Here is copy of my hotel review, since they don't put it up right away. For anyone who wants to read it early :)

We stayed at the Cozumel Palace March 7-11th with a hotel package booked through American Express vacations. Great service all around, excellent accomodations, Good food for most part. Details below.

CHECK-IN:

Our flight arrived at 3:30 PM. We were at front of plane, so got through customs in about 20 minutes, found the shuttle desk (we didn't have pre-paid transport), and got to the hotel by 4:30 PM, where we were greeted with a champagne cocktail.

We had called one week before to request an upper level, king room on the north side, and were granted our request with room #530 upon check-in. After a brief explanation of the property, restaurants, and getting our bracelet, etc. we were escorted to a guest services desk where we got our palace passport and the tours were explained along with the membership "pitch" which included a tour over at Adventura Spa Palace which we declined.

We also had pre-paid for a dolphin swim through American Express and had a bonus $100 spa credit. There was a bit of confusion over who exactly to talk to about those, but our service person made a few calls and figured it out. We then went over to Chaza to try to book the tours we wanted, but we weren't in the "system" yet and told us to try in the morning, so we got that booked the next morning.

ROOM

Our room was on the top floor middle of north end, overlooking far north end of pool and had a beautiful ocean view. It was superb. Very clean, big comfortable king bed with nice linens, large jacuzzi tub, sitting area, deck with hammock, mini-fridge, liquor dispensers. Just as pictured and described on website. TV had about 20 channels, mostly spanish, but a few in english including CNN, Fox News, Cinemax, and HBO. Also could pay for movies, nintendo. Free wireless, but we didn't bring our laptop.

There are several rooms we noticed that I would try to avoid: Particularly rooms 114-120 on the north end on first floor. They have virtually no deck and no hammocks and an obstructed view with a sidewalk right in front (see pictures posted). Also on the 5th floor there are a few rooms in the center that do not have a roof over the deck, and the deck appeared smaller than others. Not sure what the room numbers of those are. There were a couple people we ran into going up to floor five after having a room on the second floor. They asked to switch because of lobby/pool bar noise.

Bathroom had large shower (pressure OK, not great), big bath towels, lots of counter space and shelves and well-stocked with toiletries, including toothpaste/toothbrush/shave kit/Shoe polish kit/sewing kit in addition to the usuals.

RESTAURANTS

Breakfast Buffet - Good with plenty to choose from. Breads, pastries, cereals, fresh fruit, yogurt, cheese and meat assortments, Egg station for omelets, rancheros, eggs any way, french toast and pancakes made to order, Hot section with various selections such as chillaquilles, bacon, chorizo, breafast sausages, mexican appetizers, etc. Fresh juices/bloody mary/mismosa bar/mexican hot chocolate. Can order cappucino. There is also a smoothi bar out at the pool bar in mornings where you pick your fruit etc. and they mix it up for you.

Lunch Buffet - We only ate there one day. They had make your own pizza and making up tacos, as well as fish, chicken, mashed potatos, a few mexican entrees under the heat lamps. Salads and cold cuts and cheeses also offered. We at the lunch buffet one day over at Playacar Palace and they had a much larger one with more selections.

Pool Grill - Offered nachos and chips w/gaucamole as well as variety of sandwiches (Philly Steak, BLT, Rueben, Turkey, Cheeseburger, Veggie sandwich). Ate their once and had BLT and Cheeseburger, was OK. Gaucamole was great.

They also would have something on a grill set up by the pool at noon, such as make your own ceviche, hamburgers and hotdogs, or tacos.

Dinner ala carte-

Mexican - This was good depending on what you ordered. We had ceviche (good), Lime soup (excellent) for starters. We wanted to try some of the traditional Yucatan dishes they had so I did the Tikin-Xic (fish baked in banana leaf with achiote spice, tomato sauce, onions and bell peppers) very good. My bf tried the Poc Chuk (pork) which was a bit bland and dried out. Several people said the turkey mole was great. Chocolate Volcano was good for dessert.

Some other entrees on menu included things like Fish veracruz, Grilled mix of seafood, grilled meat plate, Fajitas, Burrito, Enchiladas, and Tacos.

Asian - We went here for sushi. Hot sake was good. Miso soup was good. We ordered several rolls. They were OK, too much cream cheese and not enough fish in almost every roll for me though and not too much variety. We didn't try any of the main entrees.

Italian - Appetizers were great. I had Caprese and bf had the beef carpacio which was really good. I ordered the steamed mussels and clams for an entree, It was good, but some of my clams were unopened, so obviously didn't eat those ones. BF had the shrimp in wine and butter. That was excellent. Had some Zagblione (good) and Tiramisu (little dry) for dessert.

Some of the other entrees included: Veal picatta, Beef saltimboca (had never heard of it made with beef), Chicken dish, Grilled Ribeye, mahi mahi with tangerine sauce, and some pasta dishes such as lasagna, clam/mussel linguine, and fettucine alfredo with mushrooms.

Other Food - Snacks set up at lobby bar at noon and in late afternoon to early afternoon. Usually chips and guacamole, hot appetizers, finger sandwiches, crudites, and assortment of desserts.

Didn't try room service. Breakfast menu offered continental breakfast/fruit/eggs ordered to taste/pancakes and french toast.

For Day/night menu offered a couple salads, a chicken and fish entree, hamburgers, several sandwiches, and a few dessert choices.

TOURS

The included tours are not completely accurate on their website, so here are what the tours were when we were there:

1) The tulum express tour on Saturdays is not offered any longer. It has changed back to a full day Tulum/Xpu-Ha tour offered only on Tuesdays. Leaves at 7:30 AM and gets back about 6 PM. You go to Tulum with a tour guide in the morning and then over to Xpu-Ha Palace.

Since we had missed this and wanted to go to Tulum, we used our $25 car voucher and the Travesias car rental desk set up for us to pick up a car over at Playacar Palace($55 after $25 car voucher) and did it on our own. We also stopped at Xpu-Ha palace on way back and must say it was very nice. Great pool, great children's pool, large spread-out property with many animals (monkeys, crocodiles, domed bird aviatory, etc).

2) Coba tour is offered on Thursdays. Full day leave at 7:30 AM get back about 6:00 PM. We didn't go on this.

3) Chankannab is Monday and Friday (about 15 minutes ride away). Leave at 9:00 AM and get depart at 3:00 PM to return. We went on this and did some snorkeling off the beach($10 for gear if don't bring own). We also did our previously booked swim and snorkel with dolphins (around $100-$125 depending on program).

You can also do discover scuba here for $65 and then do a shore dive out to the cenotes (caves) or if already certified go out with a guide for $40. If you don't want to stay until 3:00 PM you can get a taxi transfer coupon from the tour leader if you have either 4 or 8 people that want to go back earlier (to fill a taxi), otherwise you can pay your own way back for about $8 US for a cab.

4) Glass Bottom Boat. M, W, F, Su. Times 10, 12, and 2 from hotel dock. They take you out to a reef for two yours and you can snorkel at two reefs. We didn't go, so don't know which reefs they took you to.

5) Playa Mia. Beach near Cozumel Palace. They provide transfers, admission, and non-motorized water sports (snorkel, kayaks, etc). Goes M, W, F, and Sa. 9AM to 4PM. Again can take your own cab back if want to leave earlier. We didn't go on this one.

HOTEL ACTIVITIES

Spa - Didn't get to try it, never had time!

Dive Shop - Aqua Safari onsite. I did the resort scuba course. I would suggest doing at least a free pool course at home before doing this one. I knew a little bit already from reading my bf's PADI book before doing it. But if you have no experience or knowledge at all it might be a little bit overwhelming. The practice session is in the ocean and was a little rushed. Then they take you out on the boat to Paradise reef for a shallow dive there. I enjoyed it once I got the hang of it, but was a little confusing at first.

Snorkeling - Lots of fun right off the dock. Free gear at the activities desk.

Other activities - They had lots of scheduled activities throughout the day, such as pilates, aqua exercise, spanish lessons, board games, card games, cooking lessons, ping pong tournaments, bingo, towel folding class, dance classes, water volleyball etc. They give you a schedule when you check in.

Night-

SU- Karoake

M- Mexican Fiesta

T- Fire dance/drums

W- Mayan Show (Fun - we watched from our deck)

Th- Couples Night (Looked like a "newlywed" type games)

F-Carribean Show (Missed it)

Sa- Casino Night (Missed it)

NOISE

A note about noise (given from the persepctive of our room on 5th floor towards north end.) In the mornings there was no loud music from the pool. The speakers are only around the pool bar which are just south of center of the resort. And music was really quite subdued and not audible from our room until the afternoon.

The music didn't really start getting going until afternoon when it was usually turned up louder and the pool was more crowded when we would get back from our day's activities usually around 3:00. If we closed our deck doors could not really hear it.

Tanya