Impression Isla Mujeres — Finally Checking This One Off the Bucket List

This one had been on my bucket list for a few years.

Over the last few decades, I’d actually been to Isla Mujeres three times — twice by ferry and once by yacht. But all three were just day trips, checking out the island, hitting a few beaches, and then heading back to the mainland.

This time, we decided to do it right. This was my Birthday trip so ....

We splurged and went all-in on Impression Isla Mujeres by Secrets, arguably the nicest resort in the Secrets lineup and certainly one of the premier resorts on the island.

Getting Lucy onboard took a little convincing, though.

Her biggest issue? She had absolutely NO desire to drag luggage onto a public ferry and haul it across to the island.

Fortunately, as UVC Impression members, that wasn't going to be an issue. UVC provides executive-level private transportation to the harbor, and Impression has its own catamaran to take guests directly to the resort.

Slam dunk.

Add in a couple of First Class seats on American using points — hey, it was my birthday! — and we were primed and ready to go.

Getting There Is Half the Fun

Once we landed in Cancun, AMSTAR was waiting for us. Just like our previous trip to Impression Moxché, they had a nice full-size Cadillac SUV ready to take us where we needed to go.

Instead of heading south toward Playa del Carmen this time, we worked our way north along the coast toward the harbor.

Once there, Hyatt has its own private beachfront check-in/waiting area. It's probably 20' x 20' or so, with a comfortable place to relax while waiting for the boat.

And relax we did.

An hour or so, a few glasses of Champagne and a couple Palomas later, we were aboard the catamaran and headed across the water for the roughly 45-minute trip to Isla Mujeres.

That's when you realize this isn't exactly the normal hotel transfer.

We pulled up to Impression's private dock with a half-dozen or so butlers and bellmen standing there waving and welcoming us to the resort.

We found our butler, and we were off.

He gave us a complete tour of the property before taking us to our room — an Ocean Front Signature King Suite with a hot tub on the balcony and one hell of an ocean view.

The room itself wasn't huge, especially compared with some of the larger rooms we've had at other Secrets resorts, but it was plenty nice and that view more than made up for it.

We were happy.

We did a full unpack immediately, and about an hour later we were out exploring the resort.

So... How Was Impression Isla Mujeres?

I'm not going to give a boring day-by-day, meal-by-meal play-by-play.

Instead, here's what you really need to know:

The resort? Beautiful.

The ocean views? Beautiful.

The pools? Excellent.

The vibe? Calm and relaxed.

The employees? Awesome — friendly, attentive and genuinely caring.

The food? We NEVER had a bad meal.

And that last one means something at an all-inclusive resort.

The one thing we really didn't do was the big Sunday brunch. Neither of us were eating much breakfast on this trip, and that particular Sunday I just wasn't in the mood for a crowd. They open the brunch to outside guests for a fee, so it's apparently quite an event.

Looking back, I wish I'd at least walked through it to check it out. Everyone we talked to had great things to say about it, especially the huge variety of food.

No Chair Game!

This was probably one of my favorite things about the entire resort.

We spent most days at the main pool and a few days at the rooftop pool.

And we never once had to play the ridiculous resort "chair game."

No getting up at 6:30 in the morning to throw towels on chairs. No hunting for someplace to sit. No wondering whether somebody actually owns the chair that's been empty for four hours.

Between the multiple pools, rooftop areas and beach — combined with the fact that the entire resort only has around 125 suites — it just never felt crowded.

The restaurants were the same way.

Never packed. Never chaotic.

Just relaxed.

Another thing I REALLY liked was how easy they made dinner planning. We were able to make dining arrangements through the Hyatt Inclusive Collection app or simply by telling our butler where and when we wanted to eat. No standing in line at a concierge desk or spending part of your vacation trying to figure out dinner.

Most of the time we'd look at the restaurants, decide what sounded good, and either handle it ourselves through the app or shoot our butler a message and let him handle it.

That's a small thing, but it's exactly the kind of thing I appreciate at a resort like this.

When you're paying for this level of service, vacation should be easy.

The Butler Service

We had two butlers who split the day and evening shifts, and both were always available if we had a question or needed something.

They also figured out pretty quickly that Lucy likes her Champagne.

Our wine fridge was constantly stocked with it — sometimes with three bottles waiting for her!

Now THAT is paying attention to your guests.

Our Ocean Front King Suite worked perfectly fine for us. As I mentioned, I'm accustomed to slightly larger rooms at some Secrets properties, but between the balcony, private hot tub and incredible ocean view, there wasn't much to complain about.

Was Everything Perfect?

Almost.

We really only had two issues the entire stay.

At one point, apparently the entire resort lost hot water for a day. Stuff happens, and it was resolved.

The second issue was the hot tub on our balcony.

I'm not exactly sure how often they're supposed to completely drain and change the water, but I'm pretty damn sure they weren't changing ours.

Lesson learned.

Next trip, I'll specifically ask our butler to make sure it's drained, cleaned and refilled regularly.

Other than those two things? Very little to complain about.

The People You Meet Along the Way

One of the things we've always enjoyed about traveling is meeting people.

We met several great couples during this trip from all over the country. You sit around the pool, have a few drinks, start talking and before long it feels like you've known each other for years.

"We definitely need to get together again!"

"Come visit us!"

"We'll plan another trip together!"

Will we ever actually see them again?

I hope so.

But you know how that usually goes. It sounds great while everyone is sitting around a pool in Mexico drinking Palomas!