I think the title says it all...I will first focus on the positive aspects of the hotel. The rooms were very clean, and this is spoken as a member of group of 26 and saw almost all the rooms. I DID NOT see any of the mold, nor smell any evidence of mold. The chambermaids were always prompt and did a good job.

The second positive thing I will write about is the fact that if you ordered any sort of service (room service, laundry, etc) they were very efficient and on time and will say that the food from room service is probably what sustained me throughout this trip (more light will be shed on this subject later in this review). I personally took care of this staff with tips because of the quality of service that they provided.

I also must mention that the pool side bar was very enjoyable, and the staff was prompt and courteous with drinks. I felt so bad one day when I went to the pool with out money to give as a tip, and went back in a rush to get money before they shut down for the day. I read in a previous review, someone complaining about kids splashing them at the pool side bar. The pool is large enough that you can easily avoid this scenario. And they do provide a snack bar by the pool complete with juices and soda in case you are not a perveyor of alcoholic beverages.

The beach is right there next to the pool and if it takes you two minutes to reach the edge of the hotel (by the poolside) to the sea. Be prepared to bring something for your feet if you want to go into the water though as there are all sorts of seashells before you go in and they are an irritant on the feet. That isnt the fault of the hotel, but just a heads up for anyone who wants to go into the waters there.


Now, onto the reasons why I gave this place a 2 out of 5. First of all the food in this place was very hit and miss, with an emphasis on the miss part. I am on a diet where I am avoiding fried foods, and sometimes that was the only type of food that I could eat. They do have variety, but I found most of the food to be bland, and inedible. And I am NOT a picky eater at all. I can usually eat my way through anything and had a hard time eating the food in this place. When you go on vacation, especially an all inclusive one, you are supposed to GAIN WEIGHT, NOT LOSE IT...I worried that I would have to work extra hard when I got home to work off the weight. Wasnt a problem at all. Now I have to worry about gainin weight since I am home cause my body thinks it is starving.

Next , the shower pressure in the one building, the Royal, is non-existent. It is also extremely susceptible to varying degrees of temperature. Heaven help you if you are showering on the 5th floor and someone on the 8th flushes their toilet. You will be scalded something fierce. I recommend showering in tepid water so that your skin wont get too many blisters when someone flushes.

Now they do provide a lot of opporitunities to go into town and have some fun at the bars. But if you decide you dont want to do that and want to stay at the hotel and hang out enjoying drinks at the hotel be prepared to stop your drinking at 1 AM. Now I am from a metro northeastern city where people do stay up late and hang out late too. And I understand that some people go to bed early, etc. But when you are on vacation that is a time to mingle with other people from other cities, countries, etc.

Yet if you are enjoying mixed drinks as you chat, that stops about 1 AM and the only thing you can get from that point onwards is either beer or cola. And the cups they provide, even when the bar is active is of a juice cup quality. After 1AM it is small plastic cups maybe about 7-8 oz. And if you are a beer drinker and are somewhat particular about your beer, well you are in for a problem. They only serve Dos Equis, and if you want any other brand you need to BUY IT at the GIFT SHOP!!

Another problem is if you are staying back at the hotel there really isnt much to do. I say this cause as you pass the other hotels on the way to the bar area you notice other places have something attached with their place whether it be a bar, or club, etc. They also provide some sort of activity while you stay back. The Solaris provides some activities, but they are so abbreviated there is hardly any time to enjoy them at all. A perfect example was karaokee. The staff was all enthused to get people involved in karaokee and when people started getting into it, it was over. They did karaokee for one hour!!! ONE HOUR!! By midnight their lil band is done playing, and not for the sake of letting people go to sleep cause they put on music so loud that through a miracle of the heavens it doesnt shatter the glass in the lobby.

One of the things they advertise is other small activities you can do while there ie snorkeling, deep sea fishing, etc. I understand that there will be small fees attached with these things, but be prepared to bring some cash with you for these activities. You also need to bring your own snorkel gear as the ones they have are in very limited supply and of poor qulity too. When we went on a deep sea fishing excursion, they tried to tack on $50 extra dollars when go to the dock after we agreed on a price beforehand.

Ohhh and one final note of irritation was the last day. When you check out they are supposed to give you this lil piece of paper to check your bags. Several in our party were not given the papers upon check out and they wouldnt put the bags on the bus without them. My personal experience was I handed mine to the bagboy and he didnt load my bags with the others. When I asked him why 5 minutes later, he told me I didnt give him the receipt. Needless to say that some heated words flew from my life and upon a search in his pocket he found the reciept and the tip money I gave him. I never wanted to snatch money out of someones hand as much as I did at that moment.

Upon our arrival at Cancun International (referred to as CI from this point), the bus drivers (who were a part of the hotel) told us we couldnt bring our bags inside, they needed to bring them in. Mind you, the carts there are free and in abundance. So we allowed them to load our bags onto the cart and went inside to CI, which was 200 feet trip, and saw there were a line for boarding/bag check. Now being part of this crew we thought we were getting through all that. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The [--] walked our bags 800 feet from bus to inside and we were put at the back of the line!!!! The part that infuriates me about that is that we could have of walked it ourselves and they were looking to bleed us out of a lil more tip money. And these were the guys we had already tipped to load the bags onto the bus!!!! The one guy even said something to one of our group about taking care of the staff better. The nerve!!!!

I would definetly visit Cancun again and do an all inclusive. But there is no way on this God's Green Earth, I will ever stay at the Royal Solaris again. And I cant say enough to many others that you must look for other options to stay at before looking at the Royal Solaris. I admit there are good things about this place, but the bad far outweigh the good and I couldnt wait to return home for food and to go back to work.

We arrived at the Royal Solaris early 1200 noon.. Check in was at 3pm.. One of the three rooms were ready but we were told that we could not have the king bed as requested.. We were told we could go a head and go to the one room and they would deliver our baggage there.. Which was fine with us...

We did "Apple vacation" and the airport arrival as well as transfer went perfectly.. Everyone was nice and the Cancun Airport was streamlined to perfection..

Once at the hotel a staffer showed us around and talked about all the aminities of the hotel... He mentioned that there was FREE internet for us to use..(this will be important to note later)...

We were held hostage by this guy trying to get us to go to a meeting the next morning to see the other hotel to get involved with a time share.. We had not seen the room yet and that was annoying.. We basicly told the guy we would get back to him and went off to our room, changed and had lunch and hung out by the ppool.....

The only snotty issue I had was with the front desk who treated Time share people better than regular vacationers... They made it a point to look at your wristband to see which you were..... This happened when I asked about the internet an was informed this was not a service that I could use because I was NOT in the time share... I was treated very poorly at that time and felt like they were looking down their noses and me and scolding me.. We were told at check in this was something for everyone..

The three rooms we had were furnished with old furnishings. Our phone cord had a short in it and only worked part time... it was fixed and still did not work... The Tv Remote battery was dead- we used our own. There was a light that when you turned it off.. it would flicker like a disco light and could not shut off.. We laughed and unscrewed it.. The shower had issues also.. it leaked out of the attachment you would pull to make the water come out of the shower head. In the second room the shower was broken and had to be repaired.. water shot out everywhere..

No one ever made a pretty decoration out of any towels in our rooms ... My husband and I caught our maid watching Tv in our room... We always were left tons of towels and shampoo etc.. which was great.. The bedding appeared clean... and room safe was at a charge of $1 a day... Room Service Fee of $5 but they would bring anything you would order.. The layout of the Caribe tower was a little odd and could be confusing but did not cause us any problems..

The Staff - the wait staff was wonderful and friendly and nice.. All the eating places were wonderful.. . More bartenders at the pool area bar would have been nice... Everyone worked very hard..

The entertainment staff was good for the younger crowd but had very limited dancing and singing skills and not a great stage area for them to be seen as professionals..... Some of the activities started late....

Food was pretty good... The snack food by the pools was great.. Lunches were great and most evening meals were good.. Presentation of the food was also very good..

The beach was awsome.. There were turtles every night coming up on the beach to lay eggs.. There were plenty of chairs for the beach.. very nice I was up early several days and staff was picking up and cleaning up the beaches... Lots of little shells everywhere.. Water was wonderful and clear..

There were two main pool areas.. We loved them both and they were both different.. one was quiet and the other was a party.. it would have been nice to had more umbrellas around the pool .. we would go out early to get a chair.. I think the hotel was at it's peak when we were there but I never felt over crowded..

The lobby bar was smokey ... we avoided it but liked grabbing a drink to take with us there.. It would have been nice for a more limited smoking area..

Overall we had a wonderful time with the group we were with... We made the most of everything and went with the flow... This is an older resort that has seen it's better days and could use a good scrub in the outdoor walkways, some regular maintence on light fixtures outdoors, pool and paint touch ups...

I got the feel that most people were middle class working folks.. There was a variety of people at the resort... A lot of people from the east coast and lots of Mexican families and families from England... There is no need to take lots of really dressy clothes although men need to wear long pants... There was alot wearing jeans...

This hotel was rated 5 apple... I think it was more like at 4 apple.. just because of some of the maintence issues... The overall friendly staff and hard workers in the food areas made up for everything that was negative... I will mostlikely not go back to this resort but feel I got my money's worth here overall... I think in the future I would be more interested in a more upscale resort and pay more......

A note on Apple rep... he was kinda pushy about getting us to do other things and book through him ... I did not like him calling my room to remind me I needed to think about booking something else to do through him..... Also party hopper tour leader demanded $5 tip per person that apple did not warn about..

We just got back yesterday from a 5 nite stay at Royal Solaris. I have to admit - after reading some bad reviews we were really worried. I have to set the record straight though - THIS HOTEL WAS GREAT! We had a wonderful trip. The staff is very friendly and always helpful. The restaurants had a good variety. Our favorite was Rosamarinos. The view of the beach was amazing, and the food was fantastic there. The hotel was always clean, and they always had activities going on. The water at the restaurants is filtered, but take an empty squirt bottle with you and have them fill it before you go up to your room for the night. There are 6 restaurants and 2 snack bars. The snack bars have yummy junk food like fried jalapenos and cheese fries. Senor Frogs is a must. It was a lot of fun. Don't rent a car, the buses are easy to take to town. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would go back in a heartbeat. Just be careful of those "special" drinks that Cesar makes at the pool bar. They knock you off your feet after about 5 or 6 of them :)

We are here at the hotel with a group of 26 people. I would have to say that this hotel is NOT very good. The people who work here try very hard to be polite and make you happy, but the hotel is not what it claims to be. There is NOT something for eveyone. Unless you want to go on the party bus at night, I find this hotel extremely boring. Everything closes up at 5pm, there is no where to go at this end of the strip, and there is just 1 bar left open in hotel, inside, which is NOT exciting bar at all. ALL activities close at 5pm. No more minigolf (which is bad anyway(, no games of anysort. You can go back into the pool or to your room. Some in our group rave about the other places they have stayed at here in Cancun, and I know the places we have been too, and Royal Solaris does NOT compare to any of them. Do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else! If you want to go onto the beach there is no bar or service on beach at all/ This would be a tremendous plus if offered, for people who came for the beach. Having a bar open in the evening, outdoors would be another MUST! We came here to enjoy the ocean, the air, to be outdoors... the only outdoor bar closes up at 5 sharp! So, if you want to sit outside in the early eve or late eve, there is no service! There is no game room, no table games, no floor games, no board games, nothing to do at night! The water sports affiliation the hotel has with Aquaworld is TERRIBLE! They DO NOT provide snorkel equip, so be prepared to bring your own if you plan to go out on your own. Aquaworld overcharges for all trips, quite a bit, so make your own reservations or use the travel services up stairs. The best dive place we found were MANTA DIVERS, although SCUBA Cancun was very helpful as well. Do not expect to get the troom you reserved, complaining is on deaf ears. The food overall is bland and not at all good. The only restaurant worth visiting is Ventura, which is excellent, just not much of a choice. One in our party left sneakers at hot tub (which was a long walk from our tower), and lwft them at hottub. He turned around within 2 minutes to go back to retrieve them, of course they were gone! This was at 3am, the only person at the tubs was the security guard, so go figure!!! Room service is a $5 charge, so if you wish to get a cup of coffee, or anything, the cost is $5. Room safes will bill another dollar a day. If you loose your towel, or it gets picked up, or you take it back to your room, there is another charge, per day, per towel. Contrary to what I have read, there are NO minibars , fridges, or service in room, for anyone! They told me if you own a timeshare you can get these things! I am an easy person, come to simply relax and not be bothered, but this place has rated as one of the worst vacations spots I have gone to in all my years,,,, Cancun seems nice, but this place, although clean, and comfortable, would NEVER be where I would go to enjoy a week of my vacation. I never want to leave when on vacation, I cant wait to get back home! Today was the worst, all set to go snorkeling, but even though they advertise snorkel equip is included in all inclusive, it is NOT! BUT they would sell me a boat trip thru hotel that would provide the equip... whereas we planned a quiet trip down to punta Nizuc to avoid the group. We already did the tour and it stunk! At first the desk tried to explain that the water sports desk downstiars was wrong, and we should walk to the marina. I asked them to check with Marina, before havign me make the walk across the street and down to lagoon, they tried to make me go check, telling me the marina has no phone. Finally they agreed to check, only to return telling me that the marina has no snorklel equip either, and then they claim they never did say they offer snorkel equip, even though it is on all of the webistes |I have visited, and in brochure. Enough.. just do yourslef a favor and stay somewhere else!