Occidental Grand Cozumel
is a hotel very , very tourists oriented ...
there are no bracelets , no towel cards , no deposits for towels ,
towels are available at any time
Concierge is on duty at each villa 24/7.
(each villa has 24 suites and total of 10 villas)
Lunch at the beach restaurant from 12.00 to 17.00.
Dining at a la carte restaurants as many times as you wish,
provided you make reservation.
Many other items like snorkeling equipment, water sports ...
all at no cost.
We liked the hotel.

We stayed at the Occidental Grand Cozumel from May 24 to June 7.
Even if the weather was not as good as we expected, due to tropical depression Arthur, we got a lot of good time.

Pros:
The room are confortable and clean.
The food at the buffets restaurants (Main / Beach) is good.
The services is great.
The pools are clean.
The personel is friendly and always want to help you have great vacation.

Cons:
The quantity of the food at the "à la carte" restaurants.

What can be improved:
The ambiance in the lobby bar.
An Expresso machine in the lobby bar.

A girlfriend and I just got back from staying at the Occidental from 6/1/08 to 6/8/08. Unfortunately we arrived just at the end of the season's first tropical storm. It poured both our arrival day (Sunday) as well as Monday. It didn't dampen our experience one bit. The hotel is situated on the most beautiful grounds I ever experienced. The staff does an excellent job of keeping the grounds immaculate. Trees and blooming flowers everywhere. Our room was situated on the third floor in building 15 (no elevatorss - great exercise). The room was nicely appointed with two double beds. However, there wasn't much drawer space for clothes. The bathroom was large with a jetted tub, seperate glass enclosed shower. There was a large closet with cubby holes and the safe. Do use the safe as there was a report of theft but the people involved left things out. Air conditioning was poor. In fact we had to call maintenance twice in one night as it wasn't working at all. They came out promptly at each call (6:30 PM) and again (12:15 AM). Yes, even the in the AM they came to fix it. Both of us found the beds to be comfortable. Mexican TV is horrible so there wasn't much to do in the room if you didn't have a book. The food was only so-so. Breakfast was definitely the best with made to order omelets, french toast, pancakes, etc. Abundant fresh fruits available too. Lunch was a mixed bag everyday. The hamburgers and hotdogs were nasty. Chicken was good as well as the french fries and onion rings. Salad bar as well each day. Dinner was a mixed bag too. We ate alot at the pizza restaurant which was good. Twice we had dinner at the grill. The steak both times was awesome. It was very tender, cooked to order with a delicious sauce on it. Unfortunately you can only eat their with reservations and are only given a certain number of reservations based on the length of your stay. One day we ate at Chankaanab National Park as we swam with the dolphins there (remarkable experience - beautiful park). We also ate one night at the Hard Rock Cafe downtown. Very good.
Maid service was excellent. Fresh towels throughout the day, towel animals each night. Turn down service with Hershey kisses and the agenda for the next day. Mini-fridge restocked daily with soda, water and beer. Different shows each night from men with fire to cabaret type shows to comedy. All in all I found it to be a very relaxing, beautiful vacation. Oh by the way the entertainment staff especially Alan and Sandra are the best. Very friendly and fun. Enjoy your stay. You'll be glad you came to this resort.

We stayed this resort from May31 to Jun7th and our experiences were all positive. All the stuffs worked hards to please us. Lot of foods to choose from. Because there are so much vareities, not all are execellent. My best likes are the beef and salmon that are live cook from the grill at the buffet.
I like to mention about the Dive shop, Dive Palancar. Their service was excellent. I purchased the 10 dives package for $290 usf which includes unlimited sharedives (which was not very good due to poor vis.). For this packages, their staff arranges two special dives for me, an wreck penetration dive and Punta Sur(deep cave dive), which were amazing dives. As long as you get six experienced divers to sign up the dive, they will arrange it providing weather is cooperating. There are lockers at the side of the dive shop, but it requires your own lock(locker is a bit weak but no one lost anything while I was there.). Most dives comes along with a video photographer, Jackie, a Japanese woman who speaks Spanish as well as English. She shoot the whole dive and sell the dvd for $60, which includes another dvd on sealifes of Cozumel which is execellent.(you could review the DVD the next day) I brought two dive dvds from her and thank goodness that I did as I watched the DVD after I got home. Let her know ahead of time that you are interested in the DVD and she will put more shoots of you in the DVD.
Two small negative things: my computer key cards for the door failed twice to open the door and I have to go to the front desk to get rekey again.
Snorkelling at the front of the resort is not very good for experienced snorkeller. Other than a big group of fishes surrounding a big barracula(very friendy) on the far left corner of the swimming area, there are not much to see. Allegro has slightly better snorkelling on their beach which is only a 10 minutes walk.
I certainly would go back to this resort.(This is my second to this area, first time was at Allegro.)