We are Palace Premier Members and have stayed at all the other Palaces EXCEPT LaBlanc. We thought we would give Isla Mujeres a try. It is a long jaunt from the airport. When leaving the Cancun airport we traveled with Elite tours about 15 minutes to the ferry port. Waited about 15 minutes at the ferry port and then took a 20 minute ferry ride to the island and then from the Isla Ferry port it was a 10 minute cab ride to the resort. All the transfers went smoothly. The hotel paid for our transfers to and from the airport but once you are on the island, if you want to travel off the island to venture to Cancun you must foot that bill yourself.

The hotel welcomed us with cool towels and the cocktail of the day. Very nice! We checked in on Sunday and there was NOBODY there! It was surreal. We found out that no boat came on Sunday with guests from the other hotel. We checked into our room and lounged by the pool and met the other people staying at the hotel. I think there were 4 other couples.

I introduced our son to a few other kids in the pool and got them all playing a game of volleyball. The kids hung out and played in the pool.

That is one of the good things about this small resort. You get to know the other guests on a first name basis. You will see the same folks in the pool and at breakfast lunch an dinner. It makes the whole vacation very personal!

I just loved loved loved Anselmo!! He takes the time to know all the guests first name and he knows what you like to drink!! How sweet is that??! Julio, the activity director and Karen in the kids' club were very nice! Very friendly and were always making sure that everybody was having a good time. They smiled ALL the time!!

We had read on this review board about another guest fishing off the pier. We asked Julio about the fishing pole and he took us to the pier with the fishing pole and lines and hooks. It was really fun! We used shrimp and squid and put that bait on our hooks and caught TROPICAL fish! It was like fishing in an aquarium! We caught tiny fish and threw them back, of course. I would recommend that if you enjoy fishing that you try to pack a fishing pole. The resorts "rigs" are more for kids. If we had our poles I wonder what bigger fish we would have caught!? It was still fun to see all the interesting fish!

People have complained about the beach. Though it has no surf and it doesn't have a nice smooth sandy bottom - there is a bunch to see if you want to snorkel!!! This is the best resort to snorkel. We went under the docks and were swimming in the middle of THOUSANDS of fish. The best snorkeling is around 4 p.m. when all the tour boats leave and the water is settled. GORGEOUS!! I am not sure if the hotel offers snorkeling gear or not. We brought our own with us.

This hotel's food is the best out of all the other Palace Resorts that we have visited. The kitchen manager, Diego, was VERY personable and would come to the table and ask us how everything was. If we wanted something that wasn't on the menu they would try to make it! He made my husband a very very very good steak one night! My hubby said it was the best steak he had ever had! How is that for personal service!!

It did take quite a while from the time we ordered our food until it came to the table. But, we were in no hurry and the food there is WORTH the wait.

My 10 year old son ordered room service quite a bit. After too much sun he would go to the room and chill while playing his playstation 2 (we bring it with us when we travel to keep him entertained while we are showering and getting ready) He would play games and eat the club sandwiches. He said it was his favorite meal. When we checked into our room we couldn't get the playstation to work on the room t.v. We called down to the front desk and the manager came to the room and tried to get it to work. They found another tv that it would work on and brought that t.v. into our room and took the previous tv out. VERY VERY NICE!!! Our son was VERY grateful!

We brought our 2 laptops. The wireless did not work in our room so we had to take our laptops to our floor lobby to get service. That lobby came in handy with the cushy couches and tables!! We all hung out there and surfed the net and checked our emails. A few of the other guests joked that it was our "living room"!

The noise level was fine for us because we took the advice of other travelers on this review board and opted for a room that overlooked the pool. We were in room 328. We never heard the show unless we were at dinner. The show started at 7 ish and went until 10:30 nightly. Some nights it was louder than others. A few nights we would go up to the terrace and watch the show down below.

The NOISE was on Saturday night! The bar on the other side of the hotel had a THROW DOWN on Saturday night from like 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. I woke up a few times and heard them bumping up the phat techno beats! hahaha My hubby couldn't sleep but I had no trouble! That club was only loud on that one Saturday night. We stayed from Sunday til the next Sunday and we had no problem with the noise on the other nights.

We went to a park called Garaffon. Do NOT go to visit this park!!! We paid $300 for 4 of us to get in. My husband and son wanted to do the zip line at Garaffon so we purchased the all inclusive package for 70 bucks a person! When we got to the park we were told that the zip line was 5 dollars extra!! We purchased those tickets even though we were outraged that we had already paid 70 bucks for all inclusive. THAT $5 charge is only good for ONE ZIP LINE RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a total rip off!!! Then when my husband and son went to do the zip line, they told my son that he was too small to do it!! My son is 5'4" and weighs 100 pounds!!! They didn't tell us that at the front gate OR at the resort where we bought the tickets. We only wanted to go to Garaffon so my son could do the zip line! It was a total disappointment . We spent $300 for nothing. We went walking along the paths in the park and went to the top of the cliffs where the restaurant/bar was. We were told that this bar (even though it was in Garaffon park) was not part of our all inclusive package. We needed to use the restroom facilities and were told that it was going to cost us 5 pesos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A RIP OFF and WHAT A JOKE!!! Do not go to the Garaffon Park!!!! It's just not worth the price!!

We did the golf cart tour one day. That was fun! We went to the north beach. Snorkeling is not good there. It's very flat and very smooth sand with no structure or fish attractors. The best snorkeling is at the resort or on the snorkel tour that the resort offers.

We went to a restaurant that is about a 1/2 mile from the resort called Caso O's!! It was great and the view was breathtaking! Very very good restaurant that we would highly recommend if you want to get a taste of the local flavor! YUM!!

The snorkeling tour is kind of crowded and rushed. They pack tourists on the boat and take you out to the light house near the resort. Everybody jumps off the boat and the tour guides yell at the guests to stay with them. They were yelling "OVER HERE OVER HERE OVER HERE!!! BIG FISH OVER HERE!! STAY WITH ME! OVER HERE!!! We were yelled at the whole time!! I held on to my sons life jacket (EVERYBODY HAS TO WEAR A LIFE JACKET) to make sure he didn't get away from me into the mob of people! It was maddening. The current pushes you along and you see the same fish that you see at the beach of the hotel. So, take that for what it's worth.

One day we took the cab to the ferry to another cab to Wet N Wild in Cancun. Wet n Wild is owned by Palace so that is part of your vacation package. In Wet N Wild you get drinks food towels etc FREE. You only have to pay for a tube if you want to ride one in the lazy river or in the wave pool. That was a nice get away. It is NOT crowded at all in Wet N Wild!! Very enjoyable!!!

We were at the resort for 8 days. It was a long long long vacation. There is not a lot to do on the island short of eating shopping and snorkeling.

We found out the day before our last day at the resort that there is a tour that you can take to an island and swim with the Whale Sharks. Whale sharks are huge huge fish. They are gentle and not dangerous to humans as they eat plankton and NOT people!! hahah Holbox is the name of the island. You can Google it to get more info. We never did get the whole skinny on it. The whale sharks are in the area during the summer and it's the only time of year that you can go see them. They hang out near Isla de Holbox island. The island has a lot of primitive and exotic birds on it. We checked the price of the tour from the resort and it was $250 a person. We opted NOT to do it for price reasons. We never paid any attention but when we were at North beach days before, guys were coming up to us and offering to take us to the "bird island to swim with the big fish" but we had NO idea what they were talking about until we heard a guest at the hotel talking about this tour. We never did get the price from the vendors at the north beach but it might have been cheaper and we could have shopped the rates. It sounded like a wonderful tour but we just didn't want to spend a grand to do it.

My husband and I enjoyed this resort MUCH more than our 10 year old son and our 18 year old daughter did. They were bored and we were taking advantage of the peace and quiet and relaxation of the resort!!

It is definitely QUIET!! If you want a vacation AWAY from the masses then BOOK this hotel and enjoy your peace and quiet and GREAT food!!!

I wouldn't recommend the 8 day stay. 5 days would be perfect!!

Asti La Vista!!

Juleigh DePriest