Hello, Tangerineys from an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. Last week,
we released our first video at this resort - Ocean Coral & Turquesa.
We recommend watching that video if you want to see what the new covid-19
check-in process is like, a room tour, how we got a killer deal on the nightly rate,
dining at some of the restaurants and some cool things about the property like bowling and a swim-up bar.
We'll link that video in the description box below.
Now, we hope you enjoy part two of our
all-inclusive resort mini-series, where we experience a Riviera Maya resort, during the covid-19 pandemic.
So, I know we're not in our swimsuits or anything
but we decided to come out here and enjoy the shade of these nice palapas;
these private palapas. Don't you just love palapas?
And get some nice
ocean breeze on our face and just relax a little bit.
And it's really nice out here except for the seaweed that you see here
but sometimes, the seaweed stinks and right now it doesn't at all or
maybe I'm used to the smell and it doesn't bother me anymore.
I am shocked though how few people are out here right now.
I realize this place is at 30% capacity because of the pandemic but
I would have thought everybody would be coming out here because all other beaches are closed.
Technically, we're in orange, which means the beaches are closed except there's like
this gray area outside of resorts in front of the resort. So,
I would think everybody would be taking advantage of it.
Yeah, there's a maximum of 30%
occupancy, but if I had to guess, I would say they're probably not even close to that right now.
In case this is your first time watching a video from our channel,
we just wanted to let you know that we make videos just like this about our life here in mexico.
We're currently living here in the Riviera Maya, specifically in Puerto Morelos,
which happens to be like 10 minutes away from here.
So, if you want to see more videos like this especially and to learn more about Mexico for your upcoming trip
or maybe you want to move here, then we hope you will subscribe to our channel to see more videos that we
have coming up for you.
Even though it seemed like entertainment type activities were limited because of covid, they still had things like pool aerobics
which is what I'm doing here - daily stretching in the grass and other activities
to choose from like trivia, bingo, and Spanish lessons.
We came to the room to cool off a bit, but while we're here,
I'm going to use my, what I call a "traveling chiropractor."
This is a chirp wheel.
This is kind of like a foam roller except it's much more
well designed to target your muscles and really get deep in there and get some cracks as if you're
going to a chiropractor. We really like it after traveling all day in the airplane or
sitting at a desk, working all day. We have a three pack of these.
This is a smallest one, but I bring this little one with us every time we have a trip somewhere.
Yeah, it always keeps us feeling healthy.
We've been using these for about a year now and absolutely love them! So, we became an affiliate.
If you would like to check them out, we recommend getting the three pack
and you can find them at TangerineRollers.com
That will take you straight to our affiliate link.
So, as far as we could tell there's not
too much open as far as like lunch options go, so we decided to get room service again
and this is only my second time ever of getting room service in my life, the first of which being
here. So, you got a breaded fish. Jordan: Mmm-hmm
Breaded fish fillet and a plate of fruit.
And I got a chicken breast. I actually think this is some of the best food that we've had here.
[Laughter]
It's the room service. We wanted to talk a little bit about what they're doing at the
resort here for covid-prevention measures.
We actually do have a lot to compare this to since we're living in Mexico.
We're living just down the road in Puerto Morelos.
And we've seen that every restaurant requires people to wear a mask on the way in,
you're stepping your feet on a sanitizing mat.
They require you to put hand sanitizer on and they're taking your temperatures.
You can only take your mask off when you get to the table.
Here, when we got here, they were supposed to take our temperature
but they didn't. They had a temperature gun at the entrance but never used it.
So, we could have easily come here with symptoms of covid and
nobody would know because they weren't very diligent about checking.
They did make us do a health questionnaire declaring that we don't have a temperature,
we're not coughing, sneezing, things like that,
and that we weren't in contact with anyone with covid, but it didn't really seem like they followed up with anything.
Yeah. Like we just did it, but I don't think anyone checked. I don't think so either.
All around the property,
guests are not required to wear masks, ever.
All employees are and it seemed like basically every employee
was
and almost no guests were. Almost none.
We did wear our masks pretty frequently
but there was, for instance, one situation that I was particularly troubled by was the breakfast buffet.
No one is required to wear masks in there and people get within inches of the food, breathing, talking...
Yes, the employees have to serve the food for you, but there was no sneeze guards or anything.
So, I feel like that is a very risky situation
especially since they never took anyone's temperature the whole rest of the time.
All the 3-4 days that we've been here.
Yeah, and no temperatures taken. Some good things
that they're doing, they have foot sanitizers and hand sanitizers at every single entrance,
however, they're not enforcing it anywhere. Comparing this to
what I've heard from other resorts in the area, at other resorts,
they take your bags and sanitize them as soon as you arrive. Here they didn't do that. The resorts legally,
they're only allowed to be at a maximum of 30%
capacity so they had that going for them because there were never too many people around you.
You almost always had quite a bit of space between
your group and the next group except for maybe at that breakfast buffet
because that's the only place that's open for breakfast.
That's literally the only place you can go if you're not "privilege."
Yeah. (With) privilege, you can order room service or there's like a private nicer dining area.
The thing that makes me the most uneasy is that they didn't really do those
temperature checks and they weren't throughout the time.
Because imagine, someone's coming here and staying for a week or something.
They could start presenting symptoms.
They could present a fever and nobody would know because there's no other...
There's nothing else happening after you get here and maybe not even when you get here.
So, it sounds like you
aren't
really on board with...
Maddie interjects: Nooooo!
Their measures here, their safety measures.
No, I think they could do more and it would make me
uneasy coming back here during pandemic times.
We're at the most highly recommended place to eat at this resort right now.
So, I'm pretty excited for it. It's like a Japanese steakhouse style.
If you're familiar with Benihana, it's kind of like that.
I think I've only been to Benihana once in my life or any style like this, once. So,
this is an extra special treat for me. I'm super excited!
Yeah, me too. Once everyone was seated, the show began!
They got us all pumped up by clapping and hooting and hollering.
It was clear from the get-go that this was going to be a fun evening.
Everyone, one more time
with more energy.
Hello! Hello!
Woo-hoo! [Laughs]
We have four different sushis.
To get us started, they gave each person this beautiful looking sushi plate.
Are you guys ready for the show?
Yes! Everyone speaks Spanish, right?
Yeah!
Okay
And we say...all together, all together...
Ooh Ooh! Ooh, Ooh!
Wow!
[Hooting and Hollering for the sizzling flames]
That is hot! [Laughs]
[Hooting and Hollering for the sizzling flames]
She is Caroline.
Carolina. Look, wow!
Garlic and ginger for the vegetables.
Our master chef is continuing to prepare this food which looks and smells amazing!
And in the meantime, they brought everyone out a miso soup.
Everyone, accompany me please...
And say... all together, all together...
(Counting from 1-20)
Wooo!
Look, wow!
For the couples, look
Wow!
Goodbye Carolina!
Oh!!
Poor thing! Carolina, no!! [Laughter]
Poor, Caroline.
Ginger, okay!
Garlic and ginger. Vanilla ice cream...
Look, wow!
Yummy, yummy!
Maddie: Caroline's heart. Chef: Caroline's heart.
Gasoline...
Look, wow!
Tequila boom boom.
Look, wow! [Fire sizzling]
Yummy, yummy!
He showed us chicken and he's like "iguana"
I wanna eat this all, right now!
[Laughs]
Sriracha, which is spicy...
and Mayonnaise with Sriracha.
Would you like?
Uh, teriyaki. Teriyaki! Let me...
Look, wow! [Laughter]
Teriyaki, wow!
Oh! The finished product!
Alright!
Looks amazing!
Yum! Delicious! Maddie: Does it live up to the smell and the look of it? Hell yeah!
Oh, yeah! I bet!
Chef: Okay! Oh, Oh! Everyone else: Oh, Oh!
Listen, listen!
[Another table doing the same thing]
One more time! One more time! With energy! Okay!
On the count of 3, we'll say "Ooh Ooh!" Okay?
1, 2, 3. Woo! Woo!
I don't know how to make that sound. [Laughs]
1, 2, 3. Woo! Woo!
One more, one more! Wow!
And another... Wow!
Chichen Itza!
Maddie: Cebolla-Itza
We have the Choo-choo train. Look, wow!
Gasoline
Careful! Be careful!
Maddie: This place is gonna blow!
Okay, everyone. Everyone, together say
"Choo Choo!"
So... I love this guy!
He brought the shrimp out and he called them
"baby sharks" and then he started singing the song "Baby shark do do do do do, baby shark do do do do do do baby
shark do do" [Laughter]
I knew that song since I was a girl scout! Like so young!
Baby shark do do do do do
Baby shark... But they're shrimp, that's the funniest part!
[Laughs]
(Next, the game) Catch the shrimp with your mouth.
And if you don't catch it, you don't get dinner.
Okay? Are we ready?
Sir, what is your name?
Jordan.
(Chanting "Jordan")
Are you ready? Yes!
one, two, three
Woah!
One more time! One more time!
You can do it!
And we say: One, two, three!
Ahh! Oh no!
Sir. Thank you. Ma'am.
A little more rice? Yes, please!
This plate is so good! I love this! And
I mean, sometimes they don't know how to cook steak
but when you can cut steak with a fork and then it's just super tender, you know
it's good stuff. And as for my plate, I'm so thankful,
grateful, and excited that they could make me something without sesame and it's super good.
They even had gluten-free soy sauce for me and everything was cooked really well. That was our first
easily well above five-star experience at this resort.
Yeah, the food has really turned around for us on this trip. Yeah. It started off not the best but
it's been much better the last couple of days,
especially that one! I can see why people rave about it.
I loved the experience! The Japanese style right in front of you, cooking, and flames, and
throwing things around and tossing shrimp everywhere.
Yeah, it was super cool!
It worth noting that the other two tables
were English-speaking tables and they put us at the Spanish-speaking one because we speak Spanish. And
we had the same waiter that we did from last night, so he remembered my allergies. And thank goodness,
they could make something without all those things because...
But they prepared something in the back kitchen for you.
Yeah.
He even remembered
that I liked the cheesecake so much that I ordered it twice; the gluten-free cheesecake.
So he brought me the cheesecake from the Mexican restaurant. Oh, tonight was an amazing night! What a perfect last night.
So now, it's been three nights and four days
and we wanted to give you guys our honest opinion on what we thought of this resort.
Keep in mind that when I was shopping around, this was one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest all-inclusive
hotels that I found. And
you did a ton of online shopping for this place. Yeah.
So by no means was I expecting the best of the best of everything, which makes it
for what it is, I think an amazing budget friendly option.
And what would you say, four out of five stars?
Yeah, something like that. I really enjoyed the experience! Yeah.
I thought it was a lot of fun! Same. I think for everything,
maybe for every one thing that we didn't like, there were two things that we really liked. For instance, the food.
We had some incredible meals that were so great!
But then, also there was some food that was like really low quality,
not good, like the breakfast buffet.
Yeah, reading reviews before we came, some reviews said the food was excellent
and other reviews said the food was horrible
and I agree with both of those people.
One thing we forgot to mention in terms of covid differences
are the fact that the restaurants aren't all open all the time.
Normally, they have what, like seven, eight, nine restaurants, yeah.
But only about three of them were open every day.
So you really had to like be on it with those
reservations to make sure you got a seat at the restaurant that you wanted to go to.
And I think that also
there were limitations in terms of the food options in general around the whole property
and kind of the different hours that things were available. Like the coffee shop doesn't open until 11 am.
Who waits that late in the morning to have a coffee? And then it goes until what, 11 pm?
Yeah, why that late? Who needs coffee? If you want to open only 12 hours
why not do seven to seven? And I often felt during the day, like I wanted a snack but there aren't really like
snacky type of things available.
Another thing to consider are the employees and there were some that went above and beyond. They were truly amazing, exceptional,
attention to detail and really service and hospitality
oriented and others were kind of the pits, like they seemed like they hated their jobs
and they didn't want to help us out which
is really truly sad because I know there're at least 100 or maybe a thousand people
who would take their job, happily, in seconds. Yeah.
probably thousands. So many people are out of work in this region right now.
I did really enjoy going out to the pool and going to the swim up bar. That was a lifelong dream of yours.
[Laughs] Oh, yeah. I'm so happy I got to do that!
There's a lot of variety of things to do like
there's ping pong, and there's bowling, and different types of activities. A lot that we didn't even get to do like
Snorkeling, going on the hobie cats, or the kayaks.
We could spend some time at the beach under palapas.
We really only did that once, somehow.
They have what, four different pools including a kiddie pool with a lot of cool stuff for the kids. Jordan,
I don't think that's meant for you.
Yeah, that's meant for kids. I think it's missing a footrest.
This is the cutest little daybed lounge chair thingy I've ever seen. On the end screen here, in just a moment,
we're going to link our binge-watch everything playlist which includes all
the videos we've made since we started traveling in
Mexico, so you can watch them in order.
And if you enjoyed this video, you might consider subscribing to our channel
to see others that we release just like it.
But one more thing before you go...
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Gong that bell!
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And we will see you soon!