I have to say that both the royal and casita side of this resort are great. Besides being so clean and beautifully landscaped, the people that work at this resort are the friendliest and most helpful I have ever experienced. Not one person walks by you without saying "hola" and with a smile.
The rooms were clean and well maintained. The restaurants while not being too accommodating to larger groups, served food that was tasteful, and beautifully presented. The alcohol was top grade and there are so many choices of where to sit and just enjoy a drink and the view.
One of the few problems we encountered were not having enough seats at the main pool and trouble making dinner reservations. Other than that we had a great time and would HIGHLY recommend this as your vacation destination.

We just returned from our second stay at the El Dorado Royale 4/25-30. There were 3 couples who traveled and we had a fantastic trip.

Check in: We arrived early and rooms weren't ready which was expected, no big deal. For the most part check in went well with one rather odd experience. 2 of the 3 couples booked the Luxury Jr Suite category. Both were repeat guests. We were downgraded but not informed and the other couple was offered Casitas because the category booked was not available. We had cross referenced all of our reservations so it did not make sense to treat members of a group differently and to not offer the category paid for. When rooms were ready, we went back up to talk to the staff (nicely) and ended up getting the category paid for while the other party was upgraded to Premium ocean front. Ultimately it benefited all of us since we were able to meet up in the Ocean front room for drinks most nights and we got what we paid for. I just do not like it when members of a group are treated inconsistently. It's nothing that impacted the trip.

Room: We were in block 6, second floor, with a view of the pool. We were never in the room other than to sleep so view was irrelevant. The room itself was clean, in good repair. The shower worked great. Dual sinks were nice. The king bed was very comfortable and best of all, the air conditioning was phenomenal!!!!!! We love traveling to Cancun but the majority of the time the AC does not work that well. Our room had an upgraded unit with a remote and worked fantastic. We were very happy with our room.

Grounds: Lovely grounds, well maintained, enjoyed seeing lizards / iguanas of varying sizes. Being in block 6, it was fairly easy to get around, other than the long walk to restaurants on the Casitas side. However, I have never seen so many golf carts zipping around (I don't remember seeing that many last trip). It was very easy to catch a shuttle and get where you needed to go and depending on the location of your room, the walk isn't that bad.

Pools: First day we secured chairs at Los Tucanes. It's a smaller, quieter pool, but with a very nice swim up bar, plenty of chairs and was a perfect place to relax. The rest of the time, we secured a bed and/or chairs by the La Isla pool. That was a very active pool!! The pool bar was fantastic. They have a phenomenal drink menu and great liquor selection, athough they had a tendency to "run out" of certain popular liquors at the end of the day when they wanted to clear out the pool. All iln all, we really liked that pool. The comments about reserving chairs are generally accurate. We had a group of 6 so we were up by 5-6am to secure seats together. If we were just there as a couple, we would have gone wherever we could find seats and not bothered getting up so early. On the last few days of the trip the crowd really lightened and chairs were available as late as 9 to 10am. Most people were very friendly and we met a lot of people from across the US and from England. It's sad to see so many disparaging comments on this board for people of different nationalities. Everyone we encountered was nice and friendly. I will say the La Isla pool is a very busy activity pool (I have never seen such large groups playing water polo, water volleyball, doing aerobics, etc.) so if someone is looking for a quieter experience, they should go to Los Tucanes or elsewhere.


Service:
Generally, service was very good across the board. Our room was always cleaned, bar was restocked, we received turn down a couple times which was nice. Minibar has a nice beer selection.
One experience worth noting was on our way to the Italian restaurant on the Casitas side. We started near block 40 and got close to Kampai on the Casitas side when the cart began to run out of juice. We turned that into a laugh until we reached the point where he really had to leave us. The walk was a little longer than anticipated from that point, but perfectly manageable. Here's the remarkable part.... Once we finished dinner, the DRIVER CAME BACK TO GET US TO BRING US TO OUR ROOM. I have never had that level of service, to actually go to that extent to provide good service is exceptional. I wish I had the name of the driver to recognize him, it was impressive!

I also wanted to call out Fernando, the La Isla bartender, he provided phenomenal service. (all the bartenders were really very good, but he was there most often). He knew our go to drinks and worked so very hard. Our favorite shot was mini beers (tasted like banana Laffy Taffy or a Now & Later)

Food:
Generally, it was very good and certainly above average.

Day 1 we tarted at JoJos for lunch. Appetizers were good, they brought them out without even ordering which was nice, but main dishes were inconsistent. Service was weak towards the end of the meal - no drink refills. It was probably my least favorite option.

Kampai was our choice for dinner, every single dish was phenomenal. I loved the Chicken Tonkatsu and Duck Teppanyaki (we shared) and everyone else loved their dishes too. Highly recommend it. I think this was probably our #1 favorite. We dined very late and the waiters came over and did little magic tricks for us at the end of the meal. It was lots of fun, great service.

Pizza place by the pool: Excellent lunch option and the most casual in terms of dress code. Pizzas were on cracker thin crisp crust and everyone loved it. I ordered the vegetarian and it was delicious. Dorado dog was delicious. They also provided fresh guacamole and pico upon request with chips, excellent! Orlando and Alex were two stand out waiters at this location.

Rincon: Open for dinner and lunch most days. Their tacos at lunch were phenomenal. We loved the fish tacos and the different beef tacos. You could also request fresh guac with chips. The only complaint we had is that they were inconsistent with their dress code. Some people would be questioned whether they were at the pool and almost turned away while other people who were dripping had no issue. It's very hard to be completely dry at lunch!

Rincon Dinner: Excellent! This was probably our #2 restaurant for dinner. Duck Carnitas and Calamari are great appetizers. The entrees were phenomenal as well. Great service. On our second visit, I ordered the same appetizer i had the first time but it wasn't available, so the waiter asked them to make something special for me. That was a surprise.

Italian at the Casitas: This restaurant is mentioned as a favorite on the board, but we were not impressed. Service was excellent, the tomato and mozzarella appetizer was very good, delicious dessert and espresso. Lobster Lasagna was just okay. We would not have gone back had we more time. I think the food was so good at other locations that this one paled in comparison.

Santa Fe Grill: Phenomenal for a group. Beware, they bring out massive quantities of food and it was hard to figure out how to pace ourselves. They start with several types of appetizers, salad, soup, then you choose an entree, and they bring a selection of desserts. it was very good! But so much food! Their mushroom soup was unbelievable.

Side note: All restaurants have the same house wine and I particularly liked the Sauvignon Blanc.

Breakfasts: We did the sit down at La Isla the first morning and the service was way too slow. The food was fine, but I don't need a 2 hour breakfast. After that, we went to the main lobby at Cocotol for the buffet. They have made to order omelettes, great french toast, fresh fruit, and all kinds of other options. I just like to grab a little something in the morning so this was perfect.


All in all, we had a great trip. Wonderful rooms, good food, interesting bars, great service, beautiful grounds. We love to try different places but if we found the right deal, we would certainly return and I highly recommend the resort.

The resort overall was excellent. The grounds were well maintained, staff friendly, lots of activites to do, clean beaches, food was well prepared, efficient shuttle service. The room was very nice and cleaning staff were prompt and thorough. I believe everyone that was in the party enjoyed themselves.

The resort missed an excellent rating due to an incident at restaurant "Rincon Mexicano". The area where my table was located had a mild infestation of small red ants. And when I opened my napkin, I found a small bug crawling around.

I will recommend this resort and also "Beach Bum vacations" and Nanda personally as an ideal place to go to arrange a trip.