September 23 – 28, 2026
Well, we went and did it again. For the second time in 2026, and third time in just under a year, we left the country to see our favorite band, Blue October.
I told the story about the tickets for the Portugal trip and the return to Cabo going on sale almost immediately upon our return from last year’s trip to Cabo, so I won’t bore you with those details.
What I will bore you with is the room we booked.
In 2025, we booked a pretty basic room with no VIP add-ons, butler, or anything like that.
This time, we decided to splurge.
First, after the nightmare that checking in was at the 2025 event, we decided to arrive a day early to beat the crowd.
Then, we got the VIP room with a butler.
Was it worth the extra money? For the extra day and the VIP access? Absolutely.
For the butler? Meeeeehhhhhh…
The Final Countdown
In the weeks leading up to the event, we started getting e-mails from the crew managing the whole trip. Some of the e-mails pertained to our butler service – namely, that we would be hearing from them soon and to take advantage of their services. Put them to the test, we were told.
When we did hear from Gabriel, our assigned butler, we did our best to put him to the test. We asked for specific alcoholic beverages to be stocked in our room, along with mixers, plenty of ice, and we asked him to make reservations for us for the three nights of dinner, as well as our spa services.
Via WhatsApp, we were told it would all be handled.
We’ll see about that.
The days continued to tick by and much of the lead-up to the trip was spent in Port Richey, Florida.
Finally, shortly after Brandy’s return home from Detroit, we were packed up and ready to hit the skies on our return to South of the Border.
The Many Benefits of Arriving a Day Early
As I related in my post from our first trip to Cabo, passing through immigration and customs upon our arrival in Mexico was a nightmare, dealing with extremely long lines on both counts. The lack of rapid movement took its toll on us mentally and we were both nearly at each others’ throats by the time we passed through customs. Following that, we were crammed onto a bus that had two more seats available on it. The long drive in a packed bus took us to the resort where everyone else was already there and checking in. Between the wait in line and the seemingly endless forms we had to fill out, it ultimately took us three hours to check in that day. By the time the meet and greet started that evening, we were both taxed and we skipped it.
Fast-forward one year. We’d decided to book an extra day, the day before, and arrive before the rest of the masses so we departed that Wednesday. We spent the night in Des Moines Tuesday night in anticipation of our early morning flight Wednesday. Neither of us got nearly enough sleep so thankfully, our responsibilities essentially ended once we parked the car at the airport.
We strolled in before there was a single agent at any ticket counter. I took the opportunity to pre-check and sticker our bags then, when the ticket agents showed up, all we had to do was go up to the scales and weigh our bags. Mine, unsurprisingly, came in underweight.
Brandy’s, on the other hand.
In an effort to save the $200 overweight fee for her 70+ lb bag, we opened our suitcases and shifted a few items from hers to mine. We were now both over 50 lbs so my bag had to be restickered as “heavy”, but it was thrown on the conveyer belt and we headed up to the gates to wait for our flights.
We had a 3+ hour layover scheduled in Denver, which I was thankful for – every time I fly through Denver, I run into a problem. A delayed flight here, a missed connection there, it’s never a smooth process flying through DEN.
We left DSM on time, landed in DEN early and our flight our to Cabo even left a little early, landing us in Cabo about half an hour early. We quickly made our way to immigration hall where there was virtually no one in line. We basically walked up to the automated immigration counter, scanned our passports and were through in no time. Before we knew it, we were at the baggage claim carousel and our bags were among the first off the plane. We grabbed them and walked right up to the customs agent that was just standing there with nothing better to do. We ran through customs and made our way through the hall of timeshare salespeople to the ground transportation area. We found our contact who walked us to a Lincoln Navigator that we rode in style in to the resort. It was quiet and cool and comfortable, unlike the bus we’d taken the year before.
We arrived at the resort and a bell person took our bags and gave us a claim ticket for it before we met with our butler, Gabriel. He escorted us to the VIP lounge (that we’d missed out on the year before). Many of the band was already in the lounge along with many other fans that had arrived early. We were told to take a load off and Gabriel would be back with the forms we needed to fill out. We were offered food and drink, we were brought the forms and were then free to wander about until our room was ready.
We headed outside and were joined by a lovely lady who was visiting our resort from a sister resort. We got to talking about why we were all there to see Blue October, we got to talking and she said she was going to try to come back for their show Friday before she flew back to the States Saturday. I didn’t think she’d be able to, the band had booked the entire resort, and the guards at the gate would stop her from getting in, but she was welcome to try.
We chatted a while longer before we were beckoned back to the VIP lounge to finish up the check-in process and be escorted to our room.
Gabriel let us in and showed us around our suite. As a suite, it was, obviously, larger than the room we’d had the year before, with the bedroom separated from the living room by a door, so I could rise early as I always do and not disturb Brandy. Gabriel had stocked the room with the requested items except for Brandy’s vodka, telling us he couldn’t find Svedka specifically.
“Oh,” we said. “You could have gotten Absolut, or anything comparable, it didn’t have to be Svedka…”
“Oh, I will get right on that for you then!”
And off he went.
We spent the rest of the evening having an… ahem… animated discussion about whether we were going to go down to the welcome gathering and buffet. We wound up going but were mad at each other the whole time and were miserable through it.
We headed back to the room and went to sleep before long.
Hurricane Polo
As we arrived, a tropical storm was brewing in the south Pacific. Experts were saying it was going to turn into a big ol’ honkin’ category 5 hurricane and was headed right for the Pacific coast of the Baja peninsula. Surely, the subsequent days were filled with clouds and terrific winds, but it only rained once the whole time we were there. The forecast finally showed it was going to land north of the tip of the peninsula, where we were, but promised it would still be pretty brutal for us.
Ultimately, there was no interruption in the event, no shows were moved or canceled, and only one show was ended one song early when there was lightning nearby.
By and large though, umbrellas were closed, beachside cabanas were brought in, a few things were made unavailable to us, but we still had a great time with it.
The Rest
The remainder of the trip was alarmingly similar to the 2025 trip – the concerts, the ATV outing, the spa services, so, in an effort to try and get caught up on our goings on, I’m going to save myself the trouble of retyping everything and instead, refer dear reader back to the post from the 2025 event to relive this one.
The Return
The return home on the 28th was surprisingly smooth. We flew into Houston where we had a four hour layover, then departed on time for Des Moines, landing just after 10:00 pm. We collected our bags, first off the plane, basically ran to Franny waiting for us in the parking garage, then made the hour and a half drive home, getting there just before midnight. The adrenaline was still pumping from the week so getting to sleep was a task but I eventually did, a little after 1:00 am.
With no buffer day in between our arrival and my return to work, I drag-assed through the day, but made it through Tuesday, and the rest of the week and a half-ish before we took off for our next adventure on our Accidental World Tour of 2026, to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and boy, what an adventure that was!
I’ll tell you all about it soon!
Until then, enjoy the pictures I took on this trip in the Photo Diary, found in the following albums:
And just wait until you see my posts about South Dakota. There’s gonna be a lot of ’em!
-Phil
Post-Credits Scene:
Brandy: “I had fun on these two trips to Cabo, but I don’t think we’ll come back next year.”
Me: “Oh, OK.”
Swin Swinford: “But wait…”
Me and Brandy: “…”
Me and Brandy: “…we’re listening…”
-To Be Continued