Relaxation at The Royal: Our Cancun Honeymoon Part 3

We didn't spend the whole week laying around at the pool, although we might have if David hadn't gotten seriously sunburned the second day we were there. Being so close to the ocean we had to spend some time on the beach! 

Yep, I took a writing in the sand picture

The Royal has awesome lounge chairs set up just feet away from the water. There's nothing more relaxing than laying there listening to and watching the waves without being covered in sand. 

We spent an hour or so one afternoon playing soccer on the beach with a kid and his dad from Colombia. It was so fun and a nice workout - It partly made up for the insane amount of food we ate that week.. Or maybe not. I loved that the resort offered soccer and volleyball courts right by the water and had free equipment! The best picture I have of the soccer 'field' is in the background of the picture of one of the weddings we watched:

We saw at least three couples get married while we were there. Talk about a gorgeous backdrop for your pictures! I don't know if I'd be able to get over the half naked (usually drunk) people playing soccer and volleyball on either side of the altar, though.

Every night there were awesome shows in the lobby. They would clear out the center of the floor and each night had some sort of theme. They were so fun! We were so disappointed the one night that we missed the show because we fell asleep after dinner.

The first afternoon we were there we met a couple from England who were also on their honeymoon. I'm pretty sure we started talking because she asked what I was drinking and when I said 'a strawberry margarita' she asked what that was! Anyway, we saw them around and would say hi anytime we ran into them, but towards the end of the week we started hanging out more. It turns out they were staying in the swim-up suite 3 rooms down from us, so we hung out in the private pool right outside both of our rooms. It was so interesting to hear about their lives in England and how everything they 'know' about America is from watching Friends! 

We chose to do two 'big' activities while we were there. I had always wanted to go parasailing, so that was an easy choice. Our second choice was the 'Party Hopper' tour that took us into downtown Cancun to three of the most popular clubs there. It was one of the highlights of the trip for sure. There were SO many people and all three of the places we went were a blast!

(All of the pictures from the night are from David's phone - There was no way I was lugging my big camera around all night! Sorry for the poor quality)

We started at the Corona Bar which was the smallest of the three, but a LOT of fun! It was totally open air, though, so that combined with dancing equaled lots of sweating. 

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Next we went to Senor Frogs. You can't go to Cancun and not go to Senor Frogs. I absolutely loved it! They have a bunch of songs that they get the crowd involved in and take people up on stage and stuff.

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Last, but definitely not least, we went to Coco Bongo. SO. MUCH. FUN. Combine awesome music and dancing with acrobats flying through the air with Vegas-like shows - We loved it!

Our only picture of the night - Woo sweaty frizzy hair!

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We paid a fee for both of us when we signed up that covered the cover charge at all three bars and all of our drinks for the night. We had heard that the cover at Coco Bongo was $50 alone, so it was definitely worth it. We had a 'waiter' that was with our group all night leading us from one place to the next and taking our orders. I would definitely recommend it, especially if you love dancing!

We bought both activities through our concierge/travel agency at the resort, but I don't think it was totally necessary for the parasailing. You can basically go down to them on the beach and hand them a $50 bill and they'll take it. We weren't required to go at a certain time, which I liked. I really enjoyed not having any set plans and being able to do what we wanted when we wanted.

The boat we were on is on the far right in the picture

I actually thought I'd enjoy parasailing more than I did. To get out to the boat you ride on a jetski, which is one of the most uncomfortable, bumpy, awkward experiences ever. When you get out to the boat the driver of the jetski holds on to the side while you climb over. You watch a couple people go before you, so you're riding around in this little speedboat on the ocean for 20 minutes or so. I've never gotten motion sickness in my life, but I was seriously about to puke. And then the guy on the boat who helps you get your harness on had me stand up and step into it and I just about fell over the edge when we hit a big wave. It was a little traumatic to say the least.

When we got up in the air it was much smoother, but I was still contemplating which way I should lean if I did in fact throw up while we were up there for the first few minutes of the ride. It was fun looking for sea life in the crystal clear water - We saw a sea turtle, but that was about it. Overall I'd still recommend it because the experience while you're up there is totally worth it, but I'd take some dramamine before hand!

I'll finish my recaps Monday with some pictures of the food and restaurants and more of the resort (and let's be honest, probably more pictures of us) and my thoughts about it all, but I'll leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from the trip for today:

Can you see me? :)

What activities/excursions did you choose to do on your honeymoon?

**If you haven't entered my giveaway yet, make sure to do so before Sunday evening! Happy weekend!

Relaxation at The Royal: Our Cancun Honeymoon Part 2

When we pulled up to our resort we were both in awe. Everything was absolutely gorgeous and so fancy!

You could look through the lobby and see the gorgeous water on the other side. It was breathtaking! The lobby was beautiful, but it was totally open meaning it was always hot and sticky. We really didn't spend a lot of time sitting out there though, aside from the shows every night. 

Instead of checking in at one of the desks in the above picture we were escorted to the 'Romance Concierge' because we were on our honeymoon. We were given glasses of champagne and she told us all about the specials for honeymooners. She also gave us our all inclusive bracelets that we had to wear the whole week and finally we were able to see our room!

We splurged on a master swim-up suite and I'm SO glad we did! While all of the rooms there are incredibly nice, we'll never go on another honeymoon, so it was worth it to get the nicest room. We were definitely not disappointed..

We threw on our suits, took a quick timer picture with our lovely bed, gasped at the incredible view, and headed out to the pool! 

We spent the majority of our time in those chairs. We had a perfect view of the ocean, we were right outside our room if we needed anything, and there were waitresses who came and took our drink orders. It was heavenly! Neither of us wanted a honeymoon with all kinds of activities. After graduating, moving, and all of the stress of last minute projects and planning, I was perfectly content laying in a lounge chair. 

We enjoyed fruity drinks...

We watched people parasail...

We read...

And we enjoyed every single minute of it!

We did occasionally leave our chairs, so I'll have pictures of all that tomorrow!

Did you opt for a relaxing honeymoon? Or was yours filled with activites?

Relaxation at The Royal: Our Cancun Honeymoon Part 1

When booking our honeymoon in January, we decided to leave Monday morning instead of on Sunday, the day after the wedding. We had a couple reasons for doing so - First, we had several out of town guests who we don't see very often in town for the wedding and none of them had seen our house. Since we didn't leave until Monday morning we were able to have everyone over for lunch on Sunday and open gifts in the company of our families. We spent our wedding night in the Presidential Suite at The Marriott (the same hotel my girls and I stayed in the night before the wedding and that we blocked rooms at), slept in Sunday morning, enjoyed a room service breakfast in bed, and then headed home to meet our family members at the house. 

 We had a casual lunch and then opened our gifts. We were SO blessed! It was an incredible feeling knowing so many people not only came to show their love and support for us, but gave us gifts too!

I promise I was excited, just tired! I have no idea what David was talking about here, but it looks like it was serious, ha!

It was so nice to get to actually talk to our guests who traveled to see us. Both the rehearsal dinner and (of course) the wedding were crazy, so I didn't feel like I really got to visit with any of them. I loved that they stayed a few extra hours so that we could really see them!

Laughing at something my brother said - Typical.

BM S stayed in town for lunch/opening presents too and kept track of everything for us! It made any returns much easier (like the same candle we received 4 times!) since we had all of our gift receipts organized and it's going to be a huge help when we (finally) get our thank you notes written.

After all of our family left we were able to take a nice long nap. It was MUCH needed. After we finally got out of bed we ran some last minute errands for the trip and packed. All of that definitely was pushed to the back burner the week of our wedding, so it was a blessing we hadn't booked our flight for Sunday morning! The second reason we decided to leave Monday were the flight prices - Our travel agent let us know that Sunday morning flights are about $200 more each than Monday morning flights. (Hey, they aren't stupid! Especially during the busiest wedding months!) Flying out Monday we were still able to get to Cancun by about 3 PM and enjoy most of the day there.

My momma took us to the airport Monday morning so we wouldn't have to park either of our cars there and we were headed to Dallas! It was almost surreal knowing we were FINALLY on our honeymoon and we were officially married!

Cliche, but I don't care! Look how cute he is with a ring on his finger. :)

We had quite a long layover in the Dallas airport, but it was nice not to have to rush. We grabbed lunch and sat around for awhile - It felt like the first time in weeks we'd been able to do that!

We filled out the customs forms while we were on the plane and made sure we had everything together when we got off. We had heard from a couple sitting next to us (who were on their way to Cancun to get married!) that it could take up to a couple hours, but we got through within 30-45 minutes or so. We weren't in the Cancun airport for long, but we still had someone try to sell us a timeshare. David walked right past him, but he was trying to tell us that our shuttle wouldn't be there for another 10 minutes so we had time to talk to him. (They were actually sitting right outside waiting for us.) Don't get sucked into it! We talked to one of our friend's parents before we left and they told us they were talked into buying a timeshare down there a few years ago and they've been trying to get rid of it ever since.

The taxi/shuttle drivers in Cancun are insane, but we got to our resort a lot faster than we thought we would! We met another couple who was there on their honeymoon and was also from the midwest! It was fun to see them around the resort throughout the week and compare our experiences. We talked the whole ride to the resort and we were so excited when we looked out the window and saw this:

Life was good. And it got even better when we arrived at the resort! But I'll save that for tomorrow. :)

Did you leave/are you leaving the day after your wedding or did/will you wait until Monday like we did?