Posting this for anyone like me who had never been to a Mexico all-inclusive and found a ton of choices when doing initial research...

Just returned from an amazing stay at Excellence Playa Mujeres. As far as Cancun goes, we're going to be coming strictly here from here on out.. Talking with dozens of people on the trip, to a person..every single one said that this resort was the way to go and that they will no longer jump around trying different resorts in Cancun.

We booked a swim-up suite in the excellence club package and had a great time. Had some of the best food on a vacation that I've ever had.

Definitely make this place a top consideration when it seems that there are dozens upon dozens of resorts to choose from. It's the #1 rated all inclusive in Mexico according to Trip Advisor, so that worried me that it would be at max capacity with guests.. we found the opposite, we never had to wait in line for dinner, never waited to be served on at the bars.. never felt too crowded.

Interested in going - had a lot of fun at Excellence Punta Cana a couple of years ago. Any recommendations on where to make reservations and get a good deal?

I did my reservations through the Excellence website directly.

While we were there, people told us that they give you 30% off and more lenient cancellation deadlines if you book your next stay before your current stay was over.

I called up there and booked for a week in June 2018.. and they gave me about the same rate that I paid for this year's trip. So.. maybe I caught a discounted rate by accident this year?

So I just took a look online after I wrote my reply to you and found that if I booked the exact same trip that I booked while I was there, I could actually get the reservation $200 cheaper... so I guess the people giving us advice didn't know what they were talking about.

Apparently right now is 33% off and you can take an additional 5% off by using promo code: GET 5

SO yeah I've already canceled the other trip and booked the cheaper one.

I specifically asked someone to get the Playa Blanca recipe next time they were there!

JK... that place rocks.

What did you do for transportation to and from the Resort and Airport? We are likely booking a trip here for the fall.

We added the private transportation to our reservation. The resort works with a company called Seasons Tours to do all of the off resort stuff.. like excursions and other things but we booked it directly off of the Excellence website.

They picked us up in a suburban and it was private so no others joined us.

It's definitely up there in price... $192 for round trip. It's about a 35-minute drive from the airport to resort so I was kind of thinking you could just grab a cab driver to get you to there for much cheaper.

Overall I didn't mind paying for it because we got charged well beforehand and it was out of my head by the time we arrived... but our guy to the airport had a cooler with water and cervezas for us to enjoy before we got to the resort so bonus points for that!

We used Feraltar booked through http://www.cancun-airport.net a couple years ago and it was $70 round trip for a private transfer in a plain passenger van.

I was just thinking about how Uber has to cheaper but it doesn't look like it.

Will be there with the GF and a couple of married couple friends October 19-22nd!!

Will be my our first time - looking for recommendations for dive shops / spots (we're trying to get everyone certified before the trip) and fishing trips. Anyone have any recs?

Very excited to be going to Mejico!

I'm getting there on 10/23. Make sure to leave some tequila for me.

drumboy said:

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I'm getting there on 10/23. Make sure to leave some tequila for me.

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We make no promises

My wife has been to excellence but prefers this place:
http://www.zoetryresorts.com/paraiso

I have never heard a bad thing about excellence so you can't go wrong.

One bad thing: it's like a freaking maze when it's dark and your drunk. We couldn't figure out how to find our room when leaving the sports bar and kept ending up at the spa. I was ready to swim across the lazy river and my wife was ready to sleep in the grass with the giant iguanas. Finally we found the foot path that went to our building.

Buck O Five said:

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My wife has been to excellence but prefers this place:
http://www.zoetryresorts.com/paraiso

I have never heard a bad thing about excellence so you can't go wrong.

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This place looks pretty awesome, too.

You can dive with the hotel and you don't have to be certified. The hotel also has an outfitter they'll set you up with for fishing that has some good boats/captains. I would email the concierge at the hotel beforehand and they can get you set up with more information.

Just got back from the Excellence last week. Got a Excellence Club Ocean Front with the Rooftop deck/pool. We had a great time. For an all-inclusive spot the food was actually pretty good.

If you are going, do the excellence club - separate beach area with nice shade, separate pools when you want a quieter scene, and upgraded drinks. They also have an excellence club lounge which I found to be great because the bartenders are never busy and make good drinks.

FWIWy wife and I stayed at excellence PC a couple years and found no reason to do the club section. It seemed like a giant waste of money

We have always used USA-Transfers (highly rated on TripAdvisor) for RR past 10 years. $80 RT for up to four in private van. They are awesome. We just got back. Had a problem one day of pickup, as our 5:30 pm flight got delayed to 8:30 pm. Called them from Excellence and they changed the schedule to pick us up three hours later.