We signed up for a week all-inclusive at Lagoon without knowing what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion, the hotel is very nice and they are doing an excellent job with maintenance and upkeep. This bayside hotel has a villa atmosphere, with open courtyards leading to the rooms, and long winding custom staircases leading to the upper rooms. It seemed to be protected from the wind better than the oceanfront hotels. We were there during a windy week in March, so I thought we were very fortunate to be at Lagoon.
Our room was a studio with ample space for four people. A comfortable pullout sofa made the stay a little easier. One downside is that the rooms seem to have a swampy odor that bothered my wife more than me. I'm not sure where the smell was coming from. Other rooms confirmed they had the same smell. The smell didn't bother me. I think its part of the air conditioning.
The staff was courteous and helpful. My wife and I brought our two small children (2 and 5) and I really felt we were treated like VIPs b/c we had the kids. Every meal and every day at the pool the Lagoon staff worked hard to make a stay a pleasurable as they could. The woman in charge of daytime entertainment for the kids, Malyna, did a fantastic job gaining our kids trust and keeping them occupied during pooltime.
The food at Lagoon was excellent. Meals were served buffet style so I would not give the dining service a "5 star" rating, but if you appreciate good cooking you will love this food. They attempt a different international theme for each night's meal, and they did well. Whether they called it french night or american night, the food still retained a traditional mexican twist, and traditional mexican dishes were available for each meal. I over-ate consistently, and I over drank too. Beer, wine and rail drinks are included! I got my money's worth. The bartender in the lounge area at night, Leonardo, makes the resorts best Margerita on the rocks with salt. I would go out of my way to get drinks from Leonardo.
I will never forget the Lagoon breakfast buffet. They feature five different kinds of excellent fruit juice, unlike anything I've seen before. They had fresh fruit every morning, and some great fruit too. I loved their red grapefruit, overindulged every morning.
The main dining is open air. You are under a roof, but no walls or glass facing the water. Routinely black birds would be perched on neighboring tables. Definitely added a sense of wildness to the very secure resort.
One solid recommendation I will make to all: use a strategic tipping plan. Find the best servers and tip them well. They will come back. Tip your housekeeper everyday. When someone makes a good drink for you, or does anything that makes you happy, tip them well. They really appreciate it, and it keeps them coming back to you. In my opinion, dropping 200 pesos for good meal service early in the week is money well spent.
Lagoon featured some kind of dinner show at their amphitheatre most nights. The kids really seemed to enjoy those dinner shows, which had some excellent dancing, singing, and comedy. The shows highlighted my main complaint about the resort. The stage performers propagated consistent anti-american sentiments. I think Lagoon would be better to tone that down.
We enjoyed the sister hotel, Royal, our first two days in Cancun. The bus service to Royal was prompt and easy. The Royal also had good food and beverages, also part of our all-inclusive rate. We had some excellent service at Royal. Our 2 yr old daughter fell asleep in the dining room and the staff pushed chairs together for her to sleep on, and treated us like royalty.
While our daughter slept, we listened in on a timeshare negotiation at a neighboring table. As trained govt negotiators, my wife and I both believe Americans should avoid these deals. If you could secure a legit deal from a legit broker in the US, it might be worth buying a membership to Sunset, because these are very good hotels. The negotiation we overheard had an unpleasant sound, and the brokers must have wheeled in five different "managers" like some kind of car deal on steroids.
We wisely passed on all overtures to take the "90 minute" tours or spend any time with the time share people. The sunset brokers were very aggressive when we arrived, but they seemed to have specific orders to back off if customers declined twice, which we did.
To conclude on a positive note, Sunset offered a very good offshore fishing trip deal that was $150 for me and free for my 5 yr old. I caught a 60 lb sailfish, and we brought home some other fish which Lagoon's chef expertly prepared for us, no extra charge.
