We did our hotel research on TripAdvisor, and decided to book this hotel in Cancun, instead of one of those all inclusive ones.
Upon arrival, the hotel looks impressive and grand.
True to other Tripadvisor's reviewers, we were offered to be upgraded to the Grand Club floor. We negotiated the price down to an additional $90/night.
The A/C in our room was loud and blowing like a categorie 1 hurricane right over our head. The temperature setting never works correctly. And our double room, even though it was on the Grand Club Floor, was on the smaller size. The room was clean though.
It was late in the evening, so my wife decided to stick w/ the room instead of exchanging for another one.
Breakfast at the Grand Club was disappointing, the food was limited in quatities, and the quality wasn't there either. The service and the courtesy was class 1 all the way though.
We had the same problem with other reviewers regarding beach chairs. Other people, non american ( and I'm not being discriminating here), mostly from south of the border and Europeans, just come by, toss our towels away, and claim the chairs. I rushed up from the ocean once, to tell a Latina lady that those were my chairs, and she just told me to buzz off (?????!!??!!?!), I had to give her the international sign to ward her and her companions off (and I'm a very peaceful, law abiding, easy going person here) :-)))
The ocean at the FAGCB is beautiful, with nice, soft, powdery white sand. Unfortunately, the water, even though it was aqua colored and clean, was not as clear as the water in the Bahamas or the USVI. There was five large pools, but no pool activity for either adults or kids.
The food was very expensive, thank you Bush, because our $ is crap in Mexico nowadays.
Lunch ordheuvres at the Grand Club was decent, but again, the quantity was very limited, and when we went back for seconds, the concierge lady was acting funny. She asked for our room number at least 3 times...The next day, we went down and cancelled our Grand Club!
We did a private tour for Chitchen Itza. It was awesome. Even my 8 year old daughter likes it. I did the ugly american act at one to the minor Choup...I climbed the rope and got onto one of the steps (now forbidden to be climbed) and had my niece taken a picture. One of the guide in the park saw some activity, even though he did not really see my climbing the steps, and made a stink about it. He was screaming for security and pointed me out to the security guide who arrived on a bike. The poor security guide looked confused, and did not know what to do with this ugly american, so he kept exchanging looks between me and the guide, and finally said "ok, just erase the pictures senor", we did that and were allowed to leave.
We dined at La Paloma Bonita, it was great. Good food and very friendly service.
We also dined at Mocambo, it was decent.
Mostly, we ate at the Grill on the property, it was good food, with a beautiful surrounding.
Overall, I would not suggest this hotel was being 5 stars, maybe 4 stars at the most.
Next time, I'm staying at the Ritz Carlton down the street.

There is only one major drawback to GCB and that is to get to all the best restaurants in Cancun you have to go past the night clubs. This is my 7th time visiting Cancun and I always stay near the Casamagna, Gran Melia, JW, and Ritz b/c it is a little more private and the restaurants in that area are the best in Cancun. There is Puerto Madiero, Harry's (a very nice NEW steak and seafood joint), the Disterilla, Mikado (in the Casamagna), Laguna Grill, etc. Well if you stay at GCB you have to go past all the clubs to get to all of these places, and on the way back you sit in a MAJOR traffic jam. It was extremely annoying to sit in a traffic jam every night on vacation! Other than that, the place is amazing! The service is incredible!! The reason my wife and I went with GCB is b/c 3 years ago Cancun was hit with a major hurricane and the beaches up by the Marriotts, Ritz, Gran Melia have been severly eroded. The beach a GCB is great, plenty of beach, and no waves. The gov't is in the process of restoring the beaches at the other end of the strip so you may want to think twice about stayin up there right now. Also if you dont know, Beach Palace, Melia Turquesa (now Melia ME) and Aqua were beat up pretty badly during the hurricane. They are all brand new, except Aqua was already new, but the facade was destroyed and redone. Beach Palace, and the Melia were completely destroyed and redone. Also another hotel was destroyed and I cant remember what was there, but now a brand New Westin is going up. That is going to be a good location when the beach is fixed b/c it is right near the good restaraunts and shopping.

With all that said the hotel itself is really nice and the only hotel in all of Latin America that has won the AAA 5 Diamond award, and in my opinion it is due to the spectacular service. In fact my wife left her IPOD in the safe and we were back in the US we thought it was gone. She called the hotel, they went into the room, found it, called back in 10 minutes and mailed back to us.

I recently stayed at FAGCB for the 2nd time and must say that they continue to stay consistent.

Check in was a breeze with some nice chilled drinks as we waited briefly.

Rooms were Very Clean and housekeeping did a great job throughout the whole entire stay.

Pools were clean and well maintained a nice "MIAMI VICE" in a pineapple at the pool bar was my favorite. Not to strong not to sweet.

Beach was amazing and not crowded, Jet Ski rentals fair prices although I must agree with another review even though the water was amazing it wasnt as clear as last time. Last time I remember seeing fishes while using my goggles, This time I couldnt see a thing. I was later told that this time of the year the water gets that way. But most couldnt tell the difference

Eating by the beach was good,The Fajitas were the best thing on the limited menu but KIDS eat free which is always a plus.

Room Service was pretty quik,The chicken & veggies was very good,The BLT was good The Burgers were So-So.

Breakfast was very very good, I regreted eating at VIPS near by
as they are not good at taking orders at all I ordered egg whites at "VIPS" which could best be described as eggs that were cooked and then soaked in water waitress did nothing but the manager did a great job of fixing my order up, From then on it was breakfast at FAGCB everyday.

My only complaint was probably the stroller we requested was messed up and seemed to be damaged by the last person who used it, We requested a new one which worked better but the seat belt was broken, Not a huge deal but they could invest in slightly better strollers. This is a 5 diamond resort and the strollers were very low quality

Overall FAGCB is an amazing place that I would love to stay at again, You will not be disappointed at all Very Family Friendly
GO ! you wont regret it.

I can't think of any negatives for this property. It was clean, the service was outstanding, and the other guests seemed to enjoy the same atmosphere we do. We saw very little smoking, only 1 incidence of get-a-room public affection, and no drunks at all. Lots of kids (we have 2), lots of beach, and kids could easily swim in the ocean (our 9 yr old did fine). Food was good (a bit pricey for adults, but under 12 ate free everywhere on property). Compared to all of the hotels we saw and visited on the long side of the island and their corresponding "beaches" (practically nonexistent) we'd only return to this property. Some might consider the decor a bit dated (nothing awful, but nothing sleek), but we're not picky about that. If you like clean, gracious, and a fantastic pool/ocean combo, this is the place!