We arrived sat.july 2 and returned home july 9th.
First I will explain the bad day,sunday evening about 5 p.m the rain started continued all through the night,at approximately 5am the power went off it was not restored untill around 1:30pm that day,if your wondering about the water filtration I believe they do it because when we lost power we lost all water,anyway the water came back on about an hour after the power but for some reason we never had A.C or hot water for nearly 24 hours and everyone we asked gave a differant explanation I did go speak a few days later with the management and voiced my displeasure.they reimbursed us a 100 dollars off our hotel bill,was that worth 24 hours with no A.C.?
O.K now the good,the place was absolutely beautiful and immaculate,we speak no spanish but did'nt have much trouble communicating,we stayed in the swim out oceanview excellent club room,I liked having my own bathroom at the pool and we would have room service delivered to the patio for dinner and never had to move,I will give one piece of advice the floors are marble and when wet like walking on ice be careful,and the concrete around the resort is very slick when wet.one other thing the secret box in the room is nice breakfast was delivered every morning pretty much on time as requested we enjoyed that.
The restaurants were all very nice my favorite dish was the mussels at portofinos the service is good but kind of laid back but we were in no hurry so thats ok.
The gym has nice cybex equipment, and freeweights I gave it a try the day the power was out,nothing else to do.
The beach has the coolest sand Ive ever walked on I was told it actually not sand but pulverized coral.the water I did'nt swim in it there was alot of sea grass,but with all the pools who cares.
I will suggest one activity I took the resort diving course it lasted about an hour and a half,the next day I went to cozumel to dive I went 60 ft deep and saw a sea turtle, barracuda spiny lobsters and millions of fish it reminded me of watching jocque cousteau on t.v. if you have any interest in diving I would suggest this it was the highlight of my trip and they even video taped it..
I would like to mention cesar the great our bell hop he was great, he kept saying your the boss whatever you want sir, and amabale she is the pool waitress at the excellent club pool and genuienly friendly,all the staff was great no complaints there.
I would definately go back to this resort again,maybe we just had bad luck with the power,but I will take 1 bad day and 5 good days anytime on vacation.
If you have any question e-mail me ,so many people wrote back and forth to me before our trip I feel I should return the favor.
my address is staceman66@hotmail.com
P.S I and my wife ate and drank anything we wanted and never got sick but I did take cipro with us just in case.

We stayed at Secrets Excellence Cancun during from March 18-25, 2005 and had a great time. The food was great, the resort was upscale and comfortable, and the service was ok except for the few times we ordered room service.

Throughout the week, beach chairs and towels were ALWAYS avaialble. Plus, the servers made sure our drink supply was plentiful (the Miami Vice was really popular). Snacks were plentiful and available whenever you were hungry (fresh nachos and salsa always did the trick). There were so many pools at the resort that you could have had a pool to yourself if you wanted or join in the crowd at the more central pools.

The beach itself didn't meet our expecations. The water wasn't bright blue plus the seaweed detracted us from swimming in the ocean too much. But again our standards are pretty high after having visited other parts of the Caribbean in previous years.

The room was amazing and always clean. Housekeeping seemed to be ready when we left the room to clean up.

The restaurants were better than we expected for the Caribbean after a poor food experience in our 1st resort vacation in Cuba last year. The attempt at international cuisine (Asian, Italian) was actualy pretty good.

Room service was unbearably slow. On the night we arrived it was failry late and the restaurants were closed. Room service took about 80 minutes when it was promised in 40 minutes. But the food and service at the restaurants made up for this.

The evening entertainment wasn't great, but we didn't go there to be entertained. If we wanted entertainment, we would've gone to New York or Vegas or Europe.

All in all, a fantanstic resort. Looking forward to trying the Secrets resort in the Dominican sometime in the future.

My husaband and I chose Secrets Excellence Riviera Cancun for our honeymoon destination! We couldn't have been happier. From the moment we stepped off the bus from airport until we loaded up to go home, we had a spectacular time! Our trip was from June 13 through June 18, too short but definetly sweet. We arrived to our room at about 2:00 the first day and were welcomed to a banner on the door that pronounced that we were honeymooners. About every couple of hours after that there was a knock at the door, and to our surprise each time a wonderful surprise. The first was a floral arrangement, next came the champagne, than a beautiful fruit
basket, along with a awesome dessert platter. We couldn't have been happier with our choice of rooms. We went with a poolside view junior suite, which gave us a spectacular view of the pool and surrounding gardens. The lower level rooms seemed alittle too open for our liking, although they had a hammock and outdoor whirlpool. The room was very spacious and brightly decorated and had a whirlpool inside, which we used several times at the end of the day to wind down. We enjoyed the pool closest to our room everyday. It seemed to be the more relaxed pool and was never very crowded, and always had rafts to float on. We were happy just floating in the pool most of the day enjoying the scenary. The weather was perfect, only rained one night late, and a few sprinkles on our second day there. The ocean breeze helped keep things comfortable. We never did any swimming on the beach, it didn't seem to many people did. I've seen reviews that the seaweed was horrible, and there was seaweed but nothing more than we had expected there to be. We enjoyed walking on the beach many times, just taking in the view and ocean sounds. As far as the food, we enjoyed everything we ate at the restaurants. Only complaint was there should be more open around lunch time and later afternoon, all that swimming works up a appetite! The last night however we ate at the outdoor buffet (all the restaurants were closed for this) and my husband did end up getting sick for a short period after eating there. The presentation of the food was wonderful, but mostly seafood, which neither of us care for to much, so we mostly ate the appetizers, and things we recognized. The drinks were wondeful, we enjoyed many a margarita (best I've had) and pina coladas. Also, by our pool there was a fruit drink bar (no alcohol) and those were very refreshing during the day while in the pool. Try a HAPPINESS, they're awesome. No one ever made you feel as if you had to tip, but we did on occassion. There was one waiter that recognized us every morning and from the first day to the last, tip or not, gave wonderful service along with quite a few laughs. It was always do you care for something to drink, how about some tequila? Only one waiter at the ocenside restaurant seemed arrogant, and like we were bothering him. Everyone at the front desk, bell hops, maids, etc were very friendly it was always ola, how are you, etc. One evening one of the bell hops came up and complimented me on how beautiful my dress was. We had a gentleman that took us into Puerto Morales on Wed. from Secrets and he was the best! He took us by the back roads and showed us the houses, and explianed some of the jungle area to us. Once he dropped us off he explained what to look for in the town, and as visters how to be careful. We shopped in Puerto Morales for two hours. It is a very small town, know for it's fishing. There were some shops, not many but we did pick up some some gifts to bring home. It was interesting to see the locals way of life, no one really spoke english, wild dogs running around etc.. We did not feel unsafe at all though, no one bothered you except we made two "friends". One one the female dogs took a liking to us and later her brother (?) joined in. At first I was alittle skeptical, but they were friendly and my husband bought them some cookies to reward them for being our "tour guides" . It almost seemed like they were trying to show us around, and protect us because any time a car would go by the female would bite at it's tires, though she was never agressive to us. The locals probably thought we were crazy but like I said they were friendly to us, and seemed to show us around, and we're suckers for animals. This trip was an excursion that Secrets offered for free and if you want to see what Mexico is really like I would definetly suggest it. It was nothing extravagent, like I said but neat to see the town, locals and their way of life. There is a same chapel and service was going on at sunset and it was a beautiful site, along with the sounds of people singing although it was all in spanish and I really didn't understand, it was beautiful. We also booked a trip on line before hand to Xcaret park. We took a taxi there which cost about $32 dollars one way. We felt safe because it was actually someone that worked for secrets. We had to stop for cigarettes and it was a small locally owned store. The driver got off with my husband and stood by in case there was any language barrier, which I thought was nice, and something he didn't have to do. We arrived at Xcaret before 10. It is a beautiful park. Definetly worth the trip. We also swam with the dolphins at the park, a highlight of our trip. We stayed until about 7. There is not as much of a breeze there so it is extremly HOT and lots of walking, so by that time we had seen all we had come to see, although I hear that the night shows are awesome. It has alot of history one of my favorite parts was the cave that held probably thousands of candles burning to remeber loved ones lost. It was beautiful. On top were tombstones of various people that had passed, and interesting to see how colorfull and intricate some of the tombstones were. We were also scheduled to do the atv tour, but had been told it wasn't all it was made out to be. So the morning of I called and cancelled, and it was a good thing we didn't pay taxi fare to get there becuase they couldn't find my reservation, even though I had a confirmation from the person that runs it. So word to the wise if you book that trip online check and double check even triple check with them becuase I had sveral emails confirming our reservation and it would have cost at leat $30 to get there, and they were booked so we would have been out of luck! All in all I can't even begin to explain to you what a great time we had, and how happy we were with the resort. We plan on definetly going back, maybe for our 1 year anniversary. We have recommended Secrets to all our friends and relatives. Warning, this resort is only a three diamond now, projected to be a 5 diamond, so this place wouldn't be a secret for long! It is probably not the place you want to stay if you're looking for alot of action though. We went knowing that and were happy just taking trips to Cancun, Puerto Morales and the park. It is more secluded than the Cancun area and will take a good 20 minutes plus to get to all the action. We didn't care because we were there to relax. Relax we did and had a great time. I would give this resort a 5 diamond ratingnow. From service to food to the drinks we got all we asked for and more. If anyone would like to contact me re: the resort or any trips we took, please feel free I would love to share all our memories!

OK you guys here it goes. We just got back on Saturday. Stayed from June 25th to July 2nd. I am not going to go over every detail because it isnt necessary. You heard it all before. What I will say is this: neither of us got sick, nobody we heard of got sick, nobody slipped by the pool, the food was incredible, really top notch as well as the ambiance of the restaurants. There were plenty of pool floats, nobody stole anything from our room, we had maid service by 9:00 am andd our room was always turned down when we got back after dinner. Cant comment on the entertainment because we made our own :). Your room has 2 jacuzzis, bubble bath, champagne, a balcony, the sound of the surf and a cool ocean breeze. I had no desire to see a show or sit at the lobby bar. You have dinner at like say 7:00 and after we walked the grounds then went back to the room. Perfect vacation, perfect company. Nuff said. Go and enjoy!