We stayed at the Royal Solaris 8/25-9/2 and had a great time as we always do in Mexico. This was our 6th time and first time to cancun.
I will start off with arrival..
We landed on time 1:00 pm and (new side of airport nice!) and hustled over to immigration. No problems with that and only took 10-15 minutes in line.

We walked outside to catch our transportation (Best Day) and found then right away.. only problem that had the wrong hotel for us as we had changed form oasis to royal months ago but they did not have it listed as such. Waited around about 15-20 minutes for them to correct there paperwork and we were on our way to the Royal.

When we arrive at check in no drinks were served but no big deal just wanted to check in and get to our room. We were suppose to get a partial ocean view but the clerk indicated none were available so we slipped a 20 to him and he said he had a partial on the Caribe side (not where we wanted to be but oh well)

We were then greeted by Helen (very nice and polite) who wanted to sit with us and of course tell us about the hotel and then try and get us to do a 90 minute membership deal.. firmly advised her we are not interested. Through the entire stay although they were nice and not pressuring us,everytime one of them saw us they would ask.

We then walked to our room and yes this is a huge hotel and there are allot of steps and ramps etc. It took a minute to find but after about 10 minutes we were at room 2456 4th floor (caribe side). Yes the rooms are musty smelling but again this is a very dated hotel and it is in Cancun and I am sure the weather plays a role in that. The 20 dollars I slipped the desk clerk was a waste of money.. I was very dissapointed that the partial view was needless to say a tiny tiny view if you look at an angle and through the palm tree blocking the window could you actually see a tib bit of ocean. The room was large with a King Size bed and everything we are use to getting in our trips to Mexico. Clock, hair dyer, and plenty of soap and shampoo etc. Towels were never a problem and our room was done beautifully by our made when requested. We would alway leave a couple of dollars for her and she created animals etc.

Our luggage was brought to us promptly but once you get to your room you have to call the # on the slip they give you. Within 20 minutes we had our luggage and were off to the pool bar!

This hotel is full and I mean full of kids! My husband and I have never done an adults only before but I have never seen SO many young childern at any of the other resorts I have been to. They are everywhere! We love kids but next time we will try an adults only just for the experience I suppose.

You could always get away from the kids if you visit the Caribe side of the hotel. Although there is no swim up bar, there is a bar and a snack bar and their service is good.

The swim up bar on the tower side is good.. drinks are not watered down and Carillo and Luis are excellent bartendars. We tipped them a 20 dollar bill right when we arrived and a couple of dollars every couple of days. Couldn't ask for better service at the pool bar. The pool on the other hand was a little dissapointing and I understand it has a concrete bottom.. but the water was dirty to down right disgusting. We have a pool and a hottub at home and we can see and smell dirty water I assure you. But then again you have hundreds of kids as well as food and drink in the pool everyday as well. Dispite some reviews that claim the pool bar closed early 5:30, on one or two nights the bar stayed open long after it was dark probably 8 pm.
Tip the guys walking around the pool a few dollars and the drinks keep coming although we never were pressured to tip anyone at this resort.

The other bars are adaquate and great service as well and have no complaints.

Entertainment Staff.. They work extremley hard at making every ones stay enjoyable.. My favorite staff were Sara and Charles!
We enjoyed there company by the pool and went out of their way to make sure you were happy.


The food... some of the restaraunts serve good food and some of the others well lets just say, I wouldn't feed to my dog! Marco polo went from good to really bad (ate there twice) La fluentes is what I was compare to a MRI (what the military packs for survial food)
The best places to eat here are the Veneto and the Bogante. The Bogante served a unbeleivable Dorado (maui maui) that I had for lunch and the service was exceptional! The Veneto, ate there twice and had a ribeye steak.. again service is top notch.

Snack bar food ok is just ok, your typical mexican sanck bar trying to serve amercian favorites that you would find at any AI 3.5 star.
Laundry Service was great, reasonable prices. Just call them from your room and they wiill pick up and deliver them back clean and folded of course.

Beach: The beach is still beautiful dispite hurricane dean.. yes there is errosion. Now there are very large boulders in the surf so swiming was a problem. If you get past the boulders you are fine.. it's just getting out that far that may be difficult. There is allot of shells so yes I do suggest water shoes for strolling in the surf. One night we sat on the beach about 1:00 am and saw 200 to 300 pound turtles stroll up on the beach to lay their eggs. This was one of the highlights of my vacation.. it was a wonderful site!
We also went scuba diving as usual and near one of the islands booked through Aqua World and they too provide excellent service and took good care of us.

There was really no noticable damage from the storm from what my husband and I could see.. I didnt even see a blown over palm tree .. just a few boarder up windows up and down the hotel zone. The beaches are sooooo beautiful, you would'nt even notice it unless you were actually looking for it.

Weather: Well it's mexico and it is HOT and humid and although the weather sites indicated cloudy and rainly it was only cloudy one day and rained for about 20 minutes.. then nothing but sunshine.

Bus to shopping was a breeze.. just catch the #1 or the #2.. no sense paying taxi fare to shop. Went to town twice no problems.
One day we asked best day tours for the best place to buy gold.. he gave me a coupon for free gem if I visit this store. We hopped on the bus and went to this new store called Lapis. Upon entering they serve you what ever you would like to drink (we chose water) and they give you the grand tour of how it is made etc. My husband purchased me a beautiful gold necklace at a very good price and yes it is real gold. I always buy a piece when I visit mexico and have had nothing but good luck when purchasing gold. We also purchased some very nice silver
pieces.

My husband and I also did the Mayan Encounter and booked through our Hotel. This was a all day experience and we very much enjoyed it. They picked us up at 7:30 and we then traveled through many mayan communties. We then traveled into the jungle and did a repel and a zip line thorugh the trees. We were then taken to a village were the mayan women prepared a authenic lunch that was absolutley delicious. Once lunch was done we visited and climbe Coba. I climbed 3/4 of the way up and scared my self to death and walked back down. I regret not going all the way!

My overall experience at this hotel was ok. regardless of the good and the bad.. I will always enjoy my vacations in mexico no matter what resort I stay at. It's never going to be perfect. but is was wonderful and very relaxing! Would I stay at this resort again, probably not as I like to visit different places and this was my least favorite hotel of all of them I stayed at in Mexico.

If there are specific questions not answered here, let me know and I will try to answer them for you.

Viva La Mexico!

Our family of four stayed at the Royal Solaris Cancun the week of August 25th. We were treated like royalty. We were met by our host Charlie, as soon as we exited the airport transportation that was arranged through the hotel. Our bags were handled and we were wisked off to the Premier Club to register and find out about the ammenties offered at the resort. The resorts check in time is 3pm; however, one our rooms was ready for our arrival at 12:30 pm so we were able to check into our room in the Caribe Tower, change and be on the beach by 1 pm. The amenities were excellent. Nightly shows that were energetic and entertaining. The restaurants were good with a variety to suit different guests. The service was attentive, helpful and kind. When we spoke spanish, even broken at times, they encouraged us and I believe found it nice to have guests try to speak the language.

The resort did experience some beach damage from hurricane Dean the week before, but the staff was already busy at work restoring the huts and beach structures that were damaged. The beach was torn up and the current was rough so unless you were a strong swimmer it was tough to get out past the breakers. There are a lot of seashells for collecting and a lot of broken ones as well, so you may what to pack water shoes. They made it easier to get out past the breakers for swimming and jumping waves. Both towers, The Royal and Caribe were under going maintenance with repairs and painting. This did not spoil the experience and made me fell better that the property's were being maintained.

On Sunday night, a group of guests gathered to release baby sea turtles into the ocean. It was a once in a lifetime experience! The sea turtles come up on the beach, lay their eggs and return to the sea. When this happens, the beach patrol marks where the eggs are layed and they are later retrieved, incubated, hatched and returned the babies to the sea. On two separate mornings, we witnessed a mom laying her eggs, it was amazing.

The Royal arranged a welcome party for dinner and fun at Carlos and Charlie's, this was a blast, full of laughs. The resort also arranged a day trip to Isle Mujeres which was included in our stay. We went snorkeling off a catamaran The Sea Passion. The crew was great! It was a great trip! We also booked a tour to Tulum and Xel-Ha. Tulum was just enough to get a taste of the Mayan architecture. Xel-Ha is nice, but it's not like snorkeling off the beach or a boat. On our next visit we will either try Coba or Chichen Itza.

Our two children 15 and 12 had a great time and can't wait to go back. This was a place that was still cool to go with Mom and Dad.

I really don't understand why anyone would give this hotel a bad review. We were first greeted with a drink. Some people say they weren't. If you're not given one, big deal. It's an all-inclusive resort where you can just walk over to one of the many bars and get the drink of your choice free of charge. They will take your bags for you, and someone is assigned to show you around to give you a tour of the grounds and the hotel. This was very helpful because the place is huge! The guide will also explain any questions you might have about activities or restaurants. All of the restaurants are included in the package, and you are not limited to how many times you can eat there like a lot of the other hotels. The grounds are beautiful. The food is amazing with a wide selection to choose from. Every day they have something different to eat with different themes. The snacks during the day are incredible. They have a nice size snack buffet right by the pool. Drinks are good and not too weak. The service is the best I've ever had. Very friendly and helpful staff. The restaurant and bar has purified water- you can drink all the water you want at dinner and not get sick. I brushed my teeth with the water from the sink in our room and I was fine too. Comfy lounge chairs by the pool. Beach- AWESOME, clean, large, HEAVENLY!.
The rooms looked & smelled clean and the water pressure was very good- they must have read the review where the guy said it was not existant and fixed all of them. Even if the water pressure did suck, i would still give this place a 5 star rating. I don't let water pressure determine the amount of fun i have. The bedspreads look ugly from the pictures we saw and almost didn't choose this hotel just for that reason! We are SOOOOO glad we read these reviews first and didn't let a room's decor determine where we stayed. The room wasn't so bad afterall plus we were rarely in it. It was very spaceous and cute.
Like some may have said, yes, the activites begin getting scarce by 1am. There are bars everywhere in cancun if you really want to keep partying and waste half your day sleeping in the next day from a hangover. I am 27 and was actually kinda glad things started winding down. After drinking ALL DAY for free and swimming and walking the beach, I was VERY ready to sleep! Then you can get up refreshed for a new day of eating, drinking, swimming and sight-seeing.
I got engaged here on the beach under a full moon. Such a romantic place to stay, and we couldn't have picked a more perfect hotel! We will be back to the Royal Solaris Cancun for sure!

Stayed at the Royal Solaris in June 2007 and it was quite disappointing. Nothing special about it at all. The best comparison is that it’s like a budget hotel in the States, such as a Motel 6, but it’s on the beach and has restaurants. My wife and I go to Mexico often, but we usually stay at All-Inclusives such as the Iberostars and Palace resorts in Playa Del Carmen, which is about 30 minutes south of Cancun. Last year we paid $1800 for 2 people to stay at an Iberostar luxury resort in Playa del Carmen for 5 nights. We paid almost the same for the Royal Solaris and by comparison it was a DUMP! We will never return and we will stick to Playa del Carmen in the future.

Rooms: Our room in the Royal Tower on the 7th floor was small, dark, very plain, and smelled of a musty and stale odor. It was like a Motel 6 room. We had to buy candles in the gift shop and light them every day to get rid of the horrible smell. Our bathroom was very small and the shower leaked all over the floor—we had to cover the floor in towels each time we showered. Worst of all, there was no refrigerator with bottled water! We called the front desk, and they told us the rooms don’t have them. We were shocked!

Pools: On the Royal tower side, there are 3 small pools that look dirty, and they are congested and noisy with many drunken loud people. If you want more quiet, go to the small pool on the Caribe side. It was more pleasant and clean.

Food: It was ok. You don’t get gourmet food at all-inclusives, but I have to say that in the buffet restaurants the food was cold, slimy, and I didn’t always know what I was eating. The specialty restaurants were much better.

Beach: The only part we liked. It was clean, quiet, and there was plenty of room for beach chairs. The water is beautiful and warm. The beach was the only part of the resort where my wife and I enjoyed ourselves.

Overall, I would never return to this resort. For what we paid, it was very disappointing and we would not recommend it to anyone. For the money, book an all-inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen, which is only 30 minutes from Cancun. I would suggest the Iberostar resorts. You’ll get a much more luxurious resort for about the same price!