Occidental Grand Xcaret

1 reader found this review helpful

What could be a terrific hotel is seriously marred by horrific management. Guest services is inept: not having a solid, fast reference for tour and golf prices, distances from hotel and updated availabilities. They need to waste tons of timing calling for everything. Reservations are required for dinner and need to be made in person with guest services vs. a telephone call from your room (major inconvenience and waste of time). If your family doesn't have a res, it will be turned away from restaurants even if there are 12 empty tables there (in our case 12 empty tables remained through our entire dinner and afterwards after literally fighting to get seated). Restaurant management, other than the Seafood place, should be fired yesterday. Men are required to wear long pants. Pressed Bermudas with a dress shirt is turned away, yet you can sit next to people wearing torn jeans, sandals and wrinkled tee shirts (dumb beyond words). Beautiful ocean setting yet no masks, snorkels or fins are available (beyond dumb).
Place needs some professional, client centric hotel management. The terribly poor quality of service takes away from great weather, good food and warmth of the Mexican people. At least the town of Playa del Carmen was a lot of fun. Can't recommend until they clean up their act. It's back to the Fairmont Mayacoba for us. You get what you pay for.
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Fantastic, amazing,luxury. We went to this wonderful place to get married, we were a party of ten people, my husband and I were treated like king and queen, nothing was to much trouble for the staff all of our wedding plans were arranged for us for when we got there, we had the dream wedding in paradise, it was absolutley amazing. We had two blissful weeks there and will be going back a.s.a.p but this time for longer.

2 readers found this review helpful

The Hotel Was AMAZING!
Very Clean Very Big Very Friendly.
Not Many Teenagers AT ALL! Would Recommend More For Honeymooners. At The Time Of Year We Went There Was Only 40% Of The Hotel Full. Most People There Were Not English. Being There With Teenagers They Didnt Enjoy The Fact That Not Many Children Were There.

The Animal Park Next Door Was Also Amazing!
Night Time Entertainment Was Good Considering It Was DOne By The Pool Staff.
However During The Day We Did Find Ourselves Hiding From Poolstaff In The Day So We Werent Forced Into Any Activities.
The Beach Was Beautiful Too And Food Was Lovely. Was Very Humid And Hot At The Time We Went!
Overal Beautiful Place TO Go.

Amazing holiday! Hotel was clean and tidy at all times. Staff very helpful and friendly. The food in the main restaurant changed every night on themes, although there were the standard pasta, chips, and salad every night for the unadventurous.
The food in the beach bar was lovely, and just what you needed after a busy morning sunbathing.
The beach is small and man-made, but clean, quiet and tidy. If walks along the beach is your thing on holiday, then this may not be for you.
The pools are great, but noisy. If you want a quiet day, go to the beach. If a bit of noise and water games don't bother you, then the pools are fine.
The Xcaret park next door is great for a day (or 2) out of the hotel and Cancun is a short trek in a taxi. Cancun is worth a visit, but do the excursions if you want to go in for a few nights out of the resort. They will take you to the better drinking holes that you may not find if you are on your own.
The rooms are clean and tidy and for the amount of time you spend in them, they are fine.
Would recommend this hotel to anyone thinking of going to Mexico.

My sister had already been to this hotel and recommended it, so we went on her reviews. We upgraded with First Choice to Premiere and it was the best thing we could have done, extra room, great food and attention all the way there.
We arrived in Mexico to a massive storm, the rain was so heavy it was flooding everything! It took us ages to get to the hotel and some of the stops to other hotels seemed to be out of order and we backtracked several times. It took us one and a half hours to finally get there. When we did I was very impressed with the lobby. This was the only downside to the whole trip... quite a few of us arrived at the same time and the check-in staff were slow at best. After a 10 hour flight and the trip from the airport all we wanted to do was have a drink and change our clothes. We were initially greeted with a lovely glass of juice but then left stood there for 30 mins or more with empty glasses and feeling pretty impatient. When we finally checked in they had booked us close to the reception and near all the entertainment. We asked for somewhere quieter and they happily obliged. As I say, this was the only sticking point, they perhaps need to think of a better way to check people in at busy times.
Our room was in a block next to the Royal Club and opposite a pool. It was the perfect place in between all the restaurants and the beach. Our room was absolutely perfect. It was huge, the bed was massive and possibly the most comfortable one I have slept in on holiday. It was impeccably clean and the bathroom was great with a huge walk in shower. The TV was good and it was nice having the free drinks in the room.
The best bit by far from my point was the adults only pool (Sorry to all the parents out there). We had real peace and quiet there and the seawater pool was a great place to swim in, very cooling and great fun to swim with fish. We even had a turtle in it one day. The pool waiter was brilliant - as were all the staff there - and got to know our drinks and when we wanted them. We ate breakfast and lunch at the restaurant that overlooked the pool rather than the usual buffet. The atmosphere there was great and the views were wonderful.
I had no problems with any of the food and the al a carte restaurants were all good, the seafood one was gorgeous and we watched the moon rise over Cozumel which was very romantic.
The only downside to the hotel was the exhibition centre, on a couple of days the place was packed and very noisy. Us Brits are quite reserved and sometimes the Americans can be a little overwhelming.
Definitely go and visit Xcaret, I really enjoyed it, but go early in the morning as it gets really hot. And do go and see the evening show, yes it is all in Mexican but visually fantastic. We booked a meal and got great seats. It does get really hot in there so wear appropriate clothing and take lots of water.
A trip to a Myan village is a must and we went to Coba and climbed the pyramid, it's a lot smaller than Chichen Itza and a lot closer, but I still couldn't walk for two days!
Playa Del Carmen does have a lovely beach and as other people have said, only $10 by taxi to get to. If you like good nightlife then this is a place to go.
I really enjoyed my stay at the Occidental. I especially have to recommend the First Choice rep Nick, he went over and above the call of duty for all his holiday makers and he was a credit to the company. For somewhere family or couple orientated that is good value for money, you can't go wrong.

1 reader found this review helpful

As soon as my partner and I arrived at the Occidental, we were treated like royalty. We had two weeks of paradise!!
The rooms were spotlessly clean, towels and bed linen were changed daily, in the brochure it said that the mini bar would be topped up every other day, but for us it was topped up every day, which was impressive.
The hotel is Huge with golf type buggies which are chauffer driven... so if you don’t fancy walking you don’t have to!!! The A La Cart were amazing, you receive 4 per week then on the other nights you eat at the buffet which is still really good... loads of variety and all the food is fresh. We ate at the Mexican, Los Olivos(Mediterranean), seafood, steak house and seafood.... all of them were great but our favourite was the seafood restaurant as it looked over onto the ocean.... very romantic!!
The entertainment staff are such hard workers they must start at 10 in the morning and you still see them about at midnight, they are brilliant, every night there are shows that are on and there are some talented people in those shows, they did various shows all involving music and dancing which for us was some of the best entertainment I have seen abroad!!
There are all types of alcohol on offer and Mexicans seem to be not shy about how many shots they put in the cocktails!! Ha my partner loved it as it was corona on tap... Mexicans seemed shocked when we told them how much a bottle of corona costs in the UK, but it’s not surprising as they can buy about 8 for the same as we pay for one!
We did trips with our tour operator every one of them was great fun, first of all we went on the Captain Hook night this was great, two ships set sail at about 7ish with irate entertainment and a barbecue on board with lobster and steak, we got back about 10:30..great value for money!
We went on a Catamaran trip, this sailed for an hour with an hour to snorkel and then another hour to sail, now considering that it poured down with rain the whole trip we still had a lot of fun.. The staff on board were top. We also did a night out with the Thomas Cook reps... This night is for all ages and was my favourite trip of them all, I got very drunk and we had a whale of a time.
The last trip we did was swimming with dolphins.. If you have never done this before it is a must, it’s an experience of a lifetime.. What more can I say. I read the reviews on this website before I went away and everyone seems to say the same, but I really think the Occidental is the best holiday I have been on and I will definitely go all inclusive again.
A lot of Americans go here and they were very friendly and also very mental.... the exaggerate everything but my partner and I found them very amusing! Overall this was the holiday of a lifetime.

Travelled as a party of 2 adults and 2 children and it was our first time to Mexico.
Hotel is fantastic definitely worthy of its 5 * rating. We had 2 large king sized beds one for us and one for the kids and had plenty of room.
The bathroom was very nice with a huge shower. We were in the block near to the mini club and it was quite a walk to the restaurants but it wasn't a problem.
The place is quite big and can take a couple of days to find your way around. There are plenty of pools and one for adults only.
There isn't much of a beach just a small inlet but nice enough to go swimming and relax.
Food in the main buffet restaurant was very good lots of choice. We only used one of the a la carte restaurants during our 2 week stay as we enjoyed the buffet so much.
Staff were very friendly and nothing was too much trouble.
Take a trip to the Xcaret park next door you get one free admission. We swam with the dolphins fab fab!!!. Animation team were excellent and the kids club was great giving kids the option to stay all day if they want.
Worth every penny would def recommend. Booked flights and hotel separately. Flights first choice and hotel relaxabroad.com.

This was the first time we had been to Mexico, but not wanting to stay in the hustle and bustle of Cancun we chose to stay in the quieter area of Xcaret.
What a perfect choice we made, this hotel has definitely got the WOW factor.
A fantastic choice of restaurants and bars to choose from, from the pool bars through to the a la carte the quality and service was second to none.
The hotel is in perfect location right next to the Xcaret eco park just 5 minutes walk away.(Definitely worth a visit, and stay for the evening show).
With 3 pools and a small but fantastic beach there was more than enough room to find your own space.
In a nutshell a brilliant holiday in a 1st class hotel 10 out of 10. Cannot think of any negatives to include because there were none.

1 reader found this review helpful

Just got back yesterday from this resort. Hotel is wonderful!
Very clean, and very well maintained. Grounds are immaculate. Rooms are good, and are cleaned thoroughly every day. There is also a mini bar in each room with chilled water, soft drinks and beer should you want it.
We holiday quite a few times a year, and have often frequented all inclusive resorts, and we can say that the food at this resort was excellent. Very clean restaurants. Food all very fresh, and great choice.
Should be something for everyone. Apart from the buffet, there are also themed restaurants - we loved the Seafood one, which is on the seafront...very romantic!
Note: Do make sure to book all of your themed restaurants as soon as you arrive though as these can get booked up very quickly.
Hotel is very large, so be prepared for some walking, however the grounds are lovely, and you will see all kinds of wildlife and flora ...which is fabulous. (This is a positive!)
No downsides at all to this resort, other than we happened to pick the Easter holiday week, so the place was full of teenagers and children so was quite noisy.
We did however manage to find the "quiet" pool near blocks 15 and 16, which was great... much more what we were looking for.
(If you do have children, there are a couple of larger pools too which are excellent for them, as there are loads of club activities for them to enjoy)
Hotel has got a small beach, with lovely clear water for snorkelling. If you are looking for a traditional long, white sandy beach, I would recommend nipping to Playa del Carmen in a taxi, as this had a fab beach, with "Ibiza" type lounge bars all along it.
Playa Del Carmen and 5th Avenue the shopping area are only a $10 taxi ride away, so will make a fun day out, or afternoon. Nightlife is also good there.
The Xcaret Park Next Door is good fun, but be prepared to walk a lot as, whilst it is not a huge place, it seems to be built so that you have to walk loads, for example; the Paradise River has a 20 minute walk to get to it!!!
I thought I would mention about the Dolphin Discovery we did. It cost us about $139 pp. Have to say that it was really wonderful to swim with dolphins...something I had always wanted to do... but thought it was all too commercialised i.e.: 8 people in, 8 people out, 8 in, 8 out etc. (A bit like a conveyor belt. )
I also felt that the seal enclosure was very small... as was the one for the manatees, which I didn’t like to see. I also didn’t think that the dolphin water or environment was particularly great, as it was in a marina type area, but see what you think...perhaps I was expecting too much?
After talking to other people about their dolphin experiences i.e.: the Xcaret one, or Delphinus, it seems to be very much the same story. Small areas, with lots of people in and out. Maybe another country would be better for this? Just not what I expected.
I thought it would have been a bit more natural than it was.
Anyway, regarding the hotel, I hope my feedback helps you. It’s a really great hotel. Staff are wonderful, and I would really recommend it.

This resort is amazing!
It's tailored to American holiday makers, which means that the standards of cleanliness are much higher and the food is much better than at most resorts in Europe for comparable prices.
We got a last minute deal, all inclusive, and I have never had a cheaper holiday.
All we spent was on tips (as its American orientated it's a dollar a drink, a dollar a bag etc), and I swear my husband easily ate the cost of the holiday at the buffets.
The food is really healthy; there is a great gym and Pilates by the beach in the morning.
I was really not into all inclusive, but this has changed my mind completely and I will definitely come back.
The Eco park next door is great too, I did swimming with dolphins and a sea trek, which were both great. You have to go!