Swim with Dolphins, Explore Mayan Ruins, and Relax by Turquoise Waters: The Ultimate Cancun Getaway

"Cancun: where the sun kisses the ocean."

The inspiration for this trip was my sister-in-law's 40th birthday. Of course, we had to join in as we hadn't experienced that side of the country yet. Originally, we were just going to hang out at the all-inclusive Sun Palace, but then I realized there would be some time for fun activities, and there were plenty of fun things to do near the resort. This trip was way too short, but it was the perfect little parents-only getaway!

Day 1:

Super early wake up call at about 0200, then on the road at 0230 for our 0600 flight.

Lots of drama from the start because of weather in Dallas. Our original flight was leaving at 0600 to arrive in Dallas at 1120 and then leave Dallas at 1230. However, due to bad weather, our flight was now leaving at 0600, but arriving at 1200 and then we had almost a mile walk to the next gate. I was stressed to say the least. Once we boarded there were even more delays and we didn't take off until closer to 0700. But there was nothing I could do about it so I decided to just slept on the plane to make it all go faster. We did get upgraded to first class so that was a win!

By some miracle, the storm cleared while we were inflight and we actually landed early at 1100. But then our departing flight was a little late. We ended up arriving in Cancun at 1700.

Arrival was easy and it wasn’t too challenging to find our transportation to the resort Sun Palace. You just have to ignore all the people at the airport trying to convince you to take a ride with them.

We had a private ride that took about 15 minutes to get to the resort.

Check in was quick, but we had to listen to almost an hour about the resort, but said no the a timeshare presentation... at least initially..

We finally got into the room and were greeted with a beautiful view and the room was incredible!!! It was huge with a big hot tub and full bar, etc. The view was awesome!!

We changed and met everyone for dinner at Trattoria at 2000. Dinner was great.

Then we went to The Bar for drinks and music.

Felt so good to be here!!

Day 2:

We slept in until about 0930 and were woken up by the timeshare planner people. Mark my words, I will never do a timeshare presentation for free stuff ever again - even though I am good at saying no to the timeshare!!! It's not work the time and stress to get the free stuff and they find ways to still get money out of you.

We had breakfast at Aurora which is a delicious buffet. Then we met Angel which was a huge mistake!!! Anyway, I don’t want to share too much other than never trust the vacation planners at these places.

We spent the afternoon swimming.

Then used our resort credit to do the dolphin experience nearby.

This experience was amazing!!! We got to swim with the dolphins and we also got to be kissed by the dolphins and hug and dance with them. All while learning all about these amazing creatures!! Their names were Flex, Solomon and Apollo. We pet and loved on them tons too. While the resort credit paid for the experience (abut $150 each), we did have to pay $50 per person for pics which is a total rip off but totally necessary because no other pics or videos were allowed.

After that experience we showered and then headed to dinner at Fuego. Another great place.

Then back to The Bar for drinks and a few rounds of pool.

Day 3:

We had breakfast reseverations with my brother and sister in law at Le Blanc at 0845 so we headed there about 0830. This day was super cold and stormy, so it made sense to try to get free stuff at another resort. We were not impressed with Le Blanc which is supposed to be 5 diamonds and better than our resort. We actually liked our resort better. We were there over 2 hours, but got out of spending lots of $$$ fortunately. I did not fall for it this time!! It's definitely not a deal, just locking you into traveling to just their resorts which is silly.

On the way back to the resort about 1100 there was so much rain and traffic due to flooding. Kinda dicey driving through the flooding, but we made it back safely.

Then we had lunch and some yummy treats.

Then off to our massages and facials. Mike really liked his massage and my facial was also very relaxing.

Then to dinner at Aurora. It was a great experience and we even had the flame/fiore dessert which was so good and we ate grasshoppers!!! With tequila of course.

Then back to The Bar to play a few rounds of pool.

Day 4:

We decided to do room service this morning since we were leaving early for our tour. We booked a private Chichen Itza, Cenote, and Valladolid tour through Viator and I'm so thankful we booked it through Viator. We had a great experience with our tour guide!

We were picked up at 0800 for our tour. We immediately loved our driver, tour guide Norma and the comfy van we rode in. We learned so much amazing history, but we were all so tired and actually slept for most of the 2 hour drive to Chichen Itza. We actually went back to a different time zone 1 hour behind us.

We arrived at Chichen Itza at about 0930 which was perfect because it was before the crowds and not too hot.

It was so incredible learning all the history. Norma took us all around explaining many details to us. I was feeling a little tired, queasy and hungry from the trip out there, but pulled myself together for some pictures, shopping and enjoying the sites.

Then we headed to the nearby Centoes.

We went swimming first. The water was beautiful and not super cold, but what I would call "refreshing." Your skin feels amazing after leaving the water. We were in the water for at least 30 minutes but then a huge crowd came and we were hungry so we headed out for lunch.

We had a traditional Mexican buffet lunch. The Lime Soup was my favorite.

Then we went for a short drive to Valladolid, a beautiful old town. We explored just for a little bit becuase at this point we were pretty exhausted.

It was then a 2 hour drive back to our resort. We slept most of the time, but did enjoy some of the views of the beautiful lush jungle surrounding the area.

We went for a quick sunset swim.

Then had dinner at Fuego at 2000 and then back to The Bar for a little bit before relaxing in the hot tub.

Day 5:

I slept in a little while Mike went to the gym.

Then to breakfast at Aurora and a last swim in the pool. The weather was perfect today!

Then to the hot tub and room service for lunch before we packed up. We were picked up at about 1300.

Check in at the airport was easy and our flight was on time. It was a 4 hour flight to Phoenix with a 2 hour layover and then a slightly delayed flight to Sac.

We got home super late after midnight.

We happened to see by brother and sister in law at the airport so we drove them home too.

It felt so good to be home after another amazing trip!