My wife and I purchased an eversave (similar to groupon or living social) for a four night stay at the Gran Caribe Real in Cancun, Mexico. We knew what to expect because we had a destination wedding at the sister property the Gran Porto Real in Playa Del Carmen, just shy of a year earlier. As is ture of most all-inclusive properties in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico; the hotel grounds, rooms, and service were all excellent. We are frequent travelers to this region of Mexico for that reason. That being said, there are some things to know before you go! First and foremost, this is a family hotel! (this is a plus for some and maybe not so much for others, it all depends on your intentions for your vacation) But we knew that going in and it wasn't an issue for us. We were also traveling off peak season when most kids were in school so there weren't as many youngsters running around. For those who prefer an adults only experience the sister property next door "The Royal" offers even nicer accomodations, grounds etc, and a slightly more spohisticated/upscale experience. But if you are planning a family vacation then the Gran Caribe has great facilities for little ones that can enhance your stay greatly to include a small water park feature attached to the hotel.

The pool isn't the largest, in fact based on the size of the resort you would expect a larger/grander swimming pool, but it is clean and met our needs. The food at any all-inclusive can be monotonous if you're there for a long stay, but we knew that going in and it did not bother us. Be sure to get dinner reservations for the a la carte restaurant early in your stay to avoid overbooking! The bartenders are all courteous and make strong drinks and a little tipping goes a loooong way in Mexico in terms of service! A few dollars here and there is greatly appreciated by the staff and will enhance what is already impeccable service. We greatly enjoyed our stay and found everything to meet our expectations.

Side note: There are two main types of all-inclusive resorts: family resorts or adults only/couples only resorts. Just make sure you know which kind of resort you're going to before you're vacation and select appropriately for your needs. I'm sure you'll have a lovely time :)

The best food and service. Special mentions fo Roman at Marias restaurant, Filay and Enrique at Il Pescatore at Linda at the lobby bar. They each helped to make this a fabulous vacation.

We just returned from a short stay at the Gran Caribe Real-Cancun.
Pros-
Beach is WONDERFUL, beautiful.
The Staff is outstanding..take dollar bills to compensate them for their great work!
Upgraded to VIP floor beautiful room and views of the ocean and lagoon
Very Very Clean Hotel
Christien (sp?) at the poolside bar was so awesome, always provided great service and was funny too!
Outdoor Massage-fabulous
Dinner on the beach, romantic and great surf and turf meal-lovely presentation and 5 course
Marias-fantastic food, great presentation and very tasty.
Saw absolutely no time share people..good thing because I have no patience for that nonsense!!
Shows were pretty good
No hassles at the beach by vendors

Cons-
Kids Kids and More kids...there are only two pools and unfortunately the "grown up" pool was full of kids.
Pools in general blech..we spent all of our time at the beach even though I wanted to go to the pool. It was either dominated with "activities" or kids. We have stayed at several hotels in Cancun and this is the first one where the pool situation was so disapointing.
Hot water-I took cold showers the whole time we were there although we called maintenance three times while we were there and recieved no satisfaction. I asked for a reduced rate at check out due to the hot water situation and was told that they wouldn't give us one, disapointing since we had paid for the upgrade to the VIP floor, would have excepted better.
Food at buffets-mediocre and not a lot of variety, again stayed at other hotels with much better food.
Bars close REALLY early for a resort..11:00
Even though we were on the VIP floor we couldn't play pool or foosball after 10:00..really?

Misconceptions-
There are elevators at the hotel
Not loud, maybe due to the floor we were on but we didn't have issues with sound at night

Probably won't stay there again, but it was a nice relaxing stay.

My husband and I recently spent 4 nights at the Gran Caribe. The hotel is nicely staffed and very clean. The food was honestly so/so ... it seemed the food that should be hot was barely warm. We liked the Sunset Grill and the poolside "healthy" cafe. They have two nicer restaurants onsite that you can make reservations for ... note that these spots have a dress code of "casual elegance" - no shots, no tank tops and no sandals - which isn't too strict but my husband did not take anything but shorts.
We did get the time share / vacation discount program sales talk ... but they were nice and not too pushy about it. The pool is beautiful and they had pool volleyball and other activities poolside each day.
The spa is nice ... they have the option of a 25 minute massage for $40

We went on the Chichen Izla tour - which was a pretty cool archeological site ... note though that they stop at a Mayan village of sorts on the way where you can purchase items if you wish, and they are a little pushy. Also when you get to the site there are people Everywhere trying to sell their stuff which was annoying. You can no longer climb the pyramids there, only look. On the trip back they stopped at a very cool sink hole swimming spot that was beautiful.

So overall a nice trip. I would stay here again.