Early in our planning Megan and I figured it would be great if we could vacation somewhere like Cancun with friends, rather than just on our own. We asked our friends Mike and Monica from Minnesota if they and their boys wanted to join us and they enthusiastically agreed. Due to excessive airline costs we ended up booking a few extra days on our own at the beginning of our trip in a different hotel (the Westin). Essentially, in brief, even with the cost of a few nights at the Westin, our nine day vacation cost as much as would have a 5-6 day trip since the plane tickets for the shorter date span were so expensive. So after our alone time at the Westin, we packed up and headed to meet our friends at our new place.
Part of our strategy was to book a villa, condo, or similar place where each family would have their own room(s) but share a kitchen and living room so everyone could all hang out but also switch off watching the kids for a few evenings. We settled on a place called the Ambiance Villas, and although there were a few hiccups, it is somewhere that we might consider returning to someday (I think that is a nice way of saying that it wasn’t bad, but that we would probably look elsewhere next time). There were a lot of really great aspects of the villas including the great pool for the kids, a compact playground with swings (Caleb loves the swings…”Higher Daddy! I want to go HIGH!“) and the wonderful beach (the sand felt like silk). However, the room, which was comfortable, happened to be on the fourth floor (ahem, no elevator, cough…not a big deal, but it gets old with four adults and three young kids + luggage). There is also the small matter of the all-night rave that seemed to be held each night on the other side of the lagoon (indeed, sound barriers would be a good idea, somewhere mid-lagoon) as well as the nearby traffic noise.
Regardless, we had a blast with our friends, were always pretty pooped at the end of the day, and slept like kittens (kittens who wake up intermittently to listen to rave music…oh it wasn’t that bad). Overall, for a first experience, it was fantastic and we look forward to taking another similar trip very soon!
Click on the photo, or here, to check out the pictures!
