My husband and I went here for our honeymoon and we were so disappointed. We searched and searched for just the right place and we thought we had found it but once we got there, we were sorry we had wasted our money at this place.

To start off, our room was not ready when we arrived. I had heard that if you inform some places you are on your honeymoon that they will upgrade you for free if they are able. So we checked in and she informed us it would be a few HOURS before the room would be ready. I asked if there was any other room they could put us in, she said the room we had was fine. We were then bombarded by sales people trying to get us to sign up for time shares....we were tired and just wanted to rest. We were then told that we could change in the bathroom and wait on the beach, all our bags were sitting unattended in front of the hotel.

I could go on and on but this was how the whole week went. We were so disappointed. I have traveled to about 8 different countries and I have to say that this was the worse place I have ever stayed. There are over 900 rooms and only 4 elevators so it takes 20 minutes just to get to your room, the staff was rude, rooms were not cleaned daily, and room service could not bring the right food. The only good thing about this place was the food.
When we checked out they tried to charge us for things that we had not used and the clerk was rude and had to have the manager come over and take care of the situation.

When we got home, I complained to the hotel as well as the company that we booked it through and the hotel basically said that they would just document it.

I would NEVER EVER recommend this place to anyone.

My boyfriend and I booked our vacation through Orbitz.com and paid for a lagoon view suite. After reading the mixed reviews here, like everyone, I was slightly skeptical, but optimistic :)

A week or so prior to leaving for Cancun, I sent an email to the hotel and upgraded to an ocean view suite. They responded within our and gave me a call and set everything up. We got a great deal!

We booked our airport transfer through Entertainment-Plus.com, which charges $50 (round-trip) for a private car. When we arrived our driver was right outside in the sea of drivers, holding up a large sign with our name.

When we arrived at the Great Parnassus at about 3:00pm and we were greeted by the friendly bell boys who took our baggage and we headed to check in. We waited in line for about 2 minutes and then it took about 5 minutes to check in (got room keys, bracelets, towel cards, safe key and remote) and we were right in our room where our friendly bell boy met us with our baggage.

The room was BEAUTIFUL! The bathroom is huge and has an awesome shower complete with several shower heads, and radio...and a bunch of other options we never really figured out :) There was a double sink which was perfect for us and a huge dressing area with TONS of room to hang up clothing/wet swim suits. There was also a good sized safe where we kept our cash. Oh, and another counter area that was great for makeup, etc, complete with a full size mirror.

Just outside of the bathroom was the mini bar area which also had a coffee maker and coffee. The only thing in the bar when we arrived was water, but concierge called several hours after we arrived and asked how we liked the room and sent up someone with beer, soda and more water.

The sleeping area was great! Unfortunately we ended up in a room with two double beds, but that was no big deal. The whole front of the room was windows that had curtains that could be closed. The sliding doors opened very wide to the beautiful balcony. It had two lounge chairs, a small table with chairs, and a jacuzzi. There was towels and a bottle of bubble bath.

As far as the maid service, she was great! She picked up our room and cleaned it spotless everyday. We left her $5 everyday and she left us several bottles of water, three towels in the bathroom, and two on the balcony for the jacuzzi, everyday.

The food was great! We enjoyed the Mangus food court. It had 12 different stations (mexican, asian, deli, pasta...etc). There was always someone asking if they could take dirty dishes, or get us something to drink.

We were only there for 4 nights but we managed to get to the Manhattan, Portofino, and Samurai. Our favorite was portofino. The service was great and the food was excellent! We also enjoyed the other two, abd Samurai was a close second for favorite! Unfortunately the night we went they had a HUGE group all sit at the same time, so service was a little slow, but our server did the best he could and that was great for us! We also got room service twice. They arrived each time in thirty minutes or less and we ate our food on our balcony.

We also took advantage of the Sanctorum Elite Lounge which is for those with suite or club rooms, for breakfast. We arrived both mornings at 7am so we got to watch the sun rise as we ate pancakes. We also used the VIP concierge service to decide where to go shopping.

The pools are GREAT! We spent our time at the lower of the three infinity pools which was very quite and filled with mostly adults. We didn't play any of the games but we enjoyed watching everyone played water polo and tequila volleyball with Eddy and Johnny and the rest of the hilarious entertainment staff.

The beach was a little bit rocky, but most of the beaches in the area are.

We booked the snorkeling adventure prior to our trip through entertainment plus. They picked us up and took us to a secluded beach where we went to a restaurant where the server was also a bartender and our snorkel guide! He was the sweetest guy who swam with us through the reef and showed us the fish. He was just great! I really recommend booking this snorkel trip if you enjoy something a little less...tourist filled and commercial. When we were done a very nice Expedition picked us up and took us back to the great.

Our last day we decided to go shopping at La Isla. We talked to the bell boys who called for a taxi which arrived in 1.5 minutes (literally). It cost $20usd round-trip. La Isla is very nice, but commercial. There were several places to get local crafts, but no street vendors.

Everyday we couldn't help but remark at how CLEAN the resort was! They cleaned all day everyday!

We did not come across a single unhappy employee. Everyone was so nice and helpful and really worked their tails off!

Tipping is very important. Most of these people work for basically nothing, so if you tip well, they will take special care of you. Our favorite bar was the Kilamanjaro Lobby Bar, where David was the best! He was definitely the best bar tender in the entire resort, and we went there several times a day for drinks! The key to pool drinks is to go to the gift shop and buy the souviner cups and use them everyday (I believe they were $3usd a piece). If you go get in the pool the server won't take your cup, and you get more to drink in them.

We really loved the Great Parnassus and we will definitely return as soon as we can afford it!

I will start at the beginning.... Keep in mind this is just my experinse of this trip and the only reason I am writing this review is for people to learn what they are getting into. My wife and I went to cancun with another couple going through a travel agency all inclusive. Our trip started off rough being as soon as we get our luggage our friends camera was stolen but not relizing it until we got to the hotel. At the hotel we had a suite with a jaccuzi in it which was great and the room was vey large and clean and the view was amazing. Their staff was very friendly and helpful. Their beach wasnt great for alot of big rocks are right their as soon as you enter the water and can very easily hurt somone( you couldnt let kids swim unattendended). but they had several nice pools to take care of your swimming needs. For the all inclusive well.... I live in the states and I like to eat so I thought this would be great.. what a disappointment... We ate at almost all the restraunts in their and not one had good service. My major complaint was that heaven forbid you get a refill on your drinks. It almost seemed that they tryed to avoid getting you one not only that it seemed alot of their drinks were flat or it had a different taste to it. I can understand one restraunt but all.... As for the alcohol drinks Im not much of a drinker but when I can drink about 8 drinks before I get to start feeling anythin, than somthin is wrong. By the taste of some drinks you could tell they were heavily watered down. What the sad thing was I tip after every drink thinking the next one would be better (nope). By the end of the trip the tips were at a crawl. Lets now talk about their food, Their food was average at best. Their was not one meal that stood out for me. Alot of the times the food came out cold (mainly breakfast) or the food would be not very good. Just to name a restraunt, their sushi one, lets put it this way I had better sushi out of a grocery store. So if yo think you are going to eat great like I thought you will be disappointed. I will not be returning to cancun but I dont regret going on the trip. Just a few other thing I thought I would throw in for new travelers 1. Watch out for the bus drivers, they drive wildly and they try to rip you off if your not careful, thats the same with the flea market they try to sell you items way over cost, but keep in mind you can ususally get them down to about half the price if not more than the first price that was quoted. 2. I highly recommend goin to see the myan ruins we did the 12 hour trip and it was the one thing Im glad I did.
3. Dont recommend the lobster cruise..{open bar} again drinks heavily water down and not worth the price. I can go into more details about my trip but I thought I would give you a heads up.
If you want to no more feel free to contact me.

My husband and I took our 3 kids (ages 16,13, and 11) to the Great Parnassus April 7-14th 2008. I had read many of these reviews, and was a little scared, but had gotten a lot of tips from them also. Once we arrived at the resort, all hesitations totally faded. We arrived at 10:30 a.m. and fully expected a several hour wait for our room to be ready, but it was immediately available.
This resort is amazing!! The employees are all extremely friendly! After just a day there, the staff treated us like old friends.. always remembered our names and exactly what we like to drink and kept our drinks full (even in the food court). I'd recommend tipping early on.. they will take such good care of you.. Tip them well!! If you look over the wall on the odd side rooms , you can see two little shanty houses on the other side of the concrete fence and that is how most of these people live.. they get paid very little and have families just like you and me... so please, tip the staff... We gave our maid $10 the first day and she kept our room immaculate, with extra blankets and bottled water every day without asking.. We tipped $5 per meal in the restaurants and tipped our waiter in the food court $10 the first day and every day he watched for us and motioned us to his section and took care of our every need..
If you eat in the food court, look for the waiter Emilio.. He's awesome!!
The food.... was way above our expectations!! The prime rib at Big Ben's is one of the best steaks I've had anywhere!! We loved the variety of food available and then even room service if you are wanting a quiet in room meal... The Mexican grill was amazing! The chicken strips outside by the pool are really good! My 11 year old son (who has major health problems and is extremely picky about food) ate like he had never eaten before.. We don't drink alcohol, but we did drink alot of drinks minus the alcohol.. you have to try the Miami Vice!! It's the best!!!!
Our room... :We had a family room. It was very spacious and clean. The air conditioning along with the ceiling fan kept our room VERY cool and comfortable.. The beds were comfortable. not rock hard like the last resort we stayed at in Cancun.
The entertainment staff are SO friendly and genuine.. Edy was awesome!! The live entertainment every night was excellent!! I was definately not expecting it to be that good!
Some people complain about the rocks on the beach, but the surf in Cancun every time we have been there is always so rough that you really can't get into the surf alot anyway... the rocks make some pretty photos! Just be careful, there are some out just a little farther that you can't see also.. if you want rock free, walk down the beach a few hundered feet and it is clear there. My kids loved the pool and beach activities. We didn't do a lot of activities outside the resort, mainly due to our son's medical problems, but when you do leave the resort.. remember this important fact... : the buses may seem like they probably make a big loop, however, THEY DO NOT!!!!! We learned this in 2004. We stayed on to see the "loop" and ended up in downtown, non tourist district Cancun. We were the last ones on the bus, it ended up getting dark and we were quite some miles from the tourist district and ended up at the bus station waiting for shift change to take us back to the tourist district. It was scary and I am glad our kids were not with us on that trip, however, they were friendly and did get us back to our resort.
Back to the resort... If you are looking for a resort that offers more than just a room and food, this is it!!!!! It is perfect for families.. I felt completely safe with our kids there.. We can't wait to go back!!!!!!! We will definately go back to the Great Parnassus!!