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: : If you want to be able to go into the ocean then the El Dorado Royale (EDR) is not the resort for you. There is no access to the water from the beach unless you want to risk climbing over the rocks (or perhaps I should say boulders) for about 100 feet. For us this was a tremendous drawback as we do have a pool at home and thoroughly enjoy going into the ocean. : : Let me briefly tell you about my husband and I. My husband is in the travel business and we have been traveling to the Playacar/Cozumel area since 1996. We have stayed at both Allegro (Diamond) resorts, Royal Maeva (now Gala) and last year we were at the Royal Hideaway (RH) for 10 days. After our stay at Royal Hideaway we were definitely spoiled and have since held every resort that we have stayed at up to their high standards. : : After reading the brochure and fact sheet on the EDR, we thought that it was going to come close to the RH. The fact of the matter is that the EDR doesn’t even come close to the Allegro Resort. I have never heard the word “NO” as much as I did on this vacation. : : The transfer from the airport to the EDR went very smoothly. When we exited the highway unto the dirt jungle road we were impressed with the seclusion, however the hastily built guard shack should have told us what was to come. : : When we arrived at the property we were taken to our room, yes, in the golfcart. We were told absolutely nothing about the property during this trip. Upon arrival to our room we discovered that we did not have any toiletries, bath towels, the refrigerator was not plugged in let alone having anything in it, and there weren’t any hangers. After a couple of hours we were able to get everything except for the hangers. It took 2-1/2 days for the hangers to finally arrive in the room. We considered this just normal problems : : The food was good and none of us ever went hungry. When we arrived (06/28) they were serving lobster tails in every restaurant every night. As the resort started to fill up they cut it down to Tuesday and Friday. The one problem that we did find was that they never could get an order right. There was always something missing that we ordered or we just never got it. It had nothing to do with the language – two of the people with us were able to speak the language fluently. This was probably our fault because we deviated from the menu but we have done this in other resorts and never had a problem. : : The liquor was very limited. We had been told that it was top shelf, which was totally untrue. Outside of the two restaurants they have a bar that has swings all around it. They had a total of 11 bottles of liquor on this 3-4 tiered bar, some of which were duplicates. With the liquor that they did have, the bartenders were very limited in their knowledge of mixed drinks. One of the other guests was trying to teach the bartenders how to make mixed drinks – even the hefe (head bartender). They only had two kinds of beer, both Mexican brands. Since I don’t drink beer that was not a problem for me. : : While we were there the only activities they had were approx. 8 boogie boards, 4 kayaks, and volleyball. As I said earlier, there were so many rocks that there was no way you could use the boogie boards in the oceans. Most people were using them in the pool as makeshift rafts because they didn’t have any rafts/floats for the guests. : : The only activity we had were eating, drinking and talking with our fellow vacationers. Not bad but after a while we were looking for something else to do to break the routine. We had no games of any kind. We commissioned one vacationer to talk to the manager and she volunteered to go to the neighborhood Wal-Mart and purchase some board games, cards and possibly bocci. She was told that if they gave her money for this then they would have no money for the drawer. : : The property in itself was nice and will be nicer as the foliage grows in. They have 1.5 miles of beach, which could be much more beautiful if you could get into the water and frolic in it. All the rooms have an ocean view. : : We feel that the best way to compare the property is by the rack rate of the hotels we have visited. : : El Dorado Royale : : The casitas cost $168 pp per night - not cheap for an all-inclusive. : : Room are OK : : Good Food - No buffet : : Limited Drinks : : No Beach (ocean access) : : The Royal Hideaway is $200 pp per night. - not cheap either but you get what you pay for. : : All top shelf, tablecloth dining, shows – you name it. They never say “No”. You are treated like royalty at this resort. We have been told that for the 200 rooms this property has there are 400 employees. This should tell you something! : : Rooms are nice – Better than EDR : : Great Food – No buffet : : Top shelf liquor : : Beautiful property : : Beautiful Beach : : Riu Palace $124 pp per night : : Rooms are nice with a bar – Better than EDR : : Good Food - Buffet : : Good Liquor : : Nice property : : Beautiful beach : : A lot of rooms : : Gala - $170 pp per night : : Rooms are nice – better than EDR : : Good food – Buffet : : Limited liquor not all top shelf : : Nice Property : : Beautiful Beach : : Allegro Resort - $110 pp per night : : Rooms are OK – not as nice as EDR : : Good Food – Buffet : : Limited liquor : : Nice property : : Beautiful Beach : : In the long run when you compare the price that you will pay at the EDR – you are better off going someplace else. : : We do assume some of the responsibility because we were naďve into thinking that when they said the hotel was opened we assumed that it was completed and operational. This was not the case. : : Oh, by the way, we left the EDR and went to the Royal Hideaway after 5 days. We would have gone sooner but the RH was completely booked. We feel by moving we were able to salvage at least part of our vacation. : : Enjoy wherever you go! : : : :

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