Honeymoon!!

Safe to say our first trip outside of the good ol' US of A set the bar preeeetty high. We stayed at the Excellence Riviera Cancun and were completely blown away.

The hotel, the view, the staff, EVERYTHING was top notch and we felt like royalty the entire time. It helped that we stayed in the Excellence Club section, where apparently you're even more pampered than just the regular pampering.

We arrive from the airport and after our driver is granted access through the giant gate to drive up the long, prestigious entryway to the front steps, we give the valet our name and he directs us inside to be greeted with champagne while he loaded up our bags and met back up. He informed us that since we were in the Excellence Club our check-in was elsewhere and directed us across the resort, pointing out restaurants, bars, and other features along the way. When we get to the Club Lounge our champagne is refilled and we're sat down with a sweet lady who walked us through the check-in process. Once finished, we were again whisked away to our room where we were greeted, like a surprising number of other doors, by this sign:

It also made it so that every worker coming to our room for the rest of the week would so sweetly greet us with "Happy Honeymoon!"

Our bags are put away and the bellhop (I wish I'd caught his name) gave us a quick tour of the room making sure we knew where all the basics were and told Tyler which channel the World Cup game was on (I think we got brownie points from this guy for Tyler craning his neck wanting to watch the game at every passing TV), found out the score and then left. While Tyler watched the end of the game I snapped a few pictures of the room before we unpacked and made a mess of things for the week.

 View from the entryway

 El Bano

 View from the bathroom

 The adorable bed décor

 View out the balcony from the room

 View off the balcony

Can't forget the mini bar! (We had the liquors swapped out with better stuff later on)

 

From there, the week consisted of delicious food & drinks, tons of sun, and lots and lots of spoiling. Someone cleaned our room twice a day, drinks & snacks were restocked daily, and there was a nightly turn down service complete with candies, info about the next day's activities, and our slippers were placed next to the bed so that, God forbid, I never had to walk barefoot on the cold tile floor.

 

Every night, there was a new band playing on a stage in the middle of the main courtyard, then, most nights, right off that same courtyard was an open theater area where a show was put on. We saw a Michael Jackson Tribute, a Circus themed show with crazy strong performers doing acrobatic and Cirque Du Soleil type tricks (this one was our favorite!), a kind of Miscellaneous night where each number was random. After the show ended, the band started up again for another 30 or so minutes. We loved the nighttime atmosphere that was as simple as sitting on the patio listening to music. The pretzels and being waited on hand and foot didn't hurt either!

 Night view from our balcony of the main courtyard

 

Here's a few pictures from the week...

 

 

We woke up at 6 am to see this sunrise...and then went back to bed

 

As part of our Honeymoon package, we were able to schedule a private dinner on the beach one night. We went to the Club Lounge, where we were given a glass of champagne upon arrival, and then taken over to the designated beach area with 2 other couples (3 tables were set up, obviously apart from each other). Two of the tables were surrounded by 4 lights and the third was surrounded by a big heart drawn in the sand with luminaries placed in the outline. Since we were given the choice, and it was already way more "The Bachelor" than we normally are, we decided to go all the way and choose the heart shaped seating.

 

 After being escorted out to our table of choice, we were served water and more (different) champagne. We had enough glasses to support Gracie Lou Freebush's talent.

 

 

One of the other couples wandered over and asked if we would take a picture of them on the beach and then returned the favor.

 

Still decided to try for a selfie, too.

 

 

I was starving, and started shoveling down delicious bread & butter, and Tyler (after calling me a chipmunk) told me it would be too weird to track down the waiter to ask for more and that I'd just have to be patient and wait for the next course.

 

 

Soon enough, we were brought the main course of the best shrimp I've ever had - which is saying a lot because I normally don't like shrimp - and something else, but it was so dark I have no idea what it was. But it too, was amazing. Then they brought this out!

 

 

Another perk of our Honeymoon Package was a free massage and discounted upgrade. We chose plain jain full body, 50 minute couples massages that actually started an hour early with the Hydrotherapy sessions (which we had already done once earlier that week for free for staying in the Excellence Club). The Hydrotherapy is a whole process that requires much more work than a regular massage. You're instructed to come to the spa in your swimsuit and they take you through a variation of the following:

• steam room (this was torture for me, I felt like I couldn't breathe and was counting down the seconds, it was the longest 10 minutes of my life)
• warm pool for 2 bubble massage features.
• One you stood on a big plated space, back to back with your partner while holding onto the railing on the edges, and the bubbles came up from under your feet
• The other you kind of squatted down in front of the wall and held onto the handles on either side of you while VERY INTENSE air was forced out onto your lower back, then they had your turn around and do the same thing for your abs, but they tell you to scoot back some. It's kind of painful and it makes you itch so bad.
• also in the warm pool were two water massage features.
• One was a flattened sheet of water spraying out on your neck, shoulders and upper back. Doesn't hurt, but it does splash like crazy since the two are angled slightly towards each other and they're hitting off yours and your partner's shoulders. So I suggest closing your eyes and covering the side of your face nearest your partner because my contact was all outta whack after that one.
• The other was the same idea but it wasn't flattened out, just a straight point shooting water out. That one didn't really hurt quite like the abs one across the pool, but it did a FINE job trying to rip my swim suit off of me - top and bottoms. So that was just more work holding onto my swimsuit. It also made me itch.
• When you exit the warm pool of torture, they make you step down into a much smaller pool of freezing water and tell you that you have to completely submerge yourself before you can walk back out.
• Behind the warm pool is a small pool walkway of sorts that just looks like the water has been drained. The flooring is done with all different shapes and sizes of rocks and they have you walk slowly while small water jets are spraying. It's supposed to be massaging for your feet.
• Dry Sauna. I LOVED this the first time we did the Hydrotherapy. Since we had just done the cold bath it was perfect for me, we were told to lay down on the benches and I could've fallen asleep in there. The second day, I had a difficult time and ended up getting up and walking out a minute or two early, no idea what the deal was. 
• In a non-heated pool, there are some metal pipes placed in the arrangement of a lounge bench, they tell you to get in the water, climb up onto the pipes and lay down and hold on then they turn on bubbles from underneath you. I think it's supposed to be relaxing since you're just floating in water and bubbles, but I had such a hard time holding on and staying in place from the bubbles pushing me this way and that, that it wasn't too relaxing.

 



Our first time we went from the dry sauna back to the cold water and then over to the pipe bubbles, but the second time they took us from the dry sauna to the following before going to the pipe bubbles and skipping the second cold water dip:

• A shower type room with a spout that was spitting ice out into a large sink. We were told to get a handful of ice and hold it, rub it on our skin, whatever we wanted to do to cool down and feel better from the dry sauna.
• Then an actual shower stall with water shooting out in all directions, luke warm temperature, perfectly comfortable.
• Then to another shower stall where a bucket was above and the worker pulled a string for water to fall down. Also perfectly comfortable.

• After the pipe bubbles, they direct you to an actual lounge chair where a warm towel has been placed and then place a cold washcloth over your eyes and start massaging your scalp/face/neck all the while using aromatherapy smells which were delightful.
• Once they're done and (somewhat) awkwardly tap you to let you know it's over and you have to wake up, they take you to the front desk, give you either cucumber water or tea and you check out, get your stuff and take off!

Since the first experience was solely the Hydrotherapy session, we took our refreshing drinks back to our room to change for dinner. The second go-round we went from there to the second floor for our couples massage. We were greeted with more cucumber water as we filled out a short pre-massage form, and then the wonderful massage. I had a male masseuse, which was a first for me and, honestly, a little weird, but didn't change the fact that he was good at his job. At the end of 50 minutes, he put warm slippers on my feet (best idea ever) and informed us they would be waiting for us back in the lobby. We groggily ventured out to the lobby expecting more cucumber water but instead were seated in front of a table with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries to accompany post-massage paperwork, a review which we were happy to fill out with lots of :) and !!!'s.

While relaxing and enjoying the champagne, a film crew came in (we had the last massage appointment of the day, so by now the place was empty) and was flipping on and off lights in the other massage area to get the best combination. Tyler overheard the "director" (not sure of his official title, but he was the one calling the shots) say that he needed people in robes, at which time he called out to us "Hey do you two want to be in a commercial?!" and Tyler said "Sure" before consulting his camera-shy wife. As we were walking over to him, I made a nervous face to one of the spa employees and whispered "All my make-up came off in the Hydrotherapy!" and tried to tousle my wet, half-air-dried hair not changing the look almost at all. Turns out, all he needed us to do was casually walk around the couch as if we were headed to a room to get a massage. We even did a second take just to make sure he got what he needed, not that our walking style changed in that 20 seconds, and he said "Thanks, check the website in about a month and you'll be movie stars!" and we finished our champagne and went on our way back to our room to get ready for dinner.

On our last full day there we decided to take the resort activities guide up on the bike tour. We went out to the next town, Puerto Morelos, rode through town some, stopped briefly at the local fishing pier...

...and then spent time at a local market to buy souvenirs. We didn't realize that was the destination when we decided to go so we had neither money, nor a backpack to carry purchases in for the ride back. One of the other couples on the tour kindly offered us some money, but there was nothing that we really saw that was worth the hassle of trying to find and pay the man back, so we declined.

We were so sad to see the week come to an end and know that we were about to be completely submerged back into reality, but we missed our puppies, and we were about to have to start doing laundry in one of our Jacuzzi's! It was an amazing week and the very best way to start our new chapter. We highly recommend the Excellence Riviera Cancun, Sun Country Airlines, and using Honeymoons, Inc. to book the whole thing, as it all went off without a hitch! We will definitely visit this resort again in the future, but I think we'll take friends with us to enjoy the experience.