Based on info on this site, booked a 4th floor Executive Club Room for family of four. Room costs were about $130/day in late June, early July. On the whole, this was a good value. All the minimums were met – pool, bar, gift shop with snacks, friendly, helpful (as well as they could be) staff. Nothing thrilling, except for some morsels in the restaurant, but for the price, extras can be bought and found elsewhere during your stay. It met our needs, since we intended to mix up some tourist things with some real Mexican culture. The Hotel Zone is nearly fully Americanized from what we saw, so we made a good choice. This one does not live up to even its less-than-splashy website.
-Executive Club Room. The breakfast for executives on the 4th floor was ok, but nothing you’d really pay extra for. The service was lackadaisical, the food somewhat recycled and limited. It was fine to fill kid stomachs with breads and cereal and such, but don’t depend on this as a big perk for the executive rooms. The best thing about these rooms is they are, for the most part, filled with business folks, and it’s pretty quiet. The TVs seem to be better/bigger (you get CNN- no subtitles- and a few other Spanish-subtitled channels in English, so don’t look there for much entertainment – on demand movies are $18!). The furniture may be a little better quality from what we saw. You can grab one of many Spanish newspapers or the English Cancun edition of the Miami Herald. You also get one of those ridiculous one-size-fits-none robes if you run out of towels. For the little extra, I’d go for one of these rooms.
-All the elevator issues folks mentioned before seemed to be fixed. Elevators looked new. Never had to wait anything more than reasonable time for the lift.
-Vending machines for pop (3rd floor) and ice (2nd floor) were a joke. Empty or barely working.
-It really pays to tip the maid a couple bucks daily, and ask (en Espanol) for the extra towels, pillows, etc, you need. We wrote notes using a English-Spanish dictionary (it’s not too hard to make yourself understood winging it). Upon check-in, we immediately called down and had 4 more pillows sent up. Quick. Water is no longer ‘free’, but you can beg for more from the maid and the front desk, with varying results. One call for a couple bottles water resulted in nothing. We were successful at scoring 4 bottles a day, usually, at no cost. This MAY be an Executive Club perk.
-Although our room and the public areas were definitely well-used, the housekeeping staff did a good job of keeping up with the typical day-to-day wear and tear.
-The in-house English is not all that good. You will spend a great deal of time pantomiming. Any complicated questions or directions will result in frustration and delays unless you get lucky and find a real linguist, or have well-prepared yourself for what you are asking (bring maps, books, etc to help the staff understand your question). Not a good or bad thing; it added to the other-culture experience we were sort of going for.
-The bellman/bellhops (moving bags and arranging transportation for you) are very energetic and capable. Class act. English is somewhat better, but again, help yourself and them and bring any material you have for where you want to go. We taxied nearly everywhere; the bus stops are a few more than one block away and waiting in the 90F/40+%RH sun didn’t appeal to us. In-town taxi trips are $4 and I always tipped. The taxi drivers bend over backward to help you out. Now, heading to things via taxi in the Hotel Zone will set you back, depending on where. Usually $9 to get out there and $11-14 to get back (not including tip). Always settle on price before you hop in.
-Pool was well-worn, but clean. The pool bar, one of my main reasons for staying there, never opened once, although it seemed the hotel was pretty filled. One hot day had a waitress sort of serving drinks around the pool, but she was an elusive one! The staff, seemingly, has taken to renting the pool area for kids’ birthday parties. Although that doesn’t impede guests from swimming, you are likely to be cannonballed by a kid playing with his/her friends during these periods. The towel service was a joke – no one in the cabana, and when they were, they wanted to rent them to you for $3 each. It seems this service ought to be complimentary for guests (show your key); they were big enough and plain enough to preclude being stolen, unless one brought an extra suitcase for such purposes. Anyway, right now, beg for more room towels and use those.
-The bar has real ‘US’ prices, but they don’t gouge you too much. Drinks were not overpoured and not oversized. The gift shop prices are fairly reasonable for a hotel gift shop, but, during the day, you can sneak out of the front of the hotel and walk a real half-block to one of the local ‘Mini SuperMarket OK Ziti’ (storefront convenience shops) and get salty snacks, ice cream, pop, and such (no booze) for half the price. You should sneak it in, since the hotel regulations state you should not bring anything in that might cut into our profits. No one hassled us coming in.
-There is no concierge on your side in the hotel; the lobby person is a tour guide, paid by the body he/she gets on tours, so use them for that purpose only. The ‘concierge’ on the Executive floor is a staff person, nearly all had no English (maybe they were great for those habling Espanol), and didn’t seem to know their area all that well. They played on the internet to kill the time.
-The restaurant does buffets for breakfast and lunches, and though they are not an exceptional bargain (and it IS a buffet) the selection has some pleasant surprises, and are a good way to experiment with at least ghosts of some local foods. If you have kids and feel the need to force-feed them sautéed cactus leaves to try, the El Granero is a good choice. They can go get something else later. Service was good. The Sunday Buffet, which we had on the way to check-out, was very good, combining lunch and breakfast selections and adding a few other yummies. Us grown-ups loved it; the kids had enough to be happy. Our one regular evening meal off the menu was an ok value.
