If you are looking for genuinely friendly staff, relaxing atmosphere yet plently to do - if you choose... well this is the place. This was our 3rd stay and we were not nor have we ever been disappointed. One recomendation would be to book the Royal Club, the service is incredible and the book the restaurants - especially the Royal Club restaurant. If you cannot afford the RC room accomodations that is fine, our previous stays were in regular rooms and just as nice except for the fect that we could not dine at the RC restaurant. The service, food quality and attention to your needs is surpassed by none. Again, try to dine at the restaurants, the buffet is fine but if you are loking for special then go for the restaurants.
The Grand Coz is our most favorite vacation place. You must try it and we highly recommend shopping in town but on Sunday - no ships come in on Sunday and while some people will say the shops will be closed, trust me, there will be more than enough open for business for you to get great deals on beautiful silver and Mexical artifacts. GO, you must go, it is truly heaven on earth, we will visit again shortly...

We just got back from a 7 day, 6 night stay in the Royal Club at the Occidental Grand Cozumel and we absolutely loved it. The best parts about staying in the Royal Club was the Royal Club restaurant and the option to have room service. My husband and I ate at the Royal Club restaurant for lunch once, breakfast twice and dinner three times. The food was always wonderful and the service absolutely impeccable. Arturo and Jose in the Royal Club restaurant was always very friendly and offered fantastic service. Nelly in the Royal Club reception was also fantastic. All of the waiters, bartenders and receptionists spoke fluent English and offered wonderful service both in the Royal Club as well as the other areas of the resort. Throughout the entire resort we very impressed at how fresh all the food was.

We left the hotel property once during our stay to visit Chankannab (to swim with dolphins) and we never got bored. The hotel has activities scheduled almost all day including: pool volleyball, sand volleyball, trivia, water aerobics, guacamole lessons, snorkeling lessons, sailing lessons on the Hobie cat, etc. which you are welcome to participate in at your leisure. My husband loves volleyball, but I prefer to relax on the beach so this was the perfect situation for both of us. In addition to the planned activities, you were able to use the resorts non-motorized water activities free of charge (Hobie cats, kayaks, snorkel gear, windsurfing, etc.). We particularly enjoyed the Hobie cats and snorkeling (swim out to the far left corner of the swimming area to see a bunch of fish).

We were at the Occidental from 9/2/07 - 9/8/07 which was perfect timing. The weather was perfect and it wasn't crowded at all. We experienced a few light rain showers two afternoons, but sun the rest of the time. Since most kids were back in school the resort was not crowded at all and we never had a problem finding a beach/pool chair under a palapa or umbrella.

We will most definitely be back to the Occidental Grand, probably with some family members so they can have the same wonderful experience.

Oh yeah, we were never approached or talked to a timeshare person. We occasionally saw them leading other people around the resort, but they never said a word to us when we walked past them near the lobby. And as far as making dinner reservations, if you make them a day or two ahead of time you will probably get a good time… the morning of, you’ll probably get stuck with 6:00 or 9:00.

We just returned from our honeymoon at the Occidental Grand Royal Club. Everything was wonderful. We were greeted at the front door with champagne. The Royal Club concierge was excellent and they went out of their way to help us. The only thing that happened was they knew we were honeymooners, but we did not get any of the honeymoon options. We did not pay for the honeymoon upgrade, however, we were told we would get extras like a bottle of champagne in our room on arrival which we did not but no big deal. The room was beautiful. The bed was very comfortable. The people who made the wake up calls were very friendly. The housekeepers would leave beautiful artistic displays on our beds every day. Towels were folded like crabs, swans, elephants and hearts. Housekeeping also gave us lots of bottled water everyday. The staff trying to get you to come to their "presentations" were the most annoying thing about the whole resort but they were pretty easy to avoid. You can't strike up a conversation with any of them because they won't leave you alone then. The restaurants were great but it was hard to get a reservation unless you made them a couple of days before which was hard because we tried not to plan too much. Just wanted to relax and do what we wanted so making reservations earlier than the day before or day of was difficult for us. Diving was great. I am ceritified but this was my husbands first experience diving. The dive store was hard to communicate with and we misunderstood the pricing and process at first. They were all nice though. Our divemasters were great, very helpful, pointed many things out to us on the reefs. We also did the glassbottom boat 2 reef snorkel tour. Being the slow season we were the only ones on the boat so the tourguide took us to 3 different places and got in the water with us to be able to point things out to us. Everything under the water was absolutely breathtaking with or without hurricane damage from a couple of years ago. All of the staff is very respectful of the reefs. You can also snorkel off the beach any time you like. There are huge schools of fish and stingrays right off the beach and a large barracuda. The beach is beautiful. The pools were great and well maintained. The buffetts were good. Some of the food was not to our liking but some of it was great and you could always find something to eat. The wait staff was wonderful. The bar at the pool had lots of bees (we felt sorry for the bartender) and at night there are these bugs that we think were mosquitos but were about 1/2 the size of the ones in the states but itch twice as bad. Take bug cream for sure!! This was a great place and we want to go back someday. They made our honeymoon very special.

We had a nice week at the Occidental Grand Cozumel. Since it is low season (i.e. Hurricane season + Kids back in school), we were upgraded to the Royal Club. The Royal Club was a nice addition. Rooms were pretty much the same, but it did offer a special Royal Club restaurant that we enjoyed the convenience and good service.

The Good: Speaking of Service, all of the staff were very friendly and went out of their way to be helpful. Other Cancun all-inclusive, the staffs were not as helpful (or were going for tips). We did not feel this at the Occidental Grand Cozumel. We observed good service regardless if you tipped. Also the rooms were nice and roomy with comfortable beds.

The Bad: Well nothing was per-say "bad". The food was a notch below some other Riviera Maya all inclusive (like secrets we stayed at last year). But this resort was quite a bit less expensive. Often the fish or chicken was over-cooked and dry. They also tended to use a lot of salt on the main dishes. The buffet was only so-so, with entrees being empty. Since the resort was maybe 1/2 occupancy, this could be why?? The Royal Club food was always prepared fresh, so much better.

Diving with Dive Palancar was okay. The good was they offer lots of flexibility, so you can do as much or as little diving as you want. This is because they are located right in front of the major dive sites, so can easily go back to the dock between dives. Compared to traditional 2-tank morning dives this was nice. They offered a deep 9 AM, a 10:30 AM shallow dive, a 2PM deep dive of a 3:30 PM shallow. They also did night dives twice the week we were there. We had a different dive master every morning, so no consistency. They dive staff did the minimum. One dive master for 5-6 people. You carried & set up your gear and they did not assist. They also did nothing when you were getting back in the boat except to take your fins from your prior to your climbing up the ladder. Not a big deal for me, but my wife is petite and it was sometimes difficult for her to get into the boat with all the gear on. She would often have to walk to the other end of the boat prior to unloading her tank, bc, and weights. I am guessing we were not alone in our feelings, as I only saw one person offer a tip to a dive master in 6-days of diving. Also, on more than one dive, the dive master was so far ahead of the group, there was no way he could monitor everyone. One dive a gentleman went up to 15 feet halfway through the dive. The dive master did not even notice. The gentleman hung at 15 feet for 10 minutes then finally surfaced and drifted on the surface while the group below finished the remainder of the dive. When back on the baot, notyhing was said, except fellow divers asking if he was okay ... he was:-) . The diving was typical drift diving in Cozumel, with evidence of the sand being on top of a lot of the coral from the hurricane of 2-years ago. Still it was nice diving.

I would recommend the Occidental Grand Cozumel. Very nice staff and accommodations. Diving is close (5 minute boat ride) and the beach is nice. DIve Palincar was okay for the experienced diver with a solid dive buddy.

For the money a nice all-inclusive with great access to scuba diving.