We stayed at the Melia, Cozumel the week of October 27, the low season. It was not crowded. The service from the staff was great, although there were limitations. The best thing I can say about the Melia is that the staff does try hard.

Our room was nothing to brag about other than it did have an ocean view. It was very humid the first few days of our stay. Our room did have an conditioner which would make the tile floor chilly and water would condense onto it from the air. This made the floor somewhat dangerous and there was nothing the staff could do about it. The staff did do something about it when a drain line in the air conditioner plugged up one night and we discovered water covering the entire floor of the room. My wife came very close to falling down. This occurred after midnight and to their credit, the staff was very prompt.

The problem with the Melia is that they try to be a 5 star resort on a 2 star budget. The restaurant, La Isla is well, a buffet I don’t especially care for buffet meals. The La Iguana Snack-Bar, was worse. The hamburgers were pre-cooked and reheated. The chicken quesadillas were mostly cheese and tortilla. The Café Paraíso Restaurant, which required reservations was nice, albeit pretentious. The food was the best at the resort but, the menu was rather limited. However, the deserts were the same deserts that were being served at the La Isla and La Iguana and the wines were the same Mexican wines that were being served at the La Isla. Let me say this about the Mexican wines that I drank there; they all had an aftertaste that was horrible.

Speaking of drink, the bars served the typical tropical drinks with the notable exception of the Mojito. And, you could literally drink as many as you wanted because there was almost no alcohol in them. If you watched the bartenders pouring the drinks, it looked like they were mixing fairly strong drinks. I drank ten rum and cokes one night in less than four hours and felt sober.

The beach at the resort is nice if you don’t mind that the wind blows most of the time. The water at the beach is another story. Depending on the duration and intensity of the wind, the water at the beach can be anything form a light shade of tan to a dark murky brown. The darker water contains the more seaweed and flotsam that you really don’t want clinging to your body when you get out of it. The thing is, the water is never the turquoise blue that is shown in the photos you see of the resort. I suspect that those photos are either very rare or, have been retouched. That water does exist but it is far south of the resort.

Then, there was the condo-timeshare pitch that we endured. They give you the tour which, we had pretty much already given ourselves but, they do show you a room in the main tower that has a garden tub on the balcony and a little kitchen and is a little bigger and was really more like the room that we THOUGHT that we booked. Needless to say, the advertised 90 minute tour turned into a three hour sales onslaught but darn, there was no sale.

In conclusion, don’t go there. There are many other resorts that have it ALL. The Melia has some of it but, they don’t have it ALL.

the most disappointing was the beach/pool situation. the water is quite muddy and totally choked with seaweed, quite vicious rocks and boulders on entry all along the beach. one large pool is for kids with loungers and shade - but very shallow and noisy (balls flying,etc) - not for adults to relax. the other pool is small, has a wet bar, where people often line up for 10am opening - loud music, no shade what so ever around the pool, the deep end (circle) is too deep - can't reach the bottom even if you are 6'4"! and too small to swim in... that only leaves a beach at cozumeleno next door - some fish you can see there with snorkel and water is much clearer.
the so called 'all-inclusive water activities' are a joke. for snorkel you have to walk along the rocky shore (shoes are a must!garbage and bottles , abandonned property,etc) about 15 -20 min : there is some fish there, but not much, not really worth the effort. the wind-surfing lessons are even worse: they barely speak a few words of english, climb once on the board to show once and can't explain anything (better read up on the subject at home). when after a few days i asked for another lesson, they just said - you already had one and ignored me. the sun-fish boat was broken (and had been broken for sev weeks).
the food is a very sloppy buffet. the gourmet french restaurant very hard to book (7am sharp) - besides, not worth it at all. the ubiquitous mexican arrachera at the grill once was good, the other time very gristly.
there is no breeze to speak of like in cancun: very hot to stay on the beach, even though thatched umbrellas are plentiful.
all in all not a place to relax on premises.
as far as diving: 99% is deep dives. we specifically booked 2 shallow dives, and still they took us to 1 deep one. as far a shallow dives go - isla muheres in cancun is much better (not to mention the beaches or hotels or food or amenities).
the only saving grace: long walks on the flat beach towards the tip of the island (park area). but after 5 min the area is totally deserted, it's the end of development. melia is the last hotel.

GETTING THERE.....
My boyfriend and I arrived in Cancun on May 13th, 2006. We took a shuttle from the Cancun airport and then took a ferry from PDC to Cozumel, and took a taxi to our the Melia all-inclusive hotel/resort. We had not eaten since leaving Minneapolis at 9am that morning so we were crabby and ready to relax and eat when we got there. I do not recommend flying into Cancun. It was a BIG pain. (Our plane landed at 12:15 and didn't actually get to the hotel until 4:00ish.) We had our travel agent set up all the shuttles and ferry rides for us through Lomas so we didn't have to pay for anything except tipping the shuttle/taxi drivers. They were great to us and sort of held our hand so we didn't have to worry about where to go or anything (first time Mexico travelers, sort of nervous about everything.)
DAY 1.....
Well, we finally got there and decided to upgrade our room to an ocean view JR suite. It costs us an extra $25 per night for this upgrade, so it wasn't too bad. We didn't spend hardly any time in the room except sleeping, so we are both not sure if it was worth it. HOWEVER, the ocean view was beautiful if you plan on relaxing in your room a lot. The rooms were gorgeous. The AC was very cold, but can be adjusted. The rooms were fully stocked daily with pop, beer and lots of bottled water. They supplied us with an iron, ironing board, blowdryer, standard soaps and shampoos. The towels were HUGE. We always had hot water and showers worked very well. Personally, I don't know what more you could ask for in a hotel room in Mexico. Oh wait, they don't have alarm clocks in the room, so bring your own; we thought that was odd. If you run out of clean clothes, they have laundry services, but moderately expensive. Our room had two double beds, they were hard, and the sheets were no more then 100 or 200 thread count which does not feel good on a sunburn. And, it is kind of hard for two people to sleep on a double bed so I'd HIGHLY recommend to ask for a king sized bed. The beds were my only complaint.
After leaving our room we got something to eat at the snack bar. The snack bar is open at all times except for dinner, but you had other choices for dinner time. The snack bar is okay. You could get burgers, hotdogs, appitizers, and the BEST nachos ever. Get those, they are really good. We spend the rest of the night walking on the beach and getting adjusted to the resort. Oh, I forgot, we did make our way to the bar where you could get anything from Mexico beer to fun cocktails, to after dinner drinks. (They served premium alcohol too:) The bartenders were great. They remembered exactly what everyone was drinking. Make sure to tip them at the end of the week. They work very hard.
DAY 2....
As soon as the sun started to peek up, I was awake and so excited to start my first day of vacation in beautiful Cozumel. We got ready, ate breakfast at the buffet. Try to stay clear of the fried taco things at breakfast even though they are super good. You will thank yourself later in the week if you do. The breakfast buffet has pretty much everything you could want from eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, waffles and pancakes, fruit, smoothies, etc. Have the build your own omelette. The cheese they use in them is super good and always cooked all the way through.
Next, we headed to the pool and that is where we spend most of the day. We never had trouble getting a chair by the pool. In the pool is a swim up bar. That was awesome! Be careful not to drink too early or you'll be sleeping by afternoon, but I guess you're on vacation, so there is always time for a nap. Once again, the drinks were really good, and flowing!!! It was an overcast day so we neglected to wear a high SPF sunscreen. BIG MISTAKE. We were very burned by the end of the day. One thing we learned there is that it is more important NOT to be burned then to try to get a tan right away. Don't worry, the tan will come.
Lunch we ate at the snack bar, pretty good. Dinner was at the fancy restaurant there. You have to make reservations in the morning if you want to eat there at night. If you are find dining fan you will love this place. We found the meats to be not exacly grade A quality, but still good. In my opinion, you go to Mexico to eat good Mexican food, so if you get american food there, you shouldn't be too disappointed if it is just okay. Be careful of drinking too much wine at the restaurant. They keep filling up your glass, so don't end up passed out in bed by 7:30 like we did!
DAY 3....
We pretty much just hung out by the pool and beach like day 2. It was a bit sunnier today, which was nice. The beaches in front of the Melia are very nice, some seaweed, so they are not exactly great for swimming, but still a great sight. You can walt to El Coz next door to the left for some better beaches. They are still rocky over there, but the water is clear and beautiful. If you walk down a 100 feet or so from the Melia to the left, you can find a great place to snorkle. My boyfriend met another couple that have a timeshare at the Melia that took him snorkleing and they had a great time. The Melia's snorkle equipment isn't that great so you might want to bring your own mask if you plan on doing a lot of it.
One thing really fun to do is go out to the pier and take some bread from the buffet and feed the fish. You will see so many colorful fish. That was really neat.
We ate dinner at the other restaurant that night. All in all, pretty good. They server steak, chicken, fish, seafood and pasta. You will also need reservations for this restaurant.
Day 4...
We met a couple at the pool on Day 3 which we ended up spending a ton of time with on the rest of the trip. We all went into town to do some shopping. We did some price haggling, then had some beers and ate. Also, it is a pretty cheap cab ride to town; 5-7 + tip.
Day 5...
Another hanging by the pool day. Getting tired and worn out at this point.
Day 6...
Today was the best day of our trip so far. We booked an excursion to Isla De La Pasion. This excursion is NOT advertised, so ask the excursion desk about it. It was awesome. Basically, it's a little island off the northern coast of Cozumel. It is privately owned and caters mostly to cruise ship excursions. The beaches there were absolutely beautiful and calm. You could walk way into the ocean and never step on a rock. The bottoms were prefectly sandy. We were told that the Corona commercials were taped there, but that might be a rumor. Either way, it was awesome. I would highly recommend going there if you can find someone to take you there.
We got back and ate, drank too much... went to bed.
Day 7...
We got up very early today to go on an ATV/snorkel tour. We went to some nature reserve where we snorkeled. I thought that was super fun. Then we hopped on our ATV's and went cruising around the island on some roads and rough terrain. We stopped on the way to see a very pretty beach, some mayan Ruins, and ate lunch. The excursion was really fun, I would recommend.
When we got back my boyfriend went parasailing. He said it was pretty fun, kind of scary, but fun. I was supposed to go, but got too scared. It did look safe, so don't hesitate to do it becaue it is a good way to see the whole island.
Day 8...
Sadly, we had to go home. We had a great time, but we were ready. We'll definately be back to the Melia in a few years. The value was great and we were treated so well. Please respond with any questions if you have them.
P.S Two things. TIP AT THIS PLACE,THEY DESERVE IT! ALSO, DO NOT USE TRAVELERS CHECKS. THEY ARE A PAIN. JUST BRING SOME CASH AND YOUR CREDIT CARD.

This was the second time we have stayed here. Granted it has been one year since we were there last, but we remember what the rooms look like. We booked a junior suite (again) and got the maids quarters off of a full suite Room 1304. We went to the front desk to tell them that we had booked a junior suite, not the maids quarters. They just said that all of the rooms in the main tower were junior suites and would not move us. This is the slow time of the season so the hotel was not anywhere near full.
The food was below average (was sick for 4 days).
The service was below average (the doorman was the only one to smile and ask how we were doing every day, liked him).
We will not go back to this hotel.

We stayed in Cozumel for 2 weeks. the first week was at the Occidental Grand. EVERYTHING was perfect there.

We stayed at both this year to see how much difference there was between the two. Night and day.