My husband and I (we are in our late 30's) just returned from our week long vacation at the Quetzal. After reading so many great reviews, I think my expectations might have been a little too high because overall we were a little disappointed with the hotel. I really can't complain too much b/c, let's face it, vacation in itself is a beautiful thing, right? Not having to work, R&R, the beach, the sun...it was all wonderful!
But, I know that I relied very heavily on Tripadvisor when I planned this vacation so I hope I can return the favor to anyone thinking of going to this resort. To start from the beginning, upon arrival at the Cancun airport, make sure that you stop for no one. Go straight until you reach the parking lot. There you can find your travel coordinator or look for a taxi. Stop for no one while inside the airport. There are so many people screaming at you to take your bags or trying to scam you in to seeing time sharing. Check-in for us was bad. We arrived late in the afternoon and although I followed another reviewers advice and sent an e-mail ahead to the resort to reserve a king bed in a certain building...it didn't help b/c I was told there was only one king room left up near the lobby. We had no choice but to take it. Luckily noise was...My husband and I (we are in our late 30's) just returned from our week long vacation at the Quetzal. After reading so many great reviews, I think my expectations might have been a little too high because overall we were a little disappointed with the hotel. I really can't complain too much b/c, let's face it, vacation in itself is a beautiful thing, right? Not having to work, R&R, the beach, the sun...it was all wonderful!
But, I know that I relied very heavily on Tripadvisor when I planned this vacation so I hope I can return the favor to anyone thinking of going to this resort. To start from the beginning, upon arrival at the Cancun airport, make sure that you stop for no one. Go straight until you reach the parking lot. There you can find your travel coordinator or look for a taxi. Stop for no one while inside the airport. There are so many people screaming at you to take your bags or trying to scam you in to seeing time sharing. Check-in for us was bad. We arrived late in the afternoon and although I followed another reviewers advice and sent an e-mail ahead to the resort to reserve a king bed in a certain building...it didn't help b/c I was told there was only one king room left up near the lobby. We had no choice but to take it. Luckily noise was never an issue even though we were somewhat close to the disco. Needless to say, we had no view. I did get the mattress pad though and we slept fine. Yes, the frig is supposed to be restocked every other day. That was not the case for us. By the third day when it hadn't been restocked we had to call to ask for more water and Sprite. Also, our toilet had problems flushing off and on during the week. Oh, and our safe was locked shut when we went to use it for the first time and they had to send security to open it for us. The water pressure in the shower was excellent.
The food was medicore at best. There is no variety. It is the same thing day after day. We ate at the Steakhouse, Japanese and Mexican restaurants on property. They were good and much better than the buffet. You won't gain weight eating the desserts b/c they were terrible. We went out to eat twice in PDC. We ate at La Parilla and that was good. We spoke to other people that had been back to this hotel and they said that the food quality had definitely gone down and that the level of service wasn't the same. We were relieved to hear that because we thought we were just turning in to snobs.
The beach is great. Had no problem getting chairs. The beach is the best along the strip of hotels in Playacar. The pool was nice, but very hard to find a chair there. Need to be out by the pool by about 8:30 am if you want chaird. Even though they tell you you can't reserve chairs EVERYONE does it especially by the pool. We are beach people so we didn't care.
For activities we went to Dolphin Discovery and did the Royal Swim and it was fabulous. I better stop here. I could go on and on, but I am really getting too long winded. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. All-in-all we had a great vacation, but I would not go back to this resort unless I heard that the food quality greatly improved. Most of the families we spoke to seem to really like the hotel though and they seem to have great activities for kids.More
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