Today, it’s my first travel video in quite a long time.
My wife and I fly to Cancun, Mexico…
And visit an almost-empty resort, thanks to the pandemic.
This is Jimmy Buffet’s new all-inclusive Margaritaville resort.
We had the beach to ourselves.
A lot of times we had the pool to ourselves.
My wife and I felt like billionaires on our own private island!
I’ll tell you all about this new all-inclusive version of Margaritaville…
And how it compares to a vacation on a cruise ship.
I’m Jim, and this is my wife, Kellyn…
And we’ve done 51 cruises over the years, with six different cruise lines…
For a total of 357 days of vacation at sea!
But over the last 12 months, we’ve done exactly ZERO cruises, because of the pandemic.
Now winter can be a little chilly here at our new home in Southeastern Washington state…
And after 12 months without a tropical vacation, we finally couldn’t stand it any longer...
And booked a 7-night stay at the new all-inclusive Margaritaville resort in Cancun…
After a friend vacationed on the Caribbean side of Mexico recently…
And let me know that the resorts are completely un-crowded right now.
A couple of years ago, Kellyn and I stayed at the Margaritaville resort in Hollywood, Florida...
Prior to a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale… and we had a fantastic time.
So, when we heard that a brand-new all-inclusive version of Margaritaville had opened up in Cancun… we were very intrigued.
The idea of just paying one price up-front for the vacation...
Rather than having to pay individually for every drink and every meal along the way...
Sounded like a great improvement on the original Margaritaville concept.
Now the official name of the resort I’m showing you in today’s video is Margaritaville Island Reserve.
It’s located about 20 minutes south of Cancun, near Puerto Morelos…
Which is often known as Riviera Cancun…
An area on the east side of Mexico where the Yucatan peninsula meets the Caribbean.
For miles and miles, the beaches here are lined with resorts.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 100 resorts to choose from in the greater Cancun area.
This actually used to be a different resort.
Then they did a huge renovation where they converted it to the Margaritaville concept…
And it just re-opened under the new name last year.
I really don’t think many people know about it yet, though.
Because of the pandemic, there just aren’t huge numbers of people vacationing at Mexican resorts right now.
People are hunkered down at home.
Which actually makes this a really great time to go to the Margaritaville resort.
In all these video clips I shot with my drone, notice how few people you’re seeing!
There’s just nobody in those loungers down by the beach…
And barely anybody hanging out around the pools.
The resort was just completely un-crowded the whole time we were there.
We were there for 7 nights and after several days of seeing very few other guests there...
I decided to go to the front desk and ask how many other guests they actually had.
They told me the resort has a total of 146 guest rooms...
And that the night before only 16 of them had been occupied…
And that it would drop to only 12 that night!
It was a really unique experience to stay at a nearly-empty resort.
I totally loved not having a whole lot of other people around.
Now I don’t want to paint a false picture… there WERE other people around.
There just weren’t very many.
In the middle of the day, out at the pool…
The most people I ever saw out there during the entire week was probably a dozen.
And there were a lot of times when it was just us and two or three other couples.
And several times when it was just us, and no other couples at all.
Same thing with dining. At breakfast, we either had the entire restaurant to ourselves…
Or, at most, there was one other couple in there at the same time.
At lunch time, we usually ate here at this little restaurant overlooking the beach…
It’s Margaritaville’s casual Mexican restaurant known as Rita’s Taco house…
And there might have been one or two other couples there...
If there was anyone else there at all.
It was the most completely un-crowded vacation we had ever been on…
And we really enjoyed that aspect of it!
Now if you’ll hold on for just a few seconds...
We’re going to take this one quick break…
And then I’ll be right back with a lot more about Margaritaville… right after this!
So, as I mentioned, out of all the resorts in Cancun...
The reason we picked Margaritaville was mainly because of a positive experience we had several years ago...
At the Margaritaville resort in Hollywood, Florida.
We liked the relaxed vibe there...
The music mix they played throughout the resort...
And the food they served in the restaurants.
That was probably the biggest thing, really... the food.
One thing that we’ve learned in over 50 cruise ship vacations...
Is that if you dislike the food a ship serves, you’re going to have a really bad vacation!
Now I’m going to do a whole other video where I talk more extensively about the food at Margaritaville…
Including whether or not this very picky eater got tired of it after 7 days.
That’s a different video, to come later, maybe a week after this one.
The other thing that really attracted me to this new Margaritaville resort in Cancun...
Was the fact that they have swim-up suites.
When I’m on vacation somewhere warm like Cancun, I like to spend a lot of time in the water…
Either in the ocean, if there’s a nice beach…
Or in a swimming pool or a hot tub.
And one of the big trends at newer resorts is to offer swim-up suites.
That’s a hotel room with a patio that is directly connected to a swimming pool…
So you can walk right out of your hotel room, on to the balcony, and climb right in to the pool from there.
We really loved our swim-up suite at the Margaritaville in Cancun!
The weather was right around 80 degrees most days…
So, we spent a lot of time in the pool.
And the cool thing about the particular building that our suite was in at the Margaritaville in Cancun...
Was that the pool that was right outside our suite happened to have a swim-up bar.
And remember, this is an all-inclusive resort…
So, I could step out on the patio of our suite, get in to the pool...
And just wade down to the end of the pool and get my choice of drink from the swim-up bar, at no additional charge.
So, just about every day for our 7-day stay at Margaritaville…
Our routine was to wake up at around the same time the sun rises each morning…
And to go over to “The Beach House” restaurant...
Where we could watch the sun rise as we enjoyed our breakfast.
After breakfast, and showers… And using the resort’s very good WiFi to check on the latest news back home…
We’d move out to the chairs or the daybed on our patio by about 10 AM most days.
Our patio faced southwest… So, by that time, it was wonderfully sunny and warm out on the patio.
If I wanted to cool down, I could just get right in to the pool from there…
And if I was thirsty… I could just wade over to the swim-up bar and order a drink.
We would typically do that until about 1 PM…
Then go get some lunch at Rita’s Taco House…
Then go back to our patio and hang out by the pool again for several more hours after lunch.
It was a really enjoyable, relaxing way to spend a week!
I’ve mentioned two of the restaurants at the Margaritaville resort already...
The Beach House, which is open for breakfast every day, and lunch on some days.
And Rita’s Taco House, which is mainly a lunch spot.
There are also two dinner restaurants: an Italian restaurant called Frank & Lola’s.
And a fusion restaurant that serves food that’s a little bit Latin and a little bit Asian.
I mentioned that, due to the pandemic, we practically had the resort to ourselves.
And that one night we were there, only 12 rooms out of the 146 rooms on the property were occupied.
The staff had so few guests to look after, that when we did need their service…
We had their FULL SERVICE. It was great!
We really felt like VIPs that the staff gave their full attention to.
That was a huge benefit of taking this vacation during the pandemic.
But it was a double-edged sword.
The downside of staying at a resort like this that didn’t have a whole lot of guests at the time…
Was that it would have been impractical for them to keep all their dining options available all the time.
So, the dining options for any particular meal were limited.
We never had a choice of places to eat dinner, for example.
The Italian restaurant would be open one night…
Then the next night the Fusion restaurant would be open…
But they’d never both be open on the same night, giving you some options on that night.
You either had to eat at the one dinner restaurant that was open that night…
Or you could order room service, which is really what we ended up doing on several nights.
But the problem was they had a really limited room service menu.
So, to be honest, dinner was a bit of a problem for us on a couple of nights.
But I want to be clear that overall, we had a fantastic 7-day stay at Margaritaville.
It was a totally relaxing, casual, warm, comfortable, vacation…
Where we could get a lot of rest…
Spend every minute together…
Talk for hours and hours...
And just get back in touch with each other as a couple…
Exactly the vacation we needed, and we loved it.
My wife said she enjoyed it more than most cruise ship vacations we've been on…
Because on cruise ships, things are more structured.
There’s always something going on.
A show at a certain time, or a scheduled activity, or...
A shore excursion...
Or a time you have to be back onboard.
Very structured.
Our week at Margaritaville was so much more relaxing.
Now with the vaccines finally being distributed, this pandemic’s probably going to be over towards the end of the year.
It seems to me that this period we’re in right now...
With most people remaining hunkered down at home...
Presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape...
To the Margaritaville resort in Cancun and enjoy it while it’s completely un-crowded.
The longer you wait, the more things will return to normal at Mexican resorts…
And it’s just a matter of time before they get back to full occupancy again.
So, my advice to you is…
If you’re not afraid to use airplanes and airports during the pandemic, And I don’t think you should be…
Take a week off… book a little trip to Cancun…
And enjoy the new all-inclusive Margaritaville resort while it’s still un-crowded.
And I want you to feel free to use the services of my travel agent, Caitlin Gallagher, to arrange all the details for you.
Believe me, there are some things to watch out for when you’re arranging a Mexican vacation.
Caitlin knows what they are, and she’ll keep you from making a rookie mistake.
For example, you don’t want to take a taxi from the Cancun airport to the resort.
And you don’t want to get crammed in to a van with a bunch of other tourists.
Let Caitlin arrange private transportation for you...
As well as help you pick the right kind of suite at the resort.
One thing I’ve learned in all my travels over the years is to let a travel agent do the work!
They deal with this stuff all the time. They know the right things to steer you in to.
And where a travel agent becomes invaluable is when things get screwed up!
Something goes wrong, plans change... you need some customer service!
Or maybe you just want to book a little day trip to someplace in Cancun during your stay.
You don’t want to spend time on the phone with some hotel employee that doesn’t speak English fluently.
Let Caitlin do it!
You talk to Caitlin, who is an American, speaks perfect English, and is easy to speak with…
And let Caitlin deal with everybody else for you.
You’d think that having somebody like Caitlin on your side would be expensive, but…
Actually, her services cost you nothing.
She’s paid by the resorts, hotels, cruise lines… wherever you decide to travel.
So, I think it’s a no-brainer to have Caitlin on your side...
Arranging all the details for you, steering you in the right direction, and solving any problems that crop up along the way.
In my next video, I’m going to talk more extensively about the food at the Margaritaville resort…
Including letting you in on my dirty little secret that makes it a little trickier for me to travel to foreign countries compared to most people.
And while I’m spilling dirty little secrets, I’ll tell you my wife’s little secret, too.
And I’ll share a secret about the brand-new adults-only version of Margaritaville that's being built right now.
But I’m saving all that for the next video… about a week after this one.
I’m Jim Zim. Thanks for watching!