Relaxation at The Royal: Our Cancun Honeymoon Part 4

I can't say enough about how great The Royal was. We honestly had very few complaints (which I'll cover at the end) with the resort, the service, or the food. As you've seen the last few posts, our room and the resort in general are absolutely gorgeous. We only used the spa services once, but it was just as nice. 

We were a little disappointed that there were no services included with the honeymoon package or the all inclusive option. We had a couples massage the first full day we were there, which was expensive but totally worth it. I would highly recommend scheduling a massage for the first or second day of your honeymoon for a couple reasons. First, it totally helps get you relaxed and in vacation mode. Secondly, neither of you will be sunburned yet and it would be a lot more comfortable. I mentioned before David got really burnt (like blisters) the second day we were there, and the thought of a massage after that was not at all appealing. We likely would've used the spa a lot more had it not been so pricey.

Prior to our arrival I was a bit worried about the food. I wasn't at all worried about the quality. I was more worried about the fact that I'm not at all adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, I dislike all seafood, and I don't particularly like steak. That pretty much leaves chicken. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I liked all of the restaurants and how many new things I tried. 

One of our favorite restaurants was Pelicanos. They offered Carribean cuisine for breakfast (which we never tried), lunch, and dinner. It sits over the pool looking out onto the gorgeous ocean. 

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Another one of our favorites was Asiana, which was a habachi grill with lots of Asian food options. The food was SO good, our cook was entertaining and funny, and it has an absolutely gorgeous view. 

They have a tapas bar called Tapas & Pintxos that has a variety of dishes from Northern Spain. You can choose as many of them as you want since they're small portions. David and I both left pretty hungry, but I think that's mainly because we're pretty plain midwestern people and were a little out of our comfort zone. Most of the dishes had some sort of seafood, but the ones I did have were all very good. And the view is breathtaking!

Probably the most fun meal of the week was our gormet dinner at Chef's Plate. This is one of the two restaurants that requires reservations and the menu changes daily and centers around a theme. We're totally not 'gormet' people, but everything was SO good. I tried everything and I'm so glad I did. It was an awesome experience!

We were seated at a long banquet table with 3 other couples - one was on their honeymoon, one was celebrating their 25th anniversary, and one was celebrating their 27th anniversary. Not only was the food and service wonderful, the conversation with these other couples was so much fun. The older couples gave us advice and talked about their weddings and honeymoons and we got to get to know another newlywed couple (who also happened to be from the midwest).

We didn't visit Maria Marie until the last night we were there or else we probably would've gone back. It was a mix of Mexican and French cuisine and was sooo good. I actually had steak and I liked it! 

Spice was another one of our favorites and the only restaurant we visited more than twice. It was a huge buffet that also had cooking stations (with delicious cheeseburgers!). And it didn't hurt that almost all of the tables have a great view of the ocean!

We also tried their room service a couple times (fast and good both times!) and we visited the 24 hour lounge quite frequently (probably too frequently). They always had chips and queso and fresh quacamole in there along with some American foods, like chicken nuggets! Ha, we're at a resort with all of these gormet restaurants and we still want chicken nuggets. It was great, though! It also had basically an open bar if you wanted to mix your own drinks, but we never really used it or the wet bar in our room (although we did take the bottles of tequila, whiskey, and champagne that were in our room home with us!) - There was a huge bar in the lobby so we usually stuck with that.. We're no bartenders.

Honestly there were maybe three small complaints we had the entire time we were there. I already mentioned the first one with the price of the spa services. Another would be the housekeeping - They did a great job, but you never knew when they would show up. They ask you when you check in when you'd like them to come clean and when you'd like them to provide the turndown services (unmaking the bed, lighting candles, dimming the lights, etc) but it didn't really seem to mean anything. They'd just show up whenever and if we were in the room it usually meant our room wouldn't be cleaned that day. Thirdly, we received SO many courtesey calls while we were there. I like that they want us to be happy and comfortable, but a couple of them were at 8:30 AM (we are NOT morning people) and there were just too many of them. If we had a problem we would've let them know, so I felt like it was a bit overkill.

Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries our first night

Our complaints were nothing big, and they definitely didn't in any way negatively effect our time there. Both of us would most definitely recommend The Royal Cancun! We're honestly thinking about going back even though we'd really like to see other places - Our experience was that good. If you're considering the resort and have any questions, contact me! I'd love to talk more about it and answer any questions you have! (That means you, Miss Puppy Love!) I'll leave you with more of my favorite pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

My family had kept an eye on our house while we were gone, so they had a key to get in. We arrived home from the airport to find this:

It was a fun little surprise and made our homecoming a little less sad. We got to share a little bit about our trip with my parents and then we pretty much headed straight to bed. David had to work the next morning which was no fun, but he had run out of vacation days. 

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our honeymoon! Like I said, if anyone is considering The Royal, I'd love to talk to you more about it! Have I convinced anyone to book their trip yet? :) 

**If you're using any of my pictures please give credit where credit is due - Thanks!**

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!