I just returned from The Reef on June 29, 2007. What a great location. I never knew Playacar was in a gated community. We felt like we were in an upscale part of Playa del Carmen. Anyway, from the moment we stepped out of our hotel transportation we were greeted by hotel staff. Immediately upon entering the door , the concierge, Alberto asked to take our bags, tooks our drink order , and showed us to the front desk. Check in was a breeze, then Alberto brought us our drinks and gave us a brief orientation about the property. Please beware that the concierge also sets up timeshare presentations. Don't feel bad declining.

Our bags were immediately taken to our rooms and we were off to explore the property. The property reminds you of a jungle/rainforest. Very pretty, manicured areas.

There were two pools. The pool with the swim up bars was predominately an adult only pool. The other pool closest to the beach was more for families. We were always able to get a cabana bed or chair daily. One nice feature was that the waiters walked around the lower pool area and served drinks at the pool , the jacuzzi and even to people on the beach.

I read a numerous amount of previous reviews and must say that since January , there has been a steady improvement in getting more use of the beach.

The snack bar area had good food, however the menu stayed constant. Burgers, fries, Hot dogs, pizza, nachos, ice cream, chicken , ribs, deli sandwiches.

Chula Vista Restaurant ( buffet)had a great traditional Mexican breakfast. The Lunch & Dinners were always hit or miss. However, Cristan was the most amazing waiter ever. By the end of the trip he had memorized our drink orders.However, if you love empanadas and tostadas, Victoria is the best cook for that. Definetely make reservations for the Terranza grill. I had the most amazing meal there and the service was exceptional. I would not reccomend Boticelli's, The Itailan menu was not good at all. And the service was only fair. The added plus for my kids was the daily ice cream bar that was open form 3:00pm -6:00pm . They have 10 flavors of ice cream/sorbet and 2 ice cream coffee drinks.

As for the all inclusive sports, etc. We only got one day of kayaking because of the rough currents. Parasailing was also out because the boat needed repairs. As for the daily activities, Annell was the activities guru! We had a great time playing water volleyball, water polo, water aerobics, etc.

If you want to utilize the spa services. Don't hesistate. The services were amazing. My daughter got a pre-tanning exfoliation treatment, that made her skin silky smooth and my husband and I got massages under a cabana on the beach. The ocean wavers were the background music. What an exhilirating experience. I wish I could do that all over again!

As for the rooms, They are quite a bit smaller than they look on the website. Nevertheless, since all we did was sleep and change there, it wasn't a huge deal. The cable in the rooom was not working properly the whole trip. The front desk lied and said that it was that was for the entire hotel, but I found out that the cable was working just fine in the rooms used for thetimeshare presentations. The one thing That I did, that made a huge difference was that I tipped the maids $2 everyday, in exchange I received extra towels, soap, etc.

All in all , it was a terrific trip !

We stayed at the Reef for four nights in May and had a great time. After reading other reviews I wasn't expecting too much, but was pleasantly surprised. The Reef is smaller than the other resorts, but I think that is a bonus. It makes it easier to get around.

The pools were very nice. We had no trouble finding chairs. The beach was small, but plenty of room for swimming. We took advantage of the free boogie boards, sail boats, kayaks and bikes.

The food was OK, nothing great, but nothing too bad either. The snack bar was very good, lots to choose from. We didn't have any trouble getting good drinks form any of the bars. The sports bar was fun, it was nice to have a place to go watch the game, or in our case the fight, w/o having to leave the hotel.

We only went to 1 of the shows, but it was very good. I've been to other resorts where the shows are cheesy, but this one was actually well done.

The rooms were fine. The beds were comfortable but the AC wasn't that great. We were on the 3rd floor w/a cute balcony overlooking the pedestrian path, nice to sit and watch the people walking by. The room did have a fridge, but it was never stocked. Water is not included in the "all inclusive" price, which is strange, but you can buy the local brand for $1 or pay $5 for fancy name brand. You could also walk up the street to the store and buy a big bottle there for even less.

The timeshare people were a little pushy, but they were easy enough to avoid.

Overall, for the price, I think the Reef is a nice place to stay and I would have no problem staying there again.

My wife and I had a nice stay.

Resort - I liked the decor and the look of the grounds. We had no issues finding places at the pool or on the chairs near the beach. The beach area may have been small-ish ( at least as compared to other big resorts) but honestly it was big enough and I'm not really sure what we would have done with more room. The layout was good and I like the jungle theme.

Food - OK. Had some good and had some mediocre. More mediocre than good. We never bothered with anything besides the buffet or the snack area so I can't speak to the 'main' restraurants. The snack food was pretty good and I did enjoy the burgers. I had no issues with the bar service.

Room - The room looked good and I like the frig but our AC absolutely sucked. While it was never hot, it was never cool either. I'd give the resort 4 stars if not for this. I did complain and a service guy looked at it but it was still bad. All in all, it was on us too as we didn't ask for a room change. On the last day, I popped into an open room to compare the temp and yeah, the other room felt just fine.

Staff - OK, I guess. We dodged the host and the time share pitch (by the way they offered us 100 resort dollars) and so we never used him to help with anything. We had no issues with any of the other staff.

We used Funjet and were satisfied with him and the tours that he booked. We also had no issue with airport transfers.

We just returned from Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Our trip was from June 9-16, 2007. Our group consisted of 12 adults. If you want to pay over $1,000 and stay at a resort that is less than Motel 6 quality, please go to this resort. For anyone who has any type of disability, back problems, etc. this resort is NOT for you! I have had back surgery. My husband has bad knees. Another traveler also has trouble with ankles and knees. Everything at this resort is steep stairs. The resort put us up on the 3rd floor. The steps are not gradual but very steep. By the 3rd day, I was begging the front desk to move us. I was in such pain that I wanted to go back home.

The Funjet people were not helpful at all. Each time one of us complained, all we got was promises. The Funjet man, Victor, told us that he would move all of us to another resort if we would wait a day. Our waiting lasted four days. We kept going back to talk to him and he was never there. Finally, we found him and then he told us we would have to pay $65 per person per day to go to another resort. As you can see, for a group of 12 people, the money would add up fast.

Our room was broken into twice through the patio doors. Our clothes and luggage had been gone through. I reported to both the FUNJET people and the front desk. A very expensive camera was stolen out of one of the other rooms. You have to pay $1/day for water and $2/day for a lock to the safe in your room. Actually, the safe lock is nothing more than a key to a magnet. Anyone could use the same key to get into any room. We kept our money and passports with us at all times.

This resort is shown in the FUNJET book as a 4 star resort. Don't believe it. The most would be a 2 star. I have been to many resorts in the area and by far this is the worst. The food is the same every day. They had a big roach on the cantaloupe one day. The only decent food was at the snack bar. Four people in our group got food poisoning. Several days we got burned out dried meat. We only got bacon two out of the seven days we were there.

We landed in Cancun before 5:00 PM. After getting on the bus around 5:20 PM, we did not get to Playa del Carmen until after 9:00 PM... at the most it is 45 minutes from the airport. The bus never got out of third gear. The Funjet bus stopped at a restroom not far from the airport. You had to pay a $1 to use the restroom and a woman stood out front and gave you approx. 5 tissue square. Then, the bus would not back up. It seemed as though the transmission was out on the old bus. Some of our luggage was left at another resort. We did not get it until 2:00 AM in the morning. And we only got it then because we argued with them.

I paid the front desk $40 to hurry up and give us a room. My husband had just gotten out of the hospital the day before and was exhausted. The room was on the 3rd floor.

All of the people other than our group that had booked their stay at the Reef from Funjet complained as well. There were several couples from Louisiana who had a bad time as well. Don't be fooled by pictures of the resort and the beach. Those pictures must have been taken when the hotel opened several years ago. Even the Funjet representatives said that the resort was old and run down. The activities staff were rude. The place was totally depressing. I even called the Funjet corporate office from Mexico to the states to no avail. We had to wait until we got back. I am waiting to hear back from our travel agent. There was only one bartender at one bar at one time. In other words, when the pool bar was open, the other bars were closed. At night, the snack bar at the pool was open, but you had to walk all the way to the front to get anything to drink. I have stayed at many nice resorts in the area, but the Reef is really bad. I am not one to complain much because Mexico is not as advanced as the U.S. and their ratings are different. However, Funjet totally misrepresented this trip. I will definitely not go back to this resort. Some of the smaller hotels around 5th Avenue were basic and clean. I would recommend staying in one of them. Some of the places I would recommend are the Riu resorts (Palace, Playacar [great beach], Tequila, Lupita), the Viva Maya (has a great beach!! and lots of activities), the Allegro resort, the Palace Resorts, and the Gran Porto Real.

The resort was full of small children. I thought I was at a daycare. I can go on with the complaints, but it won't solve anything. If you want to go to an inexpensive resort and pay the price for a nice resort, please go to the Reef. If you don't expect much, then you won't be dissappointed. The people at the Dive Shop are extremely nice and helpful.

While you are in Playa del Carmen, go see the Fire Show at the Blue Parrot. It is fantastic!! It is a nice outdoor club. We really enjoyed it. Senor Frogs is great as always.