For those of you who haven’t seen the video yet of the Grand Palladium fire which occurred a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d post it so you can get an idea of how quickly a palapa roof fire can burn at a Mexico resort and potentially spread to other structures. Seeing this video makes me realize how lucky it was that no one was hurt and no other significant structures were burned beside the lobbies.
Riu posted that their resorts, for the time being, will not be serving lobsters, clams, or oysters. This is being done with respect to an order from the Mexico Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development–from how I understand it, there is a time of year when capturing certain marine life is banned in order to avoid endangering the species overall. (If someone has a better explanation, please let me know).
FYI: Not a rumor, it’s been officially verified.
I just read on FB that the lobbies of the Grand Palladium Kantenah and Colonial in the Riviera Maya are on fire and guests are being evacuated to the beach….right now this is just a rumor, I will post more if it becomes available.
For those of you only interested in learning about Cancun and the Riviera Maya, you will want to skip this post. For those of you interested in what it was like to travel back to Hawaii during the COVID pandemic, you many want to stick around and read some tidbits about the travel experience.
I recently received an email from a reader who was having difficulty getting easy to book and reliable COVID testing from the Omni resort in the Hotel Zone (around Km. 16.5). Reportedly there are appointment scheduling difficulties, computers crashing losing your data, and just general annoyance at this resort when it comes to COVID testing in order to return home.
If you are going to book or have already booked the new Planet Hollywood Cancun, please be aware that there is a fake website out there taking money from vacationers but not really reserving any rooms…the fake one ends with -cancun.com; the REAL website ends with hotels.com. (The first part of the web address is, of course, planethollywood). The company is doing everything it can to remove the bogus website from the internet.
Just one of Aaron Chang’s exquisite photos
I just found this video of guests at the new Planet Hollywood Cancun who had an on-site COVID testing for return to the US. For those of you who’ve not yet had a COVID test it will give you an idea of what the procedure is like in general; for those of you who’ve already had one it may reduce some anxiety of what will happen at a resort if you travel to this part of Mexico in the near future.
Vacationers who don’t have their negative antigen test results in hand can now get tested at the new mobile lab located at the Cancun airport. There will be 10 “points” between Terminals 2, 3, and 4 for travelers to request the test; test results can be obtained within 30 minutes. The cost will be 250 pesos (around $12.50). If you get a positive test result, you will be quarantined at one of four nearby hotels.
To date (01/24/21), the new “requirement” of having to quarantine after returning to the US following international travel is NOT YET a requirement. The specifics for this proposed 10-day quarantine are still being reviewed by numerous US federal agencies that deal with air travel and public health. So don’t freak out yet.