I'm pretty sure this will be the place for our honeymoon. Does anyone know anything about it, good, bad, or any other hints. Also if anyone has suggestions on side trips to do around the city or whatever, let me know. thanks for the help.

Forgot about that one!
My neighbors as well as some very good friends of ours went there this summer and loved it.
They highly recommended a casita/cabana or whatever they are called there.
They didnt comment much on the beach however but mentioned food, drinks and service were great.

We went about 2 years ago. Get a casita, you can thank me later. You get treated much much different if you are not in one. If you dont, plan on waiting at least an hour for dinner and not getting beach beds. Other than that, the place is really swanky and I highly reccomend.

my brother an dhis wife went there for their Honeymoon a few years ago..he talked very highly of the Casita Suites..and from the pictures the place looked awesome. I dont think he paid for the Casita Suite though..it was a complementary upgrade that was guranteed when he made the reservation. So make sure you tell them its your honeymoon and hopefully you can have the same luck.

Note:

Your brother got extremely lucky. It is rare to get the casita upgrade by just asking. Must have been a huge promo or something. The price difference is quite significant. When we were there, many honeymooners were asking about getting bumped to one and all were denied. Moral is, I would not count on it in the least.

I will definitely have to look into that upgrade. Also, any recommendations for the cheapest airfare to cancun? I don't plan on flying first class or anything like that, I'd rather spend the money on activities while in mexico.

I just talked with my brother..they went at the end of August and got a "swim up Casita Suite" and only paid for a regular suite. They did go through a travel Agent Though. He also said the price difference was fairly substantial..he just got lucky. Best of luck with the upgrade.

what travel agent was that, I want to get in touch with them

Went a couple of years ago. We stayed in a regular room (all we could afford) and still thought it was great. We went in August though so it was not real crowded. Service was excellent. Food was good, but not great. We took a day trip in to the town that was close and had a good time bumping around shopping.

Enjoy.

For the cheapest air you would need to select AIR only vacations from the tour operators (Funjet, WorryFree, Apple, etc.)
Mexicana was around $350/pp this summer.
American was pricing around $400.
If you find a good summer deal early jump on it. My experience is that prices do not go down closer to departure and I doubt you want to gamble with something like your honeymoon.

This place rules! Wife and I went last year for our Honeymoon, and got the swim up casita. Service was awesome, and they will absolutely spoil you. Nicest resort I have ever stayed in, and the food was excellent. I recommend this place a thousand times over. Only down side, your wife will want to go back every year.

thanks for all the help everyone. the good news is I'm 99.9% sure I'm going to this resort, the bad news is that I don't think I can afford anything but a junior suite.

Stayed there for our honeymoon three years ago next week. Awesome place. The casita is definately worth the upgrade.

Right now I'm finding airfare from DFW to Cancun for 417 bucks a person. This is using priceline, cheapest search I found so far. Does that seem about right or should they go for cheaper at a later date?

worry free vacations for your flight.

My wife and I stayed there in 2005. Didn't like it much. We heard all positive praise on the place and it just didn't seem worth it to us when we stayed. However, as you see in this thread, most of the reviews we saw were very positive on the place.

We did not get the casita. If you go, IMO, you have to pay for the casita...otherwise you are wasting your time/money.

The trip started off bad. Delays and cancellations put us in Mexico the next afternoon. We had booked a prepaid vacation through Funjet. So we had already paid for the first night which we did not receive.

Problems: Staff not friendly or helpful. We arrived a day late due to a canceled flight. The hotel was notified. However, we asked for an upgrade since we had paid for a room that we did not use. They denied it. I could understand that, however was still disappointed. We had reserved a non-smoking room. If you get there before 3pm (I think), you have to wait until a room is available. So we waited for 2 hours until 3:45pm until a room was available. We get taken to our room (which we had reserved a non-smoking room due to our allergies), and it had a very bad smoking smell. We asked to move. So guess what? We get to go back to the lobby and wait another 45 minutes to get another room. We get to that room, and there was major major construction going on right by our rooms. We sucked it up because we did not want to wait any longer. Also, they said it was an oceanfront room....uh yeah sort of.

Then we go down to reserve our dinner reservations. Well if you aren't in a casita, you don't get priority....and also by the time we got into our rooms after all the fiasco, all the good times and preferred restaraunts were taken. I just found it dumb that we had paid a good amount of money and we had to go stand in a line and wait to sit down at a table to make a freakin reservation to eat for the entire week. Also, the food is not that great in my opinion. It's good, but not great. There was one restaraunt that was supposedly very very good....but guess what, it was full for the week by the time we made our reservations. FYI, we went I think in late June...and it was very crowded.

We had a very bad experience there. A few other things happened to our disliking. Just a hint....if it is raining....be very very careful on the all marble walkways. Very slippery in flip flops. My wife had a nice concussion from a fall.

Let's just say the trip was not a good one. The resort is apparently a good experience for most. But just wanted to state my problems so you have an idea that it is not exactly the greatest resort in the world, as some might have you think.

[This message has been edited by uneedastraw (edited 10/24/2007 11:59p).]

NawlinsAg,

Just reread one of your posts. If you go, please please please scrape up the money for a casita. In my opinion, if you can't afford the casita, you need to find another option.

I believe we would have had the opinion that it was the second greatest resort we have ever been to if we would have scraped up the money for a casita....as we saw the great treatment/priority that they received. The casitas are very nice...they have their own personal concierge...and they get priority for just about everything.

Just FYI...The best resort that we have ever stayed at is Kona Village Resorts in Kona, Hawaii.

[This message has been edited by uneedastraw (edited 10/25/2007 12:01a).]

so what you are saying is that it's worth the extra 1800 bucks, almost two grand, so you get preferred seating and better customer service. grandted, who doesn't want to be put at the top of the line for everything and have no waits, but 1800 bucks seems like a pretty significant fee to pay for that, no?

The place is great, but I can see how uneedastraw had a terrible experience. We, like most of the other posters, really enjoyed our stay and hope to go back some day. I would also recommend the Casita, but don't be fooled by the open air shower. It wasn't as great as it looked in the pictures.

The Casitas get preferential treatment for the restaurants, so if one is "full", it may not be for you. They also get a shuttle service to and from their rooms and I'm not sure if the regular rooms get that for any time other than check-in and check-out.

If you don't go with the Casita, be sure to sit down immediately after you arrive and plan out where you'll be eating each day. Do that first so hopefully you won't get blocked out of a restaurant you want to eat at.

The only other benefits I think the Casitas get are a DVD library or something like that.

Just my two cents.

There may also be some extras the Casitas get for beach service that I don't know about.

[This message has been edited by LateAg (edited 10/25/2007 1:54p).]

Nawlinsag, I am not necessarily saying the casita upgrade is worth the $1800. We only stayed 3 nights, so it would have not been that much for us, and it would have been definitely worth it in our case.

What I am saying, is that I don't think it is worth the money if you aren't staying in a casita. You are basically a second class citizen at the resort. The only way I would ever think for one second about going back there is if I booked a casita room...which I will not, because there are so many more nice places that I can go for that kind of money.

That being said, it is your honeymoon and it will be the best vacation you will ever take. After you get married, the stress of life takes over (bills, kids, etc.), and you will never be able to enjoy another vacation like it. So if you are set on Cancun and this place, so if you can find anyway to do it, yes I think it would be worth it IMO to scrape up the extra 2k....unless it would put you in a financial bind.

went to el dorado for honeymoon little over 2 years ago..went in late August..stayed a week and then flew into Atlanta and went to the A&M-Clemson game

anyway..I will have to go thru my old records because Im sure we paid for ajunior suite and got a swim up casita suite upgrade..I know we got an upgrade to a casita swim up suite for our honeymoon..just not sure what I originally paid for..the casita suites were great..and we really enjoyed our stay...have been wanting to go back ever since..we were going this year but opted for Miami for the A&M-UM game instead

we went during their non peak season and it was not that crowded..the "private casita guest area" including beach is great...get to beach early and get a cabana..like I said we went during non peak season so it was not that crowded and we got a cabana everyday...if staying at a casita you can make dinner reservations 3 days in advance..if not you have ot make them that morning which can be a bit of a headache...no reservations needed for lunch..JoJo's is great for lunch..we ate there for lunch 4 of the 5 days we were there

we did ATV's on the beach and speed boats..all set up thru the hotel...both activities for me and my wife was around $100 total

nice selection of restuarants..all were decent
take advantage of the 24 hour room service...most bars will stay open till 2am...with the casita suite we had a big hot tub in the room after spending the day down at the beach we would realax in the hot tub..fridge stocked with beer ect..had champagne stocked daily as well
if you do get a casita request a 2nd level casita..we had one and the views were amazing..and it was nice to just relax on your own private baclony in the hammock..

if cannot get upgrade or cannot afford the casita suites..get what you can and enjoy yourselves...you will have a good time regardless

[This message has been edited by Aggie (edited 10/26/2007 2:40a).]

Solid advice.

The wife and I stayed there in July of 06. Our trip was good but not great.

Pros:
Beautiful resort
Nice rooms
Decent food
24 hour room service
Other fun vacationers. (Lot's of Texans)

Cons:
Waiting....Waiting....Waiting
You can't check in till a certain time. We waited nearly 3 hours to check in. We went down and got something to eat and drink but couldn't really do anything else. We always seemed to be waiting for service. If you need a drink you might order 2 or it might be awhile before you get another one.

Although it is all-inclusive, if you didn't tip you didn't get service. The people that tipped got served quickly and every time. We learned this was the best way to get anything when and how you wanted it. We were expecting it to be like our honeymoon in Jamaica where the employees wouldn't accept tips no matter what. We also thought most of the employees were a bit on the rude side. If we asked them to do something, most acted like it was a real pain in their ass to have to do anything for us.

Another couple their on their vacation booked a swim-up casita. The hotel overbooked and they ended up in the worse rooms on the property. The hotel comped them $200 in the hotel gift shop which really didn't buy them much of anything. Needless to say they were very pissed. They were from Wisconsin, the wife got sunburned so bad she got sun poisoning and was puking for 2 days. We felt so sorry for this couple. They got treated even worse than we did.

The beach was still washed out from the hurricane the previous year. They had huge sand bags out in the water to make a water break to keep the beach from washing away I guess. They didn't show us these in the brochure.

If you do go to Playa, go see Xel-Ha and some of the Inca ruins. Xel-Ha was worth the trip alone. The ruins were also very cool. Also, Taxi drivers there are better to talk to about what to see and do than anybody else and much cheaper than the tours.

I've talked to people that have had much better vacations there as well as people that have had experiences like ours.

I can tell you that we went to Couples Swept Away in Jamaica for our honeymoon. We had a much, much, much better experience. We also met other couples that were coming back for their 2nd or 3rd visit and swore up and down that Couples Swept Away was one of the best places to go in the Caribbean. The next time we vacation in the Caribbean we will be going back Couples Swept Away or to St. Lucia. I've heard very good things about that little island.



Ag97

been there for a wedding.
The casitas are much nicer so look into that.

The service isn't the best at the lobby so don't count on them for much.

I thought the food was better than the Iberostar Paraiso which is right down the beach and I've also been to.

***Book your dinners first thing when you get there.

You should check out Secrets Capri Riviera Cancun. It says cancun, but it's in playa. It's an all-inclusive, but I made sure before we booked that it was a nice one, and you get what you pay for. The resort is immaculate, best service I've ever received, and I have traveled quite a bit. You have choices of 6 or 7 restaurants, so it's not 1 buffet all the time. Surprisingly, we liked the Japanese restaurant best, great sushi. And there's tons to do there, we only left 1 of the 6 days. But it still has good proximity to town. And the drinks are not watered down and you can always ask for top shelf liquor.

Nawlins - as mentioned in my e-mail, I second the recommendation above for Secrets Capri.
Look into it.

If you are looking for alternatives, my wife and I honeymooned at the Occidental Grand Glamenco Xcaret in Playa and had a blast. That was four years ago. We are planning on going back next year on our fifth anniversary. Sounds like the Casita deal is a little better.

Flamenco didn't have as much beach as some of the others, but the part we stayed in was a small private area where no kids were allowed and had it's own pool and restaurant. That made up for the lack of beach front. The room was a huge suite with a giant jacuzzi tub and separate shower. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful.

But it sounds like these casitas are pretty awesome though. Just thought I'd toss out another option for you.