As a travel agent I travel a lot and try not to loose reality on what a great 4 or 5 or 6 star is suppose to offer. This is a solid 5 star out of 6! The grounds were incredible complete with lizards, iguanas and other creatures of the night. See photos! They do not bother you but boy they make you jump the 1st time you see them laying under your chair by the pool to get some shade.
Ok, enough of that, I stayed in the Royal Section in a 1 bedroom suite. To be honest, beds were too firm, but was told on my tour that there are BIG changes coming to the Grand product for Occidental. Food was excellent, service fantastic and the 2 pools great, one near the beach is the activity pool and one in the center of the resort is for relaxation. There is no swim up pool bar here because this is not that type of resort. It is not a party resort which is exactly what I was looking for. The drinks were top shelf and enough outdoor bars to keep you happy. Ala carte restaurants moved quickly (I appreciated that after the Iberostar Grand...3 hour dinners) and the food fresh, beautifully displayed
and tasty.
Room service a bit too slow, but I only ordered coffee/tea and toast to see how it worked. Took 1 hour.

Showers were great, amenties top shelf, beautiful inlayed tile and stone floors in the rooms. This was originally going to be a Royal Hideaway like in Playacar, but when they decided to open they were afraid they could not get the $$ clients to come to Cozumel.

Beach was great and plenty of areas to get in without the coral hurting your feet as other resorts in Cozumel.

So much more we did around the island, public beacher, lighhouses, etc...

Email me for any more questions or quotes:
donna@lonestar-travel.com

Having travelled to the Caribbean and Mexico 2-3 times per year for years, I can honestly say this place has the worst case of critters I have ever seen.

I stayed in this BELOW AVERAGE hotel Jun 25-29, 2005. Anyone who says this place is great has not travelled enough, or to decent places.

The Room: We had the concierge service, which is totally bogus. Even tipping didn't help our cause here. The beds were the usual Caribbean/Mexico hotel bed of concrete. The fridge was warm. The water STUNK, I mean STANK of rotten eggs, bad. The gap under the door was large enough to allow a cat to crawl in, so needless to say, every insect and rodent paid us a visit. On the positive side, the A/C worked very well, keeping the room cool around the clock.

The Beach: If you are going to Mexico for the beach, this is not the resort for you, the beach was small with very granular sand, just not nice. Furthermore, the mosquitoes were so bad on the beach you needed Strong Repellent on at all times, not very romantic, trying to sunbathe in DEET.

The Restaurants: The buffets were sparse, repetitive, and tasteless. God forbid you are travelling with kids, there is NOTHING for little kids to eat, unless they like everything mixed with onions and peppers. The service in the buffets was worthless. One of the specialty restaurants, Los Olivos was however very tasty, with courteous service, actually rivalling a decent restaurant in the US. Unfortunately, it is so hard to get a reservation in these places you may never get to go there, despite what they would lead you to beleive.

The Dive shop was OK, absolutely nothing special. Very disorganized. I've heard all these wonderful things about Cozumel diving and I'm not sure why. If you want to see abundant 1-3 inch long fish, save your money and drive to Petco for the afternoon.

The Pool(s): Small, clean, small, small.

The Bars: Very good drinks for an all inclusive, fairly consistent top shelf alcohol, and fun drinks. Corona is the only beer available in the resort with is actually great compared to what some of the other resorts use, ie Presidente or Modelo, yuck. The night club was fun, decent DJ with great selection of tunes and videos. Pool table.

The Grounds: Ok nothing exceptional. Strong smell of Mosquito abatement and septic throughout.

Although I cannot blame the weather on the hotel, it rained almost continuously while we were there, with a brief HAIL shower. When it wasn't raining we were treated to 95 degrees, 110 percent humidity, and MOSQUITOES (like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock film).

Seriously, if you go here, in spite of my recommendation not to, bring Insect repellent containing HIGH CONCENTRATIONS of DEET or you will get eaten alive. I used Sportsmen's OFF the whole time and only got a few bites, the unfortunate one's without bug spray looked like they had leprosy. Also bring tons of clothing, as nothing can be worn twice due to the dampness and mildew, and when you return home take your suitcases out in the yard, and burn the contents.