The party was 9pm – 12am.  We arrived at exactly 9pm to find two REALLY long lines; One for Will Call and the other to get in if you have the tickets in hand.  When you are done with Will Call, you still need to get in the other line to get in.  My wife and I decided to split up to hopefully save time.

At around 10:30pm, ~1.5hr worth of waiting, I was only half the distance closer to the front of the Will Call line — there were only two alphabet-challenged staff working the Will Call table.  Luckily, the event folks finally decided to accept printed receipts from online order and my wife was at the front of the entrance line.  We pitty the fools who didn’t bring a copy of the receipts.

After a few more moments of cluster-f*ness, we finally got in (around 10:45pm I think).  The place was packed with people all with the same mindset — rush to the bar and stay there to get their monies worth.  I think we had 4 – 6 drinks a piece because we took turn ordering non-stop.  By 12am, open bar was over … $145 and 1.25hrs worth of drinking later, we had no idea what The Pool look like or a moment to dance because we were too busy trying to get drinks.

If you are a single, it might be worth looking into because there were a lot of folks looking for “action”.  However, for everyone else, save your money and do/go something else!

Most:

• Being off the “grid” for a week
• Key West: Been wanting to to go KW for a long time. Key Lime anything…key lime pie on a stick at Kermits(?!) sounds like a winner
• Cayman: Stingray and seeing first hand just how expensive thing are. A little perverse I admit.
• Casino and craps: Not big rollers but love craps. Been reading up on the slot tournament so might have to give it a try as well.
• Breakfast food. I love breakfast food but not breakfast per se (not morning person, hardly up early enough to cook). There is nothing better than waking up to room service on the balcony on sea days wearing nothing but my underwear. That’s right, I said it! :

Least:

• Potentially long wait to embark at FLL.  Our flight is scheduled to arrive at 1:30pm so it should be interesting.
• Jamaica: People calling us “Mon” wanting to braid our hair and/or sell us a cab ride to nowhere. We will see Dunns River Falls through an excursion but probably not much more. I’ve heard there is a cool Margaritaville near the port so might check that out.
• End of the cruise

The following is how my 24 hours went…

I arrived on-site (Bootyville) a little after 2pm to setup a pop-up tent for my group. Keeping in mind the camp group did NOT open until 2pm, I was somewhat surprised how many people were already there. Good real estate was going fast so I was glad I showed up when I did. Afterward, I went to check in at the “host” hotel, Marriott Courtyard Charlotte SouthPark. The hotel is around 3 miles away so in theory you can rde your bike to Bootyville. But I decided against the idea simply because I was not prepared to travel light…I had too much crap to transport.

I returned to Bootyville around 4 and found the place to be absolutely ALIVE with activities. There was music blasting over the loud speakers, a film and photo crew were walking around taking in the scenes and the campground was nearing capacity. Around 6pm, Spencer Lueders, founder of 24HoB, got on stage to do the event kick-off. Shortly after, the annoucer asked everyone to begin “staging” to the start/finishline. Being new to the event, I thought his watch must have been set to a different timezone; The event schedule said 7pm start, but it’s only 6pm. Needless to say, when we saundered over to the start/finish at 6:50pm, we found ourselves at the back of the bus — there were ~1200 other cyclist there hence the early staging. Not a huge issue, just meant the first few laps will be slooooow.

Before the event, I had some reservations about riding in a 3 miles loop. How many can I ride before I’m bored?! The answer, not enough. I rode 100 miles (or 33 laps) if that tells you anything.  The route is a nonstop roller coaster (see elevation) ….huge suprise, it is NOT FLAT! The inclines are not steep nor long, but will wear on you over time. Also, you will not get the same look of the course twice because of the crowds lining the streets like a giant block party (which it was the first few hours) and the different cyclists around you might require a different line each time. In addition, light condition is ever changing as the 24 hours progresses — a corner you took at speed an hour ago might be too dark to see the exit an hour later. To make things even more interesting, the organizer used social media, specifically Twitter to perfection. They continuously tweet via the #24HoB hashtag with photos, vidoes of the course and vidoes of interviews you might not see even if on-site. Excellent way to keep the momentum through the 24 hours.

Last but not the least, the support staff were incredible. Detail oriented, super friendly, always accessible and I honestly think some of them worked all 24 hours.   They had food and beverages out throughout the 24+ hours. Oh! They even had a stash of ice cream sandwiches in a hidden cooler. Definitely hit the spot at 1am! However, nothing can ever be perfect. My biggest complaint is the lack of COLD water. There were plenty of cold beverages — various flavors of powerade, flavored vitamin water, NOS (think redbull) — but all I wanted was cold water. All that sugary drinks gave me a head buzz that “crashing” was ineviatable. Crashed I did at around 2pm Saturday. The sugar crash left me completely useless.  It was somewhat appropriate since I got to Bootyville at 2pm the day before…so that was my 24 hours.  Time to go home.

Speaking of going home, on a completely unrelated topic, during my 5 hours drive home I stopped for gas in Oxford, NC off of I-85. During my brief visit at their BP gas station, I learned that a) I did not belong in that town because I was too courteous (I will leave it at that) b) Oxford, NC or may be that specific gas station is the only place I know that sells individual cigarettes individually. As in, why buy a pack when you can buy one “stick” at a time. Any who….

All in all the event was a BLAST. It was probably the most fun I’ve had at any bike event in a long long time. So much fun that my friends are talking about doing the Columbia, MD edition later in the year.

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If you are planning on going to the Cabo San Lucas area, I highly recommend that you STAY AWAY from a restaurant called “Los Ajos“. Why you asked? While the service was good and the food tasted pretty good, the “aftermath” from the place can be a danger to your health.

My wife and I, along with two other friends, visited Los Ajos in early September. After our dining experience, which consisted of the smell of sewage from the open windows and an overly-friendly-borderline-creepy-waiter whom almost held a napkin to my wife’s nose so she can blow her nose friendly service, we were all sick to our stomach that night. While three of us survived the experience with a short visit to the bathroom, my wife was not so fortunate; She was sick with E. Coli symptoms for 7 days straight.

1 out of 4 or 25% of getting sick is not good especially while on vacation. You’ve been forewarned.

Note: The trip was taken back in May ’07 and the review was written shortly after. So certain things mentioned in the following review might or might not have changed since.

It was our first visit to El Dorado Royale, and we had booked an Exotic Club member to receive half-off discount.

Upon arrival, it felt like every staff at the resort had come out to greet us and we were given glasses of champagne and cool towels prior to taking us into the Exotic Club concierge area for check-in. We had arrived at 1:30pm and the room was not ready as expected, as such we were instructed to grab lunch at a restaurant of our choice. Upon returning to the concierge area, the actual check-in process was where the pain began; Between the concierge and the very talkative Loma representative – apparently we “had” talk to him to setup the return transportation — took over 30 minutes. Since we’ve been on the road since 4 in the morning, we were in no mood for chitchat and consciously agreed to a tour (aka timeshare presentation) during this never-ending process fully intending to cancel so we can make the bad man stop! Enough is enough. Strike one.

By dinner on the first night, we’ve planned out our week and subsequently called our “personal concierge” (I will keep her name to myself unless you ask but it does rhyme with Charmin) to cancel the tour appointment. We are still amazed at how bad news always manages to travel at the speed of light because by the next morning, it had seemed like anyone that had anything to do with the Exotic Club had received the memo and either we assigned to give dirty looks or worst – another concierge asked why we cancelled and even offered to increase the gift from $100 to $150. Oh, have I mentioned our once friendly “Charmin” is not so friendly anymore?! While we certainly love free money, we have simply been through enough timeshare presentations to know it will not be worth the frustrations. Strike two.

The resort is huge. So why walk if you can catch a golf cart (aka limo to the locals)? I can answer that. You have to walk because it is next to impossible to catch a golf cart when you need one. We had called the front-desk one evening asking for a ride to Kampai (we were in building 44 and Kampai is deep into Casita territory easily a mile away) and were told to wait at the various designated “cart stops.”

The limo system goes something like this:
- The limos run every 20 minutes.
- There is a limo responsible for the Casita side and one for the poor side
- In order to get from one zone to the next you must wait for a transfer behind the lobby.

So, if my math is right, you can potentially wait 20+ minutes on one side, and then potentially wait yet another 20+ at zone-transfer to get to the Casita side. The wait aside, the worst part was that it appeared like there is a cart for every staff but yet we, the paying customers, can’t catch a ride. Unless you’re checking in/out, good luck waiting. Worst of all, to rub it in our faces, we couldn’t even walk in peace without encountering a golf cart every few seconds coming in every directions. It’s instinct to yield to moving vehicles…very annoying. Strike three.

In terms of food and drinks, everything was pretty good. The latter being the best; they offer top shelf liquors with Don Julio leading the charge. However corners were cut in the food department and did not always live up to “gourmet” as touted. If you like seafood, you will do great. If not or just want a change of pace, you will be out of luck — beef items are of low quality cuts even when labeled as “certified angus”. The burgers – I know, I know, what the heck were we doing eating burgers at a Mexican resort – were over-processed frozen patties. Lastly, may be we’re being overly critical, but I will give a prize to anyone that can tell me why my dinner came on a bed of powered-made mash potatoes?! Strike out.

We really wanted and hoped to fall in love with the resort as many reviewers have. It felt like the resort is trying to be something it is not, or at least not yet. Unless changes are made, we do not plan to return and can’t whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone else. Please feel free to email if you have questions or would like clarification on anything.

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