Much needed vacation

If you couldn't tell from my obnoxiously cryptic (and then put-it-out-in-the-open comment) post, I was on vacation last week. And after reading too many of Sara's posts about ax murders (and the plethora of break-ins recently) I didn't want to broadcast that I was out of the country.
But I was.
And now I'm back.
Once my resort review is approved and up on trip advisor, I'll link to it. (edited, it's up. Check it out here.) Let's just go ahead and say it was not good. Royal Cancun? Don't do it. In the words of Monica, 'Would I go back? Sure but I'd have to buy two tickets. One for me and one for the guy holding a gun to my head.' It was a terrible check-in experience that tainted the rest of the trip. I kept looking over my shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to demand more money or something else equally annoying.
Also annoying? We took our Discover card. The only true credit card we have. And we keep it for emergencies and the occasional online purchase.
Did you know that they don't take Discover in Mexico? We didn't either. And apparently neither did the people at Discover. You think when you call and say you're going to Mexico the person would say, "Actually, It's not widely accepted in Mexico. You should take another card." I know what you're thinking, why would they say that and take money away from them. WE COULDN'T USE IT ANYWAY. They gained nothing by letting us take a useless piece of plastic all the way to Mexico. AND. So now we're going to cancel it and get a Visa.
Anyway, I doubt you come here to listen to me whine or rant. Actually, if you don't I'm not really sure why you come here, because that's really all I do. (And make empty promises about showing you projects that we have yet to finish.)
Not to harp on the bad crap, but this is what happened to us:
-It took us over 4 hours to check in and get a room. After trying to be upsold, we held fast and were 'comped' a much better room. They tried to force us to upgrade because they over sold the jr. suites. (We booked back in March, this is unacceptable).

-The room had been cleaned, but not thoroughly. The alcohol bottles in our minibar were empty and the fridge was full of opened soda cans and juice boxes. Of course, this was better than the smoking room that we were originally given (which still wasn't our 'original' room-I think these people hated me. Brad kept saying, 'they are sooo messing with the wrong person. Don't they know you blog?' And I was all, "I know, right? All FIVE of my readers are going to hear about this crap!" Maybe he was mocking me. I can't be sure.)

-The first night we were woken around 1 by the room next to us. They were in a Presidential Suite (meaning bigger space to cram more people). And from 1 to roughly 3:30 a.m. we were serenaded to sleep by 90s rap and dance-type music. Specifically, they played House of Pain 'Jump Around' THREE TIMES IN A ROW on the wonderful Bose sound system that came standard in every room. Definitely a house of pain. We piled the 12 pillows (from our two double beds) around the door that joined us. It kind of helped. (OK, it didn't).

-Almost everyone was sick at one point during the trip. One guy managed to order his meal then left. So we ate his dinner. It was actually funny watching the waiter drop plates off at an empty chair and then retrieve them later. And, I got sick (which really, is the most important. To me at least) I think I was slightly (don't laugh) seasick from walking through the surf looking for sea shells.

I wanted the list of negatives to keep going, but really the rest of the trip was pretty great. So, tomorrow, I will post the fun stuff. The funny stories. The pictures. (Which, are obviously up on my Flickr page to the right already if you can't wait.)
Oh dear the pictures.
I'm totally embarrassed to admit this, but, OK, you know those lame photos where everyone jumps and they take the picture of you mid air, arms raised 'look-at-us-we-all-just-decided-to-jump-at-the-same-time-what-are-the-odds-of-that' photos?
I participated in one.
With twenty other people.