11th GPC stay

[chuck]

OMG ANOTHER GREAT WEEK AT THE GPC
6/22 Left STL on time with Funjet and arrived in PV a little after noon. Ran though immgration and customs without a hitch. My neighbours on the plane acctualy were also going to the GPC on their honeymoon and being their 1st time out of the US they stuck with us. Boarded a nice van and in less than 10 min we were being greated by the bellhops and front desk staff. No need for me to use the hospitaliity suite as I wear my beach cloths on the plane. We made our way to the staff shack on the beach and were surprised to se Charlie back at the GPC, and very happy to see Rachel still there. After greatings and hugs we went to the Breeze bar and had a couple of drinks and a mahi-mahi sandwich. I have one of those bad boys every day as they are so good.
We later dropped by the pool bar to see if Aldo was there, found out it was his day off. Got a couple of chairs at the pool and joined in the Sundance and tequila voleyball. Retired to our room 1401 got cleaned up and stopped by the Pub bar for a cocktail before going to the Paradise for dinner. I must mention that everytime we dropped by either a bar or a resturant Kay had to give hugs and kissed to all the familiar staff as they always remember us.
Good to see Poly and Maria still in the Paradise. I remember our 1st trip to the GPC in 99 and Poly was a bussboy at the Bellavista and in just a couple of years he became the manager of the Paradise. He knows how to work the guests and make them feel special.
The menues have been updated and they had so many good items I found it hard to make a choice, so I asked Poly to just bring me what he thought would be the best. He did very well but I was surprised each night by him bringing me two entres each time. I guess he could't make up his mind either. Time for sexy coffee, with lots of "marijuana" (nutmeg) . Leaving a generous tip we went to the lobbey to check out the silver for sale. Kay being a silver jewlery junkie, we ended up by the end of the week having another $600 worth of silver for her and I bought a really cool $2 peso gold coin in a heavy 18K nugget setting. "Ba-Ling"
Time to go over to the Factory club and see the show. Had a great reunion with Lucy, Dany, Benjie. After the show it was time to turn in and having one of the best nights sleep I've had in a long time by leaving the door open to hear the waves crashing on the beach all night long.

6/23-6/25 Beautiful sunny hot weather. Spent much time in the pool and in the ocean. Aldo is at the pool bar and is doing well. His joints get a little stiff after being off but he gets right back into mixing all of those tastey drinks. I gave his several packs of Partagas miniature cigarillos. He really loves them and I have an overabundance of those little cigars. Our pool attendants (servers) was the lovely Sol, and sr. Ramirez who both were very attendant and quick with our refreshments. Needless to say all three of the aforementioned received lots of tips during the day. Kay found the Sunbusters and got her special rate for their famous anti burn oil treatment. She also sees Eddie who sells silver on the beach and ends up buying some rings and ankle bracelets from him. She always gets a good price. And for me, I guess I have sucker written across my forehead 'cause who do I see on the beach, but Carlos the blanket seller. Over the past couple of years I have bought at least 10 blankets from this guy. He sees me and gets me to buy another blanket and also a bed spread this time. I told him my wife will kill be, but he was unconcerned. LOL
More pool games with new friends we are meeting from Belleville IL, Seatle WA, Farmington MO, and several states in Mexico.
Dinner at the Paradise, of course with two entres...again! Over to the Factory club for more shows and back to the room.

6/26 Sunday. We had our usual routine of 2-3 bloody marys before breakfast in the Paradise,. They have a very good bufet breakfast, but Poly insists he makes me a special omlet, which I alow him to and I eat it with gusto Sr. Ramirez who is our pool attendant is also a waiter during breakfast and is ready to be of service to us.
Out to the pool with our friends for lots of sun and fun. No dinner at the Paradise tonite, we decide to go to Pi Pi's for dinner. We arrive via cab at about 7pm and get a table right away. After a couple of margaritas, guacamole (made at the table) chicken fajitas and camarones ala diabla we walk down to the malecon. It is family night and there are dances, food stands, art displays and music. There was also mayan sky dancers at the north end of the malecon. We have seen them in Tulum and to see these guys hanging by their ankles from ropes and flying around that tall pole is something to see. I also am a big fan of the mayan pipes that they play during this act.
At 9pm we meet Dany and Lucy at La Bodegita del Medio, a Cubano dance bar across the street from the malecon. What a cool bar with lots of grafitti and really good live Cubun music. When Dany and Lucy got out on the floor everyone else had to set down since they are professional dancers and are very good at all of the latin dances. I really can't dance so I am drinking mojitos and this "banana farmer" somes up to Kay and takes her to the dance floor and commences to dance her to death. To her credit, she kept up with him. The guy was really cute, about 50, 5'4" with blue jeans, rolled up pants leg cuffs, a crisp read shirt with a whit bandana around his neck and a straw vacarro hat, like I said it looks like he just got off the truck from the banana plantation. We stayed there till 1am and then cought a cab back for another good nites sleep. BTW this was the night that we had one of those storms with rain and thunder for a couple of hours, how relaxing.

6/27-6/28 More of the same, with of course the hot on humid weather that is PV during the summer. With a really nice steady breeze fron the bay and Ramirez and my new girlfriend Sol bringing us drinks every 15 minutes the heat and humidity was easy to handle. Since Tuesday is our last full day at the GPC I make sure I get the final tips to everyone. Sol, Ramirez, Aldo, and Polo (bartender at the Pub bar) each get an additonal $200mp. Have tipped our maid the first full day we were there $200mp and with that our room was cleaned by 10 each morning and never needed fresh towels because she encusred we were never without a full supply. Big tipps for Poly and Maria in the Paradise for our "last supper". One last Sexy coffee, and we are over to see the show again. This time it's Disney and our "son" Dany is the MC. He is just so cute.

6/29 We wake up bummed out 'cause we leave the hotel at 11am. We quickly pack and head out so say "adios" to all. This also happens to be my 52nd birthday so I am extra bummed. A couple extra bloodymarys and we are off to the airport. But not too quick. As the bus turns the courner by the Hotel Krysal, some knuckelheads have parked some cars too near the curve and the bus cound not negotiate the turn for over 20 min until they were able to locate the oweners to move them.
At the airport we are waiting in lline for baggage inspection, luckily my plan works out again. I always wear a Mexican soccer jersey to and from Mexico and it seems we get special treatment. We are waved though the baggage inspection area right to the ticket counter. Up the stairs to the duty free shops and I get my 4 bottles of single malt scotch and 2 bottles of premium tequila. Yes alittle over my limit but not called on it in customs in STL as usual. As we touched down in STL Kay turns on her cell and has 25 messages. She looks confused after listening to a few. She tells me that while we were gone, the business that she is PR/marketing rep for is going out of bussiness as of July 8 and she is out of a job. Bummer!

Back home, Kay looking for another marketing job and I'm trying to book another trip mid Jan 06. Hope she can arrange for vacation from her new job at that time.

Sorry for any errors in this post, my comp. was not posting anyting except blanks since we got home and today was the first time it's been posting correctly. I have been typing fast to keep this current. Hasta luego, amigos.

[kennye]

Chuck, was also sorry that I missed you. I had intended to come down a week earlier but my daughter's dance recital interferred. Your previous posts proved valuable to me on my trip. Thank goodness I knew about the "ochos". Had 4 of them during my week there.

[tojol57]

Hey there Chuck and Kay.... wonderful stories... thanks for sharing with us... i am so glad that Lucy is back... Lucy i am HOME... i have always called her my Mexican esposa.... as well as Maria up in Paradise... LOL love my mexican esposas.... LOL and yes it is great to see Poly doing so well... it is just fabulous... all the staff is just wonderful... Lorrie and i were saddened to see how the trip ended... Kaye is among the unemployed... well you and Kaye will be in our thoughts and prayers as she works her way thru this.... We hope to catch up with you two sometime as well... hopefully we will get down in October to see eveybody... i am so glad that Lucy has come back to the resort... and then go again for two weeks in February.... but it will all depend on how some of the ventures that Lorrie and I are working on right now.... oh well...

love hugs and kisses from iowa....

[chuck]

Kay was only out of a job for a week. She was picked up by a larger title insurance comp this last week and is lucky to rec' the same salary and benifits so it's mostly a name change for her. My only cncern is if she gets a weeks vacation in mid Jan when we plan on traveling again to lovely PV.

[tojol57]

that is great news Chuck.... we are so happy for Kay.... let's up that it keeps getting better... she should have negotiated some vacation right off the bat then... then maybe you could have come down in January and February....

have a great weekend... love hugs and kisses from Iowa...

[chuck]

I think she shouldn't try to push her luck. After all she works in the title insurance game which I really can't see how any of those companies stay afloat.

[jhoefle]

Great trip report Chuck. Glad that you and Kay had a great time. I was also glad to hear that Kay got a job right away.

[chuck]

I was really going to give a detailed report but alot of the "details" got lost hanging out with Aldo most afternoons. A little too much tequila and some of those Cuba libres that are made 75% rum and 25% coke, well after that you really can't remember everything. I was just lucky to remember where my room was.

[jhoefle]

It is truely amazing the punch that some of those drinks have, isn't it? You definitly can not say that the GCP waters down the drinks. We had some fairly blurry afternoons as well, so I know what you mean. It took both Mark and I to do our trip report and I not quite sure the details are in the right places. Even tho our culprit was Freddy at the Breeze. He would see us coming and get our drinks ready. It would have been rude not to drink them.

[stew]

judilee (Jul 18, 2005 08:24 a.m.):
It is truely amazing the punch that some of those drinks have, isn't it? You definitely can not say that the GCP waters down the drinks. We had some fairly blurry afternoons as well, so I know what you mean. It took both Mark and I to do our trip report and I not quite sure the details are in the right places.
Marvelous! Go to Mexico & stay loaded! Heck you could of stayed home & done that for a lot less. So SAD!

[stew]

judilee (Jul 18, 2005 08:24 a.m.):
It is truely amazing the punch that some of those drinks have, isn't it? You definitely can not say that the GCP waters down the drinks. We had some fairly blurry afternoons as well, so I know what you mean. It took both Mark and I to do our trip report and I not quite sure the details are in the right places.
Marvelous! Go to Mexico & stay loaded! Heck you could of stayed home & done that for a lot less. So SAD!

[tojol57]

Stew, be nice, that is why we get blurry some days so that we don't remember home... LOL it is good to see that everybody has a good time... That is why i have cervesa con ascetunas (beer with olives) so that i am eating all the time... snacks at the bottom of each glass... it is great.... now granted Mrs Crown and I do like to party, but we are so active thru out the day and into the nights, that the alcohol doesn't stay with us very long, plus our rule is with each cocktail there must be at least one bottle of water along the way... one to keep hydrated, as well as "water" down our own drinks... now granted Aldo, Margarito, Polo, and the other bartenders like to see us with our happy drinks, but they also know our policy and keep the ice water coming our direction...

Chuck and Kay it is always a pleasure to see your posts, as well as see Judilee out here posting away.... Well i better get to work for a little while... and then come back out here later and post some more thoughts .... October is just around the corner for #9, and February is not far behind that too.... you are still within reach Tiger (Chuck) but who knows if you can catch him... LOL

love hugs and kisses from IOwa...

[stew]

Mr&MrsCrownParadise (Jul 18, 2005 11:19 a.m.):
Stew, be nice
I am sorry, but frankly when I read a report that is 90 % (at least) about sucking up booze & getting wasted I flash back to all the rude, ugly gringo drunks I
see making fools (& all American) out of them selves on the streets & bars of PV. There is nothing wrong with letting your hair down a bit. but to get wasted daily as Chuck seems to indicate in his "report" is frankly a bit distrubing!. I stand by my original post!

[tojol57]

Oh i hear you there Stew, been there done that too... we have been to the resort when a company will bring a group down as a bonus for their hard work, and the first day out, they think they have to drink the place dry... and are miserable the rest of the week... and we have some that stay constantly blitzed and we have to somewhat kick their butts because they are so rude... and they get to know Security real fast, as well as their boss gets an ear full from us, management and security.... but you know that is the one thing about being at an all inclusive... when you don't have to reach for money while sitting at the bar, you can consume so much in a little time... and if you don't like this drink, order something different, it is all included...

and we been down town when the gringos have lost their intelligence at one of the many local watering holes too.... i guess i don't care if a person gets totally s*** faced at the resort, as long as it doesn't filter into my time or face, or they are mean rotten and nasty to the staff... then LOOK out... Mr and Mrs Crown are some really nasty people that you don't want to get mad...

have a good one Stew.... take care....

[jhoefle]

As much as I detest getting into any sort of mud slinging event, I feel that I must respond to Stew. A few points to consider:

1) As you were not with either Chuck or myself on our trips, you have no basis for making rude comments about our behavior. I personally never did anything that was an embarassment to myself, my companoins or my country.

2) People have been known to exagerate slightly when telling a story.

3) Mark and I are Canadians - who happen, for the moment, to be living and working in the US - as guests we did nothing to shame this country either.

4) We did many other activities besides drink, but relaxing at the resort was a part of our vacation and I feel that as such I do not really need some one else to tell me how to conduct my vacation.

5) Making sweeping statements, especially of condemnaton, can be a sign of narrow minded thinking. (In which one might think one knows more than one actually does)

Last only post on this topic for me.

[stew]

5) Making sweeping statements, especially of condemnaton, can be a sign of narrow minded thinking. (In which one might think one knows more than one actually does

I really do not care what country you are from acting the fool is universal! As to my knowledge I can promise you it is huge on this subject. Bragging about getting so wasted that you have trouble remembering events is right out of a teenage spring break experience. Thought this was a adult site!

[tojol57]

ok everybody... take one step back and a DEEP breath.... We all do things on vacation, we all have been down different roads of life... But i can see that everybody is over-reacting here.... so i am hoping that everybody can respect everybody's right to have a good time in the way they seem fit, and to act like adults and be mature enough to say so.... Stew, remember i know your relatives... don't make me go there... LOL just kidding you .... and i agree with Judilee, that some people do tend to "stretch" the truth just a little when they are telling their tales of adventure, fun in the sund, and how they drank the entire swimming pool while playing tequila volleyball.... heck i have come close to that myself... i barely remember one time where i took the entire bottle for the team because it was Tea Toadler week at the resort, and i was the only one drinking... so as you can see i can stretch the story just a wee bit .... so lets all calm down and have a good time.... Judilee and Chuck... DRINKS ON MR CROWN.... lol and stew i will order you and ice tea just to be a nice guy.... ok.... talk to you all soon....

love hugs and kisses from Iowa...

[Aussie1]

Stew seems a real yobbo with the tall poppy syndrom. He needs to rack-off.

[SherryPV]

I also do not like to get involved in these types of discussions, but how I enjoy my vacation is
my business. If I want to drink all day at the resort and have a great time, that is what I will do.

I can not believe after that great trip report that is all Stew got out of all their hard work.
Enjoy your vacation as you see fit. I do not believe they did anything to hurt anyone in any way
or embarrass anyone. Lighten up! That is what vacation is for.

[tojol57]

so what were we all talking about.....