When I arrived at the Iberostar I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I don't travel all that often, but the hospitality was amazing and was overall an amazing start to my family's trip. The all you can eat buffet was amazing and the beach was very relaxing. The entertainment team made sure that I was always busy playing volleyball and the on beach waiter made sure I had a nice cool drink in my hand at every time durring the day. I had a chance to walk down to the Occidental on the odd occasion and I have to say, the Iberostar is much more unique. The rooms have a much more mexican flavour at the Iberostar, and the balcony with hammock surpassed my expectation of what a hotel room should be.

My husband and I recently stayed at the Iberostar Cozumel for 7 nights,from 3-17 to 3-24-05 and was very disappointed in our stay. Upon our arrival the scenery and resort itself looked appealing and satisfactory. However, when we went to our room we felt like it had not been updated for years! There was no dressers to put our clothes in. The only place was in the closet, where we found 3 or 4 open shelves. The small refrigerator was also on the floor in the closet. There was no light in there (we were glad we had brought a flashlight!) The small safe was also in there. In order to use the safe and see the numbers on it you had to use the flashlight also. The room overall was very dark.
The bedding was just disgusting. The blanket was so bad that you didn't want it to even touch your skin, so we immediately took it off and stuffed it in the closet. We also found out the air conditioning did not work in our room so we went to the front desk and asked for a new room. We were told sorry they were filled up, we would have to wait till morning. We did get a new room the next day by 10 A.M. , but we were told all the rooms were the same. They were right. It was the same as the first, only our air did work in this one. Two days later we moved for a 2nd time because the sewer had backed up coming up from the shower drain and into our bedroom. This happened at 5 in the evening. It was a good thing we were in the room, otherwise the luggage and everything we had on the floor would have gotten wet.
We also had problems with the fleas/ bed bugs along with just about everyone we talked to. We never did see the bugs, but we were bit up pretty good especially on our legs. Everyone seemed to be having the same problem. We still don't know if they were in the beds or out by the pool. Every day we had more and more.
One of the main reasons we like to stay right on the beach is to be able to use the beach. You can not use this beach since they do not maintain it. The seaweed is awful if you try to walk on the beach and the coral is so bad that you can't go in the water without cutting your feet. You must wear beach shoes. That was very evident since we hardly seen anyone in the water. They do provide loungers to lay on and that is about all you can do on this beach. We walked down to the next resort to check out their beach and found it to be well maintained and plenty of people on it and in the water.
The food was just ok although there were several times when we seen some of it covered with flies. After that we tried to eat early, trying to avoid it sitting for any length of time. If you want to eat at the 2 restaurants on site you get 2 reservations only in the 7 nights. Other than those you must eat at the buffet.
As far as the nightly entertainment, we were also disappointed in the shows. Almost every one was more or less audience participation which was no effort on their part. At the Iberostar on the mainland the entertainment was fantastic!! We didn't miss a show!!
Now to top it all off, friends of ours midweek rented a car for the day and while they were gone that one day their room was robbed. Not just broken into but their safe was completely ripped off of the wall and was gone when they returned at 5:00. They left at 9:30 in the morning and by 1:00 in the afternoon their credit card had $1000.00 charged on it. Needless to say that ruined their vacation since they had jewelry,passports, electronics, credit cards and their social security numbers stolen. They spent all of the next day trying to make reports and phone calls.
After that happened we felt very unsafe and carried around our valuables wherever we went. The police and management tried to implicate that it was probably tourist related, but as we said, why would tourists carry around crow bars in their luggage?? It seemed very odd that they had reserved their rental car 3 days ahead and put down their room number on the paperwork. Also their room was right in the traffic area of the resort, right on one of the main pathways. Sounded real fishy to all of us who knew about it.
So, wrapping this all up, we would not recommend this place to anyone we know. Why would you want to stay here when there are so many nice places to stay?? We stayed at the Iberostar on the mainland a couple years ago and it was top of the line. Clean, beautiful and very much accomodating. It was a 5 golden apple and this one was a 4 golden apple. This cannot be true and still can't believe it can be rated as such. At the most it should be a 3 and not golden for sure!!
We have never had an experience like this before--after all vacations do not come around that often. It made us sick to think of the time and money we wasted when we could have gone somewhere enjoyable!!

After reading the posts about this resort, I was a little concerned about what we would be coming into. There seemed to be reports on both ends of the spectrum, people either loved it or hated it.
We stayed the first week at the Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar in PDC and a second week at the Iberostar Cozumel. After experiencing the Del Mar for a week we were quite disappointed with the IB Cozumel. We tried not to compare, but it was very difficult not to. If this is your first time to an all-inclusive you will probably love it. If you have been to others, you may not be impressed. This is definitely not a 4 star resort, I think 3 stars would be more appropriate.
The resort was crowded. We had to wait in a line to get into the buffet and then another line at the buffet tables. You have to get to the pool or beach early to reserve a spot, it fills up quickly. There were also line ups at the bar. The IB Del Mar was also full but it never seemed busy, there was tons of room wherever we went, it was a much larger resort.
The food was not impressive, there wasn't much variety at the buffet. On the fourth day I really didn't want to be eating this food anymore. Chicken, pork - whatever, they mostly tasted the same. There was a lot of deep fried food which I'm not really a big eater of. If you like french fries and jalapeno poppers and fried potates and fried fish, you may be happy here. There was also a lot of fresh fruit, just not enough variety not to get tired of it in only a few days.
We stayed in a single level building with the thatched roof. It did smell shockingly musty when you first walk in. After a few minutes you are used to the smell and you don't notice it again until you leave the room and re-enter, even if that's just to the washroom for a shower.
There is a sewer smell as you walk to the restaurants (poorly located open sewer). You do not smell it when you are eating but to and from you get a whiff - doesn't exactly entice your appetite. You also smell it in the gym... that fresh breeze is great until you get a whiff of it.
Water shoes are necessary. I saw many people who did not bring them and entering the water looked not only uncomfortable but painful.
The grounds were well kept but looked aged.
We rented a jeep from the resort and circled the island. That was the best day of our stay. The beaches on the east side of the island are beautiful, the silky, white sand those carribbean beaches are made of. There are several places to stop along the way to relax and enjoy a maragarita. There is no power on this side of the island so the margs were on the rocks. We were so glad we were introduced to this form of the marg because we both enjoyed it much more than the blended drink! Try out a little place called Coconuts. It's got a great view of the water and has an amazing Banana Mama!
Although I have a lot of negative comments about this resort, I can see how some people could like it. A lot of people did seem to enjoy it. We were just spoiled the week before.
If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at cgsunshines@yahoo.ca

My husband and I stayed at the Iberostar from March 5-12 and had a lovely, relaxing vacation. I went armed with bug spray, itch cream and even an inflatable lounge chair (in case there were none available!) but ended up not needing any of them. Plenty of lounges on the beach, only a few bug bites, and as for the musty rooms---well, this is the tropics. I really missed having a sandy beach all the way into the water. It was a real nuisance to have to stop and put on shoes just to go in and cool off---didn't think it would be a big deal, but it was. The rooms are small and the closets dark---I took a disposable flash light and it was a big help in opening and closing the safe. Our maid was wonderful---a clean room, lovely towel art and flower petals on the bed. We did tip a couple of dollars a day. I also left items that I didn't want to haul home---lotions, perfume, etc. Lots of hot water and shower gel and shampoo dispensers in the shower. The food was alright. My main complaint about dining was the service. The personnel are wonderful ---friendly, eager to please, always cheerful---but it seems like there just aren't enough of them. We had to wait a long time for cofffee, or water , or wine, or juice, or whatever. I like buffet-style dining, but without better service, it is not a very pleasant experience. I'm not really complaining---having a view of flamingos and parrots while you are eating breakfast makes up for a lot of deficiencies in service! We did have dinner in the Mexican Restarant one night---a great appetizer buffet, but my kebob with tequila sauce was so fatty I couldn't eat much of it. Booked through TNT Tours-never again! The Tuluum-Xel-ha tour was reversed, so we had very little time in Tuluum (which was the whole purpose of the tour as far as we were concerned!), we were given the wrong departure time and ended up getting to the ferry pier way too early. Glass bottom boat snorkel tour from the hotel pier was great---my husband snorkeled and I got to see all the fish from the boat. It was a little rough, though---I had taken medication, but one girl got really sick, so be forewarned if you have problems with motion sickness.Between having to leave Boston on a 4:30AM flight and having to leave Cozumel on the 5:00AM ferry to catch our flight home from Cancun, we were pretty short on sleep---not much of a vacation when you have to get up at 2AM. Also, folks should be aware that there are no porters between the drop-off point in Playa del Carmen and the Cozumel ferry--- be prepared to schlepp your own bags to and from the ferry.
If you want a relaxing vacation in an incredible tropical setting and amazing architecture and wildlife, this is definitely the resort for you! We try some place different every year; otherwise we would definitely go back!