Having never been to Cancun, we didn't know what to expect. We arrived at the beginning of Spring break. The hotel staff was extremely friendly and hard working. Most knew understandable English, although it was helpful to learn a little Spanish for pleasantries. The hotel was clean and in tip top shape. The gardens were lovely. The guests were very friendly and many of them seemed to be old friends. I highly recommend the scuba dive shop across the street for a day of fun. They, too, were very pleasant and professional. Our room was always clean and the hotel was quiet. Not a place for young spring breakers! Thankfully! I traveled with my 19 year son, his girlfriend, my 47-year old sister and 69-year old mother and everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. The bus stops right outside hotel for a quick trip to Walmart or any place along the beach. I know we will return. We had a wonderful time! It's on the quiet side of the ocean so not a lot of wave action, but this was a good thing. The other beach front hotels were almost impossible to swim at because of the high waves.

I recently stay at the Royal Resorts Club International de Cancun. This is a time share with the worst management I have ever witnessed. They hotel staff woke us up early Saturday morning of a three day weekend stay. They insisted that we move hotel rooms at that very moment because some was using our room as a time share. They gave us no prior warning although they claimed they put a note under the door and mentioned this at check in (they did neither). After discussions with the manager whom had no concern or remorse he forced us to move right then. It was now 9am. When we went to the next room it was in complete disarray I am sure b/c they had just kicked someone else out. After discovering this, the manager agreed to let us stay in our old room until they got it cleaned up (how generous). When we asked for a complementary breakfast while they cleaned the room he again refused. Sleep less and pissed we proceeded to the beach where after ordering a drink on our room card the waiter did not return for two hours after repeated requested for our room key.

Aside from the dismal service the hotel seems as if it was designed by M.C. Esher. There are random ramps and bridges from building to building, and the stair wells never span more than one floor. If you had to go up two floors you would have to find a stair case, go up a floor, and then find the stairs to another floor and if you were lucky you hand not gone over a bridge to another building finding yourself lost in the poorly numbered system.

The one bright spot was Geremia (May be off on the spelling) the doorman. He was welcoming and always remembered our names.

My friend and I chose to stay here after reading horrible reviews on the Holiday Inn Arenas since that was the original hotel. I am SOOO glad we switched. This wasn't an all inclusive resort like the other BUT I think it was better that way because we all don't eat/drink that much so we didn't feel obligated to stuff ourselves silly to get our money's worth.

We were planning a trip for 5 (ladies), and this place was PERFECT for us because we each had a comfy place to sleep. When we got out of the cab, the lobby was so pretty and cozy! I went to check-in and there was a little problem at the front desk since they couldn't find my reservation, but I did have my voucher (from CheapCaribbean.com) and they made a bunch of phone calls. It took about 15-20minutes to check in but Jose was very nice and gave us a room on the 1st floor that had a pool view. We walked to our room amazed at how cute the exterior of the villas looked and how pretty the pool was...We're a group of 24-25year olds and didn't notice very many young adults like ourselves. We noticed a bunch of families and probably older ladies and gentlemen ranging in age from 40-60yo? That meant quiet. My friends and I appreciated the quiet.

The villa was very clean and very spacious! I loved how there was a sink and mirror in the smaller room so that we could brush our teeth, get ready, etc. without crowding up the bathroom. The toilet clogged (guilty) and when I called the front desk, someone came by after 5 minutes! Talk about quick service! Then after another 5 minutes he left and 10 minutes later the maid came by to clean up the bathroom. The entire staff is great. We didn't really use any of the silverware/plates/cookware since we mainly had leftovers and microwaved in those containers. But if you're there for more than 5 or 6 nights, I'd definitely see how you'd want to save money and cook your own food.

The resort amenities were fantastic! Free rentals on snorkel/tennis gear, golf clubs, and towels. Also free sailboating lessons and once you complete that, you can take the sailboat out for an hour at a time!!! Sweet! The recreation/sports desk staff was always so nice! Again, A+ service!!!! We decided to take a sailboat lesson on our last full day since it was the day we dedicated to relaxing (not going on any excursions). Elias (?) was our sailing instructor and the winds were pretty strong so he took us out one by one (2 ppl can fit on the boat). He was very nice and even serenaded us. Lol. I'm terrified of drowning, so he made sure I was comfortable. I had a wonderful time. The ocean is so pretty.

Since this is a timeshare resort, they have a "sister" resort - The Royal Sands. They have free shuttles that run every 2 hours to and from VCI and Royal Sands. We didn't know that it was even worth going to the Royal Sands because we were so pleased with our hotel. We decided to check it out after another VCI guest told us we wouldn't be disappointed! He claimed that the Royal Sands beach and pool put VCI's to shame. "OK" we thought, let's go. OMG. HE WAS RIGHT! Although the VCI pool and beach are cute... ROYAL SANDS has an awesome pool and beach (check out their tripadvisor review since this review is for VCI).

The beach is nice because it is calm (no waves) and the sand is soft. The pool is nice because no one was ever in it but I don't think it's heated so be prepared. Lol. There's always a taxi waiting outside so finding a ride to downtown Cancun wasn't ever a problem.

One thing I liked is that they give every guest a key card that also works as a charge card (no cash in the resort) so each guest can make his/her own payments at the end of the stay! They are more than happy to split checks at the restaurants. OH! And you can use the card to buy stuff (i.e. drinks and food) at the sister resorts too!

We stayed for 4 nights. The restaurant La Palapa was pretty tasty considering we didn't have to walk or take a cab ride out. Prices are reasonable too. They have a convenience store that we bought some mosquito repellent from. They had almost everything you could think of from bacon to nailcutters. And also medicine (pepto/tylenol/etc). That was nice to have when we wanted some ice cream. haha.

For a group of young ladies, our parents were worried about our safety. I can tell you now that the staff at VCI were very professional, polite, and attentive. They don't allow outside visitors to stay over, which is comforting that not just anyone can walk in. All in all, VCI was a great deal (we only paid 85.00 per night ... Split 5 ways, that's less than 20 bucks per night!!! Sooo worth it. I only wish I could have stayed longer to experience Royal Sands amenities as well because it's a bigger resort and their pool is heated. =)

OH! They made sure to let us know that we should put ANY of our valuable items/documents in the safe. We followed this rule and nothing was ever taken from us. The safe is a decent size. Housekeeping always did a SUPERB job cleaning. We made sure to tip every day (well, kinda. we missed one day. sorry!).

If I was looking for a really fun/crazy spring break fling, I wouldn't return here considering the majority of the guests are older. But for this vacation we were a group of girls looking to relax and unwind from our busy work lives. And VCI succeeded in helping us to do just that.

Just returned from a week at Club International (or VCI). Overall we had a great time. For some background: this was the 15th resort we’ve stayed at in Cancun and the Riviera Maya and we’ve stayed in a wide range of choices in both the EP and AI categories. We’re in our mid 30’s and we took our 1 year old and 4 year old and chose Club International based on priced, good reviews, and the need for a calm beach and 2 bedrooms.
I’ll try to break down my review on value (price paid for what we got). I found the resort to be a 3-3.5 star resort in comparison to other Cancun strip resorts, but for what we paid (about $100 a night) I found it to be a 4.5 star resort for value.
Check in was very simple. We asked and tipped for a good room(we actually booked through a vacation web-site, and not an owner, so we didn’t know what room we were getting until we arrived – I have no idea if the tip helped or not, but I was pleased with the location we were given). Interestingly they give you a room card and let you charge everything on the Royal properties without requiring you to give them a credit card first. Our bags showed up promptly in our room and they immediately brought a crib and high chair.
Rooms: I’ll give a B- grade. They were furnished and updated fine, but they were noisy. We had a 2 bdr, 1 bath –B unit. Unfortunately, the bdr. with the two single beds gets a lot of noise from people walking by and the workers pushing carts is very noisy. It was just too loud for our 1 year old to sleep in there peacefully so we ended up with the crib in our room. We also had to run the fan on high to have enough white noise to drown out the room next to us (the fan was loud). Beds were a little hard, but not bad and typical for Mexico resorts and they had plenty of pillows. The kitchenette was a blessing to have and all the appliances were in good working order. We enjoyed our balcony that overlooked the pool and we could even see a bit of the ocean. The rooms can be challenging with a 1 year old as the table is glass and of course the floor is tile so keep that in mind if you’re traveling with little ones. Also, the crib was very low and we had to keep a close eye to make sure our baby didn’t dive out of it when he woke.
Pools: B-, There are two pools – one has a nice kid’s area which ranges from 2-3.5 feet or so the other is about 4.5 feet throughout. The kid pool worked out great for our two kids as it was deep enough for our 4 year old to practice her swimming and feel comfortable. The only downfall was they were freezing cold and the kids pool got shaded by 3 or so. My 4 year old got earaches from swimming in the cold water (I get the same things), so that was kind of a bummer. While the pools were smaller by Cancun standards I loved the fact that there was plenty of chairs available at our pool (what I call the “pool to person”ratio was excellent!) – I really appreciated it when we visited the Sands and saw how crowded the area around there pools were. Plus they had the good mesh chairs – I hate those plastic white ones.
Service: B , I thought the service was great, but I’ve found the service at most Cancun resorts to be excellent. Maid service was exceptional and we tipped heavily at the end of the week. Restaurant service was hit or miss. Bellhop and luggage handlers were prompt and helpful. Maintenance was very quick when we called to have our safe fixed. The guys that handed out the towels and worked at the laundry were very nice and helpful(laundry was nice to have and was one reason we were able to pack so light). I did like so many things that make life easier when on vacation: the aforementioned laundry, the shuttle service, on-site grocery store(pretty expensive by the way – at least twice of what most items were in town), DVD rentals, etc. At first I was getting annoyed by the soft sell of the interval ownership and felt the welcome on Sunday morning and beach party were a waste of time(though beach party had free food and drinks)! However, once I told the guy assigned to us that there was no way I was buying he left me alone.
Food B+, I thought the food at La Palapa restaurant was generally very good and the prices very reasonable. We ate lunches and dinner there, but didn’t try the breakfast which I also heard was good. My daughter enjoyed the kids menu which was very reasonably priced and is often hard to even find in Cancun. She had the hot dog and hamburgers. We tried the club sandwich, chicken sandwich, and the Mexican treat for two for lunch – all good. For dinner we really enjoyed the tequila, coconut, and grilled shrimp, and fajitas. Soups and salads were all good, desserts were yummy(and we generally don’t care for desserts in Mexico). Ironically, the only big disappointment was the Mexican buffet night – just a really poor effort. I felt like I was at a bad all inclusive with a lot of mystery dishes even the fajitas served then weren’t as good as the dinner off the menu. Drinks were all good and reasonably priced.
Beach – C, While the beach was nice and deep and good to lie out on the there was lots of sea grass in the water and some rocky areas. Plus, it’s actually so shallow that you couldn’t even swim in the area roped off.
Grounds – A, I loved that the resort had well manicured grounds with mature palm trees around the pool and on the beach. I really noticed the contrast when I visited the Sands and noticed how cold and sterile it seemed in comparison.
Some other general things: There wasn’t much going on for entertainment at night which was fine with us. My daughter liked the bands at the restaurant when they had them a couple of nights and watching the “pirate” ships every night when they pulled out for their excursions. This place is best suited for older folks and families though sometimes those two groups sometimes come into conflict(I felt sorry for the older couple that had a room by the kid’s pool and went inside everyday when we arrived!). I can’t quite put my finger on it but I felt more comfortable at this resort – the last few times in Mexico I felt like I really needed to watch every receipt and count my change etc. Because this resort caters to the same clientele year after year you never feel like you could get scammed or slighted at this resort. They really cater to Americans here as you can tell from everything by what brands are offered in the resort grocery store to presenting your dinner bill in USD. I guess that can be perceived as either good or bad.
One last note if you’re thinking of booking this resort and want to stay at the top of the 7 I would also take a look and compare to the Ambiance Villas where you can also get 1 and 2 bedroom rooms. I would say they are very comparable. We stayed at the AVs last year and my wife liked it a little better there she thought based on how great the beach and ocean were there and our particular room that we had was huge. I gave the nod to Club International based on the general upkeep of the resort. Definitely price out both and compare.