Ocean Maya Royale for the 11th Time! May 2019

I can’t believe it’s been 11 times. Amazing. 

I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to get this post written because in only 14 days we’ll be there again! Yes…for the 12th time. No reason other than to celebrate my 40th birthday! 

Epic is putting it lightly.

We started going to Ocean Maya Royale on a whim in 2013 for our seven-year wedding anniversary. We had visited another resort in Cancun during the two previous years and decided to try something different. On our first visit to OMR we stayed for 18 days. It was a risk that has paid off time and time again!

Here we are six years later and we still enjoy every single day.

Every trip is highly anticipated and this one was no different. We started off with first class tickets from CLE. It's an easy 3.5 hour flight and we're on the ground by 9 am. 

We don’t own a time share and I’m not a travel agent. As you can assume, we love OMR and only wish we had the vacation time to go more often. When it comes to the staff, I’ll admit I’m biased. These people have become like family. When it comes to the value, there is no bias here. It’s basic math. We choose to return time and time again for these two reasons. While the people have become like family, we choose OMR because we can visit 2-3x per year on a very reasonable budget – and we get to see this amazing group of people.

As soon as we step foot on the resort we feel like we're home. This time we were situated in room 3603 :)

Blue Moon and La Dolce Vita are always our favorite restaurants at OMR. You can't go wrong at either. Jorge at La Dolce will go above and beyond to accommodate us. Our favorite dishes are the beef carpaccio, arugula salad, chicken Parmesan and salmon.

Similarly, we ate at Blue Moon every other night. At Blue Moon we enjoyed the clam chowder and saffron pasta every single time! The steak is also a solid choice.

We were happy to see our celebrity photo still on the wall :) You know you’ve made it when… 

We like to stop at El Charro for a drink and a ceviche appetizer before heading elsewhere for dinner. The ceviche is refreshing and small enough for each of us to enjoy our own. We also ate lunch there a few days. We made our own tacos and taco bowls. They’re great! Our little secret (no more...) is to stop in there around lunch time and grab a cup of fresh juice to make margaritas. The watermelon and cucumber are the best!

While we don't typically eat at the buffet, they have a themed menu for dinner and we often popped in at breakfast, lunch and dinner to see what was on display. 

The privilege lounge is the biggest treat for breakfast and lunch. It's a beautiful and relaxing reprieve. Breakfast is a la carte and we often chose something small like fruit or yogurt, but occasionally we ordered a more traditional breakfast. The ham and cheese croissant (add an egg!) is excellent. You can always count on us to wear something Cleveland!

 

Lunch in the Privilege lounge is pretty awesome and there are so many things to choose from...mixed plate, fish tacos, guacamole, sliders, chicken fingers, panini, beef quesadilla, chicken club. Manual provides the best service. He is such a great guy and always has a few bottles of sparkling wine on ice for us.

We were happy to see Yookoso brought back their a la carte menu, which gives guests the option for either hibachi or a la carte. We rarely eat here, but is fun with a large group.

We spend the majority of time at the quiet pool (vs. the party pool) - approximately 8 hours per day. The weather in May is perfect! You don’t have to sit in the sun and scorch, but the pool is warm enough to stay all day. 

Before dinner, we always went to the lobby bar for a pre-dinner cocktail and after dinner we enjoyed the late-night show in the courtyard. Yovanetti, Tila and Ana are the highlight of the evening as they take care of us with speed, kindness and always a smile on their face. We have a mutual adoration and we look forward to seeing them during every visit.

We also had Washington Apples...every day :) Among other things!

 

 

 

There were so many repeat guests during this visit. It was so fun to meet people from all over the world who enjoy OMR as much as we do. 

A few changes since our last visit…

They have better sparkling wine! It’s still not the best, but I don’t expect the best…just drinkable. We were very happy. Thanks Rodrigo :)

They moved, improved and extended the hours for Mike's Coffee Shop. While I don't drink coffee, it's a great place for those who do. They also have desserts and small sandwiches for snacks from from 7 am (I think) until 11 pm.

The Sports Bar is my favorite addition!! So impressed with the chicken wings. I asked for them extra Crujiente and they came out perfect. It’s open from 4 pm-7 am so awesome for late night (or early morning) snacks…more on that later. 

A couple of disappointments…

The sargassum was the worst it’s ever been. This region of the world has been hit hard and every resort is affected. Simply search Google and you’ll read about the devastation. I’ve never heard so many guests complain.  We’ve seen it in so many different stages in the past, but never this extreme. As always, the staff work tirelessly to remove, but there is only so much they can do because it just doesn’t stop.

 

We had friends who stayed an additional two weeks after us and they sent us pictures pretty regularly as the beaches improved. 

It was sad to hear first-time guests complain, but there was only so much we could say. We knew we’d be back…

The other disappointment was a large group of 15-20 people was there the exact same week as us and 1-2 of them were up at 4:30 am every day reserving chairs. They were reserving chairs like this. C’mon.

Don’t get me wrong, we know the towel game. After all, we’ve been there 11 times…but 4:30? It changed the entire mood of the resort. Everyone felt the need to get up way before the crack of dawn to get a chair. Every chair was gone by 5:30. Everyone was complaining. We’re used to 7:30 or 8, but we were not setting an alarm…except one day :)

This became a running joke at the pool. Setting your alarm to get a chair? Hell no. We would just put our stuff at the beach and deal with it. Some people would go back to bed and others just didn’t know what to do with themselves…breakfast didn’t open for another few hours. Except for the sports bar!

Jean and I met our “new friend” Darrell from Kentucky. He was loud and he was fun. He was also hungry at 5 am, so we made a date. We all met at the sports bar for wings and bloody Mary’s at 5 am. It was quite memorable. Great wings…even at 5 am. 

Steve had FOMO so ended up making his way to meet us. Ron slept.

Anyway, we always make the best of every single situation and this was just one example. Wings with friends cures everything. Darrell and celebrity Rob Matthews even joined us for 5 am wings on our day of departure :)

 The staff is phenomenal and make this place great. As always, they go above and beyond to make us feel like family. Miguel, Rodrigo, Carolina, Jorge, Manny, Aranza, Yovanetti, Tila, Ana, Victor, Dafne, Azusena, Mario, Jenny, Adrian, Eber, Tiger, Oli, Jonny, Miguel and the rest of my OMR crew are like our second family. Thank you for all you do to make us feel right at home! We’ll see you soon…