Cancun, Mexico

So this March Break, Leslie and I decided to take a vacation together. I have never traveled over March Break, for fear of being rushed upon return. After this experience, I don't think I would let another March Break pass me by without going somewhere.

We booked our trip through Sunwing, with a special shout out to my amazing brother in law Nic, who handles all my travel annoyances. He got us a great deal. Eight days in Cancun at the Oasis Sens for about $1500 taxes in. March break prices are always crazy inflated so this was a good deal. Our flights were both late, but that meant we got 8 full days at the resort which was amazing. No days lost due to travel. The Oasis Sens is an LGBT friendly hotel, (which makes for some great people, and entertainment). It is Adults only, less than 400 rooms, on the quieter side of the strip. You also get access to the other Oasis hotels when you book at the Sens, but not always when you book at the other resorts. We met some people at our resort who were booked at the Oasis Grand and got placed at our hotel because the Grand was overbooked. They were younger spring breakers and were not impressed, but I think this is typical of Oasis as they try to fill their hotels. The Oasis Grand and Oasis Cancun are huge, and are right downtown. They are definitely younger spring break party hotels. But from what I heard of people who went to visit, it was very loud there, and there were line ups for everything. Some people went across the street to buy their own alcohol because the bar lines were stupid long. We did NOT have that problem at the Sens.

We got to the airport way too early, and still managed to get screwed out of seat choices. Sunwing allows you to prebook your seats for a cost at any time, but then for free 4 hour before the flight leaves. Well we were one of the first in line, but everyone else must have logged in at home and printed their boarding passes, rendering us with the last two seats together. No biggy. We were the last to board the plane and the first off. If only our luggage followed suit.

Our flight left at 10:30pm and was to arrive in Cancun around 12:45 am or 1:00a m. The flight wasn't bad. Shay bought us neck pillows so we would be comfortable, and the two dudes sitting beside and in front of us bought us drinks. They were going to the Oasis Grand and wanted to get the party started! Pretty much think they just didn't want to drink alone. Bombay Saphire and 30 000 feet, you are a dangerous combination. Sunwing gives out their ounce of champagne and the meal wasn't memorable either. I think there was a choice between chicken or pasta. Neither too satisfying.

We were early on arrival, and they weren't expecting us at the airport for some reason. Nobody was there to drive the staircase the necessary three feet so we could walk into the terminal. Ahh Mexico. Finally, after about 30 minutes, someone showed up.

We then had to wait for our bags because there wasn't anyone there to do that either. Then we got in yet another line where they scanned our bags once more, then did random drug tests on certain luggage. This was all happening at about 2 in the morning. We were the only arrival in the airport. 

We didn't want to wait for our charter bus to fill up, so we negotiated with some cab drivers at the airport. They started at $64 US. The Oasis Sens is less then 20km from the airport. I talked him down to $30. Worth it to get there right away. He drove us directly to our hotel before half of the passengers even had their bags back at the airport.

Check in was fine, mainly because it was 2:30 am and we were the only people there. They had two room options for us. Two double beds on a lower floor, and one king on a higher. The check in guy himself recommended the higher floor so we went with it. As girls, our first impression was negative; rooms smelled musty and of moth balls, and everything looked kind of cheap. It was late, we went to bed.

By morning, we had become accustomed to the smell, and in the daylight nothing looked as bad as it did at night. The lights are dim, there is no overhead light, so at night nothing looks good. In the daylight it was nice enough. We literally only slept in our room, so it was no big deal for us.

Our canopy pillow top king bed. Very comfortable.

Reverse view, showing the door, and bathroom

 The bathroom was typical, shower with rain head, and toilet, and separate sink. Very useful set up for two girls! Our view was of the lagoon. The sun sets this way, so it was very nice as we often were upstairs around that time to change for dinner. The windows open, and are almost like patio size doors to nothingness. There are no screens. How no drunken accidents have happened, I don't know! This is not a hotel for children. Aside from the fact that they advertise as Adults Only, the design with a lot of stairs, and bars, death plunge windows, and the adult geared amenities reinforce kids and families are not welcome here. It was wonderful!

View from our window. There are canopy king beds everywhere on the property.

House keeping was fine. We tipped everyday and they were usually in and out by 3. There was the odd time they hadn't come until after 6, but it really didn't inconvenience us much.

"I couldn't find your hat."

We woke up early, and like many people write in reviews, placed our towels on a chair. We tried for the beach, but by 7:30 am the palapa chairs and canopy beach beds were already taken. We posted up by the pool and went for breakfast. Coba is the breakfast buffet, and there is plenty to eat. There is always fresh fruit, oatmeal and granola, a salad and cheese bar, and hot food (bacon, pancakes, waffles, potatoes and Mexican and Spanish traditional items). Fresh omelettes, baked sweets, and fresh bread and bagels everyday as well. How you can't find something to eat here is ludicrous. We pretty much ate yogurt and granola everyday with fresh fruit. One day there was even pomegranate! We bought some internet cards ($4.00 for an hour, a little expensive), and posted up by the pool. It was around this point that Leslie realized she forgot her hat. We had emailed Shay to see if she left it there, and he sent us this picture in response. The grounds were gorgeous. Infinity pools everywhere!

 The back of the hotel that faces the beach has two pools that flow into the other. The top pool has the pool bar in it, and the bottom pool has bars on either side at the poolside restaurants: Happy Chicken and Mr. Wimpy. If you drink, and tip, people will bring you drinks. We always had drinks brought to us, and sometimes we didn't even order them! (I credit that to my new Spanish boyfriend who worked at the resort, and brought us treats and drinks all week). The beach below was absolutely breathtaking. I went down on my own while Leslie unwound by the pool.

Private pool on your own balcony

 If you paid $50 extra a day you could get an ocean view with a balcony. Maybe a nice touch if you were with your spouse/partner. Many of the rooms had private terraces and pools. I think this was an extra $600. The pool temperatures are cold! It was very refreshing. Probably even more enjoyable during the summer months when the temperature is warmer. Don't get me wrong, it was warm in March, but the wind definitely cools it down. And if the sun hides behind the clouds it can get cool too.


I brought the waterproof camera and took some pictures down at the beach. The ocean is an incredible colour, it looked like a cartoon. The water was warm and green and more clear than the Mayan Riviera, and the sand is powder white soft. The soft sand reminded me of the non-resort side of Cozumel.

Our beautiful beach looking toward the downtown strip

Looking up at the hotel from the ocean

Serenity Now!

There is no lunchtime buffet which is great. I found that his hotel knew how to run so that people wouldn't over indulge or be wasteful. You could eat at Happy Chicken, which was a southern style outdoor restaurant that served rotisserie chicken, fried chicken, nuggets, wings and fries. Very good! You sit at picnic tables on green astroturf, surrounded by hay bales, while your poor server runs around clad in a long sleeved checkered shirt, overalls and a cowboy hat, in 40 degree weather. Tip him please! Everything is made to order fresh, which does require some waiting, but it's well worth it.

Happy Chicken!

The menu

 There are two other beach/poolside restaurants that are open throughout the day. The Sushi bar which is on a platform above the beach, and Mr. Wimpy grill which serves hamburgers, hotdogs, paninis and chips. Very tasty. Everything is made fresh for you, and each mini restaurant has little areas to eat outside. This was amazing when the weather was nice, but unfortunate the day it rained.  There are four a la cartes restaurants here. A Mexican (Muerdeme Mucho), Italian (Moonlight), Arabian (Schillabar) and a Specialty (Benazuza). The Mexican and Italian are also opened at lunch and have indoor or outdoor seating options. You do not need a reservation, nor is there a dress code. The Arabian, is by the pool on the other side of the property that no one ever visits. There is a dress code and you need a reservation. It has a fixed menu, so even if you eat there twice the food will be the same. It was very good though. It was nice to eat hummus, and tabbouleh in Mexico. A nice change of pace.

Eating hotdogs at Mr. Wimpy

Sashimi at the Sushi Bar

The Sushi bar from the stairs to the beach

 The triple coloured drink was called a Bob Marley. Purely alcohol. Tasted like a freezee. They made me Sour Apple Martinis everywhere. Yum!

Schillabar, the Arabian restaurant beside the almost always private pool

Dinner at Muerdeme Mucho with Amy, and Todd

Todd giving it to the Mexican skeletons

A couple we met from Saskatoon enjoying the Mariachi Band

The specialty restaurant is called Benazuza, and is about $52 for dinner per person. We had originally booked a reservation, but then were told it wasn't worth it by some of the locals, so we cancelled. There was enough to eat everywhere else that I didn't feel I was missing out. The Italian and Mexican restaurants had great food, both at lunch and dinner. We had pizza, garlic linguine, and lasagna at the Italian restaurant with a variety of breads and salads. All decent. At the Mexican we tried everything! It was so good. I highly recommend the BBQ and fish tacos. So good. The soups are all delicious as well. The buffet, Coba, is also open at dinner. It doesn't change throughout the week. There are a variety of stations: cheese, salad, pasta, Mexican, grill, Spanish, Sushi and dessert. The food isn't bad, but for some reason it looks all too similar to the breakfast buffet. We ate here a couple of nights, but preferred the a la cartes.

Some cloudy day fun in the waves

After our first night we realized that this hotel was geared to get you "in the mood." I'm pretty sure the motto on the room key is "Open your mind, are you ready?" The lights throughout the hallways are all neon, different colours for different floors. We had room 607 (the green floor), which was really only 2 floors up from the lobby. The elevators were either neon green or neon purple. Can't complain about this room or floor. The girls next to us had a pool and were young and came home every night at 3am with different boys. The walls are thin and you can hear everything. Luckily they weren't complete whores and didn't subject us to all night sex-fests, but you could hear music, walking around, slamming doors, talking, laughing, everything. You just have to remember that you are in Cancun. Sleeping wasn't exactly my priority for the week, and we could relax by the pool all day, so no worry there. We learned that our room came complete with it's own neon lighting, that swirled around the bed on different settings.

We met so many great people. There are a lot of Canadians here. I already miss Mia, Nicole, Todd, Julie and Amy! We really got to know them on our last day, when we all had to check out at noon but had free run of the resort until 10pm. Much debauchery followed. We found that we met the most people when we drank at the bar or hung out at the pool. We met a group from Calgary who were a lot of fun, Tyler, Sheldon and I think Dan? They didn't mind that we were two married ladies (mind you nobody seemed to mind...that ring acted less as a deterrent and more as a challenge, but all in good fun!)

Ontario you are too many shades of grey!

The first few days were spent on the beach which was awesome. It rained our third day which really sucked because there is very little to do when it rains. We read inside by the lobby bar, or hung out at our favourite coffee bar "Coffee & Me", where I met my Spanish boyfriend as he served us lattes and cookies. You can have any kind of coffee-type beverage here including iced caps. Yum. This became a staple of our day. Not many people know about it because it is hidden at the back of the VIP lounge. If you book with Sunwing, you are VIP and you have free reign of everything. I don't think that is the case for everyone.

Coffee & Me

The VIP lounge had another bar, and The Box was a wine bar. There were bars everywhere. They opened and closed at different times which I assume was to congregate people into similar areas, and save money on bartenders. The same people worked similar shifts so you could get to know people here easily. We got to know one of the bartenders and his friend who managed the bars, and they took us out to Isla Mujeres for the day. It would have been more fun if they didn't think it was a double-date to the island, and maybe brought their own beach towels, but whatever. That's Mexico.

 We went to Isla Mujeres the day after it rained. You take the bus that stops everywhere and costs a dollar, down the strip to either Puerto Juarves or Playa Tortugas (in the hotel strip). The ferry is like 140 pesos return from Puerto Juarves. It's a quick ferry with live music. Very entertaining. We didn't get to explore the island very much at all, as like I said we sat down on the beach, and suddenly there was a cooler of beer, and two Mexicans sharing our beach towels, but the water is very calm and still here. No waves on the side of the island that faces Cancun. There are lots of restaurants and you can shop or take a scooter tour. There is an excursion you can take to a turtle farm, and snorkelling, but we didn't want to pay anything extra. We ate at a restaurant. I had enchiladas that were ok, Leslie had tacos. The boys ate ceviche and some whole fried fish.

The Ultramar ferry with live music to Isla Mujeres, Santana anyone? He even got the whole boat singing "Let It Be"

There is a small gym on the quiet side of the resort. It is open air and has a treadmill and a few machines. It suited me fine for when Leslie took a siesta, and I could burn off some calories. I spent my down time at this pool. There was never anyone in it. It was adjacent to the Arabian restaurant and was huge. There were platform beds and canopy beds all around it. It was quiet and there was no music, so I assume that's why it remained empty. It was nice to follow the sun here and watch it set.

I miss my private pool!

It was the kind of pool you can walk into. It actually gets to 7 or 8 feet deep on the far end too!

In between shows the lights go on in the dressing rooms!!

The resort is small, so nightlife depends on who is around. There is always a live evening show in the lobby or around the pool. Two nights throughout the week there was a Cirque-du-Soleil type act with girls doing acrobats from hoops hanging from the ceiling, and a contortionist on the floor. There was always live music upstairs at night at the Sunset Bar. A good crowd gathers here too. Then there is a night club downstairs called Kinky. Three or four times a week they put on a burlesque-type show, and the other nights the dj plays and people dance. The shows are very good. There are four pole dancers, one of the girls was phenomenal, and the guys were pretty entertaining. There was a show where the men wore heels and another number where they did contemporary dances. The dancing was very good. My favourite was the two guys that danced a Mia Michaels inspired number, and the Beyonce dance to "Put A Ring On It". Many of the guests jumped onto the poles throughout the nights as the drinking ensued. We met some fun groups here, one from Quebec and another from Germany. We already miss you Thor, Chris and Frederic! We were teasing them at the bar before dinner that we would get them on the poles, and low and behold, they ended up putting on quite a show! Still waiting on pictures of that.

Hoop routine in the lobby

Flamenco by the pool

So this guy was there on the nights of the shows, so I can only assume he has something to do with the productions, if he doesn't own the whole freaking place, but it was too hard to pass up on a photographic opportunity.

This girl was fantastic!

Sometimes people hang around at the bar and dance and it's fun. We closed the place one night. But other nights people go out to party in Cancun, and the place is dead. It's good to meet people during the day and convince them to stay and party where the booze is free. Going out in Cancun is popular, people usually go to Coco Bongo, Daddy-O's, The City, Daddy Rock and Senor Frogs. Mandala was recommended to us, but we chose to stay at the resort. These bars include drinks and cover and charge about $50US to go to, which seemed like a waste to us since we wouldn't drink our money's worth.

There are also oddly, a lot of Russians here. They don't speak English or any other language aside from Russian, and are pretty much loathed by everyone including the staff. They aren't known for manners or tipping. They pretty much keep to themselves and ignore you when you try to include them anyway.

Looking out over the beach from the pool. The Sushi restaurant below.

 I wish we could have stayed longer. It was so much fun to play in the waves and lounge by the pool. The waves are quite big here, and often there is a red flag which means listen to the life guard and only swim where he tells you! There was a guy who went out and surfed pretty much everyday too. Some days the waves were so big it was crazy to watch!

Sunrise

 On our last day we hung out with everyone we had met over the last few days. Tyler and his gang, Mia and Nicole, Amy, Todd and Julie and everyone else that participated in the drunken dart competition! The Fun staff are good. Jonathan was on us everyday to play volleyball, darts, pilates, yoga, aerobics etc. They really got to know everyone, and hung out with us, which was fun.

Tequila shots with Tyler, Sheldon and friends

Me and Mia

"You have my health card and travel insurance, in case I die right?"

These guys were from Switzerland. They inched their way over to get into this picture. Very funny.

The two chairs on the right were where Leslie and I spent all of our pool time. Right in front of Mr. Wimpy

We realized after the first day that palapas aren't necessary, and there are a million chairs on the beach.

Another pool shot. I am obsessed with Infinity pools.

So my Spanish boyfriend not only brought us chocolate bars, cookies and drinks, but also some flowers. My first was small and white. When he brought me the big green one, Leslie took it from me! hahaha. Everyone gave me a hard time. But they were just jealous of all the attention I was getting.

A lot of "Sex on the Beach", though the location changed depending on where you ordered. "Sex in the restaurant", "Sex in the pool"

Last evening antics. Some boys kissed their first girls! iQue no pare la fiesta!

Julie and Leslie

It was so hard to leave. The bus ride back to the airport took forever. They picked us up first then drove all the way through Cancun to the other hotels to get the rest. They could not fit up many of the driveways due to poorly parked vehicles. It was very frustrating.  When we got in line to board, we couldn't get seats together. We got to the airport in time to get our tickets and board essentially. I did make it into Duty Free for some scotch for Shay. No Laphroaig, but a nice Glenmorangie! The return flight was early, and the breakfast was decent. We had french toast. Shay and Andrea were waiting for us at Pearson to take us home into the grey and cold.