We arrived with a group of 15 including my 80 year old mother in law. We were there for my duaghters wedding.
The rooms were not ready and the assignments were rediculous. They put mother in law in building 18 all alone. They put us in building 21. They put 3 adults and 1 infant in a room with 1 king sized bed.
We needed to carry food to mother in laws room at least once a day. After being told I could not do this, I threatened to book a flight home and they told me that it would be allowed from the buffet only and they would inform the managers. I had to go to guest services every single day of my vacation to get permission for a carry out tray!
We were told the only reservations available were for the Mexican place. The food was poor and the service was worse. After several more problems, I asked to see the property manager. That never happened until I was checking out and of course he said I should have come to him earlier, he had never been told we requested to see him.
The concierge was very friendly but constantly nagged me to take the "Time Share" tour. I finally told him not to mention it again.
The food in the five star resturaunts was about 2 star quality. We left meals on the table twice as it was either poor quality or completely wrong. I watched a bird eat out of the salad bar at the place above the swim up bar.

I would not advise anyone to go to this place!

I

We booked a trip to the Occidental Grand Xcaret in Xcaret, Mexico for the first week of June, 2008 with our daughters to celebrate their accomplishments in graduating from college. This is the first trip of this sort that we have ever taken as a family. We were looking forward to spending time together since this would probably be the last time we would be able to do this before our daughters got married and had families of their own.

When we arrived, the weather was rainy so we went to the vacation club presentation that was supposed to take 90 minutes. It lasted almost all day with a great deal of pressure to buy. We finally signed but figured we legally had 5 days to change our mind.
That night, I experienced great anxiety and was physically sick because of that decision. The next day, we decided to go to the office and cancel the contract immediately. We were told no one was there that could help us and to come back the next day. We went back the next day and met with the legal counsel who told us there would be a decision by 3:00 that day and she would call us and leave a message. She did not call or leave a message for us. The following day, we went back to the office and met with the Sales Manager and the District Manager. The Sales Manager was extremely rude and antagonistic. His stance when he entered the room was hostile to start with to say the least. The District Manager did not say a word; the Sales Manager did all the talking and was very insensitive to anything we tried to say. At this point, we had spent the better part of 4 days in the sales office and not with our daughters.
We were given the run around and finally went to the Mexican consumer complaint bureau to resolve the issue. We were finally released from the contract on Friday - our last day there. We realized we were scammed

The resort itself is very large and the jungle setting is nice. There is hardly any beach and since we spent most of our time in the sales office, we didn't get to do much of anything. The food in the restaurants was pretty good for the most part. The staff (other than the timeshare sales staff) was helpful.

Needless to say, we did not have a pleasurable experience in vacationing at this hotel. We would not recommend it to anyone since we had such a horrible experience. I wish I would have read the reviews closer before I booked this place. I think I would have looked elsewhere to go for our vacation.

trip is 7/12/2008 - 7/19/2008

I have stayed at Moon Palace resort in Cancun which is also and all inclusive resort-- love this resort !! I have stayed here at least 3 times but we wanted to try something different and wanted to go to xcaret so we decided to try The Grand Occidental.
I am comparing my experience with Moon Palace which is a 5 star resort.

Positive: the night shows is definitely better-- the only negative about the shows is that it starts at 9:45 pm which maybe late for some especially if u have any young kids. I have an 8 yr old daughter and she enjoyed the shows. the kids get to sit on the floor in front of the stage if they want.

the beach is small because its in a lagoon but we still enjoyed it-- you can actually see some fishes there. The hammocks by the beach restaurant was great and I was able to take some quick naps there too especially after eating lunch.

water pressure in the room is great!! Best shower.

OVERALL-- we had a pleasant stay at this hotel but I still like Moon Palace better--also the phone calls to the US in the palace resorts is free!!

TIPS:
Try to ask for bldg 18 or 19 which is close to the pool and the buffet restaurant.

TOBACCO SHOP IN THE GRAND OCCIDENTAL-- is their version of gift shop where u can buy sunscreen, tylenol, toothbursh etc..


We went to XEL HA which for me is better than XCARET especially if you like to snorkel--XEL ha is the palce. We booked this in our bldg tour reservation. I payed $ 79/adult and $50 or $ 60 something for kids. kids under 42" is free. The nice thing about this package is that everything is included from transportation, towels, drinks, foods (u can go to any restuarant in the park), snorkeling gears, lockers -- I mean everything u really need for the day. this was worth it.



Negative: Reserve your specialty restaurant as soon as u get there-- I did this even before going to my room. Reserve at the Logo shop. We ate at the mexican restuarant, chinese, and steak which was all good.

NO ROOM SERVICE

the photographers that goes around asking to take your pictures is a rip off. $10/ per each 5 x 7 photo and $15 if taken with an animal such as macua bird or iguanas. I even made an appt for their photographer to meet us at the beach one afternoon (6 pm) and he never showed up and when I called the studio they said that the photographer is eating lunch and he doesn't have another photographer to meet with us.

what we did is I went to Cancun studio which is another photo shop accross from the Logo shop. we made an appt to have a photographer meet us at the beach the day we are leaving. we met him there at 0900 and i was able to view the pictures at 1030 and they give it to u in a CD format. There are different packages but definitely--this is the way to go. u can even have a group picture if u want. I was very pleased with how the pictures turned out.-- very professionally done. Go to their studio and see a sample of what they do.
this one is worth it!!

First off, this was my first all inclusive resort stay, so I dont have much to compare it to, but my stay at the Occidental Xcaret was a good one. The resort was very clean, very beautiful, and the staff was extremely helpful and polite. Some of the reviews I read mentioned the timeshare hassling......there was no hassling....none at all!

Postives: The rooms were very clean as were the grounds of the resort. There are many pools all of which are clean and you never have a problem finding an open chair. The beach, though small, is very nice as well.

Negatives: There is not much of a beach.....there will be NO walking on the beach! The food variety at the buffet needs some expanding....I think I had the same thing for breakfast for the entire week! Also, the dinner reservation system is lacking. I arrived on Sunday morning and was told the seafood restaurant was booked for the week.......and I love seafood so I was very disappointed!!

The steakhouse is a must.....the food was very good and it is a nice atmosphere. The Oriental restaurant was less than impressive......very small menu, although the lemon chicken was good. I would recommend skipping this restaurant unless you are a huge fan.....also it is very very tiny inside!
The beach is tiny and does not allow for any walking....its loaded with beach chairs. It is a very nice setting however, but very cramped. Xcaret park was nice, but honestly if you are not staying at this resort, I would skip Xcaret....its not worth the money. Finding your way through the park isnt the easiest---the signage is very lacking. We did the Seatrek in the lagoon which was very very cool ...I would highly recommend doing this. It is $45 but only lasts about 15-20 minutes but nevertheless was enjoyable. They also have a very nice, but small beach, but many beach chairs and beach tables....very nice little area. If you go, see the show in the evening.....get there early for a good seat. It starts at 6pm, get there at 5:30 and grab a seat on the ends, not the sides. You can actually eat dinner there at little tables which seemed very nice, but the second half of the show is extremely slow .......and loooong!