My husband & I celebrated our 10-year anniversary at the Excellence Playa Mujeres resort from 6/13-6/17 & it was like being on a honeymoon all over again. As our tour van pulled up we received a warm welcome by name, along with 2 glasses of bubbly champagne & 2 cool citrus scented towels (very nice touch!). Our luggage was taken from us & we were given a tour of the property & brought over to our private "Excellence Club" check-in. We had no problem with check in - we arrived around 1-1:30 & our room was available.

SUITE: We were assigned to room# 9456 (Excellence Club two-story rooftop terrace in high-rise Bldg.#9). The rooms are very spacious & just as beautiful as the pictures. When we got to the room, the door was decorated with an anniversary banner, a beautiful swan towel arrangement, rose petals throughout the room & gorgeous exotic flowers on the table. The ocean front view was amazing & I would HIGHLY recommend Bldg.#9 in the higher rise building of the two in that section. The rooftop terrace was really the highlight of the room. It was very secluded & romantic. A great place to hang out after a long day at the pool/beach. I'll miss that stairway to heaven!!

POOLS: There are many to choose from & a beautiful lazy river, which goes around the facility. My husband & I enjoyed floating around on our raft taking in true paradise. There were also many jacuzzis around the pool area.

BEACH: The water had at least 5 different shades of blue to it. Beautiful white sand. It was like a postcard. Seaweed did come up on the beach, but the trailer would clean it away each morning.

BARS: Again, at least 6-8, including a great swim up one inside the main pool (very convenient). The drinks were great & we definitely sampled many!! The servers were always readily available to take drink orders.

SPA: I highly recommend the Excellence Massage (full body 80 minute). My husband & I had a couples room & it was so relaxing. Definetely arrive an hour before & enjoy the hydro water therapy treatment beforehand. Our massage therapists were outstanding. The spa itself is very tranquil. Everything is white & light beige with soothing soft music. I was extremely impressed.

GYM: Very impressive. Nice amount of equipment, TV's & music, ice cold water bottles, fruit & cold citrus-scented towels. These were great after a nice workout. I enjoyed using the facility.

RESTAURANTS:
BREAKFAST: We ate breakfast at the Barcelona buffet & ordered room service one morning & ate on our terrace (very quiet & romantic). The buffet is something not to miss. There was a terrific selection of breakfast items.
LUNCH: Since we spent the afternoons around the pool, we ate lunch at The Grill, The Lobster House & the outside barbeque. All very nice. We loved everything.
DINNER: We ate dinner at Tuscana (we had our special anniversary dinner here) & it was wonderful. We felt very special that night. They surprised us with a special table with rose petals, bottle of champage & a made-to-order dessert prepared right at our table. We also ate at the Mexican buffet during their Mexican night. The food was very authentic & they had a Meriachi band playing. Chez Isabele is the French restaurant. Very good food & beautiful setting. Finally Spice, which was asian fusion/sushi style food. Just great & very interesting setting with different colored lights! All the restaurants we went to were fabulous. The portions are not gigantic, but satisfying. We often ordered numerous appetizers & shared some to enjoy the variety. The ambiance in all the restaurants are really nice. For an all-inclusive, I thought it was more than expected. I wish I could have tried all the restaurants.

DRESS CODE: The men & women dressed according to the code, which was nice. Lots of men wore khaki's or dress/linen style slacks with flip flops or dress sandals (such a nice beachy look!). Woman wore slacks, skirts or pretty sundresses. All were very acceptable. It gave the resort a nice feeling seeing everyone dressed at night.

ENTERTAINMENT: There was a show every night & a new show they introduced (great!). We went to all of them & enjoyed them very much. The entertainment crew had a great personaility & very friendly. They were so funny so many times! We also visited the night club two nights & it was fairly crowded as well. Great way to end the night.

STAFF: Very very very polite, friendly & accommodating. If you understand Spanish, it's always a plus. They would bend over backwards for you. They do not expect tips, but we tipped & it was greatly appreciated. Some of the staff even remembered our name. They make you feel special during your stay.

Our stay at Excellence Playa Mujeres will be one I will NEVER forget. I look foward to visiting again soon. I wish I can blink my eyes & be there right now........

The Excellence group brings true meaning to the word "EXCELLENT."

Just returned from a 7 nite stay at the Excellence Playa Mujeres. This was to celebrate 25 yrs of Marriage. As this was our first time to travel outside the states, we were a little cautious at first. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a local travel company, (Lomas), and whisked away in a Limo to our resort. The ride is about 30 minutes. Greeted at the door by EPM staff, we felt right at home very quickly. All you have read is true about the facility, it is very clean, and nice. Our "economy" room was all we could want. Room 5204 was within easy access of all. The construction behind building 5 did not annoy us in any way. Great pools, beach, service, food. I have not had any experience with all inclusives, but I feel EPM should satisfy anyone. Staff was very friendly. The location of EPM was away from the busy Hotel Zone, and that was a plus for us. We did not want the stress of the city, so we chose to stay on resort property and enjoy. We did take 2 day trips, Tulum and Deep Sea Fishing. The only negative about these are the travel from EPM to your destination. I recommend going. In summary, If you are looking for fast paced Action and Thrill seeking, go somewhere else. If you want to totally relax, and be pampered a bit, this is an Excellence choice. This is the first time I have not had to go back to work to catch up on my rest after vacation.

We were at Excellence Playa Mujeres from June 8-13, 2008. It is a beautiful and extremely well manicured resort. It has classic lines. The landscaping was gorgeous and there were scattered sculptures on the grounds.

Our room was beautiful too. My husband adored the rainhead shower. We had turn-down service every night, and they would lay out the activity list for the following day much like a cruise ship does. Keep up with the times for when you want to do some of the activities because they don't come on a loud speaker to announce things. It would be nice if they had a system to let you know when something was about to happen.

Every day at 1 p.m. they offered a dance class where we learned the samba. The class was in a air conditioned mirrored room and it was a lot of fun. There weren't very many participants in the class, but I think that most folks just didn't seek it out. It was off the beaten path, so you had to be looking for it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were 4 computers available to check your email. It's on the top floor of the main building. They were always working, so it was good to be able to check back with our family in Texas.

The restaurants were great! They are convenient and the food was perfect. Spice, the Asian restaurant, was very elegant and I believe that it was my favorite for dinner. The Barcelona had just about everything that a person could want for breakfast. It was great! We have been to Couples Negril, Couples Swept Away, and Rui Tropical Bay and the food at Excellence surpassed all of them.

The drink service was the most attentive that we've ever experienced whether on the beach, by the pool or anywhere that you might have been standing/sitting. Yes, we tipped, but I honestly don't think that made a difference. The waiters and staff were so helpful and smiled all the time. We could all learn a lesson from them.

I was concerned about going to this resort because even though all of the pictures were beautiful, I didn't see very many people. Well, I think that because the place is so pretty when people take pictures they don't want anything to distract from the scenery. So, don't worry...there are plenty of people there. While we were there everyone seemed layed back and content to just relax....which is what we went for too!

We didn't do any of the tours or sidetrips, but we did go on the hobie cats a few times.

The beach was pretty, but doesn't compare to some of the beaches that we've been to. The sea grass that is referred to from time to time really wasn't a big deal. They constantly groom it.
If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer what I can.
This is a great place! Go with good attitude and relax!!!!

This has the potential to be a truely five star resort. Its a shame that it is let down by aspects of service and training that could so easily be put right.

Everything about the facilities are top class, clean, well maintained and laid out in an asthetically pleasing manor that makes you feel as if you are among very few guests staying. The spa is one of the best visited anywhere.

The down side is the service. Its very unpredictable and dependant on where you are in the resort. On holiday, no one minds waiting and taking time but when you order a wine with the meal and it doesnt come till desert that's just unacceptable and detracts from what would be an enjoyable experience. This is just one example of what was a frequent occurance.

Rooms are spacious, very clean and very well equipped with plasma tv and mp3 player docking station.

Turndown service was unpredictable and amusing. The first night we were there we were tired and went to bed at 10:30 only to be woken for a turndown service!

The pool in places was a little dirty and one morning I came across two beer cans floating in the pool. This I should say was the exception rather than the rule.

The second problem with the place (in addition to the service) is that although the menus sound great, creative and variable, the food isnt, its simply just average with the French restaurant being bar far the best. The kitchens are manned by people who are semi trained. It seems like a consultant has put together menus remotely and maybe given instructions on how to prepare the dishes but they are prepared by people who need help and better training. Or the resort has to hire a couple of top class chefs to oversee the whole process.

Otherwise this is a great place. You never feel like you are in an overcrowded resort. No need to rise at the crack of dawn to claim a poolside bed or cabana. Towels are already laid out for you and such is the layout of the resort you have much variety to what you want to sit on and where. The winding pool around the resort certainly helps in this respect.

The staff try very hard and I would certainly return hoping that management have improved their training and allocated more staff during the busier rush times like lunch and dinner.

This is simply a management and training issue and once this is recognised this will be a world class resort.