Exploring Puerto Morelos and Date Night

This morning Lucas slept in until 8! And he might have slept in more if we didn’t have to wake up. We had to have breakfast at 9 to get our reduced ticket prices for Xcaret.

Basically, we showed up, had breakfast at the Italian Buffet, and then Don, my mom, and Lucas went to the pool. My dad and I sat thru this presentation done by a guy named Tony and then we were shown some rooms. Then we were hard sold on buying into their vacation package thing but we said no. At the end they acted like we should have had all of our family stay for the presentation, but I told them the man named Saul said 3 times only two of us had to stay. It was the only way I agreed to going to the presentation. In the end they said ok.

Then we went to the pool. Around 2 we decided to go have lunch in the town of Puerto Morelos. The front lobby called a taxi for Lucas, Don and me. The ride was only about 5-10 minutes. He dropped us off at a place where he parked with a shop. We asked for recommendations to eat and then we walked around the block. There were so many shops. We ate at a place called Puerto Knna. We ordered queso fundido. I had fish tacos. Don had octopus tacos and Lucas had a Quesadilla. Lucas ate one of my fish. The view from the restaurant was amazing.

Then we walked around. A man walked up to us and said he remembered us from our hotel because he was a waiter there. He wanted to show us his grandma’s shop. He took us into a jewelry store. It was suspicious. We think he saw our wristbands. The guy there was making me try on jewelry. It was just awkward. When we got out of there we started heading back for a taxi.

Lucas was saying he was hot. We looked at a couple more shops and then found our taxi driver Eduardo.

When we got back to the hotel we went back to the room and Lucas wanted to swim more. Don said he was going to take a little break. Lucas and I went down to the pool. My mom didn’t stay too much longer but my dad hung around. It was much colder in the water. We were tossing around the football when this very old man who came in on a scooter walked into the pool. We got out and were gathering our stuff when all the sudden the old man fell getting out of the pool. He fell right on his chest/stomach. People helped him up. He turned out to be ok, but it was very scary. Lucas told me later as we were walking, “When I saw that guy my heart shattered. My heart has a crack in it”

We saw that man later at dinner he was ok. We thought there was a taco festival tonight because the concierge had said something, but we only found a small artisan festival. So again, we went to the buffet. It was not great. Don and I were not eating a lot because we had a 9 pm reservation.

Lucas was going to spend the night with my parents so we could have a date night. He was so tired and didn’t want us to leave him but eventually he was ok because my dad said he would use his flashlight to look for crocodile.

Don and I went to the other resort called Ventas Ha for dinner. It was ok. I had curry soup for an appetizer. That was my favorite part of my meal. Don had bean soup. Then I had a ceviche that I didn’t like, and Don had a bone marrow appetizer. We both got the steak for our meal. It was ok, nothing great. The craziest part was they brought it out on a heavy hot stone on top of a sliced tree trunk that was on top of another wooden serving tray. The waiter almost dropped my steak on me. It was a very complicated, heavy dish. It came with a cream corn in a little dish, but my dish was so hot I couldn’t touch it. It was boiling the entire meal! I had to take my steak off the hot stone so it would stop cooking. We had some wine and took some wine to go.

The resort was cool it had a neat jungle theme. We finished our drinks in their lobby and talked for a long time.

Xcaret

We woke up at 6:30 for our Xcaret excursion. We probably could have slept more because we were all tired. We met downstairs for breakfast and then got on our bus at 8:15.

The bus was nice except it the AC was on blast! They showed a video of the attractions at the Xplore park and Xcaret. It was about an hour ride. We got there around 9:20.

Once we got thru the gates we got lockers and made our way to the natural pools. On the way we saw some animals–deer and flamingos. We saw some ruins because Xcarat park is an ongoing archaeological dig site. When we got to the natural pools there was barely anyone there. It was awesome. Most were very shallow with small fish. One pool was over 9 ft. It felt good to jump in. Don snorkeled there for awhile.

Then we had lunch at the buffet. Lucas had fun watching the birds trying to steal food. The view from the buffet overlooked the ocean. It was a good lunch.

After lunch we made our way to the lockers to drop off mostly everything to do the underground river. We all got life jackets and made our way down.

At first Lucas was scared. He held onto Don the whole time until the middle he got braver. The sights in the caves were awesome. There were waterfalls and fish. All kinds of trees and rocks. It was like nothing we had ever done.

Once we got out we started walking, we had about an hour left before we had to be at the lockers. We looked for jaguars but found a lot of iguanas. We went thru the butterfly house. Lucas wasn’t as scared of them anymore. It was very pretty. Then we went thru the aviary. It was awesome! I could have spent more time there, but we rushed back to catch our bus at 4.

Lucas got some cotton candy, so he wanted to sit with Gigi to share it. He had some then he was immediately asleep.

When we got back to the resort, Don wanted to check out the pool at Ventas so we took a golf cart over there. The sun was starting to go behind the buildings, so I was cold, but Lucas and Don were in for a long time. Lucas’s new friend, Arthur, was at the pool also. My dad showed up for a bit and we had a drink. Then we all went back to get dressed for dinner. We didn’t know what to do for dinner, but I heard Dolores was open so we all walked over there. There was a long line, but Don checked the line at the other entrance, and we got in sooner. It was open for a special event, Taco Night. The buffet was poorly organized, it was hard to find anything. It was also very loud. It wasn’t a great experience but different. After dinner we all went back for bed.

Pool Day

Lucas woke up today at 6:30. He played with his ninja turtles in bed for a while. I made some coffee, and we watched the sun rise over the trees from our balcony. Lucas said, “look mama it’s so beautiful”.

Then we met my parents at the breakfast buffet. It was a better experience than last night.

After breakfast I wanted to figure out tours. I ended up getting a tour to Xcaret and a snorkeling tour. It took about 1.5 hours between booking and listening to how they could make it cheaper for us if we listen to their sales pitch. I’m going to listen to it on Thursday. The guy there made me a deal that we can do the Xcaret tour on Wednesday and attend the talk on Thursday. He also said only 2 of us must stay for the talk. If we don’t show up, we will be charged the full price. I probably shouldn’t have done this but whatever, live and learn.

Lucas was already enjoying the pool. It was fun to all get in. My mom bought Lucas a football, so we had fun throwing that around. He met a friend named Arthur from Canada who was also 5. Lucas liked to play on the handrail on the stairs in the water. He was flipping all around it and climbing. He said “hey mama, do you see my cool tricks on the pole?!”

There was a bubble/foam party in the pool. They threw a bunch of balloons in water and everyone was dancing around. It was a fun experience.

We checked out the beach. It was very warm. We didn’t get in much because we wanted to get dry for lunch. We went to the other buffet (Dolores) which was more like a food court. The food here was better. They had good ceviche and wings. Lucas really liked it. At one point the waiter took away our spoons that he wasn’t done with, and he said “well that’s unfortunate”.

On our walk back we looked at the pools at the other resort. There was a cool looking infinity pool. Then we came back and went to the beach more. Lucas looked at fish in the little holes where the tide had went out. Then he decided he wanted to try to snorkel, so we got all geared up but then he got nervous. Don went out by himself. Lucas threw a huge fit about how Dia needed to play football right now with him. It took me awhile to calm him down, he was exhausted.

Then we decided to go back to the room to get cleaned up. Lucas wanted to try to find crocodiles and take pictures with his camera.

We went for a walk over to the marina. He took a ton of pictures, it was funny. We saw where people swim with dolphins and we sat and watched them come out of the water every so often. It was peaceful because it was late, and the dolphins were off duty.

Then we went to the buffet for dinner again because we had no reservations again. It wasn’t as long of line. It was busy though and very loud. The breakfast buffet is a much better experience.

After dinner my parents came to look at our room. Then it was another pretty early night in bed.

Traveling to Mexico!

My parents spent the night last night so it would be easy for us to all go to O’Hare together. We woke up around 4 am. Getting to the airport was nice–uneventful.

Once at the airport we checked in easily. Then we stopped at the food court for breakfast. Lucas had a McDonald’s sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit with a hash brown. He later talked me into getting him a donut from Dunkin. The rest of us had burrito beach. It was a nice relaxing time.

Lucas and I got upgraded to business class because we booked separately from Don. We tried to get our seats back, but we could not. So Lucas and I are enjoying our time in business. I kind of miss the coziness of economy in our whole row, because here there is a seat divider.

Once on the flight the flight attendant came right away to get drinks. I got a mimosa. Lucas got apple juice. Then they took our order for breakfast. We got a smoked salmon plate with fruit. They brought us a hot wet cloth and Lucas was very confused by it. He said “when we get to the airport can you tell Dia everything that happened here”.

He ate all my hard-boiled egg and some of my salmon. I had to take away his butter because he was just eating it plain. The flight was good. Lucas watched ninja turtles. I read and tried to sleep but couldn’t. Lucas took maybe an hour nap.

Lucas and I got off the plane quickly and we got in line to go thru security. The line we were in did not move at all from the time we got in it until we saw Don and my parents. It had to be at least 10 minutes.

They got in the line next to us and Lucas and I attempted to go there but we were told no kids so we had to go back. Don and my parents were done quickly. It took Lucas and I at least 30 minutes. Once we got done there, we looked for our driver from USA transfers. That was pretty easy. It was a good transfer.

Upon arrival we were greeted by a man who took our bags. Then we went inside and checked in. The check-in process was long. It also did not feel like the man wanted to tell us anything. After about 20-30 minutes my parents had a room but ours was not ready. So we went to the buffet.
 
The food was ok. Once we were done eating Lucas, my mom, and I went up to their room and Don and my dad went to check on our room. Mom and dad’s room was nice, but it was a king with a Murphy bed which is what the guy said we had. So we were confused. Also, their luggage wasn’t there yet despite the man telling us it would be there in 5 minutes.
 
Don got our room, and it was also a king with another bed so I guess that’s cool. After getting our rooms Lucas wanted to check out the pool. The pool was nice but there were no towels available. The swim up bar was cool. I am not used to all inclusive, it feels weird just getting a drink with no payment haha. We finally got towels and then we got out to dry off and walk around.

We looked at the beach. Then we decided to check on getting dinner reservations. You need a reservation for pretty much all restaurants for dinner and the website says you can’t book them until you’re here. You have to talk to a person at the desk. Long story short, there’s basically no reservations. We have one reservation for Thursday night at 9 pm and one at 5pm on Friday at the Italian restaurant. The buffet line was so long, but we eventually got in. The food was ok, nothing great. Then we went back to the room for bed.

Great Wolf Lodge

It snowed most of the day when we were driving up to Great Wolf Lodge. Luckily the roads were not bad. We got here around 3:30. Our room was ready and we immediately went to the waterpark to meet up with Marty, Kathryn, Julius, Leo, Kasey, Chad, Isaiah and Scarlett. 

We had surprised Lucas with this trip and he also didn’t know we were meeting friends. The kids played a lot and the little kids did the little slides. Kasey, Kathryn, and I did a big slide with a big raft. Then we did a big slide where you just slide down. It was definitely more painful than when we were younger!

We got cleaned up and went to Buffalo Wild Wings. When we got back we walked around with Kasey and her family. We played a game of mini golf. 

The next morning we had breakfast at the buffet. If was pretty good and standard. Then we went to the arcade. We had blast getting tickets. Lucas got a bow and arrow and some parachute men with his tickets. He also played a few claw games and got some little toys. 

Next we checked out Magi Quest. It’s an interactive game where Lucas points his wand at screens around Great Wolf Lodge and completes different tasks. We didn’t do a lot of it. After we came back to the room for a bit. Then we did gemstone mining with Kasey and her family. 

After that we all went to the waterpark again. Don and I did some slides. We got some pizzas. Everyone went back to rest but we stayed. Lucas got brave and did the bigger slides in the kids area. He loved it. Then he did the big raft slide with us. His face was priceless. 

Next we went back to the room and rested a bit. We split up for dinner. We just ate at the restaurant here. It was ok. We did some more Magi Quest. Then we went to the waterpark again with Kasey and her family. Kathryn actually went home because her kids wanted to. 

Sunday was our last day. We went to breakfast and packed up our room. We hung out with Kasey, Chad and the kids for a bit and then we decided to split up. They left but we decided to work on Magi Quest. I was kind of determined to finish it. It was a lot of work! Lots of walking! But we did it. Lucas became a Master Magi.

Great Wolf Lodge was a good time but exhausting!

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