Let me first start off by saying that i was thrilled with this resort. I had read a lot of the bad reviews from here earlier this year and to be quite honest I was setting my self up for dissaster. When my wife and I got to the Hotel on Sunday April 27th we were amazed at how much nicer it actually was. The lobby is not "The Royal's" entrance but is nice and the hotel has a beautiful rain forrest, exotic feel. The grounds are super lush and it feels like you are in the jungle, beautiful grounds. We checked our bags in and in a matter of 10 minutes our bags were taken by one of the baggage handlers to our room. Let me be the first to say that no the rooms are not top of the line. The room had blue and green drapes and a bed spread that looked like it had come from 1972. But don't be thrown off by that. It really does grow on you by the end of the trip. Our AC worked just fine, and it was actually on the chilly side even for me and i never get cold. The rooms were spotless (all 3 of them) clean as the maids were in there everyday. If you can, be nice and leave a couple of bucks $, these people earn nothing compared to us, so even 2 dollars a day goes a long way. We did have an issue with our phone as it did not work, and we were on the ground floor and the screen door lock was busted, being that we were on the ground i didn't like that. I walked to the front desk and told them the issues. Seriously within 5 minutes they had someone in the room and he fixed the issues. The other thing was they are working on some pipes along the pathways so we had to weave in and out of the villas to get around the closed sections, so that was a bit of a pain but no biggie. Also the rooms near the bar where the theatre is are loud, you get the people that had a little to much to drink walking by and some of the kids and you can really hear the doors slam. So the next day we switched rooms. To the 14th villa, we were a little dissapointed that we got double beds but it worked out fine. The reef had a promo going on where they would send you to the "Crown Paradise Club" in Cancun for two nights. People don't waste your time going there. That is the worst hotel i have ever been too, there were ants, and bugs in the room, dirtly linnens, broken AC, loud and crowded. If you can just stay in Playa at the Reef, I promise it is much better. As far as the food goes we did not eat at the Reservation only Restaurants, we ate breakfast lunch and dinner at the buffet. My wife and I are both Hispanic and we enjoyed the "mexican" food it was very authentic tasting. The omlette bar in the morning, and the french toast was great. Lunch was good and so was dinner. The only complaint i have is that i wish they would mix it up a bit, change the buffet or something. The waiters were great and the service awesome. My wife and i celebrated our anniversary there and the Hotel allowed a professional photographer and assistant to come to the grounds and we had a photo session at the resort, some hotels would have charged nicley for that, but the reef didn't, so Kudos to them for that. The beach at the Reef is AWESOME!! The best of that strip, we walked over to the Riu next door and man their beach was terrible compared to ours. The water is so blue that it looked like we digitally enhanced it or something on the pictures when we developed them. The beach is calm and the sand is great. While the sand bags are kind of an eye sore at first, you get used to them and they actually fit in after a while. I will say i think this is a great beach, one of the best and i have been around the block in Cancun. After we got back from the Crown Paradise mentioned above we were put into a nicer room, not sure if a suite, but possibly just a remodeled room, they took out the tacky green and blue colors and added clean line chic linnens and a mattress pad and it really made a difference, it gave the room a totally different look. So if you can, try to get a room in the 9 or 10th villa there you are close to the pool and have partial ocean views, i would request that as soon as you make your reservation. I do speak spanish and i know that helped, but if you don't speak a word of spanish thats ok, because everyone spoke english anyways. We came to the conclusion that the people that had only bad things to say were probably some snobs and didn't like the resort. Come knowing that you aren't paying for 5 stars, you pay a 3 star rate but to be honest i have stayed at 5 star Luxury resorts and had just as much fun. If you aren't a snob and can treat the workers like actual humans not some 3rd world country trash then you will have fun, the staff actually interacts a lot with you and they always have a smile and say "Hola" or "Buenas Tardes", just some shout outs so you can deal with these people because they were great. Jeu-Bartender, Joanna-Concierage, Chuey-Check in, Roger-Check In. These guys made everything run smoothe. Also not once got bothered for a timeshare presentation. So For what it's worth the Hotel is great, just remember is your a snob maybe you should stay next door.

My husband and I just returned from celebrating our 2nd anniversary at The Reef Playa car. We chose Playacar after going to Cancun on our Honeymoon and 1st Year Anniversary. We loved Playacar and Playa del Carmen! Exactly what we were hoping for.

This is not a luxuary 5 star resort, but it was absolutely fabulous! The grounds were beautiful, and you could tell they take great pride in their tropical setting they have created! The service and personal are extremely friendly and always did all they could to help us when we needed them.

Check in was easy and no one bugged us once about time shares. We even mentioned this to one of the concierge ladies and she told us to remember that this is our vacation and to never be bothered with time share offers. When we got to the room we realized the sliding glass door to our deck wouldn't lock. We would not have cared if we were not on the ground level. When we went to call the front desk, the phone did not work. We walked back to the lobby and they had both things fixed in 10 minutes! The service was awesome. We stayed in 3 different rooms during our trip. The first time we asked to be moved after a night of no sleep due to noise. We had a room right by the bar open until 2 am (I can't remember all the names of the bars). They immediately found us another room. The next room we had was because we checked out for 2 nights to stay in Cancun (We went to stay two nights at the Crown Paradise, which was awful! We couldn't wait to get back to the Reef). When we came back to the Reef they put us in one of the "nicer" rooms. It felt like they put a matress pad on the bed and updated the linens, which gave the room that little extra something the other rooms were missing. The AC and hot water worked great in all 3 rooms!

The only thing someone might have an issue with is the size of the two pools, they are on the small size. But we didn't care since we loved the ocean there and would swim in the ocean.

The buffet food was delicious and satisfying, especially breakfast time. And the little snack bar was good, except at times it seemed understaffed and there would be a huge crowd waiting for food, but they usually got all the orders filled in a short time.

We hired a professional photographer for a photo session, and The Reef was very accomodating! They even cut off our wristbands for us so they wouldn't stand ou t in the pics and gave us new ones after the session. I was impressed/grateful for that.

We realized this was not a super luxurious resort but it was exactly what we were hoping for. Small and even the activites planned were not loud and annoying like the bigger hotels.

We cannot wait to go back to the Reef Playacar!

My boyfriend and I just got back from a 6 day stay at the Reef Playacar. We had a GREAT time and will definitely be back. This is not a fancy place, if you want fancy, book a 5 star somewhere else.

The best part about the Reef Playacar, it is at the end of the hotel boulevard. Therefore, it has the best beach. And it is extremely close to town. During the day, I would recommend renting one of the resort's bikes (free!) and biking into town. So fun! At night you can catch a cab for $5 bucks and go out in town.

If you want really wonderful food, go into town for that.

The staff are warm and friendly and go out of their way to help you. We tipped generously.

If you want a no-frills, laid back vaca, where you can lay on the beach all day and read and swim, and then go out at night, this is the place for you!

We booked this through JetBlue Vacations. Overall experience was very positive. Check in was very fast. We were directed to the concierge and knew that this may be to book timeshare tour. We told the concierge we were only interested in the details of the resort, locations of things, etc. and she did not mention anything about timeshare.
The resort was very well maintained, very clean, in convenient location to town and airport. The beach was great, no problem getting lounge chairs with shade. The pool areas were very pretty with lounge chairs and large beds.
Our room (924) was two buildings from the pool and beach. The room was simply decorated, with a small balcony, tiled bathroom. The room was immaculate.You can hear people coming and going if you are a light sleeper may want a room away from this area. I left a note for an extra blanket and the maid took care of this, she also left fresh flowers in the room. Bed was very hard.
The food in the buffet was ok to good. The stations had grilled meat, chicken, fish, empanada's, tacos, etc. The breakfast was good, eggs, Mexican food, and fresh fruit smoothies. The two non-buffet restaraunts were also ok. The service was good and the food was cooked(grilled) to order. We didn't have trouble getting a reservation. We did not see any of the entertainment. The staff were all very friendly and polite.
This was a bargain, have stayed in more expensive resorts in the DR with much worse food and service. Being close to town was also a bonus if you want to hear some music or try local restaraunts, shopping. Transfers and service from Jet Blue were all very good.