My wife and I are celebrating our 5-year anniversary in April and we're thinking about going to Mexico. I've read several threads suggesting Excellence Playa Mujeres, El Dorado Royale, Secrets Capri, etc. Does anyone have any other recommendations, or comments on any of the above?

We basically want to go and relax and do some diving.

Excellence!

I'll try and post my review from last June.

http://www.texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?forum_id=54&topic_id=1158020

any questions let me know and I'll try and answer...

Excellence Playa Mujeres

Went there for my honeymoon. Awesome place.

Royal Hideaway is spectacular.

Royal Hideaway, Tides and Maroma were the only resorts in the Playa del Carmen area that were listed in the Travel+Leisure top 500 for 2008.

the royal hideaway in playacar is a superb all-inclusive (playacar is right next to playa)

we went to Excellence Cancun and loved it.
I cannot put into words how great it was

We went to the Excellence Playa Mujeres as well on our honeymoon, would definitely recommend it.

We went to El Dorado Royal in Riviera Maya for our honeymoon last year and absolutely loved it!

Going to Royal Playa del Carmen in May and will have a review after that.

Thanks for the info. For those that have stayed at Excellence, what type of room did you stay in? And is it worth the extra $ to do the Excellence club?

not worth the extra for the excellence club.

I stayed in the junior suite

We stayed in excellence club rooftop terrace.

The rooftop terrace was absolutely awesome. The excellence club was cool and all with the extra amenities, and I am glad we did it for our honeymoon, but definitely not necessary if you don't want to spend the extra cash.

My wife and I love the Iberostar resorts. WE've been to several others, but they don't come close in either price or quality. The Paraiso has been the #1 resort on tripadvisor since it opened.

We stayed in the rooftop terrace as well. I thought it was awesome for our honeymoon. I liked some of the things the excellence club offered, but if we go back we'll probably pass on the excellence club. I'd recommend it for a honeymoon or special anniversary but like I said, if we go back in the near future would try a regular room.

what extra did the excellence club get you? and did it come with the rooftop room, or is it just a package you can buy regardless of your room?

I think you have to have a certain room in order to get the package.

Highly recommend the Excellence!

On the Excellence Club: You upgrade to the excellence club and those rooms are in a different building. You can be in the excellence club and have a ground level room, ocean view room, or rooftop room.

You get much better views from the Excellence Club rooms, but outside of that, I'm not sure it's worth a ton. Unlike most resorts, you don't get a wristband, no matter what level you book at. Thus, there is no way to differentiate who is excellence club and who is not.

Only benefits of Excellence Club:

-Seperate, more quiet, pool
-Better ocean views
-Expanded room service menu (room service is free and is 24/7)
-Excellence Club private room has snacks and liquor options

That's about all I remember being special about it. If you are not going to worry about the ocean view from your room, then that eliminates that benefit. And while the private pool is a nice feature, it's certainly not worth an extra $1000 by itself. I didn't think the liquor options in the Excellence Club private room were any big deal (plenty of good alcohol at the other bars). Really, the only thing we loved about the Excellence Club was the room service (which we used often at like 2am) and the better views. The pool was nice, but again, wasn't worth the upgrade by itself.

Hope this helps and again, I loved that resort.

I think Baylorguy nailed it for the most part. You are paying for the best ocean views. The restaurants, the pools, the bars are all the same. You did get extra liquor, beer, and snacks in the room but we barely touched it with all the bars available. Don't forget room service, it was great. I can't remember the differences in the expanded excellence menu but that would not make or break my decision anyhow.

One thing I really enjoyed that Baylorguy didn't mention about the excellence club was the private club itself. I like being able to go in there and use the internet (it was always available unlike the main computer area) and the extra appetizers, coffee, and bar. It was nice to be able to go in there grab a bite to eat and check email without having to go into a restaurant just for a snack.

[This message has been edited by aggielax48 (edited 1/26/2009 4:03p).]

[This message has been edited by aggielax48 (edited 1/26/2009 4:03p).]