We just stayed June 7-15, 2008, and enjoyed a stay for 9 full days. Even thought the weather reports said it was thunderstorms and showers, there were mild pockets of rain showers that would last for anywhere from 5-20 minutes, and then stop. It would be cloudy one place, and by the time you got in a boat and went diving, it would be clear. Or the other way around. but the rain wouldn't last long, and shouldn't stop anyone from going. Just plan accordingly

I had asked people about things regarding childcare, but not many could offer actual experience, so hope this helps someone.

There were 4 of us, 2 adults, 2 girls (almost 8 and 15). My older daughter is a certified diver, so we all wanted to go diving, but I had to figure out what to do with my 8 yr old.. We went with Dive With Martin, which I'll review separately in a diving review. But overall, they were very accommodating, for anyone wanting to save a few bucks and get some great diving in. I had gone to check on childcare with Park Royal so I could dive. We asked the first day, so I could plan our week's activities and one staffer (Luz) said they charged $15 per hour per child, and explained that all employees at Park Royal would charge the same. Keep in mind that you have to use an employee, because a non-employee would not be allowed on resort grounds without a wristband, and would not be able to care for a child on property. So we planned our dives around sharing the daycare of the 8 yr old for the week, and not dive together. You could leave her in the kids area for a couple hours, but not long enough to accommodate a full 2 tank dive outing.

I sent my husband and daughter out the first day and watched the younger one. We got up the first day and had breakfast and walked around the property and met up with another children's center employee (Claudia) that told us she would be willing to work with us, and altered the payscale enough that I was able to afford it. So, one day she came to our room at 7 AM and picked up my child and took her to breakfast, and then to the center to play, and over to the beach to snorkel, and met us back at the center by 12:30. She was great, and we appreciated her flexibility and assistance. If you need the childcare, be sure to ask Claudia for help. Write to me for more details if you need.

Also, the posted hours on all the information show that childcare is closed at 5 PM. When you get there to the center, they post the hours til 9 PM. I asked why the discrepancy, but they didn't have an answer. They have it that way so parents can go have dinner at the nice restaurants. You have to be sure to get arrangements at 6:30-6:45PM, so you can drop off your child, have dinner, and get back on time before it gets too late. In my case, my daughter was upset that she got left out and asked that we only do this once and return by 8, so we did. Especially since we noticed she was the only one there most of the time. The night we decided to go to the Carribean place, the regular girls were gone for the day, and one of the activity staff came over to fill in. He was nice enough and played with her, but didn't take her to dinner, and they just sat and watched tv waiting for us. he did try to, but my daughter wasn't hungry,so when we got back to get her, we still had to sit in the dining room to get her something to eat. Not that big a deal, but a little annoying.

If your kids like to swim, there's a few different pools to choose from. My daughters liked the infinity pool, and my older one liked walking around on the beach area, and swimming out around the rocks. Although the visibility left a lot to be desired, there were a few fish, and other sea life that she was entertained with. When my 8 yr old went out with Claudia, they saw a peacock flounder and a couple of other fish like trunkfish and butterflyfish, so it is possible to see them, but I didn't personally see them while snorkeling around. The kids area had the two slides, and my younger one played there one day, and made bracelets, and watched tv, while I sat with her and talked to claudia.

I'm with other reviewers when it comes to the grounds and room being clean. My only thing that I found about the rooms, was that there were tiny little bugs that I saw around the table areas, so I can see why they don't want food brought back to the rooms. That could get out of hand really fast. And, I noticed that mosquitoes would take refuge in the showers, and we were getting bitten like crazy. we'd kill what we could find, and sleep under the sheets to protect ourselves, but those stupid thing even got my daughter's eyelid and her shoulder that stuck out from the bed. So, if you're prone to getting bitten, take precautions. Note, that Off and cutters work a bit, but you can't keep it on all day.

I have a bad back, so walking around the cobblestone flooring would get hard on my leg and back. But it wasn't impossible. what was worse, was that everytime you leave the property, there's only way out, and that was to go up about 20 steps through the main lobby, then you could down a small ramp to the driveway, which was equally rocky, to get down to the street. Since I dive too, I had to haul my equipment up and down the stairs. I didn't feel right taking the handicap access wheelchairlift they had to transport my gear up and down, so I suffered the pain of hauling it up and down the stairs. it's stupid. They need to have a better way to access the streetside without having to go up through the lobby. I did find another way in, from the beach, where you could go tothe beach using the tunnels, and then go to the street through a small opening on the far side of the beach area. But it still involved climbing up about three steps and then going down a couple of uneven steps to the street.

Compared to everything that we did there though, the only inconvenience was mine to bear. The hotel otherwise provided a great room, convenient location, things to do, food to eat, and free drinks, all for a really low price.

I got my deal as a package with flying Mexicana through Travelocity, and am happy to report no incidents occurred with my reservations. My trip involved a 5 hr layover thru Mexico City, which I thought would be terrible, but it wasn't completely unbearable since I have a portable DVD, and my kids had their DS machines charged up. Getting something to eat was easy enough, shopping around the airport filled a little time, and then we just proceeded to a general gate area to kill time until they assigned our flight a gate. The bad thing is, when you leave from Mexico City to US, they do plane checks at the gate, so checking in takes longer as you're boarding the flight. People who passed the security checkpoint and thought it was OK to get a bottle, bought huge water bottles and were trying to get on the plane, and the security took them away. They could have warned people. I only had one bottle on me, so all of us took a huge drink of it, and killed the bottle while we waited in the line. The thing that took me by surprise was that I was carrying on my underwater digital camera and my extra batteries for it, and they wanted to take all mypackages of batteries away. I started to get upset. But they finally let me board the plane. I checked it out when I got back, and an airport security employee said some places are more strict than others about carrying batteries, esp lithium ones, and carrying them on planes. So, be forewarned that if you're caught with them, you may be asked to surrender them. And note, that the bigger fuss you make, the more likely you are to lose them. Since I was being nice, they let me fly. and told me to remember not to fly with them anymore. Its all about attitude.

Oh - another note about diving and staying with Park Royal. they have a pier, so a few operators will stop at their pier and take you directly out. We went with Dive with Martin, so we had to walk down to the International Pier. Not far, but it was a drag when we had to haul our gear every day. If we left it with them, we wouldn't have our snorkeling gear during the afternoons, so we had to drag it back and forth every day.

If you go with Aqua Safari, they stop at the pier. If you dive with Dive Palancar or its sister operation, Del Mar, then they're RIGHT next door to the hotel. It's literally about 20 yards from the street entrance of the hotel, to the area where the boats go out for del Mar and Aquaworld (the Park Royal's dive operator). I'm not sure, but they might use the same loading area.

Couple notes about the food at Park Royal. Yes, I can be picky, but I can be cheap too. I wanted a vacation that I could get away from the stress of work, and just relax, without it costing me an arm and a leg. Yes, I could have went to downtown and probably ate better, but if you're on a budget - and want to save the money to dive, and just eat food that's already paid for, keep in mind, that the food does change daily, and that they have an asian night (fair, not wonderful), a Mexican night (decent), an Italian night (passable), a chef's night (better), and a couple other nights that didn't list anything special, where it had food similar to what was served at the specialty restaurants. we ate at the Mexican restaurant one night with both my kids, and it was limited in what it served. but everything we ate, was served at Mexican night in the dining room. So I wondered if the Italian restaurant was similar. I didn't eat there, but had the Italian night food at the dining room, and it was fine. Watch out for the desserts though. If you're having any bad boughts with the water in Mexico, which I did, the desserts did not help. Everything has milk or cream in it, and there isn't a lot of fiber in their foods. If you tell the dining room folks you're having trouble though, I had a guy help me get some bran cereal one night, so I could have something to eat that would help my system. Also, the other savior was the small shop that sold candy and stuff,. they had small pouches of oat cereal and granola bars - and it helped tremendously.

Other things to check out while you're there - we found a really fun activity not far from the hotel if you have a car, or you can grab a quick taxi ride to. It's about 2-3K down the road towards Chankanaab, and its a zipline place that offers about 6 towers to zipline between, and you do the course twice for the fare. It cost me $50 for my little one, and $60 per adult to do. I let my two daughters go one day, and then later, when we had a couple hours to kill before we left for the airport, we went back and let my husband and the 8 yr old go again.

Discover Dolphin program at Chankanaab
We did the swim with dolphins program that cost around $105 each. My 8 yr old and I went on that, and we both had a blast. It included the fare to get into the park as well, and allowed us in a nicer pool area that's next to the dolphin tanks, so it was a pretty good deal. If you have a camera that's waterproof, you're allowed to bring it, but you can't take photos of yourself, so you're depending on the others who are with you, to take it, and it never failed, when my daughter was out, so was I, so it was hard to get pictures. So I was at the mercy of the photographers at the dolphin place. It's just under a hundred for a full set of photos and a DVD.
We could have brought my husband and other daughter out for $5 each to watch - but they wouldn't be allowed to take photos, and would have been bored sitting there for the most part, so they opted to go snorkeling instead.

Car rentals. You won't see a rate listed for Hertz at the International Pier, but you will for the airport. I had booked a four day rental and figured on going back to the airport to get it. But after I figured out how expensive it would be to get a taxi, I asked Hertz before I left the airport for a shuttle to help me out. they asked where I was staying, and when I said Park Royal, the guy told me to go over to the Hertz at the pier dock and get a car there. they would honor my reservation. Since I was at the pier the morning of my rental to go diving, I stopped by the Hertz to get my car, and he checked everything adn said here's the keys... and gave me a contract to sign,. It cost me less than what it was supposed to, cuz I wasn't at the airport I guess. The 4 day rate ended up being about $15 less, and I was able to get the car, drive it to the hotel, and have it for the rest of the week, and drove it back to the airport to drop it off. It saved us a couple of taxi rides, and gave us a car to get around in. So, be sure to book ahead, and check out the rates. Esp. if you have card memberships that get you more discounts. Some are usable with Mexico, so be sure to read the fine print.

I noticed Budget was at the pier as well, so they might offer deals too.

Couple other tips - good munchies to have with you for snacks are granola, trail mix, fruit snacks, and other DRY things. Sounds crazy, but its tough to find it without paying afortune for it, so bring some along with you. Mine lasted me for about 4-5 days, then I had to start buying it. If you have a car, there's a grocery store between the hotel and Downtown next to a movie theatre, where you can buy stuff at - but be forewarned there's no way to keep anything in the room, and you got the bugs. Keep things in sealed ziploc bags.

Check out Mr sancho's beach area for a nice beach, no fee to get in, just pay for what you use. Waverunner prices are one of the lower fares - and we used it, and they were great. but the guys aren't shy about asking for a tip. They wanted a tip just to hold the waverunner and push you out, and help you back in. Oh well - ok. I kept a lot of pesos on hand for stuff like that.

For money - get pesos there. I made the mistake of ordering more than I needed back in the states so I'd have money on hand when I got there, and paid a lot more than I should have. So, by the time I used it Mexico, it costed more for everything than if I exchanged my money there. If you get money here, you'll get less than 10 pesos to the dollar, where in Mexico, at the Mexico City airport, you'll get about 10.5 to 10.7 per dollar. some places were offering a bit more, but you have to surf the web to find them. I did discover that there's a bank Downtown that Bank of America deals with called Santander, that only charged me about a dollar to draw money from my US Account. Should have just done that from the start. Live and learn, I'll know next time.

hope these comments help someone to make better plans. I had a great time while I was there, thanks to the hotel giving such a great package deal, I was able to really relax and enjoy Cozumel and all its beauty. My kids, aside from a side excursion to the activities, were content to sit in the pool and just relax in the room. while most tv shows were in spanish, there were cable channels available in English, which was more than what the allegro offered us when we stayed there once.

We've stayed at Allegro for a week, and found the Park Royal a lot nicer, the restaurant is better, and there was more to do and the people were more accommodating to us.

I wish the Park royal would add a gate on the south side of their property, so that you could access the International Pier and shopping more easily, and avoid the lobby stairs. But I'd say this was the worst thing I could really say about the place.

If you have any other questions, I'm willing to help. Write to me.