So after about an hour and a half or so of driving on the Mexican interstates, we started seeing signs for Dreams Tulum.
Woo hoo!!!
We had to take a "retorno" - basically a center lane that allows you to make a u-turn every couple of miles or so. It's incredibly efficient - it totally eliminates the need for on-ramps and off-ramps in both directions. If your destination is on the left, instead of having an off-ramp and an underpass which allows drivers to turn either left or right, you simply turn around at the first available retorno and then take the one exit for your destination.
The entrance
The driveway
The driveway leading to the Dreams lobby is a pretty, cobblestone drive that has a walking trail along it. We never used the walking trail, but it looked pretty. One time driving out though we did see a coatimundi cross the road!! We didn't know what it was at the time, but now I can confirm that it was a coatimundi. It's like a Mexican raccoon. Check out this site for more information on coatimundis.
The picture makes it look cute, but the one we saw seemed pretty ugly (from http://www.pet-spot.com/blog/?p=191)
Anyway, we pulled up at the front door and a bell boy immediately opened our doors. They unloaded our luggage and gave us a luggage ticket and opened the doors to the lobby. The Dreams Tulum lobby is beautiful - it's enormous with marble floors and it's very luxurious - couches, a concierge desk, a tours desk, a bar, and more. The weird thing about their lobby is that it is totally under-utilized because of it's location on the resort - it's not really near anything other than guest rooms. This was really different from the lobby at the Breezes resort in Jamaica, where the lobby bar was open the longest of all of the bars and the lobby in general was a central meeting place where everyone walked through all the time.
So we were handed glasses of champagne and offered cool towels (which we declined, not really our thing). I sipped my champagne while we checked in - DH quickly chugged his. He was ready for a drink. Check-in was a breeze (I had recently read a comment on Trip Advisor about how check-in for the author took over an hour and they said that the front desk staff were incredibly rude - we experienced none of that), and we went back out front to meet the bell boy, equipped with a resort map (the place is huge compared to other resorts we've been at!)
We were escorted to our room, which was located on the second floor in the "deluxe garden view" section of the resort, which - as I mentioned in this post - is really quite a distance away from the main gathering places of the resort. But as I also mentioned in that post, it was the least expensive room type, so you get what you pay for. See my Room Review post for more specifics on the room!
Actually this is a picture of our second room, but it's identical to the first
Anyway, at this point the rest of the day was more or less a blur. We were sooo tired, and we had only checked in around 5:45 so it was already almost time for dinner. DH ordered room service to tide him over for a late dinner, since I wanted to hit the pool!!!
That's right! I made my OWN Bud Light Lime!
There were two pools, the "activities" pool and the "quiet" pool. Sort of silly names, since the quiet pool wasn't really that quiet, since there were often kids in it and you could hear all of the sounds from the activities pool, which was right next to it. But we didn't mind. I simply preferred the "quiet" pool because of it's dark blue color. The other pool was that light aqua color that so many pools are, and it made it seem dirty and less cool to me. So we spent most of our time in the quiet pool.
After my swim we decided to check out the Mexican restaurant, El Patio. I've already written a brief review of El Patio, and honestly, we didn't really enjoy it. It was weird... we were in Mexico and there wasn't a single burrito or fajita or anything that remotely resembled "Mexican" food on the menu! I totally get that Mexican food goes beyond the Tex Mex-style mexican food that Americans generally think of when they think of Mexican food, but the stuff on this menu seemed like regular American meat dishes with chips and salsa as an appetizer.
I ordered some chicken dish and DH had "ribs," but it was like, one rib - totally not enough food for him. I was really hoping for some authentic Mexican food and was very disappointed - not a great way to start off the food experience of the trip. This was also the only time that we really had to wait for a table for dinner. We arrived around 8:30, and apparently 8 p.m. is one of their busiest times for dinner at all of the restaurants, so you usually have to wait if you go between 8 and 9. They told us about 20 minutes, so we got a drink and sat down and our buzzer went off about 10 minutes later.
Yum!
This was also the evening that we met the couple that we would later refer to as "Facebook Friends." Facebook Friends were a young, fun looking couple that we decided we wanted to be friends with. Their name comes from the fact that DH wished he had his Droid so that he could simply ask them through social media if they wanted to be friends or not. But friendship with Facebook Friends was not to be - we encountered them constantly, and we always said hi and made small conversation, but usually DH was on the verge of dying from his intestinal disorder, so we were always sort of in a hurry to get back to the room. And since he was always dying and we were never out later than 9 p.m. on any given evening except for one, we never ran into them at the bars. Oh well...
That night we watched the tail end of the Fire Show. The Fire Show was the one show that I read was "not to be missed." However, we missed most of it because we weren't seated at El Patio until close to 9 and the show started at 9. From the music and flashing lights that we could see over the hedges of El Patio, it definitely looked cool. I'm not sure what we missed, but here are a few clips of what we did get to see. Sorry for the poor video quality - these were taken on my little point and shoot camera.
Very, very awesome. This happened on a Sunday night, and I think their shows rotate on a weekly basis, so if you're there on a Sunday, definitely check it out!
Shortly after that we headed to bed - we were exhausted and as much as I wanted to stay up and hang out, we needed sleep more than anything. If only I had known that this would be only one of two nights that DH felt well the entire week!
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