My husband, 5 year old daughter and I stayed at this resort for 10 days in April and loved every minute of it! From the smooth check in to the check out.....it was awesome. All the staff including management are great to deal with. We did tip $2 at a time for breaky, lunch and dinner when eating in the restaurants. And we gave our maid $2 per day - which got us some pretty cool towel art displays. We found that the tips went a long way - but they were NOT expected. The beach was great, sandy and lots of Palapas. The kids club was also good. It had an evening indoors kids club that we took advantage of and enjoyed a romantic dinner at the French restaurant. Ok - I have to talk about the buffet restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. People who complain about this restaurant are serious food snobs. It was fine...even on the good side! The options were very plentiful. I am a healthy eater and had NO problems. My daughter is a picky eater and had NO problems. My husband...well he will eat anything. No complaints! The a la carts were ok. Lots of noisy kids - but hey we are at a family resort. The kids pool was great. My only complaint was the main pool was too hot to enjoy a refreshing swim - but the smaller U shaped one was great and less busy. Room was awesome - but we did upgrade once we arrived. For the price we paid - we got every penny worth's and more. We highly recommend this resort to families and we will be back! If you have kids you MUST go to the Vallarta Zoo in Mismaloya. Go early and then spend the rest of the day at Mismaloya beach - breathtaking! We took a bus into town then caught another one to Mismaloya for a total of $2 per person - young children do not pay for the bus. We have been to Vallarta 13 times - and will return again next year. We will be staying at the Crown. Remember people - this is not a 5 star resort. You get what you pay for! We loved this resort!

I’m not one to wax poetic about all-inclusive resorts—especially those that upon initial impression look like complete dumps—but we had the BEST time at the Crown Paradise last week, I don’t know if there are enough superlatives to cover my posting.

To get the few negative aspects out of the way, when compared with last year’s stay at the Majestic Colonial in the Dominican Republic, this property left much to be desired. It’s not nearly as stately (to say the least), the lobby is downright crappy, the beach is small, the sand is not white, the water is murky (and currently riddled with jellyfish) and like our God-awful stay at the Gran Caribe Real in Cancun a few years ago, you have to stand in line every morning for reservations at the two sit-down, kid-friendly restaurants. Did I mention that the line is dog-eat-dog and can become quite contentious when non-civilized adults actually budge? Apparently manners are not a given. However, we always got a seat at our preferred time so the system works.

With all that said, the positive aspects far outweigh the negatives. Aside from Disney, this resort is the most family friendly place we’ve stayed at. It was overrun with children last week and our kids had no problem making a gazillion “friends” and seeking them out day-to-day. The guests were mainly a NATO melting pot of Canadians, Americans and Mexicans—most of whom were totally laid back and not stuffy in the slightest.

The property boasted all day activities as well as an outdoor giant chess board, shuffleboard, ping pong, bowling, beach volleyball, beach soccer, pool tables, air hockey, etc. And there are four pools ranging from a heated (read: piping hot) main pool filled with kids and activities well into the night to a cooler and quieter lap pool where few guests were found. The main pool is 4’ deep throughout which makes it difficult for young kids to fully enjoy without wearing bubbles or clinging to the sides; however, the kiddie pool (i.e., kids’ aqua park) had varying degrees of shallow water along with a number of small-ish water slides that kids of all ages were going nuts on. The main drawback to the kids’ section is that there are no chairs around it to relax in—so parents were found sitting in the pool all day long. Mind you, I can think of worse ways to spend a day . . .

If the day isn’t chock-full enough, every night there is a free kid show in Club Nitro right up the street ranging from wacky games to magic shows—some of which include parents engaged in beer chugging contests or the staff doing risqué dance techniques so be forewarned. At 9:30 p.m., the shows start a bit late but our kids didn’t seem to mind. And the property has fireworks on Sunday nights.

There is a small but fun flea market next door and the property is right up the street from a nice supermarket, an easy walk to the shopping mall and a short distance by cab to the town center. This is important to those who needed to escape the resort because the food was not up to snuff. We found, however, that it simply took getting to know what to order on a daily basis—mainly the freshly prepared entrées and/or the Mexican food (no surprise). Fabulous guacamole, cilantro-infused salsa and fresh tortillas. The Italian and Japanese kid-friendly restaurants are good, too. Again, ask other guests what to order beforehand. Some meals are terrific; others are just so-so.

And, of course, the unlimited blender drinks helped. There are bars everywhere (including a swim-up bar for adults only) but our favorite was the poolside bar where the kids could order flavored drinks named after Sponge Bob and Pikachu and the bartender was really friendly.

Lastly, the rooms were clean, there was no musty smell that typifies some of these properties, and the balconies were large and welcoming. But really, who cares, you’re not in Mexico to stay in the room!

I cannot recommend this highly enough to families who want to have a week of laid-back fun. If we didn’t enjoy trying a new locale each year, I would definitely go back.

We loved our vacation at this resort. We have a 5 year old girl and a nine year old boy. It has been one of our best vacations ever. The water park for younger children was a big hit. My son although a little older loved playing in that pool We had trouble keeping our daughter out of the water. She spent an hour or two everyday in the child care center also. . She loved it. Gizelle and Yaqueline were very special to my daughter. Not all of the girls speak fluent English, so one had to make sure things were understood about sunscreen, activities etc...

My son would play basketball every morning and then we would all go to the buffet for breakfast. The service was first rate. We were treated very well by all of the staff. In the buffet restaurant they would always give us special care. One waiter asked me if I would like Baileys in my coffee. I said " sure". The food was hit or miss, but we were never short of desirable options. The Ceviche was delicious and so was the fresh orange juice and fruits. We waited in line one day just for the experience of going to one of the specialty restaurants and decided that was just too much of a time waster. . We just took our chances later on what was available. We ate Japanes 2x and Itallian 1x. It was ok as a change of place..

We all enjoyed the free shows at Club Nitro. We were all up on stage several times during our stay. We had a lot of laughs doing that. The shows were late for the children at night, but they always wanted to go.

My son is learning Spanish and all of the staff gave special attention to speaking with him in Spanish.

I thought the hotel itself was very very clean. Our room fixtures were average, nothing fancy. The beds were so so. I am happy to be sleeping in my own bed now.

There are kids all over the place in this resort. Do not go if you do not want to be around children,. My husband put our kids in childcare one day and we went over to the adult pool/hottub to have a drink in the bar. Loved that.

We appreciated the advice we followed from Trip Advisor, and didn't encourage the timeshare people at all. They soon accepted that we were not biting and left us alone.

The beach vendors are a mild annoyance. But they were never pushy, just omnipresent.

This resort was a great value. The all inclusive aspect meant we enjoyed a dividend we had not anticipated - casual easy eating decisions. We never had to deal with who's not hungry yet, who's wearing sandals.. are we going for lunch or late breakfast. It was great to allow the food considerations to sit well behind the fun decisions.

We are finally rested from our great vacation at the Crown Paradise to write a review. We stayed here for 7 nights and we can't wait to go back. We traveled with our 8 year old daughter, and all 3 of us have a wonderful time.
Check in was a breeze! Great room, a wonderful view of the ocean and the fireworks from the Pirate Ship every night! They had champagne, chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. Were celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

Everyone who worked at the resort was very nice and very helpful. The Resort was spotless, they were cleaning inside and out all the time. Service was great. We ate at all the restaurants our favorite in order.. Italian, French, Japanese. The Breakfast buffet was very good, the omlets were a hit! Yes, it did get a little old, but you would always find something that you liked. We never went away unhappy. Our daughter loved the snack bar . Hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos, fries, salads etc. Oh, don't forget the ice cream!! The kids drinks were fun too! I think she had them all atleast once.

The beach vendors were out in full force. But with a polite "No Gracias" they would leave you alone. The vendors that we did buy from were very nice and had great stories. Lila, who braided our daughter's hair is 39 years old and was having baby #8!!

We did venture off the Resort for some dinners out. Pipis, Barcelona Tapas, and the El Colequita. All Excellent! We did 2 tours. The Pirate Ship (daytime) Very fun! Take Dramamine if you get queezy at all. The Los Veranos Canopy Tour A++!! A fantastic time for the 3 of us! Will do that again for sure. Wish we would have booked for a few more days as 8 was not enough time!

The only negatives that we found (and it wasn't that big of a deal) was having to wait in line early in the morning for dinner reservations. No one wants to get up early on their vacation to stand in line for 1 hour to see if you can get in at a decent time. But hey, it was nice outside and we met a lot of very nice people. The second thing was the beach towels, you had to get up early again to secure a lounge chair by the pool for the day. Although we never sat right up on the pool, we always found a chair 1 row back. We always found a place to sit. We spent a lot of time at the pools. They all were great! If you wanted to be involved in activities that were going on you could, If you wanted just to lay back and relax well you could do that too! The kids pool was a fun place with all the slides. They do a great job with the little ones. I thought we would utilize it more but our daughter had a lot of fun at the main pool and met some great new friends (they were from our same city!) The beach area was nice . Nice palpas to sit under, a good amount of chairs. If you don't want to be approached by vendors, then don't go down there. Just remember, that they are just trying to make a living. They will respect you, and they will walk away when you say no thank you. (although you will see them again soon! :)).

The bartenders, waiters, maids, bellmen, pool staff, etc. do a great job to make your vacation nice. I would make reservations in a heartbeat again to this resort! Don't let a few bad reviews change your mind! We had a great time . ENJOY YOUR VACATION!