We were there from Feb 10th - 17th.


Check in - We booked a Deluxe Ocean View room. I called the resort 3 days before we left to confirm our reservation and the ocean view room, cause we read in TA that you dont always get it even if you paid for it. I was assured that our reservation was all set and we would get our room. Well wouldnt you know, when we arrived on Sat, 10 feb, they didnt have an ocean view room. They put on on the lagoon side and told us they would have our room in 2 days (Monday). They gave us a coupon for a free couples massage "for our inconvenience". I told them I didnt want the coupon, I wanted the room that I had confirmed. Well with enough firm complaining, we got it down to 1 day, so we moved after the 1st day.

Both rooms we were in, on the 3rd floor were nice and clean. But the ocean vew is definately worth the few dollars extra. Besides being able to see the ocean, you can look out at the pool and see whats going on.

The floors were marble throughout, there seemed to be somebody always cleaning them. The only problem with the floors was if the room above you was getting cleaned, and you thought you were going to sleep in, forget it. Every chair that was moved echoed throught the ceiling loudly. They need to put felt or something on the feet.

As many, many posts have stated, the staff is awesome, Ricardo, Karen and Carlos, out by the pool keep you well entertained, and I never seen a bartender work any harder than Alfonzo (fonzie) out at the tiki bar. Wow can he pour drinks when its busy out there. All there servers at all the resturaunts were very attentive.

The beach was nice, my wife liked the fact that there were the little tiki umbrellas to get out of the hot sun. The ocean was much rougher than at Playa del Carmen were we stayed last year, so we didnt swim much out there, we mostly hung by the pool.

If you want to lay out at the beach you will have a harder time getting a lounger on the beach than at the pool. We would go down by 9:30 am usually and the beach loungers were gone, but you could find them at the pool. So if you want to lay out by the ocean, Id say get down and put towels out by 8 or so.

The food. I read post after post here that states how good the food is, well both my wife and I didnt care for much of it. We both had a mild case of Montezuma's Revenge.

The breakfast/lunch buffet was ok, once you figued out what not to eat. The steaks at the steakhouse were very thin, and not cooked the way we ordered. The swordfish steak at Pier 12 was overcooked until it was very dry. The Shangralia, the presentation was awsome, the appitizer's, soups and salads leading up to the main course were very good, but both times we ate there the main course was dissapointing. The Sumo was ok, but the sasumi was very thin and didnt seem very fresh.

The beds were not great. Very firm, we asked to have a mattress pad put on (which they did) but it didnt help much. Also the pillows very small, we called down and had 2 more brought up right away.

Drink tip - my drink of choice is absolute and diet squirt, they had absolute but not the squirt. We found a little "store" across the street from the GP, and they had diet squirt, that was cool, so I bought some and took it back to the resort. The bartenders had no problem with it. I understand someone else wanted budweiser beer and went over there and did the same thing.

All in all we had alot of fun, we met alot of fun people.

We stayed at the Golden February 8-15. Check-in was fast and efficient. Our first impression of the room (220) was that it was very clean, a bit outdated with a fantastic view. Though it is an older and smaller resort we found it had great atmosphere and had a lot of "fun factor".

The service was fantastic. Jose at the Tiki bar is a real character and kept us laughing. The food overall was good and the no reservation policy is a real plus.

The beach is very nice. We spent a lot of time jumping the waves which was a blast. But hold on to your bathing suit!

For the service, price, location and food you can't beat the Golden.

We would return in a heart beat!

The new Golden fans

Stayed Feb 13-18. This is a small hotel compared to it's beach neighbors, but what it lacks in size, it makes up with character.
Service and friendliness is the backbone of this hotel. Staff is so over-the-top that you don't have time to finish that drink before another is placed next to it. Yes, we tipped (US $1) and they deserved it.
This is a 25+ year old customer base hotel. Which makes it very relaxing.
Weather beautiful, hot with a refreshing breeze. Rooms (oceanview-pay the upcharge) comfortable, beds are hard, food quite good but only five restaurants. Trick here was to shuttle over the sister restaurant and have dinner there, the Italian was wonderful at the Great P, folks liked the Big Ben but we didn't have time to try.
The staff wore different hats from all over wished we had brought one from our state to share.
Allover, nice vacation, say hello to Oscar in the Paradise buffet (mimosa's and screwdrivers for breakfast), Gullarmo in the Dolphin Bar (great Mai Tais), and Jose in the Tiki Bar (T-Shots).
If you go here, you will recommend to your friends. We are.
Cheers! Gary

Just returned....stayed there Feb 10 - Feb 16, 2007

I'll start with the VERY MINOR gliches that were a little disappointing but will NOT keep me from coming back.

1. We arrived tired and HOT. We were immediately ushered into the lobby bar to check in. We were rushed thru the check in process and not even offered any cold drinks. It was kinda like they just wanted us out of their way.

2. Pier 12 - I had heard over and over again how fantastic this restuarant was. We arrived and were asked to have a seat at the bar and they would get a table ready for us. We ordered drinks and waited. The inside seating only had about 4 occupied tables, the outside seating had about 6 occupied tables. We chose to sit outside. As we were seated we were given menus. About 20 minutes later we went inside to get our own drinks and ask someone to come and take our order. Finally the order was taken and we ordered a couple of cokes. About 15 minutes later gave up on getting the cokes and went to the bar to get our own. At some point the food arrived but was far from hot.
Anyway, not a very good experience at Pier 12.

Now on to the good stuff :-)

Rooms - Very clean, very comfortable. No leaks anywhere. A/C worked fantastically! We were on the second floor ocean view and I was a little concerned what the view would be....I shouldn't have been concerned at all. The view was fabulous!

Old Barn - Jose, Jose, Jose......Okey Dokey? He was the best. We had some of the best steaks ever. Ate there several times and never left unhappy or hungry! It was great!

Breakfast Buffet - Loved it. Had the buffet every morning. Oscar was so cute. Great service.

Pool & Beach - Not too many chairs available at either by the time we made it down there. But made the best of it and enjoyed our time in the sun.

We spent a lot of time off the property sight seeing and shopping. But have already decided that we would be back next year. And when we do come back we will spend less time shopping and more time relaxing by the pool and on the beach.

See you there in April 2008 :-)