I read the reviews before checking in so I had some idea of what to expect. I was hoping for the best and, for the most part, I was indeed lucky.

The entryway is very nice and the staff quite helpful. A Rain Forest type theme is prevalent throughout. As most others stated, the rooms are modest and very clean. No bugs and the showers had both hot water and strong pressure each time throughout our 5 day trip. The maids kept things very clean and were quite cordial.

The beach is one of the larger and nicest beaches of the resorts here. We walked along the beach and none of the other places had a nicer one. The Reef's was not only a littler bigger but it had mroe umbrellas and tiki type huts than the others. The bars and food are right next to the beach and pools so everything is very convenient. In fact from one end of the property to the next takes literally 30 seconds so it's very quaint.

The drinks were definitely not the best and the food wasn't anything great either. We only tried the buffett and the Italian restaurant at night. You'll be hard pressed to find anything decent on site during this time of day. I was skeptical of other reviews saying the same but it's definitely true. Just very little flavor for anything but side dishes at this time. The biggest disappointment of the trip.

Recommendations-If you want something luxurious this is not the place. If you want something more "authentic" and smaller in scale try this. The breakfasts are great. The lunch is so so and the dinners are horrible. Try the snack bar for pizza, hamburgers, nachos ,etc if the dinners prove the same to you and you're still hungry-it's open almost all times of day, well into the night. I'd suggest going to town at night for dinner. The downtown area is only a 10 minute walk away and has tons of shopping and dining options available. A cab ride costs $5. Even the fancier restaurants have reasonalbe prices and the food was great at all of them that we tried. Don't miss the ice cream parlor each afternoon. It's some of the best ice cream I've had. The best bars are at the pool and by the front desk. Nights can have a bit of a ghost town type feel because most do go to the city.

I just came back from a 6 day stay at the Reef. As everyone before me I too read all the reviews below and I was skeptical and nervous. Let me just say before my long review that I was completely surprised and happy. Yes there are some minor flaws but sometimes you have to be realistic and if you expect near perfection than you must pay top dollar (even then you still may find flaws). To compare, we also spent 3 days in Cancun at a near 5 star resort (the ME by Melia Cancun) and although everything was clean, modern, and pricey, me and my party had the most fun at the Reef.

THE ROOMS:
Our party requested 2 rooms, the room that my girlfriend and I requested was a single king bed but to our surprise we received two doubles. We really didn't care because we were on the second floor next to our party and away from the maid's closet (if you are located near them change rooms!! they are up early and you will hear them). When we opened the door the AC was blasting so we were happy that ours worked. The room had a slight smokey smell as maybe the previous guests smoked in their. As we are not picky we just ignored it and opened up the doors to the patio and in 1/2hr the smell went away for good. Yes the beds are hard! But after being in the sun all day then going out on the town every night it didn't really bother us to much. As for the showers, we had hot water the whole time and on 2 occasions the water level dropped but for only 5 seconds and it came back on. We didn't see any bugs in the room (thank god!) but on the last day we did see a couple small ants by the window sill. The rooms were clean for the most part however I guess the maid’s everyday oversaw that the vanity mirror was completely disgusting! So many dirt marks on it but there are so many other mirrors in the room that we didn’t need it.

Beach/Pool
The beach was great. The reef is by far the best out of the resorts in the area. One day during sunset we walked down the beach and we were so happy at our beach at the reef. At first the sandbags are an eyesore (my g/f thought at first they were rocks) but then you kind of ignore them and you can also have a lot of fun trying to climb them as the surf hits you. The pools are great too and even better to jump in them around 6 or 7pm when the sun is down and the beach blows a cold wind at you and you jump in the very warm pool.

Drinks/food:
The swim up bar is great. For the most part all the bartenders were great although some knew how to make certain drinks while others had no idea. I really didn't feel that our drinks were watered down. You can even ask for straight up tequila shots which are great as always. The buffet was surprisingly good. We didn't eat at any of the restaurants because we went out to 5th avenue to eat (which i recommend) but we did eat lunch and breakfast at the buffet. The omelets and French toast were great. On 2 nights we did eat dinner at the buffet for a quick bite and that was a disappointment compared to lunch & breakfast. But in contrast, when we stayed at the ME in Cancun which is a much more quality and pricier hotel ($25 a person for breakfast), we thought the breakfast was sooo much better at the reef

Staff:
Overall the staffs were great. They really do work extra hard and do several jobs. My one problem i did have was with the entertainment staff. Although they were great in trying to get everyone to join in the activities, some in particular I found to be very rude. Since i speak Spanish (but don't look it) on several occasions i heard the male staff make some inappropriate comments regarding women guests at the pool. Also during one of the activities "water soccer" the staff members were extremely rough with each other and the guests. We had a 12yr kid who was playing and whenever he got the ball to try and score one of the women staff members would actually jump on him so much that it was almost making him drown. Me, my g/f and sister were screaming at her to stop being so rough because he was almost drowning, she simply replied "I am not doing anything". And that wasn't the ONLY TIME!! They were rough the entire game and with other guests. One time i got scared as another staff member jumped on a male guest, put his arm around his throat and put his head under water for a long time trying to get the ball from his arms. I couldn't believe how rough he was and I thought the guest was going to drown! Other than the rude comments and that one rough game, throughout the week the whole staff was great and I can’t put them down for the actions of 1-2 staff members.

Other notes:
When we checked in at the lobby we were talking to concierge who was showing us a map of the hotel and she knew we were tired and just wanted to go to our rooms. A timeshare person approached us but she quickly said to them that we were not interested. I thought that was great. To sum up, although the reef has some minor flaws (don’t forget it’s one of the older resorts) it is a nice, fun hotel to stay at and the fact that its so close to 5th avenue you can’t go wrong for the money.

Feel free to email me with any questions you may have as i left out some stuff because I didn't feel like writing a review about everything

Stayed here for a wedding trip, overall a nice resort, not hight class, but nice property. The staff was nice and friendly and the food was just okay. The rooms were not fancy and some of our group had broken air conditioners in their rooms. I would stay here again. The beach and pool areas were great.

Our trip was from 4/20 - 4/25/08. I traveled with my spouse and 3 yr old. I read reviews before booking this trip so I knew what to expect. The jungle setting of the resort was very nice and a refreshing change from those large gltizy resorts. I loved the size of this place. It was so convenient to get to everything - food, pool, lobby, etc. Nothing was more than a 2-5 minute walk. The pools were great - nice kiddie pool. The beach was awesome - no rocks and soft sand. This place had lots of beach chairs, canopy beds and shade.

The food was average. I preferred the buffet because it was quick and the variety was good. We tried both restaurants - didn't care too much for the Italian but the Mexican Rest. was fine. The snack bar was good - lots to eat for our toddler there. Ice cream was good and drinks were always plenty.

Service was fantastic. The staff was friendly and helpful. They always smiled and said Hola to us and we responded with the same. We did tip $1-2 dollars for really good service.

We had double beds and the room was kept clean. A/C worked fine and the hot water was plenty. A couple of times the water pressure was low but my spouse likes to use lots of hot water. Surprisingly, there were no bugs. None were found in our room and nobody got bug bites.

Stay away from the timeshares. The lobby staff will try to get you to go for this by telling you it only takes 80 mins (it's really 3 hrs). We met some people that told us about their experience. Only go if you are truly interested in learning more.

We took a ferry to Cozumel. This 30 min trip only cost $22 round trip. More jewelry selection over there. You can walk 20 mins to the ferry from the resort or take a $5 cab ride. I found the vendors in Cozumel more willing to bargain with you.

The nightly entertainment could use some improvement. A couple of dancers kept messing up the steps and it was funny to see. But a few of them were very good. Prepare to go and laugh and have a good time. It's not broadway. The drinks are the best at the show bar. My favs were - Tequila Sunrise and the Riviera Maya.

Overall, we had a fabulous time. Keep in mind that this is a family friendly resort. It was very relaxing and clean. Met lots of nice people - about 75% Americans. We would definitely return to the Reef Playacar!