My friend booked this trip for Spring Break. It was two adults and his daughter (16) and one of her friends (16). We arrived at the resort to check in and found the resort had booked us in two rooms with double beds (we paid for one king and one double). They had nothing like that available for two hours so they held our luggage and we all went to the pool restaurant to eat. The girls took off by themselves and we sat eating and checking out the beach. Two hours later when the rooms were ready we (the adults) were getting on the elevator and found his daughter in her bathing suit drunk and on her way to some guys room (she did not know him). The hotel gave her the incorrect wrist band (under 18 should be white) which means they can't be served alcohol. The other girl she was with was also found by security drunk by the pool. They spend the rest of the evening in the room sick and trying to straighten things out with security, mexican police, head of the hotel and head of housekeeping.
The resort is good for spring beakers (college students) over 21. Families with children up to 10 or 11. There is no disco for the 13-17 year olds.
The food was good and so was the entertainment in the evening.
There is also a nice golf course across the street which we enjoyed.
Not many in the hotel speak English very well so it is difficult to get information.
The beaches were a nightmare because the vendors bother you every second.
The elevators were very slow.
The rooms were very plain and it was very difficult to take a shower because of very limited hot water.
We loved Ernesto, Cande and the head of security for the hotel (don't remember his name)

We just came back from the El Cid Castilla. I was thinking it would be less crowded than Cancun during the week before Easter. WRONG! We were told that it is a tradition that Mexican families go to the beach before Easter and the city and beach was a complete mad house and very crowded. The city grows to more than a million. Wall to wall people and also very loud. It would be nice if they would have had an adults only area.
The beds were very hard, but all beds in Mexico are hard. We did the time share tour and got 3 tours out of the deal. The two restaurants that you can make reservations at are both very good.

the place is nice but the people there are soo rude i never want to go back. you can tell they barely get payed anything. and work off tips which i dished out alot of money for by the way. very poor service. jesus is awesome. sara is cute;).

The El Cid is great! Don't listen to all the bad reviews! I think some people are just too picky. The lady who talked about having to pay for bottled water didn't mention that all proceeds from the sale of said water were donated to the El Cids Childrens foundation. Also, the water in the resort is all purified! I've been going to Mexico for over ten years and this is the first time that I've gone and not gotten Montazuma's revenge!
The wait staff were excellent, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 would come to our table to make sure everything was all right! We allways left a tip for all meals, an average of $2.00 for buffet and $5.00 for ala carte dining. The only restaurants that are not available with the all-inclusive are thePrime Rib Grill & La Concha, the seafood restaurant. All other ala carte are in the all-inc. and there is no limit on reservations. I was just there in March and booking dinner was never a problem. The grounds of this hotel are immaculate!