We spent the week of March 22 - 29 at the Presidente and we loved it! We were a family group ranging in age from 15 to 78. The service was outstanding, the location was perfect, the spa was great, the water was warm but refreshing, and the snorkeling off the beach was very good.
For the first 3 days we had rooms in the main building on the third floor. I'm not sure how they would be classified, but they were large and well-kept, with a balcony and a large sink area as well as a large shower with great water pressure. We had a fine view of the ocean even though we weren't directly on the beach. It was a little awkward to get to the rooms, and the rooms were a little plain, but they were much nicer than others I've had in Mexico, especially at the all-inclusives.
Then we moved to beachfront rooms. Some of us had reef suites, which were absolutely gorgeous. The suite was one huge room, divided into a sleeping area and a living area, 2 tvs, 2 huge bathrooms, a patio, and beautiful furnishings in beautiful colors.
And some of us moved into a Presidential Suite. It was an enormous apartment with 2 very large bedrooms, a living room and dining area, kitchen, 2 1/2 baths and 3 terraces. It was at the northern edge of the resort, so it was quite private. There is a marina next door to the resort but no one could see us and you really couldn't even hear the boats. We enjoyed watching the dive boats go out in the morning and returning at night. (We rated all the boats based on their degree of shade.) The suite was so spectacular that I almost didn't want to leave it to go diving. It was really the nicest and biggest suite I've ever stayed in.
The resort was filled to capacity, but it really wasn't that obvious. There are lots of shaded lounges on the beach, but most of them get reserved early in the morning. (I saw one man putting towels and books on 10 chairs very early one morning!) But I usually managed to find a shaded seat, even if it meant moving someone's towel for an hour or two. Getting shade by the pool was much harder, so we didn't sit there much. There were also shaded hammocks on the beach --great places to watch the sunsets.
The Presidente somehow seemed to be able to be all things for all people. I saw people with babies, large extended families and lots of couples. And everyone looked happy.
We ate breakfast every morning at the breakfast buffet, and everyone loved it. I'm not much of a buffet person, but there was lots of fresh fruit, waffles, cooked-to-order-eggs, freshly squeezed juices and some mexican food. We usually had lunch at the snackbar, which also was quite good. Sometimes we had dinner at the beach restaurant at the hotel. The food was good and the service excellent. It's wonderful to eat with the breeze and the water view. Dinner at the fancier restaurant (Alfredo's, I think) was delicious. We went to town for dinner about 3 times, and liked all the restaurants: La Choza, Pancho's Backyard, The Mission.
We rented a jeep for a day and dragged the teenagers to the local ruins, which they actually enjoyed despite the heat and the dust. (Bring water!)They even started remembering some Mayan history from school, and started teaching us. We continued around the island, stopping at little beach restaurants and isolated beaches. It was wild and beautiful, and reminded the kids a little of Martha's Vineyard, believe it or not.
The diving was great - I loved the feeling of the current. We even snuck in one last beach dive in front of the hotel. There is an old barge with lots of fish that was fun and relaxing. There is a good-sized beach in front of the hotel that never seemed too crowded, and a bunch of ladders placed on the non-sandy parts of the shoreline. Everyone seemed to be diving and snorkeling, and lots of young kids went with their parents to snorkel over the sunken "pirate ship."
It was one of those rare, perfect family vacations. There was lots to do for everyone - tennis, grass for softball practice, shade for reading, spa treatments, swimming with dolphins nearby and lots of water activities. Our accomodations were superb, the grounds were beautiful, the service was friendly and very professional, Jorge- the front desk manager - was wonderfully helpful, the resort felt very safe for the teenage girls, and the food was very good, much better than the all-inclusives. We all loved it.
We've rented villas on St. John (beautiful but a long drive to good beaches), spent a week in the BVI and on Provo in Turks and Caicos, stayed at all-inclusives on the Mayan Riviera (looooong walks to everything, boring food), gone on cruises (not my favorite vacation) and rented a beachfront condo on Grand Cayman (too much driving). This just worked the best for everyone. If you have any specific questions, maybe you can post them in the forum and I'll try to answer them.