I stayed in Riu Cancun Hotel from August 16 to August 23. I loved it!!!! The staff is so friendly there. Everyone works so hard to keep you satisfy. The staff cleans the place 24/7. The food was awesome. The buffet was great. Different kind of food every day, huge breakfast. The staff in the buffet was great, especially Cruz. But if you like to wake up at 7am, you need to make reservations for two restaurants. Japanese restaurant was very good, especially the dessert. The room was cleaned every day, small refrigerator stocked with different drinks. The place is very beautiful. Beach is gorgeous. I spent most of my time on the beach, didn’t even go in the pool. The entertainment was good. People work very hard to keep you entertained, especially super Tony. I participated in almost every activity. Every night they have different shows, some are funny. During the day the entertainment group has a lot of different activities for everyone. If you don’t want to go to any clubs, there is one club next to the theater (not so great). I would definitely stay there next time I’ll go to Mexico.

We stayed at this hotel from 9th Aug 08 to 23rd Aug 08.

Overall it was a superb hotel.

The food was very good, with a choice of four restaurants. One Brazilian (you have to book very early in the morning) which wasn't so good, One Japanese (which you also have to book) which was very good, one buffet restaurant which was excellent and you can just walk into and also an a speciality restaurant serving different cuisine each night eg mexican, french, italian, asian etc.

We tended to eat at the buffet restaurant because it was more informal than the others and the food was absolutely delicious.

The rooms were good, the minumin you would expect from a 5 star hotel but lets be honest, how much time are you wanting to spend there?

The facilities were excellent. There is a sports bar which is 24 hour (but very rowdy after 1am), a bar called "la fiesta" which is open from early evening until midnight and a disco called Pacha which is open from 11 until 2. As well as these, there a a couple more bars dotted around the hotel which run from early in the morning until late evening.

The Staff here are amazing. They cater for your every whim.

The worst two things about this hotel were;

The lifts - these were terribly slow and terribly hot. and there are only four for the whole block.

The Swim up bar - people sit in the pool at this bar drinking all day and dont move to go to the toilet. exactly.

All in all an excellent hotel. We are going back in march.

We had previously been to the Riu in 2004 and loved it. But on this trip I could not believe how tired the hotel looked and the number of 18-30 year olds who had us awake every night as they returned from the clubs was awful. The entertainment team only seemed interested in this group and organising them for the clubs. To be fair they did childrens activities during the day. Cancun appears to be the Ibiza of the Caribbean, so if your looking to party this is where to go. There is a pool bar and it is rowdy but what really got me was the fact that the other pool seemed to be becoming an extension of this pool bar so we spent most of our time on the beach.
The staff as usual were very good especially the staff in the dining rooms.
Sorry but this old fossil will not be returning to this hotel ever.

We stayed at the Riu Cancun from 29.7.08 - 12.8.08 2 couples in their late thirties.

Flight – with Thomson no delays and no problems paid the £5 to upgrade this enabled us to watch extra films and was worth it, long flight but it’s a means to an end, on way back as it was a night flight got given blanket, neck rest and eye pads needed it plane very cold.

Hotel – Had no complaints with Hotel at all, everything was excellent we had lovely rooms 720/721 sea view and pool view. Managed to flood bathroom, break TV, block toilet all in first 24 hours and they where fixed instantly by smiling staff, they really couldn’t do enough for you.
Go to the Thomson welcome meeting just to meet the Entertainment guy, okayyyyyyyy, extra charge never laughed so much.

Food – I thought food was excellent you would need to be a fussy eater not to find something to suit, Breakfast was great lovley smoothies freshly made and they have themed evenings – Mexican, Asian, French, Italian etc, also try out the restaurant by the beach at night it becomes “The Mission” where they cook steak, chicken and other meats for you and you sit in the restaurant overlooking the sea very romantic, nice and peaceful.
We went to the Brazilian we didn’t like it 7 courses of meat dishes, we walked out half way as I really couldn’t face another peace of meat, couldn’t get a reservation for the Japanese but heard others say that was very good.

Bars – Lobby bar had loads of different cocktails to try and every drink you could imagine, the waiters where so quick as soon as you put glass down they where getting you another drink, we where so impressed with all the staff they where excellent.
Sports Bar only went in there once but seemed ok, has the internet access, TV’s for sports games and arcade games for the kids, but no windows.
Bars in entertainment areas very good, quick service you also have waiters constantly going around asking you what you want.

Entertainment – Each night they have different shows on in the Theatre bar these are put on by entertainment staff who work realy hard, they also have Karaoke before the shows start and entertainment for the children, we went a few evenings and it was good fun.
We also tried the disco Pacha but left after 12 as we seemed to be the oldest in their, but ok for an hour if you want a little dance!!!
Loads of clubs about 5 mins walk away if you want to go out for the night, Coco-Bongs, Carlos & Charlie’s, Daddy O’s, Hard rock Café, Senior Frogs,etc. Just be careful if you are walking around at night with children we where offered hard drugs every time we went for a walk, and hassled but a firm No does the trick, l just personally didn’t think it was a nice place for younger children after 10.00pm.
Look out for the Entertainment guy again especially when he does the Football World Cup…………

Pools – Quite pool around the side, very nice if you want to get away from kids, but does loose the sun about 2pm. Activity pools good fun for people who want to be involved in all the day time fun, top pool holds scuba diving lessons and it looks out to sea, all pools very nice and warm.
Swim up bar pool, this has been slated in previous reviews and on a few occasions it did look a different colour, but it was given a good clean half way through and didn’t look much different to the other pools, we went in a few times and it is very lively with plenty going on, a good place for people watching………….

Beach – Was quite disappointed with the bottom end of the Beach although beautiful white sand, i found several large peaces of glass on two different occasions, and in places it is very stony when you try to get in to the sea, we got round this by wearing beach shoes, this made a big difference as the sea is beautiful when you finaly get in.
But on our second week we found if you walk to the top of the beach by the Riu Palace it is beautiful sand straight into the sea, you can see fish swimming around you and we where feeding them bread, we even saw 2 stingrays, defiantly best part of beach to be on, you can also get a sunbed very easily without getting up at the crack of dawn,
We hired jet ski’s $60 for 40mins and went paragliding which was fantastic for $105 this lasted 20mins and you got to stay on the speedboat while other couples had a go.

Trips-
Only did one with Thomson Rep and that was the Bar Crawl, excellent you get a VIP section in each bar and your drinks are free, it cost $50 and was great fun, well worth a night out and Anthony the rep is a lovely guy.
We went to Talum/X-Hal lovely views and the snorkelling in X-Hal was amazing, Jungle Trip which is a speed boat trip through the mangroves then 40 mins snorkelling again great, Isle of Mijuras beautiful island we went on golf buggy around island then a boat trip to the bays, the beach there is fantastic like a little Caribbean island well worth a visit, we also went on the Pirate night trip, this was good fun and great if you have kids as the pirates do the most fantastic stunts and the 3 ships meet and as a finale have a big fight, good night out.
We booked our trips across the road in the mall and saved a fortune on what Thomson wanted to charge and really didn’t have a bad trip, in fact we had more fun on the Isle of Mijuras trip as we where the only British and they where all Mexican they couldn’t do enough for us and made us feel like little celebrities.
Coco Bongos – felt a bit let down with this as when we got in we where standing and couldn’t see much and it was so packed, it took us 30 mins to find way out through crowds of people, this put us off so we did not go again, but we spoke to people and they said go early and tip your waiter and he will find you a seat, we got in their to late as all seats where took.

The only negatives about the holiday is the lifts only 4 lifts and they constantly get stuck or break, a little tip is do not over fill stick to 8, everyone we spoke to who got stuck had more than 8 in it.

The second negative is the time you need to get up to get a sun bed, on our first day we where jet lagged and up at 5.30am. l went down expecting to be the only one around but NO………..there where actually people around putting towels on sun beds, if you require a bed with a sun shade you need to put towels down by 6.30am to get a nice spot or by 7.00am they have all gone.
Don’t worry though there are plenty of beds on beach although no sun shade as they go early!! I have been abroad many times but never experienced having to get up so early to get a bed, l couldn’t even say people where not using the beds as my friend and l watched one morning and by 7.30 people where around using the beds and all the areas where busy.

We took American Dollars and changed it to Pesos when needed, everywhere takes American Dollars but they give you your change in pesos, so if you are going shopping change to Pesos in the lobby first it saves the confusion, also check your change in the mall, they tried to wrong change my friend twice.

Also use the bus service for 6 pesos you can go up and down the strip and the drivers are very good they will tell you when to get off we did this all holiday and had no problems they come ever few minutes from right outside the hotel.

Hope I haven’t rambled on the much, if I have missed anything give me a shout, have a great holiday.