We are a family of 4, and spent 2 weeks at the Allegro for Christmas 2006 and New Years 2007 and enjoyed our vacation. I would agree with many of the reviews that this resort is more like a 3+ than the other 4 star resorts we have stayed at. The staff were very hard working but more staff was needed during these busy 2 weeks. Often the activities were skipped even though the schedule was posted-we waited near the pool to hear when aquafit started as we did not keep track of time, only to realize it was skipped and it was much later than we thought as we figured it must not be past 11:30 or aquafit would be started.
The food was usually good, one night in particular we were quite disappointed by the buffet (Caribbean night) and made sure to book an ala carte restaurant for that theme night the next week. The ala carte restaurants were very good.
Christmas celebrations were not as nice as New Years Eve. The Mexican Christmas posada was held on Dec. 23rd and Santa came on a jetski after lunch on the 24th so it would have been more disappointing to arrive on the 24th and have missed everything. When I asked about New Years clebrations on Dec. 30th, I found out that there was a special booklet telling of the special activities from Dec. 23rd until Dec. 31st for Christmas and New Years! I wish that the scedule of activities was given to us at check in or left in out room.
We did not go to all of the shows, but enjoyed the one's we saw. The same daytime fun staff do the night shows and there are not too many of them so they have double duty. The theatre does not have many tables and is rows of plastic chairs so it is not as inviting as other resorts we have visited.
We did a 3 hours snorkel trip on-site and it was great. We rented a jeep and toured the island-be sure to make stops as you could tour it in an hour otherwise.
We enjoyed our stay, however our children are quite sick with "disgestive" problems and we are quite concerned. We did eat off the resort as well, so it may not be related to resort food-but I am hopiong that anyone else who traveled during the 1st week of January will post and let us know if they have had any problems. My daughter did not get ill until our last night and my son got ill the first day home.

We visited the Allegro just before Christmas to have some fun in the sun. The resort grounds are beautiful, the beach is breath taking, the staff were friendly, the breakfast and lunch buffets were good but the dinner buffet was undesirable. Thank god for the pasta bar otherwise I would have gone to bed hungry. There were 2 opportunities to eat at the Mexican and Italian dinners which were very good. So I would recommend you make reservations for those as soon as you get there.

The rooms were average but for the amount of time you are in your room, it was fine. The rooms are small (but clean) and the bed was hard. I had no problems sleeping but my husband found it hard to get comfortable.

If you're the type of person that needs more entertainment than 8 hours of ocean sounds, sun, drinks with the odd plundge in the ocean, the "main" pool with the swim up bar is for you. They had games of Water Polo, Pool Volleyball, competitions...to keep you busy. If you weren't into the beach or the pool games there was always the "relaxation pool" you could hang out at.

We didn't take our kids with us but would definately return with our kids. This is a very "kid friendly" resort and we know our kids would love it.

We took the Sunset Catamaran Snorkel trip. I was too chicken to snorkel but my husband did. He loved every minute of it. The boat takes you out to 2 different Coral reefs. You spend about 45 minutes at each location. You cruise back to your resort slowly, admiring the sunset while listening to the music and having a few drinks.

Speaking of drinks...the resort drinks were fine. Many resorts water down the drinks and give them to you in small cups so you spend most of your time at the bar stocking up but not here.
They had Corona on tap which you could help yourself to and the speciality drinks (Pina Colada's and Allegro Cozumels) were quite tasty.

My dream was to swim with the Dolphins and I finally did it for $95.00 US. It was AWESOME. The 40 minutes was worth every penny. The location is only 10 minutes from the resort.

We also went into town (about 20 minutes from the resort) one night for dinner to a great Mexican Restaurant called La Mission. The atmosphere was the best, very tropical, excellent food that wasn't too expensive ( $50.00US) and my husband had lobster with steak and I had a Mexican platter with a bit of everything, and the service was great. The shops looked interesting (with cheap souveniers/t-shirt...) but they were closing at 9pm, just when we had finished dinner.

All in all it was exactly what we expected (thanks to all the reviews we had read on trip advisor). It's not a spectacular resort that will "WOW" you so if you are expecting that, you will be disappointed. It's nice, clean and fun! We will be back.

From Courtice, ON Canada

December 8th to December 15th, 2006

First of all, this trip to the Allegro Cozumel was a girl's getaway with 6 girls. So, right off the top here.... this is not the resort you want. It was nice & okay for the trip, but this resort is very much a family or couples resort. In my opinion and all the girls' opinions, go somewhere else if you are going as a group of singles.

To start, the rooms:

We requested that all three rooms be in the same building, because there are adjoining rooms. We didn't get that. Our rooms were in the same general area of the resort though, so we accepted that. Each room is different! One of our rooms had two double beds, no fridge. Another room - one king sized bed, with small bar fridge. The third room - one king sized bed, no fridge. We all had 1st floor rooms, which apparently was a blessing for the week we were there.

Each building has 8 rooms in it, with 4 rooms on each side of the building -- well 4 rooms on 2 sides. The rooms on the upper floors have a thatched roof - and when we had 5.5 days of rain, we saw & heard a lot of angry customers. Apparently they leak, as well as stink of wet straw. If you end up getting sun the whole time you are there, it might be okay.

I had read a lot of complaining of the smell of rooms. Not one of our three rooms had any sort of "smell".

Each room has a hammock on its own deck/patio, and a small plastic table & a couple of chairs.

The beds are like rock. They are a rock hard mattress on a concrete slab. You get over the bruised feeling after a couple days.

The rooms are quite clean, so no complaints that way. We didn't get any critters in any of our rooms & they were clean.

Don't bother putting your "Do Not Disturb" sign on your door. Keep in mind here that we had 3 rooms. Some of us didn't want the room cleaned every day, so we put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. The cleaning staff apparently doesn't acknowledge it because they came in anyways.... and this wasn't just a one time occasion.

You get 2 bottles of water every morning when your room is cleaned. Fortunately, we had the room with the fridge, so we stock piled the water everyday and put them in the fridge. You never know when you are going to need some more & we heard that getting more from the front was a bit of a hassle.

Ground floor rooms, you may get large iguanas outside your room during the day, basking in the sun on your walkway. Its neat, leave them alone.

There are adjoining doors to rooms..... let me stress, there is NOT sound proofing in these rooms. We could hear the people in the room next to us snoring, coughing, clearing their throat. Then another room that we had, had a very noisy group in the room beside them, so they got no sleep. So, just forwarning, bring earplugs if you are bothered by noise, cuz you will feel like you came with the people in the room beside you.

Our one room had a phone in it, but it was broken. We went down to the front desk to request it be fixed, by the time we walked back to the room, there was a guy in our room trying to figure out the problem. Turned out that it wasn't the phone, it was the line, so our room didn't have a phone for 2 days, until they fixed the line problem. Which did take a few trips to the front desk to complain.

Water pressure is poor in the shower. You do get an iron, ironing board, and hair dryer in each room.

Now, the grounds are very well kept on this resort. It is very pretty and clean pretty much everywhere. When we were there, we didn't have to get up early to claim lounge chairs or anything of that sort. But I guess the reason was that some of the buildings were under construction & the resort wasn't running at full capacity.

Trying to contact home, wherever that may be, was a complete hassle. To make a collect call, there is a note in your room to dial **9911 or something of that sort. When trying to collect call back to Canada, everytime & no matter what phone number any of us tried, they tried to tell us that the number we were calling was out of service or had a block on accepting collect calls. Which we all knew wasn't the case, due to the fact that we were trying to call our own homes. They also bill you for every attempt collect call - some of us were billed $4 each, some of us were billed $5 each. We disputed the charges, due to the fact that the only person we talked to was an operator that tried to tell us that our phones at home were out of service. But magically, if you wanted to provide them with a credit card number, they would be able to put you through...... not.

So, due to the hassle with trying to call home, I thought I would buy an internet card to email home from their two computers they have for guest use. You pay I think it was around $12USD for a 30 mins card. Then you go to the computer, spend at least 5 mins trying to log on, only to find out that you can't access any web sites (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, they even have MSN messenger that doesn't work). So, don't bother trying... their internet doesn't work & they are a bit reluctant to give your money back.

Now the food.... it was sub-par. All six of us disliked the food, and most of the other guests there had the same complaint. For breakfast, everyday - we ate the ommlette bar. They only had bacon at the breakfast bar one of the seven days we were there.

For lunch and dinner everyday - we ate the pasta bar, salad, and buns. We did go to the Italian restaurant (which reservations are required) one night & the food there was quite good. But they have a rule that you can only attend the restaurants that require reservations once.

The lunch buffet by the pool is better than anything, and that isn't saying much. We ate a lot of french fries, guacamole, salsa & chips, and they have a grill going during certain times where you can get hot dogs & burgers.... which are the best (and again, that isn't saying much).

The swim up bar is where a lot of our time was spent. There was a fantastic bartender there, Freddy. He remembered us all week, served us quickly, we tipped him a few dollars here & there.... and he loves Canadians. He has little Canadian pins all around his hat.

I found the entertainment staff to be a bit lax. I don't care much to be bothered to do things, I am on vacation and want to relax & do my thing. But I did notice that they offered a couple things in the early afternoon (spanish lessons, scuba lessons in the morning, making pottery or friendship bracelets). They didn't really get going during the week we were there until the later afternoon.

Something you just have to do when you are here at the Allegro. Go into the water (ocean) aboust waist deep and stand still for a few minutes. You will be surrounded by pirhanas. Just kidding... you are surrounded by giant angel fish. At first, its a bit shocking cuz hundreds sometimes come. They bump into you, swim between your legs etc. I started bringing buns down with me & feeding them everyday because it was such a sight to see that many fish surround you. They are pretty big, look just like an angel fish & are white, silver, and have a bit of black on them.

Please note - this is extremely important if you are going to this resort. Bring bug spray. Lots of it. At night, you don't see them, but the next day you will be covered in welts. We read this on a review & brought some, thankfully, because we did see & talk to other guests that were eaten alive.

Because it rained 90% of our time there, we had to entertain ourselves. So, we took a few side trips. A few of the girls went on the swim with the dolphins & all of them had the greatest time, said it was well worth the money, but expensive. Two of the girls went on the steak & lobster pirate ship dinner tour, and that was awesome as well. The food was fantastic & the drinks were a'plenty!

Then some of us went on the jeep tour. I guess it depends on how much you have travelled & where you have been. Some of the girls thought it was great. I personally thought it was a bit lame. The first stop they take you to is snorkelling. The spot they take you is pathetic (personal opinion only here). I have been snorkelling before, only 3 other times in my life. They took us down close to where the cruise ships dock. Needless to say, there is very little coral or scenery under water here. There were fish that followed us around -- because the tour guide was feeding them.
So we leave there, go into town to pick up other jeeps, then off to the "Mayan Ruins". The place they take you to is deep in the woods/jungle. So we got eaten alive by bugs, because we didn't think to bring the bug spray. The ruins I have seen from other's trips to the Mayan Riviera were much larger. I guess if you are a historical buff, you might enjoy this.
Then we were off to the Tequila Museum, where a guy walks you around, explains how tequila is made and at the end, you are given two "shots" of tequila - which is really a squirt of tequila in a small medicine cup.
After that, you drive the coast line, stop at a little restaurant & eat. Then they stop at a little shopping area, and your back to your resort. It was nice just because it rained on & off most of the day, and it took up most of the day.

We took our own little trips. One we took a cab (we needed a van cab for the 6 of us) into town & went shopping. Just be advised, you can barter with the cab drivers. When we went into town, we walked around, found a place in the market that sold $1 Coronas & we were off to the races. Walk around & check things out. The stores are all the same really... "almost free, we have what you are looking for". We saw some street dancers & went and had our picture taken in a small bar in old fashioned clothes which was sorta cool.

We also took a cab to a restaurant called "Coconuts". I recommend going here. It is on the open sea side of the island so the view here is a lot different than at the resort. Waves are huge, you might catch a few surfers catching some waves. The sand here is like powder. Coconuts is up on a cliff & the view is fantastic. The food was good, decent priced & the service was great. They have a stack of "family albums" on the bar you can add your picture to, if you so choose to flash any part of your body. (I know what you're thinking & no we didn't) There are dogs, chickens, roosters, an alligator hangin out here... the alligator is caged.
The drive here is beautiful. The cab driver we had, Antonio, was very nice to explain how in the months of May to November, along the coast, this is where the sea turtles come into shore & lay their eggs. He also showed us a lot of the damaged caused by the hurricane and told us about how the hurricane affected his family & what it was like living through 72 hours of constant hell. You can see where the old road used to be, where it was washed away by the huge waves. He told us that Cozumel means "Swallow Island". Little bit of history there for ya!

I wouldn't recommend renting scooters. The roads are torn up pretty good & a small child would go missing in some of the pot holes.

We did have an incident of a stolen item from one of our rooms. After management investigated, they ended up finding it in the laundry room. So just be careful what you leave on the ground, or near the towels you want picked up.

Also, if you tip the cleaning staff on your bed, don't expect a towel animal every time. One of our rooms tipped every day for the first 4-5 days & didn't get a thing. We tipped everyday & got one towel character one time. Same with our 3rd room, they tipped everyday & only got one animal.

The last day we were here, before checkout time, the doors to the rooms automatically lock at 11am, so you have to go to the front desk & get your key re-programmed & walk all the way back to your room to get your things to check out.

Another thing we were told while here was that this resort is a 3 star. Not a 4 star as advertised on some sites. The hotel staff told us that themselves. And it certainly was a 3 star. It was relatively cheap for the all inclusive week here, and we got what we paid for. Remember you are in Mexico and everything is just different here.

Keep your spirits up, don't turn into a complainer about everything you see or do. Enjoy yourself... you aren't at work, and you aren't in the snow. We had a good time here regardless of the few complaints in the review -- but I won't be coming back. None of us will.

My husband and I stayed at the Allegro Cozumel June 25-July 1st, 2006 for our honeymoon. We were very very pleased with our choice. We booked the all inclusive trip through CheapCarribean.com and used TripAdvisor heavily throughout our research on where we wanted to go. The buffet was excellent especially for breakfast, I am a picky eater so I ate a lot of fruit that week, but my husband really enjoyed both the Italian and Mexican Restarants, which you have to book reservations for in the lobby area of the resort! Our room was very nice, and one of the things we liked was having a safe in the closet to keep our valuables. They are constantly providing bottled water, and you should drink it, we didn't want to take any chances and used it for brushing our teeth.

The beach at the Allegro, is great!! With the ubrella covered chairs and also you can move your chairs to isolate yourself a little more as well. There were some kids there, but it seemed they were have a great time with the Kids Club, and were "out-of-the-way" for those of us who were just there to relax. There was always something going on activity-wise around the pool, but we were there for relaxation, so we didn't participate much. We went down to the beach one night and I got ate up by bugs, so just watch out for that and take some benadryl or calamine if you are sensitive to bug bites. The drinks from the bar are ok, it takes quite a few to "feel" them, but they were tasty and cold!!! Corona is always on tap, and if you keep your cup, you can refill it yourself!

The entertainment at night was ok. There was one night that they did the different traditions or the different regions of Mexico, which included the Dress and Traditions. I enjoyed that one, but the others not so much. They looooove 70 's and 80's pop music, so be prepared for Bee Gees, Micheal Jackson and Madonna, galore!!!!!!!

We into the town of Cozumel for the day. *And just a note the taxis are right across the street from the resort, so you get stuck with the price, but on the way back from the town, you can bargain with the drivers* The Allegro is one of the farthest from town, and I don't remember the exact amount but I am thinking it was about $15 per taxi ride. We went to all of the popular sites, but it is a port for cruises and so it gets a little crowded.

We took a snorkle trip with The Fury, and had a blast! We left right from the peir at the resort and after snorkeling at two different reefs and coasting up the coast of Cozumel for about an hour afterwards, with complimentary margartias and beer, it dropped us off at the pier once again. We took the ferry over to the mainland one day and went to Xel-Ha, and natural waterpark and we also visted the ruins Tulum, be prepared that is a very hot place!!!! The resort has personnel that can help you book the trips, but we did this through our travel group.

Overall, we enjoyed ourselves very much and I would recommend this resort for honeymooners, couples, families, but I am not so sure about for springbreakers,or party people.