we visited grand flemenco xcaret in last week in may for fourteen nights. we were overwhelmed by the veiws alone from the lobby, when we looked around the grounds it was better than we could have expected. The gardens were immaculate the wild life within the the hotel was great our six year old son loved it!
The rooms were spacious with good hanging space and a good size bathroom cleaned every day. The only complaint I had was the mini bar didn,t have much variety water, fizzy drinks and beer was your lot!
There were several pools all with sun shades if needed, we espeically liked the jacuzzi pool we found it the most kid freindly althought there was a childrens pool.
The food was good we were worried it mighnt only be geared up for americans burgers fries etc but it wasn,t there was always a good variety with fresh fruit and vegtables!! no one could go hungry. The resteraunts were good too we liked the steak house and the oriental the best also the snack bars had a wide variety we preferred the beach it had more salads and fresh meats where as the swim up was mainly hotdogs burgers etc.
You must visit Xcaret park the dolphins and turtles will keep the kids amused (and mum and dad!!!) The evening show was fantastic but i won,t tell you about it and spoil the surprise.
On the whole this was a great holiday i,d reccomend it to any one, the staff were so freindly and hard working and were grateful when you showed them you appreciated it we can,t wait to go back.
One warning i would give though be prepared for loud americans who think they have priority above every one else !!! although there were some very nice ones.
Also take plenty of insect repellent the hotel is surrounded by fresh water lakes which attract the mosquitos.

As a "lurker" who used these reviews to help make a choice, I wanted to help future travelers. First note - we would highly recommend this resort to any family. Second note - my wife and I are both seasoned travelers - me primarily for business all over the world and my wife as a French professor - we have taken leisure trips that vary from the all-inclusive type family trip to simply flying to France, renting a car and seeing what develops.

Here are my comments.

Arrival at Cancun/Check-In at resort: The process was very smooth - Mexican immigration and customs was a breeze. We used an offical airport porter from the exit at customs to the van used for our transfer - it was well worth a $1 per bag tip (my decision, not the porter's), since he took us directly to the Apple Vacations Rep and then to the van. The van ride was about an hour - there was one stop ahead of us and we got caught in traffic in Playa del Carmen trying to get to the Occidental. Once we arrived at the resort, a concierge bypassed main check-in and took us to the designated Apple Vacations building - Building 21. Check-in with the dedicated concierge at Building 21 took 5 minutes - we were by the pool right outside Building 21 within 10 minutes with a cold cerveza in hand.

Traveling Party: We were a party of five, my wife and I (around 40), our children (9 year old boy and 7 year old girl) and my wife's mother (vigorous and in her 70's).

Orientation: First thing is to arrange your reservations for the a la carte restaurants that require a reservation. The food at each was ok - not as good as a top of the line specialty restaurant in each cuisine in the U.S., but nice for variety. Also, do the short orientation with your Apple Rep - get it out of the way - you are not limited to the time printed on your transfer voucher. Study the map they give you, it will go a long way to helping limit frustrations later. It is a big, spread-out resort, but absolutely beautiful.

Room Location: As an Apple Vacations customer who did not request another building, we were placed in the "Apple" building - Building 21. Funjet also has a building. Buildings 18, 19, 20 and 21 are around the "main" pool, which is really 3 different pools. The more "noisy" end of the main pool is by buildings 18 and 19. Building 21 is at the very end of the main pool and was a quite nice location, plenty quiet but close to the pool. There were still organized activities at our end of the pool, but not a lot of loud music or noise. Buildings 14, 15, 16 and 17 are by the "quiet" pool, where there are no organized activities.
It was convenient to be in the Apple building, since our Apple rep was always readily at hand.

Distance: If you do not want to walk in tropical weather, this is not the resort for you. There are trams, if you are patient enough to wait for them. However, the distances are not so great as to cause any real problems - my mother in law never had any real trouble with the walking. The upshot to the distance is that the resort is much more integrated into its beautiful surroundings - as opposed to some monolithic structure perched next to the beach - simply different strokes for different folks.

Kids: We did not do the kids club much until later in the trip. Our routine was to eat breakfast, spend an hour or two at the beach - perfect for our kids, then head back to the pool where we would usually spend the rest of the day. We did this every day that we did not have a scheduled activity. Our kids made friends with the kids of other guests in the pool area and were never bored. We did get our kids to go to the kids club on Wednesday and Friday of our stay and they had a great time, although the number of participants was fairly low.

Rooms: We just took the standard rooms (two doubles and a bathroom) and they were great - no complaints at all. We had no weird smells and, yes, the shower did leak a bit if you pointed the nozzle at the door, but if you pointed it away from the door, there was no problem. Certainly much nicer than on a cruise ship, even for an upgraded balcony room.

XCaret Park: Great - just realize that the walking you experience in the resort is multiplied by 2 to 3 at XCaret Park. Do not bother to rent the snorkeling equipment for the underground river, unless you also want to snorkel in the lagoon. The underground river swim was fun and refreshing - don't worry about the signs showing how cold the water is, nobody was cold and it felt good after the heat of the jungle. The snorkeling in the lagoon isn't great, too much mixing of cold and warm water - if you want world class snorkeling, go to Cozumel for a day trip. The aquarium/turtle sanctuary is very good. If you do a dolphin swim, spring for the Delphinus one, it is smaller groups and lots of interaction - definitely a once in a lifetime experience. Note that they will hit you up to buy an expensive video/digital photo package. We just considered it part of the vacation and bought the whole package. Better than later regretting that you didn't get all the memories that you wanted. As others said, if you do any of the paid activities, arrange to do them on a different day and you get some time before and after to spend in the park - takes the pressure off trying to do the whole park in one day.

Food: It all comes down to taste. We have varied vacation experiences and varied tastes in our family. The food at the a la carte restaurants was fine, but the service varied considerably. We had horrible service at Los Olivos - they tried to tell us that we couldn't get wine by the glass that was included in the all-inclusive and, instead, tried to sell us a bottle. We didn't have that problem at any other a la carte restaurant. The food at Paco's Tacos was great, but there were far too few waiters for the number of tables, we had to wait a long time for any kind of service and then couldn't get any follow-up service at all. The Sonora Grill (steaks) was our favorite, but be warned - this is not U.S. top of the line steakhouse quality meat. The flavor is very good, but the meat is not as tender - cattle in Latin America are usually grass fed and graze - therefore the meat has a different flavor and is not as perfectly marbled and tender as U.S. beef raised on a feedlot. The buffet turned out to be the family favorite for variety. We enjoyed the desserts - definitely not prepared by an on-site French pastry chef, but still good. Particularly the more local offerings like flan or fried/sweetened sweet potatoes or papaya. Yes the pies and cakes were pretty much food-service frozen desserts, but of good quality. The ice cream was great. One final note on the food - My wife and I agreed that it was very comparable to the offerings on a cruise ship. Plenty to find fault with if you want to, plenty of good food to eat if you aren't overly picky.

CONS: Nothing here that spoiled our vacation, but apparently, it is tradition to point out some of the negatives:

- Tram Service Not Frequent Enough - If you are tired and want to get someplace, the tram would often take to long to arrive. They should run more frequently (or more trams).

- Spotty Service - We had 2 rooms and tipped $10 per room the first day we were there. However, re-stocking of the room fridge was spotty and after Tuesday, they never re-stocked the beer in my fridge - even after specifically requesting them to do so, directly and through the building concierge. Not a huge problem, since the pool bar was very close - but a minor irritant. Also, you have to get used to Latin American/Caribbean standards of service (my experience has been consistent in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic - most of the travel on business) - the native people simply do not have the same sense of urgency as we do in the U.S. Most meals take 1 1/2 to 2 hours and the service is liesurely. You will experience that tendency at this resort and it was, at times, frustrating. However, everyone was friendly and did fill any request, it is just that they are not at your table every 5 minutes checking to see if you need anything. Alos, please note that we took lots of 1 dollar bills and were generous in tipping. That was always appreciated, even if it didn't always improve service.

- Royal Club Sales Pitch - Read about vacation clubs before you go. The club they will try to sell you is similar - not really a time-share but a close relative. Frankly, if you vacation in one of Occidental's areas every year, it probably would be a good deal, but as most consumer sites will warn you, don't count on the "exchange" program if there isn't a primary property where you want to go. Also, check out other options. We took the tour primarily because we were interested in returning to this resort and wanted to see the accomodations at the Royal Club (very nice - condo-like), but it is typical high-pressure time-share sales pitch. Save the time and buy a massage if you want one (we talked them out of a couple of bottles of Tequila instead - not the best in the world).

- End Of The Line: If you book with someone like Apple, this resort tends to be the "end-of-the-line" for airport transfers. On the way down, it wasn't bad - a 15 passenger van with one stop before ours. On the way back, it was horrible - the transportation was nice enough, a large air conditioned bus with comfortable seats - but we were the first on and then made 5 or 6 stops on the way back, my wife and son were both car sick by the time we got to the airport.

- Just Say No To Delta - Like some of the other airlines, Delta had many departures from Cancun on Saturday. Unlike the other airlines, Delta chose to schedule the departure of 4 of these flights within 90 minutes of each other (two within 5 minutes of each other), while not having significantly more counter locations than the other airlines. Thus, the Delta line filled its queue and snaked from one end of the airport to the other, with a 90 minute wait - while United, American, Continental and other airline passengers were able to have just a sort wait in their lines. Frankly, if you are using a travel agent/vacation company, I would put a "No Delta" requirement on them, even if it winds up costing a bit extra.


Summary: I kind of drug this review out, but our family all agreed that this vacation was our best yet. We did not do a lot of off property excursions, we enjoyed the pool and the beach too much (I went deep sea fishing at Puerto Aventuras - Captain Ricks - was somewhat disappointed) - XCaret was amazing. We would definitely recommend this resort to any family. If you are planning to go, we certainly envy you.

Let me start by saying that I had read just about EVERY review on here. I was convinced that no matter what happened WE were going to have a fabulous time. Our visit was from June 3rd to June 9th. We were on our honeymoon. Neither of us had been anywhere outside of the US and nowhere interesing in the US either...I will try to rate things by section...

5 Stars - Grounds were absolutely beautiful, lush, animals everywhere, just a jungle like paradise...I don't think anyone's review could dispute that. Huge pools, floats, snorkeling, just the whole set up is nice. HOWEVER: yes, I am lazy, but when I say you are going to walk...I MEAN THAT! We were in building 22 and we had to walk quite a ways to the Lobby and food.

4 Stars - Rooms - We were in a normal deluxe room and I was still very impressed, very nice decorations and huge shower. HOWEVER: we did tip our maid $7 on the first day and requested a few more drinks and never got them.

2 Stars - Food at the Buffet was HORRIBLE...the first night there was Medditeranean night at the buffet and although the presentation of the food was very nice, it tasted COMPLETELY bland. Nothing at the buffet was good. Pacos Tacos above the buffet was nothing special either, I had supreme nachos and they were burned and also very bland as well...same goes for the pizza place, just bland and nothing to it. The only reason food got 2 stars from me is because Sonara Grill and the Seafood Place were very good. At the Sonara we had Filet minion and a steak and both were VERY GOOD. At El Pescador (seafood) we had surf and turf and it was very good also! However on our last night we ate at the Mexican Resturant thinking it would be the best and it was the worst out of the 3 resturants we ate at... just bland food again. I would say the best casual places to eat for breakfast and lunch would be the beach club and snack bar.

4 Stars - Bars were great i thought. But, I dont go to bars or drink at home, so I dont know how accurate this rating is. I loved the strawberry daquiries. My husband loved the "world cup" its like orange juice, pinneaple and somekind of liqiour. At the lobby bar they give you peanuts and popcorn...really good to hold you over before dinner.

I am obsessed with beaches in general. I didnt see anything wrong with this cove, but I knew about it and had seen pictures before we went so I was prepared for it. I really liked the pools, especially the chairs in the shallow parts of the pool.

OhhhK...so, the shows at night were...interesting. I would say that I am probably very sheltered/niave... They were not bad...but some of them were very provacative. Especially for young children. Just basic stuff like women in thongs dancing all over men and being very suductive. It would be fine for an adult audience, or even teenager, but there were a few parents that left because they had children with them.

The park was definitely a highlight of our trip, we loved snorkeling, and swimming out in the ocean, the aquarium is really neat (although small), loved the seaturtles, and dolphins.

Overall I would say this is a REALLY NICE place to stay... We paid $2500 for our trip including air and we were just not impressed. But, personally, if I could do it over again I would not have stayed here. I would not reccomend this for honeymooners. There were more families with small children there than anything. There wasnt anything specifically bad about this place, I would just rate it over all as BLAND (food, atmosphere).

.On arrival at the hotel after an 11 hour flight the hotel staff were very efficient and friendly, beggining with taking care of our luggage and supplying a very appreciated juice. The check in was very quick and we were relaxing in our very plesant room with our luggage transported within 10 minutes. The room was clean,tidy and comfortable with a large bed, sat tv, mini bar(filled every day). The bathroom was again very clean,with a good size shower. A/C and fan were very welcome and the view of the gardens and wildlife was relaxing.
FOOD
The first restaurant we went in was the buffet and our first impressions were very pleasing, it had atmosphere, was very comfortable and waiters were more than happy to keep supplying drinks of any kind. There was a good selection of food and, each night was different and surely must have catered for all different tastes. Breakfast was also very good from bacon and eggs to pancakes and waffles, fresh fruit and yoghart to re fried beans and tacos as well as pastries and even porridge.
SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
This was located over looking the carribean sea and the food was great, once you had chosen from the extensive menu. The service was as it was in all restaurants, superb and to top it off this restaurant provided another choice for a buffet breakfast.
STEAK HOUSE
Although not expecting a great deal from this restaurant,what a plesant suprise! I had underestimated the quality and choice available and again the food and service was exceptional. My fillet mignon was huge and cooked to perfection, but every dish we tried, just enhanced our view of the quality.(we went in 3 times).
ORIENTAL
Although a smaller restaurant, still very plesant and food was of a good standard. Again there was plenty to choose from
MEXICAN
We were vey supprised here as we were expecting a hot and spicy mexican meal, food was good but mabee toned down for the tourists.
MEDITERRANEAN
Not bad here just not in our opinion as good as the others, still plenty to choose rom and good service all round
PACOS TACOS
Good for a late night snack as it was open late, still very nice
PIZZARIA
Again nice pizza and they would do any toppings you liked as well as being very friendly
SNACK BAR
A little more than a snack bar, a little more informal as you would expect but still a wide selection of food, A very plesant suprise.
We thought the booking system for the a la carte restaurants was fair and we went in all of them.
POOLS
The card system for beach towels is great, no need for carrying wet towels, just swap them over for fresh ones in the many towel points. Dont use a pool as your navigation point as i did as you are very likely to find another one! I think we found 4 at the last count, there were fun pools quiet pools and an adult only pool too. Balls and rings supplied too. There were often activities at the pool but could be avoided if you wanted too relax and lots of pool bars for drinks as well as waiter service.There was a putting green as well as tennis courts, gym, archery and a rifle range but to name a few.
DRINKS
For an all inc. Hotel, branded drinks were available with no restrictions other than that you have a large one! Oh and plastic cups if you wanted to take them outside . Service again great with loads of bars to choose from and again waiter service at no extra cost.
XCARET PARK
This was fantastic day out, we swam with dolphins and allthough costly, was well worth it. There is a lot to see and do there and swimming through the underground caves was cold but very nice when the extreme heat gets too much. We thought that being next to the eco park might mean that it would be overly busy and comercialised but everything is so tastefully thought out in such fantastic surroundings that it never seemed to be that busy. I t isnt untill you get to the great show in the evening that you wonder where all the people have come from.
OVERVIEW
Well to try and keep it brief, excellent all round really, couldnt fault it and the value for money was unbeatable, we would highly reccomend this hotel to anyone. In our opinion pictures that you see will not do this hotel justice.