The hotel is very nice and deserves it's five star rating. The staff are all very helpful. Room service was prompt and excellent. The main pool is very nice and kid friendly, the infinety pool is very beautiful. However, don't pay any attention to the pictures on the Marriott website with the nice wide white sandy beach! The ocean starts at the bottom of the stairs that access the beach. You can't find a foot of dry beach at this property and it because of the rocks it is too dangerous to even enter the ocean. False advertising at it's best! Marriott, Trip Advisor and everyone else need to change the picture used for this resort.

As a side note, skip the rental cars. We were pulled over by the crooked police for going 68 in a 70 zone. No violation, but they threaten you to pay cash on site or they will take you to the police station. Your basically stuck and forced to pay cash on the spot to pay them off.

We arrived via American Transfers who were wating for us at the airport. Security at the resort took our name and when we existed the taxi the door man aknowledged us by name and walked us into the hotel. We were greeted with a cool refreshing hand towel than escorted to the front desk. Our room was not quite ready so we enjoyed lunch at the Beach Bar Grill. The pool and grounds are kept exceptionally clean and they were beautiful.
After lunch we checked into our room which was 415 about seven rooms from the ocean. We don't believe that any room would have a bad view. We particually liked ours because it was on the same floor as the exercise room. The room was decorated nicely, clean and was adequate for our family of three. The bathroom in particlular was very spacious and had a large shower and tub with two sinks.
We used bus transportation for almost all our excursions. The cost was 65 pesos pp. On our first excursion on day 2 we took the bus to the Playa Tortugas stop and caught the ferry $15.00 pp round trip to Isla Mujeres. We rented a golf cart for the day at $45 and headed south. We stopped at Rolandi Hotel for the best breakfeast we had our entire stay, its located next to the dolphin swim. We did stop by the dolphin swim and just looked around. Later I was advised this was not allowed. We inadvertenly slipped in with a group that was ariving. My daughter got to see the seals and dolphins. Next we headed up to the beach across from the Avalon Hotel right before you get to the bridge. We rented some chairs and umbrella for 90 pesos and stayed there the rest of the day. The water is very shallow and we actually seen and held a star fish. Our waiter was the best.
Day three we booked a trip with Selvatica for a zip line, mountain bike ride and swim in the cenote. Highly recommend, they do an excellent job.
Day four we took the bus back to Playa Tortugas, rented some chairs/ umbrella 150 pesos and swan all day. Again our beach waiter was excellent.
Day five we hired a taxi, $34 each way, and went to Puerto Morelos which is between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen. It's a little fishing village and has a beautiful calm beach. If you go get dropped off at Ojo De Agua. They are only one of two places that rent chairs/umbrellas for 150 pesos and has waiter service on the beach.
Restaurants we visited were Bubba Gumps, Shrimp Basket, Pat O'Breins, Papa John's, but our favorite was Pericos. Pericos puts on a nice show and the food is delicious. As you can see we have a very picky 8 year old.
In conclusion, this was our first visit to Mexico and we were impressed. At no time did we ever not feel safe. Our daughter played with many of the local children, since this was there spring break. On the beach we meet a very nice local couple who gave us beers on the beach and wanted to take us to dinner. We declined the dinner only because we were at Puerto Morelos that day and only had swim wear. Our children played together all day in the ocean.

There is NO BEACH, it washed away. As a result, anyone who wants sun and swimming needs to use the pools and there are not enough lounges chairs. The result can only be called the 'Great Chair Wars". If you go down to the pools (there are 2 primary areas) at 8am, you will likely NOT find an unreserved lounge chair. People get up at 5 am to “reserve” chairs by putting a personal item (shoe, book, pool towels – this amazes me because the pool towels aren’t put out until 6am) on the chairs they want. What makes it worse, most of these people don’t show up to actually occupy their lounges until 10 or 11 in the morning so you have people looking for seats at the pool at 9 and all they see is an ocean of unoccupied, “reserved” chairs. We saw people arguing because they came down at 11 and someone had the sheer nerve to move their hotel towels so they could sit down.

If you want to spend a day at the pool, you need to get down to the pool before 7 to reserve a lounge chair (and you won’t have a huge selection at 7). It’s amazing how many people show up in their pajamas to get seats! It’s also amazing how many people are “Pigs” reserving 4 chairs (2 in the sun and 2 in the shade) and 2 tables for 2 people…….I guess they feel entitled to special treatment – they must have neon “I’m Important” signs at home.

The distressing thing is that the hotel management does nothing about this situation….it’s not their fault the beach washed away, but they could do something like removing towels from chairs that are unoccupied for 2 hours so other folks can sit down. Put up a sign (and enforce it!) that says “Items will be removed from chairs unoccupied for 2 hours”

If you want to go on vacation to get up a 5am every day so you can get a seat at the pool, this is the PLACE FOR YOU!! Personally, I’d rather sleep in until 7 (at least) on vacation, have a relaxed breakfast, and then go sit at the pool. I don’t need to be in a competition every morning for a place to relax while I’m on vacation.

As for the hotel itself, the staff is very polite, good, and efficient. The physical premises are beautiful. The rooms are “Marriott”. The grounds are well maintained. The food is good, the bars are not obscenely expensive. They could put coffee pots in the rooms rather than trying to squeeze the extra $2/day out of each guest to buy coffee in the lobby shop.

I paid for the hotel with Marriott points….I’m uncertain if I got my money’s worth.

Despite my husbands reluctance to travel to Mexico I was able to coax him into 5 days at the JW Marriott-Cancun. The day we left Cancun he said he would definitely come back. From the moment we arrived at the airport the JW Marriott did not disappoint. Our flight landed at 830am and we were at the pool by 1000am. We were even able to get two chairs close to the pool. I will have to admit the other days my husband had to get down there early to save us chairs. We were lucky as there was a beach to play on when we were there at he end of March. The waves were awesome and we could enjoy the sand in our toes. Service at the JW was outstanding from the front desk ,restaurants, pool serice and the gift shop/deli. The room was very comfortable with comfy bed linens. Loved the spacious bathroom. We had an incredible view and it was relaxing sitting on the patio watching the waves. The breakfast buffet was exceptional and we took advantage of it since it was included in our room rate. We left the property once to go across to Harrys Steakhouse for dinner--what a nice place, little pricey but worth it. It was also nice having the Marriott Casa magna available next door. We went to Champions Sports Bar to watch basketball-typical sports bar food-no complaints. Perfect place to catch the basketball games. Both my husband and I enjoyed the spa. Our massages were excellent and the facilities were wonderful. Never seemed crowded and was very clean. This was truly a relaxing vacation and I would recommend the JW Marriott. We will get back there some day!