I Want To Be At The Top Of Your Blog Roll

OK...so, obviously my "newest" post which was started several weeks ago still shows up at the bottom of everyone's blog roll. Hence, this post to put me at the top! Yes, I still owe you all posts on Mexico and Puerto Rico. I can do Mexico here as that's primarily photos.

Check out Excellence Playa Mujeres. We visited November 27-December 2. We had a day added onto our trip when US Airways canceled our outbound flight...thanks! They put us up in a nice Courtyard Mariott, but it was not an Excellence Resort.

After emailing the hotel prior to our visit that this would be our 4th stay at an Excellence property, they upgraded us to the Excellence Club upon arrival. Note that no matter what time of year we visit, I always say we're celebrating our anniversary. Only once have we been given the proper anniversary treatment (banner, flowers, etc.). The upgrade was nice in some ways (all the alcohol in the room, proximity to the Excellence Club Lounge, and the use of the Lounge-the picture with the peach rose was us eating snacks in the Lounge. They have the BEST mocha coffees there, too!). However, if you stay in the Excellence Club at Playa Mujeres you can hear the construction noise next door.

I'm HUGELY noise adverse, and the construction noise was heard from our patio and it was a minus in my book. It wasn't a deal breaker...like the one night people were talking in the hot tub below our room....now THAT was annoying! For the most part, I could ignore the construction. We spent every day laying out at the beach away from that part of the property.

You could see Isla Mujeres in the distance.

Overall, it's a close tie between Excellence Playa Mujeres and Excellence Riviera Cancun. EPM is newer which I love. But the drive to ERC is a shorter drive with less traffic. The beaches are about the same at both properties, however, we did have the clearest day at EPM....so clear we could see fish as we walked through the water.

We thought the day and night entertainment was better at ERC. The dinners overall were better at ERC as well. The service was better at EPM. Josh said we won't return to either property because he wants to go somewhere that has big ocean waves. We may be checking out Excellence Punta Cana next year in the Dominican Republic.

This is our traditional departing Cancun snapshot. 5th time we've taken it. Except after taking the photo this time, we found out our flight was canceled and that we'd have to stay in Cancun one more night. Now, I would have been ok with this if Josh decided to splurge and stay at an Excellence resort. As it was, we went with what was provided for free-the Courtyard Marriott Airport Hotel. Josh was introduced to the "all inclusive bracelet" that most hotels in Cancun make you wear...that's why we stay at places that DON'T make you wear one.

No matter where we are in the world, you will always find a picture like this where Josh is watching tv.

This was THE MOST GARRISH, BRASH. and FLASHY wreath ever! I should have videoed it. Anyway, although it was just a Marriott, I decided to treat the night right and got dressed up before heading downstairs for the included dinner. The dinner was not so good and I got complain-y before Josh reminded me that so many people in the world would be thankful for the meal that we were eating that night.

Now, normally, I might roll my eyes at that concept. "Yes, clean your plate because there are starving people in China." But that night, when he said that, it really struck a chord. Although it was far from the best food, at least it was food and I wasn't going hungry.

The next day, I spent the morning trying to send a fax to the office in Phoenix. We ate some breakfast, caught our transfer to the airport, and fortunately were able to fly out of Cancun without incident. Rather than flying direct (as we had when we arrived) we had to connect in Dallas. We finally made it back to Phoenix (visiting the wrong parking garage before finding our car). It was back to work the next day (Thursday) and I flew out to Puerto Rico on Saturday night!