I also wrote this in the Puerto Morelos forum.
Just returned after a stay from July 13th - July 20th. All I can say is it was a wonderful vacation and we would definately go there again. I had sent an email to reservations a few days prior to our arriving and requested a first floor room, close to main pool, with a king size bed. We received everything we asked for.
We thought the buffet had delicious food and we went there for most of our meals. The open air dining with an ocean view table and cool ocean breeze made the experiance wonderful. We tried The Grill (outdoor ocean front dining), Mexican and Mediterranean restaurants. We didn't try the French restaurant because we didn't bring clothes to dress up.. We weren't interested in trying the Japanese restaurant. All the food was great except for the T-Bone steak at The Grill restaurant - it was tough.
The grounds are beautiful - lush landscaping of tropical trees and plants everywhere. Strolling around the grounds in the evening was great. Caught sight of several lizards. We brought Deet but only noticed a few mosquitos on the beach one evening. We were tired so we went in because we forgot to put Deet on. Other evenings we didn't seem to need it.
We were in Building 1 - the Chichen Icha. PERFECT location. Steps from ocean, pool and restaurants. Unfortunately, I didn't heed the advice posted here about first floor rooms being musty. Indeed our 1st floor room was very musty...... but we weren't willing to give up the location of Building 1 for a 2nd floor room somewhere else. Our suitcases still smell musty after 2 weeks and many spays with Febreeze. We didn't have a view either (except of the plants) but that was "ok". Next time I would definately choose a 2nd floor room.
Just a note, all the buildings are pretty much steps from the beach because of the resort layout.
We brought our own Springform inner tubes and enjoyed using them in the ocean and pool. While we were there, the ocean was a little cloudy and filled with sea weed / grass. It was, for the most part. like swimming in grass clippings. There was always a yellow flag that week but we could still go out there and float around. The water was just slightly rough. Only one day, the sky was mostly cloudy and overcast, and it rained briefly a couple time.........but the water was beautifully clear and free of seaweed! So I guess it all depends on what storms are going on way out in the ocean somewhere.
We did have to have our room safe and tv fixed but they responded to our call within minutes.
Our room was super clean and the grounds were kept clean and neat as well.
Saturday and Sunday were very busy days. We arrived on Saturday around 1:00PM and had a hard time finding a lounge chair on the beach (NONE available around the pool). It was very crowded and hard to tell which lounges were in use because people tend to walk off and just leave their towels. Monday through Friday it was considerably less crowded. We learned about the towel game early on. Get your clean towels for the next day before you head in for the evening. Get up by 7:00 (maybe earlier) and put your towel and a couple personal items on a lounge if you want one any where near the pool. 8:00 is good enough to get a front row beach lounge. Be considerate of others and take your towels with you and turn them in if you are done using the lounge chair. Don't stake out pool lounges AND beach lounges at the same time. I don't understand why that is so hard for people to follow. We didn't get to sit on a pool lounge chair once - never could get one in a good spot. But that was ok - we spent mornings at the beach, had lunch, and spent afternoons sitting on the built-in tile pool lounges in the pool. I loved those! During the week there were always some available. Some days the music at the pool was loud and other days it wasn't. I enjoyed the days when the music was playing softly. If the music gets too loud there are areas of the pool that are quieter - just no tile pool lounges in those areas. Those quieter areas are great places to float around on an inner tube and be away from almost everyone.
Didnt go out on any sightseeing trips because we were there strictly for the beach and relaxing. There are trips scheduled into town from the resort a few days a week but we didn't check into those.
The resort has plenty to do for those who want to be busy. Zumba, water aerobics, bingo, beach volleyball, spanish lessons, sailing lessons, kayaks, Hobie cats, scuba trips, etc. There was some sort of entertainment every night. One evening venders set up an area of tables selling jewelry, purses, t-shirts, hand-carved items, pictures etc. So that was where we bought a couple souvineers without leaving the resort. Nobody comes up and bothers you on the beach either - they just walk past and call out what they're selling. You can get your picture taken with a monkey or an iguana from vendors walking on the beach.
There is a very small shop at the resort that doesn't carry much and is expensive.
The staff were all very friendly and helpful and spoke pretty good English. Important because we know no spanish.
Since this was our first trip to Mexico I can't compare the NOW Sapphire to other resorts. We chose it because I read good reviews about the food, the beach was nice, wide and sandy with no rocks, the pool had built-in tile pool lounges, it wasn't far from the airport, the room was very spacious with a little sitting area that had a couch, table and chairs, the buffet was had open-air ocean front dining, the resort wasn't too large and had a good layout.. Those were the things important to us. Based on that we would give it a 4 out of 5 and will definately return there again.