We just got back from XCaret, what a trip it was!
For the first time ever, we got a swim-up unit. It was pure bliss … when the sun was out (LOL). We were at XCaret Arte for 5 nights. Initially we planned on visiting XCaret, Xplor, and Xenotes. But we ended up going to none of them. (😪) I feel so bad and definitely regret it.
Let’s recap …
We got in around 6PM on the first night. Check in took a little while, and the resort property is huuuuge, so walking everywhere took a little while. We had dinner resy at 7:30PM and made it there at 7PM. Our first dinner was at Arenal, it was suppose to be their “steak house”. The restaurant was beautiful, it was built into the base of one of the “houses” of the resort, open concept with views of the river that runs throughout the resort. The food was okay, Wzrd and I both agreed that the best thing we had there was the fresh chicharrones with bean dip. I don’t even like beans, but that bean dip was 🤌 💋.
We ended our first night with a night swim right in front of our unit. The water was a bit cold but I was too excited to care. (Poor Wzrd, he was freezing his little butt off heheh)
We woke up to grey skies and no sunshine on our first morning there, much to our disappointment. I was hoping I could enjoy our pool for a bit before our brunch reservation. We ended up getting some room service for some small bites, since our brunch resy wasn’t until noon.
We had lunch at Los Cuevas, it was very hard reservation to get. And O M G, I now understand why everyone wants this brunch. This restaurant is located in the caves, it’s got such a cool atmosphere. There are so so sooo many different food stations. Everything at this buffet is made fresh to order. King crab leg? They’ll cut it right in front of you, flame it and baste it with butter, topped off with a sprinkle of salt. Salmon sushi? They sliced the salmon in front of you. They even had an outdoor section where they do all the grillings, meats, seafood … ooooo and they had alcohol carts/stations. We found a tequila bar, and got to try different shots of tequila. There were also a champagne cart, where you can just get flutes as you like. This literally is DA BEST buffet we’ve ever been to. (Sorry Ginza Happo!)
When we left for brunch it was raining a little bit. But the time we were at the buffet, the sun was beaming through. So after lunch we got changed and hopped into our pool. Only to find that our pool was actually quite cold, lol. So we ventured into the main pool, which was a lot warmer, and a lot livelier. We hung out there for a while, then we went to our Casa Los Artistas VIP rooftop pool. It was a much smaller pool on the rooftop of our buildling. There we had a really nice view of the resort and of the ocean. We hung out there for a while, watched a wedding take place below us. A bunch of us holler and cheered for them when it was time to kiss the bride. We had dinner reservation at 7PM, so we left to get ready soon after.
For dinner we went to “HA”, a Michelin restaurant.
While the menu looked pretty good, the food just didn’t hit for me. I was rather confused when there was ice-cream with my crab leg in our 3rd course 🤔 … or why my lobster is overcooked. The only plate I ate the whole thing of was the beets. lol The chef must’ve been so confused. Overall, it reaffirmed me that these kind of dinners are just not for me. I don’t really enjoy art-sie foods.
The following day, we were suppose to go to XCaret. We woke up and for some reason I just dreaded it. So I kind of convinced Wzrd to do another pool day, except that I promised we’d hit the parks in the last two days we have left.
So off to the pool we went, we started with a shot and a drink. Then we kept going back for shots and drinks. Then we ended up at our own pool, which also comes with drink service, so … more drinks ! We had a 7:30PM resy at Kibi Kibi, one of the exclusives restaurants to our building (only available to those staying in Casa Los Artistas). So we stumbled into dinner pretty drunk lol Now, every post I’ve read prior to comning here had raved about Kibi Kibi, so my expectations were high. I’m not sure if it was because I was pretty drunk and tired from swimming all day, but the food wasn’t that great to me (or Wzrd). So we wrapped up dinner and called it a night.
Boy, o boy, did we not get any sleep that night. Maybe it was the tequila shots, or a bit of a heat stroke from being in the sun all day. Neither Wzrd nor I got any sleep. We rolled around all night and was up going to the bathroom, or just up wishing we were sleeping. For this day we had made a reservation to take a tour of the Xenotes. The shuttle leaves at 8:40AM … at my 6AM pee, I asked Wzrd “Would you consider …” before I could even finish my sentence, “Yes, whatever it is you’re about to ask. Yes” lolol He knew I would think of something to get out of going to Xenotes today. My updated plan was now, let’s reschedule the Xenotes to the following day, and we’d hit XCaret park at our leisure later on this afternoon. So we contacted our butlers to have everything arranged. They did mention we were going to have to pay a “no-show” fee for cancelling the Xenotes last minute, but it is what it is.
We slept in and had a nice slow roll to the morning. Went to grab some breakfast at the buffet (the regular buffet, not the fancy cave one).
Which had excellent food. I loved many options at this buffet. Last time in Cabos, I fell in love with “mole”. I got to try two different kinds of mole at this buffet, and they’re out of this world. How is it possible that we don’t have mole this good in the states!
While we were at the buffet, Wzrd and I were both saying how sore we were from swimming the two days before. So we asked our butler if it would be too late to get an appointment at the Spa. Luckily for us, it was not too late. We were able to score a 1PM couples massage, which granted us access to their hydrotherapy circut starting from 11:30am! The timing worked out perfectly, as we wrapped up breakfast, it was time to get ready for the Spa.
Neither Wzrd nor I are spa people. I generally don’t like people touching me, and don’t really like share communal spaces. But this day, we were both in dire need of some deep relaxation. We walked into the spa, and immediately, it smelled different – relaxing, and with the water running in the background. We felt transported to another dimension.
We dropped off our belongings in the locker rooms and was lead through the hydrotherapy circut by our concierge.
First, it was the steam room. S O . S T E A M Y ! But it felt so good to sweat, so much sweat. Then it was the ice room, there’s a little crushed ice thing in the middle of the room, and you grab handfuls of crushed ice and rub it all over your body. After that was the dry sauna. I did not think I would like it as much as I did … (I’ve never like dry sauna before). But this time she put pieces of iced cold cucumber on my eyes and then an ice cold towel on top of that. With my back on the warm wood of the sauna, it felt so relaxing. After the rooms, were the soaks. There were three pools, one with some jacuzzis, then one cold plunge, and one very warm pool. I felt tricked when they say it’s a “jacuzzi”, because the water was not warm lol it was actually kind of cold. I did NOT like the cold plunge … it was I C E ! Needless to say, I only went between the “jacuzzi” and the warm pool. When this part was over, they let us into the large pool, which they say it’s from river water. It was nice and warm, and there were different sections of the pool that had nozzles where you could get massages. That was kind of fun.
Throughout this whole time, they would bring us various drinks and nibbles. It was so nice to feel pampered.
Not long after, it was time for our massage. They lead us into one of the cave rooms that had two massage tables set up. Wzrd and I each laid down into one and melted away. For 80 minutes we were a puddle of goo. We’ve had massages before … at massage envy for $30. This was a $300 massage … it felt unreal. The atmosphere, the sounds, the touch, the professionalism. Everything … now I understand why people like getting massage, and not the $30 ones from massage envy.
It was a prettty uneventful night following the massage. We went to the buffet to get some late lunch. Then we went back to our unit, hung out at the pool some more. We even got room service for dinner, which wasn’t that great. Safe to say, room service was a miss at this resort.
The next day, we woke up bright eyes and bushy tails. I was ready to go to XCaret. After all, this was our last full day, and Wzrd had already given me more pool days than I deserve. But the sun was out bright and early, so after some breakfast at the buffet, I just wanted to dip my toes into the pool – and I did. While it was still early, we thought, let’s hit up the main pool and grab a pool bed for a little bit. I was totally ready to leave the pool whenever, but Wzrd had other thoughts … So we ended up floating and swimming … and getting super roasted from the Riviera Maya sun.
We ended our trip with our last meal at Tah-Xido, and Asian fusion restaurant. It was surprisingly good ! Well we had their salmon at the Los Cuevas buffet and that was excellent, so we had faith in their Asian eatery. It was a really nice way to end our trip … even though Wzrd didn’t get to go to any of the parks, and I got 5 full day of pool days. 😬
Would I go back to XCaret? Yes, we definitely would have to at this point, since we didn’t go to any of the parks. Would I get a swim-up unit again, maybe in the dead middle of summer? Our pool was surprisingly cold … I would’ve thought they would heat it up a bit at least. The way the building is situated also makes it hard to do afternoon swims there, as the building pretty much hides the sun starting from 2/3PM. I think next time definitely a ocean view/front room, but a swim-up is not really “needed”. I hope we can come back another time, maybe then since it’ll be my second time there, my “unknown anxiety” won’t be as high.
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