A Holiday of Two Halves (Moon Palace Resort & Spa Hotel (Cancun))

Member Name: dharma-queen

Product:	Moon Palace Resort & Spa Hotel (Cancun)
Date:	18/02/08 (358 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Close to airport, international brand drinks on AI, lots to do

Disadvantages: Far too big

We went to the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort in Cancun, Mexico for two weeks from 29th Jan 2007. We only booked it about two weeks before hand so we got a very good deal. We knew someone who had been to the resort many years ago, and it sounded so wonderful that it was on our list of places we would like to go if we could afford it. We were looking for a late deal to go to the Caribbean at the end of January so when we saw the deal for two weeks at the Moon Palace for £3000 (should be a lot more) we jumped at the chance. We booked with First Choice because at the time their planes had the most room in economy out of all the tour operators, and this is rather important when you are both tall and it is a 10 hour flight.

The Moon Palace is a large 5 star all inclusive resort located about 5 miles south of Cancun airport on Mexico's Caribbean coast. The resort is not located in Cancun's hotel zone but is within easy reach of it. The Moon Palace is one of a number of hotels owned by Palace Resorts, who also have hotels located in Cancun itself, and the resort provide transportation to the other palace resorts where you can also use the all inclusive facilities. The Resort is huge, it has over 2000 rooms and is set in 123 acres of tropical gardens. It has 13 restaurants, a signature Golf Course by Jack Nicklaus, full Spa facilities and two outdoor swimming pools which are among the largest in Mexico.

The Flights

From what I can remember the majority of the outbound flight was fine. I found it fascinating to look out the window and watch the landscape change from the snowy wastes of Canada to the tropical blue of the Caribbean Sea. The pilot pointed out New York as we flew over, and after some searching you could make out the Empire State building. With First Choice Airways you get a 33inch seat pitch in economy and it was bearable, I'm 5'10 and wouldn't have wanted any less room. You get a small LCD screen in the back of the seat in front of you so you can watch the programs and films they are showing, but you also can play games on it, and I found Zuma to be rather addictive. Annoyingly on the flight back they show the same films and programs as on the way out, so the games become rather useful. Unfortunately by the end of the 10 hour flight out all the toilets had stopped flushing and it was truly disgusting. Arrival at Cancun airport was fine, had no problems. I found it rather odd that when you leave the airport the First Choice reps are nowhere to be seen and the porter men take you and your bags round a corner to the coach area and it is only then that you see the reps. We were put in a minibus with another couple and off we went on the short (10 mins) trip to the Moon Palace. Quite frankly it took longer to get down the drive to the Moon Palace than it did to get to the start of the drive from the airport.

Arrival & Check in

Check in was very quick, but then there was only us 2 couple checking in at the time. They gave us a glass of champagne and then a porter took us and our bags to our room. During check in reception give you a map (very essential), your armband and keys, towel cards and they explain a few things. During your stay you have to wear an armband and depending on your nationality you get a different coloured band. We (English) had a gold coloured one, if you are on honeymoon you get a pink one, and Americans had yellow ones etc.

The Complex

At the time we went to the Moon Palace it consisted of two hotels and the golf club with its own villas. They were building a third hotel on the site, I think one of the drivers said it would be the largest resort in Mexico or Latin America when complete. You can use the facilities of both the hotels and the golf club irrespective of where you are staying. Nizuc is the older hotel and this is where you tend to stay if you are British or on honeymoon, as the honeymoon department is located in the Nizuc lobby. Sunrise is the newer, larger hotel and is mainly full of Americans, and is busier and noisier. The hotel gives you a map upon arrival and you certainly do need it, it you lose it you can get another one from reception. Having read loads of reviews before we went, I was slightly disappointed to find out we would be staying in the Nizuc side, but after looking around the complex I was very grateful of this. I think the Nizuc side is much nicer than the Sunrise side.

The rooms on the Nizuc side are situated in 34 three story blocks, all connected by covered walkways arranged in V shapes, so that all the balconies have a sea view. Each block is named after an animal or a flower/plant. We stayed in Jaguar which overlooks the Catholic Chapel and the gardens. It wasn't a very long walk to the lobby (5 mins) but if you were feeling lazy you could call for a lift on the golf buggies. We only got a lift back to the room once on the buggies, and that was because my brand new shoes were crippling me and I could walk no further.

On the Sunrise side the rooms are in 22 much larger blocks, but at right angles to the beach. These rooms, unlike the Nizuc rooms, have a hammock on the balcony, but apart from that they are pretty much the same. The Sunrise blocks are named after fruits (e.g. melon) and general stuff (e.g. tequila, playa, luna, sombrero).

The Nizuc lobby is very nice, it is a good size and feels friendly. In the middle there is a bar with seating, and at night a man plays the piano. During the day you can get hot drinks from the lobby and cakes which were delicious, and snacks such as popcorn and nachos. At night there was a chocolate fountain. The Nizuc side has five restaurants, the buffet Italian, buffet Brazilian and the Mexican a la carte are located in the lobby, and the two poolside palapas (bars) which become a buffet grill restaurant and an a la carte sushi restaurant. All the restaurants are buffet for breakfast and lunch.

The Sunrise lobby had the feel of an airport to it, very large and impersonal. We only visited it a few times before returning to our lobby. The Sunrise side also has five restaurants, with three located in the lobby and two round the pool area. In the lobby there is a buffet Italian restaurant, an Oriental a la carte restaurant and a buffet Mexican restaurant. The two palapas are a seafood buffet restaurant and an a la carte steak house. As with the Nizuc lobby there is also a lobby bar where you can get snacks from. There is also another bar by the Sunrise pool which has swings. The Disco and casino are also in the Sunrise lobby. There is a conference centre at this hotel and it is located on the Sunrise side.

The golf club has two a la carte restaurants, an Italian called La Trattoria and a Japanese called Bambu. There is also a bar where the lobby bus stops for the golf club, so you can get a drink while you wait for a golf cart or the bus.

Issues

I should probably explain now that we had two different experiences at this hotel. We stayed for two weeks and it might as well have been two weeks at two different hotels. The first week was wonderful, 5 star service, the best holiday we've ever had and I would have been happy to go back, no complaints at all. The second week was rather different, a conference had descended upon the hotel, and the hotel must have been full to capacity (if it wasn't I dread to think what it would be like if it was). The atmosphere and level of service changed, and it put me right off this hotel. I will explain the differences between to two weeks as I go along.

The Room

Our room was lovely and was located on the first floor overlooking the Catholic Chapel, and was about a 5 minute walk from the Nizuc lobby, pool and restaurants. The first thing you notice when you walk into the room is the huge double Jacuzzi bath situated right in the middle of the room. All the rooms at the Moon Palace have a Jacuzzi bath in the middle of the room. Although it sounds like a wonderful idea, and certainly is good fun, as the rooms are all in blocks and the pumps are extremely noisy you know about it if another room nearby is using theirs, which is very annoying when you want to be going to sleep.

The bed was huge, we have a king size bed at home but this was much bigger. The mattress was quite firm but still comfortable, but the pillows were useless, so if you can take your own. I would have done so but couldn't fit mine in my case (on hindsight I packed enough to last a month and would have had plenty of room for the pillow if I hadn't left the packing to the last minute, and hence packed pretty much everything just in case).

The bathroom is very nice and contains a walk in double shower and toilet. The sink is just outside the bathroom, in the main room but round a corner from the bed. The shower is huge and very powerful, but the shower head is fixed to the wall so you can't take it off, which I found rather irritating. It takes a while to get the shower to the right temperature, and it can suddenly go boiling hot or icy cold whilst you are under it, and it is best not to have it on full power as it hurts. The bathroom could do with some ventilation as there is nowhere for the steam to go.

The rooms have air con and you do need it. There are no instructions for it and asking the maid or other staff how to use it is a waste of time. From the looks of it you can set it to a temperature and it will maintain it automatically. Ours didn't maintain a temperature, so we had to keep turning it on and off again when you got too cold.

The rooms are spacious and have plenty of storage space for all your things. The balcony was a bit on the small side and ours faced north east so didn't get the evening sun. All the balconies in the Nizuc side face towards the sea (east).

In the room you get a flat screen satellite TV which shows some American channels, Liquor dispenser, a free mini-bar which contains sodas, bottled water and beer, a laptop sized safe, and a coffee maker. The hotel provide you with shampoo, soap, conditioner etc so you could get away without bringing any, but it you prefer shower gel to soap it is essential that you bring it with you as they don't provide this and you cannot buy it in the shop. They give you slippers which you can keep and bathrobes which you can't, and you will need the slippers on the cold marble floor.

The first week we were there the maid service was excellent, we got fresh towels with a different towel animal each day, and the room was always thoroughly cleaned. The second week it was not so good. On numerous occasions we had to request new towels, either because they hadn't been changed or we didn't have enough. The bedding wasn't changed and they stopped making animals out of the towels, the rooms weren't always clean either. It felt like the maids were too busy and had too many rooms to do, and hence the drop in service.

Food

There are 13 restaurants at the Moon Palace and the food is very good. We mainly stuck to the buffet Italian in the Nizuc side and all the food was freshly cooked with plenty of choice. There was a pasta station and they would cook the sauce however you wanted so there was plenty of choice, and they would fry the meat and fish fresh in front of you, but they did tend to use rather a lot of oil. There is plenty of good food to eat, you certainly will not starve. I am rather a fussy eater and I had no problem at all finding different things to eat each day. On the whole the food in the buffet restaurants was hot and fresh, but it's more akin to a McDonalds or a Harvester than to any Michelin star restaurant.

We managed to eat at the a la carte Italian restaurant at the golf course twice. There is a dress code at the a la carte restaurants and they do enforce it, we saw a group get turned away from the golf courses a la carte because a lady was wearing shorts. Our first trip to dinner at the golf course Italian was wonderful. We turned up at about 6.30pm and we didn't have to queue. Even when we left a few hours later the restaurant still wasn't full. The food was delicious, I am not a big fan of steak but it was the nicest meal I have ever had. Having enjoyed our trip the La Trattoria so much that we decided to go back a few days later, but this time we got there too late (7pm, it opens at 6pm) and we were told that there was a two hour wait. We couldn't be arsed, who wants to queue on holiday, and so we went back to the main hotel and went to one of the buffet restaurants. By this point we had twigged that the hotel had suddenly got rather full and decided if we wanted to eat there again we would have to get there for 6pm when it opens or have a few hours wait. This time we managed to get there 15 mins after it opened and we were one of the last to get a table without having to wait. Unfortunately the food wasn't as nice as the first time so we decided we wouldn't try to go back again and just stick to the buffet restaurants.

We went to the a la carte Italian at the golf club for lunch one day, mainly for a change, but it is the same food as at the buffet Italian at lunchtime, but in much nicer surroundings. All the restaurants are buffet for lunch, with the same sort of food you can get for dinner. We had a look a few times but couldn't find anywhere serving normal sandwiches, or anywhere that had stuff to make sandwiches with. For lunch you can get pizzas from the poolside palapas, and I think they also do burgers and hotdogs too.

I found this hotel to be a crash course in American culture. If you want to sample authentic Mexican culture then this is not the place for you. For some reason it amused me that the Mexican staff spoke English with an American accent. If you didn't want to eat in the restaurant you could get a take away box or a 'box to go' as they call it. This became very useful in the second week, as if we went to the buffet restaurants later in the evening we were told that there was an hour or so wait, so we just got take away and ate it in the lobby bar as we didn't want to wait.

Drinks

International brands drinks are included in the all inclusive package which is wonderful. There is nothing better than sitting by the pool drinking a glass (or two) of baileys or a cocktail. There are 10 bars at the Moon Palace, with 5 of them being around the pool. The cocktails are good but the barmen seem to use rather large measures so can be very strong.

You can make yourself a cup of tea or coffee in the lobby, and they have an assortment of different flavour herbal and fruit teas, but standard English Breakfast tea can be a bit hard to come by. If you ask one of the staff they are happy to go get you some.

The Pool

There are two pools, one at each hotel, and they are huge. Around parts of the pool there is a ledge about a foot or so deep where you can put the sun beds. The pools are not heated so are quite cold, but very refreshing when it is 30 degrees with no breeze.

The first week we were there we had no problems getting a sun bed, a parasol or a table, there was plenty left no matter what time you went down, with a choice of where to situate yourself. The second week was very different. Still thinking we could turn up when we liked, we got to the pool rather late and struggled to find a sun bed. From then on having learnt our lesson we did what everyone else was doing and reserved our sun beds before breakfast along with an umbrella and table. I don't like how people do this but we felt there was no choice, and for once we couldn't blame the Germans! So we didn't feel so bad my Fiancé would go for a swim before breakfast and reserve our spot.

You don't need to bring towels with you as they hand out them out at the pool. When you check in they give you a card which you are meant to exchange for a towel, but we found that this wasn't needed as they just hand them out.

The Beach

The beach isn't great but it's a lot better than the one at Southend! If you want your idyllic white sand beach with palm trees and clear blue sea then this is not the hotel for you. Along the shore there is loads of seaweed which a tractor sweeps up and puts in huge piles at the ends of the beach, and it doesn't half pong. Apparently the beaches in Cancun do not suffer from the seaweed problem, so if you want a beach holiday stay in one of the hotels in the Cancun hotel zone.

Staff

The staff are very friendly and attentive, nothing is too much trouble for them. The waiters in the buffet restaurant will not let you carry your own plate back to the table. The only problem we had was with one of the pool bar waiters. This hotel caters for fat lazy Americans for whom walking from their sun bed to the pool bar is far too much like hard work, so there are pool waiters who come round and get your drinks for you. I even saw one American (I know from the armband) send the waiter to get him his lunch. This one pool waiter, an old man who looked utterly ridiculous in the uniform of shorts and a shirt, would always miss us out unless he could see we already had drinks. I have no idea why he took offence to us, we were always polite unlike some guests, but the rest of the staff were wonderful, and were a credit to the hotel.

Interlobby Bus

There is a coach that takes you between the Sunrise and Nizuc lobbies, and it also stops half way for the golf club. It goes roughly every 15 minutes. The first week we were there we couldn't understand why they had a full on 60 odd seater coach when one of the golf buggies would have done just as well. We never saw more than 10 people on the coach, and on one trip we were the only ones on it. It seemed rather excessive. The second week we understood the need for such a large vehicle, and quite frankly thought they could have another one. Most trips the coach was full with people standing in the aisle.

The a la carte restaurants are at the golf club, there are a Italian and a Japanese restaurant. To get to it you can either walk (not recommended) or get the interlobby coach to the golf club bus stop then get a golf buggy to the golf club. There is a bar at the bus stop so you can get a drink while you wait.

The hotel provides a coach to the other Palace hotels in the Cancun hotel zone, but it only goes twice a day, and you are recommended to turn up half and hour before it is meant to depart to get in the queue. Unfortunately people here do not seem to know how to form a queue so you could have been one of the first there, but by the time the coach turns up you still aren't guaranteed a space. The same goes for the interlobby bus.

Weather

The first few days we were there it was very windy, but still hot. The breeze was very nice and when it went we missed it. It rained a few times, but nothing major. I would say it was about 30 degrees and sunny most days.

Wildlife

You will see lots of lizards around the hotel grounds, certainly makes you feel like you are in a tropical country. When you get the golf buggy to the golf course you will see signs telling you what wildlife to watch out for, which included amongst others crocodiles/alligators (can't remember which)!

There are lots of cats living in the hotel grounds. Personally I rather liked this as I missed my own cats while we were away, so we got takeaway boxes most nights with some chicken or shrimps in it to feed to them on the way back to the room. I guess the hotel doesn't mind having the cats around as they will keep down the population of pests, and also amuse us stupid soppy English holiday makers.

Weddings

Our balcony overlooked the main wedding gazebo and we watched many a wedding during our two week stay. As someone who had previously considered the idea of getting married abroad, I was completely put off the idea by the end of our stay here.

We witnessed two types of wedding. The first type the couple get married in the Catholic Chapel, the Bride can arrive in the horse drawn carriage, and they whole thing is very romantic. Pretty much the same as having an outdoor civil ceremony back here in Britain, but with better weather, and I wouldn't have minded this at all. The problem I had with it was what happened after the service. We saw one couple who got married opt to have their wedding breakfast meal in the evening on the grass outside the chapel, and this from what I saw was the best option. We saw many other newlyweds and families having their meal in the buffet restaurant. One evening there were three wedding parties in the buffet restaurant, so not only did the Bride have her wedding breakfast with the other holidaymakers in their casual dress, and have to queue up for her buffet dinner, but there were two other Brides in their wedding gowns in the restaurant too. As there were many weddings each day, after the ceremony there didn't seem anywhere for them to go, so we saw a few wedding parties sat in the lobby bar. From an onlookers point of view it felt a bit like a conveyor belt, and I want to be the only Bride there on my wedding day, not one of a number awaiting my slot.

The second type of wedding we witnessed was the strangest wedding I have ever seen. That day we had decided to sunbathe on the beach in front of the Nizuc pool (as we couldn't find space round the pool), and had acquired ourselves an umbrella and sun beds near to the steps to the pool at the south end. We then watched with bemusement as the hotel staff started setting up tables on the beach along with a red carpet going from the steps to the table. At first we thought that maybe the hotel were going to do a beach BBQ or be serving something, we then came to the realisation that they were setting up for a wedding. So there we were, in our swimwear along with lots of other people all in their swimwear, on the beach watching a couple get married. The wedding consisted of the Bride and Groom and their two witnesses, whom seemed to be their friends. The Bride turned up on the horse and carriage to the side of the pool, she then walked down the steps to the beach and along the red carpet to her waiting Groom in front of the hotel guests. Everyone around the pool had come to watch by this point and the hotel piped the proceeding over a loudspeaker so everyone could hear. It must have been the tackiest wedding ever. After the ceremony had finished I overheard the Bride say to the female friend that she would see her by the Sunrise pool in half an hour. Each to their own.

Other Stuff

Tips - take US dollars not Mexican pesos. Have some handy when you arrive as you will need them to tip the porters at the airport, minibus driver and bell boy. Other than this tipping is not expected at the hotel but as the staff earn so little and do so much it is very much appreciated if you do.

I have read reviews were people say they were pestered by timeshare people throughout their stay, but we didn't experience this at all, maybe they just are just interested in the Americans.

There are load of excursions available but I am ashamed to say we didn't leave the complex for the whole two weeks. We will just have to go back to Mexico one day, but to a different hotel.

I sprayed insect repellent at night and didn't get bitten once, which is rather unusual.

Departure

Cancun airport is rather large and has a lot of facilities and shops. It is pretty much like a smaller version of Gatwick. There are plenty of places to eat and we had a Dominos pizza for lunch before our flight home, and it was lovely to have a familiar, decent pizza. The pizzas at the hotel are all right but aren't as nice as I am used to. There are lots of places to pick up any duty free that you want.

Summary

I had thought this hotel was a 5 star hotel as all the brochures say, but it isn't, it is actually a 4 star hotel, and on that basis it is an excellent hotel. If you want a 5 star hotel do not come here, you will be disappointed. This is a very good, enormous, American orientated 4 star hotel with lots of facilities and things to do, and a very good all inclusive package. This is not the place to come for a get away from it all, or for a relaxing holiday. I think the hotel is far too big and if full doesn't seem to be able to cope. Half empty it feels like paradise but you can't guarantee that when you book.

Go to this hotel if you want:
24 hours services
An excellent all inclusive package that includes international brands
Don't mind there being thousands of other people there
Not fussed about the beach not being perfect
Want lots to do
Want to be waited on hand and foot

Do not go if you want a quite, intimate hotel.

I wont be going back, largely because we never go somewhere twice as there are so many places to go in the world, and also because the hotel it too big for my liking.


Thanks for reading, also on ciao as rd52169. Photos on ciao too.

Summary: Do not go if you want a quite, intimate hotel.