We were able to go back to
The Royal in Playa del Carmen to celebrate our first anniversary. Thanks to Robin's recommendation, this is where we went last year for our honeymoon and we absolutely loved it. I really hope we get to do this every year. Here are a few of the things I love about it...in no particular order:
1. The Beautiful Resort...seriously! Check out their website for better pictures. Everywhere you look it's so beautiful! Here are a few outside pictures. The first one is looking back towards the lobby and the second is looking towards the ocean . The inside is beyond beautiful too. The rooms are the biggest I've ever stayed in. Each room has really high lofted ceilings, a jacuzzi, balcony, large bathroom....there are wrought iron chandeliers everywhere along with huge scrolled pillars. The entire place is tiled and sparkling clean.
2. This is the magic box...I love it. When you call room service, they put your food in this box through an outside door and flip a little red light on. You can then go get it whenever you want. We enjoyed breakfast in bed everyday.
3. The romantic surprises make everything even more special. We came in one afternoon and they had a letter with a fruit basked and a piece of cake with a chocolate card that said Happy Anniversary. When we came in after dinner that night, they had a trail of rose petals along the floor, on our bed, and around the jacuzzi. I loved it!
4. The food was great! There are 5 or 6 restaurants at this resort and if you're staying here, you also have access to the ones at the kid friendly resort next door. Our favorite meal was at the Chef's Plate. You have to make reservations ahead of time because they only serve around 20 a night since the chef is cooking your meal especially for you. This was such a fun meal. It was several courses and it was all soo good...sometimes at fancy places, the food is weird...this wasn't. Our main course was steak, but we also had soup, bread crisp sticks with dipping sauce, some sort of fish appetizer, kiwi sorbet, bread with different flavors of butter, and raspberry moose. Soooo good!
5. The view. Again, everywhere you looked it was breath-taking. My camera doesn't do it justice. I love the color of the ocean!
6. I also loved reading in the cabanas. It's so peaceful and relaxing. This is an adults only resort, which means it's really quiet and peaceful everywhere.
7. The jacuzzi in the room is a big bonus to me. I wish I could have brought it back with me.
8. The service is pretty close to perfection. I loved lying on the cabanas. The servers would come by and bring you anything you want...sugared grapes on a toothpick, sunscreen, anything you want to drink, they even come by and spritz you with water if you're too hot. They are so polite and friendly. One time Chad's glass was empty and they guy started running to get him another diet coke. In one of the buffet restaurants, they didn't even let me walk down the steps carring my plate. They took it from me and walked me to my table.
9. Chad and I played volleyball a lot last week. I'm not the greatest, but it was really fun.
10. I know this may sound a little cheesy, but my favorite part was getting to spend the entire week with just me and Chad...no work and no distractions.
I have so many pictures...I wish I could post them all. It was such a great time!
and After:
I just felt like I needed to post this in case you missed my facebook post. I LOVE these! Someone told me about them a while back, but I hadn't seen any until yesterday....and yes, I bought several packs and I'm hiding them in the freezer. These are my new favorite snack! I love how the M&M's have pictures of umbrellas, palm trees, the sun, and tropical flowers on them. I know it's kinda ridiculous how excited I get over food sometimes, but these really brought a smile to my face. Try them!
3. The romantic surprises make everything even more special. We came in one afternoon and they had a letter with a fruit basked and a piece of cake with a chocolate card that said Happy Anniversary. When we came in after dinner that night, they had a trail of rose petals along the floor, on our bed, and around the jacuzzi. I loved it!
4. The food was great! There are 5 or 6 restaurants at this resort and if you're staying here, you also have access to the ones at the kid friendly resort next door. Our favorite meal was at the Chef's Plate. You have to make reservations ahead of time because they only serve around 20 a night since the chef is cooking your meal especially for you. This was such a fun meal. It was several courses and it was all soo good...sometimes at fancy places, the food is weird...this wasn't. Our main course was steak, but we also had soup, bread crisp sticks with dipping sauce, some sort of fish appetizer, kiwi sorbet, bread with different flavors of butter, and raspberry moose. Soooo good!
5. The view. Again, everywhere you looked it was breath-taking. My camera doesn't do it justice. I love the color of the ocean!
6. I also loved reading in the cabanas. It's so peaceful and relaxing. This is an adults only resort, which means it's really quiet and peaceful everywhere. 
7. The jacuzzi in the room is a big bonus to me. I wish I could have brought it back with me.
8. The service is pretty close to perfection. I loved lying on the cabanas. The servers would come by and bring you anything you want...sugared grapes on a toothpick, sunscreen, anything you want to drink, they even come by and spritz you with water if you're too hot. They are so polite and friendly. One time Chad's glass was empty and they guy started running to get him another diet coke. In one of the buffet restaurants, they didn't even let me walk down the steps carring my plate. They took it from me and walked me to my table.
9. Chad and I played volleyball a lot last week. I'm not the greatest, but it was really fun.
I have so many pictures...I wish I could post them all. It was such a great time!
So I've had a lot of computer time this summer and I've stumbled across several really good blogs. One of my very favorite ones is bakerella. Everything she makes looks sooo good. I have a long list of things I want to make from her site. If you have time, you should check it out and bookmark it.
Crush the entire package of Oreo's until it's really fine. A magic bullet or food processor works great for this. Mix in the package of cream cheese. I left my mixer going on high speed for a couple of minutes.
Form the mixture into balls...about 1 inch. Place onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and put it in the freezer until they are hard. I left mine in for about an hour.
Melt the almond bark over low heat until completely melted and smooth. Dip the Oreo balls into the bark and place on wax paper.
I topped mine with crushed oreos.
Place in refrigerator until ready to eat/serve. You don't have to keep them refrigerated long, it just helps the chocolate coating harden.
Yea! Another giveaway! My brother first introduced me to this book a while back. I went through it again with Chad before we got married. If you haven't read it yet, I really recommend that you read it. There are parts that are a little cheesy, but it helps you remember the key points. It's been over a year since I've read it and it has stuck with me. I think everyone should read it...we have more than one copy sitting on our shelf and I want to give this copy away. I'll ship it out on Friday, so if you're interested, enter quickly. To enter, just leave a comment and I'll randomly select a winner like last time. The winner will be chosen this Thursday night. Good luck!
