Gwilliam Gazette

Time for some more AI.

All-Inclusive that is.

We headed to Puerto Vallarta for some AI fun. We've been to Puerto Vallarta plenty of times on cruises, but never stayed there more than 1 day.

It's only a 3 1/2 hour direct flight, which is very nice. We stayed at Hyatt's Secret Vallarta Bay, a quick 15 min drive from the airport.

Our last (and first) AI stay was in Cancun at one of Hyatt's nicest AI resort, so we lowered our expectations a bit going into this one, but were excited to compare the two.

Secrets shares the resort with Dreams - another AI property, but for families. Secrets is adults only. They each shared the driveway, but then had separate hotels, pools, beaches, but shared some restaurants. We could go over to the Dreams side to try different restaurants, but Dreams people couldn't come over to the Secrets side. Needless to say, the Secrets side was much quieter and calm.

Our room was on a low floor, and we didn't get any upgrades this time, so we didn't have much of a beach view as we did the trees.

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The pool are was beautiful and inviting. The Dreams side had a similar pool, but lots of kids. Lots.

I took a photo of all the different drinks so I could try them.....but not all could be made non-alcoholic but the ones that could, I tried and they were all yummy!

The Secrets side had a place for gelato and crepes! We went there a few times.

Our first dinner was at the "French" restaurant - only Secrets people could go there. It was one of our favorite dinners we had.

This salad appetizer was amazing. So good!

This dessert was just like Carnival's chocolate melting cake

Then after dessert, a guy came around with a cheese cart. We were so full, but didn't want to turn him down. We've always seen a cheese plate offered for dessert on cruises, but always thought, who wants cheese for dessert? Well, we decided to try it....and wow, if they all are like this, we've been missing out not getting the cheese plate! The cheeses were different kinds and a few grapes, and then some homemade jams that goes on the cheese. We only asked for a tiny bit because we were so full.
We ate it all.
And wanted more.

The Secrets side is on the right and the Dreams side is on the left, with a wall divider and trees between the pool areas, so you can't see or hear the other side. Each side also had their own beach

Our hotel's lobby sitting area

The pool has a small cafe and they had chips and salsa...so we tried some...why not? They were good

The chips and salsa were so good, we had some more snacks

Returning to the crepe place......they were amazing! A lady was in there ordering and the worker asked for her room number and she told him and he said, "Oh, that's the Dreams side...you can't order anything here". She said, "not even some gelato?" He said, "no, I'm so sorry" and she cried.

We would have cried too if we missed out on this!

That night we took a tour to the "Rhythm of the night show". I'd seen this show before when were on cruises, but it's an evening show, so you can't do it on a cruise. Now was our chance. Not exactly knowing what it was, just that it had all amazing reviews, we went for it.
It's an hour boat ride, to a private island, only accessible by boat. The entire island is themed to be a jungle and you're going there for a show and dinner.
It was amazing. Highlight of the trip. It's produced by previous workers from Cirque du Soleil and it did not disappoint.

They time it so you arrive close to sunset and there are tiki torches all along the pathways

One couple was dancing on the boat ride over

After the show ended, we went to one of many different small candle lit eating areas. You couldn't see the other eating areas, so it was like you were in your own small restaurant. It was a buffet - a very fancy one, with so many options of extremely yummy food and desserts. Silly me, I didn't take any pics of it!

But I did take a pic of the bathroom! It was even lit with candles!

The paths between all the different eating areas and beaches were all candle lit too, there must have been 1000's of candles they have to light each night!

Then it was another hour long boat ride back! We didn't get back until around 11:30 but it was well worth it!

Some videos:

Our breakfast area had made to order smoothies - the Dreams side did not. These were very good!

That morning, we headed out (on another hour long boat ride - but on a fancy catamaran) to go snorkeling. There isn't really any great snorkeling areas in Puerto Vallarta, so we weren't really surprised that it was so-so. Still fun and in a beautiful area. We also stopped for about an hour at a private beach to relax, take banana boat rides and just sit under the palm trees to relax

On the hour long ride back, they served us lunch

That night we ate at the Italian restaurant

The cannelloni dessert was WAY too small and WAY too delicious!

That night on the Dreams side, was a huge buffet dinner to celebrate July 4. Was kind of funny to be celebrating July 4 in Mexico

They even had a singer, then a battle of the bands, and then fireworks! It wasn't very busy at first, but soon filled up

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The next day we started out by going on a City Tour. It was hot. HOT! VERY HOT! They were having a heat wave - about 95 degrees and 80% humidity - the "feels like" temp was about 110. And this was at 9am. It was SO HOT!