This was my first time to Mazatlan. I've travelled to the Mayan many times before so it was exciting to be somewhere new. There was a total of 19 of us staying for 2 weeks at the El Cid. We travelled with West Jet and I'm pretty sure I'll fly with no one else but West Jet from now on. We paid 1300 dollars to travel from Edmonton and stay for 2 weeks all inclusive - we definitely got our moneys worth.
Check-in to the resort was a breeze. We had the poolview rooms which were nice because they were the closest to pool/beach, so if you forgot something you could quickly run back and get it. Some of my friends came home from the bar one night to find their room on the ground floor infested with bugs. The hotel had them upgraded to a room in the tower on the 7th floor within an hour - they had an amazing view and it was much more updated than the poolview rooms.
Service is excellent. The staff serving in the La Cascada are restaurant are amazing - I have nothing but good things to say about them.
We ate at the buffet the first night and a few breakfasts after that. However, we soon figured out that La Cascada is an al la carte breakfast & lunch restaurant which I thought was an excellent feature and they had awesome breakfasts and lunches. You don't need to make a reservation to eat there fore breakfast and lunch - just for supper. There's also another buffet that's open for lunch which is located near the beach. There's a burger snack bar in front of the Cascada that is also included in the all inclusive plan.
Al la carte restaurants that are included with the all inclusive are the sushi bar, La Cascada (mexican), La Pergola (italian) and El patio (argentenian) - this one is located at the granada across the street. The mexican resaturant for supper was my least favorite. The other 3 were awesome and we rebooked them over and over again. At this resort you are allowed to book the al la cartes as many timse as you want. All other all inclusive resorts that I've stayed in usually have a limit to how many times you can eat there.
The pool was excellent - my friends enjoyed the cliff and waterfall. The beach was nice, except all other reviews are not downplaying the amount of vendors that approach you and as patient as I am, it does get really really annoying and I only went to the beach once out of the 2 weeks becuz of the vendors. Also, keep in mind that this is on the pacific side - you're not going to get clear waters and white sand beaches like the Mayan/Cancun side has.
For all Canadians that love clamato juice, the resort does have clamato juice, except make sure before you order a beer and clam or caesar that they're using Clamato not Kermato. You can also buy the clamato from most of the convenience stores surrounding the resort - it's still not as good as Mott's but it's pretty close.
I found for the beach bars, you received the best service from the little tent that is near the el moro pool. The hotel does have a lobby bar and it is only open until 1. However, Senor frogs is connected to the resort so if you still feel like partying you can head there, but of course it's not part of the all inclusive plan. Other good bars in Mazatlan are Bora Bora, Valentino's, and Sumbawa. Bora Bora and Valentino's are side by side and have awesome foam parties that I would recommend going to. Senor frogs usually has a mardi gras theme on Wednesdays.
I found that there's not alot of excusions to do in Mazatlan compared to other places I've travelled. We did the Stone Island booze cruise for 20 bucks - the beach at Stone Isaldn is beautiful compared to the beaches in Mazatlan. We did get to see dolphins and sea lions which were neat. However, it's moreso a cruise to booze as they did not allow alcohol on the boat. Once you get to teh island you get your booze and food included which overall is good value for 20 bucks. You also have a choice of horse back riding, quadding, banana boating, kayaking, snorklelling, etc. Some of the people we met did the snorkelling and said you pretty much snorkel in algae.
If you enjoy eating out at restaurants, I would highly recommend checking out Fat Fish. They have amazing ribs, but make sure you're hungry cuz the portions are huge. Also, the Shrimp Bucket was really good too.
Also, keep in mind that the hotel provides you with bottled water and yes you do have to pay for this when you checkout. However, we were there for 2 weeks, went through tons of water bottles and my boyfriend and I were only charged 60 pesos. Not the end of the world.
Overall for what we paid, we definitely got our moneys worth and if I were to go back to Mazatlan, I would definitely stay at this resort again. If you have any questions, dont' hesitate to ask.