Paradisus Cancun

We have visited Cancun many times, but our first time at Paradisus at Cancun let me day WONDERFUL THE BEST!! EVER. we will NEVER stay anywhere else. The YHI Spa is great Ana & mae was great awesome. I can't not say enough about resort paradise.

This is a large resort hotel with a great beach. In fact the beach is the best part of the story, beautiful sand and turquoise warm waters. But you have to wake up early in the morning if you you want to get your hammocks which is totally unaneceptable in this kind of resort. Rooms are quite large and comfortable. The bathroom is small and needs to be refurbished. There are plenty of restaurants inside the resort and in general offering good food. The service is efficient and gentle.

Our family of 4 traveled to the Paradisus Cancun in July 2017 and stayed for 5 nights. I had heard great reviews of the Royal Service, but because one of our sons is 16 years old, we were unable to take advantage of RS (it is for adults only). Overall, this is a beautiful, clean hotel with good food and excellent service. We had a lovely vacation. The resort is family friendly but it's not really a haven for young children. Our sons are older teens so that wasn't an issue for us. The environment was calm and relaxed - not a party hotel at all. We found that it struck the perfect balance. We definitely would categorize this as a luxury hotel, and would have rated have given it a higher overall rating if it were not for some hotel policies which need updating. These pertain to the pool/beach seating and the dining reservation system. I'll try to summarize individual areas below. Check-In: Check in was quick and efficient. We had two rooms next to each other, as we had requested. After check in, we sat for a few moments with a host who gave us the run-down on making dinner reservations, etc. He did broach the subject of attending a "breakfast," which is really a time share tour, but was polite when we declined and simply gave us his number in case we wanted to hear more at a later time. Service: Throughout the hotel, all staff were friendly, helpful, and went above and beyond to improve our stay. Here is an example. We checked in at around 4:15 pm, which is in the short window when the buffet restaurant is closed. Our sons were very hungry after traveling all day, and as we got on the elevator we were wondering out loud about where we might grab a bite. The baggage porter who was helping with our bags outlined some options for us as he helped us into our rooms and I assured my sons that we would head down to grab some food as soon as we did some unpacking. About five minutes later, there was a knock on the door. He had sent someone from room service up with a tray of food - wings, rice and veggies. We were so touched by that! The service we encountered here was outstanding. Atmosphere: The hotel's common areas and grounds are exceptionally clean and well maintained. The lobby is gorgeous, with foliage from ceiling to floor. Our rooms were well-appointed, but they are showing their age. In one of our rooms, the handle on the outside of the deck door was missing, we had to push on the glass to slide the door open and closed. In our bathroom, the latch to the door of the water closet was missing, so it did not close all the way. None of these issues were really a bother to us, but the hotel may want to work on those types of room repairs and maintenance. Housekeeping in our room was excellent throughout our stay. Pool: The pools are very nice and well maintained, but really deep. I am 5'4" and there was no portion of the pool in which I could stand flat footed with my head above water. This was odd, as this is a family hotel, and those with small children had to keep them in floats or rafts at all times. For me, it meant that I had to be standing at the swim up bar or seated outside of the pool to have a drink. If you're short, pack a cheap float in your bag. Beach: The beach here is lovely, especially for this area of Cancun. During our stay, the water was calm enough for swimming on all but one day. There is some seaweed, but it's not too bad. There are lifeguards stationed at the beach, but we rarely saw them. There are vendors walking the beach who will approach you to sell items, but they are easily refused and rarely approach you directly. Pool and Beach seating: This is an area that the resort really MUST improve. In order to ensure that you have seating at the beach or pool, plan to wake up early and put towels out to hold the chairs. At that, if you are not in the chairs by 10:00 am or so, staff will remove the towels. My husband and I would usually go down at about 7:00 am to reserve four seats, and then he and I would get breakfast and return to the seats by 8:30-9:00 am. Staff might then try to remove towels from our other two seats, and we would have to assure them that those seats were for our sons (who do not wake up that early on vacation). This entire system is ridiculous because there is PLENTY of space for seating all of the hotel guests. There are a slew of large bali beds or cabanas both on the beach and around the pool which have a daily rental cost involved. I have stayed at several luxury all inclusives before, and have never had to pay to secure beach or pool seating. If we were to have rented two bali beds for each of the five days of our stay, we would have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500! As we walked through the pool and beach areas each day, we were absolutely overwhelmed by the number of bali beds and cabanas that sat empty (I would estimate 95% of them). Because they are large structures, they take up SO MUCH room around the pool and on the beach that could be dedicated to open chairs with umbrellas. I am very fair and I need coverage in the Mexican sun to prevent sunburn - there is simply not enough seating with sun cover available to guests, and there is a simple solution to this problem. Restaurant Reservations: The reservation system is another area in which this hotel needs improvement. We stayed for five nights, which means five dinners. We checked in on our first day close to dinner time, and so we were told that there were no available reservations in any of the restaurants. We ate at the buffet that evening. We were told that we could call in the morning (as early as possible) to make reservations for the next night. We called early on the morning after we checked in, and we were informed that there was nothing available for that night, but we could make reservations for the following night. Essentially, unless we had arrived at the hotel early in the morning on our first day, we would then not be granted a dinner reservation until the THIRD night of our stay. My husband argued this, and was told that because the hotel was full, they were setting up a special dinner event outside at the pool (barbecue menu) and they could give us a reservation for that. The barbecue dinner was ok, but not great. This was all really disappointing, because once we were able to make reservations and eat in the nicer restaurants, we really enjoyed our meals. We felt like we missed two nights of eating well. Another guest later told us that they had just walked up to restaurants without reservations and asked if there was an opening, and they were seated. I wish we had known that- we would have done it. Restaurants: Naos is the main buffet restaurant. It was in line with what I have had at buffets in other all inclusives. At breakfast, there is a nice make your own omelette station. There are many food choices. Blue Agave is a taco restaurant that is open almost all the time. We ate lunch there several times and it was also good, with a limited menu. The buffet "barbecue" dinner that we ate outside at the pool was good but not outstanding. On the three nights that we were able to make dinner reservations, we ate at Vento, Market Grill and Bana. All three were very good, but Vento was our absolute favorite. It is a mediterranean tapas restaurant and the food was excellent! We sampled so many things from the menu and loved them all (try the butterfish), and we were sad that we didn't have a chance to eat there twice. Market Grill was good, it's a brazilian rodizio restaurant. Not my personal favorite, but my sons are meat lovers and they both really enjoyed it. The food at Bana was also delicious. My family loves sushi, but I have a shellfish allergy. They were very accommodating of my needs. A warning about Bana, though - it is uncomfortably warm in that restaurant. It is located in the lobby area of the hotel, and in the evenings the entire center of the main tower is hot and humid. We were sweating like crazy during dinner. It is also very dark in Bana - we could honestly barely see each other or our food. We think that the ambiance is intended to be romantic - there is live music - but it's all just so uncomfortable that it definitely detracts from the experience, which is a shame because the food is great. Gelato and donut stands in lobby were delicious and a nice touch. Sunset Grille at the pool was ok, mostly french fries and pizza type fare. Room service, which we ordered several times, was also good (and quick). Excursions: There are several desks around the lobby where you can book excursions. If you stop at the one that is on the same side as Blue Agave, you will be pitched a time share "breakfast" so that you can save money on the excursion. After this happening to us a few times, my husband and I decided to just do the tour so that we could get the discount. It lasted 90 minutes and it was fine. We did not purchase the time share and had no intention to do so, but it saved us about $400 on an excursion. Once that was out of the way, we were directed to an excursion desk on the other side of the lobby. The gentleman there was so helpful - calling ahead to book our time, giving us explicit instructions on how to get where we were going, how to pay, etc. Costs: This is an all inclusive hotel, but as I said earlier, there is a cost (about $150 per day when we were there) for bali beds or cabanas. Also, in the restaurants, there are wine lists or beer lists on each table, and you are referred to them by your servers. However, there is cost for every wine except the white or red house wine. In Blue Agave, my husband ordered a beer from the list of four or five bottled beers posted on the bar and a big scene was made, with a manager type person checking on which one he wanted and sending someone to get it in another part of the hotel. Ten minutes later they had the bottled beer for him and he was presented with a bill for $8. It wasn't a big deal, but it wasn't communicated well. Same thing in the restaurants, where I was asked if I wanted a specific wine from the wine list, but I had to ask if there was an additional cost for it - it was offered but the cost was not immediately explained.

Amazing place - comfortable rooms, high speed internet :); not so many sunbeds near pools, but available at the beach Great staff - always smiling & helpful Delicious cuisine in each of the restaurants Family Concierge - probably the best I've tried in Mexico

Having stayed and a wonderful hotel in Playa del Carmen, and pretty good resort in Puerto Morelos, I wasn't sure how much I would like being on a "Miami Beach" strip of hotels in the middle of Cancun (which is shaped like the number 7). Well, the Paradisus Cancun was great! First of all the staff was friendly and accommodating to a person. Check in to the Royal Service (which I HIGHLY recommend!!!) was a breeze. The beach/ocean facing room was very nice and the view was beautiful. Even the inside of the hotel, shaped like a pyramid, is beautiful, with lush greenery and decorations. Food in all the restaurants was very good. The Royal Service portion of the hotel adds music in the "lobby" at dinner time. Finger foods and top shelf drinks are always available during "waking" hours, and are included in your stay. Royal Service also means that all food and top shelf drinks are yours anywhere on the grounds of the hotel. Beach chairs in a roped off area for R.S. is constantly attended by waiters bringing you food and drink. R.S. has it's own large pool. The beach was beautiful white sand and had minimal seaweed issues, unlike beaches south of Cancun. The water...GORGEOUS! To top it off, Paradisus Cancun is right across the street from a large water sport facility where most people visiting the strip will end up to either rent boats, cruise, scuba, water park, etc, but staying here you simply walk across the street! I would absolutely go back here.