mindyellen

Spent some time last night reviewing all sorts of different all inclusive resorts. Any feedback on the following:
Cancun, looked specifically at El Dorado royale, Excellence Riviera Cancun, Mexico, or adventura spa Palace in mayan riveria.

Specifically regarding food, drinks, service, comfort of room/resort, night life/things to do...

Thank you so much!

KVR

I would suggest going to tripadvisor.com and reading reviews and veiwing pictures.

Be aware that most AI resorts in that area are quite far from the town of Playa del Carmen if that matters to you. Can be expensive taxi rides or inconvenient hotel shuttles to get to some great nightlife and entertainment.

We stayed at The Royal Playa del Carmen in Sept. and loved it. Great food, service and fabulous rooms. Within walking distance to 5th Avenue in Playa. Check it out also.

mindyellen

Thanks so much!

The hard part about trip advisor is that some people LOVE the different resorts, then others HATE them. I am not sure if it different personality types or not! But as this is our honeymoon, we'd be really sad if we ended up hating the resorts. Thanks for your feedback though.

I will check out the Royal Playa del Carmen now...how much of an issue is it to go into the town of PDC? I can't imagine us "clubbing" it very often, maybe going out once or twice at the most... Thanks so much!
Mindy

KVR

It really depends on what your looking for in a vacation. 5th Avenue is a street several blocks long blocked off from cars and laid with pavers. There are tons and tons of sidewalk cafes, fine restaurants, bars, shopping, inexpensive spas and night entertainment. We went out every night just to walk around and see what was going on.

If you plan to just hang at your AI resort and enjoy what limited food and entertainment they provide and don't care about going into Playa much, then one of the Mega AI resorts would be a good choice.

Regarding reviews on TA, I read them, but don't based my decision on what they say. Not everyone is going to be 100% happy especially with an AI resort. People who complain about food quailty/selection and service I tend to put to the side as what they like and what I like are probably two seperate things.

Additionally, people who post reviews on TA that are 1st timers, honemooners, the review is their first post or they are used to Ritz/4 Season quality, I totatly ignore as their expectations are usually way out in left field.

shirleyk

Take a look at Secrets Capri. It is a small AI about 5 miles north of Playa Del Carmen. So if you want to go into town, it is doable. Secrets has a lot of honeymooners and a lot of anniversary couples. No children allowed is the best part!!

nwhite

El Dorado Royale / Casitas Royale is the most romantic resort we've ever been to. We've been 2x in 2007, this last time was in November for our 26th anniversary.

El Dorado Royale is more like a hotel where Casitas Royale is more like a casita. Those units have porches with sheer panels draping the porch, a bed on the porch, canopies on the beds in the room, jacuzzi, plus tub/shower AND a private outdoor shower. About 8 buildings for a semi-circle and has it's own pool and swimup bar. Some areas have lazy rivers connecting the casitas to the pools.

There are 7 gourmet restaurants which are fantastic. I live in Scottsdale, AZ and have eaten at many fine restaurants. These are outstanding.

The spa treatments are great also.

I do not work for the resort, nor am I a travel agent. Just a person who can't wait to go back.

Check out my review at TripAdvisor. My screen name is njw53.

NWhite

kfusto

We did not enjoy our experience at El Dorado Royale last month. We stayed in a casita which was nice but IMO overrated. We found that the food was overrated and did not like the some folks can make reservations and others cannot system. The one restaurant where we had dinner before we checked out of the resort to go elsewhere was understaffed and the food average at best.

Wines offered were not good at all.

Spa needs an upgrade and was not at all luxurious compared to other resorts.

Beach is not good at all.

One man's trash is anothers treasure but we would not recommend it (there were 2 couples travelling and we both left after one night).

We loved Le Blanc and also foudn Iberostar Grand Paraiso to be appealing. We also plan to check out Secrets Maroma when they have opened and settled.

Chilepepper

For some really honest feedback on Playa del Carmen, I would check out this link: www.playa.info
If you peek at the forum, you will see MANY posts asking your same question. The feedback is great there. Especially since most of the people in the forum are repeat visitors.

bigtony777

I have stayed at the Palace resorts several times including the Spa Palace. It was great. We have always found the service to be over the top. The spa is great and we enjoy the food. Especially the Italian and Japanese restaurants. The two draw backs of Spa Palace is the distance from the airport and the beach quality. It takes from 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get there. You can take a shuttle to Playacar Palace and use all of the amenities there for the day and check out the area. But the Spa Palace is a place you will want to just stay by the pool or otherwise relax.

travelqueenca

We just came back from the El Dorado Royale. It is a really beautiful resort. We were glad that we had not upgraded to a Casita because our OCEAN FRONT was really ocean front and we had a beautiful view of the ocean which was important to us. The Casitas would not have had the view we had every morning from our balcony.
We thought the food was over-rated. It was very good, but not quite 'gourmet'. I think they are much better than the average AI however.
It is a really quiet resort and we loved that. It is very far from town, so we felt a bit isolated at times. We are pretty independent travellers and would not stay at the resort the whole time. We ended up renting a car and driving to Tulum, Cobe Ruins and Playa del Carmen and swimming in a cenote.
Overall, our experience was positive. There were a lot of honeymooners around.
The beach was okay. We loved sitting under the thatched roof umbrellas. It was rocky in spots due to the hurricane last year, but that didn't affect us enjoying the beautiful water. We even snorkelled there!