On the positive side: The hotel is an all-inclusive package: food and beverages and use of any area on the property. Most of the areas are beautiful.Upon arriving at the Park Royal Hotel in Cozumel, MX, I was very impressed with the large open-air hut-type structure of the Front Desk and most of the public areas. This hotel has absolutely luscious rainforest type landscaping and beautiful jungle inspired building structures. The hotel has a vacation resort atmosphere. The bar and restaurant service was excellent. All public areas were kept clean.On the negative side: The photos of the property are misleading. The pyramid style building shown in the photos of the property is not available to guests as it has not been repaired from a hurricane that occured nearly 6 years ago. The building guests will stay in is actually one tall Jefferson Monument type building with 10 floors in it.Room service leaves much to be desired. From Day 1, we made requests through the Front Desk and the maid requesting extra wash clothes for the 2 additional guests in the room and in 5 days time, did not receive them. We were also displeased wth receiving the bottled water we requested daily. We wanted two bottles per person (8 bottles) daily. They were not supplied despite daily calling.The food in the main buffet restaurant left a great deal to be desired. The food may have tasted good but I was put off by the presentation: it didnt look delicious and there was a restroom scent which definitely put me off. We ate mainly from whatever was cooked on the grill while you watched. I did not try the food in the dress-up restaurant but am told it is much better as it is cooked as it is ordered.One pet peeve that I truly hate: Time Share or Travel Club Membership sales. I hate to pay for a vacation that is hijacked by these types of sales. I believe that it's okay to let the guests know a membership is available but NEVER for the guests to be detoured from enjoying their stay with high pressure sales tactics. We were headed out to rent mopeds or a jeep and were stopped by a man who claimed to be a Park Royal employee. We were told that we could rent the vehicles for much less and thought this was part of the amenities of staying at the Park Royal. We found out this was not true. It was a bait to get us back into the hotel lobby to attend a vacation club membership sales presentation.I did not like the impression that the service to my family fell drastically, from only fair service to begin with, after I declined membership in the Travel Club which this property is a member. It was pointed out that members received a red band and I wondered if thats why we couldnt get two more wash clothes and water. The courteousness of the front desk dropped dramatically also after that.This property would do better to improve its food preparation and presentation in the casual dining area and not allow the guests to be made to feel less than welcome if they choose not to become travel club members. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

The good: The hotel was decent - needed some work, but for the most part, was fine. The beds are rock hard, but most hotels are. We ended up changing rooms for an oceanview and the 2nd room was better than the first. We got a corner room on the 4th floor, windows on both sides of the room. The bathroom was clean, but the tub seems to fill up with water - probably all the sand that gets washed down the drain. There is no beach (but if you do your "homework" you'll know this before you go.
There is a lagoon, which I did not go in - too many sea urchins. I would recommend shoes/flip flops if going in. The bar by the restaurant/lobby is the best bar - strong drinks!!

The bad: They DO NOT serve food all day like most resorts. If you miss breakfast, you'll have to wait until lunch. If you miss lunch, you'll have to wait until dinner. There is about 2-3 hours in between each. I would suggest checking the schedules or plan on eating out alot if you have plans outside of the resort. We are not heavy eaters, but after a long day of snorkeling/sightseeing, it would be nice to eat when we return. Plus, the bar by the beach closes early (I think around 4PM), so you'll have to catch your drinks on the way. Entertainment - well, there wasn't any. There were a few guys in drag flirting with my husband, but that was about it - I think that was the entertainment staff....

The terrible: Actually, the most horrible part of our trip was not the hotel at all, but our Funjet representative. IF you are staying at any hotel and ANYONE tries to tell you that you have to leave a cash deposit - don't do it! If you do, get something in writing - which I was smart enough to do. You'll have a very hard time getting your money back either way. Plus, the same guy who tried to scam us made us wait more than an hour in the lobby to leave for the airport.

All in all, we had a great time. Cozumel is a beautiful island and I highly recommend going to the East Side. I probably will not return to Park Royal, but only because we generally do not go to the same place twice - but I would recommend it if you are on a budget. It's not a dump (as I've heard some people say) and you'll get your money's worth if not more.

Swore I would post a trip report becuase reliable information is hard to come by.This was my first trip to Mexico.I am a rank novice snorkeler, family had been last year. This place is operating in one of the two buidings, the other one is defunct time-share. I think this place is the best bang for the dollars in Cozumel. there are other, newer, bigger ones, but this one is really underoccupied, about 100 rooms, the pool and the beach, etc was really built for more people so never crowded.The food is so-so, but all all inclusives are, the restaurant is worth it, best food, second best was the snack bar, it had hamburgers, dogs, guacamole.Beverages were everywhere, the bar up by the front restaurant is the best.This place has the best snorkeling of all the hotels, right in front of the beach, the view from the beach/bar is just corona like, man you don't want to leave.The beds here are hard, but they are everywhere, get over it.We got a beaautiful ocean view, there were some elevator/power problems when we arrived, but in Mexico you better get ready for a little bit of hassle.We flew out of San Antonio, would recomend this we got there at 11:00 in the morning, returned at 6 in the evening.This means that you really get four days for the price of three nights, a much longer trip, we got to eat in the restaurant three nights-sign up when you get there.I figured out we got like four extra meals for the six of us and a couple of hundred drinks, really would tell eveyone to fly out of SA if your in the area. We flew funjet it was fine, we got a sausage biscuit/coffee going, pretzels going back. This place is very beautiful and the snorkeling was great.We went on a snorkeling trip, we went on Aqua World, you can negotiate with them, I got it down to $30 each, enjoyed the boat ride, but be forewarned-not a great swimmer and I'm not it is open water snorkeling, there were people on here who paid like $75 and were not happy.This place Aqua World is right at the end of the Hotel beach, very convenient, but oth right in front of the hotel, in fact every other dive boat actually parks out in front of the hotel beach, there is an airplane-sunken. Grab some bread from the buffet, the fish will swarm to it, all the colors in the rainbow. If anyone has questions please e-mail and will be happy to give you my two cents or help you if I can..