My best friend and I stayed at the Aqua and this hotel is above and beyond the rest. It is not your standard hotel with stale carpet and old fashion wall paper. This hotel is all about relaxation. The moment you walk into the hotel you experience the tranquil aromatherapy of music and smell that captures you. Then you are greeted with a ice cold glass of green tea and cold mint towel that will refresh you. Upon checking in we we were taken to our room that had an amazing voew of the ocean and the hotel grounds. The best view is in the center of the hotel. We had room 6021 which was directly in the middle. So make sure though the terrace sounds great it is not worth it. you dont have the view of the ocean or the pool grounds so unless you want to sun bathe in the nude take the terrace, if you want a beautiful tranquil view of the ocean take the balcony. Make sure to take advantage of the aromatherapy at night. You have a choice of four different smells, the service they provide you with you can get a different one every night you stay. But call for your therapy to be lit dont let them light it for you prior to getting there. And the pool grounds, oh my godness!!!!!! the most relaxing experience i ever had. You have service upon entering the pool grounds, you dont even have to worry about getting and fixing your own towel. The outside bar is great, just dont go right before they close to order a drink because the waiters fix their own drinks and the bartenders have left already. Last but not least get a massage at the spa. The spa is not what you would experience in the states where you just go and get your massage and leave. They have you go to the sauna and then go to the steam room and then last but not least then have you go to the whirlpool and sit there and then after that you go to a room that you have to wait for your massage and you have the choice of cold green tea or warm red tea. This hotel is not for those with kids!!! the whole time I was there I may have only seen one child. Please go. Make sure to tip your housekeeping staff that cleans your room as they took very good care of us. Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Nice hotel, great pool area, not much happening at this hotel. Great location in hotel zone, across from La Isla shopping center with Starbucks, restaurants and shopping. Aroma therapy hotel that is wonderful to walk into after being out all day or night. A bit expensive for F&B but very good service and wonderful food. GREAT views from the rooms looking out into the ocean. All in all a above average hotel with prices to match.

OVERALL
The hotel has a very good location for walking to two shopping centers and places to eat. The service is four star quality. The rooms have quality amenities and are highly maintained. The pools are well designed. The club floor provides value for money. I would recommend it to friends and would stay here again.

CLUB LEVEL ROOM
Check-in was standard. The butler/concierge escorted us to our room and pointed out various features, then retrieved our luggage. Very pleasant person. The room has very good closet space with ample hangers and drawers. Kudos to Aqua for not putting a giant TV/mini bar cabinet in the room. Instead there is a large wall-mounted flat-screen and a low-level wall unit that held a mini bar and more drawers. The top portion was used for aromatherapy items and the other half could be used to place personal items. The room had a nice spaciousness to it and excellent sea/sky views. The bed was extremely comfortable with crisp/clean linens. The bathroom was large with a walk-in shower and separate bathtub. There was a hand-held shower in the tub that should have been in the walk-in shower. There is a window in the bathroom that allows one to look into the main room and outside to the seascape. It was great to be able to shower and see the sea! There were blinds on the window that could be used to obtain privacy if desired. They provide Molten Brown toiletries and an array of scented soaps. The mint scented bar was prefect after a day in the sun. All used towels and all bath amenities were replenished each day. Housekeeping maintained an immaculate room!!! There were no noise issues at all. Never heard doors banging, voices, footsteps or any other disturbing noise. Only had perfectly undisturbed restful sleeps each night and I am a light sleeper!

CLUB LEVEL LOUNGE
Very comfortable seating that is arranged very nicely. The views are superb, but could be seen better if the hotel would clean the exterior of the lounge windows. The lounge has a Nespresso machine with a full selection of flavors that guests can freely use. There is always a bottle of champagne (sparkling wine) available and bottled water is given upon request (great to take to the pool). Guests can make themselves a Bloody Mary or Mimosa at breakfast. Breakfast was more than sufficient if you like fruits, cereals and pastries. Breakfast was perfect for us. The choice of breakfast time music was Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra and played rather loud. We would have preferred the new age type music played around the pool for first thing in the morning. Midday snacks and evening food services offered nice options. It was nice to take a break from the sun and come to the lounge midday for a lite bite. Went to the late night chocolate time one evening, but there was nothing left. A fellow guest came in and demanded chocolate so the concierge brought them a plate loaded with chocolates but never came to give us anything. There is pretty much a full bar available in the evening. Word to the wise: get to the sushi service early or you’ll not get anything. Some guests use this food to fill themselves so as not to have to go out for dinner or have room service. We witnessed one couple eat an entire tray of sushi one evening. The food goes quickly folks and is not replenished. It is first come first served. The lounge has a couple of flat-screen TVs, a small selection of reading materials and a couple of games for guests to use.

CLUB LEVEL CONCIERGE
The concierge team consists of four concierge and some lounge attendants. The concierge are all very pleasant and easy to talk to. Most dining options in the area are geared towards tourists so they are limited in where they can recommend for local cuisine. The places they sent us to were not true local restaurants… even the one’s in downtown Cancun. All the places were very touristy. Overall the team is very willing to assist the guest with a pleasant demeanor.

POOLS: Perfection!

HOTEL OBSERVATIONS
1) Smoking in the pools; Man with cigar and a couple other guests smoking cigarettes.
2) Weekend Day Use: There were some local people that (we assumed book day use rooms) invite their entire clan to come use (use meaning overtake) the pool areas.
3) There were a number of young adult pool crashers. It was blatantly obvious from loud conversations that they stated they were staying elsewhere.
4) No beverage menus: all drinks cost $17.50USD whether a 2 ounce glass of wine (that is $6 per bottle in the US) or a Piña Colada, etc.
5) There are hotels being constructed on both sides of The Aqua, but never heard any noise coming from either (that piped in music helps that). These ugly structures do compromise the ambiance of a beach stroll as well as the club pool and some of the beach level seating views.
6) There were quite a number of children at The Aqua. This hotel is spa and adult oriented that it is an odd choice for visitors with children to chose to stay here.
7) The hotel has a no glass/chinaware policy for the pools. Food ordered to be eaten in one’s pool lounger is served in clear plastic deli boxes with plastic cutlery. Real china/cutlery is used at Azur poolside lounge. The plastic glasses used to serve drinks are decent.
8) If you prefer to lay in shade then the $100USD cabana rental will be a waste of money for you as the top of the cabanas have sticks that allow lots of direct sun onto the bed. The poolside umbrellas provide ample shade for two loungers together throughout the entire day.
9) An order of cheesecake through Room Service is two 5/8th inch squares on a plate for $12USD!
10) Spa: We encountered very cold and aloof interaction from the spa staff. It was so negative that we walked out and determined not to use the spa services.
11) Bars & Lounges: We retire to bed before 11PM each night to get up early and enjoy the mornings, so we never used the bars or lounges. Upon returning to the hotel after dinner each night around 10-10:30PM we noticed that these facilities were empty. Nice rooms though!

LOCAL AREA OBSERVATIONS
1) Many people do not dress nice for dining in finer restaurants. Saw lots of flesh hanging out of tight beachwear clothing. Gotta say, that we saw way too much cleavage (being nice using that word), flabby mid-drift areas and butt crack while watching the sunset and dining on the cuisine at Harry’s. This occurred at other nicer dining establishments were we ate. It seemed to be both the visitors and the locals that were underdressed.
2) Taxi drivers must be millionaires! A five minute trip costs triple for the same distance/cost in NYC. Got into one small cab where the driver was so large he had his seat pushed back touching the back seat so there was not enough room for two people in the back (we sat on each other… and we thought NYC taxis could be bad!).

I stayed at Aqua from 5/3 - 5/11. I booked my trip through Expedia and paid for a king oceanfront room with terrace. This was supposed to be the nicest room option before the suites. Well, I was very disappointed when I arrived to find that my room looked out onto a construction site, and the terrace was littered with cigarette butts. This capped off what was already an awful check-in experience.

I arrived before my room was ready and was asked to be seated in the lobby and to wait for my orientation visit from one of the hotel staff. This "orientation" turned out to be a sales pitch for the "vacation club," which I was repeatedly told was "not a timeshare"--probably in response to my look of utter annoyance. When I finally pried myself loose from this irritating pitch from albeit a very nice young man, I went for lunch at the beachside restaurant, Azur. Beautiful setting, but make sure to ask for the beach menu if you want a sandwich or appetizer, or otherwise risk making the same mistake I did (paying about $25 for 3 shrimp). My waiter never told me about the other menu.

When I went to the front desk to switch rooms on my second day, I was told that all king oceanfront with terrace rooms looked at the construction site on one side of the resort or an abandoned building on the other (Expedia needs to make this known to its customers). The desk clerk offered to move me to a cheaper room without a terrace but with a better view. She told me that I could not be reimbursed or credited because I booked through Expedia, not the hotel. She added that, since the hotel had the room I ordered, they owed me nothing. This was all communicated very pleasantly in the quiet, zen-like (slightly creepy) manner that all the staff at Aqua use. I should also mention that on May 4, the hotel was at 18% capacity. So, I think that they could have done a bit more to make my situation better.

My last complaint relates to the Aqua tour booking desk staff, who misled my friends and me to book a snorkling adventure that was completely different from the one we were told we were going on. We asked to go to Isla Mujeres and were told that we would be sailing there with a small group (no more than 12 people) on a catamaran and taken to a beautiful private beach. Imagine our surprise when we got in a van that took us about 30 minutes south of the resort (Isla Mujeres is north) to Puerto Murelos, where we joined about 100 people on a very ugly , not at all private beach (sandwiched between two construction sites). It was an awful group snorkling experience designed for the spring break crowd, not us. The hotel tour desk denied misleading us but did reimburse us for half of the fee.

Unfortunately, these experiences marred what could have been one of the most relaxing vacations I've ever had. The property is lovely, and the views from the rooms in the center of the hotel are gorgeous. Most of the staff were extremely pleasant, and the food at the resort was wonderful. The facilities--gym, pools--were fantastic. However, because of the initial "welcome" that I received, I would not recommend Aqua to a friend.