Marina El Cid Spa + Beach resort Riviera Maya, Mexico | Motherhood Unplugged

We flew to Mexico in April for the boys Spring break vacation. I booked our hotel package through Bookit.com. I initially wanted to stay at the Finest Playa Mujeres again; however all the rooms within our budget for this trip were booked. Instead of upping the ante I went for a less expensive place this time. I chose to stay in a different area of Mexico at the Marina El Cid resort, which is located in an old fishing town.

My first impression of the hotel was that it looked nice and just like the pictures I had seen online. This was our first time traveling with Spirit airlines and we also had a layover during both legs of the trip so we were pretty tired upon arrival. The check-in process was rather long in my opinion, similar to a timeshare presentation but they weren't selling you anything. Their preferred guest lounge made it a bit more palatable though so that was a nice touch to welcome us to the property. I think it actually took us an hour after sitting down to get to our room. One perk of being a preferred guest is that our package came with a personal butler during our stay. Initially, I did not think that we would need to use a butler but I was wrong. The butler helped us with restaurant reservations, changing currency and overall just looked after our well being. Although he did service other families I often saw him on the property and he always offered his assistance with a smile. I really appreciated this added service of the preferred guest option.

The hotel's property overall was extremely nice, the restaurants were in close proximity to our room and had a good selection for vegetarians and pescatarians. I loved their various types of food served and mainly ate egg white omelets and fruit for breakfast. The opposite side of the resort had another restaurant that served fresh juices and smoothies! The grounds were immaculately maintained and the pools were clean with a great view; however the beach was less than desirable. The beach was covered in seaweed everyday, so much so that the water looked dark green and I wouldn't dare swim in it. This was definitely not revealed on their website either. The groundsmen did use a bulldozer to clean up the beach on a daily basis and that definitely added to the aesthetic of lounging on the shore. I let the boys play on the waters edge and even took them out in a kayak one afternoon. Most of our stay was being entertained at the pool as a result. We played in the pool on our side of the property near the kids club as well as the other side which had the large waterslide. There were plenty of families with young kids for the boys to mingle with as well. The resort side with the waterslide seemed to be more of a party atmosphere; which was fun during the day and then we had some reprieve on our more quiet side of the property.

My oldest played at the kids club quite a bit at this resort. They had a schedule of activities for them to do including artwork, music, making bracelets along with a sand pit and playground. All of the ladies seemed to work well with children and Phoenix even asked to go to the kids club sometimes rather than hang with us, the nerve lol I think he just needed a break from his little brother, you know how siblings can be. The night entertainment was fortunately done right in front of our building so they could enjoy it in their pjs. One night there was a Michael Jackson themed show as well as fire dancers!There was also a chance to see iguanas all around the property which the boys loved as they are very much into reptiles. Check out our nature quests on the Exploring Nature tab above.

On our first night there we didn't feel like dragging the boys to dinner at the restaurant after being so jet lagged so we opted to order in with room service but after waiting for over an hour I had to call again only to find out that they had not placed our order and the closest restaurant was about to close! Obviously this wasn't received well by me after a long day of travel but I mustered up the energy to get dressed again, went to the restaurant ate and brought back some provisionals for the boys lol by which time the room service had arrived another hour later. Luckily, the hotel had a decent gym for me to blow off some steam the following morning :) I actually worked out almost every morning and once in the afternoon during the kids nap time. There was a cross-fit section towards the back, treadmills, row machine, smith machine and some leg machines as well. The morning sunrise was quite a treat to watch after finishing my work out and then going to the preferred guest lounge for an espresso was great too!

Other than a few mishaps, overall this trip was pleasant, we still managed to have a good time nonetheless. I was able to use my new yi4K action camera (thanks hubs) to record our travel videos so be sure to check out my very first Youtube video here.

Happy Travels!

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