All i can do is add my praises to those of the reviewers before me. This is an amazing place. The snorkeling right off the beach is as good as what I've had off a boat. After you've snorkeled in front of the restaurant, return to the beach via the tiny lagoon alongside the restaurant. At one point it's very shallow, but you won't touch what's on the bottom. When you come in this way, 80% of the time, you'll be totally engulfed by literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of silver minnows. They part as you swim through them. When it's sunny you'll feel like you're part of a disco ball.
Try the "three milks cake" in the restaurant. Also, you must try the ice cream.
Agnes the concierge is devoted to making your stay a wonderful experience. Ask her for discount tickets for The Mission Restaurant.
At lunch one day Senor Meza, the general manager, brought his lovely baby girl over to our table so we could meet and play with her. It's as if you're family, not people who pay to stay there.
I want to go back there. NOW!

We were in Cozumel at the El Cid from Dec. 30 '07 to Jan. 5, '08, and really enjoyed it. This is my 4th vacation to Cozumel, so I am familiar with the island. When we arrived at the hotel, they said the room would not be ready until 4 (unlike the 3 pm on orbitz, although we could check out an hour later too at 1pm, whcih we took advantage of), so we had to wait a bit (higly recommend you have a bathing suit readily available so you can use the nice bathrooms in the lobby/pool area to relax while you wait). They took us to the studio, and while it was nice, there was only a single nightstand, limited storage for clothes, and a queen bed (would recommend that hotel replace couch with a chair and big nightstand with a drawer for stuff). We requested a different room if available, and they found us a beautiful new room in the tower with adequate storage, a big king size bed, and a beautiful view, (albeit no fridge, which wasn't a big deal).

The facilities at the hotel were great - excellent beach areas, direct access to water for snorkling, great food (reasonably priced), and an excellent dive shop. If you stay there, I definitely recommend the hotel dive shop (Babieca Dive Center) - it was a typical Cozumel small fast boat with an awning, which I think is fine, and Luis the divemaster and the captain were both extremely helpful and knowledgable. The prices were $165 for 3 days of 2 tank dives, which I thought was very reasonable.

The location of the hotel was fine, too. It was a 40 minute walk to town or a $4 cab ride (less if you use pesos), so it was no trouble getting there for lunch and dinner.

As far as Cozumel goes, it's still about my favorite dive spot in the Caribean - wonderful coral and animal life, 90-100 foot visibility, and varied underwater terrain. Unfortunately, the snorkling has suffered a bit due to damage from the hurricanes, especially at Chankanaab, so it sounds like you need to take a boat trip to get good snorkling (which we didn't do). The food there was excellent as well - we had 4 memorable meals there (La Veranda for New Year's Eve was very elegant, and La Prima, La Pericula (?), and La Chosa are all great restaurants). We also went over to Playa Del Carmen one day, and had a great time walking on the their beautiful up-scale pedestrian mall. Cozumel has really gotten nice as well - during a rainy day we went to their own "locals" mall and watched a first run movie in English at top-quality theatre there. Of course, you still have your drunken red-neck cruise goers making spectacles of themselves during the day, but they are easily ignored (speaking as a cruise-goer myself).

Although El Cid La Ceiba is not alone in this, be prepared to be pressured, starting at the airport, by offers of special deals (including free car rental) in exchange for at least a couple of hours of being urged to sign up for some sort of travel program. The staff at the hotel turned a little lukewarm after we decided not to buy into the program. The rooms, though, are very nice and the food is acceptable. We had breakfast-only as part of the package which allowed us to sample lots of great restaurants in Cozumel. We heard complaints from some guests who'd bought the all-inclusive; the dining options were a little monotonous. The mixed drinks, on the other hand, were pretty terrible--the "mojito" was creme de menthe based without the fresh mint and lime that we're accustomed to, even in Dallas. The pina colada was disappointing as well.

I doubt that we'll go back to Cozumel because of how touristy it is, but the hotel's location on the beach is great and comfortable for those whose taste runs more in that direction.

My wife and I stayed at the El Cid La Ceiba for 10 days toward the end of December 2007 and had a wonderful time. What makes the place such a great place to stay are the people who work there; from the outdoor activity guys, maids, room service, right up to Salvador Sanchez Meza, the general manager.

Many plans are in the works to improve the facilities, such as adding a live lobster cage and the addition of a second floor to the restaurant. I promised to return after the improvements to re-assess the hotel.

On the up-and-up, not everything was all grand. I felt the food needed improvement as well as a rotating menu. Since our stay was all inclusive, most of our meals were eaten there.

The beer was served in bottles (not in the pool area) which I found to be a treat since most all inclusive resorts serve it from the tap.

Our room was very clean and spacious (one bedroom); location is good for snorkeling; beach area small; numerous cruise ships blowing their horns kind of sucked but overall we were both happy with the place, especially the people.