see you later today.”  I said, “don’t you mean Wednesday?”  They said that my reservation was for that day.  I told them that Orbitz changed it to Wednesday.  They said they have no confirmation of that.  I would have to speak to their reservation department to fix the reservation, but the reservation department doesn’t work on Sundays.  If I didn’t show up that day, I would lose my reservation all together.  I was in such a state of panic.  I called Orbitz immediately.  I was on hold the entire time at the supermarket, driving to Brooklyn from Queens standing outside a funeral hall (I know, I’m a terrible person for being on hold with Orbitz instead of going into the funeral, but DW and I took turns waiting on hold.  I didn’t want our trip that was coming up to be ruined).  After the funeral DW walks over to me and says the call got disconnected.  WTH.  DW went inside the shiva house while I was on the phone with Orbitz outside.  They finally said there was nothing they could do that day as nobody that works in reservations departments in Mexico works on Sundays, I would have to call back the next day.  So I arrive to work the next day, and instead of doing work, I call Orbitz.  After 2 hours on the phone, they tell me they will look into their records to see if they made a mistake (which they did and found out that they did) and in the meantime, choose any hotel that I wanted and they will issue me a full refund after I pay for it.  Great.  I said no way in gihenim I am staying by Flamingo.  I did some research and saw that the Hyatt there just changed ownership and was now called the Krystal and it was very close to Chabad.  So I chose that hotel.  I was issued a refund.  Problem 5 solved.
All problems were solved, or so I thought…
So when I was booking the flights, all of the flights bookable via true blue points required a stopover in MCO, which I was fine with.  But I kept trying to book a segment online which was supposed to be LGA-MCO-CUN and on the return CUN-MCO-JFK.  I was having problems on the computer, so I ended up calling jetblue and the agent actually suggested I take the earlier flight out.  So our official itinerary was this- JFK-MCO-CUN and the return was CUN-MCO-HPN.  For some reason it didn’t register in my mind that our departing flight was from JFK, though I did register the return to HPN.  Problem 6 is about to sneak up on me…

Offline zow

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2016, 01:38:31 PM »
I'm exhausted just reading your first post, and you haven't even gotten to the airport yet!

(Next edition, please!)

Offline 3yummyboys

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2016, 02:30:58 PM »
I like reading about the kinks that come up and how people deal with them!

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2016, 09:39:17 AM »
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/40366

This was the deal for those of you who forgot

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #4 on: November 27, 2016, 07:30:29 PM »
I like reading about the kinks that come up and how people deal with them!

Exactly why I started off with all the kinks

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2016, 08:34:08 AM »
Day 1:
We were running late, but we got a ride to LGA.  Arrived an hour before our flight.  We go to check in and they tell us we aren’t in the system….we are supposed to be at JFK.  WTH?!?!?!?!  They were kind enough to print out our boarding passes.  We rushed into a cab and we told him to get to JFK in the rush hour traffic.  We got there in 17 minutes.  Have any of you ever flown jetblue from JFK in the morning?  I have now done it at least 10 times, so I know the drill.  All of their flights to the Caribbean leave around 9, 10 in the morning on top of their many domestic flights that leave around the same time also.  Check in is such a mess there in the mornings, you have to arrive at least 2 hours in advance because the lines are outrageous.  Anyway, I ran out of the cab and told a jetblue employee that was directing the longest line in the world that I really needed to cut the line, my flight was leaving at whatever time (don’t remember).  And her response was, “and you decided to arrive at the airport a half an hour before your flight?”  I was literally about to yell like a mad man at this woman, and just as I was about to open my mouth to literally yell at the top of my lungs she says “come with me, you’re going to cut the line.” I must have said thank you to her a thousand times.  The check in agents listened to my story and were first acting obnoxiously much like the other employee just was and I again was getting ready for a fight, but then they said, okay, we’ll check in your bags even though your flight leaves in 25 minutes.  I said great.  They asked me where I was flying to.  I said Orlando, they said okay.  And then I said “and connecting to Cancun.”  They said, NO! they cannot check me in if I am connecting to Cancun.  Much like the 2 previous times, I was ready to yell and then they immediately said, “but there’s a flight that leaves in an hour to Cancun directly with 2 seats left, for $50 a person we can put you on that flight.”  Out comes the credit card.  Yes please!  So we went through security without having to wait by the check in lines.  We boarded on time.  We got onto the plane sitting in the back row next to a guy that got drunk, super fun.  We literally got the last two seats on the plane, the flight was full.  Thank you Hashem.  My TV screen didn’t work, but I didn’t care, because we got onto our direct flight from NYC-CUN.  After landing you have to wait on the customs line which is not a quick line.  After the customs line, we got our luggage.  Then they select certain people who’s luggage they want to put through a scanning machine, luckily, we were not picked.  After leaving the baggage claim area, all of the people working behind desks either changing money, rental car places, taxi companies, excursion companies, etc. all tell you “welcome to Paradise.”  Not sure if I would consider Cancun paradise.  Literally ten men swarm around you asking you to use their taxi company.  I chose one that I read prior to our trip was honest and reasonable.  We took a cab to our hotel.  We walked in to the beautiful lobby with a great view of the ocean.  They said the room wasn’t ready yet.  I asked the lady by check in to please make sure we have an ocean view room facing the strip, not the hotel next door that was under construction.  She said 100%, she was planning on it anyway.  While waiting for our room to be ready, we went to check out the pool and the beach.  The pool was nice, with an infinity pool leading into another pool. The pool area was nice.  We then went to the beach, talk about crowded.  There were tons of people by the public beach and there were literally dozens of people walking up to us trying to sell us things.  My review of the beach- Not as nice as a beach by a Caribbean island.  The water was a very cool looking shade of blue, but it wasn’t nice clean clear water that one might be used to seeing when on a tropical vacation.  There was a strong current.  All in all, it is not the nicest beach in the world, but it’s definitely worth checking out.  The hotel has its own boardwalk area with beds set up which is definitely a cool place to chill out.  After spending some time by the pool and the beach, we decided to go inside hoping that our room would be ready.  Our room was ready.  The room itself was on the 7th floor which was kind of annoying for Shabbos, but not so terrible.  The room was nice, standard, but really nice.  We had a great view of the Ocean and the Cancun Hotel Zone.  After settling in we took a walk to some of the local stores.  After that, we called it a night.  We had a long day ahead of us.

Offline Luvtotravel

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2016, 09:46:14 AM »
lucky stars that you made the flight and nonstop on top of all that! pics?
Don't wait for the perfect moment; take the moment and make it perfect.

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #7 on: November 30, 2016, 12:38:36 PM »
lucky stars that you made the flight and nonstop on top of all that! pics?

Coming soon.  Flickr doesn't work on my work computer

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2016, 05:40:08 PM »
IMG_1645 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Being Harassed by taxi companies

IMG_1647 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
1st hotel in the hotel zone

IMG_1655 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
1st glimpse of the ocean

IMG_1658 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Hotel lobby

IMG_1662 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
View of ocean and hotel zone from our room

IMG_1667 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Interesting name for a store

IMG_1681 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
View in the morning


Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2016, 12:52:46 PM »
We woke up early the next morning because we had to be at a certain mall by 8 am for our activities.  We did the Hummer Tours.  In case you are wondering why I chose this tour for our trip is because if one has limited time in Cancun, one can see what Cancun is all about in 1 day.
As we were waiting for the guide, I saw a lubavitch guy and I approached him and asked him if he was Rabbi Druk, the local chabad Rabbi, to which he responded that though he is Chabad, he is only on vacation (he was very nice about it also).  Our guide showed up, Merak.  The other people on the tour was a family vacationing from Hawaii.  We were also meeting up with a couple on their honeymoon staying in Riviera Maya by our first stop.  We went to the mall parking lot and picked up our Hummers, each family had their own, so my wife and I had an H3 all to ourselves; our first time in a hummer.  Our first stop was the El Rey ruins.  The El Rey ruins are probably the smallest of all the Mayan Ruins in the area, if you are looking for some impressive ruins, go to Tulum or Chitchen Itza.  It was cool, not the highlight of the day, but cool.  There were Iguanas all over the place.  Next we went to Zoo Crocoun.  It was no Bronx Zoo, but it was still a cool Zoo in the middle of the jungle.  Before starting the tour our guide Merak asked us what we wanted for lunch since the tour came with free lunch.  DW and I told him we brought our own food, but thanks anyway.  At the zoo we saw a lot of cool animals, got to hold alligators, snakes, feed deer, see bald dogs.  One of the coolest parts was feeding bananas to the wild monkeys that live in the jungle.    From the zoo we went to a beach for lunch; there was a restaurant on the beach where we were still offered a lot of free food-we didn't really want to explain Kosher to them.  The beach was called Unico beach.  The beach was nice and quiet.  The area is an area where a lot of wealthy Canadians move to when they retire apparently.  We were talking to the Hawaiins, and they were telling us how they go to all of these different destinations for vacation such as Cancun and Roatan, Hondouras; I thought it was funny because every body else wants to vacation in Hawaii.  From there we went to this place (forgot the name) for Zip lining and ATV riding.  Though I am a thrill seeker, I am afraid of heights.  Every time I tried going ziplining in other places, I chickened out, not because of the Zip lining itself, but because I looked down on the way up and did not want to go all the way up.  It's weird, because I love roller coasters and cliff diving etc. just something about going up.  Anyway, I told the people working there that I would not go zip lining, they insisted.  You just walk up the stairs , no rock climbing or anything like that involved.  So I went and I enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought I would.  It was definitely cool zip lining through the jungle, but I hear it does not compare to Costa Rica.  After zip lining we went ATV riding.  I have been ATV riding in the past and really enjoyed it.  This time was different (only in Mexico).  We all got on our ATV's and started driving over these extremely sharp rocks.  None of us were able to control the ATV's because after driving over a sharp rock, we would all of a sudden go in a different direction.  So those of us who couldn't control the ATV's (most of us) were told to go on with the guides and they would drive.  These guides didn't even wear helmets, they didn't slow down by the sharpest turns...didn't think I would make it our alive.  We started over those sharp rocks then we drove through the jungle which was really nice with beautiful scenery.  I wish they would have made some stops so we can get some pictures.  After the ride of death was over, we drove through the local neighborhoods to see how the locals live their lives.  Apparently all of the locals work in the hotel zone.  The neighborhoods were very poor looking.  We then arrived at our last stop, the xenote-pronounced Say Note.  A xenote is essentially a crater with water; it's where the Mayans used to bathe.  One can go scuba diving in these as many of them are very deep.  One had the ability to cliff dive  from very high up, or even higher up, or zip line in, or just go down the ladder.  The water was so refreshing on the hot Cancun day.  We drove back to the mall and our guide gave us a ride back to our hotel because it was on his way home.  We had an awesome day and I would recommend the Hummer tours to anybody visiting Cancun and only has a few days.

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2016, 12:58:59 PM »
S0183232 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1862 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

Unico Beach

IMG_1857 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1829 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Monkey

IMG_1811 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Bald dogs

IMG_1804 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1789 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1781 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1775 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1771 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr


Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2016, 02:13:35 PM »
IMG_1766 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1756 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1741 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1725 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1718 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1717 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1706 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
The Hummer that I drove

IMG_1704 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1688 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr


Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2016, 01:54:11 PM »
That night we decided to try out Dag Dag.  We got there and there was a sign on the door that said "open for dinner at 7 P.M.  While we walked by there we found the Chabad which was right next door.  We decided to check out one of the many malls that they have in the area.  DW and I decided to do that thing where the fish eat the dead skin off your feet; it was an interesting experience.  The person who owned the little fish eating place said that after paying rent, he makes $5.00 american a day.  He said Mexico is so corrupt and the landlords charge an insane amount of money in retail spaces.  After we had our feet dibbled at by fish, we walked over to a restaurant where you can eat fish.  I don't like fish at all, so I ate the home made pizza (a little weird, but the bread it was made on was great) with falafel balls, chips, and chummus, all freshly made and very delicious.  DW had the snapper with chips, made fresh.  DW said it was some of the best fish she ever had, I wouldn't know.  The owner told us that he caught the fish that day.  The owner was telling us that he usually has the guests sing Karaoke, but his machine was stolen a few months before that.  He also said that they have barbque nights on the lawn across the street from the restaurant.  The owners also take pictures of you, and you can take a picture with the owner and a whole frozen fish, which is what we did.  They had pictures all over the store of all their past guests, it was really cute.  I even found pictures of people I know.  All in all it was a very homey cute place.  I heard it has closed down which is such a shame; hope it's just a rumor. 

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2016, 01:55:18 PM »
IMG_1875 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1873 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_1869 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #14 on: December 14, 2016, 01:51:48 PM »
We woke up on day 3 and were challenged to the ice bucket challenge; we did it on our porch with a nice ocean background behind us.  Anyway, we got our day started-our schedule was to go to the underwater museum and then to the hotel spa.  Before going to the place to pick up the boat, we went to the spa to book some treatments.  We then took a taxi to Aquaworld.  We went on a nice boat ride to the under water museum.  The museum is in the ocean off the coast of Isla Mujeras.  I asked the peopl by Aquaworld if we can go to Isla Mujeras and take a shuttle back later with a different group.  They told us it is not allowed because their boat does not go to the shore.  Oh well, thought I could have killed two birds with one stone, but I guess not.  As I said, it was a nice boat ride.  The entire time people kept on taking pictures of the RIU hotel because of it's unique look.  For those of you who have never seen the RIU on cancun, it resembles the Royal Tower in Atlantis Bahamas with an arch in the middle.  We got off the boat and started snorkeling until we finally found the underwater museum.  The underwater museum was anti climactic IMHO.  I guess it would have been cooler had we done scuba, but we were not in the mood.  The area had really choppy waters, so half the group, including DW, went back to the boat because they were getting nauseous.  I thought this place would be a once in a life time unique opportunity, but it really wasn't.  I would tell anyone to skip it.  On the ride back to aquaworld we drove by a very shallow area with really beautiful looking water.  Many of the people that didn't get to see the underwater figurines asked the driver to stop the boat so they can go for a quick swim in the shallow waters in the middle of the ocean.  The boat stopped, and many of us went in for a nice swim.  We got back to the hotel and went to the spa.  I didn't really have a great experience there and neither did DW.  I booked her this really awesome sounding massage that included a bath and using apples and cinnamon; she said it was over rated.  So then we got ready for shabbos and walked to the Chabad.  The Chabad was hopping that night.  I have been to Chabad to daven before, but never have I had a shabbos meal by the chabad.  Needless to say, it was beautiful.  We then went back to our hotel and somebody working there was nice enough to open up our room for us.

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #15 on: December 14, 2016, 01:54:06 PM »
P8220004 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

P8220033 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

P8220076 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Statues underwater

P8220088 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

P8220094 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr
Shallow area where the boat stopped.

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #16 on: December 21, 2016, 11:39:23 AM »
Shabbos:

Shabbos day was nice.  We decided to get to the shul on time for 10 am Davening, but we were 7 men short.  Eventually we got the minyan, about 40 minutes later.  After davening was a nice kiddush/lunch followed by Mincha.  The chabad there does not do Maariv on motzash.  When we got back to the hotel we got (not asked) somebody to open up the door to our room, changed, got some things to read, then went to the beds that overlook the ocean outside of our hotel.  After shabbos we went back upstairs and got our key that we conveniently left under the garbage can next to the elevator right before shabbos (we always leave a key somewhere during shabbos when in a hotel) got into our room and realized we don't have candles for havdalah.  The hotel happened to have lanterns in the lobby with candles in them, so we took some candles, gatorade, something else for besamim, can't really remember, then made Havdala.  We then took a walk to Haggen Dasz because it was DW's b-day.

Sunday:
Sunday we checked out of our pretty hotel and left our stuff in the lobby so we can go explore that day.  (we weren't leaving Cancun that day).  We walked over to the Ferry terminal to take the Ferry to Isla Mujeras.  The views from the ferry terminal were very nice, probably the nicest views in the entire hotel zone. (this was the top part of the Hotel zone after the curve where all the RIU hotels are.)  We took a nice 1/2 hour boat ride being entertained by a mariachi band.  We got off the boat and went straight to a golf cart rental place.  We rented a golf cart for the day for $49.  We first did a little driving to explore the main part of the Island, then we went to Chabad (yellow flag).  We had a delicious and very cheap lunch by the Chabad, 10 pesos each of us for a good full fresh meat meal.  I was talking to the two shluchim there in Hebrew and I told them how I visit the ohel from time to time and I even once went on the yohrtzeit.  One of the shluchim responded: Ohel? Yohrtzeit?  As if I was crazy.  I then asked him who sent him on his shlichus, he said "The Rebbe."  I started laughing because this was a guy in his young twenties, how could the rebbe have sent him?  He told me the Rebbe told him in Crown Heights a few months before. Anyway....We kept on driving around and took in the beautiful views.  Though this Island is right by Cancun, it is nothing like Cancun.  We stopped by a turtle farm, saw a shark, drove by a plastic bottle island, saw a sign that said "habayita" in hebrew, and just took in the nice views of the ocean by the secluded part of the island.  We decided we wanted to go to the beach, but the beach in the main area was so darn crowded; impossible to find a place to sit, and not so great for the soul.  DW and I found a deserted beach on the other side of the island.  The beach was so nice and the water was beautiful, it was nice having it to ourselves...until all of a sudden a mother and daughter come which we thought was no big deal since it was still pretty secluded, until the mother's top accidentally fell off, enough said.  So we returned to the boat for a ride back, purchased a picture that they took of us when we got on the boat-we bought it because besides for the fact that we looked good, the background of the photo was so beautiful, people don't believe us when we say it's real.  We were entertained by a mariachi band on the way back as well.  We got back to the Krystal Grand, picked up our stuff, and took a cab to the Bel Air resort.  Why did we do this you ask?  Long story short, with all of the changes to our trip prior to the trip taking place, I ended up extending our stay for a day so I obviously couldn't have been compensated for that day by Orbitz.  We could have just stayed in our hotel, but I found this amazing room with a Jacuzzi that overlooks the ocean as well as some other perks that I thought would be a nice birthday present for DW.  So we got to the hotel and they said "welcome to paradise."  Yeah yeah, I heard it all before, been here for five days now.  Our room wasn't ready, so we went straight to red heifer.  At the time it was a beautiful restaurant on the bay, now it happens to be in the original hotel we stayed at.  The food was good, not excellent, but good.  We forgot to take pictures while we were there, it would have been so nice to get pictures of the sunset over the bay.  This restaurant was in a great place, not sure why it moved.  We then went back to the hotel and called it a night since we had a morning flight back home the next day.  We couldn't really sleep because the mattresses were so hard.

Monday:
Woke up and took our arranged taxi back to the airport.  The drive was fast because we were at the second hotel in the hotel zone and there was no traffic.  Flights were uneventful.

Notes:
Cancun isn't a place for a beach bum.
If you want to stay at a nice quiet resort, stay in Riviera Maya, south of Cancun.
There's a lot to do there, so dedicate at least 5 full days there.
I hear Cozumel is amazing.
Though it was very humid in the summer, there is an amazing opportunity to swim with the whale sharks during the summer months.
Any questions about Cancun or how to make a case to Orbitz to get a free or cheap trip, feel free to PM me.

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #17 on: December 21, 2016, 11:44:46 AM »
IMG_0009 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_0030 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_0035 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

IMG_0064 by mgoldhammer18, on Flickr

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Offline zow

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #18 on: December 21, 2016, 03:03:06 PM »
Hi, thanks for the TR. We're heading next week.
I see now that you were there in 2014.
Dag Dag was closed in 2/2016, but TripAdvisor now suggests it's open again...we'll find out!
Also, on Isla, the milchig place we visited in Feb was reported closed this summer. We'll find out. Didn't know there was a yellow Flag chabad there...might not be so now.
Thanks again.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2016, 03:08:42 PM by zow »

Offline Emgee

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Re: Cancun on a glitch (2014)
« Reply #19 on: December 21, 2016, 05:03:44 PM »
Hi, thanks for the TR. We're heading next week.
I see now that you were there in 2014.
Dag Dag was closed in 2/2016, but TripAdvisor now suggests it's open again...we'll find out!
Also, on Isla, the milchig place we visited in Feb was reported closed this summer. We'll find out. Didn't know there was a yellow Flag chabad there...might not be so now.
Thanks again.
Dag Dag is open and so is the place in Isla. its called Maya Cafe