Occidental Grand Xcaret - All Inclusive

My husband and I went on our honeymoon to Occidental Grand Xcaret. We thought the resort was beautful. It is very big, but didn't bother us as we were able to get our exercise walking around or we could take the shuttle. Our hotel room was nice. We switched after the first night to a room with a king size bed. The full size was too small for us! The bed was hard, and the pillows were a bit musty, but we attributed it to the tropical weather. We layed on the beach and took excursions three of the 7 days we were there. We were disapointed that it didn't have a natural beach, just a man made one on an inlet. The food was horrible. It was never hot, always luke warm. We thought we'd have more choices for breakfast and lunch, but they only offered the buffet, which was pretty much the same thing everyday. The specialty restaurants weren't that great either. We were expecting wonderful food, and the restaurants were just the same food as the buffet with different twists to them. Since it was mexico we thought we'd have wonderful mexican food, but it wasn't that great. There weren't even chips and salsa to snack on! Overall, the service was great and accomodating, the hotel was beautful, but if you are looking for good food and a beach don't go here!

We spent a week at occidental immediately prior to christmas 2010. FOOD IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE First of all, you can only make 4 reservations in restaurants, for each 8 day stay. Which means, that half of the time you are forced to eat in the buffet. Second, the buffets and restaurants, have a non-interlapping schedule, so that every day there is a couple of hours when absolutely all (ALL!) food establishments are closed. THat is very uncomfortable when traveling w/children. Most families saved some food like fruit or bread from previous meal. Third, the restaurants except for Mexican and Meat Grill are absolutely awful. For example, the Oriental restaurants serves stale old rice sushi, that makes supermarket sushi gourmet treat in comparison. As a second course, be prepared to find soy sauce sprinkled spaghetti with pieces of fried chicken tenders passed as Chicken Chow mein. Mediterannean restaurant served rotten meat raviolis, which stank up to heaven. We were warned by another couple not to get it, but we did. Asked manager to smell it. He turned his nose and said that this is what beef smells like. Rotten. TINY BEACH OVERCROWDED Be prepared to get up at 7 am and run over to get the prime beach spots. By the afternoon there are soo many people in the water, that it is impossible to swim 4 feet straight without bumping into someone. Not to mention the stinky smell from the nearby fish canals draining into the same beach laguna. ROOM SERVICE MEDIOCRE Rooms are not cleaned regularly, if at all. Of course, all service staff smiles nicely, but that does not make the rooms any cleaner. NEVER AGAIN! And of course, you get $20 bucks off your ticket to Xcaret, the only benefit of staying in this hellhole. p.s. The rooms also featured 15 inch box tv-vcr tvs. If you miss tiny screens of the boxes, that used to be tv, occidental is your place.

Facilities/rooms good. Staff very friendly and helpful. BUT THE FOOD IS REALLY SECOND-RATE. If they could figure out how to fix the food, this would be a much higher rated resort.

the place is just amazing, friendly staff and a lot to do without going out, it has several restaurants, bars, disco, theather etc etc, everything you need is there, besides the location its great, five minutes walk from xcaret, has its own entrance to the park and the taxi to playa del carmen olny costs 8 dollars. the rooms don´t have anything fancy, they are you could say average but you don´t spend much time in them anyway, wonderfull place, higly recommended

This was our worst vacation. The service was lacking, the food was ATROCIOUS and the accommodations were mediocre. It was very difficult to speak to the hotel employees because they did not speak English very well and we did not speak Spanish very well. It was surprising considering how many guests spoke English that the employees were not better at it. We had to argue to get a room with a king bed rather than the room they originally gave me and my husband, which had 2 double beds. The drinks were all watered down and full of sugary syrups. The Mexican food or what the considered Mexican food was just awful. The layout of the property was way too big and there was but 1 small stretch of beach as part of an inlet. Otherwise there were rocks and pools.

The service was terrible, the staff did not know anything on how to get around, lucky I speak spanish . I felt sorry for tourist that had booked for one or even two weeks.The food was disgusting.

Nice quiet vacation, Long weekend before holidays. Grounds very spreadout so can find a quiet pool. Beach area very nice and close to food and drinks.

Food was excellent. Service was excellent. Any problems that were had with the room, all minor. (ie: missing towels, forgetting the safe combo and remote control) were rectified within 5 minutes of a call to guest services. Difficult to get into the reservation restaurants, we were there over a very busy Thanksgiving week and traveling with a large party. (Next time we'll try getting reservations for each room and just push the tables together.) Pool areas are all very well designed with easy access to multiple bars and a snack bar at the main pool. Only dissappointing factor was the small beach. Snorkeling was great outside the inlet.

We were pleased with the Occidental Grand Flamenco from the moment we arrived. It was very large & beautiful, and we never felt crowded due to the layout of the resort. Many pools,with a very nice beach and two adult only pools made it very enjoyable. We went diving with the Barrakuda Dive Shop and enjoyed our time with them a couple days. We relaxed and read on the beach & at the adult salt water pool and the days went too fast. Staff and service was very good. The two times we called for anything for the room, we had it within 10 minutes. I would definitely go here again.

The main resort is massive. So many people and rooms that you can get lost. The food in the main part of the resort is only average. There is no beach - only a small, man-made lagoon, but the pools are large and nice. We upgraded to the Players Club after part of our stay, however, and I would highly recommend the extra cost. The restaurant was excellent, the service was outstanding, and the rooms were amazing. Pay the extra and treat yourself.