travel thread

[DQ12]

Did a Mexico all-inclusive a couple weeks ago.  I was skeptical -- kind of assumed it would be like a carnival cruise or something where it's all you can drink, but the drinks are shitty and watered down.  And it's all you can eat, except it's basically an old country buffet.

Turns out, no!  The drinks were excellent!  The food was unbelievable!  What a great place, and for such a reasonable price!

Highly, highly recommend: https://www.excellenceresorts.com/cancun/excellence-playa-mujeres/

[star seed 7]

AI resorts being awesome is one of the bigger surprises of my life.

[Phil Titola]

Did a Mexico all-inclusive a couple weeks ago.  I was skeptical -- kind of assumed it would be like a carnival cruise or something where it's all you can drink, but the drinks are shitty and watered down.  And it's all you can eat, except it's basically an old country buffet.

Turns out, no!  The drinks were excellent!  The food was unbelievable!  What a great place, and for such a reasonable price!

Highly, highly recommend: https://www.excellenceresorts.com/cancun/excellence-playa-mujeres/

I've been to a few AI in Mexico and never been happy with the food. The drinks also seemed more watered down than a cruise. Thanks for the recommendation of a good one!

[steve dave]

Did a Mexico all-inclusive a couple weeks ago.  I was skeptical -- kind of assumed it would be like a carnival cruise or something where it's all you can drink, but the drinks are shitty and watered down.  And it's all you can eat, except it's basically an old country buffet.

Turns out, no!  The drinks were excellent!  The food was unbelievable!  What a great place, and for such a reasonable price!

Highly, highly recommend: https://www.excellenceresorts.com/cancun/excellence-playa-mujeres/

I've stayed there. I thought the food was not very good but had no problems with the drinks. Spa was good. Property was nice and clean. Rooms were very large. This was like 10 years ago so obviously a lot could have changed since then.

[michigancat]

Back from Austin and then New York. I'm not sure if i'm late on this, but..Austin kind of sucked. There were a few places we enjoyed, but for the most part we didn't care much for Austin at all. The Moody Center was a pretty nice venue though and PJ ruled as always. NY was awesome. Kids first time there so I was nervous it would go bad since every other time i'm there I just wander around and hit bars and restaurants. They did awesome. Lil SF was a boss after the first day and he figured crap out. He kept asking me to bring headphones so he could wear them on the subway because that is what everyone else on there did. It was adorable.

Jinxing myself here, but the other best part was back to back trips from KC to Austin then KC to NY with one day in between and only 1 small flight delay even with some storms around. I'm going get my balls punched in next trip.

how old and what did you do in NYC? I like ideas for kid visitors.

10/11. We tried to do a mix of the touristy stuff and just regular go to a new place and explore. We stayed just east and a few blocks off of Times Square on 39th so it was a good location for exploring and people watching. We were only there for 3 days so it wasn't a ton. Yankee game, Broadway, Natural History Museum, Bday lunch at Serendipity, Dinner at Mermaid Inn, and then just mixed in several different areas to explore. They loved figuring out the subway and how to get to places. That was pretty fun to just watch them navigate and learn that the people there aren't on vacation and will run you the eff over if you are in the way. I walked them through Times Square at like 9pm the first night and one of them was pretty freaked. I asked if she would like to see this many people in Prairie Village on a Thursday night at 9pm and she said no way! One dumb thing we did that has me thinking of getting in the slime business was the Slime Museum in Soho(I think). I was pissed about paying for it, but they loved it. Its way too expensive, but they loved the crap out of it and it killed a couple of hours including the train there and me getting to have a beer in a new spot near there. 

thank you

[michigancat]

the only bad all-inclusive experience I had was a resort that had a shitty rocky beach and a main pool that didn't have the filter working properly. Like if you don't expect the finest of dining, don't want to watch your budget on site, and want to minimize stress overall, they're tough to beat.

[ChiComCat]

Did a Mexico all-inclusive a couple weeks ago.  I was skeptical -- kind of assumed it would be like a carnival cruise or something where it's all you can drink, but the drinks are shitty and watered down.  And it's all you can eat, except it's basically an old country buffet.

Turns out, no!  The drinks were excellent!  The food was unbelievable!  What a great place, and for such a reasonable price!

Highly, highly recommend: https://www.excellenceresorts.com/cancun/excellence-playa-mujeres/

I went to a different Excellence on a Wacky recommendation and enjoyed it too.  I thought the food at Excellence was better than other all-ins, although still won't compare to a legit good restaurant.

[steve dave]

Did a Mexico all-inclusive a couple weeks ago.  I was skeptical -- kind of assumed it would be like a carnival cruise or something where it's all you can drink, but the drinks are shitty and watered down.  And it's all you can eat, except it's basically an old country buffet.

Turns out, no!  The drinks were excellent!  The food was unbelievable!  What a great place, and for such a reasonable price!

Highly, highly recommend: https://www.excellenceresorts.com/cancun/excellence-playa-mujeres/

I went to a different Excellence on a Wacky recommendation and enjoyed it too.  I thought the food at Excellence was better than other all-ins, although still won't compare to a legit good restaurant.

yeah, that's kind of where I landed on the food. I wouldn't pay money for it ever, but I had very low expectations and it somewhat exceeded them.

[star seed 7]

I went to a riu in Cabo and they had a rough ridin' street taco stand 5 feet from the pool. Absolutely amazing

[DQ12]

Yeah i don't know.  I was eating lobster tails and ribeyes for dinner and al pastor tacos for lunch.  My mind was blown.  It wasn't michelen level, but I would put it on par with good/decent KC restaurants. 

Point is, I had ultra low expectations going into it, and was blown away by it.  My expectations probably helped enhance those flavors i savored.

[XocolateThundarr]

The Riu we stayed at in Cabo had a huge table full of sushi one day at lunch.  I ate my weight in sushi, proceeded to pound drinks, and had a big nap by the pool that afternoon. 

The end.

[michigancat]

yeah I stayed at a bargain Riu and it had better than decent mexican food. certainly better than a lot of mexican restaurants in the states

[8manpick]

I have no idea what the point of global entry is since customs usually takes about 45 seconds now that they just face scan you and identify you as a non-threat or whatever.  Took under a minute at both CDG and ORD.

[michigancat]

I have no idea what the point of global entry is since customs usually takes about 45 seconds now that they just face scan you and identify you as a non-threat or whatever.  Took under a minute at both CDG and ORD.

That can vary depending on the time of day and the line you take the little printout to

[8manpick]

7 years ago I waited in 30 minute lines, but the last couple of times it has been super quick. I dunno. France airport was incredibly efficient.

[8manpick]

Thought I got another better pic, oh well

[tdaver]

Thought I got another better pic, oh well

Catchacold would be all over this one but I’ll pinch hit… RDM.  Got any VQ pics to go with it?

[8manpick]

No… work :/

Will get a bunch of pics though

[MakeItRain]

I have no idea what the point of global entry is since customs usually takes about 45 seconds now that they just face scan you and identify you as a non-threat or whatever.  Took under a minute at both CDG and ORD.

That's what I said. ORD never takes long. Pay for global entry only to wait for your luggage. Nah. Now if LHR had some equivalent for US passport holders entering the UK, I'd be all over that. There's been times I've been in that line for two hours.

[MakeItRain]

Thought I got another better pic, oh well

What in the third world airport is this? Were you on a peace corps mission?

[IPA4Me]

Idaho lodge feel

[DaBigTrain]

About to board my 20th flight this year and I’ll hit 25 in a little over a month. By far the most I’ve ever traveled in a year.

[Trim]

Thought I got another better pic, oh well

Lawrence, KS?

[cfbandyman]

Definitely somewhere in the Idaho-Montana-Wyoming-Western Colorado area

[8manpick]

Guys tdaver got it within minutes. RDM.