Wednesday (arrrival day)

We spent our "pre-fight" time in the US Air Club for our standard "pre-flight" picture. We touched down @ 1:30 pm, and were @ the resort by 2:30. The room wasn't ready, so we grabbed a bite to eat @ the first restaurant of the trip, Oceana. To our surprise, they had jalapano poppers & Corona, so this was looking like a good trip so far!!! We got our room @ 3:00, we were disappointed to find two queen beds, and no king. Our bellman called the front desk & they responded by saying that we could move into a King bed the next day. (a map of our various rooms) We ended up not getting our King room until Friday, and in the process lost a nice view of the Spa (panoramic, digitally "stitched"). But if we looked really closely, we could see the ocean from our King room. Although the web site promises a cold drink & cold towel on check-in, we received neither. We did however, get a bottle of Champagne & a "Welcome Back" letter and flowers.....interesting only because we've never been to a Secrets resort, much less this one in particular!!!!!

We had Italian (Portofino) for dinner. For my appetizer, I chose proscuitto & cantaloupe, whereas Kristy had a salad. Main course, Rack of Lamb, which came out "well" when "medium-rare" was requested. They redid it w/ no problem, but still came out "medium". Kristy had Shrimps and Scallops. The scallops were real, not cut from stingray wing....and very tasty!!!

We caught the show, "The International Show" and went to bed. For the record, the shows the whole week were much better than any Sandals shows. They actually have a "troupe" that performs most of the shows, whereas the Sandals shows are made up of resort workers that you see throughout the day.

Thursday

Awwwwww, always something, I woke up to discover that I left my toothbrush in Charlotte....no problem, I'll buy one on the resort. Seems they also sell Viagra for $40.00, right next to the toothbrushes!!!

We "vouged" at the morning buffet, and met our favorite waiter for the week, Miguel. After a filling buffet breakfast (the only buffet the resort offers, everything else is ala carte), we found our spot at the pool and grabbed a few rafts & commenced to reading. Then we noticed all of the rafts started disappearing, but yet nobody was @ the pool. Basically people were coming out early, picking a spot, hiding a raft, and going back to bed. It was disgusting. But the daily Secrets newspaper caught on, and pleaded for people to leave the rafts in the pool.

For lunch, we went to Da Mario, where we had a smorgasbord of goodies, a buffet salad, vegetarian pizza (w/ artichokes!!), mediterranean mushrooms stuffed w/ salmon, and a seafood stuffed avocado.

After lunch, we headed back to the pool, and took some pictures by the covered gazebos that line the pool. Very convenient if you want to get out of the sun!!!!

To make extra money, they walk around w/ animals to pose with for photographs. Their "zoo" consists of monkeys, parrots and iguanas, each on a different day. They DO shoot the pictures digitally, but if you buy the picture (no frame for $15.00), they don't give you the "source"[so you can print it yourself], and they are somewhat challenged in PhotoShop. For a good laugh, ask them to show you the histogram of your picture LOL!!

We headed to Bordeaux (their "fancy" place) @ 7:30 and were told the wait was 1 hour 45 minutes. No problem!!!! we went next door to the Asian place, Himitsu to kill an hour. I had Thai Spring Rolls with chop sticks, and Kristy had a salad for appetizers. We posed for a picture between the appetizers and main course. I had Curried Lobster Rice (Hmmmmmm!!!!!! the ONLY REAL lobster on the resort!!), and Kristy had the ginger Grouper, All this was washed down w./a Tang/Tonic for Kristy and Absolute/Orange Juice for me. This killed about 1.5 hours, so we then took a few pictures of the lobby and were seated @ 9:30 pm @ Bordeaux. Here's a hint....if you have to wait 2 hours to eat @ Bordeaux, FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE!!! By the time we were seated, the staff was rushed, the food was terrible, and it was a waste of time.....the staff was rushing through dinner b/c the restaurant was supposed to close @ 10:00....... Needless to say, my first night @ Bordeaux sucked, but before writing them off, I needed to give them one more chance.

Friday

By Friday, we had completely unwound & fallen into the "resort mode", we studied the activities board, and had established a comfortable spot @ the pool, hoarded our rafts, and become well known with the pool bartender. Lunch was mini pizzas @ Da Mario. Kristy had the Vegetarian, and I had the "Da MArio" (prosciutto & asparagus). (Secrets, unlike Sandals, knew how to make crunchy thin pizza crusts, and they hit the spot. Generally, I've found no Caribbean resorts can make crunchy bread in any form...but Secrets could in Mexico)

Friday was the day we got to move into our "King bed room". The maids left us a lovely welcoming "sculpture". Although we lost our view of the spa, and gained a view of a secluded pool & a peak at the ocean, it was nice sleeping in a king. We dressed for dinner @ the Asian place and although the wine didn't go with the meal, the food was very good. I had chicken satays as an appetizer, Kristy had steamed wantons(background, previous picture), and we both had the curried lobster. After dinner we took a walk on the beach went to bed. (The beaches in this area of MExico seem to be very safe, there are no wandering sales trash hawking stuff @ you, You can walk down to Porta Morealis (25 minutes) on the beach and only pass one other resort...and I do recommend the walk, there are some very interesting sculptures/houses along the way...sorry no pictures)

Saturday

We deemed Saturday activities day, mainly because of all the resorts we've been too, we've never seen "rifling" as one of the activities!!! So we had to try it. While sitting around waiting for rifling to start, I attempted a panoramic of the beach and played Kristy in a heated ping pong game. Although my wife doesn't play ping-pong now, seems she was raised in a house w/ heated family ping-pong tournaments. And it's one of my greatest things on vacation...to play Kristy in Ping Pong....cause she can/will School me!!! (I always check whether they have a ping pong table or not before I book a vacation)

Rifling ended up being "pellet gun shooting". We ended up having a friendly competition between teams. We had to shoot balloons and a water bottle. The final shot was a "moving target", that you had to shoot "ranger-style", or from the hip....and I actually made the shot my first attempt.....it was quite shocking.....We also wanted to try "archery"...but they kept canceling it, when asked why, they finally admitted they only had three arrows.

The sun did something really weird for quite a few days we were there. I'm sure it was nothing, but it looked apocalyptic....the sun had a ring completely around it...it was really strange looking. But the world didn't end, so I guess it was okay.

Lunch @ the Seaside Grill b/c they had jalapeno poppers and a really cool ceiling. All roofs at this place were thatch, and very waterproof. The afternoon consisted of my volleyball experiences, and lots of laughs. I love volleyball and when it all comes together, it's a beautiful thing...and I win!!!

We dressed for dinner @ El Patio, their Mexican restaurant. Appetizer, Trio of Empadas (catfish, shrimp & spinach...not real good, rather strange) I got a lobster dish, and Kristy got the shrimp fatijitas. We actually ended up switching dinners b/c I wasn't hot for the sauce they used for the lobster. They do have GREAT guacamole though, and their chips are fresh & crispy. (Sorry no food pictures, here's another of us Yes, that's a Marachi band behind us!)

The show for Saturday was the Circus/Magic show, which was excellent, it's their own version of a Circ de Soleil show.

Sunday

We ordered room service b/c we had a 8:20 pickup to go to Xel-ha, their Eco-Park. The snorkeling wasn't great, but good. I actually enjoyed hunting & feeding the wild iguanas more than the snorkeling. Part of the snorkeling problem was that the clouds moved in & limited our viability underwater. But it was still a good excursion. I'd recommend jumping off the cliff (Mo's Flight), because it's such a rush. With Xel-ha, you can choose the "all-inclusive" package, which includes any food you want @ the park. We gathered up a lot of fruit & hunted iguanas & fed them. They tend to hang out by the "fish-feeding" machines, and have adopted well to eating fish food! The best snorkeling is the areas farther from the inlet, on the map, the area above the "xel-ha" logo.....it's also the best iguana watching areas...more remote.

When we returned to the resort, we wanted a casual diner, so we chose the Oceana. I tried the lobster salad, and it was the same disgusting"warm lobster appetizer" served @ Bordeaux, so refused to touch it. Dinner was a Grouper in Anjillo sauce. After dinner, I was still hungry, and rather upset that I was hungry on vacation, so Kristy calmed me down by running a "hot-tub" for me & ordering room service consisting on a Club sandwich & Chicken rolled tacos....eatable, and it filled the void, but I didn't go to bed satiated. (the hot tubs in the room are temperamental, in that they don't always have hot water...it took a span of about 2 hours to check for hot water...once we had hot water, the hot tub was fabulous!!)

Monday (7 Yr Anniversary!!!)

We started our anniversary day by walking down the beach. This picture was taken to give an idea of the sea grass on the beach before the cleaning machine comes along....but as you can tell, the camera was still fogged up & the picture suffered....just a little bit.(LOL) We played in the pool a while, and then had lunch @ Da Mario w/ my delicious favorite, prosciutto & asparagus pizza & a salad. The excitement for the day was pool, reading and posing. And for dinner(camera fogged again) we chose Bordeaux, thus giving them a second chance. and this dinner was a complete TURNAROUND from our first experience!!!! It was EXCELLENT!!!!

(We had decided that we were going to BUY a bottle of wine, from the menu for this dinner. As the literature in your room states, "...each restaurant has it's own theme, so wine and drinks differ at each restaurant..." Well, that was pure bullsh$t. Each restaurant had the exact same 3 bottles of red wine; A Merlot from France, A Chilean Merlot, and a Chilean Cab. And they were about 12%, so they were a bit fruity compared to the wines I like...the 13%-14% range....so going into this meal, we decided to get one of the better bottles of wine. We ordered the $23 bottle of Pinot Noir, with a 13.9%. IT was "smooth". When you do order a bottle of "pay" wine, they don't want cash, they want to charge it to the room, so make sure you give them a CC imprint upon check-in)

The resort has an area that is borrowed from the Japanese rock gardens. There are alternating squares of sand & different sizes of rock. Couples have taken to writing their initials& mushy stuff. So we had to do our part as well. We tried to take it up a notch. We did a 3-dimensional "piece" with links to the Myan era, but it didn't take w/ the rest of the people at the resort.

We posed for a "love picture", and the waiter cut my head off, so he retook the picture, still cutting off my head, but less-so. The dinner started w/ a mousse pastry from the chef, which was good. Appetizers were FABULOUS, I had the Scallops & gruyere Cheese, and Kristy had "salmon & mussels in a bread thing". Salads were tasty, I had the Artichoke & Asparagus, Kristy had the Green Salad. Through out the dinner, they offered us three types of bread, a french, a bacon enhanced roll & a cheese filled pastry. The main course? I had the Mushroom stuffed veal and Kristy had the Red Snapper & Shrimps. Very Tasty!!!!!!

(half-way through the main course, we finished our bottle of wine. Kristy and I made a bet that the waiters would (Me) or wouldn't (Kristy) offer us another bottle of wine. I ended up losing the bet, b/c they did offer us another bottle of wine, which we finished w/ a cheese dessert. They wheel this cart up to the table, filled with 4 different types of cheeses; (i can't remember the choices....I had two bottles of wine LOL)

We left Bordeaux extremely happy, (and extremely toasty) and walked around taking night pictures of the resort, none of which are publishable.

Tuesday

We spent the day taking pictures & doing things we meant to do all week....lounging on the beach, drinking "banana Mamas", and lounging by the pool. Our maid left us a nice sculpture when we returned to the room to get ready for dinner. We returned to Portofino for dinner where I had the Mozzarella & Tomato salad and Kristy had a salad. We each had a pasta and shared them among each other..the tortellini & something stuffed in a gorgonzola sauce and the shrimp dish. We hit the hot tub again & went to bed.

Wednesday (Day to leave)

We spent some time around the pool (our room is circled in RED) behind our room, and I saved a crab who ended up in the pool. Although you hate a trip coming to and end, you realize you've got things that need you back @ the homestead. We reflecrted on our vacation (too short) while we waitedfor the bus to come and take us to the airport.
We left the room as we found it, and left the maids a surprise, the tense and spelling might not be correct, but I hope they got the picture.

Next trip???? We're spending a week & the beach (Charleston) in Aug/Sept, then it's off to Sandals Regency in St Lucia in May of 2006