My family (my husband, 2.5 year old, and 4 month old) and I just returned from the Melia on Aug 10th. At first we were skeptical of the resort overall. The water located in front of the hotel was brown and filled with seaweed. There was a man made pier built to the south of the hotel that created a seaweed barrier for the adjacent hotel. But out of the resorts in the northern shore it did have the nicest beach with powdery white sand. The other resorts where the water was crystal blue did not have such a nice beach, they had a lot of coral reefs. We were only given a choice of two restaurants to eat from b/c the hurricane that hit weeks before damaged something in the outside restaurant, so that was not open. If you did not make reservations for the "fancier" restaurant by 1pm that day you were forced to eat at the buffet for all three meals-the variety was ok and the food was not that bad. We were not too impressed with the "fancier" restaurant-it was as if food from the buffet was served just in a more formal atmosphere. There were only two bars open during the day and one at night. I can't complain about the service though. We asked for an upgrade to a Junior Ocean View Suite and were given the room with no problem. We did enjoy the service of early morning coffee delivered to your room with fresh pastries. The a/c broke the last night we were in Cozumel but the hotel fixed the problem right away and we were back on track in about 20 minutes. The wait staff and other employees were extremely friendly and very helpful. At 9pm every night the staff puts on a dance show- it had to be the best dance show that I have ever seen at a resort. The music was familiar and the dancers performed as if they had been trained by a professional. But when the show was over there was really nothing to do but hang out at the one bar open in the lobby. The resort did offer activities for children-crafts and a play area. We had a good time but I think I would explore some of the other resorts that are south of the main town of Cozumel.

The Melia is located on the northern most end of Cozumel where the beach is divided by a 50ft. pier about 100 yards south of the resort. This seperates Melia's beach from the rest of Cozumel. Melia's beach looks like any beach you would find at your local lake. It has dirty water and has a stench. Directly on the other side of the pier is the beautiful crystal clear water that you see pictures of. So if you want to do any ocean swimming you have to go somewhere else. We opted to go the cheap route and get the pool side view rather than the oceanview, big mistake if you want to sleep past 8:30a.m. They set up a huge speaker poolside early in the morning for their activities. The sounds coming from the pool area makes it impossible to sleep in. The walls are paper thin so you are able to here your neighbors every move, also making sleeping a difficult task. The floors are tile so when any piece of furniture is moved it makes a horid sound impossible to ignore. I found that if you want to get some peace and quite just go to the beach, nobody swims there. There was supposed to be three restaraunts but only two were running during our stay. The buffet was mediocre at best. The fine dining was anything but fine. If you do not make reservations by 9:00a.m you are stuck eating the buffet every meal. We ate the fine dining our second night. It was better than the buffet but still lacked in the flavor we desired. We ended up eating elsewhere most of our trip not getting to take full advantage of the all-inclusive deal. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. They helped to make the stay tolerable. The hotel does provide activities around the resort to make your stay fun. My recommendation is to stay somewhere south of downtown. The beaches seem to be in better order and there is more to do down that direction. Pay the extra money!

Ok so let me start off by saying that the Melia is a great hotel. My husband and I went there for our honeymoon July31-Aug8. Service was exceptional. The food was great the first few nights, however towards the end of the trip, we grew rather tired of the same things. The formal dinner is great. For the most part, everything I read before hand was true. We got there with a optimistic view, though. We were upgraded to a honeymoon suite which was great except for the fact that the jacuzzi didn't work, and the air conditioning stopped working on the second night. There was a damp musty smell, but we lit candles and were fine. When the lack of a/c became unbearable, we were moved to room 233 for the night. This room was freezing which my husband loved. The only problem was his being 6ft 4in and the room having two double beds. The next day, we were moved to a junior suite on the 10th floor which was by far the best room, but guess what (a/c was still not working). We decided finally to spend our honeymoon in the room with the two double beds. We actually ended up enjoying the stay. We met great people from all over the world, and if it weren't for my husband getting an intestinal virus on our last day, we probably would go back much sooner. (Not the melia's fault) I think we are going to try somewhere different next time, merely for the experiance. However, if your looking for a bargain vacation, that will only last 3 or 4 days, the Melia is still the place to go.

My husband and I just got back from the Melia, and I guess the biggest disappointment was the water on the beach at the hotel - yes, it is brown, and I didn't want to swim in it...there were some people that would go in to cool off, but seeing the beautiful turquoise water next store made me envious of their resort. I've heard that they are trying to have the pier separating the hotels removed in order to get the blue water back. That would help the hotel a lot.

The other dissapointment was the size of the resort. We had been to Melia Punta Cana and it was absolutely gorgeous and huge - maybe too big! They had trolleys that ran that would take you back to your room in the evening. This resort is small, in comparison - there is not much to it - a couple of pools, a dining area, a beach dining area, a small theater and another "upgraded" restaurant. Personally, I liked the food - there was so much to choose from at every meal. All of the staff was very friendly and accomodating - the rooms were clean, but our jacuzzi was dirty - not to look at it, but once it was filled there were unidentified objects floating in the water. We think the jets had this stuff in it - not sure - only used it once...

It was very relaxing on the resort - and I tend to enjoy a slightly livelier vaction - I love to dance, and the "disco" (the theater tranforms into a disco from 11 to 1 a.m.) is only opened for 2 hours - most nights, we did not stay up that long - between the drinks and the sun, we were tired after a late dinner and retreated to our room - the one night we did stay up to go dancing, we found that no one was there - so we went back to the lobby bar...after a while, we walked back to see if more people were at the disco, and the door was locked by midnight.

We were fortunate that we didn't have air conditioning problems with our building, however, some of the guests on the other side, near the pool and beach bar, had no air conditioning for four days...which is a long time in the heat of Cozumel! Of course, with the hurricane, it may have caused some problems that they didn't immediately see....which is understandable.
But, four days is a long time to wait to get the a/c fixed.

The Cozumelino next door (we walked over to their beach for a swim on a couple of days, and we checked out the resort one other day) seemed to be an upgrade from Melia. They had a nicer, larger pool with a bigger pool bar, the grounds were prettier - more greenery and island flowers here and there, and they had a little bridge that led to an area that had a giant chess set - my husband is a chess freak, so this was a thrill to him and I took pictures. Their lobby was also much nicer....we didn't get to see a room, but I was curious what they looked like. I've heard other people comment that next time they would stay there - we, however, have a vacation club with Melia resorts. I would think that they should drop a few bucks into this resort to make it a little more presentable and attractive to the guests.

Overall, it was a good vacation - and maybe the Punta Cana location spoiled us a bit...we have other destinations in mind for future vacations, but hopefully will get back to the Cozumel when Melia upgrades their resort a bit.