Occidental Allegro Resort Hotel

For $150/day, airfare included, part of me wants to say it wasn't that bad. After reading the reviews of others, I know it wasn't that bad for us!! The food was "OK" at the buffet, at the poolside grill it was awful. The food in the restaraunt was excellent. The place was definitely lacking in cleanliness, I would walk barefoot on the beach but not in the room. The TV in the room didn't work right, would turn itself off and on, and change channels by itself (someone told me that was Mexican humor). Part of me didn't mind, I didn't go on vacation to watch TV! The hairdryer only worked on high heat. Even though we told them that we needed towels to clean up water that was all over the rooms' floor from the A/C unit, they never sent anyone down. It finally dried up on it's own. The room smelled of sewer, but I had taken candles and they masked the smell pretty well. They also covered the mold and musty smells. Shower was ok, felt cleaner coming from a dip in the pool. There were teeny, tiny biting bugs crawling all over in the room on some nights, not on others. We took no food to the room, but ants did show up when we had a drink on the porch and left the glasses "unrinsed". Something (I'll assume it was the big spider I found in the bath the next day) bit both of us, and a week later it still looks infected and itches like mad. I did not let them in the room to make the bed and clean (I use that word lightly) but they did leave a bunch of towels on the porch each day, and when we made other requests they were met in a timely fashion. The unsanitary conditions at the pool bar were unbelieveable. Thank God we live in the states. After going up for drinks myself one time, I let my boyfriend get them the rest. The flies and bees were everywhere, and I know they made it to the blender without seeing it! They "dipped" the glasses in the sink, didn't wash them as others stated. I'm just thankful that we didn't get ill from the apparent unsanitary conditions. We did find one (1) employee who seemed to care whether or not we were having a good time, or if we ever returned. He was the young man at the guest services area where we rented a car and he helped us plan some activities outside of the resort. He's also the only person (non-guest) we met on the trip that seemed to be honest. All the others were just trying to sell us something. Stay away from the vacation club "employees", they're wolves in sheeps clothing. Same goes for the guys at the airport who hold up the sign with your hotel's name on it. Foul-breath salesmen. My recommendation to others would be as follows: If you're going to Mexico to an all-inclusive with consistently good food, excellent service and cleanliness in your accomodations - you're not staying at the Allegro Resort. If your trip is geared around the activities available, the beautiful beach, the crystal clear water, shopping downtown mixed with sightseeing and you could care less where you laid your head at night, this is the place for you. There is a restaraunt downtown called "Prima" something another guest told us about, and that was the highlight of my dining experiences. I love good food, and this place was excellent! Dining on a rooftop under the stars, excellent service and excellent food (with very few flies). And very affordable. IF YOU'VE NEVER TRIED THIS PLACE, EAT THERE............ TWO-THUMBS UP!!! Overall, they stay was just OK. I will never go back to that particular resort, but I will go back to the island. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Our Stay at the Allegro Resort in Cozumel The Allegro Resort in Cozumel, the location of our Honeymoon and a trip we will never forget. MOLD, MUST and ANTS at the Allegro Cozumel We checked into our thatch roofed building room (3603) was which smelt musty and had mold stains on the walls. Besides the mold and must, there were ants on both the headboard/side tables (which crawled into the bed) and on the bathroom counters. The first night (of our HONEYMOON) my wife spend the night wearing a hooded sweatshirt to protect herself from the fear of being bitten by ants. In a letter as a response to a complaint from Mr. Miguel Eugene, General Manager of the Allegro Cozumel he states "We have an external company that fumigates all the areas, but in spite of that ants may enter the rooms when the guests leave food inside them". I would suggest to the Allegro Cozumel that food is not usually kept on the headboard and bathroom counter and that fumigation should happen more frequently. We requested to move to another room (without mold and ants), another room was not available and the request to kill the ants was never followed through. On the second day, we moved to another room (upper floor) after complaining 2 more times, but found that the mold & must problem was still very much present. One subsequent day it rained and water poured in from around the air conditioner. RUDE STAFF - "AVOID RICARDO WHEN BOOKING RESERVATIONS" at the Allegro Cozumel While at the hotel, we attempted to book dinner in one of the two reservation restaurant and were told to go to guest services between 9-11am. We did, and when we opened the door, we were told by a very rude individual "RICARDO" - "Out", NOT please step out, but "OUT". We then waited for 20 minutes while he finished with another guest (Who we later found out was also complaining). When we finally were granted permission to enter, I explained to Ricardo that he was rude, expecting an apology, instead he insisted on arguing with me and my wife for 15 minutes. Not only did guest services staff not have the courtesy to listen to our feedback, he refused to let either of us finish a sentence without cutting us off and repeatedly denying that he had ordered us out of the office, despite the fact that his statements were clearly made in the presence of both my wife, another guest, and another staff member in training. I would have to question the training value that this particular guest interaction provided to the trainee. During our discussion with Ricardo, the guests who had arrived after us to be serviced by 'Guest services" were made to wait outside while Ricardo argued with us. In total we spent over 30 minutes trying to get a dinner reservation and when Ricardo could argue with us no further he told us that the time was too late to make a reservation and that they were closed. This final comment was made at 10:50am, a full ten minutes before the office was due to close and ignored the fact that we waited over 30 minutes to even have the opportunity to request a dinner booking. Feeling frustrated that Ricardo never listened to our concerns and was only making a position to protect himself, we left with our reservation in hand and didn't plan to go through the process again to make our next reservation. Mr. Miguel Eugene had no comment on the actions of his staff. THE POOL BAR LACK OF CLEANLINESS at the Allegro Cozumel We observed multiple times that GLASSES WERE NOT WASHED, only rinsed and are clearly grimy even though the sign is posted that they are washed in accordance with health regulations. Mr. Miguel Eugene's response to this observation was "The glasses at the pool bar are washed according to a system approved by "Cristal International", an external company that measures and checks all the hygenic procedures and food preperation." To the Left of the swim-up bar there was a pool of dirty, smelly water (sludge) that collected near to the bar where people order their drinks. This was never dealt with even after being pointed out to bar staff. FLY's BLENDED INTO DRINKS at the Allegro Cozumel Anyone who has visited the Allegro Cozumel will know that there are a lot of fly's, especially at the pool bar. We (and others who made us aware) witnessed that many of these flies end up in the blenders and they are blended into the drinks. This is utterly disgusting. Needless to say I drank beer out of the tap and used the same glass during my stay. Our original plans were to stay at the Allegro Cozumel for 8 days, after the 4th day, a letter was put under ever door indicating that you could "upgrade" to the Royal Hideaway in Play del Carmen (2+ hours away). Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity to leave the Allegro Resort. When we arrived home, we stated our reasons for displeasure to our travel agency who in turn communicated the above issues to the Allegro Cozumel. Imagine your new wife crying for 4 days over "your" selection of the resort, then taking the remaining 4 days to get over the mold, must, ants, fly's, dirt and rudeness of the staff. We expected that Mr. Miguel Eugene would review our concerns and problems with the Allegro Cozumel and the staff at the Allegro Cozumel and offer us the opportunity for a complimentary stay at their sister hotel "royal hideaway" in compensation for ruining our honeymoon, as my wife will not return to the Allegro Cozumel. In fact Mr. Miguel wrote our travel agent to state "I apologize for the inconveniences they had or if we did not fulfill their expectations..... I would like to let you know that they were transferred to our sister hotel.... we consider that they have been already compensated for the inconveniences". The fact "EVERY GUEST HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFER" as they oversold the hotel and need guests out of the hotel to make room for others. These are the facts, now my suggestions. If you are a travel agent and want repeat clients, do not send your guests to the Allegro Cozumel. If you are a travel agency association warn your members about the Allegro Cozumel and increase your credibility. If you are going on a vacation and like to avoid ants, fly's blended in your drinks avoid the Allegro Cozumel. If you have allergies to mold and must, avoid the Allegro Cozumel. If you like to deal with polite staff, avoid the Allegro Cozumel. If you are planning your honeymoon and don't want your new wife to cry the entire time avoid the Allegro Cozumel. GO ANYWHERE BUT THE ALLEGRO COZUMEL!

We just got back on Aug. 30th from spending 5 days at the Allegro resort in Cozumel, and unlike others comments we couldn't have had a more pleasant experience. We (7 of us) had 4 downstairs rooms which were not fancy but were kept very clean. The food was great and more than enough of it. The staff was very polite,helpful and entertaining. The person that left the bad review on Allegro Resort sure missed out on a lot. Considering what the roofs are made of, I would almost expect for the top rooms to leak. Ants, like mosquitos (although they fogged every night we were there) are going to be there. It is an Island afterall. This is a wonderful place. Clean, friendly,well manicured grounds etc.

My wife and I went to Cozumel for our anniversary between August 16-19, 2002. Despite the bad reviews, we decided to take our chances with the Allegro Resort. The first thing I asked the clerk when we was checking in was " is it true that all the roofs on the upper rooms leak?", she replied "not all of them" and she gave us an upper room (2311). While going to our room, I asked the bellboy about the ants in the hotel and he told me they were all over the place and advised not to leave any food in the room otherwise they would be there to take their share. When we got to the room, the strong odor told us we had one of the leaky roofs. There was no rain in the forecast, and we had no plans to stay in the room all day so we decided not to make a big deal out of it. Big mistake, on our second day it started pouring water around 2:00AM. The water started coming down all over the room. I called the front desk and was told to wait for the rain to slow down before we could be moved to another room. Half an hour later, we were moved to another room in the middle of the rain. The second room was nice and did not have the bad odor of the first one (2303). The next day we rented a car and drove around the island and visited the Mayan ruins. When we got back to the hotel the buffet was closed and we went straight to the snack bar to grab something to keep us alive until dinner. My wife got a salad and started eating while I was getting the drinks. After she had eaten half of it, she found a worm walking around a piece of tomato. I told her to calm down, that this could happen to anybody, and took the salad left to the counter and showed this to the chef. To our surprise, the chef showed the salad to the rest of the staff but nobody did anything with the big salad bowl where the worm came from. We had had enough; we went to the front desk and asked to speak with the manager. We were surprised that the assistant manager (the manager was not in town) did not know anything about people been moved to other rooms because of the rain the previous night. She clarified to us that the resort is rated 4 stars, not 5 as advertised by Funjet. When I mentioned about rumors we heard that the hotel is closing down next month to repair the roofs she changed the subject of the conversation. She said the incident of the salad was "unusual" because the personnel are trained on how to handle this type of situations. She apologized and asked the chef to prepare my wife whatever dish she wanted, which we kindly declined. The next day I stopped by the front desk and asked them to give us a wake-up call at 7:00 because we were going to be taken to the airport at 8:00. The wake-up call never happened. Luckily we woke up on time and left the hotel. The staff has a very poor attitude; we don't think they care if people ever came back. We tend to believe that poor management is the root cause of the problem, the people are really nice but they seem to lack training and motivation. We have been to Playa del Carmen before, and you can tell the difference. If despite the bad reviews you decide to go (like we did), here is a word of advise. 1)Do not take an upper room, September and October are the middle of their rain season and thing will get worse before they get better. 2) Check your salad at the snack bar before you eat it. 3) Bring your alarm clock with you. 4) Be aware of the sewage odor, it got very strong around our room area. 5) Don’t leave food in your room and be prepared to share you bathroom with the ants. We’ll certainly go back to Cozumel, but not to the Allegro Resort.

Taxi from Cancun airport to the Ferry in Playa Del Carmen - $45 or $75 if you buy from the booth inside the terminal. Ferry to Cozumel - $20 round trip. Taxi to Allegro resort - $20. Hotel is out in the middle of nowhere, secluded. 1 small souvenire shop across the street, didn't bargain on price. Small gift shop inside hotel lobby and jewelery vendors in evening outside of lobby. Staff was friendly, took you and luggage to room, 8 rooms in a hut with grass roofs. Didn't rain while we were there so don't know about leaking. We had 2 Jr. Suites, refridgerator stocked with water, pop and small bottles of booze. 2 days into the stay, my daughters bed was switched, she didn't notice the change. Never got any face towels the last day, called housekeeping and still never got any. Rooms pretty clean, we were in the upper level so stuff would fall from the roof, pieces of the grass, otherwise pretty clean. Air worked fine. Had 2 pools, the 'calm' pool was dirty when we arrived but was pretty clean the remaining days. The 'activity' pool had a swim up bar and several activities thoughout the day. Always had to stand in line for a drink, never any clean glasses (probably because they were all in the ocean). Always bees around the pop machine, my daughters were afraid to get pop. Plenty of food around the pool in the afternoon. The beach was very nice, clean white sand. Water was clear and calm. Free snorkeling equipment for your use, not a whole lot to look at (except glasses), but relaxing. Buffet was pretty good, plenty of food. Daughters are pretty picky so they didn't find much to eat. Have to make reservations for the Mexican and Italian restaurants, only 1 time per week. Evening entertainment was pretty good. Had kids show at 8:30, then the ice breaker at 9:00 - went around the audiance and pulled people on stage so we would show up at 9:10. The main entertainment started at 9:30, was mostly dancing while we were there, kind of boring. Grease was pretty good. After the show would pull people on stage for the Allegro Dance so everyone would start leaving at the end of the show. Had bar next to stage, could get drink with no problem. Since Taxi ride was $20 to downtown and $20 back, only made 1 trip there. Always ask how much before getting into a taxi. Better than used to be with price since most have posted on window. Typical mexican shopping, ask what price and negotiate from there, not real high pressure. Some would bargain more than others, shop around. Went to Chankannaab park. Wouldn't waist my time here again. $15 taxi ride. Beach just as nice at hotel. If you want to swim with the dolfins or see the sea lions then that would be the only reason to go here. By the time we left for home August 17, 2002, my youngest daughter was very sick, wife and other daughter had gotten sick for an evening and I am still spending much of my time in the banyo 2 days later. Other than that, had a good time.

My husband and I went to Allegro resort from June 8th-13th. We had a upstairs room (which is like a hut)that ended up with water all over it from the rain that we had. The water was running down the walls through the lights etc. They moved us to a ground floor room and other people were moved to another hotel or another ground floor room. We had to wait about 2 hours one day for towels by the pool. (That was 10:00 in the morning)The towels are not the best quality. The food was okay. Nothing fantastic. The beach was nice and the pool area. They did have alot of activities if you wanted to be busy. The grounds were nice. The staff was slow. The bar was slow. The staff did not seem to care if you came back to their resort or not. I plan on not too. On a scale of 1-10, I would give this resort a 5.

Our trip was from 8-2-02 to 8-5-02. I made the mistake of reading some of these reviews which made me sick the day before we were to leave. I was scared stiff all the way down there not knowing what to expect. And I didn't tell my wife so she at least would have some peace of mind. This was to be our second honeymoon and it seemed to be starting off bad already. I couldn't have been more glad to see that not only were all of those people wrong but they must have gone to a different place all together. This place was fan-freaking-tastic. The staff was so nice and friendly, and man what energy. I aked the little lady(Satu)that cleaned our room the first day if I could have 4 bottles of water (cause the water out of the tap is not pure) and she made sure we had 4 every day after. The food was good. The buffet was like a Golden Corral, you had to be careful of what you selected, but what I selected was good. There are 2 restaurants a mexican and an italian. You have to make reservations for them. Each one could have been a "5 star" place of it's own. The food was out of this world. The grounds where kept in perfect shape. By day you are overwhelmed with the green lush foliage and by night you are amazed by all the twinkle lights in the trees. It was like a dream. Now saying that there are a few things they could improve on. There is no shuttle to and from town. At night there was a little smell. But any one that lives in a large city knows that the river in their down town would smell worse. It was just near the treatment plant in the resort. Not all over the place. And last the gift shop at the resort was under stocked. There was hardly any thing on the shelves. Over all I would give this place a "10" and have all ready recommended it to my family and co-workers. And anyone else I can tell. You people who had a bad time must just be sour-puss's cause this place was great. We can't wait until next year when we can take our kids.

I just read all the bad things that people were saying. I guess they just hit it at a bad time or have been horribly spoiled. Now I must admit the food was not quite gourmet, but good Lord! your in Mexico!!! who really cares about the FOOD! Grab some bread and head to the beach!! The diving is wonderful and I have been to many other places in the carribean and Roatan and Hawaii(horrible diving there). Now Honduras was the most beautiful, but the diving in Cozumel was wonderful as well. The little beach "parties" at night were so much fun when you got into them! I would reccomend coming here unless you want to come to Mexico to EAT (does anyone really do that??) or if you have a horrible fear of mosquitoes. Otherwise, come here and have a BLAST!!

I stayed at the Allegro Resort in Cozumel, Mexico from 7/16/02 through 7/20/02. It was my first visit to Cozumel, and my first all-inclusive package. I have read the other reviews, mostly negative, and find them to be insulting. I had a wonderful time at this resort. This was an outstanding vacation destination. It had something for everyone, including sports, diving, snorkeling, a great beach, great pools, etc. The rooms were not what I would rate a five star, but they were adequate. The rooms were what you would expect in a beach setting, small, with tile floors. The resort was beautiful, and well maintained. The food was "good". It was not fine dining, it was buffet style, and it had a wide assortment from which to select. The pools were immaculate, and fun. They have a quiet pool, and an activity pool, for whatever your style. The beach was better than I could have hoped. The sand was beautiful, the water was crystal clear. The ocean was very calm, and you could see your feet clearly even when you were neck deep. I snorkeled several times, and saw all types of fish. There was no undertow, and I felt very comfortable in the water. The drinks were pretty good, but they had no wait service on the beach, which I expected at an all inclusive. The only complaints I have are; they need to get more glasses, so you didn't have to wait in line for they to wash them ; getting the correct outside operator was difficult when making an international call. Overall, I would recommend this resort for families, couples, and groups of friends that want to stay at a beautiful place for an economical price. If you want to be waited on hand and foot, you should pay the price and go where they do that sort of thing. If you want a great beach, lots of decent food, and great activities, this is YOUR resort. I hope you find this to be helpful!

I wish I would have seen the reviews on this site before we went on our trip. This was the WORST VACATION EVER!! To be worse it would have to have included a natural disaster!! I have been to Cozumel on four other occasions, twice at the Fiesta Americana (non-inclusive) and twice at the Club Cozumel Caribe (inclusive), and have always greatly enjoyed my trips. This place is awful! On on first night I noticed that alot of people were dining by themselves. Unfortunately we discovered the reason why--the hotel got us both sick. We only used bottled water and only ate the food at the hotel so they are either using infected water in the drinks/food or are not properly sanitizing their dishware. Later I heard people at the bar saying they also got sick. I have never been sick in Mexico before, and I have eaten in town on numerous previous occasions. The food is a problem itself. I can eat bad food (which explains my waistline), but this food was so atrocious is wasn't edible. Even before I got sick I was subsisting off bread, cheese and Milky Ways we bought in the gift shop. We couldn't even escape into town for decent food because having gotten sick we were afraid to be that far from our hotel room. At other hotels there is great snorkling right off the hotel beach. The snorkling at this place is truly substandard compared to the rest of the island. Normally I simply would have paid for snorkling tours, but this wasn't an option since we were afraid to be that far from our hotel room for that long. The tiki huts they use for housing are awful also. The grass roof gives a nice appearance but sucks. We were fortunate that ours didn't leak unlike most of the others. The real problem is that it doesn't give you protection from the other 3 rooms you are connected to so even if you don't smoke you can smell it wafting from your neighbors. Likewise you get to here your neighbors in the middle of the night when you are trying to sleep.