Spent the week of 6/8/09 at the JW. I am a platinum member, so used points for an ocean front room. Upon arrival, I was upgraded to an oceanview presidental suite. Nice surprise after a long day traveling. We were delayed due to mechanical problems with the plane, so we missed our connection in dallas. JW provided airport transfers for us, and they were waiting for us when we landed. The housekeeper for our room was great. We always returned from the day with a nice bucket of ice waiting for us. We always left $3 for her on the way out in the morning. The pool staff was great. Always checking to be sure everything was okay, or if we needed another drink. You can tell the resort is slow. the pool was busy, but not overly so. The beach in front of the hotel is awesome! We swam everyday in the ocean. Vendors are a problem when on the beach. A pretty steady flow all day, so we basically didn't stay on the beach. even when swimming, they try and yell out to you, or flag you down. Front desk, housekeepers, doormen, room service were all great and friendly. The seafood restaurant is only open for breakfast (maybe lunch, we were never around then). Champions at the Magna Casa is okay for a quick meal. We were tired from the day and just walked over. One thing that was a "downer" was no free internet. Not sure why this can't be included. Even at the business center, you have to pay. Just what you would expect. I would highly recommend the JW!

JW Marriott was very nice but felt like a convention center hotel rather than a relaxing beach hotel. After coming from Le Blanc for 4 nights it was depressing. The staff and service was nothing compared to Le Blanc. I was disappointed especially being a loyal Marriott customer.

Our stay was May 9-16 , the hotel was empty - maybe 50 people at the most. According to the daily USA Today paper Cancun hotel occupancy was 10-12%. Kinda nice to have the place all to yourself, but miss having fellow travelers to socialize with. Sad for the locals. We were scheduled for Club 91 and received email, letter and phone call at the Marriott Frenchman's Cove the week before our arrival notice the Club 91 was closed until end of May. We were assigned a room on 14th floor - beautiful oceanview. Staff was waiting on us hand & foot. It worked out OK without Club 91 for we rented a small fridge for drinks and snacks for breakfast & lunch. Arranged for a free coffee pot for my am coffee. So in the end saved lots of $$ not using the Club 91. The bed was wonderful and I loved all the soaps, shampoos, lotions, etc. The loations is Nirvae Botanicals - orange & sandalwood. It is wonderful, looked on the internet to buy some - no luck. Anyone know where to buy please let me know!

Pool is really nice- huge - we are really not beach people for we can go at home anytime - the beach there isn't much but three out of the seven days it seemed to re-appear and loungers were placed out. I did go in the ocean once it wasn't bad very refreshing and not too strong to swim.

We rented a car from ACE (Executive) - right accross the street, no issues there, received our original charge slip back. Decided to buy full coverage insurance, for the car was only $6.60 a day - came down from $12 a day - whohoo!

We were warned about the police - obviously they had nothing better to do - stopping the few tourists in their speed traps. We were stopped on our way to the ruins. There is a speed trap just as you are leaving town goes from 70 km to 40 km as you round the turn and go down the slope. We were going 35km and the cop stopped us. Walked up to our car like he was John Wayne and flashed his speed gun reading 71km. There was four of us in the car - the two guys got out and plead our case. Got out of the ticket stating - "Listen we came here against all the warnings of the flu. We are spending lots of money in your town, give us the ticket now we will pay and get on the first plane out today." He gave us a "pass" this time. He reminded us we must go 40km but not any less - whaattt??? We saw the police stopping people all over the place, while the locals, taxis and busses screamed by at twice the speed!

Took the toll road to the "Chicken Pizza" ruins a long long drive. Hired a guide for $35 he was great. The guide took us to the cenote close by then we stopped off on our way home at the small town had a wonderful lunch. We tried to get back on the toll road but no one spoke adequate english - not even the police - so we got back on the road and took the first sign to Cancun. WRONG!! it was the back road went thru all the towns took us 3 hours to get back and then ended up in downtown Cancun. This is where we got frustrated on our driving the signs are not very detailed, they look good but not very many of them. We tired to venture out of town one last time our last day to go snorkelling at a beach south of Playa del Carmen. Two and a half hours later still could not find Akumel. Drove home and ended up at the JW pool. We are adventurous - always rent a car when we travel and see the sights. We read maps pretty good, but this was a bust for us. I guess next time we will take a bus or taxi to snorkel.

We ate mostly at Champions and the pool restaurant. Good food both places. We didn't think it was so expensive at all. Our fav was the steak quesadillals! We are from San Diego and have Mexican food on a regular basis, this steak was melt in your mouth! A must order!! Too bad I discovered it on our last day. The pool booze was expensive, used our Bubba Kegs for soda and beer.

We did venture out one eve to the local Mexican restaurant Parrillia (sp) suggested by the bell hop - the best Margarittias - genuine local food it all was excellent and what we saw everyone else eating looked wonderful. The servers are very entertaining carry the margaritas on their heads. It is downtown Cancun about 30 min drive from the hotel. Hire a cab, the place is not easy to find.

We went to the open market place - sorry we did that - no one was there so everyone was eager to sell us their goods, it was really bad - we were nice to say no garcias but one guy swore at me - I do understand a few mexican swear words.... We parked our car in the back side in front of a stall a few guys were sitting there - when we returnd to our car - maybe five mins at the most - one guy said "hey gringo - check your back tire. " We really didn't think anything about it until we got back to the hotel my husband spotted a screw in the back tire and was half flat. We drove it accross the street to Executive and switched cars. Glad we saw it for the next day was our big drive to the ruins.

Don't buy booze at Cancun airport on the way home - bought some tequillia for our friends, took it on the airplane. When we went thru security after customs at DFW they told us we had to check the bottles. We had already checked our bags thru so we had to rush back to the ticket counter to check in our carry on with the bottles. This was a real hassel because we had only 30 mins left to catch our flight home. We then had to go back thru security again and on to another terminal. Luckly when we arrived at our gate the plane had not yet boarded. Just a word to the wise - keep in mind you can never take liquids thru security.

I know this review might sound negative to some but it is not meant to be. I like to share my experience so others are aware. Overall we had a nice trip just some learning experiences - Cancun is a beautiful place and the people are wonderful look forward to going again next year!

My husband and I spent 5 nights at the JW after flying there for a conference. Context, we arrived the day before the CDC suggested that everyone stop discretionary mexican travel. The next day, the conference was cancelled due to the CDC rec, concerns about holding a conference given swine flu fears, and the fact that other countries had made similar recs (note this was an international conference). I was thoroughly impressed with the way the JW handled our conference situation. Everyone was really nice as many of us grieved the loss of our event. Moreover, they let everyone change/cancel their reservations without charge. So they took a financial beating in what was a lose/lose situation. But they really impressed me with how they handled it.

Now for the other details:
Room - lovely. Very clean, good size, lots of drawer space, robes etc... Bathroom was very well designed. We had an ocean view overlooking the adult pool.

Lobby/public spaces. Very well designed, attractive etc. It would have been a fabulous venue for our conference.

Food. My husband and I normally stay away from cancun because it is too americanized. But we had a lovely meal at Gustino the first night. Not cheap but very good and the person who said it was worse than Olive Garden is crazy. Last I checked olive garden doesn't serve perfectly balanced palate cleansers between courses. Both of our appetizers and main courses were excellent and the wine list included some decent reasonably priced bottles. Lovely glassware here and at the lobby bar. For lunch, we found that the lime soup was really quite good and since we are used to eating at more remote beach eateries, this was great news. We always rely on being able to eat a lot of yucatan lime soup in quintana roo and the local waiters loved that we were trying to steer towards more local food. Also if you like spicy food ask for xni pec . It wasn't made traditionally there, but it was quite good and added a good kick to the salsa. Finally, the hotel stocks leon negra which is local beer that is also very good. We didn't eat breakfast at the JW because we are not willing to pay hotel prices for breakfast in mexico. Instead, walked outside and turned right (towards some restaurants like puerto madero). If you walk for maybe 10 minutes you will come to an internet drugstore (on the other side of the road from the JW), which is much cheaper than the business center, and then a little lunch counter where locals seem to eat. For $3 per person we had really good huevos a la mexicana with corn tortillas. Ask for chile and you get an assortment of chile sauces to go with your breakfast. We ate breakfast there every day. After the first night we ate at la distilleria twice - which was quite good and very reasonably priced for cancun. Much more local style mexican than some of the other places we saw. La distilleria and a bunch of restaurants are all walking distance if you are used to walking as we are. For bottled water/beer/wine for the room I suggest walking across the street from the JW. There is a little convenience store right across the street and that way you can avoid the crazy prices the JW charges for bottled water etc.

Pool - lovely. We didn't have the chair problem because the pool was not at full capacity. For all of those complaining - one option would be for everyone from trip advisor to try and model better behavior. When we staked out chairs right after walking back from breakfast (about 8am or so) we made a point of having one of us stay with the chairs while the other person got changed etc. This way we were not contributing to the impression that it was okay to just claim chairs with towels and not be there.

Beach - very small. My husband had fun playing in the waves.

Overall - we were very stressed the whole time because of the conference, issues with getting home sooner since our reason for being there had vanished, concerns about whether or not the hotel would charge us for the whole trip etc. When people asked me if I had a good time, my response is that I did not. But none of that was the fault of the JW and I think it is a lovely hotel. Just wish we actually could have had our conference there.