Golden Crown Paradise Report

We just returned from paradise yesterday and thought I would let everyone know what we thought. This was our first trip to PV and we received so much information here that I wanted to give a little back.

Pre-trip: Things did not begin on a positive note. We booked our last minute trip on FunJet through a local travel agent. 4 days before we were scheduled to leave, my travel agent told me my credit cared had been rejected because it had expired (which it hadn’t). To make a long story short, the travel agent failed to book us and tried to get us to stay in Nuevo Vallarta instead of GCP. We ended up flying on FunJet, but the accommodations were through Custom Creative Vacations. Whew, we are booked at last.

Day 1: We are up bright and early to drive to O’Hare about 1 hour. We leave right on time but run into traffic which puts us about 20 minutes behind schedule. We are supposed to park at the Thrifty car rental, but it is not near the other care rental places, so it is off to long them parking. We get in the tram and see Trans Meridian Airlines – Terminal 3. So it is off to terminal 3. But wait no one in terminal 3 has ever heard of TMA. After a brief panic attack thinking we were supposed to be at Midway airport, we head to the International terminal and there it is, a homemade looking sign that says FunJet. My wife and I get 2 seats across the aisle from each other and we are off the ground. We are hoping our luggage makes it since we checked in late.

Oh on another subject, we bought TSA locks for our luggage, but the TSA agent told us it would take him about 15 minutes to find a key to fit the lock and they usually just cut them off anyway.

We land in PV about 15 minutes early; yea finally something has gone right. Off the plane, through immigration and tada our luggage was among the first off the plane. I push the button, PASSE, through the Time Share Shark Tank and look for our vacation rep…. Which is nowhere to be found? After wondering around the airport for about 10 minutes, a lady tells us to head over to Expovallarta. They ask us for our voucher. Now we do not have a voucher, but rather a card that has the info on it. They were a little confused but they figured it out and I was taken to a white car, not one of the taxis but a bigger car. We arrive at the hotel and check in and are told our room will be ready in an hour. So we change, get our wrist bands and start exploring.

Check in goes without a hitch and I head up to the room. We got room 1503, which is the second room closest to the ocean. When the bellboy opens the door, I see balloons and steamers, towels folded like swans, rabbits and elephants, there is a birthday cake for my wife and a bottle of champagne. Now I did send an e-mail to Rose Mary an e-mail letting her know about our celebration, but I did not expect the room to look so nice.

We pretty much just checked out the resort and found that Rose Mary had made reservations for us at Salvador’s so we got dressed up and headed to dinner. Once there we found more balloons and streamers and yet another bottle of champagne. Dinner was fabulous and we had our first “Sexy coffee”. This is a show to be scene and I could not do it justice, but let me say that the fact that the place has not burned to the ground is a testament to their skill.

After a moonlit walk on the beach it was up to bed. We had planned on resting, and then going to Christine’s for a foam party, but one of us had too much rum and bubbly and was not able to get out of bed at 11:00. Day one comes to an end.

To be continued…
G.

Day 2: I wake up and have 2 problems, first my head is pounding. I should never have finished the 2 bottles of champagne as it always gives me a hangover. Second, my back is sore. Now let me say this up front, I have one complaint and only one complaint about the entire trip and that is that the bed was way too firm. I had a hard time getting comfortable on the bed, but after the first night I would sleep on the comforter and it was not so bad.

So I took a couple of advil and soon after there was a knock at the door. Room service was there and right smack dab in the middle of the time we (well my wife) requested. We had a very nice breakfast on the balcony which has a great view of the bay. After eating it was time to go to the pool and make some friends.

My first stop was the towel hut, where we had heard that you had to get in line at 9:00 in order to get a good time for a dinner seating. This turned out to be untrue. We arrived at different times throughout the week and always got a seating around the time we wanted. I guess if you wanted to eat at 8:15 you might have a problem but we are not that picky. At the towel hut we met Rachel and Danny. Both are characters and were very pleasant. There will be more on these two later.

With towels in hand wifey and I split so we can do our own thing. See she brought 7 books and can lie in the sun for hours and never move. I on the other hand cannot sit still for more than 15 minutes before I start to go a little crazy. So she heads for a lounge chair and I go to the pool bar.

Enter Aldo. Aldo will soon become one of my best friends, he sees that I am a little hung over and offers me a cure. Something to do with vodka, anis and bitters with a splash of club soda. Yea it tastes as bad as it sounds, but in 15 minutes the hangover is gone. Maybe my body was afraid I would drink more of that stuff so it surrendered. Next it was time for a bloody Mary. Now I gave Aldo 100 pesos as thanks for making the pain go away and he proceeded to make me a bloody Mary, I asked for olives and for it to be good and hot, just the way I like it. I must say it was one of the better BM’s I have had. Aldo and I began a conversation about futbol, as I am one of the only soccer fans from the US and we talked about the US vs. Mexico game last month. He talked in English while I spoke butchered Spanish, (which Aldo complimented me on) for the better part of 2 hours. I had to break up the chat so that my wife and I could go on the canopy tour, so it is off to the city.

We booked our canopy tour the day before and arrived by taxi to the tour office in PV. We boarded an open air truck and took about a 45 minute ride to Los Veranos. The guides were hilarious and were half of the fun. Now I am a little afraid of heights so I was a quite nervous about sliding across the jungle on a thin wire, but I strapped in to the harness and gave it a go. This tour is not for those who are easily tired. It was easily in the high 90’s and quite humid. There was lots of walking up hills (always up) and climbing of staircases. I made it to the top of the first tree and hooked on. The guides do all of the work, all you have to do is hold on to the handle bars. The first line was a short one and I was on the next platform before I knew it. WOW I made it. All fears were now gone and we had 14 more zip lines to go. I did come into a tree too fast and hit my leg which gave me a nice bruise but that was not a big deal. After the tour we went to a little restaurant / bar and had some drinks before the long trip home. This trip is defiantly a must do and was one of the best things I have ever done.

Dinner was at Paradise where Poly runs the show. Once again “Sexy Coffee” was our night cap and if I dare say, his show was better than the night before. Finally off to bed, where we fell asleep to the sound of the crashing surf. Good night.

To be continued…

A quick not before I get to day 3. I am not sure if you are aware but Aldo was heading off to Guadalajara (Sp?) to have a procedure on his wrists. I thing he has carple tunnel or somehting from opening the bottles for 15 years or so. If you get a chance to ask Rose Mary about him, I would like to know how he is doing. He should be back next week.

Actually the first meal we had was the grilled Mahi mahi at the Breeze bar and I am not sure if it is the sandwich, the gear view or the fact that we were finally there but it was great all around. We really liked the sushi in the evening and made it a point to have a little pre dinner snack.

As far as the Sexy Coffee, ours was always with brandy so I guess it would be the spanish one. I saw they had rum and tequilla but I never saw Poly make a coffee with those.

Sorry for the delay in the report, but I am at work and am still trying to get caught up.
G.

Day 3: Rise and shine and ohhhh my back is still sore. This morning we head down to the Buena Vista coffee shop for breakfast. I can’t decide on Huevos Rancheros (my usual favorite) or the chicken in a green chili sauce…. So I get both and was very happy with both of my choices. Wifey got the waffles and fruit and loved both of them. We made a few friends at breakfast so we had a nice conversation to boot.

Now is time for my morning ritual… head to the pool bar and low and behold Aldo has my bloody Mary waiting for me with a cup full of olives. After a few rounds and just taking in the sights the activity staff starts a game of water polo. I figure I could use a little activity so in the pool I go. We had a lot of fun and made even more friends (Hi Josh and Suzy from Toronto). All was going well until someone (not me) let loose an errant shot which bounced into the pool bar and broke 3 glass bottles. Luckily no body got hurt and Aldo and Julian were good sports about it. Unlike my wife who thought I broke the bottles and made me apologize. For sum reason this was the only day they offered water polo while we were there, Huh.

My next water activity was something they call “tequila volleyball”, in which the person who messes up gets to take a drink of something that Aldo whips up. Today’s drink is the Mexican Snowball, which is like a mudslide only with tequila in it (My honey loved it and it became her drink of choice). Needless to say the game was not very competitive but a blast and being the gentleman that I am, I was always willing to do the drink for one of the ladies.

My other discovery today was the snack bar and Laura. Inside this little hut it must have been 110 degrees but when I made a comment about it being hot, Laura just smiled and said it was not hot enough. I ordered tacos el pastor which is grilled pork. Oh my, were they the best, I think this was my favorite food on the trip. I ordered those 5 at a time and after the first day Laura would start my order before I even got to the line. Now I did have the pizza her and it was ok at best and the cheeseburger was good but nothing special about it. I gave Laura 50 pesos and she seemed very appreciative. She did not have a tip jar so I do not thing she gets many tips, but she was a sweet girl who had something funny to say every day.

Dinner was back to Paradise, which I think was my favorite restaurant. The view was great and I liked the salad bar. Poly is always right on top of things and the food is wonderful, I am not sure who the chef is but they should be commended. By the way the bar at Paradise had Johnny Walker Black. I normally will drink a good scotch but I figured in Mexico stay with the tropical drinks so it was rum and tequila for me.

With a frozen drink in hand, Lynda (Wifey) and I sat on the beach and watched the sun set on our 3rd day. We never made it outside of the resort, but this is what we came here for, a nice relaxing trip and it is just what we got.

To be continued…
G.

Day 4: Good morning. I did not sleep very well last night. No it was not the bed this time but the sounds of the waves crashing. Sometime during the night, Mother Nature decided to throw some big ones our way and they were loud enough to startle me. I tried to close the balcony door, but my dear wife likes the sound of the crashing waves and guess who won that debate.

Off to Paradise for breakfast. Now this is the upstairs restaurant that is a buffet by morning. Hey it’s Poly, who greets us with a friendly handshake and takes us to a nice table with a view. When do these people sleep? The buffet was good, but not a lot of variety. I liked the beef in the hot sauce and something I would describe as a nacho casserole, only the chips were a little soggy. Poly would not let me get my own ketchup even though it was only 10 feet away and when I asked for tortillas, they brought me about 20. Can you say service?

Since the waves kept waking me up all night, I decided to get back at them and I checked out a boogie board and hit the water. I have to say it was nice and hot out and when I hit that water… burrrrrr. But I got used to it and had a blast riding the waves. They were a little big at times and I tried to avoid the big ones. Lynda tried and could not get the hang of it but we had some good laughs. A few kids from the resort next door were animals, no fear.

Since we were on the beach today, let me talk a bit about the beach vendors. I had mixed feelings about these people. Some tended to be rude and would come right up to the property line a shout at you even if you are trying to read or nap. I ended up just ignoring them which is against my personality and began to dislike them. Others just walked the beach (not easy to do all day) and offered their wares. I truly felt sorry for them as they were working very hard and did not seem to be making many sells. We did not buy anything from them, but it could be a convenience since they sell most of the small things from town. I did notice that there were a group of vendors which sold some sort of sun tanning service where they would spray you and rub the lotion in. There was always a line for this early in the morning and it looked to be quite popular. I did not take part as I have a saying “the sun does not shine at the pool bar”.

I will also now address the other complaints that I have read on this and other boards:

You already know my dislike for the bed, but my wife did not mind so much so may be it was me.

The elevators worked every day. We tool the stairs down and the elevators up. They were a bit slow but it was never a problem. I will say the lights in the elevators were hot and I felt like I was in an easy bake oven.

Smells… We did have a faint hint of what could be called sewage, but I think it is the cleaning stuff that they use on the floors, mixed with the insecticide. This was never a problem for us but we were on the 5th floor.

Weak drinks; please, I would have tell them to keep the alcohol light for my wife. Even before I was friends with Aldo the drinks were strong enough for me. And I went to many other bars at the 2 resorts and never found watered down drinks. You do have to ask for “top shelf” alcohol or you will get the local stuff, but in blended drinks you could not tell the difference.

People claiming pool chairs; while we were there management put out signs that said it was against the rules to reserve a chair unless you were using it. After that there was never and issue with chairs being reserved so this was not a problem for us.

I forget what we did for dinner, but we did go to the show at the Factory Club across the street. Tonight was a magic show which involved 3 tricks. All were done well but it was nothing special. What we did like was the dancing that they did between the shows. More on this tomorrow.

I did manage to step in a hole crossing the street on the way back to our room. My wife thinks that Aldo on me should stop hanging out together, while I blamed the lack of lighting.

Off to bed and the reality sets in that the trip is half over.

To be continued…
G.

Great report but in wrong section, I read it anyway. Will be at the GPC is just under 10 weeks. I knew Aldo had problems with his wrists, and he bounce back from knee surgery quickly, so if he get his procedure done now maybe he will be back when I am there.

Moving to trip reports :-)

Mogens

Day 5: Good morning rise and shine. Well yet another night where I did not sleep well. This time… sunburn. Remember how I said I do not use much suntan lotion ‘cause the sun doesn’t shine at the pool bar. Well come to find out the sun shines good and strong while you are boogie boarding. So first things firs I head to the little gift shop and ahhhhh aloe. But wait US$15.00 for the small bottle…I guess I learned my lesson. Next time I will be a little more prepared.

Today’s activity is going next door to the Crown Paradise Club. We went to the buffet for breakfast and now I realize why I love the Golden Crown Paradise so much. THE QUIET. There were a lot of kids running around and the noise level in the restaurant was a bit overwhelming. OK ok maybe it had a little to do with the hangover I am still trying to shake but I am still blaming it on the kids. Now the food here was quite good and there was a desert bar to die for, but I must say the service (it is a buffet) was not as good as it is at the GCP.

Now that I have a little food in my (ever growing) belly, I feel like a bloody Mary. Now we are no where near Aldo or Julian so I head to the swim up bar. I have been waiting for this moment since we booked our trip. There is something about sitting at a bar and being in water that makes me smile. Anyway I find the “pool” and realize that it is quite small. It looks like it has a fountain in the middle but it is not working. So I jump out of my shoes and walk into the “pool” and WOW!!! It is hot, and I mean HOT. This thing was easily over 100 degrees as I have a hot tub at home and this is easily hotter than I ever set mine. As I fight the heat and head to the stools, I sink further into the “pool” and bingo my sunburn. Reverse and get out, walk around to the bars, walk-up side and finally get my bloody Mary. This “pool” was by far too hot to enjoy and I watched as nearly a dozen people entered and exited the “pool” in the 10 minutes that I was there. Back to my pool.

The rest of the day was spent in the normal fashion. Bloody Marys, volleyball, rum, swimming, tequila, repeat.

For dinner we go back to the GPC and the Japanese restaurant for dinner. We ordered sushi for an appetizer and loved it. The rest of the meal was fine, but when we were done we ordered more sushi. Finally we headed back to the Factory Club for “Hollywood” night.

At first I was expecting the same thing as the night before, but we were in for a surprise. I was completely impressed with the dance numbers and there were outstanding performances by Rachael and Danny. Here is where I need to explain something… The activity staffs from the 2 resorts are the performers in the shows at the FC. I have to believe that Rachael and Danny were brought here to dance and act first, and then do the activities by the pool later. I mean they honestly dance as well as I have seen in many local professional shows. So make sure you check out Hollywood night, you will not be disappointed.

That’s pretty much it for tonight. With aloe on my back and pleasant thoughts in my head, I drift off to sleep.

To be continued…
G.