Now living and working in Glasgow. Looking forward to write some new reviews.
Now living and working in Glasgow. Looking forward to write some new reviews.
Member since:29.11.2000
Reviews:106
Members who trust:87
Holiday over and I have now had time to digest my thoughts and prepare my next reviews!
My first review is on my holiday location Cancun in Mexico. I thoroughly enjoyed my holiday and could easily just right a review full of praise for the beautiful Cancun. However, there are lots of things that can also make your holiday a nightmare.
I would like to highlight to you the pros and the cons of a holiday in Cancun I also guess that a lot of holidays can be the same once you see my detailed analysis.
Outward Flight: ~
My flight for Cancun with My Travel left 5 minutes ahead of schedule from Glasgowairport getting us of to our holiday destination that tiny bit faster. Not a great deal I know but the pilot thought this was amazing. However we still had a further 9 ½ hours to go in the journey!
After settling and taking off we received a little announcement from the head flight attendant advising of the itinerary for the rest of the journey. 2 in flight movies ‘Monsters Inc’ yahoo I thought dying to see that!
This was followed by ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ even better I thought and thought what an excellent line of entertainment including all the other bits and pieces that were being shown throughout the journey.
However, there was one snagging little problem the television did not work and we were given no alternatives. Therefore a 9 ½ hour boring journey, as my books and magazines were packed in my suitcase.
The plane was fairly dated and the leg room was nothing to write home about so this made the journey very uncomfortable.
Meals were good I enjoyed both the breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was a typical English breakfast with sausages, eggs, bacon and a dinky delicious hash brown. A nice bread roll with butter and marmalade orange juice and a lovely cup of tea!
Lunch was a nice chicken bake with wholesome vegetables and potatoes and again another bread roll. This time I got a nice little blueberry muffin that was one of the best muffins I have tasted (one thing going well then). More tea this time by the bucket load!
There was the usual in flight duty free and bar trolley that seemed to run up and down the aisles for most of the journey!
Destination Airport: ~
The plane landed in Cancun at 18.35pm UK time (12.30pm Cancun) so clock adjusted and emigration forms etc completed we were set for the arrivals lounge. Cancun airport is basic compared to any UK airport and things moving along fairly smoothly.
One thing that seemed to get on peoples nerves was the searching of every suitcase and bag that every passenger had. After a 9.5 hour flight this is the last thing you want! However, due to foot and mouth Mexico is extra vigilant!
Our tour operator Airtours were there to welcome us and swiftly directed us in the direction of our transfer to our hotel, which was named on arrival.
Transport was a mini bus driven by Eduardo, a friendly native who pointed out the main sites of the hotel zone of Cancun.
It took us about 45 minutes to get to our hotel which was at the furthest point of the hotel zone of Cancun and graded four stars! First impressions were this was indeed a nice hotel however, did it merit four stars? The next two weeks I am sure would reveal this.
Hotel: ~
On arrival at the hotel check in was quick and easy and we were provided with our usual All Inclusive bracelet, which as always irritating as hell! We were provided with a free safety deposit box and remote control for the television in our room.
We were allocated to room 520 five floors up with a lift right at our door so that was handy and also extremely lazy; however, during the day the lift seemed to constantly be in use by housekeeping so it was the stairs. The room was very spacious with too large double beds, a kitchen that we would not need a spacious en suite bathroom with an excellent power shower and the whole room was fully air conditioned. So far so good!
Due to our long journey that started at 4.30am and our body time being now at 20.30pm we decided to have a nap and then catch the late afternoon sun. However, as we were so tired we never woke until 9.00am local time the next morning. Ravenous and thirsty we set about getting ready for the day and hunting out the eating facilities!
Restaurant: ~
Again the restaurant was spacious and well air conditioned and breakfast was served buffet style and there was plenty of it! From cereal to toast, scrambled eggs to poached eggs as many different fruit juices you can imagine. Tea and coffee was provided. Tea was nothing special but the coffee was amazing and I am not normally a coffee drinker.
Breakfast got the thumbs up and throughout the 14 days it was much the same with various changes each day. After day 12 I have to admit I was a bit tired of full breakfast and was reduced to toast with scrambled eggs!
Lunch was served from 11.30am right through to 16.00pm and was served 2 locations: ~
There was a snack bar that served cheese burgers, hot dogs along with nachos, chicken wings as well as salads and lots of other tit bits.
Also they have a sea view restaurant which turned out to be the best place for lunch as there was a full buffet, which had many different choices everyday. The restaurant also served ice cream; however, this was available at any time to any one in the hotel.
Dinner was served from 18.00pm through to 22.30pm and was served in the main restaurant or the sea view restaurant. We never got round to eating dinner at the sea view restaurant.
Dinner in the main restaurant was nothing to write home about and was the only part of the catering we were disheartened with. There is only so much pizza and mashed potatoes one can eat!
Other guest we spoke with advised that dinner in the sea view restaurant was lovely; however, you were required to book and Gary and I just never got round to doing it!
Drinks the bar was open from 10.00am in the morning through to 01.00am the following morning and with it being all inclusive it can be quite a treat if you like your bevvie!
However, I think you find that most people take it easy when they are on all inclusive with the sun and also the size of the measures! When you ask for a beer you get it in a small plastic cup the kind you would have at a kid’s birthday party! This is mainly for safety but I am sure it has something to do with saving money for the hotel too!
Cocktails were not mind blowing as they should be and it took me about 10 Tequila Sunrises to even feel tipsy and I am not a big drinker. However, although measures were small you could have as many as you like between 10.00am and 01.00am.
Ok now that is the essentials in life out of the way how about the pleasures in life?
On holiday you always get your own maid to clean your room and tidy up after you. For years I was always in the thinking of to keep the room tidy what would the maid think? Once when I was on holiday a maid gave me a telling off for tidying as it left her nothing to do! So from that holiday on I have always left it for them. However, I am generally a tidy person but Gary on the other hand when on holiday turns into a slob.
The room was cleaned daily and was always cleaned before 12.00pm which I liked as I often enjoyed my afternoon siesta!
The room was thoroughly cleaned. New lined on the beds every day and fresh towels also every day. On the odd occasion when we had our do not disturb sign up long lies or hangover days! Housekeeping called the room asking if we needed anything, this impressed me greatly as it gave us the opportunity to have clean towels. Thumbs up for housekeeping apart from hogging the lift all day!
It is normal when you go to an all inclusive hotel that they will provide you with entertainment. This varied from games and sports activities to tours and excursions (at a price). I regularly attended the morning pool volleyball game and the afternoon beach volleyball game and by the end of the holiday was a bit of a semi-professional LOL.
There was a daily game of bingo, which I have to add, was a nightmare and I never even played the game! No one can do bingo like the British. Each number called was repeated about 10 times first in English then in Spanish and took about an hour to play one game.
The activities staff themselves worked very hard to keep people entertained and began their day at 10.00am and finished at 01.00am a long day by all measure especially six days a week.
Each night the staff would put on a show that was like something straight out of Hi-De-Hi but it was always a laugh for killing a few hours before heading into the main town with the activities staff to an organised night out. We only went on 2 of these nights at a cost of $25 US dollars each entitling us to an open bar.
One night was at what they say is the World Famous Carlos ‘n’ Charlie’s of which I can’t remember much. Too much Tequila and beer from the open bar and I can assure you it was worth every dollar. Next night was at Coco Bongo where some of the scenes in the Movie ‘The Mask’ were shot! This was a good night but it was the night before flying home so we stayed sober, however, the open bar was not exactly open!
I asked for a couple of drinks from our waiter and I have yet to see them. The good thing about this venue was they put on an all night long show as well as music. After each few disco tunes there was a show which was a look a like of someone famous, from Madonna to Michael Jackson who were both really good. Also there were the Village People, Guns ‘n’ Roses and also some Mayan Band who seemed to have the natives going wild!
Shopping in Cancun is an experience as there is shopping mall upon shopping mall. Only thing is each one sells the same rubbish. Nothing in any mall took us and thought that is nice and we hardly spent a penny. We were offered plenty drugs and sex and women no matter what time of the day it was. This made it uncomfortable when you were in the main town. We decided to keep away from the main town.
We went into downtown a few times to see how thing were at that end of Cancun. I will explain - main town is where all the commercialism is and is within the Hotel Zone and downtown is away from the Hotel Zone and is where the natives live however, there are still signs of commercialism.
It was a pleasure though to walk through downtown and not get as much hassle from the natives as you do in main town however, it was still evident.
Transport: ~
The main forms of transport are bus and Taxi and both are available 24 hours a day. We never got a taxi as we were advised that it was very expensive and besides the bus was only 40p for any journey any where. So we stuck to the buses which were very easy to use. Car hire is reasonably cheap; however, they do not come with insurance.
Weather: ~
The weather was very good and is what you would expect for Cancun. Out of 14 days we had 12 days of pure sunshine and 2 days where it started of wet but cleared up about midday. Temperature was average of 34 Celsius and very humid.
Storms mainly happen during the night when you are sleeping so if thunder and lightning frightens the living daylights out of you, you will be fine as you should be sleeping like a lamb.
It was very hot at night and the air conditioning although very powerful and very good was just far too noisy to use or you would never sleep. So sleep was sometimes uncomfortable.
So that is most of the things that I can cover for the holiday apart from I now have a great tan, I am fully rested and had a great time by mostly lazing around on the beach or by the pool!
Homeward Journey: ~
Well after all that there is still the journey home to the UK. We were picked up from our hotel at 10.40am almost 5 hours before our flight. This was after a last minute change to our pick up time of 12.10pm. This meant hanging around the airport for hours. On our bus journey to the airport an Airtours rep accompanied us and advised travellers of the itinerary when we arrived. They also announced that My Travel applied an excess baggage fee of £6 per kilo. This was something that had not been mentioned on our outward flight or at any other time through the holiday.
Well that’s what we thought; however, due to further tight security at Cancun airport just like that of going in every suitcase was searched. Only this time it was looking for weapons and as we were flying on Sept 11th we expected security to be up but not this bad. Every case, bag, hand luggage and even kiddies bags were searched.
Then we moved over to the check in desk and we were stung with an excess baggage charge of £60 although it should have been £72 even though we returning with less luggage than when we arrived.
We protested this; however, it fell on deaf ears as did many other customer complaints. One couple were charged £120. We were advised by our very friendly (not) Airtours rep ‘it is not my problem if you don’t pay they won’t take your luggage and take it up with My Travel’. A letter is on the way also copying in Watchdog!
Also just as we were about to board the plane spot checks were carried out on some people. These people hade these people had their hand luggage all rechecked, they were frisked and asked to remove shoes and hats so that these could be examined also. I understand the need for this but after sitting at the airport with not much to do for hours it can be a bit tedious.
Homeward Flight: ~
The homeward flight was of a far better standard than the outward journey by far. This time our seats had just enough leg room to allow us to actually stretch our legs in comfort.
The best part was we had a TV that actually worked so I was happy to pay £1.00 for a pair of headphones. The line up for entertainment was pretty impressive too.
First up was ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ only released this Friday in the UK. This is a comedy and had me in hysterics all the way through. A pleasant start to our journey and this had me entertained for a few hours. After this first film dinner and the usual drinks and duty free trolley made their way up and down the aisles.
After dinner was served and cleared away our next movie started ‘Spirit’ this was a cartoon film that was recently released in the UK and features an outstanding soundtrack from Bryan Adams. The film itself is very good and not what I would say particularly directed at kids. Had me in tears!
More drinks and yes you guessed it more duty free and it was time for our next movie instalment ‘Bad Company’ featuring Anthony Hopkins and Gene Hackman. I never watched this movie; however, I did listen whilst I read my book and it sounded violent and had some bad language. Although the reaction from my fellow traveller sounded like it was enjoyable.
More duty free and drinks were offered before the bar had to be closed. There was a lot of turbulence during the flight and quite rough at times which meant that the toilets were sometimes closed for up to an hour. Not good if like me you need to pee quite a bit.
An episode of Ab Fab was shown next and had me delirious. I had never seen this episode before so that was a bonus. Then it was breakfast time continental breakfast consisting of Corn Flakes, bread roll, crackers with cheese and orange juice followed by more tea.
Breakfast was cleared and our in flight attendants were given a well earned break. It was only an hour and a half till landing and I was determined to finish my fourth book of the trip before I got home. This was achieved and we were on our final descent I into Glasgow to a lovely sunny morning and a temperature of 15 Celsius.
Here I am a week later finishing of my review of my holiday which is now what seems like a distant memory. Few things I would say if going to Cancun. Avoid if you do not like commercialism especially American. Be prepared for anything i.e. offered drugs and sex.
The journey can be long and tiring; however, this is what comes of choosing a long haul holiday. Avoid travelling with My Travel they are not what I would say reputable. I was disappointed with their service along with Airtours.
Otherwise I had a great time weather was fabulous and I am now totally recharged but now getting the holiday blues!
Sounds like you had a good old time! Airtours reps are NEVER friendly are they, it must be in the job spec "Never be friendly or helpful to holiday makers" or something like that! ;) Jami
sue.51 25.10.2002 23:33
Rumours in the press are that Airtours aka MyTravel may not be for this world much longer - early November will tell. Great holiday though
Sue
begynne 18.09.2002 17:33
Glad to hear you had a good holiday, and hope you'll get your £60 back. :) Ingrid
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Advantages: 5* beach - when I went we even saw huge turtles coming out of the ocean in the night-time - amazing. Disadvantages: Can be expensive - we paid £1200 for 2 people for 2 weeks on a late deal 4/5 star all inclusive hotel.
byrnehel 06.03.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Cancun (Mexico)
Advantages: unique, in your face, great entertainment, superb value for money. Disadvantages: bit cheesy - but meant to be
TheWizardsSleeve 05.11.2007 (31.10.2007)
·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Coco Bongo, Cancun, Mexico
Advantages: Trapeze acts, stage artists, great fun party music, atmosphere, strong drinks Disadvantages: Very busy, likely to get drinks spilled on you
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