this is by far the worst hotel we have ever stayed in. I have travelled all over the world and stayed in many 5* hotels and this hotel does not come any where near a 5* I would just about give it a 3*.
First of all let me start with the bad reports first.
1) The loud speaker around the pool was going from morning till early evening non-stop and because the rooms wasn't sound proofed you could still hear it with the patio doors closed. then there was the noisy Americans with their children running up and down the corridors and banging on the doors to be let in, there was more americans in this hotel than any other nationality apart from a few canadians and 2 more english besides us.
2) When we arrived at the hotel, we wasn't allocated the room that we booked, with the tour operater about 3 months before our arrival, we was put in a room at ground floor near the beach and pool we asked for the second floor when we booked our holiday, so the day after we got moved to block 19 on the second floor. the room wasn't any different other than it was a bit further away from the noisy pool and beach.
3) 2 days was wasted because the rep didn't turn up at the reception the day after arrival. This iformation was given to us on a ticket by the transfer bus driver. When he didn't turn up, the concierge rang him up and a girl answered the phone and she said that he would be there the day after,again he didn't turn up. It was just by luck that we met the other english couple and for some reason they had been given the right information. Anyway it turned out that all the meetings was in the convention centre. Why didn't the concierge tell us that all the reps was not allowed in the reception because the mananger refused to let them in.
4)At the bar we was served tea, coffee and alcoholic beverages in plastic cups, you would never be served in plastic containers in any 5* hotel.
5)Room furnishings was not 5*
6)The food in the buffet resteraunt was boring (mostly pasta) and it was served cold.
7)Room safe was broken on arrival, this was reported but never sorted out.
8)The quite zone was quit up to 5 days of our departure then the noisy Americans came along guzzling there beer or whatever they were drinking then it wasn't a quite zone anymore. By the way if you want a sun bed either on the beach, quite zone or round the pool you will have to get up at the crack of dawn because everyone puts there towel on the sunbed probably goes out for several hours with there towels still on the bed so that no one can take that sunbed. The best thing to do is sit round the area where you want to be for around an hour, if no one turns up on one of the beds move the towel and get on it yourself
9) Last of all I have never complained about the Americans before, in fact I have several californian friends.but after this holiday I have found that when they are on holiday they are very inconsiderate of other poeple. The things they should remember is that other poeple have to use the rooms after them and that someone is in the room next door.

Now I will give you the good reports.
1) The waiting on staff throughout the hotel was exellent especially Antonio in the buffet resteraunt and the room cleaner.

My wife and 2 boys (7 and 11) just returned from our trip to El Cid Feb. 3. This is by far the best place we have stayed and we have stayed at nice places such as Dreams and so on. The pool there is just unbeliveable and I thought my 2 boys were gonna wear the jumping rock out! The food there was excellent and I dont believe there was anything there that I ate that wasn't good! They have top shelf drinks and the friendliest staff, they always had a smile on their face:) This is not the place to go if you want a big resort because it is some what smaller, but perfect if you are with kids because its much easier to keep tabs on them. The land scaping there is perfect not a blade of grass out of place. We upgraded to the 1br suite which was a huge plus for the added TONS of room. The suite was over 750 sq. ft. which is very very comfortable for a family of 4. We are definately making plans to visit another El Cid whether it be Riviera Maya again, Cozumel, or Mazatlan.......I am sure we will not be let down! Thanks again El Cid for a wonderful trip and we will be seeing you again:)

Shane

We just returned from our awesome vacation. Can't say enough about the El Cid resort itself, clean grounds, friendly waiters and bartenders, great food, and so on.

However, we booked our vacation through a "promotional offer" on the website and were told we had to stay at a "private VIP suite" that was not part of the main resort. We were also told it was 150 feet from the main resort, so that didn't sound too bad. Well, this building was about a mile from the main resort and we ended up walking the distance often because there's NO PHONE to call for a golf cart to pick us up. The rooms were ok but not nearly as nice as the ones at the resort. Just beware of what you're getting if they try to put you in El Encanto.

I'm thinking if we had purchased a timeshare, er, I mean, vacation club membership, that space in the main resort would've suddenly been available for us ...

Great resort though and we would go again if we could stay on site!

Just returned from a week at El Cid..... Very Very nice resort, ground are excellent, food good, drinks good, pool the best i have seen in a while, beach excellent.

Now to the BAD point..... When you frist walk in after traveling ALL DAY, you get an UPSALE... because they dont have any rooms togeather for a group of 6 and the beds dont work for the group (like a king bed for a family of four) We dont do a family bed at home why would we do one on vacation? So after getting quoted additional $250.00 per room for the week for a ground floor. THEY have rooms togeather and with the beds we need. We got that down to $100.00, but i was ticked off about the up-sale. We went to the room and my wife has nevere seen a more dirty room in her life. every thing was not clean. Our friends in the next room had a very clean room. Everything went wrong that night and we complained. But nothing happened. Next day we met with the Orbitz rep and told him what happened, we went to the front desk and talked and talked. After 30 minutes was told to come back and they would tell me what would happen. Alll I wanted was the credit of the $100.00 per room. I went back and was told they would credit credit card account the $100.00 (1,400.00 pasos). I was happy with that and the rest of the trip we had VERY GOOD service, cleaned room, excellent time.
I would go there again, but the UP-SALE at the very first part of the trip just does not set well with me.
SO...... we get home...... It is 2 week later and guess what??????? We are STILL WAITING for the CREDIT on the credit card. I will give it another week and then all-heck will break lose.....
PLEASE be aware of the up-sale and hold your ground...... They have rooms but they want to get extra money for them. Talked to many people there and same thing happened with the UP-SALE SCAM. People at the front desk are RUDE.