My beautiful new bride and I stayed at the Excellence Riviera Cancun(ERC) for our Honeymoon from June 15-22. Here's every bit of info I can remember to help anyone out that, like me, used these reviews maticulously to find the perfect spot: by the way, this place is it.
First of all, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS-when you get off the plane-whatever your means of transportation is(rental car, shuttle, taxi) There is a large group of timeshare sellers--they seem like their trying to help you get to where your going, but its not worth it--BELIEVE ME. They will offer you half price tickets to your excursions, but you can get just as good a deal through the hotel. So, what to do, just pass them up, say "no thank you" and proceed OUTSIDE---your shuttle driver will be there with a shirt on from the company and will escort you to where you need to go. By the way, even the shuttle company has a representative at the hotel that will try to get you to visit a timeshare(I'll get to that later)
Ok, so the trip from the airport is approximately 20 minutes or so-and you are driven through a security gate to the entrance of the lobby which is gorgeous. You also get to see for the first time just how massive the facility is. You are greeted with a cool towel and a host that already knows your name(bc the guard at the gate calls him and lets him know you're coming) Then almost immediately, the bellboy arrives to take your luggage(we had Jesus, who was extremely helpful. We upgraded to the Excellence Club, which I highly recommend just because you can't get an ocean view without it. So he walks in to the main registration lobby where there are a "few" people in line and Jesus lets us know that because we are part of the "club" that we get to go to a special registration place. He then proceeds to give us a quick tour of the place-just massive and beautiful-(and, of course, 2 glasses of champagne for the trip. When we arrived at the Excellence Club lobby, there was already a representative waiting for us and it took maybe 10 minutes to get us from there to our room. (Room 7059) Which is the swim up oceanfront. Here's my thoughts on this type of room; the size is the same as all other rooms although you have a really cool personal porch which is about 8 steps from a private calm pool. The ocean is beyond the pool, but I will admit you can't see it that well from the 1st floor rooms. So I guess its a catch-22. The 2nd-4th floors have a better view of the ocean-while the 1st floor rooms have the personal patio(with an outdoor jacuzzi tub) and quick access to the pool. Plus a waitress will come around and get drink orders frequently. So its up to you.
The pools are numerous and seem endless...there's alot of quiet ones and the main pool-the one by the Blue swim up bar, is the popular one. Complete with water volleyball(played by Mexican rules-which just means you can hit it yourself as many times as you want) They play Texas Hold 'em by the bar there,if thats your thing. Big props to Alfonso who is the activities coordinator and the dealer. He has rules when you play that you can't put your drink on the table, you can't say the "f" word and then he always picks a popularly said word like check, raise, or call. If you say or do any of these things, you get the nastiest shot of tequila you've ever had. Makes things interesting and fun! There is also a XXX channel in your room-Channel 38-and when you go all-in you have to say Channel 38 instead, or tequila shot for you! There are activities to do ALL DAY-anything from archery, ping pong, billiards, garneshing class, bingo, mexican bingo, american football(you'd be amazed how many people don't know the rules, unless you're from the UK then you're probably not amazed :) ), water aerobics, beach volleyball, scuba and snorkeling lessons...you name it. One downfall is that the nightlife is really low key, so if you're going for a massive party, this isn't the place for you. There is one bar, Alegria that is open until 1am. But remember, this was our honeymoon so we were content to be in the bed by 11.
The food is good, alot fancier than we had expected. We thought Spice(Asian) was the best, then Agave(Mexican), then Chez Isabelle(French)...but the steal of the trip is the 24hr room service...if you just need a burger or hot dog or pizza or quesadilla(which are soooo good) just pick up your phone and you'll have WHATEVER you want in less than an hour. One morning we ordered pancakes and bacon(so good) and they had forgotten the bacon, so like, 3 minutes later, a guy shows up with like 20 slices of bacon and is extremely apologetic. (Yes, the service here is unbelievable.)
Tipping wise, my advice, tip well early-we brought about a hundred dollars in ones and fives and just used them when necessary. Leave a 10 or so the first morning on your bed for the maid and you'll get a little cleaner of a room. We always left 4-6 bucks for tip on every meal..By all means, you dont have to tip, but the people so such an amazing job, they deserve it!
Ok, before I forget...if you are traveling for your honeymoon...and they will not tell you this on the phone...Call and tell them or whoever you booked your vacation with that it is your honeymoon. You get a cool banner on your door and the whole place(staff wise) knows its your honeymoon and you get little perks here and there....you get a VERY romantic and FREE dinner on the beach(regularly 220 USD) a free couples massage which is amazing(best one I've ever had-unless you're a massage snob, which some people are) + the aquamassage which is pretty cool-doesn't really do anything, but still cool to do once. BUT, here's the kicker!!!! You only get these things if you bring either a copy of your wedding invitation OR marriage certificate. They don't tell you these things until you get there...of course, who would bring those things with them.. We didn't but luckily had my dad scanned it and emailed it to us...
Last thing before i end this, about the time share.... in the main lobby, there are like 3 or 4 guys handling tours-the guy closest to the main door is the ONLY one who won't hassle you to do a timeshare...OR go outside to the place near the main pool that does the swim with dolphins thing and book with them bc they've got some cool things to do. But, let it be known that we didn't leave the hotel once and nor did we want to. The place is paradise and you WILL NOT want to leave. I hope this helps!!

I will keep this short and to the point. ERC is absolutley FANTASTIC!! We were there for 10 days for our honeymoon, June 8th-18th. Every meal we had (we ate at every resturant) was excellent, the beach was beautiful, the rooms are amazing....etc, etc. We did not encounter one problem that I had read about on TA from past travelers (well nothing we actually considered a "problem" anyway) If you are considering staying here.....DO IT!! I can not wait to go back : )

I had to write this review because the reviews is what made my husband and I book this particular resort and I have to say, Thank you to all the people that wrote a review! My husband and I spent nine days at ERC, June 11th - 18th. So, you would think that pictures can be deceiving, but that's not the case with this resort...it's as beautiful as the pictures on the ERC website. We were stunned as soon as we pulled up to the resort. Greeted with champagne and friendly smiles, this was just the begining. The food was delicious, the service great, the rooms were beautiful. All the staff would go out of their way to help you, if you needed directions, they wouldn't just tell you to turn left or right, they would stop what they were doing and take you. We were married at the resort on the 14th, with family and friends attending. My husband and I were booked in the Excellence club & received exceptional service, but the rest of our family didn't book the club suites and were treated just as wonderfully as we were. We are all planning on going back for our anniversary next year. You will not be dissapointed by this resort, it is above & beyond the best out there.

I stayed at the Excellence Riviera with my Husband for our Honeymoon on teh 9th June - 17th June.

We had a few hicups getting there - thats manchester airport for you, so it took us a total of 21hours to get from house - hotel!

We arrived very tired, and even still it was breath taking! It was lovely to be greated "Welcome home Mrs Emery" !! We were given the Wrong room - we paid for a swim out room! This could all have been solved if Thomas Cook had printed our tickets properly. We moved rooms the next day, The hotel were good about it.

I can only echo what the majority of people say about the staff and grounds - everything was perfect.

The room service was very tastey and always punctual. I am quite fussy with food as i dislike onions and mushrooms and most of the food is prepared with one or the other. However we didnt struggle finding things on he menu to eat. We went to Barcelona once, Spice Tapenyake twice (this was the best as you get a 4 course meal and a show!) oregano once. The pizza was really nice and cooked fresh! We had room service 3 times. Andy was poorly on the last night and all he wanted to eat was vanillia ice cream... i desperatly wanted to go to chez isabelle. Room Service went out of there way and brought me up a crem brulee from chez isabelle and brought Andy a big bowl of ice cream!

Trips:
We went on a day trip to Isla Mujeres for $180 each. We saled out of cancun on a catermaran and we went snorkling in the reef, swam with shrarks, dolphins and sting rays. We went shopping downtown and then sailed back. All food and drinks were included. I sailed the catermaran all the way home whilst drinking tequila/grenadine which was so thick with grenadine, i believed it was non alcoholic!!


One thing that i have picked up on from reading reviews was that if you were looking for any type of night life you were looking in the wrong place. We did a trip to coco bongos in cancun one night (which was amazing - i would recomend it to anyone of any age) and the hotel had a disco open til 1 every night! it wasnt like being in cancun! dont get me wrong, but there was the option to do things like that!

We spent a lot of time at the pool bar and met a lot of lovely people! Every American we met were so so friendly to us! There was a wedding party of 30 there for the last half of the week and we didnt notice a change in atmosphere.

We were up most days and eating breakfast by 7.30am, we had no problem at all getting the seats we wanted every day. We never saved seats and left them. By 9.30 - 10am the BEST seats had gone, I stress best as there were still pleanty of ither seats, we just liked to be by the pool bar! Spa pool was always very very quiet!

Xel Ha was amazing and very reasonably priced. It was an hour 1/2 journey but was well worth it. The lazy river took 45 mins to go down and i couldn't even do it justice by describing it! If we were to return i would DEFINATLY do this trip again!


Flight home was not good, with Andy being poorly we had paid $440 to upgraded to 1st class so he could have more space and try and sleep. When we got on the plane the ground rep came and demanded we move and be sat either apart in 1st class or together in economy (with no refund for either) as is was completly our fault that we had been given some one elses seat.
She was shouting at us and being so nasty i was in tears! We refused to move in the end - the rep then proceeded to the honeymooners in front of us and had the same argument even though they had upgraded 12 months ago....

We have had so many problems with Thomas Cook i would never book a holiday, or fly with them again.

We did not let this ruin our holiday, and would still return (with a different tour operator)!

Dont hesitate to contact me if you want any info or to see more pictures - we have thousands!

Steffy