We recently traveled to Cancun, Mexico for a 4 night, 5 day stay at Moon Palace Resort. Our experience was so phenomenal, it inspired me to write a blog post.
So let me first share some background information. I want to first share that we booked this tripped solely based on the fact that we wanted to go to Luke Bryan's Crash My Playa. (I will write a review about that at some point too) The 4 day country music concert event was being held at Moon Palace so we did not look beyond this resort. With previous vacations, we would ask our travel agent to find us a resort based on our likes and dislikes. This trip, we did no research. Our goal was to listen to live country music on the beach!
So the other thing I want to mention is that we have a fair amount of travel experience. I think it's important to share that because we have perspective. We have been to many resorts and islands including Beaches Turks & Caicos, Beaches Ochos Rios, Sandals Negril, Iberostar Montego Bay, Club Med Punta Cana, Atlantis Bahamas, Hard Rock Riviera Maya and Club Med Turks & Caicos.
There are 3 sections of Moon Palace Cancun: Sunrise, Nizuq and The Grand. We stayed at the Grande because we read they had the best restaurants out of the three sections. Moon Palace, as a whole, was the best resort we have ever experienced. We particularly loved The Grand because of the food options and the laid back quiet vibes.
Here are a few of the things we loved about Moon Palace The Grand.
-The food was delicious. I am going to be honest - I usually hate the food at an all inclusive resort. It always seems like poor quality and mass produced. Not here. The food was quality. It was full of flavor. And everything felt made to order. Even the buffet was serving food that tasted great! We dined at Casa Mia, Momo, Jade , The Grand Buffet, Los Tacos and a couple others.
- The facilities were clean and beautiful. We were constantly impressed by the design of each building and decorations. It doesn't seem like any corners were cut when they were building this resort. Marble floors and walls, grandiose light fixtures and textured walls really made the resort stand out amongst it's competitors.
- The service was TOP NOTCH! The staff was always willing and ready to help. I remember one day I walked on the beach and found a chair. Before I had a chance to put my bag down, an employee was there handing me a beach towel for my chair and offering to get me a drink or snack.
- Fresh coconut water served on the beach at The Grand. Never saw this before at any resort we have been to. (normally we have to find someone and tip them a $20 to chop us down a coconut) Everyday 12-3 the coconut stand opens and serves fresh coconut water. You can get fancy and add juices or alcohol to your as well.
- Two person jacuzzi tub in your room. I will say, I don't know if this is in every room but we had one and it was great!
- The water park was a good size. Nowhere near as big as Atlantis Bahamas but it was a decent size. They had a couple water slides, a simulated surfing activity, splash pad, lazy river and little kid zone. Also in the water park area was a HUGE kid's indoor activity facility. We took a peak (because we plan to bring our kids back next time) and we couldn't believe all there was to do in there. They had everything from arcade games to mini golf and laser tag.
If I had to give cons:
- We are beach people. I rather be on the beach than at the pool. We were disappointed with the ocean water. It was cloudy and full of seaweed. We have certainly seen nicer beaches (Turks & Caicos) but the beach chairs and sand were great! We still spent 90% of our time at the beach as opposed to the pool.
- The resort is massive. Remember I said there are 3 hotels on the property? If you want to check out a different pool or restaurant, you are walking anywhere from 5 -15 mins. However, they have a ridiculous amount of staff members driving golf carts all around the property to ensure that if you don't want to walk you can get a ride. We chose to walk most of the time to compensate for all the over eating we were doing but the rides are there if you need them.
Keep in mind - my husband and I are in recovery. We do not drink. I don't have a review of the drinking scene - but I will say there were a lot of bars. And I overheard a gentleman raving about the resorts selection of liquor.
I heard from others that if you are staying at Sunrise or Nizuq, you do not have access to The Grande. They do offer a day pass but otherwise you can only go to the pools, beaches and restaurants where you are staying. We loved The Grande and think it's worth the extra money. When you are staying at The Grand you can go anywhere in all three resorts.
I do recommend staying longer than 4 nights and 5 days. We feel like we didn't have enough time to see everything and go to all the restaurants we wanted to.
We can't wait to go back with the kids!
As you know, I am not a travel agent. But if you have any questions just let me know.