The Cozumel Palace is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The services, and staff are first class with no question. I do not have words to describe how impressed I was with everything. The hotel looks exactly as it is shown on the internet. The food was great. The drinks were very good and they had anything you wanted. I can not stress enough how wonderful everything and everyone was. I will be back!

My family and I arrived at the palace from all over the US. There was 8 adults all together - 2 in their late 50's and the rest in the late 20's and early thirties. We all had a really great time. The resort had only been open a week at this point so we were lucky enough - at least the first part of the week - to feel like we had the place to ourselves. The rooms were great. I loved the hammock on the balcony;I took a few naps during the afternoon on it. The mini bar was great. It pulled right out from the sides of the TV and had 4 different types of liquers in it. They really had the whole resort looking great since the hurricane. We went snorkeling and diving right there in front of the hotel. I'm sure the coral was better before the hurricane but it was still fun. The later part of the week we had a dive boat pick us up at the pier on the property so it was very convienent.

I'm a really picky eater so I didn't like most of the food but everyone else in my group loved the food. Breakfast was great, they had really good cheeseburgers and the chips and salsa was awesome.
We walked into town a few times and it only took about 10 minutes. Once we had seen all the shops and were ready to go back to the hotel we just grabbed a cab - I think it cost about 5 dollars depending on how many people were in the cab.
All the people who worked there were very nice and helpful. They went out of their way to do things for you. Simple things like if they saw you going to the elevators they would go quickly to them and push the button so you wouldn't have to wait. One of the bar tenders took the time to give us a quick lesson in the different types of tequila which was interesting. And of course with it being an all inclusive being able to taste them all was great too.
We loved our time at the palace and will certainly be back again.

I love Cozumel, and have twice, but I didn’t like the Cozumel Palace. The AC in our room was broken for the first four days of our trip. During the day, it seemed to work fine, averaging around 72 degrees Fahrenheit. However, at night, usually between 2:00 am and 4:00 am, it would shoot up to 80+ degrees Fahrenheit. Each night and the following morning I would complain, politely, and each morning I was assured the problem would be fixed. (Every time I talked with the staff, I asked about moving to another room, and if the hotel were full, then another hotel. Each time that request, as well as my request to speak with the manager was rebuffed.) On the fourth night, I lost me temper. As I told the staff, the first night my family and I were uncomfortable and unhappy. The next night we were upset. The next night we were angry. Finally, the last night, we were furious. Only on the fourth night were we even given a fan after my wife demanded one. On our fifth day there, we were moved to a new room. The customer representative and many of the front desk staff looked confused and irritated by my complaints. The hotels’ customer representative was only offered a very weak apology after I became angry.

On the seventh night, the AC in the new room started acting up. It sounded as if somebody was pouring water through the vents. At first I was told this was normal, but later I was told that there was a major problem with the main AC in the hotel. This was very self-evident. Talking with the other guests some complained that their rooms were too cold, but most complained that their rooms were too hot at night. The hallways were often very hot. There were also water spots around many of the AC vents, and water dripping on the floors beneath. On our last day there, there were wet floor signs in several places around the hotel, and there were maintenance workers everywhere with their heads stuck up in the ceilings.

I wasn’t going to ask for any sort of compensation or partial reimbursement for the miserable conditions of the room, because I assumed the hotel would automatically try to accommodate me and my family for the problems. However, nothing of the sort was offered, so I asked. I got a plate of fruit and a bottle of house wine, both of which were readily available any time of the day or night through room service. To me, this was an insult. Finally I talked with the “owners representative” (the nice lady who tried to sell us a “time-share-like” vacation package), and she got me a meeting with the sub-manager of the hotel. Again, this woman looked at me as if I was insane to complain. She felt no sympathy for our problems, despite the fact that we paid more for this hotel/resort than some of the other hotels available, and the despite the fact they claimed to be a five-star facility. (The only thing five star was the price.)

The food was mediocre at best. Many of the deserts were still icy from being frozen. Some of the “chefs” and a few of the waiters spoke no English, so giving them your requests was frustrating and futile. Every single person I spoke with said that they did not like the food. I have to agree. Between my family and I, we tried just about everything on very limited menus of three restaurants, the snack bar, and room service over the course of the week. There were only a handful of items that I would recommend. The resort only had one restaurant open for breakfast, and it was often a disorganized mess. Room service was spotty at best, and two out of three times, they did not show up at all, even after a second and third call.

The pool was very small, and the “entertainment” was completely lame. The common areas around the pool were in disrepair. The railings along the end of the hotel were only bolted in with 2-inch screws, and at least two people fell over them while trying to look as the water and reefs below. One of the people appeared to be seriously injured when he went head first into the reef. The stainless steel ladders going down to the water were very slippery. I saw several people slip and fall, and on my last day there, I fell and cracked my tailbone and seriously bruised my left foot.

Some of the staff were nice, but just as many were rude. The elevators often stopped violently 6-inches or so above or below the floor. Another common complaint that I heard everyone mention was that the beds were too hard. Even after moving to a room with a working AC, my family and I slept on top of the comforters and blankets because the beds were so darn hard. Furthermore, the door to our closet was broken and we couldn’t open it. For four days I requested that it be fixed, yet I was told it was only fixed after we moved to a new room. In the new room, the mini-fridge was busted and would shake violently when the compressor cycled. When I reported it the hotel staff, I was told this was normal. It woke us up every 30 minutes or so during the night. On the sixth day, after more complaints, it was finally replaced.

I enjoyed snorkeling and playing with my wife and children at the beach. I enjoyed the excursions we took away from the hotel. I enjoyed being away from work. My kids loved the hot-tub. I think that my family and I would have had a much better time at the hotel if they would have moved us to a cooler room much sooner, and we probably could have overlooked some of its shortcomings. However, after the way we were treated, especially when the hotel refused to try to make amends by offering some type of compensation, all of the problems there came right to the forefront.

The only nice things about the resort was the free included excursions and the lobby bar. The bartender there was excellent. Besides that, I had a much better time at the El Cozumelino, which in my opinion was a much nicer hotel with a much nicer staff, and the food was actually better and fresher. I will never go to another Palace resort.

My husband and I went to the Cozumel Palace to celebrate my 40th birthday the week of October 17-21. For this review, I am going to IGNORE the fact that a category 5 hurricane (Wilma) came to celebrate my birthday with me. This is a BEAUTIFUL hotel. You will be treated like royalty by every staff member from the front desk, to guest services, to the bar staff, to the restaurant staff to the cleaning staff. If you want to be pampered on your vacation - GO HERE. The rooms are immaculate and beautiful. They have everything you need to enjoy your stay - just bring your clothes. You will even find toothbrushes with toothpaste and every type of cream and soap, even massage oil and bubble bath for your jacuzzi. They provide BioSilk shampoo, conditioner and lotion, in LARGE bottles. Very nice. The food is excellent, the staff is fun (we tipped dollar bills), the pool is great. We did not have a complaint at all, except the doggone hurricane that forced us to evacuate to the Aventura Spa Palace to stay in a shelter. We did not get to snorkel from the Cozumel Palace because the water was too rough and the black flags were up. It looked awesome though. We plan to return in 2006, right BEFORE hurricane season starts. You may contact me with specific questions about the hotel, but I do not have any information post-hurricane as I have not been back since I was evacuated and do not know the present condition.