Mexico Vacation: Excellence Riviera Cancun

On December 30th we were up well before the sun. It was the coldest day of the year, and we were wanting to make it to the airport for about 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight to Cancun.

Our flight went really well, and we were at our resort by the early afternoon.  Our room wasn't ready for about half an hour, so we went to Aroma, the excellent coffee shop, and grabbed a couple bevvies.

We enjoyed espressos while wandering around our favourite all-inclusive property.  It was just as beautiful as we remembered. 

Our room was ready in no time.  We had requested to be in the same room as we had last time, and although they couldn't get us the exact same room, they got us a couple doors down.  I had emailed this request in about six months ago, and they had it on file, and did their best to accommodate.  The service at this resort is outstanding.

We were in a swim-up room, which is simply the best.  The yard, our personal day bed, and hammock, cannot be beat.

Since we were return guests, they had a couple little gifts on the bed for us when we arrived, which was a nice touch.  Christopher wore his Excellence hat every day, haha!

We ate breakfast at the buffet a lot of the time, but once we went to the Lobster House for breakfast, and twice we ordered room service.

The smoked salmon with capers, cream cheese, and onion was one of our favourite things to eat at the buffet. 

A couple of our lunches were eaten at the Lobster House, as Christopher is obsessed with their fish tacos.

 

I had the fish tacos on one of our visits, but another time I tried the pibil chicken.  It was amazing!

We also ate lunch at the the Steakhouse, and one of the Italian restaurants, got wood fired pizza by the beach, and ordered room service.

The dinner options are endless.  Sometimes we ate an appetizer at one restaurant, and then moved to another a couple hours later for the main course.  Since we love Indian food, and it was so good, we ate at Basmati the most.

One of the servers really liked us and told us to come back on our last evening at the resort, and he'd have a special table for us.

On New Years Eve every restaurant had a set menu with multiple courses.  We eliminated a couple of the courses, and just went with three, which was way more than enough.  The beef was great and tasted just like at home.

Later in the evening we rang in 2018 on the light up dance floor.  There were light up accessories for people to take (sunglasses, rings, glo sticks etc.), as well as beverage (bubbles) and food stations, and little favours to take back to your room.

It was a super fun evening!

For dinner another night we went to the French restaurant, which is definitely one of the best. The duck confit was so good last year, that I had to get it again.  The lighting wasn't great for photos though.

We also ate at the Asian restaurant, where I had delicious pad Thai.

And a tapas restaurant, where Christopher raved about the anchovies, paella, etc.  I didn't have too much, as I was full (this was a late night double-dinner - haha!  Have to take advantage of that all-inclusiveness). 

 

We had lobster one evening too, with coconut shrimp to start:

We didn't even get to two of the restaurants (Mexican and one of the Italian places) on this trip, and didn't eat at the Sports Bar or beach diner, Las Olas.  There are just too many options, and everything is so, so good.

We did play some pool at the Sports Bar:

And did a lot of reading and relaxing.

 

 

I think this was the most relaxing vacation we've ever had, and it was definitely what we needed.

Much of our time was spent around our swim-up pool.  There were always numerous, if not all the chairs, free to choose from, and servers were always prompt to come around to these chairs, or to our day bed or hammock.  They often brought surprise snacks to offer people too, which was nice.

We didn't spend a lot of time at the beach, as we're more just looking for the heat, and aren't much for going in the water anyway.  The beach was beautiful though, and we loved walking in the soft, white sand.

The resort was at 100% capacity when we were there, and yet it was impossible to tell.  We often felt like we had the place to ourselves.  There were never any lines or waits for anything, which is probably due to how well the resort is laid out, how much there is to do, and how many people they employ.  You don't have to walk very far to get to anything either, which is really nice.  It is definitely not one of those resorts that has golf carts or other types of carts to get around; they aren't needed.

This was the swim-up bar in the middle of the afternoon one day ...

Ha!  Everyone must have been at the beach, or lounging in their ultra-comfortable rooms ordering room service.  If you like privacy, you can clearly get a lot of it at this resort.  If you want to mingle, you can do that too, especially around the martini bar in the evening. 

Everything is #topshelf

I suppose it's needless to say, but we'll be back.

If you are thinking about visiting this resort, you'll want to read this post, and this post, that I did last year that explain all the amenities, perks of the resort, dining options, etc.

What did you do on New Years Eve?  
Do you have any trips coming up?