I just got back last night, folks this hotel is absolutely fantastic for those seeking a relaxing and wonderful vacation. As others have posted, this is not the place for the party crowd. We toured maybe 15 hotels for fun as we walked around this one has the best blend of beach, pool, easy elegence but not stuffy and very decent food. The staff was more than helpfull friendly and language was not an issue, at all.
The pool is absolutely stunning. it's huge and picturesque. The hotel was at max capacity and it felt about 1/2 full. Chairs were plentiful, towels, chair side service drink and food service at your whim.
Plenty of sun and plenty of shade for those like me that can only take so much direct sun. As we toured tons of hotels for fun, this was NOT true at many other high end places. Due to positioning of the buildings too close to the pool and beach, others run out of sun by 4. We had sun till about 6:30, my favorite time of the day. Others had almost no shade available and these were top end like JW marritot. Other pools had chairs crammed next to each other. Here you get the privacy and space you want and still meet lots of nice people.
What I may have missed in other reviews that was a very nice surprise was the 20 or so hammocks strung between the palms. I took a lovely nap one day in one and never had to wait for one to free up on other occasions.
Another great surprise was the Italian Buffet on site. This is a bit of a misnomer.
They prepare custom pasta dishes that are out of this world. The kids price meal is a joke it's $ so low. The buffet part is a lovely salad bar with smoked salmon on some nights and cured olives then the dessert bar has about 10 very nice selections that were tasty. Don't forget they also bring you custom personal pizzas made to order as part of the buffet, sometimes they forget to tell you that when they describe it to you.
One thing I wanted to recommend. Go to Casa Magna Marriot for their Breakfast buffet. It is absolutely amazing. Its about a 15 minute walk north of the hotel. you'll pass flowered bushes and iguanas along the way. The pool is not great there but the atruim is utterly without parallel. And the view while dining is really nice.
Save yourself some money and stock up on some snacks and drinks. Only go to OXXO, it's their version of 7/11. it's about a 10 min walk north of the hotel next to a mc D's and subway.
We bought some beer and wine, we had brought a portable soft cooler with us that folded into the luggage and had cold beers and water with us at 1/4 the price of the hotel. Even so, the beers weren't over priced at the hotel considering it was a top end resort. We have light backpacks we use to take day trips and it was nothing to stuff them with the goods and carry them the short way back. The bus was also an option if you don't want to carry, its so easy to use I can't tell you and dirt cheap.
Also we hired a car at cancun shuttle.com to get us 2 and from the airport. It was wonderful, decent priced and zero hassle, zero bargaining, prepaid and they were right on time waiting for us at the appointed times.
Our kids 9 and 11 loved the place. They went from pool to pool. They spent a lot of time in the pirate ship moonbounce thats open all day. they just loved the place we had to fight with them to get them to pack up to leave.
I would avoid buying drinks at the pool bar. When we did buy them they were weak and just not great. On the other hand just 30 yds away is the kiosko outdoor grill whose drinks were tasty, and strong, puzzles me why but it is so. This is about my only area I thought the hotel could improve upon. But since we had our own beer and wine it wasn't an issue for us.
The other slight negative is the ocean was a bit rough, I didn't care, the pool took care of our dipping needs completely.
I would like to thank whomever posted us all advising taking the deluxe ocean/pool facing view. I asked for the odd number room as the post suggested and man was that dead on. I saw the other side that wasn't pool facing, it was gorgeous, don't get me wrong, just the pool is so visually stunning it was a lovely addition to the scenerey and didn't detract from the spledid turquoise ocean. I didn't think there was ANY noise issues while facing that side as a few others have said here and I'm pretty noise finicky.
We did a day trip to isla mujeres and really enjoyed it. We didn't take the myriad of tours that are available and it wasn't necessary, we had a ball. We took one of several ferry services without hassle.
I strongly recommend you get a golf cart to rent to run around the island, its fun.. Don't rent the cart on the boat if they offer it to you, you will pay top price. There's haggling to do for this on shore. don't pay one penny over $40 for the day and make sure it has the "big wheels". They go much faster and I promise you'll be happier. I'm sure if you're good you may get the price lower but we're pretty sure they wouldn't have gone for much less, we checked price with other people who rented.
There is a neat, beach and beach side bar area just north of town that I wish i had spent more time at just a short walk from the ferry, you wouldn't need a cart for. But this was our first time there so we spent more time exploring.
I heard from others the dolphin and shark swim was great and cheaper than at cancun proper.
Ps I had heard on this site a comment or two on the bill accuracy. Ours was spot on. I kept the reciepts of things we charged at the hotel. We were very happy, not a peso out of place. This hotel just provides no hassels of any kind. Go there you wont be dissapointed.
