I've been to many locations in Cancun as well as Playa del Carmen, but I've never met a staff as accommodating and as gracious as the staff at this resort. Even the guests visiting the hotel were friendly and nice. That's the sign of a great resort - when all visitors are happy. We visited the Spa for a 50 minute massage. Seriously, it was the best massage I've ever had. I loved the short walk to 5th Avenue - great shops and great food too. The beach is beautiful, the rooms are fantastic, very spacious with great views of the ocean. If I wanted to go to Cozumel, the boat is right there. Outstanding location. I'm going back for sure ...

After going to Cancun years ago I had reservations about going to Mexico again. Our stay at Playacar Palace was a wonderful place to stay,the hotel was clean, the rooms a good size and comfortable.The wait staff and all the workers there were so pleasant and couldn't do enough to make you happy. The location of the hotel is in a perfect spot.A short walk to 5th ave where all the shopping and restaurants are. There was no need for a taxi. Perla, Francisco(chef) Dionicio were all great. Erik and Gabriel kept us all busy and laughing. Love,love , love it there

Resort-5 stars
Wedding-3 stars

I had my wedding at Playacar Palace in April 2011, there were 22 guests staying at the resort and an 31 people that attended the wedding. Best all inclusive I have ever been to as well as some of my quest said the same thing, we all have experience traveling. I am going to write a long detailed review of this resort because I chose this resort from all the reviews on trip advisor therefore I feel I owe it to anyone thinking of visiting for pleasure or for a wedding. I will review the resort and wedding separately as I had 2 completely different experiences.

THE RESORT!!!
Food
The food quality overall was great! I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. You have to realize that you are staying at an all inclusive and the resort is not a 5 star hotel. So don’t pay any attention to the bad reviews. I had quite a few foodies staying at the resort and they were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. It’s great that they have food at the pool bar for you to snack on through out the day if you don’t feel like sitting down at the buffet. NO ONE GOT SICK! The water is also filtered. I brushed my teeth with it and was fine. I wouldn’t recommend drinking because frankly, there is no need to since you have bottle water provided by the resort.

Service/Staff
Excellent! This is really what made the resort. EVERYONE went above and beyond for our guests. Pool service never left anyone without a drink in their hand.

I had a mis-hap with my wedding dress on the way down and was nervous about sending it to the cleaners in Cancun or even letting the dress out of my site for that matter. I sent it reluctantly but when it came back it was perfect!

Area
Perfect location! 5th avenue & the ferry are just steps away! We ate out at an Argentinian steak restaurant(SUR i think it was called) about 10 minute walk on 5th avenue, FANTASTIC! We took the ferry to Cozumel and went to the Palace Cozumel, it wasn’t nearly as nice as the Playacar. It had no beach and the buffet was more like a cafeteria. Plus, Cozumel was dirty compared to Playa Del Carmen.

Spa
The spa was great, I used the hair services & spa message. The hair service was, ok. I had a trial hair apt 3 days before the wedding. I recommend doing that. The girls spoke no english, there had to be a translator. The first time the girl did my hair it fell out by the time i got back to the resort. The second time (the day of the wedding was much better) I made it a point to tell her to use more bobby pins and she followed through with my request.

The couples massage was wonderful, however wear or bring a bathing suit for the jacuzzi portion of the massage because you can use the sauna/steam room/ and shower before or after the massage.

Rooms
We stayed in a couple of rooms, not because there was anything wrong with them but the first time we didn’t like the view(450) and the second time (550)we upgraded(with the points) to the honeymoon suite(443). They were all beautiful the first 2 rooms were mostly the same. The honeymoon sweet had the most beautiful view! The staff was so accommodating with us changing the rooms so many times, we got to know the bell hop very well (Leonardo), he was great!

Rewards points
This is a great promotion (not sure how much longer they are running it), but they also limited you on certain things. You can only use 300 of them on the spa, we upgraded because there was not much we could use it on. Some of our guests used it on the romantic dinner, they said it was something left to be desired for. Others used it on the photo session and some of the pictures, actually, came out pretty good.

THE WEDDING!!!!!!

Where do i begin!!! In the end the wedding was WONDERFUL... we ate, drank, danced and everyone had an awesome time. The decorations were beautiful and so was the ceremony. I had it on the terrace and at the north solarium (reception), if you do choose this place i HIGHLY recommend it, it was very private and you don’t have other guests staring and hooting and hollering at you. (you know how tacky some people can be)

And some people asked how I chose the Palace Playacar, simply, it was through trip advisor! All the wonderful reviews on the weddings and the resort were fantastic. I emailed a bunch of places in mexico not knowing where I wanted to have it and Palace resorts was the only place to get back to me in a timely fashion, I was sold.

They have their wedding headquarters in Miami, Lauren was my room coordinator and was the main person I was in contact with, NOT my wedding coordinator. I booked my wedding a year in advance, they sent me their wedding package of what they have/had to offer and it looked GREAT. I thought this was going to be so easy! NEGATIVE. It should really be false advertisement. Because my “wedding coordinator” when she finally contacted me about 60 days before, barely answered my emails, gave me NO input and I ended up going through Lorena her BOSS to get any answers. Basically what you see is what you get in the packet and don’t be surprised if they don’t offer any advice or input. However, I chose the amber package and it was so beautiful. My brides maids dresses were a turquoise and I did hot pink and orange accents and it matched the decorations perfectly.

I must of had bad luck with the wedding coordinators because I had 3 of them between the time I booked and the actual wedding. Wilma ended up being my final coordinator. If you get her, request another coordinator or cancel the wedding and choose someplace else. It was more stress trying to get in contact with her than it was packing for 8 nights and a wedding, it was unbelievable. Somedays she would get back to me right away other times i had to wait 3 days - a week. The way they do things is that they literally plan everything 3 days in advanced. As long as you have an idea of what you want from the packet you do all your planning 3 days before you get there.

Also, they outsource everything, so your going to pay double the price if you go through them.

On a side note, as a thank you to our guests we booked a catamaran cruise the night before the wedding. It was half the price. I definitely recommend doing that, it was so much fun and a great way for our guests to get to know each other before the wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful.

The reception- My friend took the photos and it was cheaper to have her stay at the resort to count towards the room nights and have her there as a guest than to go through their own people. Not to mention, she took photos all three days she was there, instead of hiring someone for 6 hours. We hired a DJ down there, not through the resort (Disco Movil). There was a little mis hap in the beginning but i don’t know if it was his fault or the wedding coordinators. But over all he rocked out and we danced all night! The other wedding even came over to dance with us!

The big issues that happened at the reception was that WE, the bride and groom, didn’t have a place to sit! They put us at the wrong table because they thought that we would want the ocean view. IT WAS DARK! Wilma didn’t communicate with the set up staff that we were suppose to sit with the wedding party. My mom sent an email the day before saying that this is where we were suppose to go. When I confronted her I got some lame excuse and so just dismissed it. Then an hour into the reception she left another lady (ana or analise) in charge, I don’t quite remember her name. She was awesome. But I thought it was the wedding coordinators job to do that!?!??

In the end, I don’t regret my decision to have a destination wedding at the Playacar Palace, everything was beautiful. However, I do wish I was prepared for the lack of responsiveness that I was going to receive from my “wedding coordinator” but it is Mexico and sometimes there is a tradeoff for great weather, great atmosphere, with great friends and good food. I would recommend having a wedding here just be ready to put out the small proverbial fires.

Enjoyed r stay, However, They Were Very Skimpy ON Resort Dollars Available 4 use @ the spas. Travelling W/2 Women ate up the 300 units the 1st day. Could have used a lot more 4 massages, etc. Rather than trying 2 do excursions. Would've liked 2 c more attention paid 2 the cleanliness of the beach areas. I would arrange my own transportation 2 n from the airport next time.
FGIII