Overall, the resort is nice, the food was so-so and the service was hit or miss.
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Before I get into my review - BE CAREFUL OF YOUR VALUABLES there. My friend's BlackBerry was stolen at the pool area. Granted we should've been a little more cautious with leaving stuff unattended, but you just don't expect this to happen at a nice resort. The backback was left under the lounge chair as we were hanging out in the pool. Upon return, she went to check the time and discovered it missing. Someone had the balls to pull it out from under the chair, rifle through it and take the BlackBerry! She reported it immediately to the hotel staff, who weren't very empathethic or apologetic for the situation. The security person looked up on the internet the phone # for Verizon to cancel service. When she asked if she could use their phone to make the call, they said NO! She asked again and the security person went to the back room to check and again he said no because they would get charged for it. Seriously?!?!
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Upon arrival, we immediately noticed the open air lobby and registration. The staff was quick to get and hold our bags while we checked in. I don't know how their registration system works, but it seemed to take a lengthy amount of time to check in, compared to other resorts. Our room wasn't ready yet so we changed in the 'hospitality room' to go by the pool and grab a late lunch. Watch out for the workers in white shirts lingering by the registration. They will stop you to take a survey and had we not brushed them off, they probably wanted to pitch their vacation rentals.

We had lunch at the Reef Grill, which is completely outdoors and overlooks the beach. Service was a little slow. The food was ok (burgers, quesadillas, pizzas, etc.).

The pool was HUGE. Lots of space to swim around, hang out or lay on the built-in loungers. Swim up bar is a nice touch. The lay out and landscaping of the property definitely made for a resort-feel and was very relaxing. They have photographers that linger around the pool and the beach and they will be agressive about trying to take your picture.

Once we left the pool, we stopped by the desk to make our dinner reservations. We were surprised at the VERY limited availability of reservations for the weekend, but we were able to still get in.

We picked up our room keys and were escorted to our room in a golf cart. Annoyingly, our room keys didn't work and the bellhop didn't offer to get them fixed and bring them back to us - we had to trek back to the front desk. Our room was clean and spacious and just a few steps from the beach. The downer was the shower not really having good water pressure and the hot water ran out quickly.

We had dinner that night at Sumire, the Japanese restaurant. Again, average food but service was speedy. Given the hard time we had to get a reservation that evening, the restaurant was pretty empty. What gives?!?!

The next day was spent mostly by the pool. Their activities director/announcer was quite amusing and you gotta give credit for them having games, sports, trivia contests to entertain the guests. That night, we had dinner at Tequila. It's a larger dining area and again, it wasn't that busy. I don't know why they give a hard time about getting a reservation. For Tequila being a Mexican restaurant, we weren't that wowed by the food and the menu offerings.

The expansive open air lounge area was really nice and the drink service was fast. There was a live band that played there each night. Later in the evening, we ordered room service and they were speedy, as were our other room service orders the rest of the trip.

With one day left in our stay, we discovered our phone wasn't working. I had to order room service from a house phone in our building and let them know of our phone situation. A serviceman appeared rather quickly and after testing it out, told us it's an issue with the actual line and that it wouldn't be resolved until tomorrow. Umm...ok...so that's it? No offers of trying to work around this or some sort of compensation? Shortly thereafter, I came across the brochure in the room about responding to malfunctioning stuff in your room within 15 minutes and a service guarantee that states if they're not able to resolve the matter w/in an hour, they can move you to another room. So I went to the front desk to ask about it and the lady there, Isabel, looked annoyed at having to help me. When I questioned her about the guarantee, she said they had responded within the stated 15 minutes. Well yeah I know that, but it wasn't FIXED within the hour. So she just got the supervisor to talk to me who was WAY nicer and more helpful. He did offer to move our rooms but given that we were leaving the next day and we'd have to repack, it didn't make sense. There was no other form of compensation he could offer.

Dinner that night was the the Reef Grill, which offered steak and seafood. I've never had clam chowder that actually had a greenish tint to it and didn't have any clams in it. We were really suprised at the low quality of food, given the good reviews I've read in TripAdvisor and being rated well in Conde Nast Traveler. Maybe because it's our first all-inclusive and other AIs have even worse food. What a scary thought...

Our last dinner was at Capri. It clearly states on the menu that your pasta dishes are served with parmesan cheese and garlic bread. They brought our food w/o either of those items so we asked for it. Our server had NO clue about the garlic bread. He didn't know what we were talking about and he even brought over the menu. We pointed it out to him but he still didn't understand. Another waiter noticed us and said afterwards that the bread and the olive oil and garlic for dipping that was served at the beginning constituted "garlic bread."

So will we return? Probably not. The resort itself is nice; service was just too spotty to give them our business again. Hopefully readers of this review who will travel there have some better service and food than us.

Generally, the service was very good. Although it is no fault of the resort, I would highly dissuade you from going to Cancun this time of the year because every day was any where between 88 and 95 degrees. It was simply too hot for me to really enjoy. Anyway, the beds were incredibly hard -- so were the pillows. WORD OF CAUTION TO PARENTS: If you ask for a crib and they give you a wooden one (which looks like it was hand made), SEND IT BACK. It is a defective crib. My 14 month old nearly sliced his finger on one of the hinges! Needless to say, I went ballistic. They brought a replacement crib that was made of plastic and appeared to be safe, but I implored them never to use the wooden cribs with any other guests. I hope they listen.

The food was o.k. The coffee was pretty terrible. I don't know why I kept drinking it -- it got worse everyday. If you're a coffee fanatic, I suggest bringing your own filters and ground coffee. The rooms each have a coffee machine.

Family concierge service was generally good, although basically what you're getting is personal service and the ability to book reservations at some of the more exclusive restaurants. The Italian place "Capri" was nothing special. Neither was the Mexican restaurant, surprisingly. I actually think the Tequila was watered down. After three Tequila shots, I was barely buzzed (and I have a fairly low tolerance).

The Kids' Club nannies were attentive and helpful. I also really enjoyed the Mariachi band. My baby and I danced to their music two nights in a row. That was special.

All in all, it's a good place for families. I thought there were a lot of cheesy things about it, but if you don't care about that, and if you don't mind so-so food and terrible coffee, give it a shot.

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Paradisus for a week at the end of July. We chose this particular resort among others with similar ratings because it seemed to be closest to the Cancun airport (without actually being in Cancun). Sure enough, we were the first in our shuttle van to be dropped off. When we arrived, they did not have a room with a king bed, so we had to check into a room with two full-sized beds the first night. It was not that big of a deal, as we were able to move the next day. Both of these rooms happened to be located in a Royal Service building (they must have been pretty booked up), but since we hadn't paid for Royal Service, we really didn't get any of the perks. This building was just a few steps away from the beach, where we spent most of our time. The beach was definitely smaller than others we have stayed at, which meant there were not as many chairs either. It was difficult for us to get chairs in a good location unless I went out and reserved them around 8 or so in the morning (which everyone else seems to do). Also, there is quite a bit of seaweed along the beach, which they do try to clean up. The water is not crystal clear, but very warm. I am definitely a beach person, and even with the few negatives, I still really enjoyed it. It was very hot each day and I found myself lying under the palapa most of the time.

They offer water sports a little ways down the beach (kayaks, paddle boats, windsurfers, catamarans) which are complimentary, except that you have to pay $2 to some environmental organization because of the coral reef. If you keep the $2 bracelet on for your entire trip, you can use the equipment every day without having to pay again. We took a catamaran out three days and really enjoyed it. Just make sure you don't hit the reef, or as the little man in charge will tell you, "It cost you hundred buck dollars!"

The pool is really nice too - it's just louder and not as relaxing a spot. They play loud music, and there is a swim-up bar where people can sometimes get a little rowdy. The pool is huge though, so you can find quiet areas.

There are activities organized for just about every hour of the day- beach or pool volleyball, water aerobics, dance lessons, bingo at the swim-up bar, and even video game competitions and lessons on how to create animals out of towels! A little something for everyone. The guys in charge of the activities are nice and very funny.

As for the food - we were pleasantly surprised! I have no problem with buffets, but my boyfriend was pretty unhappy with the buffet food the last time we stayed at an all-inclusive. This time he really liked the food and could almost always find something. I will say the breakfast buffet was better than lunch or dinner. As some reviewers said, there is a great variety, but I disagree that it changes from day to day. It was pretty much the same stuff throughout our entire visit.
The specialty restaurants were great. We tried all of them and there wasn't one we didn't like. I actually think the Mexican one was my favorite.

At night, the main things to do were hang out in the lobby (where there is a bar) and go to the shows. I have seen some pretty horrible shows at resorts before (the ones where all they do is call up people from the audience to do stupid things and they say everything in four different languages), but these shows were great. Even my boyfriend, who normally does whatever he can to get out of going, wanted to go every night. The shows are all dancing so there was no need to translate anything and the dancers were actually pretty talented. Also, one night there was a carnival show with people showing off various talents.

I will say that after the show there wasn't much to do. No casino at this resort (or any in the area). I was excited to go to the "Fun Pub" which is like a dance club, but every night we went to go we found it was closed. I kept asking about it - first I was told it would be open on Monday, then it was Tuesday, then it was Thursday through Sunday. Finally on Thursday we did find it open and it was pretty dead. The DJ was playing horrible music circa 1994 that no one wanted to dance to. We tried again Friday night, but same DJ. So the nightlife is pretty much my only complaint about this resort.

I would definitely recommend this resort - overall we had a great time!

From the moment I arrived with my very picky 22 year old daughter I was anxious. What if it wasn't everything the reviews said it would be? What if it was too quiet, the food awful, etc. etc...

What an immediate waste of my energy worrying!

From the moment we experienced the Royal Service Concierge service for check-in until the moment we left we could barely supress our ooooh's and aaaah's of pleasure. In fact, we both laughed several times at just how wonderful this hotel and all of the services and staff made our vacation!

The food is phenomenal - the lox for breakfast was amazing (and my daughter is a picky, picky eater, and knows her sushi, so she had an eagle eye for quality the whole time) and every restaurant delivered something new.

The beaches are clean and uncrowded and the special lounge area and pool for the RS clients - great!

This wouldn't be a fair review if I didn't find something that was less than fantastic.....

I guess that would have to be the party bus that takes you into Cancun and doesn't expect that you will want to leave until everything is starting to calm down around 4 am (we were too buzzed on music and hype to notice).

The other item to watch for is that the RS offers limo service from the aiport (and a butler, that was great) but you do have to check ahead as you may find that you have a shuttle bus to transport you instead.

All we can talk about since this trip is how every other hotel and services do not match up and when we plan to return!