On The Beach

I'm sitting in the Chill Out Beach Bar here at the Hotel Grand Sunset Princess. It's a big name, appropriate for a very large hotel and resort complex. This place is big enough that they offer a shuttle from the front of the hotel down to the beach. There are three buffet areas for dining, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are about six other restaurant areas which operated as buffet for breakfast and lunch, while becoming theme restaurants for dinner.

This place is large enough that having a power wheelchair with me would make a lot of sense, except I don't want to bring it on the plane. The reality is that this hotel, and many others in Mexico, don't actually do much of anything for wheelchair access. Even in the handicapped rooms, the toilets are set into individual water closets, narrow, impossible to get into with a wheelchair.

I spent yesterday working withe the hotel Chief Concierge; the equivalent of what many would call a "guest experience manager". It was hard to get them to understand that no room would work if I could not access the toilet. In the end we got a standard room with a couple of useful adjustments, and ordered a commode chair. We have also acquired the services each morning of Denis, the bellman who was so helpful on our arrival. We tip him well; he is there for us almost constantly, until 3:00 PM each day.

Today is my first real "vacation" day, although I will confess to taking full advantage of the all included food and drink, especially drink, right from the moment of arrival. At this moment, it's another Marguerita. I slept in until 11:00 AM, recovering from a big night out at the bar last night. I got to the beach bar at exactly noon. I've been here a couple of hours and am only now considering what to do. Sitting here is nice; it's a good option, maybe the best option.