This was our 9th club med and second time here in Cancun.

They have improved the facility and the Service is superior.
Special kudos to Gibran the saling instructor. He was great!
Beautiful views abd great food quality. We will come back.

We took our two boys, ages 4 and 2, between Christmas and New Years. For us, Club Med is the absolute best vacation spot for families and Cancun didn't disappoint. We stayed at the Jade part of the property (because it was all that was available.) It was a bit more expensive but as we discovered, well worth it. Jade has a separate, private pool for its guests and a wonderful bar. Overall, the Cancun property has incredible activities: waterskiiing, sailing, snorkeling, tennis, trapeze, windsurfing, fitness classes, etc etc. The beach is wonderful but don't expect a pristine paradise view. Cancun's beach is highly developed with properties lining the entire bay. That said, Club Med's location--at the far end of the bay--is perfect and you get a somewhat more secluded experience. We thought the food was terrific, the staff--as always--was warm and friendly. My only (minor) piece of advice is that if you are deciding between Cancun and Ixtapa and you have very young children (under 5), Ixtapa might be a better bet because it is geared toward the very young. But our boys still had a blast in Cancun.

Nothing special. Weak drinks. Food was okay. Poor Wi-Fi. Most of the staff were pretty good but management was poor. When we made a reservation several months in advance they split us up into two different non-adjoining rooms without asking. We found out about this right away and demanded to be together with our children--not unreasonable? They put us together in adjoining rooms for 5 nights and promised to make some changes to get us together for the full 7 nights. They had seven months to make it happen and it didn't happen. We met with management on site when we arrived and they still didn't make it happen. They seemed like they couldn't care less. They didn't offer any kind of compensation for this major inconvenience. We had to move across to the other side of the property for our last two nights into non-adjoining rooms. Kids program was the only really good thing. Our 8yo daughter loved the place. She still talks about Oscar. Bless her heart!

We have used and benefitted from Tripadvisor for several years now, but this is our first contribution. If it’s a bit verbose, we’re trying to make up for missed opportunities in the past.

We stayed at Club Med Cancun from 2nd December to 16th December, 2012.

Overall it was a very enjoyable vacation. However, we would need to see some changes before we visit them again.

THE GOOD

Terrific food in La Hacienda (main buffet restaurant). We tried La Pergola (Steak House) and Las Casuelas (Mexican Specialties) but found that the variety and quality at La Hacienda to be so great that we did not need to go anywhere else. The house wines were quite drinkable and the self-serve beer dispenser was a joy to operate.

Service at all restaurants was top-of-the-line.

Location: Club Med Cancun must have selected their Cancun property early, because they definitely have the best location along the strip. Beaches, snorkeling, and water sports activities were excellent.

The equipment at the sailing area was top notch and kept in good repair. They had Hobie 16 and 14 plus many types of wind surfers and sails suited for beginners as well as advanced sailors. They had two power boats to retrieve sailors that could not make it back on their own steam. Excellent setup.

We are a bit too old in the tooth to be able to participate in the waterskiing and trapeze circus activities, but they all looked like fun, good equipment and all included in the price!!

Aqua Gym at the pool was well attended and fun as well as all the fitness activities around the pool and on the beach. Good job!

We did not participate in the tennis activities, but again the courts, the equipment, and the coaches seemed to be top notch.

The evening entertainment was quite good. What might have been lacking in talent was more than made up for with enthusiasm and loud NOISE!!

Nice service at the bars, and house drinks were acceptable.

Having an infirmary on site was a bonus. One of us had a badly cut finger with stitches that needed a bit of TLC and the stitches eventually removed. This was cheerfully done at no extra cost. Excellent!

The transport to and from the airport to the resort was on time and well organized.

Last but not least, kudos to a few exceptional personnel who really made the two-week stay a pleasure for us. First of all, Zani, who was the GO coordinator at the time, was excellent in every respect. Margot did an outstanding job as a fitness and zumba instructor, both because of her expertise and her winning personality. Cesar in GO HR - training was very patient and informative, despite our persistent barrage of questions. With employees like that, Club Med will continue to do well.


THE BAD

The room was small, dark and in weird colour schemes. Ours was in eye-popping fuchsia and brown. The covers on the comforters were not changed all that frequently. With the cut finger we’d left a couple of small blood stains on the cover. When they were still there after a week and a half, we decided to take the cover off and finally got a fresh one installed. Otherwise the room cleanup was OK.

We found it odd, in a 4/5 star resort, that there was no room meal service at all. Also the mini fridge was not stocked with anything.

Our room was in the Onice block (6009). It had single beds, but faced a grungy murky canal that was not very appealing. The saving grace was a six foot crocodile that swam by outside the small balcony late on the first afternoon.

We were told that the occupancy rate was only 60%, so we figured that it would be easy to change rooms to the other side to get away from the grungy canal. When we inquired about moving to the other side (facing East) the next day, we were told that to get “ocean view” we would have to pay another US$1,180.00. We politely declined. The room we were initially assigned (5017) did face East, but it did not have the two single beds we had specifically requested. Somehow this room had suddenly increased in price by $100.00 per day!!

The only place we found interaction with the staff frustrating was at the front desk. It seemed that every time we made a request or asked a simple question (anything more complicated than the time of day), the staff had to go to the back room to get help. We never saw the ‘mastermind’ who manned the back room, just the little teenagers at the front. One would expect that with the range and variety of questions likely to arrive at the Front Desk, it would be staffed with the most knowledgeable, efficient and customer-oriented people available.

Club Med time is one hour ahead of the rest of the world in their time zone. It would have been nice if we had been informed about this at check in.

A map included in the photocopied brochure we were given would have been helpful. Also, the map at the main activity board by the pool could have had more detail.

There were constant references to GOs, GEs, and GMs. We had no idea what these acronyms stood for. After guessing at Go Go girls, General Electric and General Motors, we finally broke down and asked. Gentle Organizers, Gentle Employees, and Gentle Members didn't mean much to us but perhaps it makes more sense in French.

One day before our departure we were handed a “Check Out Information” sheet. This was a good idea. However, a check out time of 10:00 Cancun time was rather inconvenient - if there was a reason for deviating from the standard noon check-out time at hotels, we did not know what it was.

The “courtesy room” for showering and changing was hard to find, and we were not told that we needed a special key to be able to use it. Another trip to the front desk. Also the promised lockers had no keys.

When we returned from a car trip to Cancun, suddenly none of our room keys worked. Another trip to the front desk. Got new keys, and they also did not work. Another trip to the front desk. We were told that it was a door battery problem (which turned out not to be the case) and that a maintenance guy (GE) would appear to put new batteries in the door. We waited for half an hour outside our door before the problem was finally fixed.

We rented a small Nissan car at the resort for a day to visit Cancun. The price was $132.00 plus fuel. Outrageous!!

The “Boutique Club Med” was mainly stocked with overpriced clothes. Very little selection in basic toiletries etc. Staff could have been more pleasant. In order to make a purchase of a tube of toothpaste, you had to establish a line of credit with Club Med (another trip to the front desk). You cannot use cash or credit card. When we were issued new cards because we could not open our room door, the kids at the front desk forgot to re-code the line of credit on to the new cards, so we could not buy anything at the shop. Another trip to the front desk.

After we returned home, we received an email suggesting we complete a questionnaire regarding our experiences at Club Med Cancun. There was no provision for additional or clarifying comments, and at the end it suddenly was submitted without any chance for our review or additional impressions. We suspect it will probably not be read by anyone.

We have read some of the Club Med Cancun responses to comments made by folks submitting to Tripadvisor. These responses are obviously just boilerplate inserts.

THE UGLY

The Internet. At any four or five star resort we have visited in Mexico over the last five (5) years, Internet access has been WIFI in the room and at no charge. At Club Med Cancun, there are only three WIFI hot spots (front desk, Soluna bar, and the Fitness Centre), but all the rooms need to be hard wired to get Internet access. This means that you cannot use your tablet or iPhone for WIFI access except at the three hotspots – at which reception was intermittent at best. For this lousy Internet service they charge $6.00/hour, $18.00/day, and $60.00/week. It should be included and WIFI should be available everywhere.

The Internet Service pamphlet they provide in the room clearly states that the one hour use is “pauseable” – but after several inquiries at the front desk (little girls going back to the secret back room as usual) we were told that “Miami” (apparently Club Med North American Head Office) had informed them that this was Mexico, and the one hour access had to be used in one consecutive hour and could not be paused as the pamphlet indicated.

Our wired connection in the room never worked properly. At one time we had to remove the cover plate to make proper connection to the wire that had disappeared in to the back – even at that it was sporadic and completely unsatisfactory. We paid for a week, but after six days we were told our time had run out. Another trip to the front desk. We got another day added with a new password etc. At that time they still owed us four (4) hours which we never recovered. That didn’t really matter because the connection was so poor that it was no loss at all.

The password and log on/log off routine was so pathetic that if you did not log off according to a complicated procedure (which was initially never properly explained), you lost your connection and yes, another trip to the front desk to reset the connection (we had about six (6) of those). Each time you re-connected you had to re-enter the eight digit pass code you received on a small slip of paper. This was a source of aggravation for us during our stay.