My family (husband, children 8 and 10) recently vacationed at del Mar and had a really nice time (June 26-July 5). I was reading all the negative reviews prior to my departure, so I was really concerned, so I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't agree with the bad posts.

We booked with Apple, since I have used them for 3 prior vacations. Unfortunately this time I wasn't thrilled with Apple. We had to wait and very long time for our transfer. We were one of the last families to get out luggage, so by the time we got to the transfer location, all of the vans were gone. It felt like they had more people than the expected. On my previous vacations, we didn't have to wait at all. We probably waited a good 45 minutes, which is not pleasant with two hungry children. In addition, we didn't like the way the Apple reps treated us while we were there. We missed the Welcome thing they offered because we were in line for reservations. They had enough nerve to say that they thought we left the resort because we didn't contact them. Just seemed odd.

Check-in- Not the greatest. We arrived right behind a few large groups/families, so it took awhile. And again, my family was hungry. But luckily it turned out well for us. I had requested via email a 3rd floor pool facing room, closer to the beach (buildings 12-14) but were offered rear facing rooms. I told them my request, and they said they had nothing available. I then asked if we would be able to switch in a day or so and explained how I emailed my request. She explained that they never guarantee any rooms prior. However, the woman began doing something on the computer, and after a little bit, she came back that they were going to upgrade us to a junior suite, ocean view room at no charge. My vacation was starting to get better!

Rooms- Very nice, pleasant rooms. Of course the view was great. We called to request the couch be made up into a bed, which worked out very well for us. However, the double beds were extrememly hard. I read that prior in reviews, but didn't expect it to be that hard. I was having back issues prior to vacation which probably added to my problems, so I ended up sleeping on the couch/bed. Not ideal, but it worked.

Property- As everyone has said in prior reviews, the grounds are gorgeous. We loved all of the wildlife, greenery, the pool, beach, etc. The place is huge, but we knew that when we booked. We took advantage of the tram a few days into the vacation, especially since we were at the far end and wanted to go to the restaurants.

Food- I was expecting the food to be horrible, but was pleasantly surprised. We have stayed at other AI resorts, one in Punta Cana, and I thought del Mar was much better than Punta Cana. While I don't think the food was gourmet, I could always find something I liked. Some things were odd, but I avoided them. My family really enjoyed the breakfast buffet, especially my son. For lunch, I made myself a taco every day with the grilled steak, fresh guacomole, and pico de gallo. We lucked out and ended up getting 5 reservations for ala carte, because they had openings the night of. We ate at the Steakhouse, Mediterranean, Japanese, Tropical, and Mexican. We liked the Tropical the least. The service was great at most of them, but lacking at the Tropical and the Steakplace. Again, food wasn't spectacular, but we ate fine for the week. Plus, the ice cream was delicious! I don't think my kids ever ate that much in their life!

Definitely make sure to attend the Beach party on Thursdays. They made Paella right on the beach and was very good. They had a band playing and we really enjoyed that.

Excursions- We went on Edventure Tours and had a fantastic time. We got paired up with a couple which I didn't mind. They might not have been happy being paired up with a family but they were very pleasant. We went to Tulum, Ziplining, Cliff jumping, Snorkeling in the Cenotes, Snorkeling with Sea Turtles, and then in Alkumel. We loved it and our guide Roberto was so patient with us. Worth the money!

We also took a taxi one night and went to Playa de Carmen. I loved it. I just wish we wouldn't have eaten prior, and would have eaten at one of the many restaurants there. But it was worth the trip. ($20 cab fare each way.)

In summary, by reading the prior reviews, we knew what to expect and had a very open mind to everything. If there was something we didn't like, we didn't let it ruin our whole vacation. The Mexican people are extremely friendly and I would like to return to Mexico again.

We’ve read a good chunk of reviews about this resort before deciding to buy our vacation package for 2008. After spending about a week at Iberostar Del Mar/Pariso Beach (yes the two are pretty much the same hotel), we found that in our opinion, the reviews did not jive with the reality. This review is to give you the facts, our opinions with as much detail as possible, letting you decide for yourself whether this resort meets your expectations or not.

Before we begin talking about the Del Mar/Pariso Beach, we should say that our points of reference for all inclusive resorts are Cancun Marina El Cid, Cancun Palace and Puerto Vallarta Palace. All are Mexican, privately owned resorts.

So, if you don’t feel like reading the entire review, here it is in the nutshell, on the scale from 1 to 10:

Hotel Grounds: 9
Beach: 10
Pool: 7
Rooms: 8
Service: 2
Food: 2
Entertainment: 7
Overall “I’m having a Good Vacation Experience: 3

Now in detail:

My wife and I with 2 kids, 3 and 8 stayed in Iberostar DelMar/Pariso Beach from 7/1/08 through 7/7/08. We take this kind of vacation only once a year, hence wanted it to be relaxing with good food and friendly service.

The HOTEL PROPERTY:
Upon arrival, I must say, we were very impressed by the hotel property; it’s absolutely immaculate, simply beautiful and well-taken care of. From stunning tropical plants, to peacocks walking among them, to couple of swans in a pond. On the other hand, the hotel is laid out as a long, skinny rectangle, with one small side of it being the beach. The long side runs inland from the beach, ending with two lobbies (Del Mar and Pariso Beach), one on the left the other one on the right. Two main buffets (Mercado and La Plaza) and most a la carte restaurants are situated next to the lobbies. Near the buffets, there lies the nightly show place. The hotel is quite large, the distance from the lobbies to the beach is close to ¼ mile, with your hotel room being somewhere between the dining, entertainment and the beach, you’ll end up doing a lot of walking in the heat, or will have to take trolleys that they have running all the time, but sometime the wait is 10 minutes or one may be full and the wait would be 15-20. I didn’t mind the walking, but my wife and the kids did.

I should add that other more expensive hotels by Iberostar (Grand Mayan and Lindo) are right next to the Pariso Beach/Del Mar, and unlike us, the guests from those hotels could come to Pariso Beach/Del Mar for food and entertainment. The hotel size and the option for more expensive hotel’s guests to come to Pariso Beach/Del Mar made the hotel a bit too crowded.

The hotel property deserves 10, but due to the size and distances that one has to endure during daily activities, we would give it a 9.

The BEACH:
Beach is good, perfect Cancun white sand, water was warm and not too stormy during our stay. This is one of the best beaches that we have seen – 10 points.

The POOL:
The pool is good size, there is a part that is very shallow, perfect for the kids. There are no slides or anything else that the kids could occupy themselves with, like we’ve seen in Marina El Cid. There is a swim up bar (see our comments about the service). The reason we give it 7 points is that there were a lot of cracks, aging tile, holes in the sides, etc. Made it look a bit old a not very clean.

The ROOM:
The room we had was fine, wasn’t too fancy, but Mexican clean and set up OK. In our case, we had 2 double beds and there was a sofa. Despite what they tell you at check in, the sofa is NOT pullout sofa, but was big enough for our 3-year old to sleep on. TV is really small, probably 20 inch. You do have a small “mini-bar” in the room with beer and soft drinks. We’re comparing it to Palace where there was wine, Tequila, Rum, Whisky, etc. right in the room. We give the room 8 points.

The SERVICE:
From the check in time to the end, the service varied by person from OK to terrible. There were a lot of people that you could tell were actually trying, but there was a large number of personnel that was just plain rude.

Few examples of what we didn’t like:

1. The large walkway that snakes from the beach to buffets and the lobbies is also used by the trolley and golf carts adapted to carry various items from towels to food, etc. The service carts sometimes run very fast, close to 30 MPH. To make the matters worse, some of them drive with the lights off at night. As we were coming back from a late night show around 11:30pm, a guy walking in front of us almost got hit by one. He happen to speak Spanish and yelled to the driver to stop, which he kind of did, after he asked why the driver had his lights off and was going so fast, the driver just took off without saying anything.

2. Coming back from a late show, we saw 3 cooks in their uniforms coming in the opposite direction, two noticeably drunk and one being carried by the other two. We though it was sort of odd to have personnel wondering drunk around the premises of the hotel in full view of vacationers.
3. We have contacted customer relations (in the name only) regarding poor food quality, the person (Ilse Hobus) essentially told us:”…tough luck, we won’t do anything for you, you’ve already paid for the package…”

4. Service at beach bars and pool swim up bars is bad, the bartender is always busy doing something (perhaps they’re understaffed), would never look at you to acknowledge your presence or if you’ve asked for something, to indicate that he’s got it. So it usually goes like this:

Me: Pedro could you get me a glass of cranberry juice and a beer
Pedro: Silence…
…3 minutes later…
Pedro: Looks up at me like he never heard what I’ve said in the first place
Me: Cranberry juice and a beer please
Pedro: Makes the order, hands it over without even looking

5. While dining at the Mexican restaurant, the waiter has been running around, bringing part of the order, but not the other part. For instance, we’ve asked for a hot tea, he brings hot water, but forgets the tea bag, etc. After 20 minutes of this, I told the manager, the manager starts arguing with the waiter right next to our table, which goes on for about 5 minutes.

Out of all the hotels that we’ve ever stayed in, in the States and abroad, the service here was the most terrible that we’ve seen. We have brought $300 in dollar and five-dollar bills to tip people, but brought most of it back, most hotel employees just didn’t try.

We give the service category a 2, only because there were few that were really trying to make our vacation more pleasant.

The FOOD:
Food at Pariso Beach/Del Mar was just plain bad. It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough of it, there was plenty, but the quality and cleanliness was not up to par.

The two main buffets were better then the buffet by the beach. You could find few things to eat there, although we’ve ended up having cereal, salads, etc., more then anything else. Comparing this food to the food we’ve had at Palace resorts, at the Palace there so many different excellent Mexican entries, you couldn’t possibly try them all, and all were good.

Every once in a while you could “catch” a good fish at the Mercado, there was a lamb leg once, but it was rather plain and no special taste to it. The food seemed to disappear after few hours, so if you’re showing up 2 or more hours after they’ve opened for breakfast, lunch or dinner, the chances of getting tolerable food quickly go down.

Now, the El Faro buffet by the beach is absolutely horrendous, not only it’s dirty, but the flies are all over the food, the grille is so dirty, we wouldn’t eat a thing made on it. We only had some tea, coffee and some bread there in the morning, as the other two buffets close at 10:00am. The tea is Lipton bags, the cheapest tea you could find anywhere, the coffee isn’t much better, tastes awful.

From a la carte restaurants, we’ve tried Mediterranean, Mexican and Japanese. The Mediterranean was OK, nothing great, but at least you could eat the food. The Mexican was absolutely terrible, after few bites, we just got up and left. The Japanese was a teppanyaki style; it was OK, not great.

We’ve ordered room service once, how could one screw up cheese pizza or a Caesar salad, apparently that was a piece of cake for the cooks, we threw both away.

With the exception of a la carte restaurants, all buffets are not air-conditioned. In 90 degree tropical weather that makes your dining experience a little less then pleasant, that is outside of what’s being served. Furthermore, most areas are not air-conditioned, including the lobby, the theater, etc. The only places to cool down are your room and a la carte restaurants. The later are only good if you manage to make a reservation. This is a segue into the reservation story…

If you stay at the hotel 4-6 nights, you get only 2 a la carte reservations. You can’t simply call to make one, you have to show up at the guest services desk (be prepared for a short hike to the lobby) at certain time (9-12 for the same day reservation or 4-7pm for the following day reservations). It seems that the system is set up for you to use a la carte restaurants as little as possible.

The food gets a 2, in reality there were variations by day and place between 5 and 1.

The Entertainment:
The Pariso Beach/Del Mar has a large full-time entertainment team; the guy in charge is from Tunisia and speaks at least 4 languages. Shows and various activates on average were good, not great. Comparatively, Marina El Cid and Palace resorts invited outside artists, some of which were quite good. At Pariso Beach/Del Mar it was mostly all hotel employees putting up the show, but as we said they weren’t too bad, few shows were quite entertaining, others were lame.

We give the entrainment a solid 7.

Overall Experience:
Beach and hotel grounds made up a little for deficiencies with food and service. We had a good time, but didn’t feel pampered or treated as if we were in a 5 star, 4 star or even a 3 star hotel. On the positive side we haven’t gained any weight, while last year at Palace, we’ve picked up ~5 pounds each. Having experienced good all inclusive resorts in the past, we’ll never come back to Pariso Beach/Del Mar or to any Iberostar.

In conclusion we wanted to also add that smoking was allowed almost everywhere including buffets, restaurants, theater, lobby, beach, activities, etc. If you don’t smoke and don’t enjoy it second hand, this is something to be aware of.

Hope this was helpful…

The hotel and property is beautiful and well maintained Peacocks, flamingos, swans abound. Rooms very nice. Stayed bldg.12 close to beach, pools, bar. ice cream bar and pool games. Very family friendly. Kids loved it. Many family groups. are here. WE were a group of 15 .Star team of entertainers at pool and nightly shows were very friendly and good . Restaurants a bit hard to get reservations but keep trying. Buffet best for breakfast. Room service prompt. Kids got chicken fingers and brownies and loved it. Would highly recommend. Not for singles and couples. Suggest stay at sister property next door

We have stayed at this resort maybe 7 times. This year when we arrived for a 10 day stay, the very pleasant little check-in girl made mad enough to ruin my first 2 days at the resort. I was so mad when we finished check-in, I could hardly contain myself. She was very rude, unaccommodating and short tempered. I may stay there again but also after that I may NOT ! There are many resorts to spend your pesos at and more opening every year........I asked if there were any room by the ocean and she shot back at me, You Want to Pay ????, very rudely.
Well I did want to pay , but after her dealing with her for about 3 minutes we finally got a room near the pool anyhow, after she said there wasn't any the first 2 times I asked that question. It still upsets me when I talk about it. I have never received that sort of treatment where you are paying well to stay. I later saw her doing other tasks at the pool so maybe they NEED to keep her AWAY FROM THE CHECK-IN DESK. if she doesn't like it there!....Last year we had Much Better Service. I wish I could remember her name.......
This August we have decided to go back to the Riviera Maya but have booked an alternative resort to see if they can do better.....Del Mar, this kind of service will keep people from returning......There are too many alternatives.