I am so sorry to post again but I have been thinking about it and I have a lot more criteria so I am hoping someone can just give me specific places to stay. I'll just outline my criteria for a place and hopefully people can suggest places that fit the most criteria as possible. In order of importance:

Must Haves:
- tropical, hot weather in 1st week of january. Like in the 80s.
- calm, calm calm water, clear (no cloudiness), lots of opportunities to see marine life right off the beach by the hotel. i prefer vibrant ocean colors and i like when its turquoise as far as the eye can see. also i dont want the water to get too deep right away off the beach because that kind of intimdates me. i prefer when i can slowly make my way out to waist or chest deep water and still see some cool stuff.
- hotel staff who will serve me pina coladas and snacks *at* the beach or poolside. hammocks would also be wonderful.
- i kind of really like when there are *some* other people in the water with me when snorkeling for safety reasons and just because i feel more secure that way. so it doesnt need to be too remote or quiet.
- nightlife. a casino would be ideal but definetly NOT a deal breaker if they dont have a casino. but i would like a bar to be open at night time at the hotel, and maybe a place for dancing nearby on the island.
- food be accomodating to two vegetarians that *do* eat fish (we're technically pescetarians)
- maybe a possibility of seeing wild animals. when we stayed in barbados there used to be little crabs that would crawl across our beach front patio. absolutely wonderful. and we went to the zoo and saw wild little monekys, it was lots of fun. however i would like to try somewhere new cause i really didn't like the snorkeling opportunities right at the hotel.

and something *very important* is a place that has a meal plan, an AI would be even better. (I'm not a crazy party animal or anything but I know alcoholic beverages can add up really fast on your tab and I want to let loose on this vacation) if not somewhere where the food and drinks are cheap!

i will go anywhere in the Carribean or Mexico. i'm not on that high of a budget though, so maybe i am asking too much. Ideally, and this might be really ludicrous of me, I would like to go for 5-6 nights (the more nights the better and the more likely some of my requirements could be compromised), with me and my boyfriend, for no more than $2500 all together. also neither of us have passports, unless i can get a passport in like a week i dont see that we can go somewhere that requires a passport from even U.S. citizens.

Actually I am also starting to wonder if maybe I should go on a cruise instead. I have never been on a cruise before and have no idea if a cruise would better fit my specifications. It kind of seems silly to pay for days when you're just at sea though.

$2500 for two in January for 5-6 nights, including airfare? That's a tough one. You may have to give up one or more of your wish list. Airfare is likely to run you at least $350 per person (maybe significantly more since you haven't already booked your flights).

Your best bet is likely to be Montego Bay or San Juan which offer some of the lower round trip airfares in the Caribbean and have the nightlife you want. Club Med on Provo in the Turks and Caicos may also be a good choice. The beaches and snorkeling on Provo are about as fine as you'll find anywhere.

Well when we went to Barbado's for 6 nights, it came out to just under $2000 for the entire trip. We had a beach front hotel, literally the water was ten steps away from my door to the water, with little crabs hanging out in the bushes by the hotel door. We paid $100 for 4 of the nights for all-inclusive priveleges at the hotel next door, the Almond Beach Resort.
It was an amazing deal, so maybe I am spoiled now.

Hi sheryl - one site you might want to try is aavacations.com One of the first search options is 'all inclusive'. It lists their properties all over, then you can play with pricing, etc. When you book it that way, as a package, you can get a discounted airfare rate. We've done a couple trips thru here and never had a problem.
A good site for cruises is vacationstogo.com. Good prices and has a pretty good search engine to narrow choices down. Although you do have to pay for drinks, some of Carnival's 4 day cruises are running pretty cheap for January, although those usually only have one port and 2 days at sea, which you would probably be bored on.

Sheryl,

2500 for 5 nights? For what you described? Calm clear water with great snorkeling AND hotel staff who will serve you pina coladas and snacks *at* the beach? Normally with those standards the rooms would be awesome and you are looking at 800+ a night in high season.

I think the airfare alone will cost you that much. Good luck trying to get that in high season.