Cancun trip review

(it's long but perhaps will be interesting and/or helpful to some) 

DH, I, DD, DS, and my parents went to Cancun the week of Labor Day. United has direct flights in both directions on Saturdays so we went for a week.  It is about a 3-3.5 hour flight. Direct is the way to go with LOs, IMO.

I went in having very low expectations, we were not going to visit Chichen Itza, or other ruins, or any ecological parks or the many many other attractions. My goal was to have a week off from cooking, cleaning, laundry, every day stuff.

1^st the bad ? crappy nappers will be crappier nappers on vacation; tantrums and fits are worse on vacation; screaming is worse on vacation; OMG the screaming, it was bad! We were *that* family with *those* kids but we picked a family-friendly resort. To the credit of other vacationers and most of the staff, no one seemed to mind. I think they are used to kids.

It was HOT, hot hot hot and humid.  The only cool place was our room.

We stayed at Gran Caribe Real, an all-inclusive (AI).  It was our 1^st experience with an AI and I liked it, I liked being able to go and eat at any time and the buffets had plenty of choices.  Yes, the food repeated but overall, I was satisfied with the food choices. There were plenty of healthy foods, fish, tons of seafood, great variety of fruits and veggies, lots of choices. There are 2 buffet restaurants and several regular ones.  One of the buffets was outside and had birds (which DD loved!), the inside one?s A/C worked terribly. We ate at each restaurant at least once. If anyone wants I can provide those reviews as well. But overall, I was happy with the food and the choices. DD lived on pasta and ice cream but DS more than made up for her by eating everything he could; that boy can eat!

I wish I had brought more disposable bibs, more disposable place mats and I should?ve brought a whole container of Clorox wipes. I packed a few in a baggie and I was that Mom wiping down every surface within reach on the airplane. I also used them and the baby wipes to wipe down the table at each meal.

Our room had 2 double beds, which is what we requested. The bad thing is that all rooms like that have stairs, it was a nightmare, b/c DS is simply obsessed with stairs, he can spend hours just walking up and down and up and down and again and again. But the floor is all stone so it was pretty dangerous. He?s 15mo so he still needs help going down the stairs. I taught DD to go down on her belly but he only wants to walk down.  We ended up putting our double stroller there as a buffer but then we had to watch him b/c he tried to climb the gate that?s next to the stairs!  The other hard thing was that DS is a mover, the boy never stops moving, literally. He even moves in his sleep; I spent many many hours a day just walking around with him, chasing him; it was tiring! We requested a crib and the moment I put him in, it collapsed (he was standing so he was OK). He slept with me the whole time (kicking, punching, and pulling my hair in the middle of the night), DD slept with DH. They brought a 2^nd crib but I was too afraid to put him in and it was very small and he would probably have been able to climb out of it, knowing him! He was a real handful the whole time. He napped in the stroller in the morning, usually after we went to the pool after breakfast.

Our room had a great view and a balcony. My parents? view was not as nice. I requested and received rooms not near the elevators and it was never too loud.

If you can afford it (financially and emotionally) I recommend bringing your parents or ILs with you on vacation; mine were very helpful!

We pretty much lived at one of the pools, the Pirate Ship Pool, which DD loved. After a couple of days we got into a routine, we?d eat breakfast, come back to the room and get ready for the pool. This took forever, with bathing suits, swim diaper for DS and all the sunscreen for all 4 of us.  By the time we got to the pool, it was almost time for DS? nap. After the pool, we went to lunch and then back to the room for some cool and quiet. DD usually watched Mickey (we brought a couple of DVDs from home, they had a DVD player).  We sometimes then went somewhere (in the hotel or the malls) and if we did, she would nap in the stroller.  DS would not nap a 2^nd time.

We went to 2 malls, once the day it was very very rainy and stormy, and 2^nd time to the really nice mall with the aquarium; we were not going to make it to the dolphin show (7pm was too late for us) but we lucked out and saw a group swim with the dolphins and it was like a dolphin show in itself.  DD loved the aquarium and was so happy to see Nemo!

It took a couple of tries but the kids finally played in the sand a little bit. The waves were too rough to swim in the ocean but we took a few pix. My Mom wanted to try parasailing so she and I did that one time, also riding a jetski to get to the boat. We did this during DS? nap.  It made me a little nauseous but was overall fun and it was something my Mom always wanted to do.

They had a nightly show, my parents went every night. One night my Mom stayed with the kids while DH and I went out; one night I went out with my parents. We walked over to the adults-only sister hotel next door which is awesome!  All other nights, DH and I laid down with the kids and went to sleep shortly after they did. The wi-fi worked OK on my bed so that would be the time I usually checked the bump and FB.  Wi-fi worked well in the lobby and by the pirate ship pool, poorly everywhere else.  There was plenty of alcohol everywhere, including a dispenser in our room and a minibar, refilled every day. I was worried 2 bottles of water a day in the minibar would not be enough but the lobby bar had plenty of bottled water.  I brought those organic containers of milk with us but the kids were not interested. DS drank milk in the restaurants but DD refused, which I was not happy about but I am hoping she?ll drink it now that we are home. We let her have juices and she loved that b/c we don?t do juice at home.

We had a morning flight there and an afternoon flight back. DD did really well; I brought all the stuff everyone talks about (snacks, coloring, etc).  I went on the Disney website and printed some coloring pages and on the Thomas and friends website and printed a couple of puzzles, you just cut them up and the child puts it together. DS did not do as well b/c as I mentioned he cannot sit still and I had to force him to sit when we needed to. He took a nap on the way there and a very short one on the way back.

It was not easy but overall, it was a good time.  Our pictures will always show good memories.  Here are some, we took over 2300; only 36 here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2407811040996.139954.1422792971&l=18e22ffacd&type=1