My husband and I stayed at the Excellence August 11th- 18th for our honeymoon , after I spent many hours of research on many sites. Our room was Excellence Club Oceanview Suite. It is definitely a beautiful place. Overall we had a wonderful honeymoon here. I will try to break it down for those who want the details ( as I did when I was in the research stage. )
The staff: Exceptional service, this was probably the most impressive thing to us. Always so friendly, always eager to help, really outstanding service in many of the restaurants, and just in general. I will make a note here and take it as you will. We did tip the staff. Not as much as we would in the U.S., but they truely deserve it. They do such an excellent job, we really wanted to. Some did not tip, and they seemed to get the same level of service. We tipped the maid two dollars a day and tried to also tip for turndown service, which I think was done by someone else. Also tipped for drinks just a couple dollars every other round or so. We did tip at every meal as well.
The grounds: Very beautiful, lovely statues, flowers etc. Although comparing Excellence to Iberostar Paraisio Maya which we stayed at several years ago, it seemed a bit small and contained. Which is a plus in some ways, but whereas at Iberostar there was always so many places to walk and explore, here it was somewhat limited, you could explore the interior and the perimeter of the property easily in one walk. There is always walking up the beach though. I will say that it never seemed crowded, to us
Room Service: Wonderful. Always on time, delicious every time but once, usually even better than the food from the restaurants. Very nice.
Restaurants: Breakfast was one of our favorite meals of the day. Barcelona was our daily go -to. Great variety, mediocre to great in quality. Lunch was never very good. On the occasions where we went to the ala carte restaurants for lunch, our food was mediocre to not very good. Often items we ordered would come out different than what was stated in the menu and not tasting very good. Buffet for lunch was usually a better choice, for us. Dinner was odd. Appetizers were usually the best items of the entire meal. Food was in general, mediocre but edible, nothing special, but sometimes surprised with something quite good. Very hit or miss. I read all the rave reviews on the chateaubriand served at Chez Isabelle, and I convinced my husband that we had to try it. Definitely a disappointment. The quality of meat in general was not so good. I know, it's Mexico, right? However the hibachi tables at Spice which were also highly reviewed, was quite nice and very enjoyable for me. Overall, I would say that the food was the biggest disappointment for us. Not what they sell it as.
Our room: A huge selling point for me! So beautiful. Amazing shower ( and water pressure, ) wonderful jacuzzi indoor and outdoor. I loved the furnishings and decor and the bed was great, not too hard for us at all. The oceanfront view from the balcony was awesome! I would recommend trying for a higher floor though. We had the floor above the ground floor which they call a first floor room, and the trees somewhat obstructed our view. It was still outstanding, but I imagine the higher floors might be even better. We did notice the ants that everyone mentions. They are soooo tiny. Not many, barely noticeable. I was quite worried about the ant problem that so many posted about in their review; I am not an insect person. But, I was not bothered by them, and would say they are inconsequential.
Room service: Always very efficient, never a problem, although I was a bit surprised that the sheets aren't changed more often. Everything was very clean.
Entertainment: Some shows in the theater were quite good, others were somewhat lame. The one night that we made it to the dancing at Allegria it was a surprise. We walked in and found six other people. We weren't expecting much of a hotspot and were happily surprised when a steady stream of people filled the place to near capacity within an hours time. Fun. Not the best selection of danceable music, but it is what you make it.
Location: A plus and a drawback. The seclusion is perfect for a honeymoon experience. For those that like to do their own exploring, outside of the set-up tours, transport to leave the resort is expensive. We went on a daytrip, not set up with a tour company, to the Crococun Zoo. The zoo is located basically at the end of the Excellence driveway, which is a mile long. It cost six dollars plus tip each way, and travel to Cancun is about thirty dollars.
Tours: We didn't do many. We swam with the dolphins at Wet 'N Wild. This was good; food alcohol/beverages and pass to the waterpark were included. I really wanted to swim with the dolphins, and this tour was great for that. The dolphin experiences at the nature parks had an additional entrance fee and this seemed like the best deal to us.
Spa: We got the couples massage that was included in our honeymoon package. Amazing experience. We would definitely do again, even if we had to pay for it. You absolutely MUST do the Marine wellness circuit that is included for free before every spa treatment. We went about an hour early for this and it was well worth it.
I hope this review helps someone in their choice.
