Park Royal Cozumel - All Inclusive

I was really not sure about Park Royal. The reviews were mixed and some of the things I read made me wish I would have booked somewhere else. This wasn't the case though when we arrived. Some things to know prior to going. When you arrive at the airport you pay about $10 a person to get to the hotel. The airport runs the taxi's. We saw people get dropperd off at some really bad hotels and this made me even more nervious. When we arrived at Park Royal, the front desk is under a huge outdoor roof and is beautiful, we were approached by a lady in a green shirt. Tell them you are not interested in tours and don't want a sales pitch and they will leave you alone. They still say hi and ask once in awhile but for the most part they then avoid you. This is fine to me since I care about the staff and not the time share people. Tip everyone, this is custom in Mexico. I know it says tips are included, but that is for average service. I can't tell you how many people didn't tip and they didn't get attention either. The bell man brought our bags up and we gave him a $20 for two rooms. Another tip is that you give the bartender $5 for your first round and a couple bucks every couple rounds. Also tip your waiters at dinner. They remember you and it makes the trip great. I am not sure why I would need to tell people to tip; just because the $4 was included for the day in tips it isn't enough for the staff to live on. Location was great. Not far from the cruise ship ports and shopping and close to town. The beach is great and the pools are nice. Could be warmer but hey it is December and we were swimming. Last of all the hot tubs are not hot. No heaters here people. That is my major complaint. Below is a summary of the good and the bad. This is a great place for a 5 day trip or long weekend. Especially when you look at the price. I think people want a diamond resort on a beer budget. Your not going to get that anymore in Mexico, it has improved over the years. The Good: -Staff was friendly. Got you anything you needed. -Drinks were not watered down. -Location is great. -Nice small beach area, great for kids. -Quiet. -Not a lot of tourist, seemed to be more locals from Mexico. -Clean!!!!!! Can't express that enough. The Bad: -Not the best food, but there is always something. -Double beds in every room and they are hard. -Pillows are like a rock. -Not much choice in Children's menu, need to add chicken fingers. -Italian place didn't allow kids. -No heaters in pool or hot tub.

Good: -Location -Drinks -Clean -Not a lot of tourist Bad: -Hard pillows and beds -Not much food choices -No heaters on hot tubs Tip and avoid green shirts. It is a great place and a nice hotel for the price.

The music in the theatre is way TOO LOUD. The show should be from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m., not 9:00- 10:30 p.m. It was like they were on our balcony. We were told it would end at 10:00, but did not end until 10:30 pm. Forget trying to get to sleep a little early for the night. No Way. This really takes away from a very nice vacation there.

This is our 8th time to Cozumel and our 5th time at Park Royal. It is by far the better of the hotels that we have stayed with and also the best value for the money. In addition, great food choices and staff.

Staff was excellent, always cleaning. The food was superb. Go to the Mexican restaurant as the coconut grouper was great. I ate there 3 nights of the 7.

I had a very relaxing time at park royal. I have been so many places all over the world. This hotel is not one of those fancy or wow place however, staff in this hotel try very best. They all happy to meet you and help you. PEOPLE in this hotel made all the difference!!! thank you hope to see you again!!!! P.S. Pleae do not expect wide open white sandy beach instead they have three pools and small area of sandy area.

Good stuff..... Staff excellent, food good, location pretty good, grounds excellent, room nice, shopping mall next door will be nice when its finished said it would be done summer of 2012 but its Nov. and maybe 4 shops were open (some times) Bad Stuff.... Way to many stairs, side walk made out of coral and cement VERY hard to walk on, had to pay $2 extra a day to use the in room safe , no wait staff at the beach or pool for bar service, restrooms for those areas were were along ways away I would guess about an American half block. The in room stool and shower area was VERY small door cleared the stool by about 1/4 inch.All in all was a nice trip Probably will not return.

Because of an American airlines plane issue we arrived a day late. I asked for a partial refund for the missed day and of coarse the hotel declined. After checking in we went to our rooms, and the first thing that hit me was that the hotel is too spread out. It takes forever to get from your room to the beach or from the beach to the closest bar, or bar or beach to a bathroom. THERE IS NO DRINK SERVICE!!! You must get up from your beach chair and trudge about a half a block for every drink, that is unless you want to use the pool and swim up bar, but be prepared to freeze to death, the pools are not heated and they are very very cold. The snack bars are adiquite, but dont expect too much. Please dont leave anything in your room, I went up to put my swimsuit on and left my shorts with my wallet in them on the chair. It was several hours before I relalized I had left my wallet in my shorts,by the time I went back to the room to get it the maids had been there and of coarse the $40.00 in my wallet was gone! Thats $40.00 just gone. We usually tip the maids but not that much. I complained to the front desk and as expected, they did nothing.ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING!! NOT EVEN AN APOLIGY. The buffet food is ok but not ever hot, and NO BACON. The staff there is very good though. Be advised there is no room service or refridgerator in the rooms. They say the pool bars are open until 7pm put they were closed by 6:30 most nights and they only have soccer on the TVs, they will NOT put on any US sports or football games. The beach was wonderful, lots of lounge chairs and great snorkeling just past the reef. The hotel does sell space to outsiders for $20.00 a day so it did get crouded from time to time, but over all very nice warm clean water, and lots of fish. Take some bread or cereal with you and you will be surrounded by many colorful fishes. The bathrooms are not close by any pool so be repaired. The entertainment staff was the very very best. They made our trip! They learned our names and gave us plenty to do. Since there is a charge to use the work out room- yes - it's NOT included, it's extra, along with NO free wifi, I jointed in for the daily water arobics, though the pool is freezing once you get in and they get you moving you warm up and it was really alot of fun.We also liked the evening shows and other daily events, other than the beach the entertaiment staff was the best part of the hotel. If your going to this hotel be prepard to walk alot, be sure to lock up everything, and dont expect bar waitress service, room service,a frig, bacon for breakfast, warm pools, close by bathrooms, or free wyfy,

This was our third time to stay at Park Royal. It seems to be getting better each and every time we go. They have improved the buffet food. There were plenty of varity to choose from. I liked the buffet better than the Mexican and Italian restaurants you had to make reservations for. The hotel is spotless and maintained very well. The location is perfect and close to everything . Still need to work on nightlife and Mexican restaurant.

The hotel staff is friendly, location was great, and food and drinks was always readily available. The hotel also had activities going on a continual basis, plenty of beach/pool chairs available for use, multiple pools with swim up bars, and it was landscaped beautifully. Overall, I would rate the hotel positive on the surface. But deeper, it had some problems: (a) The dinner and lunch (as opposed to breakfast) served at the buffet was poor in taste and quality even though it was plentiful. Our solution was to eat breakfast buffet, lunch at the outdoor grill areas of the hotel, but eat dinner elsewhere (we did eat at their 2 "reservation" restaurants and found them ordinary, but edible); (b) There are few bed choices in the hotel with double beds being all that is available for travel site customers (I was advised that there were only 10-15 king rooms in the entire hotel, and those were reserved for time share customers), and the mattresses are ROCK hard. However, on a positive note, the air conditioner in the rooms worked great; (c) We were a group of 4 with 2 rooms, and although the maid cleaned the rooms, made the beds and provided fresh towels daily, we noticed that small mites or bugs were present in both rooms. The bugs didn't bite, weren't overpowering, but on occasion, you would notice them crawling on your book while you were reading in bed (a first time experience for me at any hotel). (d) No room service or take out boxes at all in the hotel restaurants. (e) I will never use the on site dive shop again at this hotel because the dive shop wasn't really into customer service. Never on time, Had only an 11:30 dive time available, minimized dive times and surface intervals to insure they were done as quickly as possible; cattle boat feel (we had 24 on our boat); and were closed by the time the boat returned so it was impossible to do a shore dive after the boat returned.