 
|
|
|
 |
 |
Cancun & Cozumel Hotel, Resort & Villa Reviews Reviews
El Cozumeleno Beach Resort
03/12/2004
Reviewers Rating:  Excellent
ARRIVAL:
We travelled between February 28/04 – March 7/04. Family of 4… 2 adults and 2 kids - 9, 11. Our package was booked thru Air Canada and it came with a ocean view room. We had to fly from Montreal to Toronto, then Toronto to Cozumel. Well the flight out of Montreal was delayed almost 2 hours.... and they had to hold the plane to Cozumel for us in Toronto. But we finally made it. Got a green light at the airport, thank God. It was around 6:00pm and wanted to get right to the hotel. Checking in was a breeze. No problem at all. Took no more than 5 minutes. They actually use a key for the door, not a card. Strange. The bad thing about it .. is that the room number is pressed in the key, so if you loose it, anybody can get into your room! Went up to the room, Hubby and kids went back down to explore. I went on the balcony and there they were (in their clothes) playing in the waves! We would put all the wet clothes on the chairs on the balcony to dry. They usually dried overnight.
ROOM:
The room was great. We stayed in room 1417 in the tower. It came with 2 double beds. One problem... the beds are HARD AS A ROCK!). I thought - who cares.... look at where I am!!!! But ya know - I didn't sleep very well that whole week. It was worth it though... just to be in Cozumel!! The TV was across from the beds in a hutch and the drawers below it. Channels include CNN International, bunch of spanish channels, FOX (kids happy - Simpons, Malcolm in middle, and The Nanny!) and Warner . The bathroom was in a different area. Did you see the pictures I took, my room had a hair dryer, but, from what I read, not all the rooms do. The hotel if extremely clean. The common areas like the lobby and public bathrooms are always kept very clean. sometimes you can smell the disinfectant, which is good and bad. You know its clean... but it stinks!
FOOD:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday are theme dinner nights. That went they set all the tables up outside and set the food up. I think that one night was Mexican (myan), then carribean night, I can't remember theother one. I have the booklet with a little menu from the hotel. I will bring it tomorrow and scan it and e-mail it to you. The guy on the microphone will tell you when you can line up for the buffet. They have 2 lines, one on each side. It is the same food on both sides, and it is a long line to wait in. We would usually say at our table and drink our Mai-Tai's until the line gets smaller! The other nights the meal is either in the buffet place (covered roof with windows that could open, lots of pinyatas from the ceiling... open-air... there is always chicken, little meat-balls, steak, pasta, etc. We actually liked the food (some say it was repetative, but - hey - its only 1 week!).
At lunch you can get grilled chicken pieces and put them in these but kyser buns and make like a submarine sandwich from it. there is shredded lettuce, cheese, mayo, ketchup, etc. On the otherside of the grilling place (where one of the bars is).. you can get hamburgers, hotdogs, and the pasta of the day (cold pasta). It was good. Breakfast was my favourite. There is scrambled eggs, and they make the greatest omlets, lots of stuff to put in the omlet - ex: chopped up ham, cheese, greenpeppers, etc. Then there are pancakes, waffles, french toast (my favourite (had cinnamon on it!). Then the usual - muffins, coissants, fruit, toast. The coffee was actually GOOD! Oh ya: We at only once at the indoor restaurant. We should have gone more. I had the "surf 'n turf" . It was delicious. It was a nice change from the buffet. You have to reserve EARLY. There are 3 seatings 6, 7:30, 9. We went for the 6 o'clock because I have 2 kids (9 and 11).
PEOPLE:
We were there during the Quebec spring break Feb 28-Mar 7. I saw on a website that they do not want spring-breakers partying at this place. I thought it might be crowded but really it didn't see that bad. The beaches were never too crowded, and not a wait at the bar. I think that alot of people go into town for the day to do some shopping or on tours , so it wasn't bad at all.
SHOPPING:
We all went into town on the Tuesday.. did some shopping and went to the internet place and e-mailed friends and family! Very cheap to use the internet over there! Went to town ALONE on Thursday.. wasn't worried at all about it. Felt very safe. Did more shopping! Lots of shops and places to look at. I was told that when the ships come in it gets too crowded and you can't get anywhere. The day I was in there was about 4 ships in and it wasn't bad at all. There are tons of stores around. The T-shirts vary in price. When I was there there was a big sale at a place call T-shirt Factory. Got some cute t-shirts (thick ones) for $10/adults and $5 for kids. The really nice embroidered ones were about 16/each.
PRICES:
Taxi to city is $5 US. Were were 4 people, 2 adults and 2 kids. the 2 kids were $1 each extra, ($7 US)
Actually once you get to the Hotel.. the only cost is the tipping and the excursion (see below). I know that tips are included at the resort, but we just couldn't do that. We would give the guys who brought us drinks 1$US, and at the bars there is a cognac glass just waiting for dollars!
There is one store there... the postcares are 1$ each, various do-dads and souveniers, munchies, the chocolate bars are $1.50 each. I bought a beach jacket, white with COZUMEL written down the arms and Mexico on the back, zip-up, with hood and string tie at bottom. It was $19.95.
The t-shirts that are sold in the Hotel store are nice. The embroidered ones are 19.00 and the regular ones are 16.00.
We always left the maid things like notebooks (school), pencils, crayons, toothpaste, etc)... and 1US dollar. We actually got a thank-you note from the maid!!
SNORKLING:
We book a trip thru the hotel for snorkling. We went on a snorking excursion. The price of that was $45/adults and $30/kids. We stopped at 3 places, the fish were amazing. There was this huge fish with a circumference of about 2 feet! It was beautiful colours like green, blue... with big red lips. I can't believe how big it was. We also saw 2 sting rays. They were swimming along the bottom. It was quite deep there, but I took a picture. We also stopped at a place where a WWII ship went down. It was about 100ft below the surface, but you can see it as clear as a bell. On the way back we had "Sol" beer on the boat!
Went to Channkanab Park ... I can remember but I think it was $12/adults . Inside the place we saw the Sea Lion show - that was $5/each. The Dolphins were very expensive... I believe about 115/person. The snorkling was great there. Fish swimming right between your legs!
All in all had a GREAT time. It went by toooo fast. When I get the underwater pictures developed I will post them also.
MISCELLANEOUS
Make sure you bring enought American cash. They do cash travellers cheques, but they give you pesos not american money. Some people said the pool was cold... to me it wasn't that bad. its a beautiful pool and my son played Water polo with a bunch of people one day. There were a few mosquitos one night, nothing horrible, but maybe you should bring your OFF anyways, just in case.
Take your advice and we took our own snorkling equipment. We used it every day! If you rent is from the dive shop you have to bring it back after 1 hour.
CathyV
Read more Caribbean Travel reviews at TripAdvisor
|
 |
|
