The Platinum Yucatan Princess Resort & Spa Feb 2 -- 16, 2026

 

Hey Bezel...are you out of your mind? This is not a 'Road to Mexico' that McPope promised in your last posted title. 

    I'm reminded of John McEnroe's rant, "You can't be serious?"

That's More Like It.

    In 28 hours we'll be in the air heading for Mexico but this morning Carlos Alcaraz from Spain plays Novak Djokovic of Serbia for the first of four major grand slam tennis tournaments in 2026. The stadium is packed with patrons having paid $1500.00 plus to see this epic match between the youngest against the oldest. Carlos at 22 and Novak at 38 years of age are arguably at the top of their game. Novak is looking to win his 25th grand slam and Carlos has his eye on his 7th. 

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    It's 07:00 in Toronto and 21:00 in Melbourne Australia on February 1, 2026 and I'm watching the Men's Australian Championship final recorded overnight. However, I've made a cardinal sin by references a tennis statistic on Google Search. Their correct answer was preceded by information I didn't want; it was that Novak congratulated Carlos on his win! 

    I'll watch the match of course, but knowing who wins has killed the suspense. Curses!

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    Air Canada's 737 took off and landed on time on February 2, 2026; Mexican Immigration rubber stamped our passports without a question; our one large suitcase was picked up; the transportation to the Platinum Yucatan Princess Resort was in place; Lena checked us in room 2123 in thirty minutes, and then Carlos took us and our baggage to the room with a friendly greeting and a wish for a wonderful vacation.

    The PYP Resort and Spa is a beautiful place about 60 minutes from the Cancun International Airport. It has all the stuff one might expect for its ranking of 5* so I'll be posting pictures telling their story while I write Terryl's and my story about this place and our 14 day visit with them. 

I can tell this little one wants to know what's going on.

    We slept well last night and arrived in their breakfast buffet area at 09:30 where the size of the room matched the abundance of food layed out for us with an adequate number of staff ready to answer or solve issues that might arise.

    After breakfast we had arranged to discuss the placement of our assigned room. Last night we felt that it was too far from the action; and this morning that was top of mind. Without batting an eyelash we were provided another room much closer to the centre of this large and lavish resort. The sun came out around noon and the temperature reached 25C: a perfect day topped off with a 20:30 Japanese styled meal of Prawns on Salt Rocks for me and Crepes with Prawns and portobello mushrooms nestled in a pool of lobster bisque. 

    At 22:00 in the theatre five men and five women entertained a full house with Disco Music and Dance. The show began with John Travolta on film doing his famous walk eating a pizza as he moved (you remember that don't you?) on a New York street to that famous song "Staying Alive." The entire show in two words was a Barn Burner.

Terryl loved the show and wanted me to get famous

Matt Damon knows the answer

A Bronze Horse and Rider decorates a large wall of ...?

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On Wednesday we slept in and managed to arrive at breakfast ten minutes before closing. We enjoyed a meal and left for the eight minute walk to the beach along a textured concrete walk and over a railed wooden bridge to the Gulf of Mexico. We had our books, sun clothes and shades and found two lounge chairs and I literally dropped on to mine. My back and hips are feeling poorly these days, but the sun was out and expected to rise to 25C by noon. 

His name is Craven A

In the afternoon there were tacos by the pool and a little chat with a couple from Toronto named Chad and Kalin. Kalin was there but Chad was not. There was music all around the meandering pool area. Many suites on the ground floor have the pool outside the back door allowing the guests to swim right up to the bar.

We decided to go to the room, catch the news and prepare for dinner around 17:30 at La Brushetta offering Italian delights:

We ate rissoto, caprese salad, sea bass, eggplant parm and loin of salmon with buttered caper sauce all served with wine by Hector. The ending was a chocolate espresso martini. 

We enjoyed chatting with a couple from Quebec sitting next to us. They were a happy couple discussing vacations and the quality of this resort; when the subject of relationships came up he happily stated that he was gay and they were great friends who loved traveling together. [Hey Deb, does this sound familiar?]

Another great performance that finished the day quite nicely. And everything is closer to us after the room change. [Hey Weed, does that remind you of anything?]

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It's Friday, the sun is shining with a high of 24C by the afternoon. But first let's talk about last night. We dined in Aroma Restaurant on a Duck Confit main, a nice little Italian soup, a bone marrow warm starter, and a cold one that was great when I ate it, and now I can't remember its name. Terryl had a filet of beef which was moist and tasty.

    Before dinner we met five women from North Carolina who spoke and laughed eagerly, and another group of four women and their husbands from Woodstock, Ontario. The five ladies, all married with young children, were going to have a ball over their 3 day vacation snorkeling, parasailing and having their palms read by the plentiful Spa people looking for customers. I don't remember how my book became a part of the discussion but it did when several of the Woodstock couples looked it up on Amazon.ca and said they were buying it.

    We left Amora at 21:45 and took a front row centre seat for the nightly show at the Theatre.

We spent five hours by the meandering pool on Friday until 16:00. Terry read her book and caught up with the news. Today was another bad day for Trump who, using his Truth Social (there's a laugh for you) digital mouth piece, had placed the Obama's heads on ape's bodies. Several of his Republican Congressman begged him to take it down; after 11 hours he finally agreed but wouldn't apologize. And he claims he isn't a racist!

    I hesitate to say our dining experience at a Japanese styled restaurant was disappointing. It was cold in their thirty foot high ceiling. The sushi was fine, the beef was not moist or tender without warm Saki. So we left and went to the Theatre to see the show called: 

A soup bowl and with spoon

See the high ceiling

This lady was not on the menu tonight that is?

Nor was this guy.

The 22:00 nightly theatre was not in the theatre but, outside by the big bandstand so we decided to retire for the evening.

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It's a beautiful Saturday morning beginning with Breakfast, a Mimosa and many buffet delights that embrace just about everything imaginable.

    Today I decided to go for a long walk, not on the ample grounds, but in the wandering four foot deep pool right in front of my lounge chair. 

    Now I'm in. The portion I use is ten yards wide by fifty yards long; another tributary runs perpendicularly away and runs one hundred yards away from us. I'm sure there are more T shaped pools and an assortment of others going to and around all parts of this amazing resort. I'm walking and pushing against moving water and thinking this is exercise. I'm tanning from chest to the tip of my head's hairline and I feel fine in here for at least thirty-five minutes.

    When I exit the pool and reach for the help-me bars I suddenly feel my actual weight, and then I climb out slowly and carefully walk to the lounge chair where Terryl calls out, "You must feel real good now, I'll try it tomorrow."

        This photograph is called a pano(vision) of the T Shaped pool system I described.

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It's another beautiful day on Sunday and we have settled into a routine. Awake around 08:30 and at the breakfast buffet at 10:00 and then a small walk to our pool area and lounge chairs. But we have a problem: when the urge to see the ocean overwhelms (a 3 minute walk from here) we go and once again plenty of lounge chairs with grey PYP Resort towels on each and every one of them.

    Regrettably we walk back to our pool to read and compute until we jump in again.

    Several hours later we are at the ocean under a thatched roof delving into a plate of chips and dip, chicken wings and fries. Suddenly one of the Coati (that's the long nosed member of the racoon family) jumps up and grabs a little lunch for himself. This reminded us of the sea gulls in Pepple Beach all over our lunch.

    When we are at the pool a wonderful young woman named Deysi asks what we might like to drink, and then brings it in two minutes with a lovely smile. We spoke with her for ten minutes about her's and our lives and right out of the blue she casually said: "I am married, and when I'm not working, my other lover and I go to...." delivered with a wonderful smile brimming from cheek to cheek. We asked her if we could put her picture on this page and she was over the moon and back again saying "Si Senor Gary".

Deyzi is only one of this resort's people who enjoy their work, and after-work too.

Tonight we plan on dining at the Rodeo restaurant. When we arrived at 20:30 the lights shone brightly on giant birdcages all set up for dinner. We jumped into one and enjoyed a nice meal with a Mexican homemade Chardonnay. 

That was fun, but the food was so so. However there's a show a 5 minute walk from here. There's plenty of noise coming from the audience and players.

Fire in an open-air demonstration to behold

Then we went dancing right after a small sit down in the Dance Hall.

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Monday morning and the forecast is sunny with a high of 26C. This resort has a lot to be pround of and we are enjoying every minute (except for the towel beach chair problem).

    We'll start the day as usual and take another look at the ocean chair difficulty. After her breakfast Terryl quick walks to the ocean while I slow walk through the food. In fifteen minutes I'm at the pool site and so is she with these words: "No luck again and to say the least I'm ticked."

    It's 11:45 and Terryl has the earbuds working with her iPad and I'm typing these words working from my lounge chair. It may appear that a favourite position for me is sitting. It's true. The legs and back are barking more than usual these days. While Terryl and I help each other doing routine physical things I have said to her: "For me it's only going to get worse."

    Meanwhile the entertainment goes on every night at 22:00. Here's more:

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We slept in on Tuesday and arrived at breakfast around 10:00. It's another gorgeous day forecasted to 27C and sunny all day with a few drifting clouds aided by a 10mph gust here and there.

    Of course the towels are resting and pinned to the lounge chairs by the early risers who are now having a later breakfast than we. But Terryl has found two that are in the shade. We like those right up to 16:00; and then we stare into the sun for 30 minutes to get a painless tan. 

    On Monday night there was a market open for business at 18:00 to 21:30 close to a cosy bar and the buffet restaurant. Terryl did the obligatory walk through the market chatting away to the younger, and some older sellers with a joy that only she knows from previous experience around the world. However, this time she buys not, but did take a gifted bracelet that she was wearing and gave it to an older merchant saying, "This is for your wife if you wish?" He was overjoyed to say the least.

    The entertainment, within twenty yards of the market, was supplied by a six piece band and a young Mexican woman dancing among the patrons seated in an open air bar facility. As she danced many of us stood up and danced with her to familiar Mexican music which was happily loud and friendly.

    Not to end the night early, only fifty yards away in the theatre the same group of robust and very entertaining singers and dancers we had enjoyed all week brought the house down for another fourty-five minutes.

    The pictures  are shown above.

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Tuesday arrives and Terryl has misplaced her earbuds. We look everywhere with no luck. We call the administration desk to keep an eye open in the lost-and-found department. We were not holding our breath on this one.

    Another perfect weather day was forecasted and we made the best of it by the pool, the beach and at the watering holes before dinner at the Rodeo with outside tables (without the bird cages previously enjoyed) that were perfect for us.

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Wednesday was different. We wanted to see the Princess Sunset Resort that honours any request we might make. Before noon we called administration and they had Terryl's earbuds that had been turned in recently. That's a real bonus in my books.

    At noon we hooked up with a large golf cart vehicle that leaves for the five minute drive every twenty minutes. 

    The Sunset Princess Resort is spectacular. It is newer and much larger than the Platinum Yucatan Princess with complimentary shuttles running all the time. Furthermore, Alex told us this giant resort is building right now to be twice its current size where golf carts will be necessary for all those with mobilty challenges. 

One cocktail to go please

We enjoyed a fabulous lunch of sashimi and sushi for me, and a plate of Terryl's likings with some wine of course. I bought a cotton short sleeve shirt that will fit me when back in Port Credit in two weeks time (slight weight loss required), and Terryl did not buy or receive a thing.

    Another shuttle took us to within a ten minute walk of the beach. Alex the driver asked if we wanted to see more of the resort perhaps on another Mexican vacation sometime? He will 'what's app' me at 09:00 Thursday morning and if we wish he'll drive over, pick us up, gives us the dog and pony show and brings us back to the PYP resort anytime we want. How about that for reaching out for future business? This place sparkles but, it might be a little too big for us because it took two days for us to get the hang of this one.

    The shuttle had just left when we reached a pickup spot. Very quickly a Bellhop telephoned the driver to turn around and pickup Terryl and me. He did, and when I was having a little trouble making the one high step up a lady guest extended her hand and gave me a hoist up and into the seat. That's a first of many lifts to come unless I can get these legs and back working better than they currently are.

    Tonight we ate light at the Italian restaurant with mine being Caprese salad and Spaghetti Puttanesca and Terryl's was Spaghetti Carbonara and then to the Theatre hosting a show call Piratas

showcasing many of the regulars as well as several new ones.

    Another great show to end a wonderful day.

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It's Thursday with four nights to go before it's Hasta luego por ahora. But for now we are at the poolside reading, writing and soaking up the shade all day; that is except for our daily agreed to time of twenty minutes in the direct sun. For dinner today we are thinking about the Beach Thatched Roof Cabana serving fish tacos. tortilla chips. guacamole, chicken wings and fries all prepared and enjoyed a few metres from the Ocean. 

    At 18:00 in the suite we look down from our third floor and see this:

It's water water everywhere and the Gulf of Mexico 200 yards from these pools.

Tonight we see a Michael Jackson Tribute show in the Theatre and suspect the group of singers and especially the dancers will be spectacular. Here it is:

Terryl insisted I do this again. This dancer was Michael Jackson on fire once again

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Friday morning greets us with another perfect weather day just like the previous twelve and our routine continues with only three nights left on this tour of duty.

    We thought of grabbing a shuttle to another Princess Resort of the three in this area, but decided to think about it tomorrow or the next day. After a nice breakfast at 10:30 we are at the pool area and claim a lovely unit around the corner from the usual spot. Deysi is on the job, and that gives Terryl an opportunity to gift her with a gift-wrapped soap item made in Quebec. Deysi loved it.

    The Theatre show is call Disco and we have seen it several days ago. We decided for a small meal at Rodeo Restaurant with seven outdoor tables. After a fourty minute wait at the bar we found ourselves discussing how difficult it is to be thirty straight days behind the wheel without your wife and friends. Our new friend is a robust 18 wheel transport driver and his wife gets lonely too.  

    They were called to their table first, and we sat down five minutes later.

What's this?

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Saturday arrives early with yet another perfect weather day in this part of Mexico; we spent the morning  in the suite and at noon we hopped onto a shuttle for the ten minute ride to Sunset Princess to have another ride on their buffet. This one has several cooks behind the stations ready to cook fish, pork, steak and plenty of delights that are on display already, but I asked my Señor Cook to do me a slab of Bassa while I waited and watched. He even asked me when to pull it off the skillet. I did. The fish was nothing short of perfectly cooked and had a wonderful fresh taste and juicy quality all completed by white asparagus, watermelon, beets and a creme dill sauce to add if one wished to do so. 

    We spent an hour and a half at our table talking and tasting little things to our hearts' content, after which we walked around outside and took a few photos we hope you will enjoy.

Have you guessed this item's function yet?

    We enjoyed our Valentine's Day in a place that too few of us are in the position  to enjoy. Terryl and me are blessed to have good health and the ability to enjoy these splendours. We owe much of this to many of you. Thank you.

    Have you guessed what this heart is? Please put your answer in the reply section at the bottom of this post.

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    This is Sunday February 15 and our last full day in Mexico. We have planned to take a shuttle into El Centro and see more Mexicans plying their trade and skills for we tourists. It should be an agreeable experience for us who have been welcome guests in this country and always have been on many visits in the past. Mazatlan was one of these destinations in the last twenty years.

That's Terryl with handbag on her left shoulder saying "So long Mexico."

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