My husband and I stayed at the Ocean Coral and Turquesa for his birthday August 10th-14th. We had a fantastic time and I can’t believe that some of these reviewers and I stayed at the same resort.

Upon arrival the bell staff whisked our bags from our van and kept them for delivery to our room. (We used USA Transfers for our airport transfer and they were great.) While waiting to check in they ordered us two cocktails from the lobby and went over the resort amenities. Check in was a breeze, but because of it being my husbands birthday our room wasn’t ready yet as they were setting up Champagne, strawberries and a cake for him-Thanks Erika. No problem, we just ordered a couple of more drinks and sat outside enjoying the ocean views as we waited.

The room was large and gorgeous with an ocean view and stocked mini-fridge. The fridge, however does not keep things cool and drinks probably stay colder sitting on the dresser in the air conditioned room. Our room did not have any sort of “beachy” odor. There was also an in-room safe, which they do not charge for unless you lose the lock.

The food was better than average, not gourmet, but good. I have never stayed at an all-inclusive before, but have been on a cruise and the food here was much better. In fact the ceviche was ten times as good as what we spent 160 pesos on in Puerto Morelos. Mmm, and the guacamole, and salsa- I could go on and on. We didn’t find the al a carte restaurants slow, however we prefer to take our time when we eat, especially 5 courses! We loved the fact that you didn’t have to make reservations, because we never know what we’re in the mood for or when we want to eat until the time arrives. If you do not get to the restaurants before 7:30 be prepared to wait. While you’re waiting the restaurants have appetizers outside and the bars are close too. (You get a buzzer so you can wander around until your table is ready.)

We never had a problem getting strong drinks, some were too sweet for my preference but I find that in the bars here too. They do have some top shelf liquor (just request it by name) and Charly in the lobby bar makes a perfectly respectable and strong Manhattan. There is also beach service if you find you can’t make the long;) walk back to the bar for a refill.

The staff was fantastic! I felt as though I was being waited on hand and foot. The only Spanish phrases I know are Por Favor and Gracias, and they got me everything I needed. I felt the staff spoke more than enough English. Remember this is a foreign country and many of the guests spoke languages other than ours. If anything the staff was too nice. I wish that they would have enforced the dress codes at the al a carte restaurants, but that complaint is more with the guests than with the staff.

They had four different pools, each with differing levels of activity, however we spent all of our time on the gorgeous beach lounging and floating in the calm and clear Caribbean. There were kayaks, catamarans and sailboards available. There were also quite a lot of activities (which we chose to not partake in), and the entertainment staff was out in full force. I spent a lot of time wondering where to get the cute bikinis the girls wore.

Overall, vacations are what you make of them and ours was terrific. My only regret was that we didn’t stay longer, but we are seriously contemplating returning in September for our anniversary.

Please feel free to ask me any questions.
Tiffanie

We just returned from the Turquesa last week. I was also leery of of all the bad reviews I had read and was afraid to go. I'm glad we ignored them and went anyway. The Hotel isbeautiful,modern and very clean.
The rooms are very spacious, however, the open concept washroom can be a little anoying for a family with children staying in the same room. There is a separate toilet stall and shower stall which gives you privacy while in there but when leaving the shower you are "exposed" to the room. They have a sheer curtain and glass wall which divides the bedroom area and the washroom/tub area. (Take a cheap shower curtain from dollar store if you want to cover up the area). The shower stall is large enough for you to dry up in and change which is what we did.
The meals were fantastic at all the restaurants. Food and snacks were always available ( 23.5 hours/day) but at various restaurants. The best and unexpected delight was the coffe shop. Samuel was the usual server and made the best spanish coffees and espressos. I have never been to resort that offered chilled champagne and all meals even breaksfast (mimosa's).
The pools were aleays clean and relaxing. There were always plenty of towels and could be exchaged for dry ones all the time. There were always lots of chairs available but the resort could use a few more umbrellas for the time being.
We took our water shoes because of all the reviews we had read about the beach but I found that I never really needed to use them. The water was a little murky for the first week we were there due to the tropical storm of the week before but it was clear during the second week. There was a lot of seaweed being washed up on shore but the staff work so hard to try and keep it clean all day long.
The entertainment staf were great. They tried to keep everyone involved in activities with out being "pushy" about it. My 10 year old daughter was involved in every activity they offered (from beach volleyball to texas holdem poker tournaments).Special thanks to Jennifer, Pili, Nikki and DeeDee.
Over all this was one of the best vacations we have ever taken.
I highly recommend this resort for just about anyone.

We stayed at the hotel from 12-14 Aug 2008 for a special treat during my girlfriend's 50th birthday. The concierge staff welcomes you and gives VIP treatment with a quick map overview of the resort. You are given an invitation for a "Special VIP tour" the following morning. We were suspicious that it would be a sales pitch for a timeshare and we were right. In the morning, the salesman brought us to the breakfast buffet pretending for it to be a special breakfast. He started the questions to find out our financial status etc... This confirmed our suspicions. He was trying to sell us a membership in H10 resorts. We listened for a short while, then we politely refused and started to enjoy our visit. It was my girlfriend's 50th, so I asked the hotel to make a birthday cake for a 7:00 pm dinner in the Italian restaurant. They said it would be no extra cost. There are roaming Spanish guitarists in the resort and I asked them to be there after 7:00 pm. We waited outside the restaurant and when we got to the dinner table, the guitarists came in and sang a Spanish happy birthday. During desert time, the staff brought out a birthday cake and a bottle of champagne. The birthday arrangements all turned out great and the food was above average. I was able to arrange for a flower delivery to our room from guest services. If you do not buy a timeshare package, the concierge will pass all of your requests to the back corner of the lobby to guest services. Guest services were very helpful. The Japanese restaurant has a hibachi grill with an exhibition chef. I would recommend signing up for that. There is an abundance of beer on tap throughout the resort which is great if you like beer! The swim up bar pool is also nice and in the evening that area becomes a lounge with a disco sound track. My girlfriend loved that as she is a disco queen from way back! There was a nice band in the lobby lounge and a man rolling and selling cigars. There is a decent gift shop and a good gym complementary for a quick workout with machines in good repair and free weights. The "gift" of two free massages given by the timeshare salesman is for a 30 minute sample which you can upgrade to a full massage for $$$. The room was moist, but very nice with a spectacular view! Throughout the hotel, the floors are very slippery. We saw about six people fall while we were there. Three in the Italian restaurant and three around the resort in various places...Watch your step! All in all it was a decent stay and we only paid $150.00 USD per night for two people. Booked the stay through bookit.com.

We stayed at the Ocean Coral from July26th-August 2nd. We were a total of 15 people. My sister had a time share there, so that's why we went there. First I will start off by saying that the hotel is beautiful. When we arrived at the hotel, we were brought to the bar for a drink, prior to check in. Our check in was not handled at the the front desk, it was done at a side desk (because of my sister using her timeshare===she booked all 5 rooms usuing her timeshare weeks and points). Check in went very smoothly, except that we wanted all 5 rooms near each other and only got 4 near each other, so my sister took the room further away, and they promised to see what they could do about moving her closer. That was Saturday, on Monday she was moved to a close room.

The rooms are beautifully decorated. The bathroom is very nice, except for the fact that I was there with my husband and our 2 teenage sons .You can see from the bathroom into the bedroom, so we needed to dress in the toilet or the shower. That was a big pain in the neck. And yes, the shower did leak,,,,,not a big deal just put some towels in front of the shower door. The mini fridge was always stocked with water and soda. A few times, we had to call down to the front desk because we weren't left enough towels, but they brought them up soon after. Several of our rooms had to call many times for toilet paper! Don't know why they don't just leave extra in the room. My husband got sick of asking for toiket paper, so he went to one of the public bathrooms and took a BIG roll from there!

The pools were very nice. We mostly stayed in the activie pools, and sometimes in the pool with the swim up bar. (they should have a swim up bar in each pool.) We did water aerobics and it was fun. The staff doing the pool activities were very nice. We booked the snorkeling trip from the hut by the pool, and it was fantastic. Captian George and Raffie were great and very knowledgable. We even got to see a small sea turtle. Wish the pools didn't close so early though, they close at 8:00 (kinda early I think).

The food was ok,,,,The snack bar by the pool had great jalepano poppers (our favorite), nacho chips, cheese, guacamole. hot dogs and salad was good. The buffet had a nice breakfast. The omelet bar were very good. Lunch and dinner were good also, the pasta bar was good. We were all always able to find something good. The mexican restaurant was good, as was the japanese and italian restaurant. The problem with all of the restaurants was the service. It was always very slow, the waiters.waitress work very hard, I think that they dont have enough employees, to run this hotel. The speciality restaurants are also very small for a resort this size. The coffee cafe was always good.

The beach was a MAJOR disappointment. Having stayed in Riveira Maya before, I was looking forward to a sparkling clear ocean, perfect for snorkeling. The ocean here is very cloudy, with pieces of cement in the water and alot of seaweed. the seaweed is provided by mother nature, so thats ok, but the other stuff is unacceptable. No snorkeling here for sure!!

Overall, I had a nice time, but given the chance to go back to Riveira Maya, I would definately return (Ilove Mexico), but I would not return to Ocean Coral.