The Clipper Club is very conveniently located within the heart of the Cancun hotel zone, just off the main drag. If you are in a room in the south block of the hotel, as we were, you will be entertained by the deep booming sounds of an all-night disco from within the heart of the party zone, which is our only complaint. People staying in the north block of rooms were protected from this all-night thump. We basically could not sleep for three of our seven nights there, even after trying to drown out the sounds by turning up the air conditioner and having the ceiling fan on high. So that's the poor part of our stay.
The hotel is dated, but offers all the amenities you need. Our goal was to do a lot of sightseeing while in Cancun, so we were off site every day. The pool is cute, and the grounds spotless. The gardening is nicely done, and the maintenance staff constantly working away. The rooms offer basic amenities, with a microwave, bar fridge, kitchenette setup, etc. There is a cute restaurant on site, but we were always out and about so we never had a chance to use it. Being on the lagoon side of the strip, we enjoyed some lovely evening sunsets (when we were there to enjoy them, and not off site).
We met some very nice people at this resort, all of them coming through time share slots/RCI/etc. Very pleasant experience. Everyone liked the location due to being so central to everything. The staff at the resort were extremely helpful at all times.
Just down the driveway that leads to the hotel are some very nice and reasonably priced Mexican pubs and restaurants which we enjoyed. We also bought groceries for in the room; there are two OXXO grocery marts just off the end of the driveway to your right as you are leaving which offer basic amenities. Of course, we did the Cancun WalMart shopping expedition and Market 28, which were both lots of fun.
We used the local buses extensively, they are inexpensive and safe. Make sure that you have Mexican pesos for rates; it costs 65 pesos per person to travel as far as you want one way. If you have peso bills, they will give you back change. Do not try to use any type of foreign currency as the bus drivers are not set up to accept or exchange these funds. There is a bank exchange house just to the right of the end of the driveway to the hotel, and they offer one of the best rates we saw while there. The hotel was also matching these exchange rates, which was nice to see.
The bus drivers are very helpful, and do try to assist the tourists with locating the stop you want to get off at. We honestly had a blast using the local busing system.
As for time share presentations, they are offered everywhere. Apparently this aggressive practice will be ending as of Jan. 1 2009, regards of the Mexican government. We chose to take in 3 presentations during our 12 day trip (we stayed another 5 days at a different resort) and accepted these presentations based on two things (1) when the weather was poor, and (2) how much we could negotiate out of them for going. Keeping and open mind, and knowing that we would be refusing all offers, we had some nice tours of some very nice resorts, free food, and lots of free gifts and American cash. Worked out well, and we got a bit of a kick out of it. Took care of our cloudy and overcast mornings when we couldn't really do much else.
If you are looking for an inexpensive place to stay in Cancun, this is sufficient, but do ask for a room in the north block of rooms. They really can't do much about the all night disco, so if you are not a party person this might cause some sleepless nights. Because our plans included constant sight seeing and excursions, this hotel was an excellent base. We also took in the time share presentation offered by the lobby staff at the Clipper Club, and used the $1,000 pesos they paid us towards 4 excursions which we negotiated with the hotel concierge.