I stayed at the Gran Melia Cancun during the first week of July in 2006.

Here is the good:
1. Great room - comfortable bed, flat screen tv, clean, nice tub with jets outside on the patio, private.
2. Decent prices for hotel rooms. I think it was around a $100 a night.
3. The receptionist was nice.
4. The buffet was nice. Served steak, chicken, fish to order.

Here is the bad:
1. Check-in took about 20-25 minutes with seven people in the line.
2. The hotel seemed kinda dead. There was no one near our room.
3. There was still a lot of work being done on the hotel; I assume from the hurricane damage from the year before. They were doing a lot of painting, planting, cleaning. The elevators seemed small, darkish, a bit dirty.
4. Can't buy decently priced water anywhere near the hotel. Drinks were expensive.
5. Food was not cheap.
6. The walk to our room was very, very long because the hotel is very long.
7. There nothing really fun near the hotel except for the beach.

We probably would not stay here again. I suppose we got what we paid for. The room was really, really nice, but the hotel felt a bit icky. It might get better once Cancun itself recovers from the hurricane. I would recommend this place if you're looking for a nice room, but don't care as much about the surroundings.

My boyfriend and I stayed for 6 nights in a lagoon view room in Tower 1. My only complaints are of the room and its location. When we arrived there was a mildew odor in the room. It didn't seem to bother my boyfriend, but I have allergies so I actually had trouble breathing the 1st night. I was going to have our room changed the next day, but with the a/c running the smell was almost completely gone. The room was clean and the balcony was very nice. An ocean view would've been nice, but we weren't in the room enough where it mattered. It would've also been nice to not have been in tower 1. This tower is the farthest from everything. I'm not lazy at all, but it was quite a hike. We were also on the 5th floor and the 1st 2 days the elevator was not working. These things are the only negatives and were really minor issues during our stay.
A lot of people commented that they had trouble getting palapas, but we never had a problem, as long as we got to the beach by 10:30 am. The resort was quiet during the day and the pools were very nice. The servers on the beach and by the pool were very attentive and I never saw anyone waiting long for anything. I've never been to Mexico before, so I didn't notice any damage to the beach. It was beautiful and the water was calm up until our last day when the waves were over 6'.
My bf and I are both picky eaters. We ate in every restaurant at the resort and we were pretty pleased with all of them. We didn't have the all-inclusive option so it did get pricey, but still ended up being cheaper than if we had gotten it. During the day, we ordered lunch on the beach and ate under our palapa. The lunch menu there had decent prices.
We took the bus from the front of the hotel to town 2 times and never had a problem. It was quick and cost 6 pesos (65 cents) each way. All in all, the resort is beautiful and impressive. We had a great time and would come back here again.

We stayed at the Gran Melia for the last Night of our stay in Mexico and i just wish we had longer - It was fantastic and far exceeded our expectations. We arrived at 1 and were told that we couldnt check in until 3 which was understandable, we were shown to a room where we could change into our beach wear and spent the rest of the day sunbathing by the pool. The pool area is beautiful, with plenty of sun loungers, the water was a little to deep for my liking so not great for very young children alothough there was a small section for the youngsters. Beautiful shaded double palapas lined the beach front, but these were very hard to get hold of as most people would put towels and flip flops down in the middle of the night to ensure they had the best spot the next day Grrrrr!!!

The lobby area is stunning, very luxurious and absolutley massive, i am not joking when i say you need a map to get around, we got lost so many times, but they do provide a map at check in!! The Ceilings and marble pillars are so high you can get dizzy looking up! The bar area is really elegant and luxurious, double beds to lounge on whilst supping cocktails overlooking the blue ocean, my idea of heaven!

We had upgraded to an ocean view room and i am so glad we did, after being in a Lagoon view in the previous hotel (Fiesta Condessa) it was a nice change. We had requested to be in the Main Pyramid after reading other comments on TA, and i think the views from this pyramid would be the best although i can tcompare as i didnt see another room. The View from the balcony was amazing, the colour of that ocean is now my favourite colour - The brightest Azure Blue. The balcony was huge, plenty of room for the two sun loungers and a table. The only downside is that you cant see the ocean when your lying or sat down beacuse of the balcony wall. The Bedroom was probably the nicest i have ever stayed in, i felt like a true princess. The decor was modern & contemporary, spotlessly clean and boy was that room BIG! Very impressed with the bed, so comfortable and big enough for two to stretch out like star fish! The room also has table and chairs and sofa and coffee table so it felt like a mini suite. The bathroom again was very impressive, very big by hotel standards with seperate toilet, 2 way shower and marble everywhere. Althougth we didnt eat in the restaurants we wish we did as the menus looked very appetizing and the food in Cancun is not Gourmet by any standards and our best meal was sadly Mcdonalds. We did however order breakfast in bed as a treat on the last morning, it arrived in perfect timing for Sunrise 6:15am and it was a wonderful selection of fresh fruit, coffee, tea, juice, bacon and egg, toast and preserves - it was also surprisingly good value for money and was worth every penny to be sat eating our last meal overlooking the blue ocean, with the sun coming up over a beach with no people.

We had read reviews that warned us of Time Share at this hotel and we managed to avoid this problem very easily, we did get called over once and got sucked into a sales pitch until we said that we were only staying one night and they automatically assumed we were Airline crew, we didnt argue and agreed that we were Monarch Crew and walked away with a free Mayan Gift!!! So maybe Time Share are not that bad after all!! It pays to tell a little white lie in these situations!!

We were worried about the location being at 16.5km but we had stayed next door at the Fiesta Condessa a week earlier (see review) and we got use to the Bus (every 2 mins). We were actually quite glad that we were not too near the main nightlife area as even though i am by no means old it was all a little too much for me - A bit Tenerife with all the touristy bars.

All in all i Love this hotel and have very happy memories, would love to go back one day. Very helpful & efficent staff, a true 5* hotel, I give it a BIG 10 out of 10.

My wife and I have been to Cancun numerous times (once during a hurricane.) This was our first experience to the Gran Melia Cancun and it was great. First, don't buy your transportation on a bus to the hotel. They stop 15 times and take forever. Spend the money and take a van or a cab. It's no time to be cheap. They were busy at check in but we only had to wait about 15 minutes. They put more people on at the front desk over the course of the week and the check in desk was working much faster. Our first room did not have running hot water so they kindly upgraded us to a better room. Once we got there things were fine and the supervisor Anna was great and helpful. We had a junior suite and it was more room than we needed - not complaining. Their bedding is all new and off the charts. Pillow top beds that are as comfortable as anything I've ever slept on. A wonderful suprise for Mexico. The pools were nice and service was always around if we wanted something. The beaches are almost back to normal and wondeful. Pablo Vallejo - their Director of Food and Beverage is taking the hotel to another level with entertainment. Different bands and singing groups playing for free in the evening in their absolutely huge and beautiful center foyer areas. They usually play around 8:00pm and you want to look for who is playing each night. We felt like we watched free concerts up close.
The food and service in the hotel is wonderful and the people serving us breakfast were so friendly we wanted to adopt them and bring them home with us. Besides the hotel restaurants, our favorite restaurante was La Dolce Vita just across from the hotel. Great Italian food and beautiful setting.
We loved the Gran Melia and commend them for doing such a fantastic job geting the hotel in such great job after such a horrific hurricane just last year. We look forward to coming back.