Come listen to George and Lisa as they tell you all about HootieFest in Cancun Mexico. Listen in as they talk about Moon Palace resort and all the adventures at HootieFest.
Come listen to George and Lisa as they tell you all about HootieFest in Cancun Mexico. Listen in as they talk about Moon Palace resort and all the adventures at HootieFest.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi friends welcome back to RView podcast. We have a great show for you. Today we're going to talk to you all about Hootie Fest in Cancun, Mexico 2022. So stay tuned.
intro
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listening as Jordan Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. Jordan Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A tip and motor coach and tow their Jeep Wrangler always looking for fun and adventure
Lisa RichartHernandez
hi friends welcome back to RView Podcast. I'm Lisa RichartHernandez.
George
And I'm George Hernandez
Lisa RichartHernandez
And today we are going to tell you all about our fabulous trip to hoody fest 2022 which was held in Cancun, Mexico, at the Moon Palace resorts all inclusive. It was so much fun. Listen, normally we talk to you about our RV but this is about all of our travels. And we haven't unfortunately gotten a chance to get out in the RV lately. So we wanted to share with you this amazing time that we had when we went to this all inclusive concert and George money tell us what Hootie fest is and what the bands were that were there.
George
So hoody Fest was put together by Cid and Cid promotions. And they knocked it out of the park. It was so well put together. Everything from arrival transportation to the hotel, and just all the performers the stage the
Lisa RichartHernandez
I just I say clean about nothing. Yeah.
George
What was the only thing that oh, okay, we'll get to that. Let's not start with complaints. Right. This they knocked it out of the park. I I already told Lisa that if they do this again next year, we are all in. It was so well worth it. And we will get into all the details. But the artists were obviously hooting the blowfish for the headliners. We had cowboy mouth, which is a kind of a local band. That's, I guess,
Lisa RichartHernandez
like a couple hits. But
George
yes, then we had a occasional milkshake,
Lisa RichartHernandez
which is from Mark from Hootie and the Blowfish. He's started his own band collocational milkshake. That was one of the pool bands.
George
And then they had a mariachi band that they named Hootie fiesta. So those were the three that so they had a mainstage at the beach. And then they had a small, intimate stage poolside, which ended up being my absolute favorite, and I wish more of the big bands would have just made an appearance and played one time, but that's besides the point. So the main performers obviously again, hooting the blowfish Barenaked Ladies. And apparently they did a great job. Blues travelers. Incredible, incredible nailed it sounded fantastic Toad, the wet sprocket, which honestly I had never heard of them, but our friends were like, oh, yeah, they're all into them. Yeah. Better Than Ezra. That was awesome. Definitely heard of them. They were awesome. High performance.
Lisa RichartHernandez
These are all like 90s bands. Yeah. That were like in my, I guess the I'm aging myself. Early 20s. Yeah, there was like, those are all our party bands. It was awesome. Yeah, absolutely.
George
That's I guess that's what was great for both of us being in that age bracket. Spin Doctors. Yeah. toadies? Sister Hazel. Yeah. Driving and crying. Yeah. They're all great. So those were all the the big names. They all nailed it. The stage was very accessible. And the biggest thing was it so it was an all inclusive resort. So there's only let's say room for 3000 people so that's it. There was nobody allowed from outside there was no extra tickets sold. It was just for people that were staying at the resort. And it turned out to be such a great idea. Because there was no no fighting to get up in the front. There was no there was so much room just put it that way.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So let's just start with a when we arrived, so we landed in. We flew from Charleston to Houston on United. He's Houston to Cancun, very simple flight United did a great job. That really happened with United United Airlines lately. We arrived in Cancun, went through customs got our baggage, all of that was very smooth. And as soon as you get there, there's people holding signs up that said Hootie fest the big splash and it was very easy to find our shuttle bus which were waiting for us when we arrived and they took our bags they put tags on them with which which there was three different parts So the resort there was the grand sunrise sunrise where we were and then what was the one in the middle called?
George
Oh, that's what I'm trying to remember. Go on, it'll come to me in a second.
Lisa RichartHernandez
So there's three different parts of the resort sunrise, where we stayed is where the actual concert stage was. And this is like a super awesome concert stage, literally set out on the beach. So you're like standing in the sand. They had, you could sit in the far back, if you wanted to be in beach chairs, they had a handicap accessible area. You could we kind of ended up walking sort of to the left side of the stage where there was like cement. So we didn't have to stand in the sand. But it was, it was awesome. And we stayed in Sunrise, which was the closest one to the actual concerts. And if I have any advice I could give anyone looking to go next year 100%. I don't care if the grand is supposed to be quote unquote, nicer, or more luxury, stay in the sunrise where the concert
George
is? No, no, no, no, no, stay at the Grand stay at the grill. Yeah, no,
Lisa RichartHernandez
seriously. That's the best insider tip that I could possibly give you.
George
Yes, we had friends who did stay at the grand and that was one of their complaints. The Grand was beautiful. It was it's the luxury side of the resort. But it's all the way
Lisa RichartHernandez
to the shuttle. And so you know, it's not like he can walk to the venue or anything like that. And so like they would be at the pool during the day. And he was like, now I gotta go back and drag their stuff back and then get ready and come back again. And so it was kind of like almost like you had to drive not actually drive. But it was like a shuttle that was a hard come forth. And it wasn't like you could walk there. So being right where the concert is, was just like the best thing. Because that's where all the action was. And all the fun and cool parties are
George
every night, we could walk over to the venue and stumble back to our room. It was awesome. And also, Lisa pointed out the pool stage is at sunrise, not at any of the other sections of the hotel. So again, everything's right there at sunrise.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, as a matter of fact, we normally get like a king size bedroom, and the only thing that was left was two doubles. And I said I'd rather have doubles, then be far away from the venue. And so that was definitely a good call on that part. I'll tell you what, if I could afford it, and I could get my hands on one of those. They had some like, suites that were like overlooking the venue. And I saw the people there. And I was like, Oh, that would be the best because you could go right out on your balcony and see the concert from there. That would have been super cool. Yeah, no,
George
I was looking through all the different rooms that they have. And I'm assuming that that would either be the kind of like the hard rock, which would be the Presidential Suite, monster band or the family suite? Because those are always at the end of the building ocean. Ocean View.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. And I like I remember when we were booking tickets, like they were already sold out when we did it, but they were fairly expensive. I want to say maybe 10 grand or something like that for the week. Well, pretty. And I
George
was just gonna say so the family's sweet. Typically goes for $793 a day. And the Presidential Suite goes for $1,800 a day. So yeah, then you add in the concert concert prices and I could see it being around 10 grand, but they were right there. It was like having a concert in your own backyard every night.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I mean, I guess that is fine. As long as you're there for the concert. Right right. But they only went to like what like say 1130 at night or something. Yeah, it wasn't like it was till two o'clock in the morning.
George
Didn't go late. And I don't know how they did it. But one time when we walked to the bathroom, the bathroom was all the way in the back of the venue. And I will point this out the cleanest bathrooms I've ever been to
Lisa RichartHernandez
even know how they made those portlets like dough so well done. There was a lady in there cleaning the women's like constantly. They have like a little I loved I mean this is such a random thing to say. But they were like the portal let's actually flush and then instead of like having to push or touch anything there was like a foot thing that you could step on and it kind of it was more like a button on the side but it was I was like why don't they make all toilets like that where you could just step on it so you don't have to touch like that's the handle or any buttons or anything like that.
George
But if you had to touch a portal at any any time that would be the Tommy lady
Lisa RichartHernandez
was like sweeping the sand out of them there was like people handing you napkins and and like you know hand sanitizer and then outside of that they had hand washing stations that up so most the time I'm like I don't want to go to a portal at especially at a big concert and this was like so nice, like so nice. No complaints at all.
George
I will say this I don't know if it was CID or the resort or combination of both. But the I don't know, there was it seemed like 10,000 people working this
Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, I feel like there was two staff for everyone. Absolutely incredible service. We never waited for a drink. We never waited for food. We
George
all the staff was so friendly. So, so helpful. If you had a question, they had an answer, if they didn't have an answer, they found it for you. Everybody had a smile, everybody was just hustling. And
Lisa RichartHernandez
one of the guys that we are just so glad to have our tourists back, because this is a huge part of our economy and our income. And they were all just happy to be back at work. Absolutely. And you could really, really tell.
George
Let's get back on track. So we get on the bus,
Lisa RichartHernandez
we get on the bus, we get to the resort, they send us to this. Like they get all of our bags off. We've got our little color tags on there, they hold those or we go upstairs to the conference center, where they have like 50 tables for people to check in. Absolutely. We I mean, we literally waited like five minutes maybe. And they gave us our wristbands. They gave us a little gift bag and had some water bottles in it and a hooting the blowfish or a hoodie fest. Sort of like a beach bag.
George
And then they said, After checking us out, yeah, after checking us out, they said go to that table over there and pick out your sunglasses. And we're like, What are you talking about? Listen, you got a free free pair of sunglasses. So I thought they were gonna be kind of cheesy. They were actually really nice. I still have them on. Yeah. All the whole time. They were awesome. And I thought that was it's like, to me those little touches are so cool, because I will always remember that they gave me a free pair of sunglasses. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez
well, we also used our bag like the little beach bag, like the whole entire time to bring stuff down to the pool and stuff. So really, just really great marketing and branding on their part. Yeah. And then our room was ready, like when we got there. And I think it was like, I don't know, maybe like one o'clock in the afternoon. So we went straight to our room, our bags were delivered. Our room was very nice. I mean to be the quote, not as as luxury as the Grand side of the things. It was two really very comfortable double beds. It had a jacuzzi, bathtub inside, kind of like you could look out the patio window which had a little bit of a ocean view. We had a balcony with a hammock on it. We had an in house, in the room frigerator that was fully stocked with beer, sodas, mixers, a liquor bar with vodka, rum, and tequila, tequila and maybe a bourbon or something. Now
George
that was the three and then remember when we got there, the pot goes empty. So I called down to the front desk and I kid you not probably five minutes later, we had a full bottle of vodka. Yeah, that's our room. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez
I mean, the room had a nice, a nice big tiled shower with a rain showerhead. It had a built in magnifying mirror which I guess I know that I'm 50 Seems really important to me because I can't see what to put my makeup on. So I was like, Oh, I love this magnified makeup mirror. And they had blow dryers and a flat iron even if he wanted to use it. So in the in the blow dryer was actually like, could actually blow your hair, which I really think long hair. So it's little things like that they had like Qi shampoo and conditioner, which also to me, I always have to pack extra conditioner because my hair especially being in the sand and the sun all day is usually like dreadlocks. And it was like Brady, even with quality conditioners and stuff really happy. And even with that it wasn't a little tiny bottle that they usually give you was a decent size. Yeah, it could actually you didn't need to use like three of them to to do your hair. Right. I was happy with that. So it's just those little things. I mean, it wasn't over the top extravagant. We just had a regular room, but I was very pleased with it. And one thing also that I like you could do so we we didn't plan on traveling with our friends. But we found out they were going and so we said hey, let's try to get a room together. So you could go into the portal through Hootie Fest and request like to be near somebody
George
or not a room together but be near Yeah.
Lisa RichartHernandez
And oh, also one thing that I did learn was talking to some people in the pool. They were like, Yeah, we requested to be as close to the venue as possible on the first floor. I was like, Ooh, that's a good idea. Not necessarily being on the first floor. But we could have been a few buildings closer to the venue, which would have even probably been nice.
George
Yeah. So the building we were in actually had some interesting rooms that were below us on the first floor. Those rooms had their own private pool, so some up pools from a pool. So say for example, Those 20 rooms below us. Those 20 rooms were the only rooms that had access to this swim up pool. I thought that was pretty cool.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. So it's, you know, we go to a lot of all inclusive resorts. So this was definitely a different experience. Because normally when you go to an all inclusive resort, it's all about the resort. It's all about getting a reservation at every different thing and what excursions you're going to do. But this time, it was all about the concert and what we were going to do each night and who the headliners were and what time we needed to be there. So we didn't really get to experience all of the restaurants and the excursions like we normally would, in an all inclusive trip. But we obviously we did eat at the restaurants and stuff, but we didn't. It wasn't all about balance, right? It wasn't about the resort get to we there was a couple of restaurants we couldn't get in because we couldn't get reservations. I guess that would be the biggest negative because everyone was trying to have an early dinner to get to the seven o'clock show. So like we wanted to go to the Indian restaurant in to the hibachi restaurant, and we couldn't get in those because they were always booked.
George
So travel tip for an event like this, if they do it again, which I'm sure they will keep in mind that for that event. Everybody arrives at the same time, same day, and they're going to start making reservations. And if you don't make dinner reservations, you're going to be screwed.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So what I would say is like George and I are pretty much very much like go with the flow type of people. So we don't really like to have a set plan when we're on our vacations. But because of this concert, I would highly suggest if you want to go to those dinners, the minute you check in to just go right ahead and book your reservations. Because worst case scenario, you can say, I don't want to go write it. You don't want to like say I want to go and then not be able to so I would say book it and cancel if you need to. There's no you know, obviously everything's included. So it's no cost to you to do that. Definitely. Especially if you have a party of more than two tables are are limited, apparently.
George
Yeah, well, again,
Lisa RichartHernandez
you got that said we had great food all the time. I mean, like, I'm not complaining at all that we didn't get to go to. You are not like that. I'm not
George
gonna starve put it that way. The food was incredible.
Lisa RichartHernandez
The so we went to the steak house tonight. I was just gonna say that. And that it's like, right on the water by the pool. And you don't require reservations for that one. And so the regular steaks, they, you know, they weren't like it was like a sirloin filet and a New York strobe hanger steak. So it wasn't like, fully minion, but it was so well prepared and so well seasoned. That the meat is just cooked perfectly. It was it was very, very good. I was very pleasantly surprised. Yes. By the steak house. We had a Caesar salad. It had like some sort of bacon stuff on it. What else was there at that? I mean, oh, the one night we ordered. So this was $40 Extra. But my God, I think the four of us could have eaten it. It was so big. It was a tomahawk steak came with like corn, potatoes, shrimp. I was sorry. So it was a huge platter. If you look on our social media, our Instagram or now our tick tock at RV podcast, you'll probably see like that big huge platter of meat. That's what we got at the steakhouse for 40 bucks. And it was really
George
a lot of it and there was still a lot I was that we could have definitely the four of us could have split people easily. Yeah. So the place in that we're talking about is called palapa steakhouse by Lapa Asadero, which is at sunrise. Now we're going to talk a lot about sunrise because that's where we were we didn't venture out into the other sections of the resort. So we apologize about that.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. If you have questions about the grant or any of the other things, if you shoot us a message at RV podcast.com Our friends that say there and be happy to reach out to them and get you the answers, you get their opinions on that.
George
So the other one was sunrise, the grand and the other place is called Nizuc.
Lisa RichartHernandez
That I don't know anybody that say there was one in the middle but there's golf there like That's right by the golf course.
George
Okay, so they have a steakhouse. It's called. I'll see if I can pronounce this right. To see FIS at a CFS a RR e ci FPS.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so we did go to that resort. We took the shuttle because we went to the spa and that's where the Spa is located. And we really I really enjoyed this bar. That's the one thing Okay, so you got $250 in resort credits or something like that.
George
Yeah, the the resort credits were really not a little bit of a letdown. Yeah, because somehow we got $250 resort credits. So we said Bella to use it for the spa. And then it turned out that we could only use them 100 And something resort credit so we yeah, we knew we were going to pay something out of pocket. So no big deal, but it's like me 250 But I can't use 250 I don't get
Lisa RichartHernandez
it. We got we got a one our couples massage and we ended up having to pay cash for that. I think $350
George
for both of us all together, which
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so the Spa has a you can go like an hour early when you have a treatment and they have the the dry sauna, steam room. The, you know, that freezing cold shower thing they put on you with mud, they give you to put on your face if you want. Then they have a reflexology spa. Then they have a regular hot tub. And then they have the cold tub. And you just kind of relax there at a time before your massage. And then we had a couples massage and massage was really good.
George
The massage was really good. We got there kind of early. So we had an hour and a half before a massage. Yeah, I would highly recommend not to go that early. Yeah, you only need like 45 minutes. Yeah, I was gonna say 30 to 45 minutes and you go through the whole spiel cycle, I guess. Because they walk you through and they say we suggest this first go in here for 10 minutes. Go in here for five minutes. You know, and literally 30 to 45 minutes. You're ready for your massage. I went through the whole cycle and then laid in bed for
Lisa RichartHernandez
bed. But yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was very nice. Take the shuttle back. That's really the only thing that we did. We didn't do any excursions which I would definitely do if I was just going as an all inclusive there was a bunch of different really cool options like zip lining and you know, tours and stuff. But they're all super early in the morning. And we know ourselves. We're not going to icons are up super early in the morning.
George
Our excursion was getting up and get into the swim up bar. Exactly. Which we managed to do every single day.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. I will say again, when we talk about the swim up bars. Here's a pro tip bring your own Yeti. They will refill your cups and keeps it cold all day while you're swimming in the pool and stuff. Also was somebody one up me. You like a bunch of people got Hootie and the Blowfish like or I'm sorry, who do you got us? Hoody fest yetis like you know, like ice insulated cups like made ahead of time before they came were like where'd you get those? Like, oh, we had a made? I was like, Oh, why do you think that there's so cool that next year? Yeah, I'll totally be prepared next year. So we also went to the merchandise tent early. That's another good pro tip. Because apparently they ran out of stuff. Yeah, no early
George
go. The first the first day, if you can ignore the second day, because they did run out of stuff.
Lisa RichartHernandez
We got t shirts and stickers and all kinds of like stuff.
George
I'll give you another pro tip. And I've done this. Every single time I go to an all inclusive, I think I've mentioned that before. Tip your waiters there. They work mostly for tips, right. And so I always make a point to find the the hardest working bartender usually not hard to find. And I'll talk to them for a second because I'd speak Spanish. And then I just give them a really nice fat tip right off the RIP. And I say, talking to give out a shout out to my boy, I'm headed he hooked us up the whole week. And he he was a hustler. He was pouring drinks faster than they could drink them. So I gave him a nice tip. I said, Man, I really appreciate you working so hard. Give them nice tip. And every time I walked up my drinks were ready. And you know, they're just there to work. They love it. They're so happy to be back to work. So I appreciate it. So I wanted him to know that I appreciated it. And it pays off.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, absolutely. And again, you do not have to tip and and sometimes it's even just $1 Whatever. Like we always try to bring a bunch of fives and ones just so that we can like be like, hey, thanks so much. Not every single time they come but but I tell you what, when we were sitting by the pool, those waiters and waitresses I mean is soon as your drink was empty. There was another one there for you. And you know, coming by Do you need anything? The place was really clean. And they also had like, good Topshop. Like or like I think I drink absolute the whole time. Yeah, yeah, there wasn't like crappy. Well drinks for free.
George
And all the big names. Yeah. Yeah. So touching on that, poolside. Again, they had so much staff that I mean, you if you couldn't get a drink poolside is because you didn't want one. And there was so many people work in that at some point. I was like, I don't remember who I ordered a drink from? Yes. Yeah. You know, so you order a drink and then somebody else comes by and would you like a drink? And I'm like, I'm not sure if I ordered one from you already or somebody
Lisa RichartHernandez
and they had so many like, like food options out by the pool. So there was like a smokehouse plays that had like barbecued ribs and burgers and hot dogs and and the burgers are. They're grilling them on that outdoor grill where you smell that smoke. And then they have these like brioche buns that they also like toast on the grill. Those burgers were delicious. My did indulge in that I have to say. Those were delicious. They had tacos that were also really good. Like, to me the girl was she was like, I need to find my taco guy. Like every day because when we first got when we first arrived, while we were waiting to check in, there's people there that you could that these were just bringing us tacos and desserts. I mean, they had a crepe station they had pizza they had you're
George
not gonna go hungry, not gonna go hungry. It's a matter of fact, get ready to put on some weight and no work at all good. Well, that's because we walk 10,000 steps
Lisa RichartHernandez
at least 10 to 15,000 steps a day. And that includes dancing at the nightclub, which by the way was an absolute blast.
George
The end we stumbled across it. We didn't realize it was a nightclub there. Yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez
it's in the main in the main building on Sunrise. And I mean, it's DJ we literally did not stop dancing for like two hours.
George
And it's all inclusive. So that guy comes
Lisa RichartHernandez
out on the dance floor with like shots, shots, shots shots and and the mids like all included, like what the heck like we're like, they're like, I don't know, kamikaze shots or something easy to do. But they were it was just a real total blast.
George
So this nightclub was called Noir. Yeah. And the first night we found that it was bird last night. And they had a girl that did a little bird last show. And then she did a little
Lisa RichartHernandez
like on the rings. Oh yeah. I want to call it era proposed almost like Cirque du Soleil type of Arabic. Yeah, yes. Incredible. Yeah, it was really good. I tried to post on tick tock, tick tock, but it got taken down for content. Like really? The girl had like bikini meetings. Yeah,
George
I've seen way more stuff on tick tock with way less clothes, you know, and she had on I don't know why they took that off. But um, so at, at sunrise, they had club Noir. They had the sky bar. That was pretty cool. Oh, yeah, they
Lisa RichartHernandez
had pool tables up there. And a hookah like you. I totally forgot about that. That was a really fun night, too. We just met a bunch of people in the in the pool at the pool bar. And we all became like a big group of friends that did everything together. And that was so fun. I loved that those people were so nice.
George
Yeah. And we'll give them a shout out in a minute with their info, but that we that's the biggest thing that Lisa and I love when we travel, we always meet such cool people. And I'm that guy that stays in touch with everybody. Lisa cracks up because I'll say hey, remember this guy, Jeff, and she's like, stuff. And I'll bring up a name from some resort that we went to five years ago. But let's go back. So they also had the lobby bar.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yep. Where they had like live music usually. And that was also really
George
good. And yeah, even the live music there was incredible. Yes. Yeah, it was really fun. Yep. And at the golf course, they have a bar called the 19th hole. We stopped there and we didn't have a cocktail. That was where the SPA was. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful view though. Yes. Yeah. And oh, gloss Columbia's bar was that. That was the the swingers bar.
Unknown Speaker
Oh, that is cool. Actually, it's by the pool and it's not a real swingers.
Lisa RichartHernandez
All this all the chairs are swings like so hanging from the ceiling swings, and we called the swingers bar. But every time
George
we want to meet up our friends would go would be will be at the swing or the bar. They know what you're talking about.
Lisa RichartHernandez
That's outside by the pool, but that closes at like six o'clock or something.
George
And then there's another one called the dune but I can't remember where that one was.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Hmm, maybe that's what the lobby bar was called?
George
No, because here it says the lobby bar. And then dune. I don't know we met Well, I'm sure we didn't miss it. Because we we made up our expenses on drinks.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I tell you what we in In addition, so let's just talk about the concert for a minute. Whatever time when you would go to see the shows that night. You walk in and there's like tacos, churros. Barbecue barbecue burger burgers, and like anything you want. So things that when you go to a concert, you would normally pay some ridiculous amount like 20 bucks for, you know, freaking burger and $15 for a cocktail. No, it's all included. There was never lines. You could have anything you wanted as much as you wanted. And then when you're in the crowd, like when the concerts actually going on. There's like 20 servers, bringing just trees full of cocktails, beer drinks. Like mixed drinks, anything you wanted, they would bring it to you. So you're watching the concert in the crowd. You don't have to leave where you're at. They're bringing it to you. And it's all included. So you're not like paying $15 A cocktail or whatever it was. I mean, even if you just wanted water, it was awesome.
George
So I'll say this. So your, it wasn't cheap to go to this thing. But at the end of the day, when you start adding up all those things that Lisa just pointed out, we have probably paid way more to go to a regular concert, you know, or music festival than we did for this all inclusive. I will say this, when we were watching hooting the blowfish, and we're standing on the sand and Cancun, Mexico, and there's, like Lisa said, 20 guys walking around with beers and cocktails and everything. I was in music festival heaven. Yes. I didn't have to reach into my wallet. I didn't have to think about Damn, here's another $12 waiting
Lisa RichartHernandez
in line. I'm I hate waiting in line, no
George
lines whatsoever. And I'll say this all inclusive. And I've paid way more for the hamburger. Excuse me. I've paid way more for a burger at a music festival. That was a little lousy compared to the food that we were getting at this venue. Yay. Absolutely. Nailed it.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it was very, very good. What are we missed? We talked about the concert we talked about. I mean, we talked about the room, some some
George
more stuff will come up. But now we do have to bring up the one downside. And it's so petty, but it's not really petty. It's not it really isn't.
Lisa RichartHernandez
So our room was on the second floor. And you can get room service. Like everybody you can call ahead and order your breakfast the next day or whatever. People start ordering bread was that like eight in the morning? It sounded like a frickin freight train coming down the hallway.
George
Yes. And exactly like a freight train. You know, when you hear the train coming from far away, and the sound is really low. And then oh, sorry, gets louder, louder, louder, louder, louder. And then it disappears. It was so loud. And I said to Lisa, it's a simple fix. But a rubber wheels on it or no, they they have solid rubber wheels. So that's what makes all the vibration in the noise. Get inflatable tires and a better you cut the sound by more than half. Yeah, it was that. But that was the only downside literally the whole thing. Like every morning We dreaded the trains coming through.
Lisa RichartHernandez
I feel like by like the second or third day, nobody ordered breakfast because they were like, Damn those things
George
loud. I think everybody was tired of hearing woken up. Yeah, honestly.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. But I mean, it is great that they had the room service. So one thing that I would do, and I do it a lot of times when I travel anyways is just get like a white noise maker, or bring some earplugs. Because if you're a light sleeper like I am, because every day that completely annoyed me and I didn't have any earplugs. And then when I was waiting when we did order breakfast, I kept hearing those things come down. I'm like, is that ours? I've actually got is that ours? And then I was like, Okay, this is ridiculous. I'm not even order breakfast tomorrow. Don't worry about it.
George
Yeah. There, there are a lot of activities. And we didn't do a lot of them because again, we were there for the concert. But one of the funniest things was they have one of those flow riders. Kind of a wave machine people.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, you can do like surfing.
George
Oh my god. It was hysterical watching people do that and just bust their ass and I'm pretty sure that was included.
Lisa RichartHernandez
I don't think you had to pay extra that's I know
George
we could we couldn't figure that out because we never did it. But our friends said that it was free. Awesome. If you go with kids, they have a playroom, you could just drop them off and they they take care of them for the day. I wouldn't
Lisa RichartHernandez
really think I'd want to bring my kids to one. It's a concert kind of thing. Yeah. Adults. And there was
George
a lot of people there that did bring kids. So in a lot. Well, let's just say this. Not everybody was there for the concert. Yes. So the people that I believe the people that were there with kids. Were not there for the concert. I don't know if they missed the memo or what happened or they maybe they booked it last year or years ago and I don't know, but there was some people with kids, whatever. Not not a not necessarily a venue to take small children to. They have a wired lounge, obviously a Wi Fi lounge. They have a lot of entertainment. A lot of shows
Lisa RichartHernandez
their internet was really good the whole time. Yeah, it was I had no problem getting service on my phone or being able to do any work from there. Yeah, I could do Wi Fi calling really easily. Pretty much anywhere.
George
Yeah. So another thing that just popped in my head the coolest thing that I thought I saw the whole time besides all the bands was the seagull Hawk control it. So they have a guy with walking around the pool with a hawk. And he would put the hawk on an umbrella. Right and then he would walk. So the whole, the pool was massive and the pool had bridges connecting one side to the other. So he would drop off the Huck Hawk on an umbrella and then he would walk to the next bridge and he would blow whistle on the hawk or just fly over to them and the the seagulls would disappear. They want nothing to do with this hawk. And it worked like a charm because whenever that Hawk was not around, the seagulls were everywhere. And I thought it was the coolest thing to actually see this guy and see this hawk and action. It was it was just incredible. And another what a great
Lisa RichartHernandez
yes, freakin seagulls are like, they're vicious man. They were like, talk with God. They're like, I see a French right. They were go like, right for your plate, right. And
George
we've been at resorts where they where they put fishing wire across the pool, and they put those spiky things on everything. And I'm like, Man, this looks like a damn prison. Well, this place had none of that. Except for that hawk. And that Hawk was just incredible. I don't know why more resorts don't do it. Plus, everybody
Lisa RichartHernandez
loved it. Yeah. And then watching it. Yeah, it's so cool.
George
And the Hawkwood when when I would fly from one location to the other, it would fly really, really low. Right up up against almost right up against the water of the pool. And it would freak people out because they didn't know what was going on. I mean, you see this Hawk flying right toward you. And it was just so funny to see people's reactions.
Lisa RichartHernandez
You can check it out on our tic tock. Our tiktok is blowing up at RView podcasts on tiktok.
George
Yes, that was a think about that one video that I posted of the guy with the hog got 12,000 views.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we do have we did have a viral video on our tiktok. We have edith that did our grip sticks when we read the RV Tampa Super Show, which just got a million views. That's just awesome. So go Edith. Definitely follow us on our tiktok if you get a chance to anything else, babe that you want to tell them about?
George
No, I just want to say see it CID. You guys nailed it. hooting the blowfish. You guys nailed it. And it was, you know, it was I have to say this. It was cool to see all these big name bands aisle together all together. And they were all super thankful for Hootie and the Blowfish. And they all kind of every time they came on stage, they gave a little reference to Hootie and the Blowfish and how much they help them when they were coming up and how grateful they are that they got invited to come to this thing. And it's really cool. It's almost like a bunch of friends are like, Hey, let's all get together and yeah, you know, perform concert. Yeah, yeah, it's hooting the blowfish, blues travelers, you know, you're talking big names, but they talk like they're, and they are their friends.
Lisa RichartHernandez
They're all a bunch of good guys. Really. I mean, you can just tell and like, personally, I know derrius From our daughters went to kindergarten to the eighth grade together and he was always just, he's so generous. He's always doing stuff for charity. He's a great dad, like, you know, just just just really in all all the band members. You can just tell a really good guys like that. Mark. The one who has the milkshake. What did they call it? The one that was what is this new band called? He was there like all the time, like singing with cowboy mouth and, you know, singing at the pool bar and occasional occasional milkshake. I mean, yeah, he
George
was at everywhere. I mean, I thought he had a twin because he was
Lisa RichartHernandez
like, guys so much energy. I don't know how he does it. Cowboy mouth, also in the pool. Killed it. I mean, they honestly should have played every single day at the pool. That was they were so entertaining. It wasn't even about the music. It was he is just, he plays the drums and he sings and he's like, everyone's like, the name of the band is. Yes, as a viewer likes flashing blue book, you know, throwing balls in
Lisa RichartHernandez
the air. And it was just, it was just
George
on the red spoons.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, and the energy was just incredible. And I just want to give a huge shout out took out my mouth because they really nailed it. And they were so entertaining. And I would say to Hootie and the Blowfish people, promoters, if you listen to our podcasts, definitely bring those guys back and maybe consider getting them every day at the pool because they I mean they they were really the most entertaining, fun high energy.
George
To me. That was one of the highlights of the trip. Yes, because I I know they come to Charleston a lot. We've we've been invited by friends to go see them and we've never had the opportunity to see them. And now I graddic Because they are so cool. They rocked it, the hope and they weren't having it. They were everybody at the pool better join in. He had, you know, there was people standing around the edge of the pool and he's like, Nope, you got to get in the water get in the water. I'm not performing and they were going crazy. And then the the lead singer jumped in the pool and walking around with everybody. I was like, it was just so cool. Such a good vibe. Everybody was happy. There was no bitching there was no whining. I don't I don't. I couldn't bring up any occasion where I was like, Oh my God, these people are idiots. Everybody was just there for the same thing. Have fun and joy. And finally we can all party together.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. Speaking of that, that COVID testing. I'm sure everybody still has questions about that was really not a big deal. We had to get it within four days before we left got a negative test. You uploaded it to a portal when they checked you in and then 24 hours before you were leaving, they had free test at the thing you had to sign up for it took 30 minutes. And obviously we tested negative and you fly out the next day no problem.
George
And even that they they smooth, smooth, they just did everything at a grand scale. So it was no lines. No waiting. No hassle. It was it was almost like we rather have 100 people and not need them, then. Yeah, not have them in a need them.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. I can't say any more good things about it. So listen, if you would like more information, you can check out our website at our review. podcast.com send us any messages. If you have any questions. You can also reach us on Tik Tok at our review podcast on tick tock, please follow us because we're trying to get like 10,000 followers on Tiktok now, and with our other social media, you can reach all of that from our RV podcast site. And we look forward to hearing from you.
George
And if you have any feedback, please let us know.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Reach out to us and tell us what you know about the brand and how it was If your experience is there, and we'd love to share it on our next podcast. next and the next couple of weeks. We're heading down to Miami Boat Show where we'll also do some podcasts about that and we'll let you know what we find there. And what other travel Oh, and then not till May but we're going on an Alaskan cruise in May. So
George
that should be Yeah, that'll be that'll be real good. I can't wait for that
Lisa RichartHernandez
one. So in the meantime, we'll get some more RV information not for you too. But until then continue to travel and have fun. Thanks for saying
George
bye thank you
intro
thanks for listening to another episode of RView don't forget to drop us a line at RView podcast.com That's the letter R view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don't miss out on our next adventure.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai