My family of 12 people just got back from a fabulous vacation in Cozumel at the Melia Cozumel. Before we went we read the reviews both great and not so great and were a little apprehensive of what to expect. Most of the family upgraded to the Junior Suites which was totally worth the little extra cost, the rooms were large with a fabulous view of the ocean, we were on the 7th and 8th floors. The hotel room was clean, and the air conditioners worked a little too well as it was always cold in the room. The mini bar was well stocked in the room and I even left a request for more coca cola lite and that day half my refrigerator was filled up. A couple people in our family booked the garden deluxe rooms which did not have the in room refrigerator or the ocean view and there air conditioners did not work as well. They might have a different picture of the resort than I did because they did not upgrade. Everyone at the resort was friendly and helpful. My dad played golf and loved the course. The water out in front of the Melia is murky, but just walk 50 steps to the hotel over and there is great snorkeling. The beach is better at the Melia than the hotel next door with great sand. The food was okay, don't expect typical American cuisine and be willing to try new things. If you don't like the food go downtown and eat at Las Palmeras or Especias restaurant. I also highly recommend a tour with Adrian as he took us extreme snorkeling and up to Punta Molas on a fabulous tour. Chakanaab state park was also beautiful with great snorkeling. Get a map by Can Do maps, it was helpful and everything on the map was accurate for people who like adventure who don't like the cruise ship tours with lots of people. Overall I had a fabulous vacation and I would recommend the Melia although it is not a 5 star resort with pampering service everywhere, they will go out of their way to help you have a great time. By the way, my husband and I did not get bothered once by the time share people. Do your homework before you go and get to know the great island of Cozumel, we will definitely go back.

My wife and I returned from a 5 night stay at the Melia Cozumel the other day. The trip served it’s purpose, which was to get away and relax.

We arrived in Coz at 11:30am Friday July 4th with little to no problems with the airports or airlines, which is unusual nowadays. We made it through immigration and customs in about a half an hour and then snaked our way past the time share hawkers and onto a van. We were at the Melia by 12:30.

Check in was relatively painless. The staff took care of our needs, but not much else. They gave us a ocean view room in the far northern portion of the grounds, which was good. The room was a typical hotel room, clean and well appointed. It was freezing in the room. The thermostat was turned all the way to 10 degrees (c). We set it at 25, put on our suits and made our way to the beach. Before we made it to the beach, we stopped at the buffet and had a bite to eat. I say bite, because that is about all we could get down. It was pretty bad. The beach was nice, with beautiful white sand and plenty of palapas for shade. I dove into my first beer, and had good service from the bar that was attended by Eddier. He was the friendliest bartender that we had all week. Once we were done on the beach, we went back to the room to clean up for dinner. The room was warming up, but everything was wet. I nearly busted my butt on the wet tile, so we turned the thermostat back down to 10, hoping it would dry things out. It didn’t. We battled that AC the whole trip, it was either meat locker or swimming pool. We chose meat locker.

We had dinner at the buffet, and again it was pretty bad. I was starving at this point, so I ate what I could find. We were pretty tired from a day of traveling, so we were in the meat locker and asleep by 9:00pm.

We woke up the next day, got ready and went to the buffet for breakfast, and this time is was actually pretty good. So we were able to eat.

We hung out on the beach all day and went snorkeling at the El Coz a couple of times. We tried lunch at the grill, and decided we would have to eat big breakfasts and then eat an early dinner in town the rest of the week. We tried the buffet again that night and never went back, except for breakfast.

Sunday we went into town around 11:00am and milled around a bit. We knew that nothing would be happening until later, so we decided to take the ferry over to PDC. One of the time share guys stopped us and told us he would pay for our ferry ride and give us $110 USD if we went to a presentation at Sandos. We said OK, since we really had nothing else to do. It was fun going over there and then going to Sandos on the Riveria Maya. Very nice place. They tried their hardest to get us to bite, but we didn’t and took our $110 and left. We shopped in PDC and had dinner with that money. It was worth it. We really liked 5th avenue in PDC. It was lively and had a lot of unique little places. We caught the ferry back at 6:00 but we were exhausted so we decided to head back to the hotel. We were under the covers pretty early that night.

Monday we rented a car and toured the island. This was the highlight of our trip. We stopped at all of the beach clubs once we passed the hotels in the southern zone. Our first stop was at Playancar Beach Club, which was real nice. It was still early, so there wasn’t a lot of activity. We had a drink and left. Our next stop was the Eco park and lighthouse. It cost $10 each to get in, but it was money well spent. I liked the crocodile section. We saw several. Next was the Reggae Café. We had a drink, got pounded by the surf, and made our way down the road. We stopped at all of the beach clubs, but I don’t remember their names. All were fun. We stopped and had dinner at Coconuts. It was FABULOUS!!!! What a fun place. We spent quite a bit of time there and had fun with the wait and bar staff. I think our next stop were the ruins. This was very interesting for me, and it was fun hiking around in the jungle. We were going to go into town to do some shopping, but we were too tired and went back to the hotel. We cleaned up and sat at the Beach Bar the rest of the night. We made our way back to the meat locker and snuggled under the warm covers.

Tuesday was a beach and snorkeling day. I drank most of the day, which was fun. Didn’t eat at the buffet except for breakfast. We went into town for an early dinner at Casa Denis. It was WONDERFUL. I had the Conch in Garlic and Pepper Sauce and my wife had the shrimp fajitas. Both were fabulous. We really enjoyed Casa Denis. We walked around San Miguel for a couple of hours shopping, drinking and taking pictures. We really enjoyed the town. It was very clean and laid back while all of the locals were very friendly. We went back to the hotel and sat at the beach bar the rest of the night. Went back to the meat locker for the last time.

Our flight left on Wednesday, and I was ready to head home. We had breakfast in the buffet, then braved the snack bar again. I found that the hot dogs were edible and ate a couple of those so I had something in my stomach for the day of traveling.

All-in-all the trip served it’s purpose. Cozumel is a very nice island and someplace we may return to, but not the Melia. We went the frugal route for this trip, and got what we paid for. I wouldn’t say the Melia was bad, but it is a low-cost AI in a popular tourist destination. If you are aware of that when you book, you will not be disappointed, mostly.

My husband and I just got back from our stay at the Melia Cozumel in June. This was one of the most relaxing vacations we have had! The Melia presented some of the friendlist staff we have ever encountered! They were prompt and efficient with all of our requests. In additiion, the hotel had staff members who helped book excursions. These were some of the most freindly and helpful people. They made sure we were well informed of all aspects of our excursion and helped us pick the right activites for our personalities.
This hotel does not have a great night life, which makes for a very relaxing stay. A bonus is the close proximity to the city of Cozumel (it was a 5-8 min taxi ride) if you are looking for a more wild time. The actual city of Cozumel was one of the safest cities we have visited. The people were wonderful!
The food at the hotel was not fantastic but it was not horrible. The food it exactly what you expect for a buffet. Our only two compalints were: the hotel air conditioner was terrible! It smelled and never got the humidity out of the room and, the beach water was full of seaweed. We walked to the adjoining beach to snorkel. I would rate this hotel 7 out of 10 and would consider staying at the Melia Cozumel on out next visit to this beautiful city.

We returned last night after spending a week at the Melia Cozumel. It was our first trip to Mexico and we were greatly disappointed. I had read a lot of reviews on the Melia and some were bad. I was hoping that the good ones were right. Not the case. All of the bad reviews hit the nail on the head.
When we checked in the staff at the front desk was not friendly. I can tolerate almost anything if people are just nice. At any rate we were given a room with a view of the building next to the pool. We had a room upgrade coupon from AAA, but they said that there was nothing available and to check back in the morning. Our room was very damp and musty. I went back the next morning to see about our upgrade and they reluctantly gave us one. The upgraded room was ocean view but still very damp and musty. The tile floor stayed wet with moisture almost the whole time. Our bed sheets were damp and sticky.
The buffet is bad. It is really hard to find something on it that even looks palable. The place settings are not changed with each guests departure, just clean utensils replacing the used ones.
We did make the early morning reservations for the restaurants and the food there was better but still not really good.
The drinks at every location in the resort are watered down. They had a very limited beer selection.
We had a coupon for $50.00 credit towards internet usage and then was told that it was for wireless connection only. We still had to pay $5.00/30 minutes to use their internet area which was in the stinky musty basement. There was even a crab on the steps going down there.
We also had a coupon for a free bottle of wine. Even though we asked for it three times, it never appeared.
The staff at the water sports area was very unfriendly.
The vacation club presentation guy at the towel stand was very annoying. Too pushy. Having him at the towel stand was
On the postive side, the grounds were beautifully kept. The bell boys and maids were very nice. They should have been running the place. The gym was well equipped, pleasantly dry and airy.