A beautiful hotel. Our suite was lovely, and they certainly have no lack of staff. They never pass you without speaking. The morning breakfast is just "to die for" and I usually don't eat breakfast. Poolside service is fabulous, and the spa is top-notch! Highly recommend!

We returned from a lovely trip to Cancun where we stayed for five nights at the JW Marriott in Cancun over the MLK weekend. We had our choice of places to stay and had narrowed it down to the JW Marriott vs. the Ritz Carlton; in the end we decided to save about $1000 and opted for the JW Marriott in a club level oceanfront suite. It was absolutely the right decision for my family (me, my wife, and two young children ages 3 and 1).

The hotel is a short 20 minute ride from the airport and ground transportation is included in the club level privileges. A man with a placard was waiting for us outside the arrivals area and the childrens' car seats we requested were in the van as had been promised by the concierge. At the hotel, we were immediately escorted upstairs for check-in at the club lounge, which was serving afternoon tea at the time--a cold drink and snacks were a nice welcome and then off to our room.

The hotel is laid out in an inverse Y configuration with the the oceanfront suites positioned right on the beach. We were in room 1202 which faced east and south giving us morning sunrise and evening sunset views -- absolutely spectacular. The room itself was huge with a spacious foyer leading to a large combined dining/living area with wet bar and half bath. Through the sliders was a sizable covered terrace with outdoor seating for four around a table. Off the living area were french doors leading to the dressing area that connects the large marble bath to the bedroom. The bathroom had a good size soaking tub, two sinks, separate toilet area, and shower with two heads -- great water pressure at all times! Off the large bedroom that features a super comfortable king bed, two chairs, and a large desk, was another balcony with two chairs perched over the beach. The overall room decor was upscale Marriott with neutral tones and dark green carpet. Most importantly, the room was very clean, non smoking, and reasonably well maintained given that these suites are probably predominantly booked by families with young children (like mine) who may not be so gentle on the furnishings!

One nice thing about the suites is that there is an elevator right outside the door taking you down to the pool area and beach. There are two separate heated pool areas. A smaller one exclusively for adults and a very large internectine one with two children's areas. The way this pool is laid out, there are plenty of chairs for everyone and we never felt crowded. There are also two smallish hottubs (maybe 10 people max) and an infinity edge pool that blends into the ocean in the distance. The poolside Beachwalk restaurant offers tasty lunch fare and a great kids menu. There are two sets of stairs from the pool area that descend onto the soft, white Cancun sand with plenty of additional beach chairs and thatch umbrellas for everyone. When we were there the surf was very rough, but the water warm enough for the kids to still have fun running in and out of the waves! Even in January the sun is quite intense so pack plenty of sunscreen.

The club lounge is located on the 14th floor of the property and features five separate food services with multiple tables and sofas. For the most part it was not too crowded, but we were always there early on account of our kids' eating schedule. Uniformly we found the food to be fresh and tasty. Every evening they feature heavy hors d'oerves (which we made into a meal) from the different on-property restaurants at the JW Marriott and adjacent Marriott Casa Magna. All of the concierges at the club level were so nice, especially since we created a lot of work for them with our kids! Liquor is complementary at night.

We had read many reviews of the property--some were good and some were mixed. People noted that "it wasn't the Ritz Carlton." Maybe so, but the Ritz is a different price point, and I'm not sure it would be worth it. All in all we found the JW Marriott to be a superb value, especially the club level. Every person we encountered was unfailingly polite, friendly, and helpful--even the evening turn down lady who had to change all our bed linens when our daughter threw up in our bed! For families with young children, the hotel is very accommodating and we will certainly return!

We stayed for few nights and the service was great. Very easy check in and check out. We really enjoyed the grounds of the hotel and the restaurants. Stake house was excellent. We had breakfast on outside table and it was a fabulous experience. The actual interior of the rooms was ok. The view from our room was spectacular. The infinity pool was nice but the water in the pools was overall cold.

Some of the reviews I saw on this hotel were pretty bad, I'm glad I saw them after the fact. I just got back from there, my husband travels a lot so we had points with which to stay there, so I cannot comment as to price. He is a preferred customer with Marriott, so we were even upgraded to a suite, which was HUGE!!! There were two bathrooms, a living room and huge room and bathroom. We were in room 841.
I thought the breakfast buffet was pretty expensive ($30/person), so we grabbed a bus to the Kukuklan mall and had a much more affordable breakfast every day. The bus is like $.80 and the food was really good. We did have the breakfast buffet at the Marriott on the last day (just to try it out), and it was good......just not worth $30/person too me, I'm a bit on the cheap/frugal side.
The beach was gorgeous, the pool was great....on occassion I did have to flag down the staff to get us something (which bothers my husband, but I am a little more 'who cares' about that stuff). They staff was very sweet.
We went with our 19-month-old daughter, so we didn't go out late at night. I understand from other guests I spoke to that they have great childcare services, however, I leave my kid with NOBODY I don't know except family, I don't care if they give their nannies cavity checks.

The Kukulcan mall was pretty foofie, they had nice shops and there is also an Italian restaurant there where we ate dinner (I wanted wine, and something close by the hotel) and I had THE BEST shrimp pasta there, it was great.

All in all, I would definitely go back to the hotel, it was very nice and I really LOVED our room....I'm pretty low maintenance (I think anyway), so as long as I have a clean room, I'm all good and would definitely recommend this place.