Hotel Marina El Cid Spa & Beach Resort All-Inclusive, Cancun

my family and friends have stayed at this resort four times and have had no problems. the timeshare issue has never been as bad as some have stated. we always go during peak season, so maybe that is why no one has ever pressured us. we've had that problem at other resorts, but no at el cid. we simpley say "no" and they have left us alone. the food is very good, not excellent, but the assortment of food is abundant as well as desserts. everyone can find something they like at every meal. i've never had excellent food in mexico after visiting jamaica even at 5-star gourmet food resorts. In our four years of visiting el cid, we've never found the ocean messy other than seaweed, but that is not under anyones control. they clean it up very well every morning, but it just comes back. the resort and rooms are always clean and the staff is extremely friendly and nice. as far as the cigerette and engine smoke goes, i have never noticed anything about smoke hovering over any area. we are not smokers, but neither my husband or i are much bothered by it especially outdoors. the only smoke that was possibly around was from the pool restaurant, but being i can't really recall, i'm thinking it was just the smell of grilled food. i hope this helps all who are considering el cid marina and beach.

I attended a wedding at this resort for 6 days, but was in bed 3 of these days with diarrhea from the tainted food I ate. The food looks and tastes good but must be full of bacteria from using it over and over. Five other people in our group of 33 also got sick. The service was also very poor. I purchased the platinum club service which is supposed to be a higher level of service, but I can assure you it is no different from the other services poor. In the platinum club you have a butler assigned to you who is suppose to assist you with whatever you need. We had this butler named Jerry when we got there who said how wonderfull everything is and how he was available to serve us, but when we asked him for several minor things like pillows, towels, having someone check our noisy air conditioner we never saw him again and we never received the service. The general staff almost seemed like they resented people from the USA especially the main lobby bartenders, since they would ignore you even when there was no one around until you said, "Hey can I have a drink"? The internet service was free for platinum club members, but the computers were so slow it was like going back 10 years in time. It took forever for pages to open, if they opened at all. The room appeared nice, but our air conditioner was loud and kept us up at night. We eventually got that resolved. Also the TV only had 32 channels on it with very few english channels and of them 3 where watchable if you like USA reruns. It was very difficult to get basic things like towels, toilet paper, and soap. We had to keep calling the front desk for these. There were also bugs getting through the door which wasn't properly hung and there was a crack they could get in. We killed a cockroach, something that looked like a baby lizard and another bug I never saw before. The room had no sprinkler system, but did have a $2.00 smoke detector that beeped. I called the front desk about the beeping and they came to the room and removed the battery and didn't replace it. The guy tried to hide the fact that he did so, but when he left I checked and no battery. He never returned to replace it throughout our stay. I could go on and on how poor this resort is, but if you have additional questions you can email me. • Stayed August 2011

Restort, beautiful and potential to be a great relaxing vacation. Time share presentation, irritating. They don't leave you alone and they refuse to respect your decision to say no. PUSHY PUSHY PUSHY. Not what you want when you're trying to relax and enjoy your family. Also......terrible communication when it comes to planning a trip. No one communicates and they can't remember what they've agreed to. Platinum club trial membership is a joke. They don't give you what they promise. Be careful.....they'll call you a month after you get home and claim you owe more money because they don't know what the heck is going on. We will travel to the area again, by not this resort. It's not worth the stress.

Stayed with my family for a week in July. My parents have a timeshare so we had a HUGE condo type room with full living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, four bathrooms and four balconies. Also, an outdoor freshwater hottub on the main balcony. We did not do all-inclusive which makes it a little hard because no resturaunts on the premices take any cash or cards. You can buy a drink wrist band for the day for all-inclusive drinks for about $20. The drinks are weak though as to be expected. We purchased our food from a grocery store and the food that we cooked was some of the best I had while there! You should definetly rent a car if staying here because it is somewhat isolated with little to do. Paying for the tours is expensive and then you are stuck on a bus with a lot of people and can't explore Mexico on your own. The staff is pushy to buy all-inclusive, timeshares, whatever.... but its to be expected, should not let it ruin your vacation! Also the beach is nice and was empty when we were there with everyone crowding around the pool for some reason. The water is not dirty as mentioned in above postings, but its what to be expected in Mexico. (This is not the South Pacific). Overall, its a beautiful place that is new and clean and off the beaten path. Also, Puerto Morales is a really authentic small Mexican fishing village and a nice visit as well.

Pleasantly surprised! We picked based on price as we were on a tight budget. Will return! We stayed in infamous building 19 and I liked the birds! They were egrets which are protected here and I enjoyed them. Not too noisy and they were quiet all night. The resort is great for families. The pool was fantastic with a slide and cliff jumping. Non motorized water sports are included and easily accessable. Instruction is available, but they do not allow kids to go out on red flag days (safety). Everything was clean and staff was always cleaning something! Extremely friendly staff. I can't say enough about how polite and friendly everyone was. Extra towels and sweets for the kids were delivered nightly. It was quiet in the evenings. We got a kick out of the resident iguanas that can be seen sunning themselves. The food was delicious. This is our 3rd visit to the area and this is our favorite place yet! The bars were well stocked and served good drinks to us and the kids loved getting non-alcoholic umbrella drinks. No problem with the 12 and 15 yo, but my 17yo did manage to get to get 1 or 2 alcoholic beverages (the entire week). Just say no thank you to any offer to sit through a presentation, just in case. There was no pressure to do so. There are photographers taking lots of pictures and you can buy any you want, but no pressure, you go look at them when/if you want ($12 each). They came out great. You can arrange a time with a photographer to take family pics - no sitting fees, only buy what you want $12 each. We were able to get several beautiful family photos and some great ones of the kids. I wanted to buy them all! Did buy 10 for $100 and got the disk. More than I wanted to spend, but where else can you get professional looking photos for that price? The beach was rocky between the lifeguard stand and the pier, but sandy closer to the jetty. Plenty of chairs, loungers both at the pool and beach. Beds and hammocks also on the beach! Reservations must be made for dinner, but easily done with the concierge. We ate breakfast every morning at the buffet and visited the concierge to quickly make a dinner reservation. The restaurant by the pool and beach is the best for lunch and dinner. Great steaks at lunch and great dinners. The water served everywhere is bottled, but in large jugs - you are served in a glass. There were no wild drunks, but a few were tipsy near the bar. All staff spoke English and were very supportive and friendly with our Spanish attempts. Will return! Keep an eye on the pier - they do a lot of weddings and we enjoyed watching!

Likes: Not too big, so it is to walk around. Very close to beach. Nice rooms. Good food. Friendly staff. City centre only about 2 km away, so can walk. Dislikes; Nothing to mention about.

Our room was very nice, and we could walk out our patio on to the beach or pool. Front desk staff was not welcoming or friendly. They were rude. We arrived at 1:30pm, but check in isn't until 3pm (which is normal for most hotels). However we were not able to check-in until after 4pm. They make you sit with a representative, who tries to set you up for all kinds of sales presentations. They told us we wouldn't be having all the trouble checking in, if we were part of their club. Maid service was inconsistent. Sometimes we would receive three towels, other times 1 towel. Waiters, waitresses, and bartenders were always very nice. They have 4 restaurants, and 3 of them you need to make reservations for at night. You are only allowed to make one reservation a day, and one restaurant requires at least two days in advance. Room service is always available. Outdoor bars close at 6pm, and pool and hot tub closes at 7pm. Lots of kids all over the place. My husband and I don't have kids, and wished now we would have stayed somewhere else. There is an adults only hot tub, but people are always bringing their kids in it and staff has to kick them out. They will try to sell you their vacation program for $50,000. You will then be shuffled from salesperson to salesperson for hours. They don't like to be told no. A half a day of our vacation was wasted with salespeople. Pool area was nice, and food was typical buffet food. They have a travel agency right on the resort and you can use them to book tours outside of the resort. I highly recommend swimming with the dolphins at Dolphin Discovery, even though it's expensive. If you have never been to Cancun before, beware of he salespeople at the airport. We had been warned before going. Pay for transportation to your hotel before going to Cancun, and power through the people trying to "help" you in the airport. They are really trying to sell you timeshares. The real transportation is outside of the airport. Puerto Morelos is a very small town. If you want more to do outside of the resort don't stay at this hotel.

Please beware. This Hotel exists to sell its timeshare vacation club. The staff is arrogant and super aggressive. We arrived late at night we three small children. The minivan driver asked us if we would attend the presentation at 9 am and we said NO WAY (this is after being attacked by official looking uniformed men at the airport about timeshare presentations). The next morning they called us in our room three separte times to remind us to come to the presentation. I couldn't believe it. We couldn't even get a map of the hotel without being attacked about the presentation. Finally my husband agreed to go just to get them off our back. They offer a discount on a trip to the Mayan Ruins to entice you (you could probably get the same discount yourself). They said the presntation would take 90 min, but it lasted 3hrs. They became reallt perturbed when we insisted we didn't want to buy. A manager was brought over and tried to "explain" it again. When I said again that I didn't want it and that I was very anxious because my children had wandered out and I didn't know where they were, the manager basically told me i didn't have the intelligence to understand what was being offered. I got up and walked out. I should have walked out earlier. Thank goodness I didn't buy the timeshare because I have looked on the web and there are tons of complaints about the El Cid vacation club. This hotel very far away from everything, so you are basically isolated and dependent on the hotel staff for everything. The taxi ride into town costs at least $35 one way (for us it was double as we didn't all fit in one cab) just to go find some souvenirs. Look for something closer to Playa del Carmen or playacar.

Once you get things straighten out at the front desk (haha) your vacation starts. Beach and grounds are beautiful. Staff was hard working with a smile. I would sugguest not going deepsea fishing, what a rip off. We did nothing. Never touch a fishing pole. The deckhand and captain did it all. What a waste of $120.00. Other then that, our vacation was fine I would go back tomorrow if I could. I would make sure all is confirmed and explained twice, before I got there. What your promised is not always what you get. P.S. make sure they let you know about the card for beach towels, beach chairs reservations or lack of and your room. The front desk is not knowledgable about these things.

While the resort is nice, the beach is horrible. We tried to swim a bit in the ocean but it was so disgusting that we spent most of our time in the pools. We literally found plastic garbage in our swimming suits. An other extreme disappointment was the overwhelming cigarette and 2 cycle engine smoke lingering on the premises. Smoking is allowed on the beach, around the pools - even the children's pool had a thick blanket as it is in a relative wind shelter -, so if you are a non-smoker, this place is going to drive you nuts. Now the good things, the food is great and the staff is fantastic. Plenty of things to do and the pool is great. The rooms are nice and clean. This place has a tremendous potential, I wish there was a way to resolve these 2 major issues...