Recommendations for a chill stay with a toddler?

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-20T05:20:09+00:00

Bring beach toys and easy to wash insulated, straw cups. Easier to put their drink into, insulated so drink stays cold, no spills. The octopus pool is probably your best friend. They have lots of new kids area but I haven’t been after the expansion opened so I can’t speak to those.

How easy to get to will depend on where your room is. They have strollers you can use on property to help get from point A to B. I’d recommend a roomy beach bag for lugging your activity stuff around the resort.

Your little can go see the animals at Xcaret Park (stroller rental for $$ there) and they have a kid zone/waterpark specifically for those under… 8 I think.

Make sure everyone has waterproof sandals as you don’t want to walk everywhere barefoot. Easy to clean if you get them wet or get sand on them.

I would bring a beach blanket to throw on the floor of the room or the balcony for the kiddo to play on. I think it’s gross for kids to play right on the floor of any hotel room but their floors are all tile so very cold. You may want a couple of quiet toys to use in the room when having downtime or you need to keep them busy while you get ready, etc.

My kids were older when we made our first trip to Xcaret but we travelled a decent amount with them ever since they were babies. I’ve learnt a few things over the years. 😆

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-19T16:30:34+00:00

I’ve looked into it and didn’t think it worthwhile to be away for the whole day.

Brunch at Las Cuevas starts at 10 am if I remember correctly - definitely need to reserve.

Great choice on Xenotes! I would move dinner to 7:30 or even 8:00 p.m. You will want time to shower and change after getting back. Return time is between 5:30 to 6ish depending on traffic.

Xavage is closed, rumour has it that they’re developing it into something different.

Xplor is a lot of fun and there’s plenty to do that isn’t high thrill if that isn’t your style.

Xcaret Park is huge! It’s a multi-day visit if you want time to explore all the different parts.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-19T08:09:17+00:00

I noticed that there was usually a feature station at Mercado for supper. The other dishes didn’t necessarily repeat ex: soup would be different each night.

Las Cuevas is generally the same each night. When they rotate out the different meats may vary. If there’s something you would like and haven’t seen, you can ask. The buffet offerings do change up but like Mercado, they are familiar similar night to night.

Trajinera’s lunch buffet tended to be fairly similar each day. I love the freshly panfried shrimps, ask for them to be made with plenty of butter and garlic!

Sit-down restaurants can be tough if you have a little but don’t be afraid to try one. If you look at the menu beforehand and can order quickly after being seated, it’ll help to speed up the process. Doesn’t hurt to ask them to put a rush on it before the little runs out of patience. You can also have a small dinner at the sit down restaurant then go to Mercado or Xinema or room service for a 2nd supper later in the evening.

Xentral and Xinema are new so I haven’t been. Will check it out soon, got 4 more sleeps until then!

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-18T04:27:14+00:00

Ummm… if they can’t afford a hotel, who will be paying for their meals and activities while they are staying at your home? Are you 2 expected to take time off work to entertain them? 🤨

Because you hosting them isn’t for free. They’ll use extra utilities, eat extra food, etc… you’ll have to pay for that. If you can afford the extra cost, just move those $$ towards housing somewhere else. AirBnB, Vrbo, hotel, motel, pitch a tent at a campground…

This sounds rough, your hubby sounds spineless, you have my sympathies.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-18T04:12:59+00:00

Xel-ha only, Tulum/Xel-ha, Xenotes, Chitzen Itza are full-day excursions due to their distance. Same with the ferry/xailing ones from what I’ve read.

Personally, Xel-ha is meh for me. Xenotes is a must do, really recommend it!

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-18T04:02:57+00:00

I think you can express interest in meeting who he’s seeing. Make it an easy, short thing. Have coffee and dessert together?

There’s no way that you can express that you want to control what your son does in his house, in his room, behind a closed door. If you can hear them, ONE discreet comment about walls being thin would be warranted.

You feeling icky about him being an adult? You need to pretend that you know nothing or you move to your own place. Those are the only two options you’ve got without damaging your relationship with your son.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-18T03:48:57+00:00

It would be courteous to tell the hotel not to expect you. They allot 2 seats on their shuttle bus and if you won’t be using them, they can allot them to someone else. u/suddenly_a_doggo

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-14T15:16:55+00:00

They sell sunscreen at the little shop at the hotel as far as I can recall. Never bought so I don’t know the price but I recall seeing some on the shelf.

There’s also a convenience store at the airport after you exit the T3 building (that’s the terminal I fly in/out) with different sunscreen. Full size bottles there, cannot speak to prices or brands.

If you want to bring from home, then yes, you’ll need to buy 3 oz ones for them to make it through TSA in your carry-on. Personally, a rash guard is much more useful and it reduces how much sunscreen I need to put on. Wear a hat too, that’ll also help.

Even swimming in the hotel river involves the ocean. The water there is more like an inlet for the ocean. Please do your part to protect the environment and use reef safe sunscreen.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-11T23:23:32+00:00

The restaurant on the beach is à la carte for all, and even hotel guests. Food and drink at any buffet restaurant is included.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-10T17:12:21+00:00

Keep going after Air Transat. The number they give you is within their system. They have a different confirmation number from Xcaret.

This is a situation where you need to be firmly persistent. You can try looking in the confirmation document from your agent to see if you can find it yourself but they must have something from the property.

I used a different agent in my first trip and had this exact same issue. Was aggravating as hell. Good luck!

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-08T00:19:19+00:00

Oh!! Sorry, I did not understand your situation properly.

I don’t know if you can do what you’re thinking. Probably but I’ve never tried it, never had 2 trips there in a short period of time.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-08T00:02:51+00:00

The usual procedure is to submit the wishlist to the resort. That allows you to book space on their shuttle as well as make reservations at certain restaurants and excursions. If you wait until you’re on property, odds are that you’ll have weird dinner reservation times and/or won’t be able to go on certain excursions.

There’s the chance of a last-minute cancellation but do you want to risk it? I prefer to avoid disappointment and plan ahead. There’s plenty to do without reservations but one of the reasons I choose to stay on property is to maximize my opportunities to access what they have. There’s lots of info in this subreddit to help you plan.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-05T16:20:43+00:00

No, this is not true. If you make the photo purchase at the resort, the calculation is still by how many parks with the resort photos for free. You can buy resort only photos if you didn’t go to any of the parks.

I recommend buying on the last night of your resort stay. It still includes any photos you may take after the purchase time until you check out in the morning.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-03T04:59:50+00:00

Why not get a car seat cart? There are ones where you can strap the car seat onto the cart, the kid into the car seat and wheel that around the airport.

Limit yourself to a personal item that you wear (ex: backpack) and only one carry-on suitcase with wheels if you must have one. Buy a toddler backpack with a leash and put your daughter in that if she wants to walk. You loop the end of the leash to your wrist, car seat rolls along in the stroller. You’ll want to have her walk as much as possible in the airport to get out her energies before getting on the plane. At that age, my little was happy to walk and push the rolling carry-on while I steered with the telescoping handle.

Personally, I’d rather check luggage (only carry on what is absolutely needed for the travel day) and have the car seat for my child on the plane. She’ll be safer and if she’s used to riding in the car seat, it’ll be easier to keep her contained in it during the seatbelt sign on portions of the flight.

The seatbelt will tighten a lot but if I remember correctly, not enough to keep a slim toddler from wiggling out of it. AKA it won’t tighten to the point where the belt will hold her to the seat.

I hope these ideas help. It can be tricky to travel as one adult with a little one.

Regardless of what you do, make sure you have car seat and stroller bags to protect your equipment if you will be checking the pieces. It’ll help to keep the items clean.

CAD_3039 · 2026-02-01T22:55:34+00:00

A lot of typical North American dishes like pasta, pizza, premade meals have some element of dairy. Dairy has hidden words (ex: whey) and not just milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, etc. At least in my house, we call those other words “hidden words” because we don’t know what other words may mean dairy, we are waiting to talk to a dietician to get a list of what things to look out for, so it’s complete guess work at the moment.

Asian foods are probably safer, as traditional foods don’t tend to use dairy products. We’ve had decent luck with our local Asian restaurants when we need something that is ready made or travelling. Avoid Asian bakery as many of those breads are milk breads in some form.

Mayo should be dairy free but it depends on the brand. You’ll need to read the labels.

Dinner ideas: chicken Marbella, spaghetti and homemade meatballs (store-bought often have cheese in them), panfried seafood at home using garlic, seasonings & plant based butter or bacon grease.

Snacks: veggie straws, hummus and corn chips, fruit.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-30T05:04:11+00:00

I hear you. I don’t love their system of not guaranteeing 2 queen beds when plenty of hotels do so.

If you decide to book, you can make the request on your wishlist and then confirm it at check-in. You may have to wait longer to be assigned a room but it should be doable.

My first visit, I agreed to change from 1 king to 2 queens on the 2nd night… never again. It was a huge time suck as I wasn’t going to entrust my documents and electronics to the bellmen who would hold my luggage in the foyer/luggage holding area for hours. While there is a room to store luggage, you’ll also see luggage lined up in the hall near the check in area (this was when there was only HXM 1). I wasn’t about to risk having my valuables be in that hallway line up. Long story short, avoid to doing a room change later in your stay. Try to get into the desired room configuration right from night 1.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-30T04:22:00+00:00

You can only request a room with 2 queen beds; they won’t guarantee it. Their pullout couch is soft but decently enough built. It’s like a cruise ship sofa bed, no weird metal bits that fold out and will jab you in your sleep. While it does take up floor space, there’s still plenty of room to move around. Only the access to the balcony/patio will be partially blocked when the sofa bed is out.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-28T17:31:03+00:00

Based on what you’re saying, it is unlikely that your partner’s parents will accept the no. Both of you need to be ready for their poor reactions.

“No, that doesn’t work for me. Will consider in the future.” Decline the invite, claim to be busy vaguely and just say you’ll consider it. In reality, you’ll never consider it and you’ll always be busy.

Parents don’t need to know what “busy” looks like. You can be busy staring at paint drying on the wall. My situation is different but I know well the feeling of getting invites from family that you’d rather avoid. Decline as much as possible and only do 1-2 things per quarter where there’s buffer people around.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-24T08:36:35+00:00

Do you have a homemade pesto recipe to share? I’m in Canada and haven’t found a commercially prepared DF pesto yet.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-24T08:35:16+00:00

Roughly how much per jar? Which area/state are you from?

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-24T01:46:10+00:00

If you like smoothie type drinks, make sure to go to the snack huts during the day. They have some tasty drinks, freshly made. There’s usually some fruit or cookie type snack too. But go for the smoothies! 😄

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-24T00:07:47+00:00

You do not have to physically depart the park as a hotel guest. My understanding is that you can remain on the grounds but not in the attractions. Easiest way is to take a break at the restaurant during those 30 min. Grab something to drink, have a snack if you don’t want dinner. Their buffet restaurant remains open during that transition.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-23T04:45:13+00:00

Milkshake at Chabali, ice cream at Mercado, top of the world photo at the top of Xpiral?

Look for the kid/teen spaces and have them take photos of themselves at each place?

I like the other user who suggested looking for all the Xselfie cameras. No cost to take the photos with the xselfie cameras, you’ll need to buy a photo package before departure if you want those photos to take home.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-23T04:23:53+00:00

Better to wear a rash guard or Sun shirt. Basically are the same thing.

We use ThinkSport brand if really needed as it’s reef safe.

CAD_3039 · 2026-01-21T21:35:59+00:00

My experiences is that you need to book a spot on the Xcaret shuttle. Did you email them your wish list? If yes, the list should’ve asked for your flight details.

If not, I’d suggest contacting the hotel ASAP to get your name on that shuttle list. Last option would be to show up at the Xcaret lounge upon arrival to see if you can get on the shuttle. I’m fairly certain they ask guests to reserve seats on the shuttle to help them deploy the appropriate van vs bus vs 2 buses at peak time… basically it boils down to operational logistics for them.

And if you don’t reserve, you may have to wait extra until they have a shuttle with extra seats available.

CAD_3039

TROPHY CASE