Food: The food at the El Cozumeleno hotel was absolutely horrible. The buffet was the had the worst food. If you are expecting food that would come from an ordinary restaurant in the U.S.A., then you are in for the worst. At the buffet there hundreds of flies that constantly fly around your food and the uncovered food on the table. The lunch was also pretty bad. The best food from the buffet is the breakfest. The omeletes are great and so are the pancakes. I got food poisoning on the last night and was the sickest that I have ever been. I stayed up since 12:00 having to throw up every 30 minutes until a good samiraton gave me some Phenergen.
Room: The room was good, but not excellent at all. The maids that clean the rooms did a somewhat decent job. Their was always sand grit on the floor.
Bar: One of the bartenders was rude when I asked for a lime, he said that limes are for beers! What a rude bartender he was.
Pool: The pools were excellent.

no slide locks on the room doors or patio doors. it took my 3 year old 5 minutes to discover that he could get to the balcony. maid entered our room twice while we were napping! playground set on a concrete pad. a fall from the slide or swing could result in head trauma or a broken limb! safety and security are not a priority at this resort. definately not a place for children.

We just returned from our trip to Cozumel July 7th-14th where we stayed at El Cozumeleno. The hotel is very beautiful and maintained. Workers were always doing something such as painting, putting new indoor/outdoor carpeting on the putt-putt course, etc. The rooms were spacious and clean. We didn't get wash cloths, but never asked for them either. The food (as we had been warned by previous reviews) was just okay. It was not spectacular, but some of it was pretty good. You need to get there earlier than 9 for breakfast because of so many people. You will also need to learn to avoid the birds flying around. There were also a lot of flies which they were trying to remedy as we left. The bars were great and fixed us whatever we wanted. The view is beautiful and we had a good time in the pools (especially the covered pool when we had consumed too much sun)! We went through the Apple Vacations rep at the hotel (Jose) who was extremely helpful in setting up our diving and snorkeling. They used a different dive shop than the hotel's on-site dive shop. We went through Martin's Dive Shop located on the Muele International Pier. They were terrific! There were 7 divers and 2 snorkelers in our group. The dive shop provided a private boat just for us. The divemaster took us to some beautiful reefs and we saw turtles, barracudas, a shark, giant crabs, lobsters, and parrot fish. This dive shop was much cheaper and more accommodating than the El Cozumeleno on-site dive shop. The equipment was excellent and fairly new. We also rented a car for the day (very expensive, but fun) and went around to the other side of the island. It was fun to see where the turtles lay their eggs. The Apple Rep also told us about a restaurant over there. It was "Coconuts." We had excellent food and margaritas to die for there. The staff was friendly and the prices were very reasonable. We also went to Pancho's Backyard for dinner. This restaurant is located behind the shop, Los Cinco Soles. They also have very, very tasty grande margaritas and good food, although it is a little more expensive. The only concerns we had was to beware of the buffet food. One of our group got food poisoning at the end and we are sure it was from the scrambled eggs on the buffet. Just have the chef cook you an omelet or fried eggs to make sure they are done. Otherwise, it was a wonderful experience and we would go back there again.

We went to the El Cozumeleno from 6/26-7/3 and loved it. There were 11 people total in our party--6 adults and 5 kids. We arrived to the hotel around 2pm and our rooms were ready immediately. Me, my husband and our two kids were in the "older" section. There weren't any bad smells as I had read in previous reviews. The room was huge with a view of the pool and ocean. The resort is beautiful and the staff were wonderful. They really bend over backwards to make you happy, including getting my 7 year old a box of cereal and milk at 10pm(he didn't want to get out of the pool for dinner). Speaking of the pools, they were awesome. The kids stayed in all day. The beach and ocean were just as good, with some of the best snorkeling right off the beach. We saw Antonio in the dive shop and took a snorkeling tour on the catamaran--I highly recommend this. We also did the sunset "booze" cruise on the same boat and had a dolphin follow us for 10 minutes! Activities go on all day around the pool. My kids went to the kids camp one day when it was raining and they enjoyed it. Sonia, who runs it, was great. Now, on to the food. The food does get a little boring, but we always found something we liked. The kids enjoyed the hot dogs, cheeseburgers and fries that were at the pool grill daily. The only complaint I have is that there is a "fancy" restaurant that requires reservations for seating. Reservations are taken daily at 8am, they say, for that evening--we were never able to get one. The line for the reservations started around 7:30 am, and by the time it got to my turn, 10pm was the only seating available (not possible with 2 young kids). There is a disco/karoake bar on the second floor which my husband and I went to--it's fun if there is a good crowd in the room. We didn't find the drinks to be watered down at all, in fact we found them to be generous with the alcohol. We had a bartender we liked, and we tipped him $20 the first day we were there, and he took care of us very well all week. Same for the maid. I would definitely go back again, as would all of my family who went with us. K. H., Pennsylvania