My wife and I celebrated our honeymoon at Occidental Grand Cozumel (dec26 to Jan2 2008). Prior to booking I read alot of these reviews. I got nervous when I read the bad ones. But if you get 1 thing out of this review its this "THIS IS A GREAT HOTEL, SOME PEOPLE JUST HAVE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT SOMETHING. YOU WILL LOVE IT HERE"

The GOOD
I have traveled to south america, cayman islands, all around the states, ect and this was right up there with the best places. The grounds were immaculate, beaches were spectacular. We were always able to get cabanas and the water was crystal clear. Food was good (loved the steak house). Great wild life (iguanas ect). Snorkling off the beach was good (not great) but good. The diving was the best I have ever seen (even beat the caymans). Make sure you try to get a 3rd floor room for the best view. Very private feel and extrememly relaxing. the staff was GREAT everyone said good morning with a smile on their faces.

The Not so good
The ONLY complaint I have is the time share deal. They are not overly pushy, but they do try to get you to attend a "90 min" meeting for a great deal on a trip or diving, ect. Now if you want a time share at this hotel its a good deal and you should do it, BUT if you are like us and just want a vacation without having to put down a 4000.00 downpayment (WHICH YOU MUST PAY THAT DAY FOR A TIME SHARE) then DONT DO IT.

This is a 4.5 out of 5 star resort and you will be well taken care of from the moment you walk in until the moment you leave. The staff is SUPER FRIENDLY.

Well, I'll start with the good. My wife and I decided to stay at the Occidental Grand Cozumel as our 10th anniversary present to each other from Dec 28 - Jan 2.
Good:

Grounds: Very beautiful. The resort seemed to be placed into the natural habitat with as little disturbance to the environment as possible. The beach was great, the views were awesome, the pools and grounds, fantastic. We also had several iguanas that seemed to live in the tree next to our room and they were always there, a nice treat to see. Pools were nice and the buildings I thought were nice for the most part, as I liked the style of them.

Food: we actually thought the food was pretty good. Buffet was good, but did get old, but I think that's the case with anywhere. The two reserved seating places were excellent. The steakhouse was fantastic, as I got a legit NY strip steak that was wonderful as well as the other courses of the meal. The other place was very good as well - we ate there on New Year's Eve and couldn't be happier with the food and service.

The food service was very good. Prompt service and attentiveness was noted and appreciated.

The Bad:
There seemed to be a general lack of communication at the place, more on this later as part of it will fit into the Ugly category. For example, my wife and I, while having snorkeled several times, including here, decided we wanted to take the "free" scuba intro class that was offered by the resort. Everywhere we saw, including the little news flier the resort sent out stated that this class started at 9AM. We even talked to the guys at the dive shop for confirmation of this. New Year's Eve morning, we get to the pool at 8:45AM for the class. The instructor asked if we had paid our $60/ea for the class. We looked at him and said we were there for the freebie intro class. He said that class was at 8:30AM. Us, and another woman were basically out of luck as there was no class on New Years, and for us, we left on the 2cd, meaning we had lost our chance to experience the class because the staff couldn't agree what time the class was supposed to be.

The constant attempts to sell the timeshares or to sign up for activities of no interest to you. This was to be expected, and to be honest, I thought it was actually better here than at some other places I've been, most notably the Moon Palace just south of Cancun.

Food: I know, I said it was great, but I do have a complaint. You are only allowed to make reservations for the two premier places based on how many nights you are staying at the resort. For example, 6+ nights stay you get 3 reservations. Four to 5, two nights. It wasn't a problem, as we got our two reservations, but I would have appreciated if this fact was mentioned on the website for the resort. Unless I missed it, I did not see that mentioned anywhere. We've stayed at other All-inclusives, the Moon Palace and some of the Sandals places, and I don't recall that being a rule at those places.

Now for the Ugly:

1. Check In: we arrived at 3, give or take 20 minutes. Check in appeared like it would be fast, which was great since my wife and I were wearing winter clothes from a 25 degree F day in the now 80+ degrees of Cozumel. Therefore, we were anxious to change and to go swimming. Then the first bit of bad news: we were informed that our room wasn't ready yet. No big deal we thought. We decided we'd eat some lunch since we hadn't eaten since that morning. Two hours later, STILL NO ROOM. We checked in again a short time later, and told that the staff was working on it. Seeing that we were beginning to get irate, one of the front desk guys said, "your room is ready." Great we thought.

We get to our room, by this time 3 hours after arrival, and begin to get settled. The room smelled of mold and mildew. We thought we'd try to air it out, to see if that would help. The safe was rusted and did not work, despite the staff's repeated efforts to get it working. The room was bad enough, that we both got headaches from it. Allergies or something, I don't know. We called up front to request a room change, explaining our situation. The staff said they couldn't help us that night, but that they would switch us the 1st thing the next morning. The room was Building 10, room 12. DO NOT ACCEPT this room.

The next morning we called the front desk to check on the room status. Told it would be ready after breakfast. Great news we thought and the staff seemed to working to resolve the issue. After we ate, we checked again and they said it would be just a few more minutes. So we decided to hit the beach. After this, it was about 10:30 to 11AM, time to check again. This time, the guy at the front desk, the manager who had given us the room in the 1st place, said we would not be able to change rooms until the following day.

Stunned we were. We told him that we had been told on three occasions that we were to be in a new room that morning. His response? WHO TOLD YOU THAT? Since we stupidly did not get a name, we could simply answer someone at the front desk. He kept saying that was not so and whoever told us that, shouldn't have. Moral of the story, always get names.

By that time, my wife had had enough and she literally broke down crying saying how she hated the place and how she wished she could go somewhere else, etc. That actually did the trick. Upon seeing that, Mr. Manager decided that we could in fact change rooms that day. Gave us a new room number and keys on the spot. The catch was the room wasn't cleaned yet, but by this time we didn't care. The new room was FANTASTIC.

It was just too dang bad that we had to go through that. That whole 1st day experience did admittedly affect our opinion of the Grand Cozumel. We even said to each other that if our trip had started on day two, it would have been an 8 of 10 type of place and stay.

I think anyone staying there will be ok, but just be prepared to stand up for yourself. Also, make sure your room is good, prior to actually officially taking it if possible. The reason I say that is because there were several other families that had to change rooms in addition to us. Four others that I know of.

My husband and I just returned from a 7 night stay at the Occidental Grand.
We enjoyed our stay so much that I wanted to share our experience.
We booked through Air Canada Vacations and stayed in building 21 (Royal Club).
I would say the highlight of our trip was the staff at the hotel. They were charming and always helpful.
Our room was super clean and we also did not have an issue with bugs. The shower was great and the room amenities plentiful.
We enjoyed the variety of food, it was never a problem finding something great to eat.
The beach was beyond our expectations and we swam in the ocean daily-no water shoes or wet suits needed.
We also tried a snorkelling trip (visited two reefs) booked through Air Canada vacation rep and enjoyed our experience.
We have travelled quite extensively and I think the hotel is a great choice for families and couples alike.
We look forward to returning again and would recommend the hotel.

Our stay started out great with a quick direct flight and cab ride, and got better as the week went on. Check-in was a breeze as was the golf cart ride to our room. The room was very neat, clean and comfortable: Marble floors, bright colors, new furniture, bathtub and a separate shower.

The grounds are very well kept and clean with lots of walking paths between the main buildings, room buildings and the beach. There is a separation of the main resort area from the beach by a path thru nature reserve full of wildlife. At the beach is the main pool, activities area and beach club restaurant.

The beach is to die for, if you like snorkeling this is the spot. You don't have to take a snorkel boat out all you have to do in put on your gear and swim out 50 yards to see thousands of fish, barracuda, squid, and lobster. There is a dive shop and tour charter company on the beach but there’s no hassle from these guys at all.

Lunch at the beach club is all you could ask for. Yes, its buffet style but you’re on a white sand beach with clear blue water and more selections of food and drinks then one would want, for lunch.

The staff was great, very friendly and helpful. Everybody always greeted us with a hello, how are you? day and night... The restaurants were good, clean and the Mediterranean restaurant is the best by far. The breakfast buffet is huge and fresh with a cook at your disposal.

The cocktails were available at 5 different bars on the property and they have a great selection; something for everyone. If we wanted to take a walk down the beach, to the East, the next hotel over is owned by the same company and their bars and restaurants were available to us as well.

As with most resorts of this size and type they too had the
"Timeshare" sales pitch. But for the hour we gave them, in return they gave us a rental car for 24hrs. It was at a discounted rate, but we would have not have got one otherwise. Taking a drive around the island and into town was worth the sales pitch as well.

In the conclusion, we enjoyed our stay so much that we have bought another vacation package thru this hotel with a savings of over $500. and we are already planning our trip there next year.