I have stayed at other resorts that are more luxurious and customer focused, so I was comparing it to those the whole time I was there. First off, we did not have any items stolen and we did use the safe. As a "just in case," we only stored about half of our cash (about $250 total) in the safe at any given time.

* Check in: Upon arrival, they let us check in at 11:00am because our room was ready instead of making us wait until 2:00 or 3:00 for normal check in. The bellman walked beside us pointing out all of the restaurants and describing the shows that would take place later that night.

* With 440 rooms, the resort is fairly large. We got lost several times the first day or two.

* The numerous large, curving pools were very cool. We would enjoy them later.

Let me give you the NEGATIVES first:

* Once we got to the room, I quickly noticed several things that I would not expect from a "luxury" resort. The door had a gap at the bottom, like with the door closed, you could roll a nickel and it would roll right out. It wasn't a huge issue, but I would not expect a gap between the jam and the door at a luxury resort. I guess it might be foundation problems.

* The room has a few more issues. The railing on the balcony was all chipped. It wouldn't hurt to contract a paint crew to come out for a couple of weeks and paint the railings.

* The bed was hard.

* READ THIS: The toilet door does not go all the way to the ground. There is, by design, a 6-8 inch gap between the floor and the bathroom door. Where is the privacy? This is probably my biggest complaint about the property. Again, not something you would expect from a luxury resort. I find it odd that more people haven't commented about this.

* They should probably have a small first aid closet/station. My wife was stung by a bee on the first day and I had to buy the $9 medicine to spray on it. Insect bites/stings happen at all resorts sometimes. But the 3-star resorts would make you buy medicine, while a 5-star would not. Paying $9 is not that big of a deal, but I'm just saying that I thought this was a "luxury" resort.

* The restaurants were hit or miss. The breakfast was the only consistently good meal we had from day to day. Mosquitos were a huge problem our first night, but then they were gone. Don't ask me why.

* There was a group of about 20 obnoxious guests at the main pool each day who seemed like a bunch of prior fraternity brothers and sorority sisters. Come on, if you want to relive that "spring break experience," stay at one of the resorts in Cancun that caters to that party / loud music atmosphere. You could definitely save quite a bit too, because they are probably much cheaper than the $450 avg/night this place charges. Fortunately, because the resort has so many pools, my wife and I could easily escape to another pool or to the beach.

* I found it insulting that I had to pay $6 to use the computer/internet for 30 minutes. They said that I could have brought my laptop and had free internet access, but I wasn't going to take the chance of it being stolen, so I didn't bring it. Again, if you are a luxury resort, maybe you should provide computers/internet free of charge for guests.

Now for the POSITIVES:

* Staff was superb. Even when I commented to the conceirge that using their "business center" for internet should be free, he agreed.

* Property was very clean.

* Towels and chairs were plentiful.

* Lobster restaurant was the best for the evening meal.

Overall, this resort is properly rated as a 4 star instead of 4.5 or 5. Seems their rates are close to that of a 4.5 or 5.

Its 34 degrees in the shade and as our taxi pulls up to the lobby area we are greeted by an immaculately dressed member of reception staff. We have arrived at the Excellence Cancun. With great efficiency our bags are immediately taken from the taxi by the bell boys and labeled up ready for taking to our rooms. Next we are greeted with 'Welcome to the Excellence Sir' and given a cool scented towel to refresh ourselves. On entering the large electric doors you enter an ice cold reception area that looks immaculate. A glass of bubbly is handed to each of our party and we are welcomed by the head concierge. Alfonso takes the time to explain that our stay will be perfect and that if we want anything he is there at our disposal. Anna the deputy manager also introduced herself to us. I feel like I have entered a very classy hotel indeed. As we descend in the lift we emerge to the Martini bar where people are sipping cocktails and SOL beers with limes on the glass edge. As we are shown our way to Spa block 2 Alfonso takes the time together with Arturo to show us some of the hotels features such as bars,theater, Gymnasium,Shops,nightclub, restaurants etc. we were given a top floor room overlooking the Spa and lazy river pool below. We could clearly see the sea with the waves breaking on the reef not far off shore. We were shown the features of our room 2304 double basin,toilet, large shower, a huge bed, well stocked mini bar with beers, cool drinks, nuts,snickers,M&M's etc and a sit down area where one could enjoy a meal. on the table was a fresh bowl of varied fruit together with a bottle of bubbly in an ice bucket. Now thats a good start to a holiday. Over the next few days we took time to visit all the restaurants. Chez Issabelle was a classic European looking restaurant with high back seats and candle lit. We had the Chateaubriand and lamb which was lovely. The Toscana, Barcelona, Oregano, Grill, Lobster house, Agave were all good and didn't have any cause for complaint during our entire 2 weeks stay. I particularly liked the Asian SPICE. There are three rooms which hold about 8 persons and you are guests at your own food show. The chef made food fun with concentric onion rings on top of each other with alcohol set on fire to simulate a volcano – very clever indeed. It was a good opportunity to talk to other guests such as two couples from New York and Washington both of who were on honeymoon.
The main pool can get a little busy but I never found it to be loud and brash like I have experienced at other hotels. We stayed generally on the far side next to the Spa where is is piped music from the Spa building and people floating slowly past on the lazy river. Towels were never an issue although it would make good sense if you didn't leave it too late to secure a sunbed.
I never heard any construction noise during my stay at all. I never experienced any ants or bugs whatsoever.. What I liked most about the Excellence is that everyone were professional well presented and helpful. The Excellence was for me just the right size. Sometimes you couldn't believe that it was probably at 90% capacity. Now I am back in a much cooler England I wish i was back there again. They have a catch phrase at the Excellence which is at the Excellence 'Todos es possible' Everything is possible. The management staff, particularly Anna, Javier the restaurant manager, Alfonso Head concierge and Silvario the drinks manager always did everything possible to ensure their guests had a fault free stay . We have stayed at the Moon Palace and Playacar Palace before. The Moon Palace was very nice but a little too big for me but the Excellence for me was the best hotel I have ever stayed at and cant wait to go back. Hasta Luego.
Any questions feel free to email me. you will have a great time there dont take too much notice of the bad reviews I dont know how they can say those things. They must have stayed at a different hotel.

We stayed at the Excellence Riviera Cancun for 1 week end of June08 for our honeymoon in a swim-up spa view room;

Over all Conclusion: as great the stay was, as bad were some things there; this is true for nearly all things at this resort;

Recommendation: we do NOT recommend this resort after all; in some areas it's wonderful and "excellent", but at the same time very basic and below 3-star standard in other areas;

the PLUS side:
+nice welcome
+they read our "special requests" (quiet room, non-smoking); we had a room in building 3; buildings around the spa are more quiet (buildings 2-5),closer to the entertainment area (building 21) means more music and people; rooms in building 6 and 9 facing to the outside of the resort have some construction noise from the opposite resort (maybe finnished in 1 year)
+great room, nicely equipped;
+twice a day room service (see also negative points)
+pools are great (some salt water, some w/o salt)
+spa is wonderful (but expensive)
+room service is very good, but ~45min. until they deliver
+restaurants are nice and have a great selection; the quality of food varies a lot, from delicious to bad quality - but the choice is huge, you just need to figure out, what you like most;
+mexican evening and beach dinner, the included one are absolutley fantastic; (you can also book a private beach dinner for 200+ USD)
+tons of employees - they are everywhere and mostly very friendly;
+wonderful garden setting
+white powdered sand beach, w/ hot sea water (87F in June)
+ X-lounge, wonderful private lounge at the beach

the DOWN site:
-the biggest minus is, that the resort has outsourced all sport activities (also the included) to another company (aquaworld); this company ONLY wants to sell it tours and activities (high priced - 46USD pP for 50min. snorkeling tour); we tried to get the included snorkeling gear and they were always out of it - for the whole week; we complained and found out, that they only have 5 (FIVE)!!! gears for the 800+ guest resort; they have 2 sailing KATS and 1 sailing boat and a few wind surfing boards for free, if you have never done it before, you need to pay 20USD for short instructions;
the only thing included is kayaking (~10 kayaks), but the sea was always very rough;
not having any snorkeling gear is very poor, as this resort is located in front of the 2nd largest coral reef worldwide;
-no complaint service, we complained but nothing ever changed or happened
-everything is excactly as described - literally, you get what it says on the point, but we totally missed the advertised "little surprises 4.5star luxury feeling"
-sea water has a lot of sea grass (beach is cleaned regularly in front of the resort), and due to wind is always very rough (high waves)
-concierge service is totally useless;
-persons at reception were very unfriendly during check-out; we wanted to leave our valuables in the reception safe. They do not have any; they just put it into the office behind the reception; our lugguage was stored outside in front of the resort (we left at 3pm and had to check out until 12pm;); the lugguage was sorted to some group, we didn't belong to, which fortunately left later then 3pm, and it was in the heat (98F and 90% huminity) for more then 3 hours - with all our toiletries in there; when we complained about it, Victor (receptionist) got very upset, telling us that this 4 diamond star hotel has a superb service;
-room service at earliest at 3pm, often later;
-internet access w/o own computer costs 3USD per 15min.
-employees are helpful and friendly, but absolutley NOT reliable; you reserve something, reservation gets lost - your problem; happened twice to us;
-Puerto Morelos is a very poor village, w/ some tourist restaurants; there is nothing picturesque (see picture);
-special tourist taxi fares; 60USD from Airport to resort, 32USD back to airport, tip not included; the price for the taxi changes, depending whom you ask, the drivers speak spanish only and the bellman tells them how much to charge;
-service people often expect you to tip them, although gratuity is included;

After all we had a nice honeymoon and also enjoyed the quiet atmosphere at the resort; too bad, the management of the resort has no idea, what 4 (or 5) star rating means! You cannot compare this 4+star resort, whith any same rated resort in Europe or the USA (except of the number of employees and the price)

My wife and I recently spent 6 nights at the Excellence Riviera Cancun (ERC) during the middle of October, 2007. We are both 28 years old, from New Jersey. Let me start by saying that we have stayed at 5 star resorts in Maui and Kauai, Hawaii on our Honeymoon, as well as the very nice Radisson in Aruba. We have also stayed at one All-Inclusive before, Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, Bahamas. We both agreed that this was our favorite vacation to date! Not because it was in Cancun, Mexico, but rather because of the actual Resort itself. Excellence is the nicest brand of Resorts we have ever stayed at. We are already looking into their other properties for our next vacation. There is another in Punta Cana, DR and they are building another in Mexico as well as Jamaica, scheduled to open in 2009. I will try to break down our trip and make it as detailed as possible. Enjoy!

Airport & Arrival – Flight from Newark, NJ to Cancun (direct) was a little over 4 hours. Security in the Mexico airport was actually very organized and detailed. I was randomly selected (on the flight home) for a security check. They pulled me aside, checked my carry on in detail, made me take my shoes off, and scanned me with a portable metal detector. This was done just as I was about to board the plane at the gate (they also do this at regular security check in). We found our transportation van outside the airport, which was booked through our travel agent. NOTE – Walk directly outside after getting your bags. You will be walking through a bunch of individual vendors on each side of you trying to get you to book your transportation through them or sell you on different activities. Just keep walking straight! The ride to the resort was a little over 30 minutes. We waited about 25 minutes for the van to actually leave, as there were 3 other couples we had to wait for.

Check In & Lobby - We pulled up to the front security gate at the Resort, where they make the driver mention each couple’s name to make sure they belong at the resort. The Resort staff quickly grabs your bags and proceeds to make arrangements for them to be brought up to your room. Check In was a breeze. Hotel Lobby is magnificent. After check in, a friendly hotel staff member will take you to your room. He will walk take you on a bit of a tour, explaining the hotel and where everything is. They do a wonderful job of making you feel right at home from the start. NOTE – The main Lobby is where the concierge is located as well as a business center with Internet. There is also a Cigar Bar in this area. A beautiful master staircase from the lobby will take you down to the Martini (Lobby) Bar.

Room – We were in Building 6, which we found to be a great location. It is in the Spa area, but was the first building you get to while walking back to your room from the pool / restaurants. We had a third floor room with a Spa / Pool view, which was very nice. It was just a junior suite room category (which is their most basic room category), and we found that it was just fine for us. NOTE - We read many reviews about people having problems with ants in their room. We did not see one ant during our stay, possibly because we were on the top floor. (Each building only has 3 floors). The room itself is spectacular -- Very big and spacious. A Jacuzzi is in every room, and is in the main part of the room near the vanity area. The shower is HUGE, they call it a Shower Closet. The toilet is in its own separate area with separate door. King size bed with canopy, kind of hard however. Nice size balcony with table/chairs as well as a cushioned seating area. Cleaning service was just fine.

TV – Good variety of American channels. Some Spanish only channels. There are 2 adult channels (37 and 38) which vary in intensity. One of them in a simple Playboy channel, and the other is very graphic. Just wanted to make mention of that so you aren’t shocked when you are changing the channels and then BOOM!

Grounds – Absolutely beautiful. Beautiful fountains and lush shrubbery dominate the Resort. You will also find cactuses and Mexican art throughout the grounds. Walkways were always clean, garbage cans always empty. Very impressive the way the entire Resort was kept at all times.

Restaurants – We found the food to be very good. I am more of a picky eater than my wife is, but I was able to find something in every restaurant we tried. Our favorite was Agave (Mexican). We ate there twice, and ate outside both nights. The Fajitas are excellent. Very nice atmosphere. We also ate at and thoroughly enjoyed Spice (Asian) and Chez Isabelle (French). Our least favorite was Toscana (Italian). We did not eat at Barcelona (Mediterranean), Lobster House or The Grill for dinner. The Lobster House and The Grill are both open air restaurants, and a bit more casual. I will get to the dress codes in the next section. There was also a Caribbean themed buffet one night outside. I believe they have something like this at least once a week. A huge breakfast buffet is served every day at Barcelona and Toscana, as they are attached. Breakfast was pretty good, but was the same every day. Good variety of fruits, eggs, meats, fishes, breads, pastries, cereals, etc. Lunch is served at The Grill and Oregano. The Grill has a nice lunch menu including sandwiches, burgers, etc. Oregano serves many different styles of Pizza, and has a lunch buffet as well. This place takes a little longer for lunch, as they make your personal pizzas to order. However grabbing some food at the buffet while you wait is the way to go. NOTE – One restaurant is closed each night. This will be noted on your daily Excellence Newsletter that is on your bed stand each night for the following day.

Dress Code – For breakfast, you will need to be “covered up.” Girls make sure you have on shorts or a skirt to cover up your bathing suit, as well as a shirt. No bikini tops are allowed. Guys, you can go in your bathing suit, but make sure you have on a t-shirt. They will not allow you to enter even if you have a sleeveless shirt on. For Lunch, you can eat at either The Grill or Oregano in your bathing suit. Guys must have a shirt on; sleeveless shirts are okay for lunch. Girls should at least cover up their bottoms. For Dinner, Guys need to be in long pants and close-toed shoes. The Grill and Lobster House are exceptions, as I believe they let you in wearing nice shorts and leather sandals. I am not 100% positive on this however, as we did not eat at either place. Girls can wear nice dresses, skirts, or pants, just no shorts. Open-toes shoes are fine for the girls. We went to change a few times after dinner into more casual clothes before going to watch one of the shows, or grabbing some drinks at any of the bars.

Bars – There are 10 Bars on the Property; Martini Bar (Lobby), Café Kafe (coffee), Blue (swim‐up bar), Sol (pool/beach bar), Cielo (exclusive Excellence Club pool bar), Alegria (dance bar), Stars (theater bar), La Habana (cigar lounge), Revive (health bar) and X Lounge (chill‐out deck on the beach). The Martini Bar is the most popular bar, as it is right in the middle of most of the restaurants. There are people at this bar all evening. It has a great atmosphere, and is located directly at the bottom of the main staircase. Café Kafe (coffee) has a self serve Soft Ice Cream machine, which is great for the late night snack after dinner or a show. There is usually a musician playing near this bar after the show ends.

Pools – There are 2 main pools. I will call them the Activity Pool and the Spa Pool. The Activity pool is much more lively (loud) throughout the entire day. This is also where the swim up bar is located. Daily games such as water polo and water volleyball are played here. Also, around this pool there are other activities such as tequila tasting, texas hold’ em, and arts and crafts. The Spa pool is definitely the quiet pool. It is a complete circle around the Spa, kind of like a lazy river. Both pools are very impressive and clean. We spent most of our time near the Activity Pool. Be prepared to be asked by the entertainment staff to participate, although a simple “No Thank You” will be sufficient enough for them not to bother you anymore. Just remember it is their job to try and get people involved, so you should not get annoyed at them for trying. NOTE - We never had a problem getting towels or lounge chairs near the activity area. And we did not get down there at 7 a.m. like others suggested you need to do to make sure you have a spot. I would say on average we got there between 9 and 10 am and got a spot every time. There are various spots around the pools to get your towels. The resort does not keep track of towels, as you can get as many as you wish. Some people do take advantage of this however.

Beach – Like others have stated before, the beach itself is wonderful, however the ocean is just okay. It was very calm, but there is a lot of sea-grass both in the ocean and that is washed up on shore. There are staff members throughout the day to try and keep up with this, but it is a tough task. The sand is very soft and white. No problems ever getting beach chairs. There are staff members that come and bring you drinks on the beach. NOTE – there are many women that will go topless on the beach. We saw about 10-15 throughout our stay. Only a couple were at the pool, most on the beach.

Staff – Absolutely the highlight of our stay at this resort. By far the best staff we have ever encountered. You honestly do not walk by a staff member without a big “HOLA.” They truly make this resort what it is. Everyone from the Bartenders to the Entertainment Staff to the Maintenance crew. The entertainment staff are wonderful. A big hello to Alfonso, Leticia, Tony and Marcus of the Entertainment Staff. The wait staff really go out of their way to become your friend for your entire stay. They remember your names and try to learn as much as they can about you. The staff really makes the entire stay very special for you. Alberto was the best!

Activities – You can do nothing at all, or get involved in many different activities, it is completely up to you. Each night you will receive an Excellence Newsletter in your room detailing the following day’s schedule. Daily FREE activities include: Tennis Clinic, Bicycle Tours, Aerobics, Tequila Tasting, Archery, Water Polo, Water Volleyball, Beach Soccer, Cocktail Lessons, Texas Hold’ Em, Towel Decorations, Bocce, Aqua Aerobics, and more. These activities are spread out throughout the day in half hour and hour intervals, depending on the activity, so you can literally do most of them if you wanted.

Theatre & Shows – A very impressive theatre highlights the nightly entertainment. There is a show every night, usually lasting about 1 hour. Some are kind of corny, but some are very good. We found it a great place to relax and digest after dinner for a bit. Great wait staff will bring you drinks so you do not have to leave your seat. Very comfortable seats by the way!

Town of Cancun – Excellence Riviera Cancun is actually located in Puerto Morales, about 15 miles from Cancun. We took a day trip one afternoon into Cancun. We left the resort about 11 a.m. After a $30 private limo took us to the town, we did some shopping and had lunch. NOTE - You can go outside the main lobby and there is usually a limo there waiting to take people wherever they want to go. You do not have to pre-arrange for a limo service. There is a flea market area and an outdoor shopping mall. We did both, but after about a half hour at the flea market, we decided to head over to the La Isla shopping mall. La Isla is about 3 miles from the flea market area, so it makes for a long walk, or a $10 cab ride. The flea market was very stressful! The shop owners do not let you walk by without trying to entice you into their store. La Isla is the place to go in our opinion. We had a nice lunch there, and did some shopping. We headed back to the resort around 2:30 and spent the rest of the day by the pool.

I hope I covered everything. Sorry for the length of this review, but I rely on this site often to make travel decisions, so I wanted to give back and detail our trip for others. I hope this helps you make your decision. I would honestly recommend this Resort to anyone! Enjoy if you decide to go!