Epps Family Blog: October 2017

We went on a family vacation in October to Playa Del Carmen. We stayed at the Paradisus La Esmeralda and had the very best family vacation! There were so many things that I want to remember about this trip, so I'll bullet them out below:

You can't beat how quickly you get to Playa - we left XNA at 6am and was at our hotel by 11am having lunch
Service - We still haven't found a country with better service than Mexico! This hotel had incredible service!
Family Concierge - We upgraded to this which gave us a room with pool access, access to a restaurant that only served family concierge guests, access to a pool and bar for these guests, as well as our own private butler and fully stocked refrigerator. It only cost a few hundred dollars for this upgrade and was worth every penny. The private restaurant had an awesome breakfast, it was wonderful to have a pool that wasn't crowded, and the butler had fun treats for the kids that made it extra fun.
Kids Club - The kids were not crazy about heading to Kids Club even though they had fun events that occurred each day. They warmed up to it towards the end of the trip and didn't want to leave.
Entertainment - Every night around 8pm, they would have some sort of entertainment. A circus act, Diva Show, Michael Jackson show, Hispanic Heritage show, etc. I felt like I was in Vegas, these acts were superb! All of the entertainers were incredibly talented and I was blown away by the fun acts.
Hair braiding - The girls loved having their hair braided but if we do this again, we need to wait until the last day to do it because the rubber bands kept popping out.
Spa - We didn't do the spa, but next time we want to send the kids to childcare and get a massage on the beach because it was so much cheaper.
Food - It felt like we were eating at Ruth Chris for every meal. The food was a 10 out of 10. The variety of the restaurants, flavors, options, were all fantastic!
Cost - We noticed that the cost of the hotel kept going down as we got closer to our trip. If we did it all over, we would book our flights and wait as long as we could to secure a room. October was also a perfect time to travel because the hotel was nearly empty and the weather was perfect!
Snorkeling - Taylor loved to snorkel. Would have been a lot easier to bring our own gear.
Beach - Not my favorite beach. There was a lot of seaweed that would wash up but the hotel did a nice job of trying to clean it up. The water was fairly calm.
Convenience - We didn't have to bring anything to the beach or the pool. Everything was provided - towels, food, drinks. It made it such an easy trip versus all the gulf coast beach trips of hauling wagons and other things out to the beach, setting up and taking down. It was almost too easy.
Quality time - Although we were all spoiled rotten, we had such a sweet time being together as a family with no distractions. We were able to relax with the kids and just really enjoy them.

Our family suite

Family concierge pool

The pirate ship pool

Kids Club Outdoors

Taylor and Jason snorkeling

Circus show

Bubble bath in the outdoor bathtub

Scavenger hunt left in the room by our family concierge

Following the clues

Treats

All dressed up for dinner

A waiter walked around the restaurant offering baked grasshoppers to sample. Addie was all about them and must have ate at least 7. Camryn and Jason tried a few while Taylor and I stayed away completely.