Author’s note: Well, this post is coming late, but late is better than never. Although I am writing this post on 4/14, I will backdate it to the appropriate date, so don’t be alarmed.

We have been trying for days to have fun dancing. Unfortunately, this resort is not good on nightlife. They do an evening show, which is entertaining, but it’s usually over by 9:30pm. There’s a dance club that they open after that. Every night, they play the same videos until the DJ arrives around 10:30pm. They start with Kid Rock’s Sweet Home Alabama. Then, they play two videos from Katy Perry, followed by Britney Spears’ Circus. A rap song follows. Then, they play Romeo & Juliet. If the DJ hasn’t arrived by then, they loop back to the beginning again. When the DJ arrives, the music turns into 70s and 80s dance music with bass that is way too loud for the tiny room. I guess I wouldn’t mind the bass if it were good music, but we’re talking about really cheesy dance music…stuff from bad weddings. It appeals to their core audience, I’m sure, but younger folks are left in the lurch, I think.

As April 4th was our last day, we decided to do the golf cart tour. This is a free tour offered by the hotel, where they take you around in a golf cart all over the grounds of the resort and nearby golf course. Some other people from Potawatomi had done it and said it was really cool. But, the tour could only hold 10 people each day, and it filled up really fast. I’d called for us to do it on Thursday, but they told me it was full. I asked for Saturday, and they said they put me on a reservation for Saturday. But, I needed to sign a form, and so they told me to show up early to sign the form. When I showed up 20 minutes early on Saturday, they said I should have come when I made the reservation. They’d put me on a wait list instead. Well, I raised a bit of a fuss, because it was our last day to do it, and they very quickly offered to do a second tour for us and the other folks on the waiting list, later in the day. It all worked out in the end.

The golf cart tour was totally worth it, too. We saw a really pretty and serene lagoon. If you’re looking to get married at Playa Mujeres, I recommend the lagoon. They have a nice gazebo, and it’s really lovely. Our guide told us that they used to allow kayaking in the lagoon, but they stopped it because of crocodiles being spotted. We saw two crocodiles on the way back, so we believe them! The tour also goes by a little mini-zoo on the property. The rich family that originally owned the land collected exotic animals. What is left of their collection, several parrots and a giant python, were part of the sale. Excellence resorts is required to take care of the animals until their natural death, so they include them as part of this tour. That family also had a helipad and a giant entrance fountain. Both items are now more like urban ruins. Finally, the tour took us by the construction of the next resort, which will be family-oriented (vs. Excellence Playa Mujeres, which is adults only) and which will have a private boat dock area and customs clearance. I guess it’s somewhat popular for people to sail down from Florida.

When we got back to the resort, we swam and showered for our final swim of the trip. Then, we changed into our last nice outfits for dinner before heading to the lobby bar to meet up with friends. I found a great drink at the bar, called an Alexander & Alexandra. It was a combination of an Alexandra and a Brandy Alexander, frozen in a hurricane glass. It was dee-lish! We both ended up getting toasted at the lobby bar before heading over to dinner at the Lobster House.

For our last day, we had to give our luggage to the hotel staff at 9am, so it could be prepared and loaded on our group’s bus at 10:30am. We ended up waiting for a full hour for the airport bus, but it’s not like we could have done much else but wait anyways, since everything was packed. When we got to the airport, it was pretty much what you would expect. I bought a few souvenirs for folks at work from the duty-free (because I’d forgotten to get something from them at the market). Then, I bought two sodas for us for the plane.

But…warning to anyone traveling by air from Mexico…in Mexico, you can’t take liquids through security (normal) *and* you can’t take them on the plane. They search you in both places. So, DH and I ended up downing 2 litres of soda right before boarding.

Upon arrival in Milwaukee, we went through customs. The Cuban cigars we bought for a friend got confiscated (it was worth a try), but everything else was fine, including the 4 bottles of liquor from the hotel. Then, we went to the casino for a quick dinner before heading home.

It was a really good trip. We loved the Excellence Playa Mujeres. We may well be spoiled now and unable to enjoy anything less.

Here are the pictures from the trip. This includes everything.