This post (and the next travel tale for Disney World) may be VERY overdue, but I felt that Labor Day was an appropriate day to make this post (and I missed Labor Day because I underestimated how much I had to say about this trip!). Some of you will be packing up and heading home from your beach vacations, the lakehouse, or some other adventure, while I’m writing reports and/or providing speech therapy. I’m not bitter or anything, I’m grateful for any day that involves coffee! Haha!
Our trip to Cancun was pretty unique as it was one of those vacations where you pretty much stay at one location for the entire trip. We stayed at the Parsadisus Cancun resort for 5 nights and it was out of this world. I kept telling Miguel that I had never stayed anywhere like this! Maui (for our honeymoon) was perfect, but it wasn’t all-inclusive and after this trip, I’ve officially been spoiled for life!
Getting There: Traveling from Reynosa
Something that I really wanted to touch on was how we ultimately made it to Cancun. We flew out of Reynosa, Mexico with a connection in Mexico City. This was our first time flying out of Mexico and I won’t lie to you and say I wasn’t nervous. A lot of people in the valley still visit Mexican border towns for great eats and shopping, but I hadn’t crossed the border since I was 16. I’m going to bullet point all of the details of our traveling because this was a HUGE interest of y’all’s when I was actually traveling.
- We crossed into Mexico the day before we traveled to get a travel permit. This costs about $30 and is required if you’re traveling in and through Mexico.
- Our flight was at 8:30 am and we left the Pharr/McAllen area at around 5:30 allowing us to be first in line to check bags.
- We had a family friend drive us over (in older vehicles, just to be cautious. Like I said, I’ve heard of people who take their own, newer vehicles all the time, but we were first-timers.) and drop us off at the airport. Miguel says he wouldn’t mind driving a vehicle himself (on a future trip) and parking at the airport parking lot since it is gated.
- The Reynosa airport is small (about 2-3 terminals), but there is a coffee shop and cafe for you to grab snacks at!
- We flew with Aero Mexico and I have absolutely no complaints. I’ve never flown 1st class or anything fancy, so I can’t say I’m very picky.
- Final Thoughts: I’d do it again, but only if I had my husband with me. When my girlfriends and I flew out for my bachelorette party, we flew out of McAllen.
Day 1
Our trip to Cancun was a family trip, and we decided to stay at the Paradisus because my sister-in-law had already visited twice and sang its praises. We were not disappointed. Upon arrival to Cancun, you immediately notice HOW STICKY it is. I mean, I live in the Rio Grande Valley, but Cancun is way more humid. We were greeted with cold towels to cool off and any drink we requested! While checking in, my husband requested an oceanside view and when they (unfortunately) didn’t have any to offer, our party (my husband and I and my brother-in-law) were all upgraded to Royal Service! This meant we got gold bracelets that gave us access to one additional restaurant on the resort, an additional bar, and additional pool and beach areas. The royal service areas are adults only and would be a great option for honeymooners! There is also the option of family concierge service, if this is what you and your family need!
Our rooms were beautiful! (I only took videos of the room, so if I haven’t made a highlight for this trip by the time this post goes up, remind me!) My favorite part of our room was the stand alone tub and shower in the middle of the room. It had glass walls surrounding it and was so luxurious! We changed out of our sticky travel clothes and headed to Naos for a quick lunch as soon as we were done checking in.
- Naos is a buffet style restaurant. While buffet style isn’t usually my favorite cuisine option, it was a great option for a quick meal and was VERY popular with my young nephews and nieces! The buffet featured unique food choices as well as classics, like chicken tenders and French fries. There was ALWAYS a HUGE dessert section and I loved grabbing a quick ice cream after all of our other dinners. Sprinkles, anyone? Another note about Naos is that you can only seat four people at a time to a table. We were a group of 15, so we didn’t usually eat all together as a group when we ate here.
We went to the pool area, which featured a swim-up bar and was actually comprised of about 2-3 pools. We used the pool that overlooked the beach area throughout our stay. It was nice to be able to go back and forth between the beach and the pool. I love the beach and the white sand was beautiful and made for great pictures with the family. Unfortunately, the surf of the ocean was really rough (there was also A LOT of seaweed because of this), so we didn’t really last long in the waves, haha! 
After swimming for a little bit, we all decided it was time for a real meal. We separated from the family and headed to the Royal Service Area to find our private bar area also included an array of appetizers for us to try. This was probably our favorite part of the Royal Service treatment. We visited this area quite often for snacks, a glass of wine or a Nespresso latte (depending on the hour). We came back to dimmed lighting and slippers and robes set out in our room for a romantic evening vibe. I became even more robe-obsessed on this trip! I’m not sure if this was a Royal Service detail, but it was special, no less. We showered and decided on Blue Agave for a yummy dinner after all of the hotel employees highly recommended it to us!
- Blue Agave was probably my favorite restaurant in the whole resort! The cuisine was classic Mexican food. I HIGHLY recommend the quesadillas. I ordered them because I wasn’t very hungry but ended up eating as many as I could. No regrets. This is what all-inclusive is all about. The tacos de bistek were also amazing!
Day 2
Days 2 and 4 were the days we really utilized the resort! We woke up (not so early) and dressed for breakfast. We chose the Market Grill for the sake of trying different restaurants.
- For breakfast, the food here is actually the same as the food from the Naos, oops! They actually specialize in Brazilian cuisine from 6-10 pm. Still, we weren’t disappointed. We were seated outside by one of the pools overlooking the ocean. Because this was a separate restaurant from Naos itself, we did get more attention from the waiters. They even took our omelette orders (amazing, BTW) for us, so we wouldn’t have to wait in line. The breakfast food had a large variety from eggs and pancakes to fresh fruit and bloody Marys!
After breakfast, we headed to the pool and the concierge desks to discuss excursions for the next few days. During the planning, my nephew and BIL got and offer to go on a kayaking trip! Be ready for anything because this was totally free and I wish I would’ve been able to go! They said they had so much fun! We planned our trip to Xcaret for a HIGHLY discounted price and the men decided on a deep sea fishing excursion for our final full day.
While ate the pool we ate burgers and wings at the Sunset Grill. You can serve yourself burgers right away (if they’re ready), but do have to wait in line for specialty foods like pizza and wings. After lots of eating and lounging we also decided to rent some jet-skis. WARNING: The jet-skis offered AT THE HOTEL actually require about a mile walk in the sand. If you’re not #vathletic (like me, I am not athletic), I recommend you walk to the first jet ski rental place you see on the beach! Also, the surf was SO choppy. Miguel and I doubled up on a jet ski and we fell 3 times because we were going too slow to beat the waves. It is a hilarious memory getting back on that jet ski in open water, but I am not 100% sure I’d want to relive it, haha. (Mom, I’m sorry if you read this because I haven’t exactly shared this story with you!) We did also get to see sea turtles mating and dolphins swimming, so it was actually an overall wonderful experience!
Isla Mujeres
Surprisingly, after everything that the day entailed, everyone was still willing to head to Isla Mujeres nearing the end of the day. It was about 4pm when we decided to leave. I was familiar with the area because we traveled here on my bachelorette trip and had nothing but beautiful memories of the light turquoise waters. There is only one ferry to get to Isla Mujeres and it’s about $20 per person (this covers your trips to and from Isla Mujeres). Because of the limited ferries, we did have to wait a bit to actually head to the Island. Luckily at the port, there is a coconut bar and tons of little shops to pass the time in. We even saw some people bungee jumping! If you’re an adventurer this is a great spot for you!
When we got on the island, we headed directly to the left (which is different from where I went on my bachelorette trip, so I was little nervous!) to head to a beach. Upon arriving, there was a small roped off area where we could get in the water. We had no intentions of swimming, but eventually dove right into the calm, clear waters. This is where my hubby and I got our gorgeous beachside pic! Unfortunately, it started to get dark and we had to head back, but from previous experiences we knew that there was much more to explore on this island! We left behind opportunities to enjoy freshly fried fish, gift shops of handmade goods, and more time on that beautiful beach, but we now know we want to return to enjoy all of those things later!
We ended the night at Bana Restaurant, which is the Asian-inspired restaurant.
- This restaurant honestly didn’t impress me too much. The food was good, but I felt that I could have similar food at home. The sushi was great and the miso soup was delicious, but it definitely wasn’t the MOST special restaurant.
Day 3
Day 3 was a big day! We ended up heading to Xcaret even though we had previously discussed not going at all. The package offered by the hotel was too good to pass up. We ordered room service breakfast to eat something before we hopped on the shuttle from the hotel. It was about an hour long ride where they prep you with A LOT of information about the park and the excursions being offered that day. This may come as a surprise to most, but our family didn’t completely LOVE this park. If you enjoy this park, I can see why, BUT there were several reasons that I think would’ve swayed our decision to go.
- Xcaret is HUGE. Not Epcot Huge, but definitely not what we anticipated. You’re going to walk quite a bit.
- It’s a very active park. You can “float” down 3 rivers, but you definitely have to push yourself and swim a bit. Even with a life jacket, this can be difficult for someone who is not a strong swimmer as the park is often PACKED (8,000 people when we went!)! The rocks do get slippery as well, so this is good to note if you’re traveling with family members who are not conditioned for a park like this.
- WATER SHOES ARE A MUST! We didn’t know we were going to Xcaret, so we didn’t know how badly we would need them. Rookie Mistake.
- If you’re headed to the rivers, that does mean you need to strip down to your bathing suit. We were SO confused by this and ended up having to go back and forth between the lockers because it didn’t make sense to be barefoot in a public place…again, WATER SHOES ARE A MUST!
With all of that being said, I don’t think the park was a good decision for our ENTIRE PARTY. My nephews and nieces had the time of their lives swimming with dolphins and snorkeling! The rivers were kind of relaxing once we got the swing of things and THERE WERE SO MANY ANIMALS! This was probably my favorite part of the park! This and the yummy buffet that was included in our ticket price! We also had an AMAZING breakfast (that I recommend you skip if you want to really experience the park!) I really regret not swimming with dolphins, but you live and you learn. I’d like to visit Xcaret again with better preparation and understanding of how the park works. We left on the earlier shuttle home, which meant we did miss the evening show. I hear this is amazing, so I REALLY do want to go back!
After returning from Xcaret, we were starving. My hubby and I hit up the appetizer bar before getting ready for dinner at Molé!
- This restaurant does require a reservation! We didn’t make one, but were able to wait 10 minutes to be seated. This restaurant is small, so we were so lucky to squeeze in! This restaurant was probably my second favorite of all! They had an amazing salmon plate and dessert coffee that I can still taste!
Day 4
My husband totally called me out on night 3, when he asked me, “How excited are you to do nothing tomorrow?” I WAS THRILLED. Don’t get me wrong, I love an adventure. I loved crawling out of the ocean onto a jet ski (and learning to drive one for that matter), I loved rushing to make the earlier ferry ride out of Isla Mujeres because we made it back to the dock earlier than intended, and I LOVE eating all the food at all the new restaurants. But what I love more than all of that, is relaxing by the pool under a palapa. That is exactly what I did on Day 4. Like I mentioned earlier, most of the boys headed out for a deep sea fishing excursion early that morning. The rest of us stayed behind and I reserved a pool side palapa overlooking the beach for $140. This may seem like a lot, but there was a waiter tending to us all day long, we had. champagne and strawberries delivered to us, and at mid-day we enjoyed a LOBSTER FEAST with lots of different types of ceviche! This is the kind of things that makes my heart sing during a beach vacation.
The men joined us after about 2 and we hung out by the pool (and the beach) for the rest of the day. There was a stand that sold floats for the kids near the pool area, and my nephews and nieces used their floatie to its full potential on this last day!
If you haven’t noticed, there is a consistent trend of an inability to accommodate VERY large parties. Not without extensive notice anyway. So, for the last night we decided to have a big dinner with the entire crew! We chose Enso Restaurant as the spot for our last family meal because the chefs there could also accommodate us by cooking the HUGE fish that the men caught earlier that morning!
This was by far the coolest thing to me! 1. The fish was delicious and so fresh! 2. It really is special to eat food that was caught by out family members. As appetizers, we previewed all of the asian fusion dishes that the restaurant normally serves, which was an additional touch. This restaurant was also very delicious, but I feel that it is often forgotten because it is on a different end of the hotel and is outside by the pools instead of the main area. Don’t sleep on Enso, y’all. It was so yummy! 
Favorites
I had a lot of fun on this trip and I’m kind of happy that it’s taken me so long to write this post because I’ve been able to relieve every moment again! With that being said, I do have to highlight my favorite parts of this trip for y’all.
Nespresso: I don’t think I’ve stopped talking about Nespresso machines since I returned from Cancun. They were so neat! We had one in every single room and we also had Nespresso bars in our royal service area and the regular lounge areas. I love coffee, so an iced coffee pick-me-up was a must for me!
Royal Service: We didn’t initially plan on this, but I would definitely do Royal Service again. There was so much more we could have accessed (see above), but I ultimately loved the privacy of where our rooms were located. Maybe it was the incense lining the path, but it was so much more relaxing. I also loved that they provided a beach bag during out stay. The little things make me fall in love, y’all.
Palapa- Renting the palapa made the trip for me. I’m a simple girl with simple needs, okay? Haha.
Isla Mujeres- Our family agreed that we did not give enough time to Isla Mujeres. Miguel really wants to stay there instead of Cancun on our next trip to Mexico. Little does he know, he had me at, “next trip to Mexico!”
Woulda’ Coulda’ Shoulda’
This last section is probably my least and most favorite section of my travel tale posts. I love telling you what to try that I missed out on, but I also have to relive the fact that I missed out on them! I’ll just take it as I’m taking notes for next time!
La Palapa– This was the restaurant that was available for royal service guests only. Because it was on the private side of the hotel, it never caught our eye, but I’ve done my research now and have MAJOR regrets about missing a beachside dinner opportunity.
Couple’s Massage- I always want a massage on vacation. A couple’s massage on the beach? How much sweeter can a massage get.
More Research- I really wish I would’ve done more research about this trip. I think I always feel this way after the trip, but only because hindsight is 20/20. I also live in fear that I’ll never return to any of the places that I visit. However I think I can learn that this isn’t true because I’ve been to Cancun, Isla Mujeres, and Disney TWICE in two years! Adventure awaits…apparently!
I hope y’all enjoyed my delayed Cancun and Isla Mujeres Travel Tale. I loved getting to play the part of travel blogger this summer and hope y’all enjoy my travel stories as much as I love writing them. Adios, amigos! 
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