We stayed for one week, and glad we did not decide to book for two. We booked upon reading reviews and the 4.5 star rating on the selloff site. I guess we missed reading reviews that would have made us decide to look elsewhere. The park Royal is a must ask, never offered resort. The beds were hard as stated but after my back and leg were killing me, I asked the front desk if anything could be done and in five minutes we had a bed topper which made all the difference. The food at the buffet showed potential if it was the least bit hot. Always cold no matter what time we were there. Day 3 we saw people eating toast and bacon, again discovered it was a must ask not offered. No toaster at the buffet which I had never not had on any trip. Salad bar was always great and fresh. The disco club was open from 9pm till 2 am, so every night we were woken up about 2:05 to loud guests returning to their rooms. The pool bar offers no service till 11 am, But not offered you may ask for a water before they do open. The weather and ocean were awesome, but that is hardly the work of the Park Royal. The band in the lounge was very good for a nice relaxing drink. Two nights while we were there of karaoke from the guests is NOT my idea of a 4.5 star night show entertainment.

As a side note, there are safety deposit boxes at the front desk, however, your box number is on your key and they don't follow proper security protocol and verify identity or have you sign. If you lose your key, everything could be cleaned out.

We recently travelled to Ixtapa for our second visit to this lovely area. The weather there is wonderful and that is a lot of what drew us back. This time we went thru Air Canada Vacations and the flight was very enjoyable. Customs clearing and transfers to resort were handled very well. Return trip was equally enjoyable, flawless and handled very well by Air Canada. Perhaps the best part of the return however was finally getting out of the Park Royal resort.

My wife and I are seasoned travellers having done multiple trips for over 30 years. We've stayed at countless resorts, hotels and villas over these many years. Royal Park Ixtapa, while it had some merit, is without a doubt the single worst experience that we have ever been subjected too.

The room we were given was fine. It had the king sized bed we requested as well as a very nice ocean front view. The bed was an absolute horror though. If you go there, we'd suggest you immediately request a foam topper for the bed. Had we not gotten that by the third night we would have had to leave. Others have said this before that the beds are hard. They are not kidding! BTW. No in room fridge and no in room vault? Loose 1/2 star at least in my opinion.

The timeshare/club membership salesreps are absolutely relentless. We tried numerous times to be courteous and kind and say no thank you, but they just keep coming and coming. One saleslady in particular was overly pushy and even tried to lay a guilt trip on us that she needed to sign us up for the tour so she would get her 200 peso commission. We told her it was a lost cause because we had no interest but she just kept jumping on us numerous times during the day. We'd had enough by the fifth day and finally told her to take us off their list of marks. Being firm finally seemed to sink in and we weren't accosted again during the remainder of our trip. We're not unfamiliar with these sort of sales tactics from other resorts, but in the past it always seemed that one polite no-thank you was enough. Apparently here they expect to keep pushing until you finally give in or pop a vein.

PS. We did overhear a lot of the "pitches" in the lobby bar and around the pool and they are just as high pressure once you're into their clutches. They constantly are moving you to the close without giving details or specifics.

Lose another 1/2 star as far as these aggressive sales tactics as far as we are concerned.

The food... don't know where to even start with this one. Without a doubt, the food was the biggest disappointment. There are few venues to choose from to begin with at any point in time. Mostly it is buffet style, with one Italian ala-carte restaurant. We tried the Italian three times and it was totally hit and miss. The first attempt was poor, the second was not bad actually, and the third was so bad we left before finishing our meals.

As for the buffet restaurants... the food selections were pretty weak. They did attempt some theme nights, but their themes are totally out of sync. Chinese Night features Sushi and Tempura? Aside from little gaffs like that though, there was only one consistent theme that the buffet restaurants offered, that being "cold food!".

Seriously, we couldn't get anything warm. There was one senior manager that was constantly roaming around all the restaurants and facilities to inspect everything (I suspect he was the Food and Beverage Manager for the resort). He was always around and looking at everything. I suggest that the resort should invest in getting him a temperature probe to inspect the food being offered to the guests. He could then easily see why the plates being returned were still so full with uneaten food.

Lose one full star for the food quality as far as we are concerned.

As I said earlier, my wife and I have travelled for over 30 years and we have stayed at numerous resorts. We have written up reviews before on this site and have never had cause to say anything really negative. In this case, we cannot say anything positive about the Park Royal Ixtapa resort. Air Canada Vacations did their job getting us there in back in total comfort, but I'd suggest they might want to remove this particular resort from their offerings because the resort itself is not becoming of their quality of offering.

You can pretty much count on a sunny day here. The beach is beautiful, wide and uncrowded. The surf is pretty strong right in front of the hotel, but more gentle farther down the beach. We've travelled here with fiends who were ensnared in the Royal Holiday vacation club years ago. One of the activities at the pool seems to be the Royal Holiday Club members discussing possible loop holes in their contracts (There seem to be none). Beware. Read all the fine print.

The service is good except for the front desk people who seem to be bristling for a verbal altercation whenever someone approaches. There is staff all over the place so the grounds are clean. Restaurant staff is good at bringing coffee in the morning and beverages at lunch. There is no service at the pool and no room service.

The pool is warm and shallow. There is no lifeguard. The same railing and same ladder have been broken for at least three years. The pool area is mostly concrete with palapas, but is not beautifully ladscaped. The public areas are just ok.

There is one choice of venue for each meal. Breakfast is on the "Veranda" and consists of a few fruits, cereal, yogurt and steam table carbohydrates and scrambled eggs. They have a made a order omelet which is fine. Lunch is at the Pescadore which is a hot/cold buffet which is only ok. There is a fish entree at lunch that can be ordered and brought. Don't expect anything special. A simple request for flour tortillas rather then the corn tortillas could not be honored. Dinner is back in the Veranda but we did not eat dinner there. We could not face three meals a day of basically steam table foods. There is a snack bar open during the afternoon the serves hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos and pizza. The hamburgers are very unlike American hamburgers in terms of color, texture and taste and I recommend against them.

The rooms are not ok. The bathrooms have cracked tile, shower handles that don't work properly and toilets that tend to clog. You must hold the handle on the toilet down until it completes the flush. There was a small tub underneath the shower that functioned to keep water from flooding the bathroom I'm assuming. An adult could not bathe in it. There is no safe in the room, but they do have safety deposit boxes behind the front desk. We used them. The beds are impossibly hard and I had back and neck stiffness all week as a result. I was happy to get home. The rooms are very damp and musty. The alarm clock was hardwired into the wall and could not be set. Other people we talked to had similar clock problems. Why should it be a big deal to have alarm clocks that work? TV was ok. There is one electrical outlet so bring an extension cord. A woman in our group got stuck in an elevator. Not fun.

There's a lot about Ixtapa to like, though. Wide boulevards, decent restaurants, nice people.

So...if you want a sunny day eating mediocre food at a clean, barebones resort that delivers the minimal promised services and stay in a lousy room, this is the place. Personally, I've had enough here.

The food was great. The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The views are good from the hotel to the ocean and the beaches are really nice. The staff in the disco at night and also around the pool and dining areas are SUPER friendly and very quick to pick up junk and trash so it is very clean. The people trying to get you to do the timeshare thing are a little rude and shady though. They promise things and don't deliver and keep pushing you to talk to them.