Resort in general:
The grounds as we had read are beautiful, and very well maintained. It was fun to see the flamingoes, parrots, iguanas, and peacocks (or perhaps peahens as we never saw a real display) on the grounds. We also got lost almost every day on the meandering paths but the resort is not large so it was just chalked up to “exercise”. Location is GREAT if you're a diver, but not particularly convenient to town (about 20 mins/$20 cab).
Rooms:
Our room was “Run of the House” according to AA Vacations. It was small as we had read but not tiny. Be aware that there is very little space to store anything – really just some shelves and a clothes bar built around the “mini-bar” (tiny refrigerator) . Decent amount of hang-up space with a generous number of hangars. No place whatsoever to put your luggage, so it’s going to be along the wall for the duration. No drawers at all. We’re not beer drinkers and we don’t do sugar soft drinks so we asked for water every day and diet soft drinks. We don’t even know when they did it but a couple of hours later it was done. Water was replenished every day. Yes, the beds were hard and while we like a firm bed we did ask for a bed pad after the first night. It was delivered immediately and we enjoyed the difference. The pad is fairly firm foam.
Staff:
The staff was very friendly and hard working. We were involved in an auto accident while on Cozumel and the front desk was very solicitous, arranging for a wheel chair for a couple of days, a golf cart ride back to our room after the accident, and they inquired after us later on in the week. We feel we could have had more attention if we had needed it.
Food:
We thought the food in the buffet was quite good and very plentiful. There was definitely enough variety to please everyone. We tended to head for the things that said “From Mexico” – we love Mexican food and wanted to sample what they had. We enjoyed those items almost universally. We didn’t try the American restaurant or the steak house at all but ate at the Mexican restaurant twice and thought it was WONDERFUL. Great food, great service.
Maintenance:
We had a drip in our bathroom from the ceiling twice and they responded immediately. While a lot of effort was put into it, it may be something that is just going to happen with A/C and a tropical climate. We had issues with our toilet three times and they responded immediately.
Dive operation:
Our original intent was to see Cozumel island and have a convenient base of operations for diving. We had corresponded with Dressel Divers beforehand and found them to be very professional and responsive. Diving was maybe a little pricey, but our divemasters were universally excellent. They had to cater to multiple experience levels in multiple languages and did it very well. The very short boat rides to great reefs was great.
Experience overall:
We’re actually timeshare owners and have never done an all-inclusive resort, but the Iberostar worked out better financially than an international timeshare exchange. We probably don’t think of the Iberostar as “over the top” luxury resort, but we would return any time.
