My husband and I have stayed in Cozumel a few times over the past 15 years typically to go scuba diving and have always loved the area. This time, we decided to bring the family and stay in an all-inclusive. Our only other all-inclusive experience was 2 years ago at the Iberostar in Playa del Carmen, which was wonderful.

The Occidental was beautiful, but the resort seemed more suited to couples than families. The pools were simple and somewhat boring, compared to that of other resorts. For example the resorts in Playa del Carmen have winding lagoon style pools with waterfalls, or wave pools, swim up bars, etc. Here, one pool is a "quite pool" that plays relaxing music, and doesn't serve frozen drinks because the blenders are too loud. The other pool is bigger, by the beach and plays beach type music, but again nothing special about the pool...just a pool (with no swim up bars).

The air conditioning in the rooms did not work! The beds were small (double beds versus queen beds at other resorts), the beds were extremely hard and in a hot room, none of us slept well.

Food was just ok. Breakfast was the best meal. Wonderful fresh fruit, bacon, grilled veggies, made to order omlets if you have lots of time to wait, and huge french toast. Lunch by the beach was ok (burgers, hot dogs, grilled fish, veggies, etc.), but you must wear shoes in the resturaunt and can't take food to the beach or by the pool. Dinner was the worst meal of all. The "nice" reservation only places were horrible, and the buffet was good if you like grilled veggies and fish (which I do, but it got old). Therefore we ended up eating most of our dinners off property (kind of defeats the purpose of All-Inclusive).

I don't think we will be going back to this resort, and may be done with the All-Inclusive concept. We paid $1,400 per person with airfare from DFW to Cozumel during spring break. I think we would have been better off with a hotel in town, paying for our meals. There was no reduction in cost for the two 13 year old boys with us, and initially the resort did not want to allow the 4 of us in the room (they considered 2 adults and two13 year olds, to be 4 adults, which they do not allow) of course the boys did not consume alcohol, and while they normally would eat their fair share, they didn't at this resort. It's hard to have a bad time in Cozumel, so I would say we had a nice time overall, but the experience could have been better at a different resort.

As a member of the Allegro Vacation Club I have stayed at 4 of their resorts over the past few years. They are all very nice, but the Occidental Grand Cozumel is my favorite so far. I traveled with my husband and our two children (14 and 11). We arrived and were greeted at the entrance with champagne! How nice! Then while we were seated for check in, they handed us cool, damp towels to freshen up. First class to start, and the rest of our stay was just as nice. Manuel was very accommodating. We were able to extend our stay with no problems.

Our rooms were very nice, we stayed in building 12 on the 3rd floor and had a distant view of the ocean, our balcony overlooked jungle. One day there was an iguana in the tree just a few feet from our balcony. There were (big) iguanas to be seen everywhere, one was a showoff by the relaxation pool. Very neat to stay in a resort surrounded by jungle. Don't be afraid of the tarantulas, they just look scary...we saw only one in the lobby area while we were there. Part of the "ambiance" in my opinion! After all, these creatures thrive in that climate.

The food was excellent in my opinion. A wide variety, and nice fish at lunch and dinner. I would have liked to try more of the specialty restaurants but only ate at the Mediterranean one which was very good. We took a cab to town one night and had the cab driver take us to a restaurant where he takes his family out to eat. It was superb (sorry I don't remember the name). All-inclusive is great, but we like a change of pace with food at least once or twice on a trip. We always ask to go to a "local" place as we don't like commercialized restaurants.

We rented a jeep right at the resort and did a trip around the island. Stop at Coconuts, great place! We also did the Tequila Factory tour, ok not great. Stopped at a little place to buy some really nice artwork just before the Tequila Factory.

Nice pools, one for relaxation and one for activities, what a great idea. We enjoyed both. The activity staff was very fun and the kids (and I) just loved it. Always some fun things going on. The staff at the beach were also great. Free snorkel rental, good snorkeling right off the beach. Also easy to book any type of excursion, parasailing, jetskiing, deep sea fishing. We did all of these.

They had shows every night which were very good and also had some jewelry vendors come in two of the nights we were there.

We really liked the lounge bar by the lobby, good variety of drinks and a nice atmosphere. The disco was small, but they had it set up nice with a dance floor in the back, pool table at the entrance.

We gave our maid a very nice tip the first day, and a little something every day thereafter and had excellent service from her during our stay. They work very hard for very little money and when you treat them well, they appreciate it! We had beautiful towel art and hibiscus flowers everywhere!

Don't hesitate to book your stay here, it is a great place and we will definitely go back there. My husband doesn't usually like to go back to a place we have already stayed, but he agrees this was first class all the way.

The only negative remark is they had a problem one day with the septic system I think and the smell by our building was nasty. Bring a candle along like I always do.

Karen from Wisconsin - Will add pics soon!

Before going to Cozumel and the OG, I read hundreds of reviews. I was a bit hesitant going into the trip after reading some of the negative reviews. After visiting this resort, it's amazing to me how people can look for things to complain about!

Our trip was wondering. The grounds were well maintained as people were always working on them. The service in restaurants was excellent. Staff went out of their way to talk to us and remembered us. I enjoyed the food at La Piazza and the Mexican restaurant. The buffets were fine...keep in mind they are trying to use a theme and provide a type of food everyone will like. The beach and pools were wonderful.

I'd reccomend asking for help at the concierge's desk and seeing what else is available on the island. It was worth it to rent a car and see other areas of the island as well as San Miguel.

I have nothing but great things to say about the OG and would reccomend it to anyone....singles, families, couples, etc.

The Occidental Grand was a very nice well kept resort with hard working friendly staff. If you tipped them you could have virtually anything you wanted.
The rooms are spacious with large bedroom and huge bathroom complete with mini-bar- if you tip staff it stays full.
The food is good for an all inclusive,but stick to the buffet, avoid al a carte as food there is bad.
The beach is a good size with okay snorkeling if weather cooperates. Note: Hurricane devasted the island and corel reefs.
Overall a good stay- the nightmare starts and ends with the tour company. We booked through Signature vacations- they treated us like cattle- we paid for a direct flight but found ourselves stuck in Cancun first in order to fill plane with returning travellers to T.O- a the resort some guy would continually phone and rush me early every morning to meeet him to tell me our flight home had changed- last one was a four hour delay that turned into a ferry ride to the mainland were we had to walk through town for a long period of time- finally got on a bus bound for Cancun where we were delayed for a further five hours. Signature made no apologies- we got home at approx. 5:00 am the next day over tweve hours late. If there were any elderly people Lord have mercy as this pilgramge was all up hill through the ghettos of playa. Skyservice should close their doors as they are a hack group of fast buck operators.