On January 17 me, my wife and kids arrived at the Fiesta Americana Cancun for 3 nights. Within 5 hours of arrival our room was missing over $200.00 cash from my wifes personal belongings. We contacted the hotel management and upon investigation found tissue in the door jam between our room and the "out of service" room that connected to our suite. This provided no tracking using a card key. The hotel did nothing to help us recover the money. The manager on duty refused to have the police visit the hotel. We moved hotels the following morning to try to enjoy our vacation. We were not only guests but vacation owners within the company, we expected much better treatment. Be careful if you plan to stay here.

Construction next door was only 50 feet from our room but hotel would not change our room, construction legally banned prior to 9:00 am since it's a resort area but workers started at 7:15 am every day of our stay, noisy generator near our room ran for several hours each night. Hotel indicated that they could not switch our room since we had booked through Hotels.com and were only guaranteed "a second rate room".

Repeated promises to fix bedroom curtain that did't close (allowing construction workers to see in) but no repairs made.

Hotel spa changed my appointment but did not contact me. Since original appt. was same day as return home, no opportunity to reschedule

Staff was very pleasant but they just didn't do anything they promised.

My family spent a week there 12/15/07-12/21/07. The room we had was fabulous. We had a sweeping view of the bay from the balcony (one of four in the room, there was even one in the bathroom so we can have a view while taking a jacuzzi!!) one of the balconies could easily be a room in itself. We read the reviews before going and were a little anxious as they were very mixed. But the minute we walked into the room all our worries went out the door. To say the suite was huge is an understatement, we've stayed at 3 other HGVC resorts, Oahu, Big Island, and Vegas and this one is by far the largest. The location of the resort is ideal, the beach directly in front of the resort isn't so great, but the beaches on either side are wonderful. We were within walking distance to everthing. And we've read this before, but Felix the activities director is absolutely the best, he made our vacation very enjoyable. I think the conflicting reviews are due to the fact that there are hotel rooms and timeshare units, and I don't think the hotel rooms have been renovated, we didn't see any of the hotel rooms so we can't say for sure. We really enjoyed the more intimate environment, and visitors and staff alike were very nice, It was much more pleasant than the impersonal larger resorts we've stayed at in the past. The only compliant we had was the lack of response from the evening maintenance staff, we had a small problem with ants (not a huge deal) that we told the staff about several times and never did get taken of.

Mr Flippitti and I recently returned from a week’s stay in a 1-bedroom unit (from 25 Nov – 2 Dec 2007). We’re world travelers but this was our first stay at a Fiesta Americana resort. We had a couple of minor problems that were resolved quickly and overall, we enjoyed our stay here.

We had a 3rd floor room facing east so we got the morning sun but were in shade in the afternoon heat. We were allowed to check in a little early. Our unit's large bedroom had a king-size bed, conventional TV (not flat-screen) , and ample closet space with a safe. The bed is VERY FIRM. The only thing harder than the bed was the tile floor. The bedroom also had patio doors that lead out to a very large terrace balcony overlooking the pool area and with a great view of the ocean.

The living/dining/kitchen area was also quite large with a pull-out sofa and chairs, conventional TV, stereo system, more closet space and another set of patio doors leading out to the terrace balcony. There are beach loungers and chairs out there and it was nice to relax in the afternoon and watch the sunset.

The kitchen/dining area is very compact with a table for 4, small fullsize fridge, 2-burner stove (electric), microwave and dishwasher. No oven. All dishes, pots and pans, a coffeemaker, blender, cooking utensils and a few cleaning items are also included. We didn’t do a lot of cooking except for making coffee in the early morning.

The kitchen looked a little bit worn and well-used – cracks and stains on the laminate counter, missing shelves in the fridge and the dishwasher had been installed crooked so the door rubbed against a counter when opened. There were also drawers that didn’t open properly and the shelf where the microwave was located was also crooked. This area of the unit seemed to have poor workmanship, as if the contractor just slapped it together in a hurry.

The bathroom area was large with lots of granite and tile. There were some chipped and cracked areas of granite on the counters and shower walls and we saw mold just outside the shower door. There’s a separate shower unit and a separate water closet where the toilet was located. We also had a whirlpool tub. Our unit had two separate vanity areas with sinks so Mr Flippitti and I could get ready separately without bumping into each other. Loved the bathroom space.

The entire unit had tile floors, even the terrace. The A/C unit was set on high when we arrived and the unit smelled a little moldy and musty. Setting the A/C to a lower temp to cool it down helped get rid of some of the moldy odor but it never went away entirely.

Minor problems: We had ants. The front desk quickly resolved it by sending someone to get rid of them while we were spending the day on the beach. I also had to ask that our sheets and pillow covers be changed the first day because they smelled moldy and felt damp. I couldn't sleep with the moldy smell on my bed. Front desk quickly sent someone up to change linens. Another minor problem was on the first 2 days, our maid forgot to replace the towels. One call to the front desk resolved that problem.

The unit didn’t have its own washer and dryer but there’s a laundry room on every floor. You have to buy or bring your own soap and supplies. They’re also available at the little café on the first floor for a few pesos.

The resort is basically dead after 9PM. No activities whatsoever after 11PM. The resort is family friendly and pretty quiet at night.

The grounds of the FA Cancun are beautiful. Felix the activity director is just wonderful. If you get a chance to participate in any of his activities, do it. He’s a lot of fun.

We ate most of our breakfasts at the only on-site restaurant, La Palapa. I thought the breakfast buffet (152 pesos) was just wonderful. Lots of variety, something different every day and sometimes a little odd things show up in the buffet (like fried hot dogs). We had half our dinners there as well. It’s very quiet, almost dead really, and the dinner menu was a little boring but the food was good. We tried their steaks one night and they were delicious and done just right.

The service at the Bikini Bar (adjacent to the restaurant) was a little slow most of the time. They made great lemonades, average margaritas (a little stingy on the tequila) and horrible mojitos. There’s also another bar and social area inside next to the lobby but it opens at 4PM. You can also get a fairly good pizza at this bar.

The café and store on the ground floor had a good selection of food, fruit and drinks and supplies. That’s also where the laptops are for internet service. You can get a sandwich (60 pesos) made by the on-site chef, as well as coffee and soft drinks. Prices are about as much as you’d pay at any resort.

The beach is small but nice. We never had any trouble finding empty lounge chairs and a palapa to sit under any time. There’s really only one good place there to swim. Most of the beach area is too rocky. We never saw the beach overcrowded.

The pool is also very nice, with lots of shaded areas and available lounge chairs. The only hot tub at the resort is on a separate “island” in the middle of the pool accessible by small bridges. The hot tub was ALWAYS in use by the same people when we were there – a small child and an elderly lady apparently using it as their personal swimming hole all day and into the night. That was a bit annoying.

The FA Cancun excels at customer service from the front desk, maintenance, housekeeping, restaurant and bar. Everyone spoke English, they were all polite and helpful and some of the best hotel staff we've encountered in our travels. We declined an invitation to join their “newcomer’s welcome reception”, a euphemism for timeshare talk, and it was never mentioned to us again. The concierge was also very helpful about bus information and the local area.

It's in a great location, the bus stop is right out front and everything is just a short ride away.

The resort needs to renovate, seriously. There are small signs everywhere that things are starting to fall apart. We walked through one of the wings on the first floor and noticed areas on the ceiling where water apparently seeped through. We also found a couple of wet spots on the floor from water dripping from the ceiling.

We'd love to come back, hopefully when they've done some remodeling and fixed the problems. It's a great resort and could be so again.