Planning A Great Honeymoon: Why You Should Visit Xcaret

In this exciting episode of The Travel Agents Podcast, Brian shares all about his incredible year—getting married, buying a home, and taking an unforgettable honeymoon! Joined by his wife, Christina, they take us on a journey through their romantic getaway to Puerto Rico, Punta Cana, and Cancun, highlighting their luxurious stay at Hotel Xcaret Arte.

From thrilling adventure parks and zip-lining at night to relaxing in eco-friendly luxury, they break down what makes this resort a must-visit for honeymooners and adventure seekers alike. Plus, they reveal insider tips, the best restaurants, and why this might just be the best resort in Cancun. 🌊🎢

🚀 Tune in for:
✔️ First-hand reviews of Xcaret’s adventure parks
✔️ Secrets to getting the best honeymoon perks 💍
✔️ The must-try activities & hidden gems 🌿
✔️ What makes Xcaret Arte worth the price

Planning your next romantic getaway? Don’t miss this episode! 🎧✨

Transcript

00:02
Where the travel agents coming to you with tips, tricks, interviews and voyages by cruise. The travel agents bringing you the latest travel news. I'm Brian and I'm Will. Welcome to the Travel Agents podcast. Will, this has been my year. Yeah, it has been a busy year, but it's been a new year. Yeah, I got back together.

00:29
with the amazing woman I dated a couple years ago.  I then  asked her to marry me.  She agreed.  And we got married.  We have our first house.  Beautiful North Akron.  And  this has been such an exciting year. We got our kitchen remodeled already with heated floors. Yeah, I'm very jealous about that.

00:58
I'm just going to move in and just sleep on your floor.  It's it's  when the rest of the house is so cold, you just get over to that with your bare feet. And it's just you're like, why don't I spend all the time here? So  yeah, it's been a very exciting year for me. I have done  six trips now to Puerto Rico, where my wife is from. Nice. Just counted this week. Yes. Six times  this island I never really thought I'd go to. Now I've spent a significant time there.

01:26
My Spanish is slowly but surely improving,  though I still consider myself a beginner.  It is a tough language.  It's a lot. You sure think it's easy since words like refrigerator are refridgerador  and vegetarian is vegetariano. know,  think this should be guitar is guitar, right? Like it  should be an easy language to grasp. But wow.  difícil. See, when they get going, they get going.  But.

01:54
I will say, uh, I married the love of my life and I've been married for about 45 days. I thought you were going say 45 minutes. Like gosh, right out of the ceremony. Her name is Christina and how exciting that I get to introduce my wife, Christina on today's podcast. Hello. Hi Christina. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me guys. This is so awesome. Yeah. Welcome to the travel agents podcast studio.

02:24
Oh, feel honored to be here. It's nice to finally meet a fan in person, you know.  Yeah, sure. Well, honey, we got married in beautiful Puerto Rico. Oh, yes.  And then a couple of days later. Well, actually, that night started our honeymoon.  We did two nights in Puerto Rico in Rio Rio Grande. Yes, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. then we flew to Punta Cara. We did three nights at the gorgeous Secrets Tides Resort.  All inclusive.

02:54
And then we flew on a Dominican airline called Aerojet. Have you ever heard, never heard of them? No. Yeah. Okay. Not Aerojet. No. A-R-A-Jet. Aerojet. Oh. Yeah. It's a Dominican airline. Cool.  How was it? How was that experience? It was fine. It was fine, actually. It was pretty empty flight, so we got to really spread out. Sure. Was it a short flight? would imagine.  Shockingly, no.  Oh. Go to the map.  I would have thought 45 minutes. Nope, nope, nope.

03:23
three over three hours to get from Punta Cana to Cancun. Yeah. OK. It's crazy because from Cleveland to Cancun is three hours and 40 minutes. You would sure think Punta Cana would be a lot closer. Yeah, it's not beautiful flight over the ocean sunshine and all that. But  yeah, three hours later we found ourselves in Cancun and we spent five nights  at the Hotel Ischkeret Arte.  And this I was just thinking.

03:53
I've been to Cancun a handful of times. I've probably seen about 25 hotels. Nice. Yeah. And this by far is my favorite.  Oh, man.  I was so jealous when I heard you guys were going. I was like, man, I've always wanted to go there.  So fun. It's like adult,  like theme park almost. Exactly.  Yeah. Each current it's got a funny spelling. It's spelled X  C A R E T. The X makes a  sound.  Yeah.

04:21
Ishkuret. Ishkuret. Yep. Which is, I think it's all homage to the ancient Mayan people. Sure. And you see they add the X everywhere and you read it like a shh. Yeah. So for example, it'll say, you know, don't be sorry, but it'll be X-O-R-R-Y-Shari. All that kind of stuff. Anyways, this resort is built into like an ecological forest area.

04:51
which  they have done. Cancun's done a great job to protect, is why when you go to a resort in Cancun or Riviera Maya, they charge you now this tax of two bucks  per night for the eco tax  to preserve this gorgeous ecological area. So they can't just build new tons of new Starbucks and McDonald's on it. It's like, no, no, it's protected  and for good reason because it's gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah.

05:18
Sorry, how far of a drive from Cancun Airport is it? I say it was 70 minutes. OK. One hour and 10 minutes from the airport to hotel.  Included in this hotel is a free shuttle.  OK. Black and pink shuttle that goes back and forth.  would say pay attention to the timing of your flight with the time the shuttles go, because we we had to wait an hour.

05:44
The shuttle to arrive. Tempted to take an uber. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah versus I think if you go  Maybe before 6 p.m. It's like every 30 minutes.  Yeah, okay, but it was great I mean the shuttle and the service it was awesome. So the park is right in like near Playa del Carmen Okay, which is a fun hustle and bustle area which has a Krispy Kreme and Burger King. That's reason to go the Krispy Kreme. Yeah, there you go.  So a little bit of a drive but

06:14
Well worth it. Is it pretty close to Tulum?  Yes, it is closer to Tulum than  anything.  Just keep going down south to Playa del Carmen and you get to Tulum next.  It's two different resorts in one giant complex.  have Hotel Ixcaret and... And then Hotel Ixcaret Arte, which means art. Art. Yeah, exactly.  I could pick up on that Spanish.  So Hotel Ixcaret is family friendly.  Hotel Ixcaret Arte is... It's for adults only.

06:42
But I mean, and over, which is kind of a funny thing. Yeah. And I remember being there and looking at people like, wait a minute, isn't this like an adult only because they looked younger? Yes. But it was good. Hotel Isch Correct, the family friendly one, opened December of 2017. So relatively newer. And then Hotel Isch Correct Arte, where we stayed because it's our honeymoon. We adults only. Opened July of 2021. Now.

07:12
I really can't stress enough the size, the absolute magnitude of these two resorts. Each resort has 900 plus rooms. Wow. Which means 2500 to 3000 guests per resort based on how, know, room occupancy. What if you have one person in room or two or three, that kind of thing. So it's not like one gigantic hotel like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Nope. It's

07:41
It's different. like it looks like a college campus,  but it's covered in different vines and trees and shrubs. So at any given point, you can only usually see  one building at a time. Yeah, I think that's what you mean, right? Like college campus in the sense that different buildings that they do connect to each other or they don't. You remember that? a little bit of a walk, but that's actually not true. You're right. Usually there on the bottom floor, there was like a walk. OK, good point. Yeah.

08:11
Connect, yeah.  But like in Hotel Ixcret Arte, there are five different casas,  means? Houses. Very good.  Spread out over the resort. Each house has a different theme. There's diseño, means?  Design.  Then there's music.  Musica. Then there's  artists. Artistas. Pyramid. Pirámide. And peace.  Paz.  So.

08:40
we were in the design hotel. Yeah, like I Liseño, which was very cool. I had a lot of different  pictures of different architectural feats over the years and different famous designers. And also the building itself was very cool. It was great. And I remember at the beginning, like the first day you get there, you're like, Oh my gosh. Cause we kept walking and walking to a room. you remember that? Yes. Yeah. But then once you're there for a few days, you get used to it.  And I would say,

09:09
our house based on the structure and how it is angled all the buildings ours was the one nearest to the ocean yes great okay so casa diseño we want that ocean view we got the ocean view yeah that's the one to to go with i think the most exclusive based on what i've read is casa de los artistas okay it's like it has like some exclusive features

09:35
But I would say Casa de la Hacenia for sure. Like so beautiful. Like you have the ocean and you have the pool.  Each of these different casas have a couple hundred rooms per casa.  So  you could even hang out just in your own casa because they have a little, there's little gift shops and stuff like that. But one cool thing is this is a very, like everything's included in the price.

10:01
which we'll get to in just a minute, probably the real clincher here, which we haven't discussed yet, so we're gonna spend time on. But like, for example, every casa has a little workshop in the base of it. For example, in one you can do pottery, in the other one you can do painting, the other one like weaving, you can learn how to do dance in one of them. So that's pretty cool, yes. And with that, I remember not really knowing about this, like maybe...

10:29
Until day two or three of being there and then the thing is you have to make reservations And there are limited spaces. So let's say the pottery one which was  near our building  It had like eight spaces For like a time slot. Yeah, not a lot and then and then later on you're gonna understand why it is a bit complex to  book one at 3 p.m

10:57
But in any case, mean, I just say that for people that are interested in booking these to just do it the first day. Go and make your booking early or whatever and that time that works for you. Everything about this resort is a little bit different from what I've experienced for other things. OK, how so? Well, like I love the included  classes that Christina was talking about. Also, like the spa, the spa is built in in such a way you feel like you're walking into a cave.

11:25
And there's all these different cool cave-esque rooms throughout the spa, which lead into a pool, which lead into a tranquil pool area after your spa session where you might just want to relax.  Okay, well, what's so different about that? Well, in the tranquil  spa area, which is a pool area, which is actually you're in a river, which we'll get to the river at all if this is wild.  Above you, have like an Indiana Jones looking suspension bridge where people are walking by.

11:53
And then meanwhile, below the bridge, there's a cut out of the cave, a guy playing saxophone. Very nice, soft jazz. It is so amazing. Just because fire going and it's like, where am I? Right. If you compare it to maybe a regular spa, which is still a nice place, you see very much a building design on any other spa. Yeah. But when you go here, you.

12:19
Even you could forget that you're in a resort and think you're out of nature.  Like that is the vibe they're going for, for you to feel disconnected and very much relaxed.  Okay. So,  so, well, sorry, just want to be clear. So these, like, while you had this cool, these five beautiful casas  all  connected by various.

12:45
cool walkways and suspension bridges and vines and shrubs and trees and palm trees.  You also have a river that just goes around the entire resort, which is  inside of cliffside drops on each side.  And you have people stand up paddle boarding through and kayaking through  and floatable hammocks through them. And you're like, oh, there's just a river. There's also an ocean, by the way, with the beach.  But we're just talking about another

13:14
river that goes around the resort, is very  odd,  which  is a very cool thing.  And then between the two resorts, the family friendly and the adults only, not only is there a river and suspension bridges, but there's also a forest in between them with a walking track. And you feel like you're in the middle of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Oh, cool. But yet you're between two gigantic resorts.

13:42
beautiful luxury restaurants and spas and stuff like that. You're like, wait, how am I in  a walking outdoor,  like hiking path  also?  When I think of XCRA, I think adventure, like more like an adventure park type thing. But I wasn't really expecting  maybe some of those spa elements and more of that romantic side of things.  Oh yeah. The resort itself, even though it can host so many people,

14:11
When you walk around, you barely see people. Like it's not like when you're in walking through the spa or walking to the suspended bridges,  bridges that it has, you barely see people around. I think it's because it's so big and it offers so much that people really spread out. Every single pool, every single Casa has a rooftop pool.  So you've spread out and then there's the main pool. Yeah. So you're spreading people out everywhere. Yeah.

14:39
If I remember correctly, the last few times I've been to Mexico, there have been excursions to go to XCORET. Correct. So like that's how cool it is. Other hotels have excursions to go do a day in XCORET. Yeah. Now, before we get to the most exciting part of this, where we're going to spend the real meat and potatoes of why this resort is so cool. OK. One thing is with all that you're doing all over XCORET,  you're probably thinking you're going to want to take pictures.  Yeah. So on the

15:08
on the ride from the airport to the hotel in the bus, shuttle, they have a TV that turns on that starts to explain about the wristbands and the power of the wristbands that you're about to get. And yes, you do have to wear these wristbands the entire trip. Most all-inclusives are like that. Yeah, so it's the wristband to open  the door to your room. Yeah, true.

15:33
So there's no room keys. That's nice. Right. So this is what you use to access the facility. Quite comfortable. It's not like when you go to a concert and you get the plastic ones. Yeah. This is like it looks like an artist made it with like a cool twined rope.  They tighten it on your wrist. Yeah. It's just a cool. Cool. All right. So  the cool part also is that you are walking around the resort and strategically placed.

15:57
All over the resort. All over the resort. But not tacky. They're kind of hidden. No, they're hidden. Exactly. I think they didn't lose the the aesthetic of the place during this at all. So what are these things hidden all over the Yeah, sure. These  are sensors where you place your bracelet and it activates a camera that most likely is on the other side. And then you look and you get to smile and these pictures get attached

16:27
to the information of your room. High quality cameras all over the resort covered and pointed in such a perfect way to any place you would want to take a picture. There is one. That's really cool. I think it's worth it. mean, so the experience as we're going to go deeper in this, it's not that you only use it in the hotel. Correct. You can use it anywhere that has the each correct sensors.

16:56
Right, sensors. call them scan, scan stations. So we probably did, we were only there for five days. How many scans did we do? A good 100 plus. Oh, yes. We usually have at least 200. Yeah. So anyways, we totally bought the photo package at the end of our stay. guess. Wish you, you wish.

17:18
You know how it works is, you know, per person and per night. So how many people are in your room and then how many nights you stayed? Okay. So 120 bucks later we have 200. That's pretty good. High quality. Yeah, that's pretty good. But you know, it's another great marketing way that they can take your money. You can take your there's a lot. There were some places that you couldn't bring your cell phone. So you've relied on the scanner.

17:46
So this all leads us up to  anything else on you want to say about the resort before we get to the real meat and potatoes of why this resort even though it's such a great beautiful resort  what makes it that 10 out of 10?  I mean if  we can talk also about just like the room itself. Oh, yeah, it's beautiful Yeah, it has I think  all of the resort had the rooms have balconies. Okay,  and with a hammock

18:16
which makes it look even like more relaxing as you look to the building and you see every room with a hammock. Like that's cool. And then  I think all the rooms also come with a jacuzzi. We had an ocean view suite, so we shouldn't say all the rooms come with it. Well, look, I think all the rooms come with a balcony, but the view you get is going to be different. That's fair. Because you can also have like a garden view, but you still get the hammock.

18:46
We had an in-room Jacuzzi, was super cool. We had a walk-in shower that had two different rain  shower heads. Were the  doors to the bathroom, were they glass or were they wood? This is a great question because it's a bit tricky.  The  one that goes to the shower is glass.  But then you have a door that basically lets you enter into the bathroom space.

19:15
And that you can close it or open it and it's wood. Okay. So there is privacy when you go to the bathroom. Cause some of these all-inclusives are all glass. No, no, I mean, think one of the bathrooms, oh, sorry. I think one of the most funniest, uh, there's a button, a switch while you're literally sitting in the bathroom. Oh, you can decide the switch and if the screen in front of you, which looks out to the room can become clear as a window.

19:45
Or if you flip it, it becomes frosted. Right. it clears away. Yeah. mean, you know. Why is that a thing, It depends on your view, you know? I guess so. I guess so. Yeah. That's fair. That's But it's interesting because it's like, initially, if you walk in the bathroom, you might be like, oh my gosh, what is this? But then you push that and it changes. Yeah. That was That is cool because that's, you wouldn't think it's a problem, but it's a problem in all inclusives where like the toilet stall.

20:13
It's like a see-through. Yeah, it's like And then you got his and hers sinks Oh nice. Okay, so it's pretty big. Yeah, pretty big room TV couch  Absolutely loved it really really  Oh one important thing is over they hired over 100 Mex of the best Mexican artists to design this hotel  So anything you can think of it's like wow really well done

20:43
Oh, yeah, it's beautiful. Anything you look like even will like the giant pool. Yeah, they have like what would almost look like different  blocks  connecting you to the like to different restaurants. So you're walking across the pool on blocks in your clothes and there's people swimming around you. Does that make sense? Wow. You're walking over the pool. But if you misstep, you're in the pool.  So yeah, yeah, it's  yeah. Interesting. OK.

21:10
We saw some drunk people one night and they're kind of stumbling across these blocks of the pool. I'm like, you're going to fall in, but they made it. All right. All right. A little adventure there. All right. How was our room service? Room service was nice. We got it once. Yeah. And I think one good thing when you're in a honeymoon is you want to tell everyone. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Get those perks. Exactly. So I did say that we were in our honeymoon.

21:39
So they gifted us a bottle of rum and I think some chocolate. Yeah. So that's, know, it's you don't know what you're going to get. Yeah. But I think it's it's a neat thing to just see what the hotel offers. Yeah. It's sometimes like it's a fun game. Like what's going to get you better perks being a travel agent or saying that you're on a honeymoon? It's like a fun game to play. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, yeah, I'm I'm a travel agent on my honeymoon. I get extra benefits.

22:09
All right, so now onto the meat and potatoes of why this park is just so epic. OK, I'm excited. When you book a stay at either the Hotel Ischkeret or Hotel Ischkeret Arte,  you get complimentary access  to the four adventure parks,  which are in the Ischkeret ecological zone. Yeah. Now, adventure parks. What are you talking about, Brian? Are those that sounds kind of chintzy? Is it cool?  Yes.  We're talking like

22:39
almost Disney Universal Studios quality parks.  Wow. These  are epic parks  and we'll kind of go over  each of them. Yeah. Let's go. Ready?  And so well, first off,  each resort has shuttles that take you back and forth to the four parks.  Oh, are they that far apart from one another? It depends on the park. Good point. So three of them are super close to the two hotels. OK, we're talking you're in the shuttle for three to four minutes.

23:08
for a park. And there's one of them that's like they put in a different city. Gosh, that's a little annoying. Yeah. And we'll to that one and maybe we can say a little bit about our adventure to get there. Sure. So it was the only one. It was still amazing. I give that one a two out of five. The shuttle? No, that park. The park? Oh, you're right. Actually, maybe three out of five. OK. The other one's five. I would go a little higher, but OK.

23:37
Well, first and foremost, the  the first park is called Ishkaret Park in Christina. You and I did not go there. Now I've been there like in the past. Oh, OK. But it was pouring rain.  So we really didn't. Yeah, we didn't get a chance to relook at it. But what I remember, it was like a lot of animals and just  more of  a scenic view and just seeing different. And I hear it's also there's a lot of historical parts. Yeah, it's a look back into ancient Mayan.

24:07
Mexico cool to go back and here's what a historical town would have looked like and walking that's what I've heard.  and so I think this  this park is  Geared more towards children and families. We saw tons of families with little kids getting off at that stop, right? And I understand because once you hear a little bit about the other parts You're like, mmm. I don't think my kid is gonna be really into it.  But this one does seem to be for every age  Yeah, ish correct part

24:36
So that's all we can really comment on that. mean, we can say the shuttle takes you to Ishkara Park. Yeah, is that a one?  That is a quick one. Yes.  It's named after the hotel. Yeah. So I guess if you're going to go, I mean, I think everybody is going to want to go to this park just because it seems to be the one iconic. The Exactly. Right. First off, each of these parks, if you're not staying at the hotel, you are welcome to go.

25:04
I saw the prices at 140 US dollars per adult. Okay. So like a universal studio. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the quality of these parks are up there. Yeah. Yeah. It's just totally different concept. Yeah. But execution wise, it was great. So if you 140 times for parks, it adds up to five 60. mean, four, four, one 40, five 60. Yeah.

25:32
Yeah, it's a seven hundred. Really? Yeah. That's times five parks, babe. I thought you said five apologies. One forty. Well, I could just go seven hundred minus one forty, which is five sixty. OK. So that's first off, per person, that's quite a savings. So when you see the price of hotel each credit and your travel agent quotes you, you're going to be like, that's a little high. Yeah. Just remember if there's two of you going, that's over a thousand dollars. Yeah. And also know that.

26:00
You don't have to worry about the transportation and security of it. So, you know, what do you value? That's true. Yeah. If you're staying in Cancun or Riviera Maya and you want to get to these parks, you have to pay a shuttle to also get you there. Plus the entrance fee. And it's like two hours away round trip. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So let's do Shell Ha next, babe, because it's not my favorite. And it was the one that was like a 30, 40 minute drive from. Go ahead.

26:27
So for this one, I just have this little  info. So, Sho-ha is a Mayan word that means where the water is born. Gotcha. And water was very much a theme of that park. Right. Water is  everywhere. This is like a gigantic water park.  sounds sick. I love it. I mean, I think  I would agree with Brian. I think it offers the least of the adventures.

26:57
Well,  here's one of the things that rubbed me the wrong way the moment you walk in the first thing you see is all these dolphins  and you see people swimming with the dolphins and people Doing the dolphin rides where they pull you. Yeah, that was all extra extra cost, right? It's like oh so right off the bat the hit us with a paywall, know, like that was pretty quick. Yeah

27:17
And this is a theme in this park. And there was wasn't there stingrays? Oh, yeah. There was a lot of things and some of extra cost. And I counted them and there were like a lot, maybe eight or more activities already. Like we just walked in and already the first like and if if I was paying full price 140. Oh, yeah. So then immediately with paying extra. It's like, come on. Yeah, I seem a little. And dolphin  interactions, I guess. Those are not cheap. Those are really expensive. Like I have the little man. Dolphins get paid well.

27:47
Yeah,  good. think  I have the little map of the activities  that that we had in this park. And if I do like a rough estimate of how many I already see.  One thing I want to say is that this park did have food.  Oh, the food was all inclusive. OK, so is that not the case with all the parks? It was the case with two of them. OK.

28:16
two out of four. Yeah, 12 rough estimate of 12 activities that you have to pay for. Wow. Did you guys get food being a person staying at the resort? if moment you enter, whoever enters this resort does get to eat at the buffet for free. park. enters. Sorry. Whether you're paying 140 bucks or you're staying at Hotel East Corret or Arte, when you go to this resort, everyone eats. Gotcha. What about the resorts that don't include food?

28:45
You have to pay for them also. that?  The parks that don't... Yeah, you have to pay for it. You have to pay extra. Interesting.  I wonder why they did that. OK, sorry. Continue. And then this shoja, think one of the major attractions  is the water slide.  You can't miss it when you're in the park. It is huge. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's white and blue. It goes  up. I don't know how many feet.

29:13
but it has the option of you choosing if you want to go to the white or the blue. And I mean, I guess our wait time for that water slide was about 35 to 40 minutes. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's towering. it's pretty big. Yeah, it's pretty big. It was a very cool water slide. It's for all ages again. mean, you had kids, adults, everything in between wanting to join this That was fun. Yeah. And then.

29:40
After that, we went over to, took the shuttle to the top of the river and then got in little floaties and there is a lazy river that takes you through a big chunk of the park. to clarify when he says shuttle, it's not the same shuttle that takes you to the park. It's more like a train. A tram. Exactly. And it was fun. You have the option of walking there or biking there or taking the little train.

30:09
And then yeah, that was fun. You're floating through a River which has beautiful trees and there's one area where there's sticks that are covering you at all angles like a tunnel you're going through and  and then  Then there's these random bridges with like a cliff and you can go up and jump off the cliff  And right before you jump off there's  go figure. There's a scanner you can scan it the picture gives you that

30:38
off to the other side of the river. There's your camera with flashing, you know, three times and you jump off the cliff and it gets a cool shot of you jumping really cool. Oh That's awesome. It was awesome. We both did, I think there's two cliffs. We did  the first one, which was the tallest one.

30:55
And then you keep going down the river and then there's another area where there's like a slack rope for  a tightrope walking, you know, and there's also zip lines that take you into the water. did those. Oh, that sounds sick. Yeah, it was. This is the worst part. Yes. Well, this is because it is not high like the zip lines compared to the other ones. These zip lines are just  not tall, maybe eight feet. Wow. And then you fall in the ocean.

31:23
Did they have a wave pool? This one did not. We'll get there. Yeah.  What else did we do? We ate as we said, and then we walked. had like pina coladas and stuff that was all inclusive. It was good. OK. How was the food as a whole, like resort, park wise?  At the resort, it was 10 out of 10. Oh, gosh. Yeah. At this particular park, I would give it a four or five out of 10. OK. OK. Is it kind of

31:52
It was extremely traditional, authentic Mexican.  And we hate that. Yeah.  I just couldn't find a lot of stuff that you could eat. No, not that I could eat even.  But it was not a lot of stuff that looked appealing. Okay. Sure. Sure. Yeah. All right. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. this park also, I mean, again, you do have the option of doing plenty of other activities if you decide to pay for it.

32:20
Like, for example, the you put your feet. Oh, yeah. The little fish. Oh, yeah. I've done that before. Yeah, it's cool. Fish therapy. They also had something which wasn't working. Oh, yeah. There was a bike. It was a bike that zip. It's a bike. That's what called. through the rainforest. So you're on a zip line on a bicycle going. That makes sense. Wow. Obviously, additional cost on this part, but we would have totally done that one. Sure. Yeah. Sure.

32:48
And it is mandatory that when you're gonna do the lazy river you have to wear a life jacket and then you have to have the tube  Oh,  that's really cool. It's like like you like hanging out like you're underneath the correct you're on the zip line. I was like, man, that's a lot of balance

33:13
Got some little gift shops and stuff. We some stuff in the air I think that was the park where we mostly got stuff Christmas shopping. Oh,  yeah Nice. It was just funny because  we missed the shuttle to go there  because this park is so far It doesn't have the 50 every 15 minutes here comes a shuttle No, it was like we take people at 9 a.m We come back at 5 p.m And you have so this is again a very important you have to make reservations for that shuttle. We did not know this

33:43
So,  Christina with her Spanish and her brilliance, she got, cause we missed the 9 a.m. shuttle, by the way. Yeah.  We walked out to the main road in Cancun. But wait, wait, wait. Let's explain how we got there. We took the shuttle from the hotel to another park. Yeah. And then at that park, we were like, do we want to do this part right now? Yeah, because it was open till 11 p.m. Exactly. And the other one was only open till six. Right. So we were like we technically could do

34:13
both today. Let's go do that other one that closes at six. Then let's come back here until 11. Right. Nice. OK. So we went to the Soha, which is the water one. No, we to explore. Right. I'm sorry. From explore, we went to the Soha. But how we got there was first talking a little bit of Spanish to the guy that worked there and asking him, how do I take a bus to Soha? How do we do that? So he said, well, you guys have to walk.

34:42
to the main road, take a public transportation to the bus station, and then from there, take another bus that will take you directly to the park. This all sounds very easy once you know it, but while you're doing it, it is very adventur-y.

35:06
you don't know, for example, what does a bus station look like in Mexico?  It does not look like the ones in Puerto Rico or here in the States. There's a lack of buses. It's like seven passenger,  12 passenger vans everywhere. Yeah. And good luck finding the one that's going to show. Right. So he was actually very kind and say like the name of a supermarket we should look for. And he said from there, just ask the people where where to take the buses. OK, so we did that for the first bus.

35:35
And then, I'm sorry, for the second bus. And then from there, when we got to the park, this is not a shuttle, so it does not leave you at the entrance of the park. It leaves you  on the side of the road. the other side of the road. Half a mile to get to the You have to cross a bridge and then you have to walk to the park. So you guys really had to earn it. Yeah. Oh yeah. And then you have to pay cash. Yeah. So that's... I could have never done this alone, by the way.

36:04
Sure. think you could. think with your phone. station, I was a target. I was the only one who looked different from everyone else. What's funny is we stayed till 6 p.m. when the park closes to learn that the last shuttle back to the other our hotel was at 5 p.m. Right. Because we thought, I mean, OK, you got us once, but not twice. But now we're wet because we've been in a water. Oh, yeah. And no towels either. No towels.

36:34
relying on air dry.  promise we are. So that's why I was like taxi. We're doing a taxi. Oh, yeah.  And there was no Uber options like that come out that far.  So we got in a taxi. was 40 bucks. yeah. And then we got to the hotel. I'm sorry. The park we wanted, wanted. Yeah. Yeah. Which is I think our second one that we can talk about if you want. So it'll be our third baby.

37:01
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we're at October 3, which is called Explore. Each of these parks start with the letter X. So it's kind of an East Koret, Xel Ha, Explore. yeah, so Explore. Go ahead. No, mean, Explore is this park that you can have it in two versions. We decided to go to the night one, which is called Explore Fuego. Correct. Yeah. During the day, the resort is called Explore. Yeah. And then at about what? 8 p.m.?

37:29
Resort transitions to export fuego. Spicy. You get a lot of fiery stuff. Fire everywhere. Very dark. It's also dark. So it's it's  you  are the most exciting. Oh yeah. You're in for an experience at that point just by looking at it. The first thing we did when we got there was we did the  like ATV dune buggy off-roading  on a track. Yeah. No, you're good. But I was going to say that we need to wear a helmet.

37:58
You have to put on helmets.  You get these four passenger two by two, four by fours, I guess.  Which looks like you're like a Jurassic Park. Yeah. And I got to be the driver.  There's no track you're on. You are very much steering this at night through a dark  path.  It's like the path is lit. So you got to stay on this narrow path. Very narrow, going pretty fast with this ATV. Yeah. And

38:28
Wow, that was such an adventure. Such a rush. We thought it's three miles. I was going to say that we thought it was like  five minutes. Yeah. Max. Yeah. And then it just kept going. 15 minutes.  Good 15 minutes.  Going through caves. You go through like three different caves.  Literally over bridges. Bridges. Narrow turns. Yeah. You go up a little cliffside mountain and back down it.  Oh my.

38:55
Gosh, it was so much fun. We did it twice. We had to do it twice for sure.  Because when you get to that park, there's so many things. And I think the most popular one are the zip lines.  So somebody, I overheard an employer say, an employee say,  the little  cars are empty. You should go over there first.

39:17
Well, the cars were way better than the zip lines in my opinion. Oh yeah, I agree with you. You did not want to do the zip lines. But what before years before, like 10 years before when I went to explore during the day, I already had done the zip lines. Correct. So I already knew the experience.  So I did the zip lines by myself while Christina ate at the buffet. Yeah. Worked for me very kindly. And the zip lines, it's like you walk up this large, what I almost call it.

39:46
It's like a suspended in-air, not suspended, a real high up like pagoda looking thing. Kind of walk up these steps in a circular, like circular steps to get to the very top. And then you zip line to the next pagoda, the next station. And you walk up those steps and you zip line to the next one. And the whole thing, it's a seven zip line course. The problem is it does take a long time. bet. Because you're waiting at each station, you're waiting for like,

40:14
30 people to go before you until it's your turn to the next station you wait for 30 people to the next one right and It's really cool. I'll just say this I've had the privilege of doing zip lines before mm-hmm So it's not the first time I've ever done a zip line sure and so I would say after maybe three of the Sessions and you're also it's pitch dark, which is a cool thought yeah, but you don't to see anything correct so

40:41
After three, I would say you're done. I was done. But you have to do all of them. Yes. There's no way to like the only way down through the plane. It was the last one still like in the last one takes you into the. Yeah, that's cool. That's a very cool one. I would say very refreshing. I mean, at night, I don't know if that was. Oh, what's funny is, you know, it's you're in Mexico. You can be nice and hot. It's also nighttime. Yeah. My phone was 74 degrees, which.

41:09
It's warm, don't get me wrong. But when you're walking around wet and there's a breeze, it actually gets a little chilly. Oh, yeah.  It actually gets freezing. Yeah.  So afterwards, I met you at the buffet. Right.  They had beef ribs at the buffet. man. Let's go. They were so good. That buffet was good, I would say. Oh, man. And even the desserts, like everything was good.

41:33
So is this your favorite park or we not talk about your favorite? This is Brian's favorite one. But the other one was definitely a close, close second. Yeah. For me, this is the second best. OK. And then we're going to talk about. Is there any other really cool things you could do here like the water? my gosh. El Tobogán. Yeah, it's called El Tobogán, the water slide, which is Chorrera in Espanol for Puerto Ricans out there.  But it's.

42:01
Christina kept using her Puerto Rican Spanish in Mexico and they're looking at her like we see you're speaking Spanish, but we don't understand  So I was gonna say that  this  Water slide what an amazing experience  it combines  different styles of slides together  it is gigantic to

42:28
To give you perspective, you have to do maybe a 10 minute walk to be able to get to the top of the slide. Just  walking to where you go down the slide is not for the faint of heart. Right. And we did it twice. It so good. We're panting when we got to the top.  Yeah. It is so high. The water slide fits four people at a time.  And mind you, for them to be able to let you go inside, they have to weigh you.

42:57
because they have to make sure that  you guys, whoever's gonna join you, meets the minimum requirement. You cannot go alone. You have to go with another person. Up You can't be a group of three. You can be a group of two or a group of four. So there was a single guy from Minnesota who's like, yeah, I'm just waiting for our single rider. like, sorry, man, we wish we could help, but we're two. He's like, yeah, I get it.  I just felt bad for him. So yeah, there's a giant scale where you have to stand on and they us.  Yeah, so once...

43:26
Once the waiting is complete, we then do like the 10 minute walk up a hill. Very long walk. I'm glad that they have the scale at the beginning before you do the Yeah. And if people can't do the walk, honestly, I don't think there's an alternative way to getting up there. OK, yeah. Yeah. Once you're up there, you have to wait maybe for like three minutes. Sure. And then they'll put you in the little floor person.

43:56
Oh, is it a tube? Yeah, a tube. Going down. Wow. What an experience. Is it like lit up? Some parts are lit And some parts are pitch black. Right. And then have like the big cone. Yeah. Yeah. that. Nice. And there was that thing where you go like the slingshot, like you go up one end and then you come back. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It was.

44:16
This this was epic. It was great. And then some parts you go backwards. And I think that's where you're really like, oh, my gosh, I don't know exactly. And that night and at night school  and it dead ends into their wave pool.  Oh, cool. So that's pretty cool. Yeah. So that's the park was epic. And there were other things we didn't do that involve more water, but I was just too cold. I was like shivering. So yeah. What else? But we sip lines, the boogies, the bubblegum.

44:46
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember either, but yeah, it took a long time for that second ride. Cause we did the double gun twice. We did  the, cars twice. Sure. All right. Now let's get to, and this actually might even be my favorite part too.  Which one? He's easily census.  Ah, census Christina's favorite, which is crazy because 10 years ago I would have said explore was my favorite  one. like it's going to be pretty.

45:13
Cool. this this resorts whole goal is to confuse your senses. Yeah, the parks. This park. Sorry. Thank you. This park's whole goal is to confuse and also make like remove some of your senses to let other senses make sense. Yeah, come into play. So first when you can start. Yeah, go ahead. When you arrive, it's just even like this starts you off in like this main little central area where there's like this gift shop and it's a little confusing. Like, where am I? It's a little overwhelming.

45:42
Okay. First things first, we went to go to the lockers to put our stuff down so we could enjoy.  Getting to the lockers, like they take you through, there'll be like a bathroom of fire hydrants  and then a toilet, which is gigantic. And then one next to it, which is like micro scouts, like super small. Yeah. And like, you guess there's a photo. You can take a picture.  It's everything about it. It's just like the perspective, right? Sure. Okay.

46:12
The couch, which is upside down. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. All these. Oh, It's just illusions. Illusions. Lots of illusions. Like if you've been to the Museum of Illusions in Washington, D.C., you get it like, yeah, they do cool stuff with cameras to make it look like you're upside down and it's more than just like a fun house, weird mirror thing. Like these are pretty, pretty intense as you walk around getting your bearings.

46:34
I would say that  what you just said, like going  in to Zoha, for example, you don't really have a path to go to. You can go everywhere. know, but over here in senses,  it is you go into the gift shop and it almost like has  specific paths. go out one in different paths you could. Yeah. Yeah.

46:58
It's not like and you just like, all right, which one we're to start with. Right. You once you start, then you continue that order all around. So as we start to go through it, I was like, all right, this is kind of cool. But it's also like seems a little chintzy. Like if I were a kid, like, oh, mom, look at this. I'm upside down. Right. Yeah. I'm like, I'm not that impressed. Yeah, sure. It's kind of cool. Yeah. But it's blowing your mind. I'm not blown away yet.  Yeah. Until we get to so our first

47:28
Go ahead. Yeah, I'm one good. OK, we get to our first little experience. Yeah. And all we know that there's a long wait. Like, let's just do it. We no idea. have 45 minutes. Oh, wow. And basically, it's the it's a cave. And in this cave, there's the opening with six different tracks. Each track has what I would say like guardrails.

47:56
on your right and your left. So you can't get off track. OK? OK. As you walk in, the first thing they do is  it's  pitch dark. You cannot see your hand two inches from your face. I tried multiple times. Mind you, before this, are barefoot. Oh, yeah. They make you go barefoot. You have to leave your shoes to the side, which is odd because in the other parks, they encourage water shoes. Sure.

48:20
But  here you have to take them off. there's just so many warnings of  if you can't do this, turn back. If you get scared while you're in the cave, turn back. Here's not well. Yeah. Or here's the protocol. Oh, Wave your arms up in the air and say this. They had a word like.

48:42
or I don't know, whatever it was. And the 45 minutes we're in line, we're watching this video on repeat about do not do this if you're pregnant, do not do this if you have this, do not do this if you're Asthma. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And if you get scared, here's what you're gonna do. We're like, wow, what are we getting into? Right, again, we had no idea and we didn't have...

49:08
Nothing in our heads.  Yeah, no one told us and then we are seeing little kids adult. It's like, you know, how bad can it be? Yeah. Yeah. And then but as we're there  as we're about to go, we keep seeing people that went before us turn back and they were too scared and they're feeling like, no, no, no, no, no, no,

49:38
you'll get to experience these sounds,  the feels,  not the tastes and the smells  of walking through like a Mexican desert at night.  But you can't see a thing. A thing. And then I think a lot of people commented, because I was outside waiting for you, that that initial step you get, it's just so hot,  it scares people away because it's not you get a gradual  like a.

50:05
experience of just being calm and then more intense.  Now it starts off just being hot and humid. don't let you go together.  They give a very long space. So I couldn't catch up with Christina. They let her go at least four or five minutes before I was allowed to go in.  That's why this takes forever. And we couldn't even go in the same path because there are three for men and three for women. Correct. They don't want you.

50:33
Cause you could technically, if you caught up to someone, could reach over and touch them in the dark, which would be creepy.  So they separate them in and then, that makes sense. So while at one point, maybe you're grabbing onto a guard rail on both sides of you, you're right and you left that then turns into,  this is like the feeling part of it.  During this cave that turns into a rope.  then during, then after the rope, turns into, it's just plants on both. And you're just feeling different, like

51:02
like these like plants on both sides of you as you're like inching your way forward, right? Yeah, because they instruct you to walk like penguins. Correct. On your feet, you're going through sand. Then you're on a suspension bridge. Then you're going through water, you know, and and then the sounds are the creepiest part because they just blare in your ears like a  crowing like,  and then like,  like  the sounds of the wind. Then you feel different winds and stuff and smells and

51:32
It's  it's creepy. Oh, yeah. I was thinking I'm a 36 year old man. I've seen a ton of scary movies and  I'm scared.  I want to do it now. How on earth?  Because I think they let 10 year olds and 10 year olds and up going. like, how are 10 year olds by themselves? think it is. Oh, yeah. If you were if you were like six to 10, you could go with your parent. You had to go with your parents. Sure. Sure.  I think how are they doing this? That's why so many people turned around. Right. And

52:01
Took a good 10 minutes of walking through the pitch black to get through it. Oh yeah. And then it's so funny because it's so dark. You can't see anything. What you see at the end. It finally ends.  It is  a light.  You just see a light. like a candle, like a lantern. And then, and it's funny because your instinct just tells you follow the light.  And as you walk, and it feels like it's a mile away.  You just keep walking and walking towards that light.

52:30
and it gets bigger and bigger. And then you finally get it. And then you're in a cave and the lights guide you through the rest of the cave to the way out. But through that path to get out. What do you have? No, I say it pictures. You have more. which are beautiful. Yeah. You know, by the way, then the cave takes you on a path to where you're outside, but there's a waterfall.

52:55
and rocks and stuff and you keep walking through it as you start, it slowly exposes natural light to your eyes to kind of get you warmed up to it. And then finally you're outside in the natural light. And Christina was waiting for me and we're just like, what the heck did we just experience? I wish all my friends could do this. Cause it was like the coolest thing. I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to explain it. And I don't think we really did it justice, but it was. think that park is underrated. that is so cool. And then

53:25
I found it funny that there was a lifeguard in the cave. I was like, probably to come rescue you if you had to. Yeah, I know. But it was like, yeah, well, there was a bit of water. Yeah. Anyways, another cool thing is once you got out, there was a tree that you could get lemonade out of.

53:45
Really? That's cool. So imagine like just  what would you call? Everything messing with your senses like an actual tree then with the spigot and you turn the spigot and then you grab a like cup that's there fresh lemonade starts coming out it. It was all fake. It was great. The illusion. Yeah.  More illusions. Right. So then we're like, well, this park probably couldn't get any cooler. And yet there was  some additional very cool things. Very cool. After we finished that, the cave thing.

54:14
You went okay. So the town right but in order to do that you needed to walk  back again to the center. Oh, yeah, where the shop like the little like the membrane of this whole thing right or you go out to the next track of the next portion right which was the town the town town is built. It's this it's a single street with shops on the right and left of you fake shops fake shops. It's all a fictitious town.

54:44
But it's tall. We're talking 40, 50 feet high  for at least half a mile or maybe a quarter of a mile.  And as you walk in it,  the whole town is built as if it's getting smaller and you're getting bigger. And as you're walking down it, you feel like you should lean forward, but actually, or you feel like you should lean backwards because it's getting smaller, but you're actually going up a hill. So your body's tricking you.

55:14
And it's like falling over.  actually you need to, cause you're walking up a hill, you need to lean forward, right? But your body wants to lean back cause you're walking, cause the whole city is getting smaller on your right and left. That's so cool. Will, this was insane. Everyone's freaking out.  Everyone's taking pictures and laughing.  Not freaking out, laughing. Yeah. People are falling over just laughing. What is happening? The workers, they seem to master it cause they, I mean, work there.

55:44
they kind of just like look down closer, like squint their eyes and just kind of walk where they needed to go. Yeah, I saw some people covering the side of their  eyes and just focusing on their steps,  just like looking at their feet.

55:59
and just focusing on that for some reason apparently that There were scanning areas to scan everywhere. everything made you look like a giant or miniature and your partner looked like a giant or miniature at the same time. Or like you're in the ceiling. You're on the ceiling while the couches are, yeah, that was one of like, you could go into different shops. Of this whole street filled with shops on the right and left, fictitious, probably 20 of them you could walk inside and get maybe 10.

56:26
You can get pictures. That sounds so cool. Finally get to the end of this town. It  it it it finishes into a chapel. You walk in the church  and they have trampolines. Nice.  Oh, yeah.  And then after that, you enter. Exit the chapel's back door.  And then you enter the cave area with go ahead. Which is  another double gun or water slide or churrera. Yes. Wish.

56:54
Once when you see it you again,  unless you've been there before you have a no idea what you're signing up for.  So basically it's a circuit. It's a circuit of five things. First you do the water slide. When you finish the water slide, you immediately after you get, yeah, after you get out of the water from this cool water. So it was a cool, not as cool as the other two, but it was cool. cool. We did it twice.  It just, you follow the path and you're in line to do the zip line.

57:24
As you're wet. As you're still wet. And they had this whole team that just loads you up with the zip line gear. Yeah, let's let's pause there. It is not just a zip line. Sorry. It is very structured. It's a flying thing. Oh, yeah. A bunch  of  people, employees and vests. Oh, yeah. Lots of vests. You lay on your stomach and it clips onto your back and you go down the zip line like Superman, Superman. Yeah. And that was epic.

57:50
That was great. And also pictures are being taken as you go, because you have to scan your wristband. Correct. And that's when we learned we were on track two of five. We're like, oh my gosh, there's three more things until we're allowed to exit. Right. So then track three, do you remember? Was it the mud? The mud, which one would call it? Yes. Like a lazy river made out of mud? A lazy river. first there was not mud, then there was mud.

58:19
Two lazy rivers, remember that? The first one was just like water. Okay. And then... They get you really wet so that that mud sticks. And then the next one is a lazy river of mud. Yeah. So you go through that and then you shower off. And this river, rivers are different than the one in SoHo because these ones have tracks. Correct. SoHo is just open water river. But you're going through caves,  skinny, narrow caves the whole time.

58:47
And then, in this park, you don't have to wear a helmet. Correct. Okay. Good point. Only explore. Now it's kind of cold at this point because the mud and the water weren't that. Yeah. And then you, you, yeah, you dump buckets of water in yourself to wash the mud off. But you keep going to the fifth track, which is a sauna, but it's not a sauna that you just go sit in. It's a sauna. It's a, it's a narrow cave and you just keep walking and it gets hotter and hotter as you walk through it. It feels really good.

59:14
To be honest with you, I could do that circuit like four times and just do that park because it's so fun. It was so fun. Wow. Yeah, that sounds really cool. I was not expecting that. Yeah. And that park is the one that you can't eat. I mean, you can you can buy food. Yeah, I would imagine that would be the park where you have like one of those meals where they turn off all the lights and they bring it out to you and you eat in the dark. It'd be a good one for that. Great idea.

59:42
I was called senses. just want to see if I can find a circus. and then we just took a bunch of pictures around different  illusions and stuff that they have. Because once you finish,  you have to go back down where the town was to get to the main center. OK, OK. There's that little gift shop. And then  there's some like  hearts, like art of hearts and different stuff. Very, very neat.

01:00:11
that you take pictures. So I wouldn't say this park takes that long. Sure. But I would say if you want to redo it because you so much fun, you could. I think this is the one that closes earliest. OK, that makes sense. Yeah, because they don't really need to be open that long. But it's very good. Well, cool. Any closing thoughts, We got it all. That was it.

01:00:35
Yeah, so I think I think so we got the whole circus. Yeah, we didn't talk about the the restaurants at the resort. At the okay.  Sorry, this resort Hotel East credit are take the adults only one has nine restaurants.  First one is called Jack. It's you could take in flavors of Mexico delicious food. Kibbe Kibbe Middle Eastern food.  Chino poblano. It's a Chinese Mexican fusion.

01:01:00
Which we went till and it's it's like by courses. Yeah, they sort of as nine courses.  Oh, yeah. And that's one has a Mexican and Chinese flair. Right. And then he like the waiter explains everything and is the one to pour everything in your. It's like a bed of noodles with the poblano chili on top.  Yeah, it was an experience.

01:01:24
Beijing duck tacos.  It's like, oh my goodness. Yeah, it was definitely smaller, you know, meals. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. had Cantina VIP, which was a very trendy mezcal Cantina Mexican vibe. So good.  Tell about the vegan restaurant. But that Cantina we went the first night. We didn't even know. They just  what is open at this time. That was open. So we went and it was so good. I recommend it.

01:01:54
But I would say the one that really surprised us.  I liked it too.  Yeah, it was good.  It is a vegan restaurant called Appa Pasha.  Which basically it's  a play on words because Appa Pasha  means hug.  So the whole concept of the restaurant is to make you feel warm and fussy inside and like the food is comforting you.

01:02:24
So you feel hugged. I mean, had stuff like you get like a double cheeseburger and a steak. It's all vegan, though. All vegan. And it tasted good. Yeah, I was I was blown away. We went twice. We went for dinner and then we went for breakfast. I also had very low expectations because I've just not been to many vegan restaurants. We went to one in Houston, which was good. It good. this I really they got to be. I was shocked.

01:02:49
really good to just like be around. So good that we went back a second time. Right.  I wanted to. Yeah. It's on the right. Because I've been a vegetarian. But yeah, I don't think you've ever gone down that road.  In any case,  this was at the the casa pas peace house. OK.  Most definitely. And then it's on a rooftop. Oh, yeah. So, mean, beautiful views over this complex here.

01:03:18
There are a few other Mexican restaurants as well as Tashida, which was a Japanese Mexican. We didn't go to that. That would have been fun. We had reservations, but we were in. And this is what I wanted to say  earlier on. Based on the  park's hours and availability, you have to put your reservations for the restaurants or for the activities in the casas. Sure.

01:03:42
around that because you don't want a reservation for an activity at a casa at 2 p.m. You're gonna be at the park at that time.  So you might want to  wake up earlier  and get that done and also make reservations for the restaurants. There are some restaurants that have like Michelin star chefs. Oh, well that's the one I get to. The last one, go ahead. What's the name? There's a restaurant called Encanta.  It's a fine dining Mexican and it's got a Michelin starred chef.

01:04:08
Wow, it's an extra fee how much yeah, it's like 200 bucks a per sure Yeah, I think they're like three restaurants that you have to pay for so we walked by it it was dead There's no one inside there. Right? like  We should have gone but plus all I mean, it's almost never worth it. Honestly in my opinion I've been to a lot of Michelin star restaurants. It's almost never worth it unless they're actually like affordable Michelin star. Yeah, this is good

01:04:37
And I mean, with a such a great resort like it's great art. Yeah. And the food and because we also have Mercado de San Juan,  which is like just the main like a buffet you can go to for breakfast, lunch, dinner if you don't want to get dressed up. Yeah, it's great. has  variety pasta station, taco station. Right. Sorry. Speaking of dressed up, we went to Chino Poblano, the fine dining fusion. There were some  girls in front of us  and one was wearing flip flops.

01:05:06
And they were like, hey, you can't do flip flops in here. Sure. Tell you what, we have an outdoor area. We'll still let you eat here, but you can't eat inside the restaurant. Wow.  OK. And just for them. Yeah. So dress code. You got to dress up for dinners for. Yeah. For some of the restaurants, for sure. And you want to.  You see other people very nice. So you want to do that, too. So right. I guess I just want to say,  oh, and then that San Juan that market.

01:05:36
The buffet was so good because they had  some of the best guacamole ever had in this gigantic dish. You could take as much as you want without feeling bad, you know. Oh, yeah. Wasn't like Chipotle, guac, sex, right? It was like load up anything you want guac on. was so good. out of ten, we would say. Yes, ten out of ten. So who is this park for? I would say it's for those who want epic food and adventure and have the budget. It's not cheap. Yeah, it's not cheap. It's it's famous for as we learned for honeymooners. Yeah.

01:06:06
There's art. There was a ton of honeymooners there. All all ages 16 plus. I will say 90 percent were between 20 and 40. Yeah, I would say. Yeah. Yeah. There were a ton of people my age there. Yeah. That's an adventure park. You're going to get a young. Yeah. Like I was going to say the little cafe that saved us. Like if you're

01:06:29
If you're going to a park that doesn't have food, you can just grab and go like a little sandwich and coffee. Walked in there, just just loaded up were delicious sandwiches. We just started grabbing them and ran like just all inclusive. OK, probably one of the most important things. This is not a resort you go to for two or three nights. OK, even though your budget may only be able to afford it. Sorry, you got to go for at least like we were there for five. You got to go six to seven nights.

01:06:58
Wow. Because there's you're missing out on so much if you go for less. Because there's so much we didn't do. We did a lot. Brian was a little under the weather. I was also had the flu the first three days. Fever the first three days. So we had to, you know, be considerate of that. So we really didn't risk him. would have loved more time in the river at the pool. I would have loved more time at the park. I would have liked see the other park. I would have liked more time at the parks. Yeah, I think the parks, we would have done more parks. back to the parks. Yeah, for sure.

01:07:27
I would have liked to explore the resort more. Yeah, but the service was great. I mean, I think as you're saying, I don't know how much the rooms go for, but I would say I mean, this resort as I price it out for like, all right, seven night all inclusive package to adults from Cleveland to Cancun, round trip airfare, round trip airport transfers, seven nights all inclusive.  I mean, we see some beautiful resorts for three to four thousand dollars out the door total for two.

01:07:54
This one's gonna be that six to nine thousand dollars too. So you're doubling your budget Yeah to go to and in my opinion and this is my outro the best resort in Cancun I've ever been to Wow 100 % Yeah, great service. It's that price. Yeah Cool guys, I appreciate you guys sharing because I've always been really curious about Escarade since since earning about it. It's always sounded really fascinating

01:08:23
And it sounds like you guys had a really great honeymoon and I'm really happy to hear that. Yeah. Christina, thank you so much for hopping on the podcast. It a pleasure to. Is this your first podcast? Yes. And it was so much fun. Thank you for having me. First of many.  Oh, thank you.  And thanks, Will. Of course. All right, guys, that's it.

01:08:44
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01:08:54
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