My family had a great experience in 2004 at the Coral Princess. We stayed 12-26-03 thru 1-02-04. We just returned from a second trip
12-31-04 thru 1-7-05. On our first trip we stayed in the new section of the hotel/condo. Two bedroom:one king and two doubles both with ocean view..living room and kitchen (Excellent) for Mexico standards.

Second trip at check-in they handed me a sealed envelope honoring us with 10% off food and beverage purchases during our stay, (not bad) until I found out from another guest sitting by the pool they were given 15% off.

This 9 story hotel is split in half, old and new section. During check-in I now find out this trip they have put us on the 8th floor old section. I was not feeling good about this...but they said because of my arrival date the hotel was booked. Ok...let's see what we are dealing with... The master bedroom had ocean front view, but the second bedroom faced the street/jungle....I made the mistake and bragged about how outstanding the bedroom view would be to our guests who had the second bedroom ..in addition to poor location of this room, each morning when the sun was rising... because the sliding glass doors in this room faced the east... the room would heat up making it unbearably hot... even when A/C was running so much so that those who wanted to sleep in beyond 7:AM..FORGET IT!

The shower in the master bedroom needed work, I won't go into the details..but complete overhaul needed. Once I realized the condition and location of this room I made every effort to have location changed. They would not accomadate this request... even though they made such a big deal at check-in of us as returning guests to the hotel.

The staff at the hotel (excluding the reservation desk) are excellent ... could not be more helpful and friendly. The service at bar and food area around the pool outstanding. We had breakfast and sometimes lunch by the pool...enjoyed all our dishes. If you want to rent a jeep for a couple of days...go in town and shop. The hotel is $70/day. I paid a taxi driver $10 to help negociate a deal in town. We drove to a location in town that had four car rental places on one street. I went in two and my driver shopped two...my best price was $55/day..he got me $40/day. Same jeep that was at hotel.

Bottom Line: I would return to this hotel again but ONLY with confirmed in writing ocean front rooms in NEW SECTION when booking.

We just got back from a week on Cozumel. We spent the first 4 nights at the Coral Princess. It was a nice hotel and the people that work there are very accommodating. There were 5 of us and I had asked for two rooms nearby each other. They did get us on the same floor, but down the hall from each other. It was OK though. The restaurant was very good. The bar was expensive. Snorkeling was very good. It was kind of crowded though...hard to get a lounge chair on the beach if you didn't get there early.

The maids did creative things with the towels, one day there was a swan shaped from the towels, and the next day, there were two swans. My sons had a bunny rabbit shaped from the towels. It was very neat.

I would stay here again.

stayed on december first, 2004.

good value, especially w continental breakfast.

nice clean facility.

accommodating, yet unobtrusive staff.

excellent location-quiet yet very convenient. four dollar cab ride to the center of town.

great snorkeling steps from the hotel.

thumbs up!

My boyfriend and I chose the Coral Princess for our stay from Nov. 18 to Nov. 23, 2004 because it looked great and was a good price on a discount website. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw our amazing ocean side view in the room! We had a basic one room suite but unlike some of the other reviewers, we didn't have to wait to checkin. They gave us the most delicious drinks upon check-in!! And my boyfriend had flowers and a cake waiting for me in the room for my birthday so the hotel deserves a thank you for that.

We loved the fact that we could just have our breakfast and then jump right into the water and snorkel. A very nice vacationer gave us some tips about Cozumel and one was to swim against the current (if facing the ocean - to the left) when starting to snorkel so when you come back to the hotel, your tired arms and legs can take a break while the current helps you back. It was great advice!

We felt a little pressured to go to the timeshare meetings but it wasn't too bad. We didn't go - I hate those things! But in town, it is really bad. There are a million jewelry stores and every shop owner stands in their doorway and calls to you - come in here and look around, come here, come here...it got to the point where I - an AVID shopper, just wanted to leave. But there are some great shops in there where they don't do that (that's where I got to let loose and buy). We ate at an adorable italian restaurant - Guido's. (The nice lady at the hotel suggested that too). My boyfriend found it odd that they not only did not have cannolis but didn't know what they were!! But the pizza was outstanding!!!!

Renting a car and driving around to the other side of the island is a must. It is GORGEOUS over there. No hotels or development. We went to Coconuts and some other restaurants along the way. We rented it at the hotel for about $60 total.

We swam with dolphins in Chakanaab Park. It was a bit unorganized but in the end well worth it.

CP was able to set up up with Atlantis Submarines for a day trip but they couldn't get us on a Tulum trip which was disappointing. We found Alex in town though, standing at one of those little podiums advertising trips, and he got us on a trip to Chitzen-Itza (actually he got us into Tulum but there was a mix up and he actually came to our hotel to find us and left us a note about it. We found him in town that night. We trusted him completely and he didn't let us down).

I agree with others here that the taxis are unpredictable in pricing. A $3 cab ride one day was $10 the day before (weren't we surprised).

Great experience! I recommend Coral Princess.