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S.H.*.T. October 2012 CRT Invasion - 11/24/2012 9:49:30 PM
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dona0706
Posts: 977
Joined: 9/3/2008
From: northwestern connecticut
Status: offline
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For me, seeing my tan fade is a clear indication that we've been home long enough …. and the only way to feel better is to do a trip report (or book another trip, but someone else keeps winning the lottery).
Getting to Cancun was pretty uneventful. Just a suggestion … when you're comparing prices, make sure you take into account the price for luggage. $85 down and back pretty much ate up any savings I thought we would have booking through U.S. Air instead of Delta … lesson learned.
Immigration and Customs was a breeze. We were about 12th in line in Immigration and actually made it out to the baggage carousel before the bags got there. Green light …. but they pulled CabinBoy over to check his bags anyway. They kept asking him if he had meat ….. meat ? Maybe it was the candy ! All done and into the shark pit. For the first time, I actually had a woman come right up in my face and ask if I had transportation, who it was with and did I pay for it. I kept repeating that “we were all set” …. and it wasn't until we were fairly close to the exit that she finally backed off. USA had a new set up this year … a small kiosk across from the entrance under the canopy. When asked if this was new, we were told that it's been like this for the past 6 months or so … worked fine. Van arrived and we were on our way. Everything looked pretty much the same with the exception of the road work at the round-about just south of PDC. CRT was a welcomed sight – we were home !
Check-in was a breeze ….. we were greeted with open arms, hugs, handshakes, a cold drink and a ready room. While we waited for AnotherBob and his DW, Cabin Boy was able to get reacquainted with his “girlfriend”, Amada, who is part of the topnotch front desk staff. The S.H.*.T. Invasion has officially started.
For the first 5 days or so, our group consisted of CabinBoy and me, AnotherBob and his DW, NottheMama and Richard and Margie. We had plans …. big plans ….. huge plans !!! But CRT has this ability to totally relax you and wipe your memory clean of anything that was pre-planned. That,and the dreaded sand gravity and the taxi strike took those huge plans and placed them in the bucket for future visits. We had planned on going into Tulum for a late lunch/early dinner at El Camello's and a stop off at the gelato shop with the really nice back courtyard … but that has been added to our May trip. Honestly ? We never really got a straight answer about the taxis other than the drivers in Tulum were angry, had flipped an empty taxi and the governor was sending in the riot squad. We listened to David, the head bellman, when he said going to Tulum might not be a good idea at this time. So, we spent our days and nights at the resort and chilled … which turned out to be a really good thing because once the gang was all there, it was non-stop.
We did find out why the Federale's helicopter spent the night on Route 307. Evidently, there was a very large political convention going on at the Barcelo and there were Federales all over the place, including the air. It's a little weird to be sitting on the beach, reading a good mystery on your Kindle when also of a sudden one of their helicopters flies overhead. We later learned that it ran out of gas and landed on 307 not too far north of the hotel. They were there overnight waiting for a delivery of fuel. Go figure !
We did some snorkeling in front of the resort and were pleasantly surprised by what we saw.
We also finally walked down to Club Maeva and snorkeled around there for a while. We spent some time down by the old pier and were a little disappointed based on what we had heard. Nothing underwater worth mentioning, but we did see this:
We did see a few really large rays who were fluffing up the bottom into huge craters.
Feeling energetic, we decided to snorkel back to CRT and were very glad that we did. We snorkeled through a huge section of purple sea fans. It was beautiful ! Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out .... operator error? Probably ... I didn't know what pictures to take first.
We did get to Akumal to snorkel …. gosh I just love that beach ! There were 10 of us who piled into a van arranged by David, the bellman. The only problem was …. there was also a “guide”. A “guide”?? We've been to the area 8 times in the past 4 years and have snorkeled Akumal at least 8 times … so a “guide”??? Really ? ? Jose, a really nice kid, was talking to us like we've never been there … the looks inside that van were priceless. We all went with the flow – I mean really, what do you do with the “guide” now that you have one … even if you don't want one ? ? Out of the 10 of us, only 9 snorkel .. one is the official beach bag watcher. So it went like this … snorkeler #9 gets in the water first and is gone before the “guide” even realizes that he's in the water. Snorkeler #8 gets in the water and realizes this is not something she really wants to do … so we have two official beach bag watchers. Snorkeler #7 is just recuperating from surgery and has no intention of going out very far and will be quite content just floating around close to shore. Snorkelers 6, 5 and 4 have good intentions, but head off in the opposite direction of the “guide” leaving snorkelers 3, 2 and 1 feeling bad for the “guide” and head out with him. It was a little rushed … I'm a “hoverer” … I like to hover … sorry, no hovering, “come on folks and see the splendor” …. huh? ? It really wasn't bad once he figured out we knew where to go and what to do … we even showed him the cannons. See … anyone can be a “guide”.
It really was a great snorkel – always is – and we got out of there just in time. We finished our snorkel about 11:00 a.m. and by the time we got all of our stuff together the beach was getting packed with snorkel tours. I don't know if I just never noticed it or not or if they are new, but I was amazed to see the snorkel shacks that are now in place by CEA selling “tours”. We headed over to Imelda's for lunch and had to wait a while since the stove wasn't hot enough. Food was delicious – and inexpensive. It's become a tradition of ours. The lady just had to take a picture of our gang and said that, since we came there often, she was posting it on her Facebook page.
Part II ..... a turtle release, Yal Ku Lagoon and LBV .....
Donna
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RE: S.H.*.T. October 2012 CRT Invasion - 11/25/2012 6:26:33 AM
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ChrisandCindy
Posts: 4679
Joined: 12/24/2005
Status: online
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Glad you were delighted with the opportunity to see the splendor.
We saw snorkel groups visiting the ABR dive shop starting at 9 am and running until 3:30 pm every hour on the hour the whole time we were there. $150 bux a head for visiting 3 places to snorkel and getting lunch. They were coming over from the cruise ships docked in Cozumel, go figure.
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RE: S.H.*.T. October 2012 CRT Invasion - 11/25/2012 6:27:21 AM
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uphillklimber
Posts: 5529
Joined: 2/17/2005
From: Bryant Pond, Maine
Status: online
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Mas, por favor!
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Lovin life,
Bob
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RE: S.H.*.T. October 2012 CRT Invasion - 11/25/2012 7:47:40 AM
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Jamie
Posts: 2548
Joined: 3/10/2005
From: Southern California
Status: offline
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Great report and love all the pictures, especially the one of the pelican Hope you have some room pics, CRT looks like a really nice place, except their single supplement is so high and I am a single.
C&C - $150 for a snorkel and lunch trip? Jeez, it is so easy to get there on your own in a taxi, I dunno, never been on a cruise, maybe they were worried about getting back to their ship on time or something.
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RE: S.H.*.T. October 2012 CRT Invasion - 11/27/2012 4:32:01 PM
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cb1
Posts: 59
Joined: 5/19/2011
Status: offline
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Everybody scrolling back up now?
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We arrived early on Sunday this past trip and we were thru the airport in record time! Like just a few minutes -it was awesome
