As soon as we came back
engaged from our Southeast Asia vacation (
HERE,
HERE,
HERE,
HERE) we started planning our low key fun wedding and reception. On top of that came the hard part....where to honeymoon? I wanted a real honeymoon-y destination and to me Fiji or Tahiti SCREAMS honeymoon! I searched high and low on my usual Internet sites that I use for vacations but didn't find what I really wanted so for the first time EVER I turned to a travel agent...thinking we would get a super good deal. I was also swamped with work and all my other to dos so I thought I would let someone else take some of the load off me. We planned on getting married at the end of April so I wanted to get a deal before the Summer price tags were tacked onto airline tickets and such. Hendrik was all for the over the water bungalow idea but he wasn't for Fiji or Tahiti since that entails a lot of traveling and we just came off a trip where we flew over 25 THOUSAND miles. He was really wanting a short haul direct flight that was semi short. That really narrowed our search criteria but there were a few contenders. I worked with a local travel agent in Sulphur Springs for around a month of going back and forth trying out pricing on different places. While she was hunting I still was also in my spare time and that's when I came across some newly built over the water bungalows at Riviera Maya in Mexico. The website wouldn't even allow me to find out pricing so I let the travel agent know about it. She got back in touch with me a couple weeks later...I had actually forgotten about it... with pricing and an itinerary. The resort was a direct flight from Dallas to Cancun only 2 1/2 hours fly time and they had a bungalow available. I told Hendrik the pricing and we had to really jump on it or let it go and start over. I was dead set on this type of honeymoon and seeing there are only TWO resorts in the entire Western hemisphere that have this sort of accommodation and the one in Jamaica was completely booked this was our chance. Hendrik agreed that this one was a go so I paid the down payment and we got it finalized. I reviewed the website frequently and just day dreamed of our time there...hoping it was everything that the website and my mind had made it out to be. This would be our first trip that we would stay the entire time at one place!
Before I knew it...actually I knew it I had been counting down...the time was here and as I recovered from a massive hangover I packed our bags and we headed to Dallas the night before our flight. We flew at 9 am so we had to be there by 6 am if we have to get up in the middle of the night to make our times then Hendrik prefers to go up the night before so we can get more sleep and be well rested on our travel days. We stay at the
Marriott North to earn points and the room fee essentially pays for the parking you would be out even in the long term parking lot of the airport. It's a win win! We got a good 7 hours of sleep and took the hotel shuttle right to our terminal. Checked in, made it through security and had breakfast before our flight and of course the airport Starbucks was a must. There were SO MANY honeymooners on our flight we counted a total of 6 obvious couples either because we overheard them talking and/or they had on some sort of t-shirt explaining such. Our flight was nice and short. We were in separate seats so Hendrik watched a movie and I read/slept.
Upon arrival we found our shuttle service and within a few minutes were in our private car on our way to the resort which was around a 40 minute drive from the airport. We took the resort's winding driveway to a lobby which wasn't our lobby to check in. We had to wait around 15 minutes but a golf cart soon picked us up and took us to check in. After all the necessary details were taken care of we headed to our over the water bungalow. We stayed a full week Monday to Monday at the
El Dorado Maroma Beach Over the water bungalows called, Palafitos. We got a room tour explaining all the odd and ins and I couldn't wait to get into my swimsuit and onto our private deck quick enough...
The entire resort was phenomenal! We can't say enough good things about it. Our room was one of the best on the resort. The butler staff was very attentive and made everything a dream come true. Everything was thought of and nothing was left undone. The El Dorado over the water Palafitos was gourmet inclusive which means top of the line all inclusive! Like as much gourmet food as you want, as much room service, as much top shelf liquor. Pretty much anything and everything that you could want they had or would do for you. I felt so bad asking for things but mainly we didn't need much either. We are so used to doing our own thing we weren't too sure how to utilize the butler service. The food was out of this world good and if you wanted double portions then there was no problem, you want another entree to try no problem. We ate almost every night at the private restaurant only for the Palafitos residents. Not only was it the best food but it was so private. We went to the amazing gym everyday for killer workouts, paddle boarded around all the bungalows, and snorkeled several times right from our deck. We saw some awesome marine life and enjoyed doing pretty much the same thing everyday.
We were by far the youngest people we saw at the Palafitos but we didn't really associate much with others we stayed at our bungalow the majority of the time other than when we went to the gym and the beach a few times. We had everything we needed and took every day to the max with relaxation! I read so many books and magazines that I have had stacked on my night stand for almost 2 years.
Since everyday was the same essentially I'm going to do these posts a bit different...I'm going to do a food showcase because it was gourmet and delicious, a resort post showcasing all the views and rooms, and then a sunning and activities post that has all our other pictures. This is the most words you will get the rest is picture eye candy!
Coming up is the RESORT pictures!!
