We had a great stay at Grand Park Royal. They had 3 different pool areas and an area on the beach, so there was a lot of space to spread out in this time of COVID (in the 7 days we were there I never saw a staff member not wearing a mask, and always wearing it properly, except in the pool when they were engaged in a class or something). There was no competition for chairs, or lines for anything (I was told the hotel was at 30-40% occupancy). All the staff was great, but I want to specifically call out the Fantastic team (they were truly…well…fantastic!). They were all working so hard to engage the guests in whatever activities that were going on, and always with genuine and friendly enthusiasm.
Just one example. I was waiting to play water volleyball at 4:00 pm, and the water is a little cold by then (at least for them…it is December here). They walked the entire resort trying to find some people to play, but no takers. I told them to just forget it (I didn’t want them to get into the cold pool just for me), but they insisted, practically dragging me in, and the 3 of us played for 40 minutes. The whole time they were laughing and having fun (or at least pretending to) even though I am sure there were other activities they would rather be doing. They were there at 8:00 am, left around 5:00 pm, and then back again for the evening entertainment from like 8-10 pm (they do this 6-days-a-week…they work very hard).
They are kind-of like one of those boy bands…they have one of each kind….Pepe is the funny one, Jorge is the good looking nice guy, Miguel is the sexy bad boy that mothers would never let their daughters go near, etc, etc, and Cynthia is like the bands manager trying to keep everyone out of trouble. It seems to work (most of the time).
Thanks Jorge, Pepe, Miguel, and Cynthia (…well…maybe not Pepe. Just kidding…Pepe was great!) for the fun week.
The specialty restaurants (Italian and Mexican) were not very good (IMO). They did have a buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch (breakfast was always very good, lots of selection and the food was always fresh). They also had 2 casual snack areas open during the day (hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and salsa, honestly their burgers here are the best I have ever had in Mexico, and I had at least one every day so it was not a fluke…each one was exactly the same as the previous one, good quality beef). For dinner we would usually order room service (you can use it once per day). There was also an on-site coffee shop (cappuccino, expresso, latte, etc) and they also had ice cream. Everything I have mentioned was included in the all-inclusive, no additional costs (I didn’t really see anything that costed extra, other than obviously the tours, etc). We were approached once with what appeared to be a Time Share pitch (?), and after we politely declined we were never bothered again.
The bars are only open until 11:00 pm (I think that is a Cozumel-wide rule now because of COVID?) and the nightly entertainment was not all that exciting, but that is typical for AI’s, so I can’t hold that against them.
The rooms were nicely equipped and clean, fully stocked fridge, flat screen TV (although only Spanish channels, I brought my firestick which worked fine). The internet was perfect, and worked well all around the resort and in the room. My only complaint was the thermostat doesn’t work, so the AC was either on or off (and if you left it on overnight it was very cold by morning, I would get up in the middle of the night to turn it off).
Over the years I have probably been to 15-20 all-inclusives, and I think this is probably one of the better ones (if not the best).
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