Allegro Playacar - Vegetarians with a 3 yr old child - May 25, 2003

We just returned from our 8 day stay at the ALLEGRO PLAYACAR. We had a great experience.

HOTEL TIPS:
Do not arrive before 3 PM if you expect to get in your room before doing anything, you will be waiting in the lobby sweating in your blue jeans! They absolutely do not give out room keys before 3 or sometimes 4. If you do arrive early then get your all-inclusive-bracelet and head for pool or the buffet. The lunch buffet closes at 2:30 PM but there is pizza by the pool until 6 PM.

ROOMS:
Request a downstairs room,VERY IMPORTANT, say you have a knee problem and can not walk up and down the stairs. We were lucky to get a downstairs room but everyone with an upstairs one was very disappointed because evidently the wall separating the two rooms does not go all the way to the roof and you can hear your neighbors and their TV just as if they were behind a divider in your room! There are 4 rooms in each bungelo and our downstairs room was as quiet as could be. The rooms are smaller than rooms that we have stayed at other hotels, but it did not bother us- you will not spend much time in them anyway. The shower is EXCELLENT and the décor is charming.

GO NOW!
The Allegro Playacar is operating at 50% capacity because half of the rooms are under renovation, big time renovation they are ripping out all the walls and pretty much starting from scratch, so there is some construction noise but it is not bothersome. The ADVANTAGE is that even when they are fully booked it feels like there are only a few people there, there is always a chair on the beach or at the pool and absolutely no waiting in line at the restaurants!

THE FOOD:
The restaurants were pretty good, better than I had remembered food in Cancun being, but we are vegetarians and pretty picky about what we eat, we had actually packed an entire suitcase of canned goods and packaged foods for emergencies but only ate the cookies and peanut butter that we took. The TOPAZ, the buffet, has a made to order pasta bar at lunch and dinner and a made to order omelet bar at breakfast. There is always refried beans, tortillas, rice and salsa and usually another vegetable and potatoes and a wide variety of meats. Their fresh baked breads are great. The pizza oven by the pool is good, we had pizza everyday at 4 PM. We did not care for the pool side lunch buffet because it was hamburgers hotdogs and fries. However it they always had guacamole and chips which was good. The reservation restaurants are really good we at at both, the Mexican one is by the pool and is more of a mayan-mexican fare, it is casual and kids are welcome. The Italian one is formal (no shorts or flip-flops) and kids are only allowed at the first sitting 6 PM- It takes a little over 2 hours to eat at this place because it is a full ITALIAN 4 course meal with wine and desert. Food was very good and a nice change from the buffet.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN
We did venture in to Playa Del Carmen one evening, we walked with a stroller and it took about 45 minutes, others borrowed bikes from the hotel and made it in 15 minutes- or you can always take a quick cab ride. We were a bit scared of getting montezumas revenge and PDC food placed made the restaurants back at the hotel look spotless- but wee did find a really nice vegetarian place to eat called 100% NATURAL, it was probably one of the best meals I have had in months! I have a list of other places for vegetarians to eat if anyone wants to email me, but we did not try any others. To get to Playa Del Carmen just walk out the hotel entrance and head right, keep going until you see signs for the CONTINENTAL PLAZA and then walk right up to that hotel and turn left just before the beach, very easy to get there, but if you stay straight and go on to 10th Ave instead you might miss the "real sights"!

PLAYACAR Village:
There is a small shopping village a few minutes walk from the hotel, turn left out the front door. It is mostly t-shirt shops and over priced gift shops but there is an internet café and a pharmacy there and an ATM machine. It is a nice evening walk. We got temporary henna tattoos there for $5.

KIDS CLUB
There is a great kids club at the Allegro. They had a large shaded playground, air-conditioned bungelo with games, big screen TV, a parrot, fish, turtles, craft area, child size bathroom, and a mickey-mouse shaped kiddie pool. The woman that runs it is incredible with kids. They are open 9-5, you can stay with your kids or drop them off (if the are between the ages of 4 - 12) or you can stay with them if they are younger, which we did because my daughter is almost 3. They have a "Mini Disco" every night at 8:30 PM on the main stage (7:30 on Monday). They call the kids up on stage and do dances, play games, hit a pinata, it was my daughter's favorite part of the vacation.

ACTIVITIES
The activities staff is GREAT! They have many things going on pool side daily, stretching classes, water aerobics, kayak races in the pool, pool side games, drinking games, water polo, soccer, beach volleyball, usually 2 or 3 activities going at the same time every 30 minutes. Makes you wonder how they can keep up the energy.

MEDICAL CARE:
We did have to take advantage of the 24 hour medical staff at the hotel because my husband came down with an ear infection and we called the doctor at 3 AM, he arrived at our room within 10 minutes and did the exam then went in to town to get the medication for my husband, the exam cost us $60 and the medication about $60. The doctor was very nice, spoke perfect English and my husband recovered before the end of our trip.

DOWN SIDE:
Our only real complaints are that everything happens so slow there- we are used to a fast pace world and to having great service at a hotel, but you have to keep reminding yourself that it is a different culture and they do things slower. They will tell you "just 10 minutes" in response to every request, but many times they request is not fulfilled for hours unless you pitch a fit, we figured this was because they were busy doing things for people pitching fits and all others were done afterwards. We also felt we were always ready to eat 1 hour before the restaurants opened!

We will be going back to this hotel for sure! We had a great trip!

Posted by Karen - kk@digihippie.com
May 18 - 25, 2003 - Allegro Playacar