We have traveled to Mexico once or twice a year for 15- 20 years. This year my parents gave us a timeshare week. We deposited a Gold Crown room for 8 last year and RCI claimed this was a comperable room. In all my years going to Mexico, this 2 bedroom room that was suposed to sleep 8 was the worst room we have ever had! 5 of us went. We found things like 4 of the eight were suposed to sleep on the wornout and yucky couch in the living/dining/kitchen area.(Two in pull out drawers under the couch that were just foam covered with the couch material.) The table sat 4, and there was suposed to be a kitchen, (the web site showed a beautiful dining room that the table sat 6 to 8 and had lovely art above it and the kitchen was a regular sized kitchen and had a full sized refrig and a bar/island) HA! It was a short counter with two small burners that never heated enough to boil water and the pans were one small pan, suited to heat a can of beans or something and one the size of one you would boil noodles. We had planned to cook for 5, but that proved to be very challenging. We called to the front desk to ask for a skillet, and after one person after the next told us that was not possible, later the house keeper brought one. The burners were small so the one pan covered both burners. The master suite had a king size bed, but the second bedroom had two singles and then all four in the living room slept seperate of course. When I asked about a bed both my husband and I could sleep in in the second room they said those singles were called "Mexican Queens" and that was normal. (In all my years to mexico I have never before met a "Mexican queen". And that had to be one small king and queen to sleep together in that bed! We are normal size people who workout and we did sleep in it, but you could only "spoon" and turn over and spoon the other direction or fall out.)

The sewer was a regular problem in this room and water stood in each sink and the toilets plugged several times while we were there with not even paper in them and someone would come and plunge all of them.
As other reviews have metioned, the beach is a blackish sand, and there was a yellow something that was on the water, so a yellow bubble ring laid where the last wave had just rolled in.

We used Juan Carlos as a driver, and he was the best! He charged us 15 dollars to go to the marina several days, and we had paid as much as 50 dollars with other drivers. You have to be careful, if you call a driver and he is not there yet when you come out to go, the other drivers would tell us that he had to go and they worked for the same company and would take care of us. The last day this happened and a gentleman that called himself "Hector the Protector" took us to the airport suposedly for Juan. It is two miles. Juan told us the ride would be ten dollars but Hector charged us 25! Never forget to negotiate the ride BEFORE you get in the car! (We were with newby's that kept doing this!)

We deep sea fished with Jesus "Chuy" Osorio, and it was wonderful. He can be emailed thru his web site at bluewatersportfishing.com I read extensively before going to Acapulco on everything and everywhere we were going to go and Jesus came best reccemended for fishing and he proved to be worth every cent.

To sum up our experience, just know before you go that the Sea garden is not very nice. (Read numerous reviews and see) and then you will not be disappointed.

(One more thing, if you are not going on a timeshare week, the Fiesta Americana was excellent. We stayed there the first few days in Aca and it was clean and well maintained and in the middle of all the activity downtown. (No taxi rides to do anything downtown.)

Contact me if you want more info on anything. It is the reason I wrote, so you would know before you go. mparkerjohnson@qwest.net

My husband, daughter (18), son (17) and I just got back from the Mayan Sea Garden, Acapulco. The good points of our stay were that the hotel is immaculate and the grounds are beautiful. The pool is cleaned every morning and periodically throughout the day. The hotel staff is very friendly and helpful. The room was efficient - albeit the furniture shabby. We requested and received a room with a pool view but were annoyed when on Thursday and Friday there was work being done on the units across from us which produced a horrible smell - it was so bad we had to leave our room for half an hour until the workers left. I called the front desk but all they could tell me was they would stop work by 6:00. Otherwise, we enjoyed laying by the pool. The beach by the Sea Garden wasn't very inviting however. Not your typical white sandy beaches and calm waters of the Caribbean that we are accustomed to. We did the timeshare presentation at the Grand Mayan (a beautiful hotel, by the way) on the Monday after we arrived but for us it was a huge waste of time. It was an extremely high pressure sales pitch and at times they got nasty with us - even though we were very upfront about why we were doing the presentation - to use their facilities and get the 10% discount on our room charges. In the end, we got what we wanted, but we didn't even go back to use the facilities at the Grand Mayan. We preferred to hang out at our quiet, not so crowded pool. The food at their three restaurants was just OK. We've had much better food here in the USA. The prime rib dinner at Cafe Dellagio was a disappointment. The steak was so thin it was pathetic. Mondo had OK sushi and the veal dinner at Il Forno was rubbery. Room service and the snack bar food was good. Their nachos are excellent. As for Acapulco itself, we felt very ripped off by the cab drivers. I guess we hooked up with one that was not very honest. He definitely overcharged us to do the Flea Market excursion (which, by the way, is a waste of time - just buy your souvenirs at the Sun Market - the quality is better and you don't have to haggle over price - which they jack up ridiculously at the Flea Market). My daughter and I went on the glass bottom boat excursion to Palao which was fun. Again, the food was just OK - not great - but the servers are very cordial and it was nice to sit in the sun and sip drinks. My teenage kids were disappointed that there were no other children staying at the hotel in their age group. There were mostly older couples or couples with toddlers. We didn't do any water sports because it was such a schlepp to get to the main town and the taxi drivers were such crooks. Because of this, we will not be going back to any hotel in Acapulco any time soon. Hope this is helpful.

The grouds are very nice and well maintained. But that comes as a price too as the landscapers were out on the golf course outside our window mornings with blowers and things at 6:00AM. The room was a good size one bedroom with large king size bed, Had kitchen with refrigerator, stove top and microwave and all dishes. The furniture in the room was old and tired. Table tops were scarred up, couch was faded and ripped and there wasn't a clock in the room anywhere. We were there on a RCI time share week trade. I do not think it should have received the high rating of RCI Gold Crown in my book but it was a nice place. It is not near anything. It is in the playa diamonte area near the airport but far from downtown. The beach is not on property but across the street. That is not a bad walk but it is the ocean there and the waves are much worse than in acapulco bay which is around the downtown areas. Housekeeping cleaned every day which was nice and unexpected in most time shares. The property had nice pools but the nicest is at its big sister property nearby called the Mayan Palace. To use that pool you must sit through a time share presentation and hard sales pitch. The is also no high speed wifi. Only Internet were 2 machines available at the market across the street for a few pesos. One of those was broken. The sister property does have a cyber cafe where you can use their machines or your own for a price. If you have a choice stay at Mayan palace or Grand Mayan and not the sea garden.

SEA GARDEN
We stayed at Mayan Sea Garden from Dec. 22- Dec. 29, 2007 as an RCI exchange and really enjoyed our stay in Acapulco. We had contacted Sebastian Hernandez before our trip & were picked up at the airport by him. The check in was quick & easy, we were even allowed to check in before 5:00 PM. We had a two bedroom unit with a kitchenette. The unit is very basic, the couches are a little old & worn out, however the bedrooms & bathrooms are very clean. The daily maid service is excellent & the unit is always clean with plenty of clean towels. The entire staff at Sea Garden is very friendly & helpful. The pool at Sea Garden was nice & clean & my kids (8 & 5) thoroughly enjoyed it. The beach is a short walk across the street.
We bought all the groceries fron OXXO which is walking distance from the resort.
Sea Garden seems perfect untill you have a chance to step into the Grand Mayan & Mayan Palace properties, which are absolutely gorgeous & luxurious. At this point we were a little disappointed with Sea Garden & wished we were staying at Grand Mayan/Mayan Palace. Many reviewers have already mentioned this, we can use the restaurants & the beach at Mayan Palace but not the World famous pool & the water park. The idea is to force you to sit through the timeshare presentation, which we eventually did and wasted 4 hours of our vacation to get three day passes to the pool & the water park.
ACAPULCO
After reading several recommendations on trip advisor, we used Sebastian's services to take us around Acapulco & we did not regret it a bit. He is very friendlynand speaks very good English. He took us on a city tour (on a day when the Cruise ships were not around) to the Chapel of Peace with magnificient views of the bay & and Sebastian described its history and architecture , to the Hotel Flamingo where the Hollywood Gang hung out back in the '40's for a special drink overlooking the sea, went to the Mexican Flea Market and then to the cliff divers. We also saw the beautiful mosaic created by Diego Rivera to try to capture the heart of the woman he loved. After that we went for dinner to mexican restaurant La Tortuga where the staff, food & drinks were all great. Don't leave without having coconut icecream. Another afternoon we went on a jungle tour of the Tres Palos lagoon where we saw Flamingoes, many other migratory birds & tropical vegetation. The highlight of this evening was the sunset & dinner at the Italian restaurant Su Casa.
We also took the glass bottom boat tour from Caleta beach which goes around the Isla La Roqueta, did some shopping in the Costera & went to 100% Natural for Dinner. Sebastian also took us to the Mexican walmart in downtown.
If you are visiting Acapulco for the first time & do not speak Spanish, I would recommend that you use the servives of a tour guide like Sebastian & I am sure you would not be dissapointed.Sebastian can be contacted at [--]