We were there May 9-14, 2005 for our honeymoon. After reading some of the reviews on here I was a little worried. The food was great. The staff was great. The rooms were very, very clean. One night we ran out of bottled water in our room and called the front desk. The had 2 large bottles to our room within 20 minutes. Room service is included in the AI package. We used that a few times. The buffet was clean and had a lot of choices. My husband and I are both what you might call "picky" and we had no problems. I promise you we never went hungry. We only ate at the formal restaurant one night because it really wasn't any better and it took a lot longer. But that was just a personal choice. It was very good there too. We enjoyed the theme night shows. For the price it was more than we expected. We spent most of our days sitting in the pool and having a great time. We did the sunset catamaran cruise and deep sea fishing. We booked them right from the dive shop at the hotel and they were both wonderful and well worth every penny.

the hotel was clean the staff was rude and unwilling to help unless u had money to give them. we could not get anything to drink with any meals unless we were willing to tip the waiters. the rooms have no fridges in them so the bottle water in the room was always hot. tha maid would not leave any water unless u left her a tip. the food was ok for the most part however the shrimp and rice is uneatable smells too bad. we lived the most part of the week on bread salad and cucumbers. the water in front of the hotel is worth seeing it is the best feature. watch out for the towl boy the second day we were there he lost one of our towel cards which by the way they charge u $50 us dollars for even thou we didn't lose it. we spend the next 6 days argueing about the towel card. my advise take ur own towel. the shows are in the same room as the dinners are served so get there early otherwise u have no place to sit and eat and they will not let u eat on the patio where the bar is at. speaking of the shows bad very bad ....needs lots of improvement. my suggestion is to stay somewhere else.

Everything was wonderful except maybe the food. It was good but different from what we're use to. 7 days of it got a little old, really after to much tekillya. I can't see where anyone can go wrong on the all incluesive deals. For two people it would be 10 minimum taxi round trip. Plus the time driving. We ate in town a couple of times and had some great food. To sum it up we had a great time. Beautiful hotel and service

Our family of 5 enjoyed staying at El Cozumeleno April 5-11 of this year. We have 3 daughters ages 4, 7, and 9. They had the time of their lives. We had planned to go to Disney World next year for vacation and they have said that they want to come back here every year instead. I asked my oldest why this vacation is better than Disney World and her response was, "The pool, snorkeling, putt-putt, just about everything." We found that the girls were never bored there. We would enjoy the pools in the morning, snorkel some, play bingo in the afternoon and they did a few of the kids club activities. This was just enough of a break, along with a snack or ice-cream to get them ready to hit pools or beach again. We usually had an early dinner and played putt-putt before the shows on the night that they were available. By the time we got back to our large and very clean rooms, there were ready to go straight to sleep.
We had 2 adjoining rooms because we prefer to spread out. One room had a king and a sleeper sofa. The other room had 2 double beds. They both had ocean view patios. The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The maids always left us plenty of bottled water. We usually tipped a couple of dollars per room, per day. The TV's weren't that great, but who watches TV on vacation? On our last full day, my 4 year old needed a break from the sun and I did let her go into the Kid's Club and lay on their big pillows to watch part of the "Incredibles". They played a kid's movie in there in the afternoon.
Our family really enjoyed breakfast! My kids loved the omelettes and waffles. The fresh fruit was always tasty. There was also yogurt and cereal available. We always ate burgers and fajitas from the snack bar for lunch. There is a menu if you would like to sit down in the outside restaurant to be served, but once we had the delicious burgers and fajitas it was hard to pass them up. My 4 & 9 year old usually enjoyed dinner, but my 7 year old was a little pickier. She always had plenty to eat, but did not give the food a "10" as her big sister did. She thought that dinner would be "5" on a scale of 1 - 10. We ate in the reservations-only restaurant twice. The grouper that I had was awesome, but my husband had beef tenderloin and it was just o.k.. We felt that the food was certainly fine for what we paid for this trip. We would give breakfast and lunch a "9" and dinner a "6".
The drinks were not very strong, but were very refreshing. This was perfect since we had no intentions of getting sloshed on a family vacation. The kids enjoyed having non-alcoholic frozen drinks by the pool. They also enjoyed the ice-cream that was available all day.
There was plenty to do for all ages at the resort. They did not have a bike small enough for my 4 year old, so my husband did the bike tour while we hung out at the pool. We paid to ride the banana boat one afternoon and that was a blast. My 7 year old kept putting her thumb up to go faster and it was quite the ride. We also went out to Chankanaab one day to swim with the dolphins. We booked it through Big Apple in the lobby and it was much less than the listed price. We got transportation, entrance fee and the seal show thrown in free, in addition to it being less than any price that I had seen published. This was definately worth the 15 -20 minute travel to get there. The snorkeling was fabulous there! My nine year had all of her sun on her back, because all she wanted to do was snorkel! The water was so clear and the fish so vibrant that my 4 year old could just look down into the water to see them without swimming out deeper as her older sisters did. Back at the resort we would also walk out on the pier and throw bread out to see all of the beautiful fish sworm.
The girls loved the shows, although my husband and I found them to be just average. Of course we did not pay for a Broadway show and so it met our expectations.
We hope to go back someday, but not every year as our girls have requested. Only because we would like to enjoy other experiences with them. Hopefully, wherever we go will live up to the wonderful vacation we had at El Cozumelno!