I was very anxious to get to the resort especially since I did my research and I read exceptional reviews on this resort. My husband and I along with another couple had a great time, the water was amazing and the pool as well. I will have to say that there is room for improvements since the hotel is so beautiful and the price is so...pricey :)....I will have to comment on the staff a little bit...and maybe it is mostly a management issue. I belive that there should be more employees for the volume of guests.Sometimes we were forgotten and we would have to ask for our drink as many as 3-4 times, it did get a bit furstrating at times. Overall we are not stubborn picky people, so I am speaking from an average person point of view. I strongly believe they can do better, hire more staff etc. I also think they didn't have enough entertainment, since there were only 2 guys pretty much taking care of that every day,it wasn't a big group like you see in many resorts. The spa is amazzzing, Andres gave me thebest massage I ever had in my life, and the relaxation there is top notch, it is worth every penny. One small issue I had with the spa was the hair services. My friend and I decided to have our haid done for New Years, it was not such a great decision. The ladies there are not too experienced with this and at some point I was getting banged with the blow dried in the head ...and soon I had 3 women try to do my hair,NOT too great :) but yet again I don't let these small things take away from my sweet time there!! I really enjoyed the stay but it would be awesome if they improve just a bit, they have the potential!

I have been travelling for over 15 years... and almost everywhere Europe, Asia, the Americas the Caribeans and it is the first time I am writing a review ( people from Trip advisor should read it! )

I travel always in business class on planes and 4 or 5 stars Hotels, for all Inclusive I always take 5 stars... because I know that LUXURY MEANS NO COMPROMISE

I have been several times to Mexico and at least 3 times to the Cancun Area...For this vaccation, my Girl Friend and myself wanted something special for Christmas... So we went on trip advisor... and we selected the top 3 Luxury Hotels and we called them, we found the reviews on Sandos Good so we reserved

WHAT A BIG MISTAKE... this hotel should NEVER be ranked no 2 ( trip Advisor should review that very seriously ... )

There is no way a 5 stars Hotel would be like that...

The problem is that they are selling this Hotel as a 5 stars Luxury experience ...but it is not

We had a VIP Lagoon suite in the 6th floor... and the suite is very Nice and could be rated as 5 Stars Luxury... but that's about it...

The Hotel has 3 swiming pools but only one Bar outside near the pools, so... with 240 rooms full let's say at least 550 guests... imagine on ONE BAR.... how that would look like...???

Yes they had 5 or 6 people arround to take orders... but they had only 2 guys at the BAR and with Training on their Badges...

The Pools are Nice and I read in some reviews that they were not heated... I mean nobody will heat a pool in Mexico , but in fact because the sun is off the pools at 12 then they get cooler in the sfternoon... but that's OK

The Tennis Court... what a Battle field... the 4 stars Hotel next door had a very nice EMPTY one they should probably make a deal with them to use their TEnnis Court instead of claiming they had one... it is really dangerous to get up their... it could be repaired

I have been playing Tennis for 20 years ... imagine how disapointed I was when I saw this...

The Gym is good ... I have seen better but it is acceptable, ...

The Spa is Average... you know everybody is trying to sell you a SPA experience... they had nothing special

The Food... here again they had a big MESS overthere...

1- they had 2 a la carte restaurant... the Japaneese where the food quality is good , BUT the service is average, they even serve you the Soupe as Desert because they forgot to give it to you as a second service... so it is even cold... this never happen in a luxury experience...

We have dinner there twice and the food is good the rest is average

2- the other restaurant a la Carte... is messing up when you order rare steak you get it well done... we had Dinner there 2 times, the second Time we had the right order and good service simply because Fabien le Maitre d'hotel took care of us personnally...

The buffet... it is average so we had to go outside to get some good food...

The breakfast, on Dec 25th what a mess 20 minutes to get a coffee because they have like 100 seat for 550 Guest so in the Rush they are lost...
Ok the management did react so on the Dec26th they oppenned another restaurant for breakfast... not fully operational, No toaster for the Bread, no vegetables for the Omlette... but at least we had a coffee within 2 minutes...

You see I am a business man ... if I know in December my Hotel will be full the I will anticipate the problem and open 2 restaurants instead of reacting backwards... I have never seen that in a 5 stars Hotel...

Now the good words... they are trying to please everybody... but you simply can not

This used to be the OLD Meridien Hotel, it was well renovated and redesigned BUT

1- The Hotel is good for Disabled or Handicaped people... because they have ramps everywhere and in fact it was the First time in 15 years of travelling that I see so many families with disabled people in a Hotel... I would like to thank the Hotel for offering such a place for these families because they need it...

2- Kids are very welcomed over there, I am a father and I know that seeing Santa on the Beach coming from the Sky is magical... BUT ONLY FOR KIDS... so the big stage that they have done could have been far away from the Bar they had... imagine the crowd...

I think this review resume honestly very well the Hotel..

My wife and I stayed at Sandos after Christmas. The resort is very nice and clean. We were in third floor room and the cleanliness of the hotel and rooms are top notch. The pools are very clean also.

First the negative, the rooms are noisy. You can hear a lot of hallway noise. The beds are also a bit "soft".

We did not get the mini-bar refilled on at least one day, and no turn down service on one day, but this was rather minor problem

The beachside restaurant (St Trop) had generally lousy table service and the staff at St Trop seemed disorganized. On two different days we had to hunt down someone to take our order and once our order was "lost". Another time we sat at a table for 15 minutes with no service. Several of the staff there seemed totally indifferent to providing good service and were unapologetic. At least the one waiter wearing glasses seemed to be trying his best. The food was good at St Trop. if you are willing to endure the bad service there.

We wished to play tennis one day, but the courts are in disrepair and did not have proper lighting at night. We felt it was too dangerous to play there.

Now that the negative aspects are out of the way, I can say that this is a very good resort, but it would not take that much effort for the management to make it better. Probably this hotel deserves a "3" but I am feeling generous. The negative items I mentioned should not exist for this calibre of resort and for the price we paid.

Let me highlight the positive aspects:
-The Seasons restaurant was quite simply fantastic. The wait staff and chef there should be commended. The food and service was exceptional. It was quite a treat to visit this restaurant.
-The Zango restaurant staff was very good and the food was good there also.
-Most of the staff seemed willing to go out of their way to accomodate any request.

Suggestion: it would be nice to have oatmeal or at least oat based cereals at the breakfast.

We may visit again, but for the price of this resort there are probably other options just as good or better.

I probably would have put 4.5 but that wasn't an option and I mostly liked it. Check-in they gave my wife a rose and towels to wash the sweat off our faces and orange juice. Room was clean. Not a single bug (and my wife will find the bug if its there somewhere). Everything is included including the mini-bar and room service. Only problem we had was something malfunctioned in our door lock so we were locked out twice. The first time they fixed it and it broke the next day. The second time they replaced it and it worked fine the rest of the trip. The beach is beautiful like all hotels on the strip in Cancun. Great pools, volleybell nets, good entertainments peeps (mauricio and alfonzo), great beach waiters/staff (Flor/Elias), and lots of towels. We were there the week before Christmas and at the begining of the week it was easy to get a sun tanning chair but towards the end of Christmas it was hard to get one on the beach. However if you asked Elias he would find one for you and bring it down. The water was great, the food you ordered on the beach was great (my wife didn't like the cheese Pizza... she thought the "margarita" pizza would come with tomatoes and olives but it didn't (not that it promised to come with it, just that's what other margarita pizzas came with).

Cleaning staff never missed a day or a spot in our room, no theft and very friendly. Mini bar was always restocked with water and M&M's. The A La Carte dinners were very good. We didn't like the dinner Buffet at Zango as much as some others here have noted, but I think that was a temporary thing for the busy Christmas time. The buffet was just your average buffet food. But the A La Carte was high quality food. I must of have two or three steaks and some other nice dishes. Breakfast buffet was great. The Spa was great. Pricey on first view but after haggling and using your resort credit its comparable to back home. They have you do hydrotherapy (ie steam room, sauna, cold bath, hot tub) before the treatment and give you chocolate covered strawberries and champagne afterwards. It was extremely relaxing. You can go off the resort and get a lower quality massage for say $35 compared to $80 on the resort (after haggling).

No time shire pitches for us... Remember lie about your age. You are always under 25 in Cancun and if you're not you recently went bankrupt and have no credit card... Even though you presented one at check-in... :D I hate those things but that has always kept me away from the pitches.

Nightly entertainment was a great bonus we did not expect.