Excellence Riviera Cancun

For the 3rd year in a row we took a summer trip to Mexico! Last year we went to Secrets Maroma over Labor Day and the year before that we went to the Iberostar Lindo over 4th of July. This summer we decided to do an Adults-Only resort one last time and went to the Excellence Riviera Cancun!! Our trip was pretty uneventful (in a good way)...we had a non-stop flight from Austin to Cancun and a quick ride to our hotel. The resort was beautiful and right on the beach! The food was excellent and the drinks (so I hear) were really good. The beach was really nice except for some seaweed (not too bad though...nothing like Port A! haha). Most days we started out at the beach and would head to the pool or lazy river after lunch...it's nice being able to just go with the flow - so relaxing! It's so nice not having to be anywhere at a certain time. :)

We loved Excellence and would definitely go back but Secrets Maroma is still our #1!

Lunch @ the buffet when we arrived

On the way to our room!

We had a junior suite that overlooked the lazy river/spa area. It was SO quiet and peaceful.

Our Room

Our fully stocked bar (mini bar had beer, soda, water & snacks {m&ms, snickers & oreos})

Swim out rooms

View of the swim out suite below us

View of the lazy river from our room

View from my parents room

Dinners

Dinner at the Teppanyaki 

Dinner @ the French restaurant (the first time!)

Dinner on our Mexican night

Justin's literal basket of tacos

Mom & dad's pig of meat!

Dad's tequila trio ice cream

One night after dinner they had some "exotic" cars to advertise some excursions you could do. Justin checked them out for us!

On 4th of July they had a special dinner on the beach with food/drinks/music/bull riding...very American! haha

Princess ship cruising by

Justin made some man-pris so his pants didn't get all sandy

The Beach

Every day at 11am they made special coconut drinks on the beach. We decided to check it out one day and man were these a hot item! They only have a limited amount every day so you have to get there early to get one. The coconuts are hollowed out and they have Coco Locos in them (a mixture of coconut water/rum/tequila/vodka/coconut cream...and maybe some other liquor?).

The beach was so so pretty! The sand was white & soft and lots of palapas to catch some shade. The beach beds out front didn't have any shade so I didn't partake but they looked comfy!

At least someone got some use out of them!

Baby belly!

The resort grounds were beautiful! The hotel is pretty compact (compared to some of the other resorts we've been to) which is pretty nice when you're hopping from beach/pool/room/restaurants.

Lobby

Spa & lazy river

Main pool & Sol bar

Swim up bar

Beach on our last night

The room below my parents were Aggies! Whoop!

Bye bye Mexico {and so long adults only}! We WILL be back!

Paradise...I mean Secrets Maroma Beach...Mexico Vacation!

Justin and I just came back from a fabulously relaxing week in Mexico. We stayed at Secrets Maroma Beach in between Playa Del Carmen & Cancun. We have never stayed at an adults only all-inclusive down there and oh.my.gosh was it completely worth it! No screaming kids running around - yes please! This was one of the 2 places we had narrowed down our honeymoon to...which we had to change due to a hurricane so this was a second honeymoon of sorts! {Everyone thought we were on our honeymoon and were shocked to find out we had been married almost 3 years because we look so young...we'll take it! Oh and the flight attendant asked if I was old enough to drink *sigh*}

Our flight left early Tuesday morning - we were lucky to have my dad drop us off! Check-in/security was a breeze since we were flying first class and have global entry. We used air miles and were able to fly first class for the entire trip because we had so many miles :) It was definitely worth it...A nice treat!

Too early!

Finally - coffee!

SO much legroom

Sunrise on the way to Dallas

Morning cocktails

Breakfast! Why can't flying always be like this??

Almost to Cancun! Check out the pretty water...that's no Gulf of Mexico!

We had a really smooth check-in but since we arrived early our room wasn't ready. No problem - we hit up the lunch buffet and then headed over to the pool. This place literally has the best pool/beach views I've ever seen!! (I'll get to those shortly)

Since we used air miles to get to Mexico we decided to splurge on our room and got a swim out suite. I read mixed reviews but we LOVED it. There was only 1 other time there was another couple in the pool at the same time - other than that it was our private pool. The water was perfect and it was nice to just be able to get out and be in the room. We used the pool every afternoon after the pool/beach. Let's go on a tour of our room!

View into the bathroom from the bedroom

Jacuzzi Tub

The box on the left is the secret room service delivery box - you don't even have to answer the door when your food comes!

View onto our patio

Our patio

Swim out pool

Our pool view - not bad huh?

Before dinner the first night

Drinks in the lobby bar

A dirty monkey!!

 After a few drinks we decided to try El Patio - the Mexican restaurant. It was SO GOOD. It was authentic Mexican - not TexMex so I wasn't sure about it but it was delicious!

Justin was real excited about his lobster - he tried it and kind of liked it! {May have been the drinks talking}

My delicious enchiladas (so good I also ordered them on our last night)

Wednesday (& Saturday) we had a beach cabana reserved at the beach. You have a nice covered bed and it includes a butler all day! The only time we really had to get up was to go in the ocean...they brought us our food and drinks all day long! Justin and I were both reading Bossypants by Tina Fey (if you're looking for a light funny read go read this NOW) and it was really nice to be able to read in the shade all day with a nice ocean breeze.

The camera was still foggy - hadn't adjusted to the humidity yet

Our view!

Mmm Pina Colada

Maroma Beach

I don't have any pictures from our dinner Wednesday night but we ate at Portifino - the Italian restaurant. It was once again - so yummy!

Our view from our pool chairs on Thursday

So so pretty

Love all the palm trees!

After of day of fun in the sun we were sad about our sunburns :(

Ouchie

Nothing an Apple Martini won't fix, right?

We had dinner at the Hibachi restaurant - I know I sound like a broken record but it was SO good and the chef guy was as good as anyone I've seen at restaurants here! Very impressed

After dinner pic

Friday we parked ourselves at the pool again!

We got dressed for dinner and went over to the Sugar Reef bar - they have tables and chairs that sit in the water (just up to your ankles) and swings at the bar! We sat for a while at the table and then it started sprinkling...then pouring so we took cover at the bar on the swings! We waited out the rain and then headed over to the Steak House for dinner.

They have so many hammocks!

Each table had Jenga - we couldn't remember how to play so we just made up our own rules

Swinging and drinking could be a deadly combo - just ask our knees

and just like that it's pouring!

HUGE wine glass!

Saturday was our last full day and the other day we had rented the beach cabana. It was once again wonderful! 

The domed buildings are the Iberostar Grand! So close to where we were last year

Cabanas & Beach Bar

Justin lounging around!

We took a walk down the beach and made it almost all the way to the Grand (we stopped at the rocks...also the place we stopped on our walk last year but coming from the other way).

Maroma Beach Hotel (different from ours)

Pretty stretch of deserted beach (hence all the seaweed washed up)

You can't ask for prettier water

Abandoned condos that were being built. If they finished them they would be SO pretty but right now it's just creepy!

Interesting tree...

What better way to cool off from our walk than a Watermelon Margarita??

Don't judge us...this is our lunch for 2 :)
Club sandwich, tacos, caesar salad, onion rings & chips/guac

For our last dinner we went back to El Patio (where we started our vacation) since it was our favorite (and we were too chicken to try the French restaurant!) It did not disappoint the second time around!

We had to leave the hotel for the airport at 11 on Sunday morning so our plan was to order room service (so we could try our cool box!) and use our swim out room. It was nice to relax/lounge around and not even have to leave the room before it was time to go. Breakfast was delish and swimming was good. The sun was shining to the left but to the right it was dark and there was some crazy thunder. Mexico must have been sad we were leaving because it ended up raining on and off until we left that afternoon - it was a good travel day!

Justin had an "American" breakfast with eggs and I had banana pancakes!

We had a fantastic time and would definitely recommend Secrets Maroma Beach if you're thinking about going to Mexico. The food and drinks were great, atmosphere was perfect (a lot of people on their honeymoons but also some older people and groups of friends...basically no kids!), room was amazing, super friendly staff, and weather was great! Everyday we saw a little rain but nothing that ruined our beach/pool time so no complaints! Especially since we were there at the start of the rainy season (and hurricane season).

Since it took us all of 50 minutes from the time we left the resort until we were through security (they say allow 3 hours for all of this) we decided to kill some time at Margaritaville in the terminal

Our 2 taco salads & bottled water were delicious for $50 - ahh tourists!

Simon Cowell is that you?? Rachel - are you impressed with Justin's picture stalking job (pretending to take my pic) :)

Pretty view

Bye bye Cancun!! We hope to see you again next year!