We just recently got married here on August 7th. Our stay was from August 3rd to the 12th. It was just my husband and I, and we really had a wonderful time.
I'll start off by how we chose this resort for our wedding. My husband's friend actually recommended Palace Resorts. We found the website and decided on Aventura Spa Palace. I actually wanted to do Sandals, but I fell in love with Aventura when I saw the photographs. I was on Trip Advisor for months reading reviews up until our final day to leave. It just seemed like the perfect place.
We actually booked our hotel transfer through Orbitz when we purchased our plane tickets. Gray line was the name of the company. They had us in nice air conditioned van that took us to the hotel. They made of few stops along the way dropping off other people, but I would say it was no more than about an hour and 20 minutes to get there.
We were just amazed by the place when we first got there. It's just so beautiful. I was a little overwhelmed a bit at first just because the place is so huge. I had no idea where anything was at. I'd say by the end of day two, I could pretty much get around everywhere without the map. My husband had no problem, it was probably just me. It doesn't take too long to get from side to side. We always walked the hallways on the upper floor outside our room to get to the other side. It was maybe 5 minutes.
We had a beautiful view from our room. Our room was more towards the south side, but kinda in the middle. We found ourselves to hanging out more at the south part, though. I pretty much knew what to expect since I had read reviews months and months before. But the room was kept clean, turndown service, soda and bath items replaced, all that stuff.
This was our first all inclusive experience, so we found it to be crazy that you can eat and drink whenever you want and not have to pay for it. I think it took us awhile to get used to that.
We did tip, but it was probably a little less than a hundred dollars for the whole stay. We stayed 10 days, so about 10 dollars a day. I didn't see a whole lot of people tip, though.
That's probably one thing I can't forget about this place. Everyone is just so polite. I don't think one person walked by without saying, "Olah!" The staff was truly amazing. We just felt bad if we didn't leave them anything.
The food is good. Some restaurants we thought were better than others. We don't particularly eat a whole lot of fancy food, so a lot of it was new to us. There is a lot of variety, so we definitely found our foods we enjoyed. I have to say we took advantage of the room service. It was nice, especially if we didn't feel like going out. The ice cream here is unbelievable! The sweet shop we actually didn't go to until like our 7th day, so we missed out on the first 6 days.
Most of the nightly activities are held in the South Lobby. We went to most of them, but we didn't care for them that much. The only one we really enjoyed was the fire show. You definitely can't miss this. It's only once a week, so you have to plan accordingly if you want to see it.
The Thai Lounge is nice. It's in the South Lobby. Jose made us some really good drinks.
There are a lot of included tours you can do. Believe it or not, we only did two things out of the 10 days. Most aren't offered on Sunday. And most are only offered M, W, F. But for us, that was just because of the wedding. We had to plan around that, so that didn't leave us with a whole lot of options.
We did Tulum Express, it's only half a day. I would definitely recommend doing this. The place is beautiful, the beach as well. It's only about a 30 minute bus ride to get there from the resort. You get to stop at a Mayan shop on the way home. Nice things. We had a wonderful tour guide, very informative.
The other thing that we did was swimming with dolphins. It's not included, so we had to pay for this. But it's something that we always wanted to do. If you want to do this, plan on spending about $400. Go to Delphinus, it's only 20 minutes from the resort. Just go to one of the guest services desks in the lobby, and they will get you signed up. The transportation is included. A nice AC van. It's the best deal you can probably find. It's 2 dolphins for 50 minutes in a group of 6 people. All I can say is just wow, it was a lot of fun. The photos are a bit pricey, but worth it.
We wanted to go to Chichen Itza, but when we found out it was a 3 hour bus ride there, and a 3 hour bus ride back, we quickly changed our minds. We just didn't have a whole day where we could do that.
Now for the Wedding! It was just amazing. The whole thing from the beginning to the end. Roser Pla was our coordinator and she was just absolutely perfect. When we got there, we got a letter from her as to when our appointment was going to be. The day of the appointment, we went to the wedding office and met with her. It's like she knew everything that we wanted. We did an optional package because we wanted photos, a video, and flowers. I made the salon appointments with her there and that was pretty much it until the day of. We had a simple blood test after the meeting. I don't want to give too much away, but it was just amazing. The photographers do an excellent job. The video is done really well if you choose to get one. You'll have a wonderful wedding if you decide to get married here!
A few other things I forgot to mention. I didn't really talk a whole lot about the north side. We chose that Gazebo to get married at. It was quieter and away from things. The south Gazebo is kinda in the middle of the resort and we wanted something more secluded.
We did a romantic massage package together. It was amazing! Hydrotherapy room is awesome if you want to go an hour beforehand.
We were never asked for a Tour/timeshare offer. We actually had to ask someone if we could do the tour. We just wanted to do it to get the $200 is spa credit. Totally worth the 90 mintues! That's like throwing away free money.
The fitness center is really nice. I went there a few times.
The lagoons are nice. I would definitely recommend snorkeling in them. The North lagoon has more fish.
I heard the paradise snorkeling tour was nice from a couple, but then another couple said it was a bit crowded. We wanted to go, but never could really get it to fit in our schedule.
There is a dinner made especially for Honeymooners in the ball room. It's only offered Thursday nights. It was nice, a great way to meet other couples. The dinner was pretty good and the show was funny.
Overall, we had an excellent time. The resort is beautiful and the staff is what makes the place. If you are looking to get married here, I wouldn't second guess it. They will make all of your dreams come true. The wedding department really does an amazing job!
You'll really have a wonderful time if you decide to go here. We didn't have any doubts about booking Aventura for such a special occasion, and we can't wait to go back in the future for an anniversary trip!

Let me start off by saying, those who post "bad" reviews must go into these vacations with a negative attitude, because there just isnt any excuse to NOT enjoy the luxuries of an all-inclusive resort!

My husband and I were celebrating our honeymoon and of course went in with high expectations and with the purpose of creating wonderful memories!

From the begining....

We chose the Aventura Spa Palace (ASP) for the 18+ atmosphere in addition to the high number of honeymooners. We loved that tours to the sites of the Mexican Riviera were all included as well!

Check In:

From Cancun airport its a 45-60 min. ride. We booked through Apple Vacations, so we got a 9 seater van (much nicer than the buses, the van allowed for a more pleasent drive, full AC and less stops).

The hotel greeted us with wonderful service! A flower for me and drinks for my husband and I. Due to the HUGE hotel we were wisked off in a golf cart with the bell man escorting us to our room.

The Room:

Amazing! There isnt a bad view in the place! Our room overlooked the garden/ocean. On the North side. Most rooms have a hammock which came in handy in the evening. Everything was VERY clean...Shower/floor/bed, everything. I never worried about bugs or ants or anything of that nature. I am a very clean person and I would of been crazy if it wasnt clean! The jacuzzi tub (in the middle of the room) was wonderful. After a long day it was great to unwind while watching TV. (However there were only about 30 channels, 1/2 english 1/2 spanish, nothing too impressive). The liquor dispenser & fridge with drinks was always stocked it was nice to have the drinks at your leisure. The bed was an Eastern King, and being from San Diego, CA, we are accustomed to our Cal. King, which is 6" longer than an Eastern King, it was fine for me at 5'2, not so much for my husband at 5'10. As for the mattress, (much discussion on other reviews) was on the hard side. Nothing like ours at home...but we were so tierd from being in the sun all day and touring the sites, we werent about to let the mattress bother us. 24 hr. room service....great!!! For those days you wanted breakfast in bed, you placed your order out on your door the night before and it was there at your requested time the next morning!!

Food:

There are 7 restaurants at the resort. The and schedules are a tad challenging if you dont take the time to master them. A couple of the restaurants are open for the breakfast buffet, a few for lunch, then all are open for dinner. If there is a convention (there was when we were there) not an issue...(the resort was only 1/4-1/2 full), yet one of the restaurants were closed to the convention at breakfast, so once we did have to walk around the huge resort to get to the open restauraunt.

The food itself was good. I was a tad worried about it, as there are mixed reviews. But I was pleasantly surprised.

The buffet for breakfast had so many things to choose from. I personally enjoyed the omelets. You could choose what you wanted & how much, and they would cook it right there in front of you.

For lunch, again, a vast selection. I loved the taco/fajita station. Everything you need to make a great taco. Although waking up late and having a late breakfast led us to just snacking by the pool most of the time through the lunch hour, and not actually going to the buffet. The snacks at the pool were good too...Pizza, nachos, chili cheese fries, homemade guacamole & chips.

Dinner was ala-cart. You had everything, appitizers, soups, salads, entrees, & desserts. You could choose anything you wanted, mix and match from all the combonations. There are also a variety of cuisines. Californian, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Mediteranian, just to name a few. My husband and I LOVED the Mexican restaurant. The fajitas and enchiladas were amazing. Also the Japanese restaurant was great too. We love sushi and one night we just sat down and had order after order of the sushi appitizers and the staff had no problem with it.

Service:

Everyone, I mean everyone was soo friendly. We couldnt walk from one point to the other without every staff memeber, waiters, maintinance workers, maids, managers....saying 'hello' and asking us how we were. They always went out of the way to see if we needed anything. One night we were just spending some time playing pool in the lobby after dinner, and a waitress comes out of knowwhere asking us if we needed a drink. It was just so great.

At all the meals, the waiters were so nice, even for a buffet where we were in charge of getting our meals, someone was always there to carry my plate.

Side note as far as the tipping goes...we never felt pressured to tip, however we always did. $2. everyday for the maid, $3. every dinner service, $2. for the bellman, & roughly $5. or so for the day for the waiters who brought our drinks by the pool/lagoon.

Pool/Lagoon:

The hotel is split North & South and there is a pool & lagoon entry on each side. The South side is more of the "louder side". Its not out of control by any means, being an 18+ hotel there arent any roudy teens, but you can get the loud drinking singles...its all about the crowd.

We did however gravitate to the South side. The lagoon was much larger there than on the North and there were more options for finding the perfect spot. We always started down at the lagoon, it was much less crowded than the pool, and it was nice to be there for a majority of the day. With it being SO hot outside and such a high percentage of humidity, the ocean was very refreshing....the pool was a little warm for my taste, after tanning it felt good to get in the pool, but after a couple mins, just seemed to be too warm to be refreshing.

The South side lagoon also seemed to get alot more service from the wait staff as far as bringing drinks to you.

No matter where you go, getting a spot was never an issue. We always had 4 chairs! Two in the sun & two in the shade, and still there were tons of empty ones around us.

Also, I read in previous reviews that people had a problem with not having being on a beach. I found the lagoon and the gravel beach to be actually nicer than sand! Living in San Diego, and going to the beach all the time, let me tell you...sand is a pain in the butt! It was nice to just brush off the little gravel and not worry about sand getting everywhere, espeically when you are enjoying drinks & snacks!

Nightlife:

This is the only thing I would change. Although there were some good entertainment during the week, (The Fire Dancer Show & Mayan Warrior Show..Great!) yet the pool and outside activities pretty much ended by 7-730p. So after dinner & drinks, if there wasnt a show you were interested in seeing, it was pretty much back to the room.

Tours:

Another HUGE plus of staying at the ASP is the included tours. We took advantage of the Chichen-Itza & Tulum tours.

Chichen-Itza was incredible. The 2.5 bus ride each way, was a little much. The tour guide did talk for most the ride giving a nice background of the site and the Mayan people. It helped pass the time. The tour was from 830-7p. My advice #1 is to bring snacks & LOTS of water!! We did stop for lunch, but not until well after visiting the ruins, around 2p. Luckily we brought fruit & cereal but those who didnt were starving!! Comfortable walking shoes & a hat, as there is little shade.

Tulum was my favorite! I loved the ruins and with it being right on the beach the views were absolutely beautiful! It is only about 30 mins from the resort, so that was a great, and note that there is access to the beach below the ruins, which was the best part! Relaxing in the surf on one of the world's greatest beaches was an experience of a lifetime! Bring all the esscential beach stuff, towel, bathing suit, etc...there isnt alot of time to be in the water, but its worth it. One thing I'd recommend is water shoes (the ones that are good for hiking, not the old-school ones). This way you can still have comfortable walking shoes, but not worry about them getting wet.

So in conclusion, my husband and I had a wonderful time! And we are looking forward to returning. We have already recommended the ASP to our friends/family. Its just amazing!!

Hope you all enjoy and hope the review was helpful!!

My husband and I went here on our honeymoon and it was amazing. Our room was huge and clean (we did have an problem with the toilet over flowing but they came and fixed it and cleaned it all up in less then 1/2 an hour at 10PM). We stayed on the south side which is the louder side but it was great for us. My husband was involved in their activites including water polo, volleyball, and the Idol man. The drinks were good- the first couple I had were a little weak but I asked them to make it stronger and they did. The spa was really nice and we enjoyed our massages. The food was amazing and there was always something to eat. The sweet shop's crepes were amazing and they had pretty good bagel sandwhiches if you don't want a whole big breakfast.

We did the snorkeling and kyacking- some pretty colorful fish. Everyone was so friendly and we were always able to find someone to talk to! And we can't wait to go back.

Oh and I bought our week off of ebay. A member was selling there week and it was the best price I could find. It worked out so well.

We have recently returned from our honeymoon at the Aventura Spa Palace and this hotel is amazing.

If you are looking to get away for a nice relaxing break then this is the place to go. It is an adult only resort which is great if you don't have any children, the quality of food served in the restaurants is excellent as are the staff who can't do enough to help you.

Not only did our all inclusive package allow us to eat and drink as much as we liked in all of the bars and restaurants it also included 24 hour room service, a free mini bar and optics in the room - excellent!!

Plus there is the 2 person jacuzzi in the room which is fantastic.

This hotel gets 10/10 from both me and my wife and we would definitely go back there again.