My husband and I stayed at the Royal from May 1st - May 10th. First I want to say the employees there are exceptional and probably some of the nicest employees that we have come across in our travels. We have absolutely no complaints about the service, but the hotel itself is overrated. It is a beautiful hotel and appearance wise is comparable to some of the best US hotels as far as cleanliness and decor.
We had no problems checking in. We had booked one of the bottom priced rooms, junior suite oceanview, so the online check in was unavailable to us. When we arrived at the hotel after 1 and 1/2 hours in immigration lines, we were ready to relax and start our vacation. Rooms are beautiful, the only thing is I don't think they have enough king beds, I had e-mailed the hotel ahead of time requesting a king bed, only to be told I would need to upgrade to be guaranteed a king bed. To us is wasn't worth the extra cost and of course we had 2 double beds in our room. For being an adult only resort and it seemed that 95% of the guests there were couples, I am not sure why most of the rooms do not have king beds anyway. The prices they gave us to upgrade was a bit much, so we took the basic room. The view was amazing, I would call it oceanfront and I couldn't imagine how some of the other rooms could beat the view.
Now to the towel game, yes they have limited each room to 2 towels - but you still cannot get a decent chair without getting up at 7am to claim it and going back to bed. I am not an early riser, especially on vacation so if we waited until we got up, had breakfast and was at the pool by 1030 - 11am, there were no chairs available. My husband got up every morning at 7am, to ensure we had a decent chair and then came back and went back to sleep. There are simply not enough chairs to accomodate the amount of rooms they have. To top it off, one day we saw a lady who had "claimed" 4 chairs, 2 in the shade and 2 in the sun for her and her husband (they had brought beach towels from home or bought some) only to be in the chairs for about 1 hour. We didn't even see her husband until around 3pm that day, so basically she had hogged 4 chairs for herself. I believe that is rude and inconsiderate, but that is just an example of the "towel game".
The minibar in your room, FYI - i am not sure if this takes place in the higher price suites but it occurs at the jr suite ov level, they will not replace the bottles. Now we were there for 9 days, my husband and I really only drink Bacardi & diet cokes (as far as mixed drinks go) we had went through the bottle about half way through our stay. We both like to have some cocktails in the evening while getting ready for dinner and such and the bottle wasn't even full to start. My husband called down and asked for another bottle to be replaced and he was told the bottles wouldn't be replaced, you were limited to one bottle of each. So you receive a bottle of smirnoff vodka, a bottle of bacardi, a cheap whisky and a cheap tequila. Now we didn't even touch the whisky and tequila, my husband did have some of the vodka, but I think that is ridiculous that if they are promoting a minibar in your room, they should be replacing it when it is empty.
Restaurants - Asiana's is tremendous. The food is great and the waiters and service there was excellent. The buffet is not what we would consider a buffet and the food, not so good. Pelicano's was pretty good, I did have a couple of dishes there I didn't like, but overall it was pretty good. The food from room service was pretty good, we usually ordered breakfast, although toward the end of the week - it was cold by the time it was getting to us. Didn't eat at Tapa's, not our kind of food. Maria Maria was ok, not anything I would rave about.
Bars - swimup bar was good and fast. Lobby bar, the bartenders were excellent, although the drinks a little on the weak side. If I order a bacardi and coke, I want to taste the bacardi I don't want to fill like i am drinking straight coke. My husband did try the mojitos toward the end of the trip and he was enjoying those, but you were never sure what you were going to get. Each time he ordered it, it was always a little different from the last.
The location is great. You are literally right across the street from Pat O'Briens and Margarataville. We went over several evenings while we were there, because the entertainment in the hotel is not so good. They have a live band that starts around 10pm every evening and it is the same band, same songs, each and every night. It is easy enough to get a bus into downtown if you want to hit the big clubs or you can go with the entertainment group from the hotel.
Overall, the trip was great and no huge problems with the hotel. But would I stay there again, probably not. I don't think it is worth the price. We have stayed at other all-inclusives in Cancun and the Caribbean and for the price it really doesn't compare.