AIRPORT
When we arrived at the Airport in Cancun it was packed. Apparently a few flights got in at the same time; it took us 2 hours to get out of there.

CHECK-IN
We walk in, someone greeted us and took our luggage to our room while we had a tour of the grounds.

THE BEACH
Beautiful white sands. A tiny bit rocky when you first enter the water, but smooth after. Plenty of beach chairs and umbrellas to go around. We never had to worry about leaving our towels down on our chairs. We did not have any sand flea bites.
The beach goes on for 20 kilometres, so if you can walk around as much as you want through the other hotel's beach fronts.
Our location was the best because it was at the end of the strip so it was a very private beach.

SECURITY
There were plenty of security officers walking around the grounds in the morning and in the middle of the night, I felt very safe.

THE STANDARD ROOM
The standard room was great, we couldn’t ask for anything more. It was clean. Had a king bed and a day bed. A desk, mirror, safe, mini-bar, etc. Absolutely no bugs in the room, which was pretty amazing. We had a picturesque view of the lagoon.

CIRCUS SCHOOL
Yes, you can learn a bunch of different circus type activities here, from trapeze to the trampoline. Lots of fun.

PROGRAMS
There was so much stuff happening at the resort, it was hard to keep up. Dance classes, market places, water sports, etc.

FOOD
Let me tell you that we did not even try the 2 a la cart restaurants, because there was no need! The main restaurant was great. There were 2 specials for dinner every night made by specific chefs, as well as all the grilled steak, fish; chicken you could handle and a bunch of other stuff. We did see some fellow travellers only eating French fries though, so apparently they were more picky than we were. The coffee machine was the best. There was also a 'light' buffett with different types of yogurts, cereal and other items for a healthier meal.

BARS
I'm not a big drinker, but what I can say is that I never had to wait more than 1 minute for a drink and there were 3 bars. Best drinks I've had too! They'll make you anything you desire.

STAFF
Always pleasant and smiling.

NOTES
The Westin Hotel next door has access to the city bus which for 50 cents takes you into Cancun city (instead of the $20 cab ride). It also has a bank machine and a better exchange rate than our own hotel.

In the city, many do not speak English, so watch out. We got lost but thankfully my girlfriend actually knew Spanish so we were fine.

PESO all the way. Everyone deals in it, and everyone appreciates getting tipped in it.

CHECKOUT
This was also pleasant and quick as you could check out a few days in advance. The airport was much faster, and this terminal had an Xpress Spa, which was just what we needed while waiting for the plane.

NEGATIVES
Hard to find any negative points, but here are my nitpicks:
Shower flooding – our shower (there was no bath, which was great – I love big showers) wasn’t able to drain properly so our washroom kept flooding. Nothing a few towels didn’t dry up though.

Boutique – clothes and general items were very expensive. They didn’t have hair ties or socks.

Nightly Entertainment – The "crazy signs" thing was just boring. Loved the circus performances.

SUMMARY
I would come back in a heart beat!

We stayed at Club Med Cancun in May of this year ( 2008 ) for our honeymoon. I researched the property through this site to be sure that it was what would be a great holiday for us. We booked the Jade building as it offered extras ( being our honeymoon ). The extras included room service, internet, laundry service , stocked mini bar, house coat and slippers etc. To start my review - The beach and staff were great. That is actually the only good parts to this review. The room was very basic. The room service was from the worst restaurant on site and was till 11pm, the stocked mini bar was pop and water only, the internet was plug in only, the laundry service was charged to your room, the house coat and slippers probably the cheapest things I have experienced. I don't know where other people who reviewed this property have stayed before or what restaurants they have eaten in but the food was passible at best. For what we paid to stay at this property, I was very disappointed in what was offered. For the extra $1000 per person for the Jade building - total rip off. This was my first and last Club Med. stay.

My boyfriend and I were really excited about our trip after reading all the great reviews here. We wanted a relaxing vacation with great food and to play some tennis. We didn’t mind paying a bit extra for something nice. We booked an ocean-front room that ended up costing about $600/night for the two of us. Seemed like a lot of money, but would be worth it if everything went as promised. It didn’t.

The first room they gave us was in the Turquesa building, which is right next to the pool. It did have two balconies, one that faced the ocean and the other the lagoon. Unfortunately, there was a pathway in front of our room, which made the ocean feel far away and the lagoon is far from scenic--more like a stagnant lake full of algae. The noise from the pool, both the music supplied by the hotel and the guests’ own loud Van Halen mixes made the location close to unbearable. Later on there was blasting techno music for the water aerobics and then at night all sorts of outdoor “entertainment” by the pool. If you’re looking for quiet, avoid these rooms at all costs. The room itself was a bit run-down, with chipped paint and in need of a good vacuuming. Not exactly four star.

We asked to be moved to a room farther from the pool, but that one still was too noisy. What’s the point of having a balcony if it’s too noisy to enjoy it? We took a look around and found some rooms that were right on the beach, but we were told that nothing was available there and those were a less expensive class of rooms anyway. We could, however, upgrade to a room in the Jade building if we were willing pay the difference. We insisted they find us a quiet room on the beach and we were not going to pay any more money for it. Miraculously one of the beach-front rooms became available, and although they were happy to take our money for an upgrade, they refused to refund the difference for our cheaper room. The room we eventually settled in was quiet and right on the beach, but had a horrible mildewy smell (their remedy for this was apparently to spray the room with cherry air freshener).

Once we were finally settled we decided to get in a game of tennis before dinner. We made sure to choose a hotel that had lighted courts since we knew that it would probably be too hot in May to play during the day. We checked with the front desk to make sure that the courts would be lit for us before we made the 15 minute walk. First we were told that the courts closed at 7 (it was just about 7pm), which pretty much defeated the purpose of having lit tennis courts. But they eventually agreed to have someone turn on the lights for us. Once we got there the lights were not on. We sat there for about 25 minutes waiting and telling any staff member who walked by to please ask someone to turn on the lights. No luck. We gave up and walked back to reception, where the woman’s response was “Well, I told them to turn on the lights for you. I don’t know what happened.”

All in all a pretty lousy first day, especially since dinner at the main buffet was not good, but there sure was a lot of it! The lunch buffet by the sailing beach was much better, maybe because there was a more manageable selection and it was kept fresher.

The food was decent, but definitely not great. The wine that comes with dinner was awful and the one time I tried to order a drink, it went from my waiter to another waiter who spoke English and still came back as a glass of club soda without ice or vodka. (To his credit, he did really try to get at what I wanted.)

The rooms all seemed to be decorated the same way. The toilet was in its own tiny room, which was red and claustrophobic. There was a pointless sunken area, which seemed to serve no purpose except to let you trip down the step. And probably because of this, there was a wrought-iron half-wall through the middle of the room. So as you’re laying in bed looking out to the ocean it blocks your view so you feel like you’re in jail Very weird. Then there was the strange desk/mirror thing that I had to prop up with a book so that I could dry my hair. Not well thought out at all.

The resort is huge, and if you’re willing to walk a bit, it’s possible to find some beautiful and quiet beach spots. There were always plenty of chairs and shade, but since it was low season it was pretty empty. I imagine during the high season saving chairs would be its own new set of nightmares.

The sports facilities were mostly well maintained. We loved that we could just take out a sailboat/windsurfer/kayak without being forced into taking a lesson first. But if you ask, the staff was happy to offer help. The tennis courts were never cleaned and with the many giant iguanas around, there was a lot of poop on the courts (and I’m talking about big poop). We found only one or two courts to be usable. The snorkels and masks were old and many of them didn’t work.

We were a little worried about their being too many noisy kids, but that wasn’t the case at all. Maybe because our trip didn’t coordinate with any school vacations, but most of the kids were relatively well behaved. There weren’t loads of crying babies either. That said, this is probably a better option for families since the kids seemed to all be having a blast and there was clearly a lot of thought put into entertaining them (story time at the beach, soccer games, etc.).

The GOs were a little on the disinterested side and we found it particularly strange that very few of them spoke any English at all. They spent a lot of time drinking and smoking at the bars, which I thought was odd. There were some exceptions, including the sailing and the water skiing staff, who were very nice and helpful. One GO, who I think he said he was the head of sports, although I’m not sure what he did exactly, actually asked us to write a good review of him on TripAdvisor!

We ended up making the most of it and having a pretty good time. But we wouldn’t go back, especially considering how expensive it was.

Just returned from a week in Cancun. This was my third stay with Club Med and I must say I appreciated this one as much as I did the first.

Actually. this may very well be one of the cleanest facilities I've ever been to -- and I worked at upscale hotels for many years. The local staff work very hard to keep the property spotless.

There's "just enough" programming. You can relax (duh! it's a vacation!) or you can enjoy snorkeling, windsurfing, water skiing, trapeze lessons, petanque, tennis...or yep...drinking frozen cocktails.

I've read some of the complaints / reviews about the food. (Whatever!!! It's all-inclusive.) You'll find plenty to satisfy any amount of hunger you may experience. If you want "gourmet" options for each meal, book the Ritz Carlton.

If you're expecting "fancy," you'll be disappointed. But, if you have realistic expectations for the amount you pay, you'll be quite pleased.