My husband and I stayed at the El Cozumeleno from March 29-April 5 and had a wonderful time. Let me start first by saying I would definitely stay here again, even with the few minor things that were annoying. This site and all of the other reviews posted were very helpful and we found them to be very representative of what we actually found when we arrived. Because we had read the reviews before we booked the hotel we did not have any real surprises to deal with when we arrived.

Upon our arrival at the airport we went through the doors to leave and a very nice lady asked us if she could help us. Not knowing any better, we asked how to get to our car rental. She whisked us over to a gentleman telling him we needed directions to our car rental. Avoid these people. Within a few minutes we realized we had fallen into the timeshare trap - and we are usually pretty good at avoiding those things. When we finally did find someone to honestly tell us how to find our car rental we found it was just outside the grounds of the airport. Not really that far, but a very hot walk towing a bunch of luggage while wearing long pants!

Once we arrived at the hotel, we were immediately assisted by the doorman and allowed to check in. While you don't need to tip, since it is an all-inclusive, it certainly did seem to make them happy. The service at the front desk was excellent. We did not have any problems with attitude or rudeness like we had read on other posts. There were times that they were extremely busy and there were many guest that were rude to the desk staff. They handled everyone very nicely. We found that a smile and a willingness to be a bit patient went a long way with their attitude. Treat them well and they will treat you well in return. A little patience went a long way.

We found out that we had paid for a deluxe room that was not going to be ready until the next day. We were so tired, we didn't care, and were taken to a very nice, recently remodeled room on the south side for the night. It was so nice we could have stayed there the entire week and been happy, but we decided to go ahead and switch the next day. I had read of this happening on several other posts and was surprised to have it happen to us also. It was quite a pain in the rear and took up about 2 hours of time the next day to make it happen because the room wasn't ready when it was supposed to be. That was a bit inconvenient and was one of the things we were not impressed with. Once we got to our actual room, we were fine. We had a room in the center of the complex overlooking the dining area. It stuck out on three sides and it was amazing! The room was identical to what was shown in the pictures online, so that was a relief. It was huge. We had 3 large doorwalls overlooking the ocean on 2 sides with a wrap around balcony. While the room itself could have used a bit of updating we certainly appreciated the view, the balcony and the space (my husband is a scuba diver with a lot of gear).

Throughout the week we found the staff to be very attentive, and very pleasant. We've been to other all-inclusives with very slow service, but that was not the case here. The resort itself was very clean also. I think these are the two things we were most impressed with and they are the key reasons we would be likely to return. They could upgrade their chairs at the pool on the south side to a more comfortable style of chair though. The reports we read of chairs and palapas being saved were very accurate. When we arrived the resort was pretty full, and found by 8 in the morning almost all chairs had been reserved. It is very annoying to have chairs saved for 4-5 hours at a time with no one in sight. People this is rude! Please allow others to actually use the chairs if you are not going to be in them. The few palapas on the beach were saved before 6 am in the morning. I wasn't going to get up any earlier than that for a chair, so I never did get one. They could use more of these. I'm surprised they have so few.

The snorkeling off the beach was really good and there is a resident barracuda hanging out in the water there that was cool to look at. I had brought my own snorkeling gear and found it a very pleasant way to spend an hour or so each day. There are few areas to actually get in the water because of the rocks, but there is an opening down by the steps at the north end (pier). I was a bit disappointed there wasn't more beach to actually just get in and out of the water at, but what was at the hotel was really pretty normal for the island. I did do the hotel snorkeling tour one afternoon and it was a pretty good trip overall. We went to a couple of reefs and snorkeled over a sunken ship.

The evening activities are pretty lame, but they do try. By the end of the week though I was really tired of hearing the chicken dance and the macarena from my balcony. During the day, they have a few activities by the pool but not much. One thing they definitely do need is updated music around the pool. Someone, please, make them a few mix cd's to play! From what we could hear it seemed like one cd was a mix that was actually pretty decent, but the rest was so much of the same stuff that it was really annoying by the end of the week.

Our only real complaint about the resort was the food. Sad to say, the reviews on this site were accurate and I'm usually a pretty plain, pretty easy to please eater. While the service was excellent, the food left a whole lot to be desired. We went out to eat several evenings because we just couldn't do it 3 times a day in the resort. This is the number one thing this resort needs to do to improve - upgrade the food, please! I'm sorry, but even the breakfast left a bit to be desired. There are some things that can't be hurt - yogurt, fruit, cereal, etc., but other food were left out in their trays so long they were dried up and crusty and just about inedible. The nacho chips were stale, the tacos dried out, etc. If you get there right when the food is put out it is not too bad at that point. The staff does not waste food, so it is not replaced until it is gone, even if it gets dried up. We found that when the bacon and sausage were put out at 7 am, when it was gone, it was gone. By the way, breakfast is supposed to start at 7, but it never started until at least 7:10. This was a bit of a problem for the scuba divers standing around trying to get breakfast before leaving to dive. The best way to describe the food overall was bland - think hospital food. We ate at the specialty restaurant a couple of times, but the menu is the same every night and we found the food there to be quite bland also, but it was a step up from the buffet food. Very little Mexican food, which is one of the reasons we went into town several times to eat. We ate at both Palmeras and Pancho's Backyard, both on the main strip and had a very good dinner at both places.

We rented a car because my husband needed to get to the pier to dive daily, but probably would have been ahead if we had just used taxis. We did hear ahead of time that we needed to purchase the insurance with the rental car, your USA car insurance will likely not cover you in Mexico. The traffic takes a bit of getting used to - lots and lots of mopeds with whole families on one - carrying a baby in one arm and putting another child in front of them - kind of scary to think what would happen in an accident. We drove around the island one day and really enjoyed ourselves. The other side of the island is beautiful - the beaches are excellent and the water is beautiful. There is very little swimming over there because the water is very rough and the undertow very strong. We visted the Mayan ruins in the center of the island which was really interesting.

Shopping in town is pretty much like it is on all of the islands. We did have some fun bartering with the locals for jackets - more than I've seen on the other islands. They weren't overly pushy and were pretty pleasant. For you Starbucks lovers, there is a Starbucks in town, which was a nice treat for me.

My husband really enjoyed his diving. He dove with a local outfit, "Diving with Allison" and he was really pleased with the company and their attention to safety and care of gear. He would definitely dive with her again on our next trip to Cozumel.

Overall, our trip was wonderful. When we return, we won't rent a car, we will stay at the El Coz, while planning to eat in town a few evenings, and we will bring plenty of sunscreen - it was in the 90's all week!