The Maya was Great!

[mford]

My beau and I just returned from a short trip (5 days/4 nights), and we had a great time!  Our only complaint was that we could not stay longer. 

Resort:  It was gorgeous! We spent the first hour there walking around absorbing the beauty and getting to know the place.  It is huge, so be prepared to walk.  But we love to walk, so we liked it.  The pictures don't quite do this place justice.  I looked at every picture on the Internet I could find (I'm a little obsessive), and I was still blown away.

Rooms: Huge for two people, and the bathroom was divine!  I took full advantage of the jacuzzi tub.  My boyfriend was more impressed with the great water pressure in the shower.  And the big mirror never fogged up.  There was plenty of storage space.  We hardly missed the ocean view.  We were in building 64, which meant we did a lot of walking. But again, we like to walk, so we didn't mind at all.

Food: Because of what we read in other reviews, we made our reservations as soon as we got there at the guest services desk.  We tend to eat late, so we had no problem getting reservations for our first choices at 8:30 p.m.  Steak restaurant - My ribeye was very good and big.  I gave half to my boyfriend because his ribs were just o.k.  Gourmet restaurant - Everything was really good!  I had the lobster salad and duck.  He had the asparagus soup and something (I can't remember).  Japanese restaurant - Not to be missed!  This was fun and the food was great.  I loved the veggie tempura.  Canjun Lindo restaurant - Also very good, and don't miss the coconut shrimp.  We went back for seconds before dessert.  For breakfast every morning, we did the buffet in the Seafood restaurant.  It was just want we needed.  My beau loves made to order omelets, and I'm happy so long as I have bacon and good coffee.  Neither one of us was disappointed.  He also seemed to really like the homemade donuts.  For lunch, we generally did the Lindo buffet.  Again, I'm pretty easy to please.  Every day I think I had guacamole and chips, jalapeno poppers, fruit, and steak.  The only food caveat I have is that the desserts weren't that great, but I don't feel like I missed anything, and I probably saved myself a pound of vacation weight. 

Drinks:  I think I was tipsy the entire time, which is not hard to accomplish.  There are bars everywhere.  I drank a lot of margaritas (very strong on the alcohol content).  My beau does not drink, and he still loved the place, so my good review is not because I was drunk!

Activities:  I had a great beach massage, and my boyfriend kicked butt in the air gun competition.  He went to the gym a couple of times, and he thought it was a good set up.

Beach/Pool:  Other than the sunburn (my own doing), I loved both.  I did not have a problem getting a chair at either spot.  I never even bothered to reserve spots in the a.m.  I just grabbed chairs when we went out. I think we went at a good time though (post spring break/pre-summer).  So maybe there were less people.  The pools are so beautiful! The beach was breezy, but the breeze was nice in the hot sun.  I went out in the ocean, but I kept getting knocked over.  It was fun!

Misc.:  We did tip the maid $2 a day and leave a couple of bucks at dinner.  We also left a nice tip the day we left for the guy at breakfast every morning.  We kept sitting at the same table and he was awesome.  We used bottled water in the room to brush our teeth.  That's really the only precaution we took, and neither one of us got sick.

Excursion: We went to Chichen Itza one day using the Apple tour folks.  The ruins were pretty amazing.  I'm glad we made the long trek.  We got picked up at 7:50 a.m. We got to the ruins at 11 (b/c of pick ups at other hotels).  We had a tour guide provided by Apple for about an hour and a half.  He was really good.  And then we had another hour and a half on our own.  The ruins weren't crowded (again, probably because it was after spring break, but before the summer), and we had plenty of time to explore.  We climbed to the top of the big pyramid, which was not too bad.  But the climb down was a little scary.  I had to scoot down on my butt.  Afterwards, we went to lunch at a local restaurant near a cenote.  The corn tortillas were really good, but I chickened out of jumping in the cenote, because of some rather large, black fish.  But it was beautiful.  We took the local road back through a colonial town, and Apple showed a movie on the bus to help pass the time.  We were back by 7:30 p.m.  A long day, but worth it.

For those of you planning trips, I hope this helps.  The reviews left by others were a God send!  Have fun!!!

[CoralReef]

Great review, thanks!

Kudos to your beau for making it to the gym on vacation   Can you tell me, was it air-conditioned? Were there treadmills? Do you know if it was it the brand-new elaborate fitness center that I heard was under construction, or was it a smaller facility? Thanks

[mford]

I don't remember specifically if there was air conditioning in the gym, but I went in to see it our first day there and it was not at all hot.  In fact, I remember it feeling pretty cool, so they must have something on.  The equipment was very good.  It was comparable to the equipment at my gym in my office building.  They had the standard stair climbers, treadmills, ellyptical trainers, weight machines, and weights.  And of course, it is pretty empty, so you won't have trouble getting your pick of equipment or weights.  There were also his and her jacuzzis and steam rooms.  I'd have my beau give you a reply, but he just left for Russia.  But he really liked the gym, and he works out a lot in some pretty ramped up gyms. 

[CoralReef]

Thank you!