Dreams Cancun 2013

I was quite involved with my business and would have probably preferred to stay in Cleveland but Nadette needed a break. I have to admit, I enjoyed this trip! Relaxing. It was really relaxing.

Our flight down was perfect. We arrived at the airport two hours in advance to find a long line already waiting for our flight. I though I would not get a window seat and that would be a disaster! I love to fly. But all worked well. Nadette and I ended up with three seats for the two of us so we had all kinds of room.

Our first part day we explored and drank and did a bit at the beach and drank and went to the resort show. I ended up getting dragged onto stage to participate in a "sexy man" dance. The winner got a T-shirt. I do not dance disco, not even for a T-shirt. I lost. This was followed by a fire show; a bunch of dancing with fire sticks.

Our first full day was composed of eight and a half hours on the beach. I didn't get sunburned but my chest was looking like it would should we continue. We did manage to go play a trampoline set up in the water. We were quite a site as we hoisted our bulks onto the trampoline only to find that while it may be fun for kids, our combined bounce would threaten both maritime and shore interests.

Nadette volunteered to sing in the American Idol competition in the evening. She would have won had a fellow who spoke Spanish not did the song La Bamba.

The morning of our second day I went out to grab a chair and found pelicans making good use of the beach. They would fly over the beach, about ten feet out, and dive into the water to catch their prey. They did not miss. A fish retreating to shallow water to avoid predators just puts itself into danger with the pelicans. I took a few pics and videos.

Here are some shots of the resort itself. You can click on any to get a larger image.

Our hotel is a triangular-shaped structure with a lobby that is open to five stories. Inside that lobby are five-story trees.

Here are the two buildings, the one we stayed in, to the left below, and the tower. The water in front is the dolphin pool. They have seven dolphins and you can swim with them, pet them and play with them. We stayed on the opposite side, we had a wonderful view of the ocean.

Here is a view of the beach we most often frequented. While there seems to be a lot of chairs, the hotel, I believe, is at about thirty of forty percent occupancy. There is no real reason to get up early to get chairs as many will be available.

Here is one of the bars. You can sit on swings! Nadette is walking back from the bar at the beach. And below that, she is shooting a rifle. Well ... a BB gun, anyway, in an intense competition between a bunch of drunks. Would you give them more than a BB gun???

Here I am, having fried myself on the first day, under cover and reading my Kindle.

Here is an inside ocean pool that is great for the kids. It is huge and not at all deep. The other picture is the pool which has a swim-up bar.

These lights have many small holes and when they are on, as the wind moves the light or as you pass by, they appear to be boxes with candles in them.

I like these lights.
In the picture below, can you spot the creature Nadette spotted? It is about eighteen inches long. Don't scroll down until you give up. You can click on this picture and a much higher resolution picture will be shown. You can zoom in to that picture to reveal the creature.

An eighteen inch lizard! How cool! This thing isn't a little bitty lizard. This is much more impressive!

Dinner was Mexican served on the beach. They took about four acres of beach and turned it into a very large buffet-style restaurant. After dinner there was a Mexican show.

There was a burro you could take a picture with. Nadette wanted me to take a picture of the burro. We also received a welcome plate delivered to our room.

Today we started by shopping at the flea market. It was just a short walk up the street. We had great fun and believe we received the best bargains. Of course we did.

This is the restaurant we had dinner at. Because it is "Bonita" and "Bonita" is Matthew's dog, I had to take a picture!

We got up, did our normal room service thing and headed for the beach. We arrived just in time for the rain. We goofed around people-watching until lunch.

Nadette decided she would teach me about the Cancun bus system. We got on a bus with the intention of getting off at the movie theater. We missed the theater, left the strip and ended up in downtown Cancun. I don't believe the place we ended up was where we wanted to go as it looked more like, well, not good. Not good at all. REALLY, REALLY NOT GOOD. We managed to find a bus heading the other way. Whew!

We got off at a promising site with another flea market. Big sign: "FLEA MARKET". Two stores. So we walked about two miles back to the hotel. There was a Mexican store with just about every trinket available. It was like the Wal Mart of Mexican trinket stores. But there was no dealing at this store and prices were very high. It was a nice walk; a walk down the strip. We spent a good deal of time at the real flea market. Nadette bought shirts (two for $15.00) and I bought a medium sized onyx chess set for $33.00.

For a time during our adventure, especially passing the slums and sex shops, it looked like we were going to have to pay for a taxi. Turns out we found out how to get the right bus back and we did OK. I wouldn't do it again and REALLY don't recommend it.

Telling the bus driver you want the cinema or the Cinemark or the Cini is a waste of time. You have to assume no one speaks English. Even when you go from person to person asking "Do you speak English?" an answer of "Yes" doesn't really mean "Yes".

BUT!!!! We did learn that a bike would be a load of fun here, riding it up and down the strip. If the strip is safe. I have my doubts. Every quarter mile was a police car with someone stopped. They were going way out of their way to make their presence known. They were succeeding. At one stop, the police had crime scene tape marking off some area. We couldn't really make out what was happening. They had a crime scene van there so something was going on. This might be a fun place for a Bike Friday. It might be a good place to get mugged. Dunno.

We stopped for dinner and went to break dancing show followed by a Vegas entertainer's magic show. I figured I'd be bored to tears by the break dancing and find the magic interesting. It was the exact opposite. The dancing was quite good. The magic sucked.

Wireless at Dreams Cancun - There isn't any. Yeah, they advertise it. In the tower it is free. But it is weak, slow, very expensive, often broken sad, sad Internet service. a definite ZERO on a scale of one to ten. I paid $25.00 for data to my phone. I have 100 MB. We will see what that cost me. I also paid $25.00 for data to my Jetpack. That has allowed me excellent Internet though I am only checking my mail, the weather and doing a few other tasks. I am not enjoying the Internet. I am getting by. I do wish I could share this as I write it, but ... alas ... Dreams Cancun is NOT Internet friendly.

The day started out overcast and gloomy ... again. We spent some time in the room and then Nadette went to the beach. Finally the sun came out! I went for a good, long walk on the beach. It is clear that while the beach development is still very valuable, it is only the big resorts who are keeping up with the maintenance of the buildings. No matter, a long and beautiful sand beach! I wish I would have brought my Garmin GPS watch. The above picture was taken from the end of my walk. Dreams Cancun is the very last building on the right, way off in the distance.

This is a great place to bring kids. The swimming, both in the pool and the lagoon is custom made for kids. They have an Explorer's Club that runs from about 9 am to 9 pm. They will take your kids and do all kinds of fun things, really fun things, vacation things. They have a six foot clear plastic ball they blow up with your kid inside. The ball is dumped in the pool and the kid has all kinds of fun trying to walk on water. They have a miniature bungee jump. They have crafts, movies, dancing ... I really think that parent who come on their own vacation are likely to return later with the kids.

I started off getting to the beach about five minutes before sunrise. Or, at least that is what should have happened. It became more cloudy and my morning walk on the beach became a night walk on the beach for a bit. The beach here is great for walking but devoid of any kind of life. Pictures below.

The first picture is looking back toward Dreams Cancun, the last building on the right. The sunrise is next and then a dilapidated motel. I suspect our recession/depression/global banker's screw up has caused a good deal of problems here, too.

We did a late lunch at one of the special restaurants, the one by the tower ... recommended!

I walked to the flea market ... yet again. Many of the store proprieters wouldn't deal with me any more. In fact, the leather guy refused to negotiate. He wanted the big bucks. He didn't need the dollars. So be it. No leather for me. I did get four Cancun T-shirts for $25.00 which is a pretty good deal.

Here are two shots of the flea market followed by a part of the strip of stores by our motel.

Had I known about the Seaside Grill on the first day, I would have eaten nowhere else. Wow. My order would be for the Three Pepper Filet. You get a good size steak sizzling loud in a pan with a order of sliced potatoes. What else does one need???

The departure went well and I am writing this on the airplane. Cancun's airport is nice and clean. No problems.

As all of this trip was excellent, I can only look back and decide what could have been even better.

So, one day I'm walking on the beach in Cancun. The temperature is about 80 and it's sunny.

The next day I'm in walking in the Rocky River Reservation. It is 20 degrees. It is snowing.

I am feeling sorry for myself. I want to be back on the beach.

Then I see this poor bastard:

A really pitiful looking heron, trying to catch some supper. Suddenly I feel guilty for feeling sorry for myself!

Gail and Jim run Family Pet sitters and I am so lucky to be able to feel really good that Grace (HERE) and Moose (HERE) are well cared for. Thanks to you both! HERE is their notes about the times I had them caring for Grace and Moose.