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A little travel tip. I needed out of the 2 degree weather and booked a last minute run to Mexico last week. Wanted Cozumel but the cheap flights were to Cancun and I wasn't going to be picky since I was looking for a quick escape and not a major vacation with things to do.

As I had heard from many, Cancun is barely Mexico. It's like vacationing in a mall. Planet Hollywood, Chili's, Hooters, McDonalds, etc. But it's a warm mall and there's a Margaritaville. So here's the big travel warning if you go.

First thing, don't buy into the hotel photos of a large white sand beach. Wilma ate the beaches. If you want a beach, check out Google Earth to see what's left. Our hotel had a tiny corner of rocks.

BEWARE MARGARITAVILLE!!!!

Biggest warning is that you should hit the ATM and have cash for Mville. All my credit card hits from there were doubled. Not duplicated, just doubled in amount. I'm fighting them now.

Next up is the entertainment. During the day, everything's as it should be in M'ville. The place is nicely decorated, somewhere between KeyWest and Vegas. But I foolishly figured it was a good place to go at night for some island tunes. Surely some Reggae or Latin tunes would be rolling live or otherwise. Not the case. Cancun has this thing for bad 80's music. They had a tape/video rolling with some latin Richard Simmons cheerleading to YMCA, Get Jiggy With It, and Hammer Time. Hard to keep my Margs down.

Also at night you'll have some scamming grass skirt wearing waitress that will urge you to do a shot of Puckers (yuch). PHans like us are susceptible to thinking it's like the tailgate atmosphere and they're just getting the party rolling. Not so. The second you succumb and take the shot she gets less bouncy and says "4 dollars".

The last warning might not be common, but it's a fun tale. After 2 rounds hoping for better tunes we were ready to call it. She brings the bill and I give her the credit card. She asks what the tip will be up front so she can run it all at once. (spidey sense starts tingling). I tell her 40pesos on a 372 tab. She asks if she can just put 10%. (Now I'm really wondering since she just lost 3 pesos in the deal). She comes back with a CC slip showing 372 bill and 372 tip! wtf! Accident? Or scammer hoping the drunks won't notice? I send it back so she can get it right and she comes back with the same slip! So we get up and start for the door. I get a few steps out the door and now we get a manager. I show him the bill and tell him to fix it or I'm walking. He apologizes and goes to fix it. He comes back and hands me the SAME slip which I instantly throw the floor. Only then does he apologize again saying he mixed them up and hands me the proper slip with the 10% tip.

Of all the seedy dives I frequented in Cancun, M'ville was the only place that tried to scam me and that's just sad. Then to get back and see that lunch cost $100 and that the double bar tab was submitted anyway making $52 for 4 margs? (409 pesos is $26 right now) So sad. Now I know to just bring cash. End rant!

Besides the bad M'ville experience it was a fine getaway. Had our own Pelican outside the balcony at all times and got some good diving in.

first thing you should do when you arrive in Cancun is head about 70 miles south to Tulum.

my trip to mville cancun 2 year ago.....

waitress...."hola amigo, what would you like to drink?"
me...."the biggest margarita you have"
waitress..."i'm sorry, we are out of margaritas"



my exact response..."how in the hell does margaritaville run out of margaritas????????"

i'm hoping mville cozumel is much better...i'm going there this summer

True... if I ever have to fly to Cancun again, I'll rent a car ($20/day) and run south to Cozumel, Tulum, Playa De Carmen, or whatever the next "not so touristy" place is by then. (I hear Cozumel is quickly becoming Cancun.)

We have taken Mexico off of our travel agenda for the time being. Things are getting pretty rough down there. Read today's headlines from CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

sonofabeach wrote:first thing you should do when you arrive in Cancun is head about 70 miles south to Tulum.

I'm heading to Tulum in May. Thanks for the info on Cancun!

Seas in my veins wrote:

sonofabeach wrote:first thing you should do when you arrive in Cancun is head about 70 miles south to Tulum.

I'm heading to Tulum in May. Thanks for the info on Cancun!

The beach in Tulum truly is Margaritaville.

This is a great website for info
http://www.tulum.info/

i'm doing playa del carmen in july and spending my birthday at the cozumel margaritaville


anybody been to this one? any reports?

Just spent 15 days in Puerto Vallarta and had a blast. Stayed about 15 miles outside of town and it was awesome!

catsway wrote:We have taken Mexico off of our travel agenda for the time being. Things are getting pretty rough down there. Read today's headlines from CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

The majority of that violence happens in the border towns. The farther from the US you get, the safer it is.

SharkOnLand wrote:

catsway wrote:We have taken Mexico off of our travel agenda for the time being. Things are getting pretty rough down there. Read today's headlines from CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html

The majority of that violence happens in the border towns. The farther from the US you get, the safer it is.

What SoL says. The whole Yucatan is very touristy and want our good US Dollars. Sort of like the whole 'I'm not going to New York City because the crime rate is high' theory- you need a few more specifics to make an informed decision.

We are headed to Mexico this summer and will be staying at Puerto Morelos, so hoping to avoid all of the Cancun nuttiness. Not my style

Down2TheC wrote:A little travel tip. I needed out of the 2 degree weather and booked a last minute run to Mexico last week. Wanted Cozumel but the cheap flights were to Cancun and I wasn't going to be picky since I was looking for a quick escape and not a major vacation with things to do.

As I had heard from many, Cancun is barely Mexico. It's like vacationing in a mall. Planet Hollywood, Chili's, Hooters, McDonalds, etc. But it's a warm mall and there's a Margaritaville. So here's the big travel warning if you go.

First thing, don't buy into the hotel photos of a large white sand beach. Wilma ate the beaches. If you want a beach, check out Google Earth to see what's left. Our hotel had a tiny corner of rocks.

BEWARE MARGARITAVILLE!!!!

Biggest warning is that you should hit the ATM and have cash for Mville. All my credit card hits from there were doubled. Not duplicated, just doubled in amount. I'm fighting them now.

Next up is the entertainment. During the day, everything's as it should be in M'ville. The place is nicely decorated, somewhere between KeyWest and Vegas. But I foolishly figured it was a good place to go at night for some island tunes. Surely some Reggae or Latin tunes would be rolling live or otherwise. Not the case. Cancun has this thing for bad 80's music. They had a tape/video rolling with some latin Richard Simmons cheerleading to YMCA, Get Jiggy With It, and Hammer Time. Hard to keep my Margs down.

Also at night you'll have some scamming grass skirt wearing waitress that will urge you to do a shot of Puckers (yuch). PHans like us are susceptible to thinking it's like the tailgate atmosphere and they're just getting the party rolling. Not so. The second you succumb and take the shot she gets less bouncy and says "4 dollars".

The last warning might not be common, but it's a fun tale. After 2 rounds hoping for better tunes we were ready to call it. She brings the bill and I give her the credit card. She asks what the tip will be up front so she can run it all at once. (spidey sense starts tingling). I tell her 40pesos on a 372 tab. She asks if she can just put 10%. (Now I'm really wondering since she just lost 3 pesos in the deal). She comes back with a CC slip showing 372 bill and 372 tip! wtf! Accident? Or scammer hoping the drunks won't notice? I send it back so she can get it right and she comes back with the same slip! So we get up and start for the door. I get a few steps out the door and now we get a manager. I show him the bill and tell him to fix it or I'm walking. He apologizes and goes to fix it. He comes back and hands me the SAME slip which I instantly throw the floor. Only then does he apologize again saying he mixed them up and hands me the proper slip with the 10% tip.

Of all the seedy dives I frequented in Cancun, M'ville was the only place that tried to scam me and that's just sad. Then to get back and see that lunch cost $100 and that the double bar tab was submitted anyway making $52 for 4 margs? (409 pesos is $26 right now) So sad. Now I know to just bring cash. End rant!

Besides the bad M'ville experience it was a fine getaway. Had our own Pelican outside the balcony at all times and got some good diving in.

I actually had a very similar experience in Cancun overall and at the Cancun Margaritaville. They try to make it look like they are protecting you by running the credit card right there in front of you with a portable POS system. I forget what our bill was but we were going to charge it and leave a cash tip but she put in a tip on the final CC receipt I said something and they took it right off.

Later that week we were at a bar up more in the center of the action and a waitress starting giving us those free shots from the bottle, acting like our friend, flirting saying they are on her... we took maybe 2 or 3 sips, tip her for each one, stuff was way too sweet to have anymore....when we go to leave she tells us we owe her $100US ea for the shots, we start arguing that she said they were free and $200 is outrageous, we offered some moneybut she she started to cry saying we just screwed her and told us to leave, so we did without giving her another dime - we got 10 feet out and 2 guys from that bar, a cook and teh doorman started to started to chase us so we ran a few blocks, found a cab and told him to take us to the Margaritaville area which is about 1 mile down the strip. It was about 10pm and I agree with you, the 10pm margaritaville in Cancun is far different than the 10pm Margaritaville in Key West, New Orleans, Las vegas etc... it was like a ghetto Mexico nightclub. The afternoon it is very nice in margaritaville but at night Now I tell people who travel to Cancun to take a lot of US cash with them in small bills and never take free shots.

Another bad experience, the guy I was with found over $3K charged on his CC a few weeks after we returned, all from places in the Cancun/Cozumal area. We think it was from when he left it as a wave-runner deposit, the lifted the numbers - luckily his bank took the charges off with no fee. But this could happen anywhere.

Overall Cancun was very nice, cool beaches and plenty to do.

Totally agree with the M'ville review, probably the worst I've ever been to.But try the golden parnassus hotel for a great stay in cancun. It is small, adults only, and has the greatest beach tiki-bar ever
We have stayed at this hotel 6 times and always had a great time!

Golden Parnassus Resort Hotel we have 56 of us headed their next Saturday... Hopefully it is still a rocking place.

Joetown Parrothead wrote:Golden Parnassus Resort Hotel we have 56 of us headed their next Saturday... Hopefully it is still a rocking place.

Well if it wasn't rocking before you got there it's GONNA rock after 56 of you get there!!!!!!

I never had a real desire to visit any of the "famous" Mexican resorts......too many other "warm weather" places in the Caribbean I want to see.

But after re-reading this thread and talking with friends who have been to Acapulco, Cancun, etc. in the past year, it hasn't gotten any better......

Just got back from 8 days in Cancun, it rocked! They have done a great job down there, it has been 5 years since we were in Cancun. They have spent a ton of money rebuilding the beaches and all the bars and motels after the Hurricanes tore it up in 06... Great times at Margaritaville & Bubba Gumps, did a whole day at Isla Mujeres. It was great found a Parrothead Bar called the Soggy Peso owned by the former President of the Dallas PHC... Some great Photos on my Facebook page...

With that said, next year we will go back to PV, Playa, Cabo, Cozemel or somewhere else. Cancun is a Large City, it was nice for a change, but it will be a few years before we go back...

Have any of you who were ripped off by the Margaritaville in Cancun contacted Margaritaville headquarters in the U.S.?

I can't imagine that it would be good for the reputation of the entire chain to have one of them ripping off customers. I know that this hasn't been the first time I've read about abuses in Cancun Margaritaville.

sonofabeach wrote:first thing you should do when you arrive in Cancun is head about 70 miles south to Tulum.

Muy bien.

Get thee south of Cancun. Get off the plane, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go to Tulum, Xel-ha, Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen. Old Mexico still exists there.