Let me start by thanking my travel agent AGermosen. I planed a family vacation for spring break. My concern was that my children Isabel 10 and Gabriel 14 have a great time. I began my quest by looking at swimming pools… the bigger the better I thought.
Upon consulting with AG, he offered the possibility of staying at one palace resort and visit any of the pools that come in all shapes and sizes.

As I reviewed and digested all of the comment in this site I was extremely apprehensive to take this plunge. My travel agent provide me with an eased of comfort as I made my decision. I live not to retreat it.

The beach palace is awesome. The staff is superb. The food is great; in particular the oriental restaurant…nonetheless, I was serenaded throughout dinner at the Italian restaurant and the food as well was excellent.

In any case, my journey began with the notion that making memories with my family was my objective. The words began to flow as I explained to my kids that a dream vacation is sometimes just that a dream, but, there is always next year.

If you travel with kids under 12 years old, you must check out the kids club at the Cancun Palace, my 10 year old favorite place. The 14 year old was happy to have made many friends at the Beach Palace and as typical teenager was certainly not happy when I checked on him. My 13 year old favorite place (aside the pools and the beach (by the way do not expect to see a beach in front of the Beach Palace, but do not despair, you just walk a few steps and in front of the Melia Hotel you have all the turquoise water you desire and more…) was the game room which is annex to the piano bar, in all the hotel is lovely, compact, clean… the swimming pools and whirlpools at the sky floor are complemented by two bars where the snacks are your favorite drink are taken to you by an always smiley waiter that is constantly greeting you with and hola and es un placer.

To make justice to this report, let me tell you about the day bed at you room located at the terrace of your room. My lovely wife should have many fond memories…I Hope, I think that the breeze of the see the sound of combined with tequila Don Pedro did the trick, it did not take long for me to become the Pancho Villa of any Senorita’s dream or the Speedy Gonzalez, in all, It was a great vacation where I found passion in my existence.

It was a great vacation.

Thank You Alex.

My wife and I stayed at the Beach Palace for 7 nights in early April. We loved the resort. The resort is small and we do prefer a larger Riviera Maya type resort but this resort was very accommodating.

The food was fantastic. We ate at the Italian 4 nights with Antonio as our waiter. He would bring us anything we wanted from any restaurant. We had Carpaccio, Sushi, the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad was very good, we had Fajita’s, the Maui Maui was beautiful, the filet medallions’ were very tender and the service could not have been better. They new our name by the second night and always said hello by our name.

We ate outside at the steak house (Terresa) and it was ok. The steaks are typical all inclusive cuts of meat. I had the surf and turf (strip steak and shrimp) the steak was tuff but the shrimp was very good. Instead of complaining I just asked for more shrimp and did not eat my steak, the meal was fine, I was happy and they could not be happier to get me more shrimp.

We never ate at the Oriental but we did have Sushi delivered to the Italian restaurant and it was very good. We also never ate at the Mexican buffet but we did have Fajita’s brought to us and they were as good as I ever had.

I went on a little about the food because I could not find a thing to complain about, while others say it’s bad and they did not like it. I find that unbelievable.

The pools were warm, too warm some times, not even refreshing. I think they add cold water because some days it did at least become refreshing. The service at the pool bar and around the pool was very good.

The 14th floor pool was nice with great views but it was not used much and very quite. It was also 20* hotter on the roof and the extra 20* was not really needed in the week we were there.

The shows were all right with the fire show being the only one that could actually be sat through in its entirety. The movie screen above the pool was awesome to watch the NCAA Basketball Championship Game on.

The room is spacious and clean. It was cleaned by 11:00am every morning. We had an ocean front room on the 4th floor and the view was great. We could watch the basketball game, the weekly movie (this week was Spiderman) or all the nightly shows from our balcony that was an added bonus.

The location is also nice. There are two malls and several restaurants in short walking distance.

We were talked to when we first checked in about the Premier package and never bothered again. We did not find it to be any burden at all. When the lady became a little long winded I let her know nicely and respectfully that if we were interested we would get back in contact with her but right now we just want to get to our room, unpack and get to the pool. She was respectful in return and never again did she or any other staff member approach us. The front desk was professional, helpful and charming, absolutely no problem there.

We had a great time, with no regrets for picking this resort for our vacation. We would return to this resort. In fact after visiting the Cancun and Sun Palace’s this would be my first choice of the three.

DO NOT STAY HERE Stayed 4/9/08-4/18/08, arrived and had us in rooms on Lagoon side, and two rooms not adjoining but down the hall from each other. Finally got rooms we paid for. Out to the beach, guess what, The Beach Palace has no Beach, nor does it have access to the beach. Both ramps were blocked. We explained that we were paying a great deal of money and their web site is false advertizing. I suggested the manager arrange with the hotel to the south to allow us access to the beach through their hotel. That arrangement was made. NOISE, I have never stayed in a nosier place. The Bar was under our room and noise went on till 1am. They have a drive in movie size screen that drops down by the pool. At night there is either a movie or some type entertainment with a sound system so bad and loud there should be a law forbidding its use. The food was tasteless, service slow. No water activities at hotel. NONE Not kid friendly. Never will we stay at a Palace property again.

The first week of April we spent our 6th trip at a Palace Resort (we’re members), but only our 2nd trip to the Cancun hotel zone since first visiting the “old” Sun Palace in 1998. Overall, we enjoyed the property for what it is - a high rise hotel on the busy strip of sand that is Cancun with mostly great service, good food, nice rooms, and good tours. Some service issues are not yet up to par with our past palace resort stays, but I suspect things will only improve with time as the staff settles in.

We went with our 2 sons (13 & 17), our friends with the same age children, and the friends’ parents. The friends have cruised before but had never stayed at an all-inclusive.
We often pick the newest hotel when we decide which resort to go to, and we were anxiously awaiting the new Beach Palace. It did not let us down as far as the hotel itself goes. I complained to my wife that the sports bar seemed to lack something like pool tables and foosball tables. A day later, 2 pool tables were there (our kids used them a lot in the PM), and apparently foosball tables were coming a week later. The lower pool area was very nice, and we didn’t have trouble getting our favorite chair location along the rail gazing out over the ocean. Although we could not lie on the beach, what I really care about is swimming in the ocean. Red flags were up all week so we walked south to a spot where some shallower existed. The top floor pool was decent for when the shade hits the lower level pool. It seemed somewhat sparsely decorated up there, but I guess that is part of the modern style. Side note – I thought the pool bar closed early but we found it open around 8 pm a couple of nights.

One thing that typically sets these trips apart from any other vacation for us is the outstanding service at Palace Resorts. I would say that a few things were not up to par as the other trips we’ve taken, but I would attribute this to the hotel only being open for 4 months. A somewhat insignificant example was trying to order a strawberry colada from the poolside waitress - she kept thinking I wanted a strawberry daiquiri. We went back and forth on this a few times until I thought we understood each other, but she returned with a daiquiri. I took the daiquiri only to have my son shows up with a Strawberry Colada he got directly at the pool bar. I went through this same exchange with the same waitress 2 days later, and with the same outcome. However, this time I pointed out it was the wrong drink. Further attempts to communicate this resulted in an “ah ha” moment for her, and she returned with the right drink. The other service issue was dinner in the Italian restaurant. On two different nights our group of 10 had the same waiter and it took 3 hours for dinner. The Asian and steak house service were excellent, so I don’t know if it was a kitchen issue or the waiter (or a bit of both). I believe the longer the hotel is open the less of a problem this will become. Regardless, our entire group found these shortcomings for the most part amusing rather than irritating.

With a few exceptions (some fish, not quite the filet mignon shown in menu, etc.), we thought the dining options were very good. My kids loved the bbq ribs at the steak place, the Asian place was quite good (kids did that twice), and even the poolside sandwiches were decent. If you can’t find something you like in the grill/buffet place, just ask. My daily routine for breakfast is huevos rancheros and I think I am the only one that ever orders it. We also made it to the Cancun palace for dinner at the Teppanyaki tables one night.

The rooms were, we think, the best of any Palace hotel we’ve been to. They were spacious and had a large balcony... We ended up with a lagoon view room, but said we preferred an ocean-side room (like everyone), and they promised they could do that the next day. Upon reconsideration, we stayed put and felt it worked fine. When we would get back to the room to clean up before dinner, we had plenty of sunshine streaming into our room which we would not have had on the other side. The sunsets and lights of Cancun were also great. The only real drawback to that side is the street noise from the balcony, which is non-existent inside the room with the sliding door closed. Our friends also had a lagoon view (checked in on Sunday), while their parents ended up with an ocean view (checked in on Monday).

None in our group did the timeshare sales pitch – we merely said no during the check-in orientation and were not bothered the rest of the trip. We did the free spa stuff, as well as the Tulum/Xpu-Ha tour and Isla Mujures tours. I had not been to Tulum since 1998 and enjoyed it quite a bit. And the side trip to Xpu-Ha (our absolute favorite resort in its pre-hurricane state) was fun as well. Isla was OK, which I mainly did for a chance to see the Palace hotel there. While our friends did the dolphin swim we skipped all of the add-on tours and just hung out at the pool.

I had a dental problem flare up while there resulting in a root canal in Cancun. The hotel public relations desk did a fine job of getting me lined up with a dentist, and the whole process was relatively smooth (as far as root canals go).

To sum up the week, a couple of things our friends experienced best relate to the hotel visit (but AI at Palace Resorts in general). Our friend on check-out noted the people checking in receiving their glasses of champagne and asked “hey, how about some tequila shots for us poor souls checking out?” The staff member said “wait here,” and promptly returned with the shots. When home, our friend called me and asked if is it normal to visibly break down crying when you actually have to depart. “Yes,” I assured him, “it is.”

I plan on scanning in some of the hotel info for those travel planning geeks like myself. PM me if interested.