Just as in my past life hawking small cap stock mutual funds and government issued bonds, past performance is not indicative of future results…but, man, isn’t this the exact same deal with every travel story? Like, here’s what I experienced, it was awesome, you might like it too, I bet you will! but it will absolutely be 100% different for you because it has to be different. Different weather, different servers at dinner, different everything. But also, kinda the same. And so we share our stories and we read and make decisions based on what others have experienced, and we hope for the best — literally.
So rim your margarita glass with a healthy amount of sea salt and read on about why you might consider a visit to the Hard Rock Riviera Maya with your family.
The thing about resort life is that it’s often a kind of fiction, right? Resort life can be an idyllic paradise untouched by any of the strife the might exist in the surrounding environs. Resort life is often swimming and dining with the exact kind of people you traveled 2, 5, 8 thousand miles to escape for a bit. That’s not what I want from a getaway. Not at all.
But here, for us, in mid-September, on the all-ages Hacienda side of the sprawling Hard Rock Riviera Maya Resort, in the pools, the Rock Spa, and in the Hard Rock Riviera Maya restaurants, we had virtually the run of the place, save for a smattering of guests I’ll call, for lack of specific intel and a better word, locals. Everything communicated verbally was done so in Spanish first, then translated to English. Not the other way around. It was glorious. It felt like Mexico. Which it was, of course, but that’s not always the way when traveling.
It felt real. It felt right. It felt wonderful.
The idea of this 3-night family getaway to the Hard Rock Riviera Maya was to not do. We wanted to float, sit, lie flat, read, and okay, fine do a little writing and schoolwork when it came to me and the teen, respectively. Other than that, we wanted to sink deep into the calm oasis of the all-all-inclusive Hard Rock Riviera Maya.
The Resort’s decadent Rock Royalty level of service helped us achieve our goal.
Upon arrival we were more whisked away than checked in. This, we would find out, is the Rock Royalty treatment and it’s as addictive as the mosh pits of my youth — oh just let me again be tossed around inside the beating heart of it all!
Our butler Pichardo met us in the lobby and put on our bracelets that double as room keys before walking us through the massive square 2-floor lobby, out past the pool, and into our building 6 platinum room. He made our dinner reservations for that evening, connected with me on WhatsApp, and scheduled the complimentary couples massage that came with this level of service.
That’s right, complimentary couples massage in the stunning Hard Rock Riviera Maya Rock Spa!
I need a Pichardo at home!
He arranged for a water pillow and a chamomile scented pillow to be sent to our room because the girls found the pillow menu — yes, you read that correctly, there’s a pillow menu. Pichardo had our en suite jetted tub filled and sprinkled with bath salts for us.
And Pichardo appeared tableside at Zen while we sipped our miso soup to make sure everything was perfect, to recommend the specialty drink (and then spoke to the waiter to order us a non-non-alcoholic version of it), and to ask if there was anything else he could do to make our night the best.
This was all part of being booked into Rock Royalty at Hard Rock Riviera Maya. The extra cost for that level of service is worth every penny because you will feel like a superstar.
Pichardo and the Hard Rock Riviera Maya Rock Royalty Level put my family at the top of the marquee for 3 nights but what really made this vacation memorable is the relative solitude of it all.
My tween and I rose early every morning and went to the beach. We were the only ones there.
Then the teen and mom joined us by the pool after breakfast and…we were the only ones there doing the backstrokes through the waterfalls.
We climbed up and slid down the waterslide with no waits, no lines.
We owned the place and we loved every second of it.
Having rested our weary bones for over 48 hours, we took on an ultimate physical endurance test.
On the last night of our stay, the 11-year-old and I took on the challenge of Woodward at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya.
After an exhausting but exhilarating lesson on the Olympic standard trampolines with Said, she and I pushed past our fear of heights by falling into a massive foam pit.
Then we got fitted for helmets, BMX bikes and scooters, and worked up even more of a sweat. I knew my old knees and lower back would pay the price in the morning but I felt like a kid again touring on the strength of his stellar debut album.
Woodward is a tremendous, thrilling addition to the Hard Rock Riviera Maya Resort, and once the new water park is finished in 2019, the resort will be inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Family Vacation Hall of Fame.
When booking your family’s next tour, make sure you make a plan to play (and relax) in the Rock Royalty level at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya.
I cannot guarantee your experience will be a cover song of our own, but I can assure you that it will be epic.
*A 3-night stay at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya was provided to OWTK to facilitate this story. We paid our own way to Cancun and to and from the airport via the Happy Shuttle private van service.
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