Our Grand Vacation

[Blueskies]

Our Grand Vacation

We decided to try the red eye flight this trip. It was wonderful to gain the extra day on the beach. We fly Westjet when ever possible, the convenience of scheduled flights and the flexibility it offers us are the biggest reason why.

We booked our room for this trip using a friends Palladium Travel Club membership. We are so appreciative and grateful to have this option.

We arrived in Cancun at 7 AM, passing through customs is a breeze when arriving this early. We traveled with carry on only this trip so we were on our way very quickly. Our private transfer was waiting outside the airport doors, holding a sign with our names on it. My brother jokes and says seeing a sign with his name makes him feel like a rock star. LOL. We joked a bit about that as we made our way to the van. The kind and courteous people from Destination Services had us at the resort shortly after 8 AM, that’s right, at the resort by breakfast ! What a great way to start the day.

We checked in at the PTC office/ lounge located off of the Colonial lobby. All of the staff there were very kind and helpful throughout our vacation. Our room was not yet ready so we went for beakfast before changing and heading to the beach for the day while waiting for our room. Around 2 pm we went to see if our room was ready and sure enough it was. We were getting pretty weary by now and were ready for a siesta. We arrived at our room to find our key cards did not work so we headed back to the TC lounge to get it sorted out. It turns out we were given key cards for the Colonial section not the Kantenah.Within a couple of minutes we were back at the room with working key cards. We were finally “home”.
We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and getting ready for dinner. We enjoyed a lovely meal at El Dorado and called it a night. The only downside of a red eye flight is being awake for sooo long.

We LOVE the Mayan suites on Kantenah, the proximity to the beach we spend our time out is the best. We always have a hard time choosing between the Royal Suites Yucatan and the Mayan suites…the Struggle is real, LOL. We settled into a routine of doing “nothing on the beach” swimming, walking reading and of course posting on Unofficial Palladium so those at home could “live vicariously”. I feel it is important to give back to the online communities that make our vacation planning so easy ! We had great fun going from place to place taking pictures, doing live videos and enjoying the resort throughout our stay.

Some things have changed around the resort, most of which I really like.

There is more live music all around the resort complex. This is wonderful, we loved the Thursday’s “Rock and Burgers” at Las Olas. I think “rockin counrty and burgers” is a more fitting name. Mad Horse does an amazing job !You will find a variety of burgers and hotdogs in addition to the daily menu offered.

Thursday evenings at Hemingway’s is “Chocolate night”, if you even like anything chocolate this is the place to go. I had a delicious chocolate martini. Be careful, 1 is good 2 is better and 3 is too many…

The new resort next door has opened. they are still finding themselves so to speak. One day the music could be heard from our balcony, the next day not bad at all. While the afternoons may never be as tranquil over there as they once were it certainly won’t stop us from booking again.

El Jardin now offers daily specials in addition to the standard menu items. Coconut shrimp, fondue, lobster cappellini and such are no longer available. If you want the shrimp you must go to Punta Emila for dinner. I missed these dishes but with all things in life change is necessary from time to time. Who knows maybe one day my favorites will return.

If you have access to the Royal section you can now enjoy some locally brewed beer. Akumal, Cieba and Tulum. As well as these additions there is now premium alcohol available at all bars for ALL GUESTS staying at any of the Grand Palladium resorts in the Riviera Maya.

For those who have early morning departures you can now find a brew by cup coffee machine in the Colonial lobby, I’m not sure if the other lobbies have them as I never made it to them in the mornings.

Special mentions to Pedro, Sergio, Irving, Fernanda, Paula, Paul, Lulu, Martha, Jamie(sp?), Luis, Danika, Laura, Irvine, Elisabeth, Ernesto, Lucy and all of the wonderful people of palladium who work tirelessly to make our vacations great.

We loved meeting new friends and catching up with old ones. We are already booked for another return visit and cannot wait to see you all again !

Until next time…

[Anne]

Awesome report!

 

I too have a problem deciding between Kantenah Mayan Suite & Royal. Usually if I travel alone I stay in Kantenah. If I travel with my adult daughter I stay in Royal.

 

So does Punta Emilia have the coconut shrimp?

[Blueskies]

Although we never made it there this trip (will go twice next time. LOL) That is what we were told when making dinner reservations.

[Anne]

I checked with the resort and was told they do have them in El Jardin not Punta Emilia.

[Blueskies]

Well… It sounds like the staff  providing the information and taking the orders in the restaurant should be updated then.  We asked for the Coconut shrimp at El Jardin and were told no. The TC rep who did our reservations said only at Punta Emilia. Either way we had fun.

[Author]

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