What I liked:

The people working at the resort are awesome, very nice and super friendly. The entertainment staff especially is our favorite: Julio (a wonderful guide for our bike tour); Hector & Chicken Little both are super nice and energetic; Mercy, Liz and Flor who run the Kids' Play Room are so sweet and patient with the children. Everyone works tirelessly from morning to night to make sure that the guests are happy. It's amazing!

The resort is in a very busy location, being minutes away from the market of Fifth Avenue, so if you like to be within walking distance of everything fun, this resort is perfect for that.

The pool area is nice and clean!

The drinks are plentiful and there are always people walking around offering you more drinks. :)

A shelf with books for the guests to browse and use.

Outdoor activities are wonderful: bike tours, pilates & yoga classes, dance classes, pool volleyball hours, beach volleyball, kayak, snorkeling, etc.

The beach area is nice and clean, though the beach is very small due to hurricane damages from the previous years. The hotel is situated by an inlet, so there are no strong waves crashing onto the beach.

Housekeeping staff was excellent. Our room is cleaned daily and there were animal towels with fresh flowers in our room every day. A very nice touch!

The fruits are fresh and sweet - especially at breakfast! The papayas were my favorite!

What I didn't like:

The food is just ok. We felt like we were eating resort food, and not real local Mexican food.

The room decor is very ornate and heavy and didn't make us feel relaxed. I had imagined a Mexican resort & spa to be more serene, and felt a bit let down upon arriving.

There are not too many indoor activities so if you've had enough of the sun and beaches and want to stay inside for the day, there's not much to do other than a couple of ping pong tables and a pool table.

Every time we try to try to visit the sister resort next door, Royal Real Resort (adults only), someone there stopped us and told us to leave which we thought was not very nice.

Not too many choices restaurant wise. Other than the buffet, we ate at the Mexican restaurant one night, and the Italian restaurant two nights. Wish there were more restaurants on site.

Our 10 day stay with a family of 12 could not have been better. The staff was eager to meet every need. The young children looked forward to visiting the kids club, the older children were made to feel so important by the recreation crew, and the adults were made comfortable in everyway. Our rooms were always cool and clean, the food was not only delicious, but the the variety was such that everyone, even the picky eaters had plenty to eat at every meal. Being close todown town was a big plus for us too. The shoppers could leave anytime, the night owls could stay out and find their way back "anytime". The resort even took buses to some of the clubs in the evenings. We wondered if10 days would be too long.... NO!!!

My husband and I arrived on Wed. June 11th at 12:00pm. We were greeted immediately by Manola of Guest Services who provided us with a delicous fruity drink, while we waited and waited and waited to be checked in. I was pleasantly surprised , when we were given a room .... no bumping issues for us but still held my beath until I could actually check out the room. I booked a OV room and was so afraid we would have to break our necks to actually see the Sea. Whoo Hooo! Room 244 has a really nice view of the Sea ...not perfect but nice enough for this Midwestern Gal.

Yes, Manola talked to us every day about visiting next door for a Timeshare presentation (which we actually took, one day I did not feel well and didn't want to do anything but stay inside!) Here again, these people didn't pressure us alot into buying the timeshare. It was my understanding there had been too many complaints about this!

Anyway back to our room.... it was huge... Hats off to LUZ she makes the prettiest towel art! Our mini-fridge was always well stocked, I would just leave a note of what I wanted that day along with a $ and when we returned to the room the drinks would be chilling.

Armondo and Lorenzo were our 2 favorite bartenders and would fix drinks to your liking. I liked my weak while my husband liked them strong. Not a problem. Both men remembered your drinks and how you took them.

The food was good. I especially likes the Italian Restaurant and we ate they 3 nights... the Tuna Carpatico is to die for. We also ate at Maria's 3 nights.... my husband's favorite.

As far as tours go we booked the COBA MAYAN ENCOUNTER with Alltournative . It was fun! We spent one day in Cozumel and took the tour on the submarine. way cool!!!

Made many trips down 5th ave and stopped in at Bad Boys Beach Bar ( you can only get there from the beachside) say hi to Pauly. He was quite the character and could carry 3 Margaritas on the top of his head!

The only complaint I had was with the front desk, if you ask them a question they didn't know anything and weren't going to do a whole lot to help you out. So if I had a question I would just go to guest services and get help from them.

All in all it was a great trip and I would advise anyone to just have an open mind and enjoy your vacation.

This was by far the best vacation spot we have ever been to! The hotel was absolutely beautiful, clean and the staff couldn't have been more polite or friendly. We had a Jr. Oceanfront Suite that was very spacious with a nice terrace to relax on and view the ocean. I especially would like to comment on the sports and entertainment crew. It was very obvious that this group of young people loved their jobs. They led activities like water volleyball,
beach volleyball, & water aerobics everyday. We will definitely be planning a return trip to the Gran Porto Real!!

Carmen Coleman
Petersburg, IN 47567