Other than the Swine Flu scare (which forced a shortened time in Cancun and at the Islander) and absolutely no beach the Royal Islander is a good value. The staff is extremely helpful and go out of their way to help. Compared to other time shares seen this gives you lots of room, especially if you take both the A and B portions of the villa.

One word of caution --- don't ask for extra towels unless you are willing to pay. For the first time in a number of years traveling I was told that to give more than one towel per person in the room would add $5 per day to the bill!!!!

Also, another downer is there is no broadband internet connection in the rooms. You have to go to a common area, i.e. restaurant or lobby, to get a connection. The upside is the connection is free.

Overall, putting all things in balance, it is a good place.

We stayed at the RI for the week of our honeymoon as a gift from my parents to use their timeshare. We are both international travelers and have pretty high expectations and were met with a fantastic resort upon arrival. We had a very smooth check in and when we arrived in our rooms the maid had left swans in the shape of a heart out of towels with a small veil and bowtie on the bed (HOW CUTE) ... we stayed in a one bed one bath villa (sleeps up to 4) and had a full kitchen and large balcony with ocean view. the pool was fantastic and the pool bar even better. We ate lunch at pacos tacos and the food was good and reasonably priced. TIP- happy hour is the best deal for drinks.

Yes, there is no beach due to mother nature BUT you can hop any shuttle from the resort which is every 30 mins and SUPER fast to one of the 4 sister Royal resorts (club international de cancun has the best beach) or you can go over to the royal sands and enjoy their enormous pool with special inpool chairs. The resort staff is amazing and we were not really hassled for timeshare once we said no we were not interested. We could change our money out at the front desk for a much better rate than in town BUT we recommend looking into changing you money at the airport IN THE U.S for an even better rate. a few tips-1) USE thomas moore for the shuttle. YOU WILL BE harrassed from vendors the MINUTE you step out of the customs area.. IGNORE all of them and walk straight outside and find the thomas more rep just like your voucher said that you have to print out before hand. Its easy, fair, and you WONT get ripped off..... 2) listen to the bellhops and vallets at the resort. they wont let you get ripped off by taxis and they will help you with the bus which is a lot safer,cheaper and easier than taxis. 3) dont eat the buffets at the resort, although good they are you not worth the money.....

the resort was wonderful, staff so friendly, and we will be returning soon (and hopefully to a new beach that they are working on rebuilding)

We own 2 weeks.... one week at the Royal Sands and one at the Royal Islander. We only went the 1 week this year...we stayed at the Royal Islander and that was a good choice considering there was no beach. We are not pool people and had to stay at the pool all week. The ocean was just too dangerous to swim in with all the exposed rocks. I know we won't go back next year if it is the same situation...I realize that you can't do anything about mother nature, but the beach was the reason we purchased a time share there.
Also, when my husband went to check out he used US dollars....why I don't know because the dollar is worth much less there right now. I think it would have been an honerable thing to do for the front desk to remind him of this fact...but they didn't. I made a purchase at the airport and was going to use US money and the cashier told me it would be cheaper to charge it because of the exchange rate. I am very disappointed in the Royal Resorts for not mentioning this.

The Royal Islander is a nice resort with very comfortable accomodations and a great staff. People return here year after year. The restaurants are top notch with very reasonable prices. There are a few scheduled activities which make for a fun day. HOWEVER, the beach is not usable. I had read reviews that said that there were rocks and it could be difficult to get into the water. I had even called the resort to inquire about the situation and was lead to believe that depending on the wind conditions, some days the beach was usable. There is no way to get into the water. The beach, at this point, is totally unsafe. Most returning guests said that the beach was beautiful until all the hurricanes hit over the last few years. They tried, unsuccessfully to re-establish the beach but it eroded again. There are plans to try again, starting in April.
We were looking for a beach vacation so we were somewhat disappointed, That being said, this is still a very nice place- just don't expect to use the beach. If they are ever able to re-establish the beach, this resort would be ideal!