First of all, I have to say that the resort is absolutely beautiful and perfectly clean. The main problems my wife and I had with the resort really are attributed to our travel agent who neglected to tell us three important bits of information about El Dorado (a gourmet all-inclusive and not a regular all-inclusive) that are quite different than the seven other all-inclusives which we have encountered. We feel everyone needs to know this information before booking a honeymoon there because we never would have stayed at this resort had we known the following:
1-If you're not staying at The Casitas, the more expensive sister resort that is attached to El Dorado, you are not permitted to order a bottle of wine or champagne to your room. Well more correctly, you can, but it is a $35 charge. This may not sound like a big deal to some, but I have never experienced this before in an all-inclusive, especially one that is so expensive.
2-No one, including guests at The Casitas, is permitted to eat food by the pool or at the beach. Again maybe not a big deal for some, but it was for my wife and me. Every time we were working on our tan and got the munchies, we had to dry off the sweat or pool water, put our shirts on, and then go to the pool-side bar/restaurant. No one is permitted to take food from one of the outdoor (non-fancy) bars/restaurants down to the beach or to pool side
3-If you're not staying at The Casitas (remember, the even more expensive attached resort), you are not permitted to make a reservation at the four really nice restaurants. Casitas guests can. My wife and I attempted to go to the nice Italian restaurant our first night there. We were all dressed up and arrived at 7:30 P.M. When we asked for a table for two, we were told they were not seating any more guests for the night. We were not sure what to say since at this point we knew we couldn't make reservations and didn't think anyone could. Obviously we found out we were second-class citizens since we were not staying at The Casitas even though we spent a good amound of money for El Dorado.
In closing, we would definitely not recommend this resort for the three reasons stated above. I wouldn't have been upset if this place was a three star or worse, but since it was highly rated by everyone, we felt these three factors put a damper on our honeymoon. We ended up leaving El Dorado the morning of the third day and transferred to Aventura Spa and Palace, which we ABSOLUTELY loved and recommend 100%..

Let me begin by saying that I believe that if you are going as a couple to this resort, then your experience may be quite a bit different. We were a large group for a wedding. There were several problems that were the result of booking through the "club", the group that sells you on buying weeks of discounts at the member hotels. I won't focus on those, since those were my brother's issues (his daughter was getting married). I am sure that he will be posting the issues he and his wife faced. I have three daughters to marry and I guarantee that I will not be going down this path!

From a generic, tourist's perspective, the nice thing was that the resort itself is beautiful. There are also several choices of restaurants and bars. The pool areas were very nice and everything was well kept and clean.

I was disappointed in a few things however. First, the beach was not very nice due to the many large "bags" that are in the water. They are trying to repair the beach from the last hurricanes so this is not the resort's issue. My biggest complaint is that the pool bar closes at 5:00! That's when the party is starting at the pool, from my perspective. At that time, there were no less than 50 people in the pool and the bar was closed! The funny thing is that the bar is shared with the dining room and they were serving the dining room patrons but refused to take our order! One evening, I ordered my drink before the "deadline", and got out of the pool to go to the restroom. I put my drink down by a pool chair. When I returned, my full drink had been taken by the staff but the empty cup next to it was still there! So, I went to the bar where the staff was still cleaning up. I explained nicely (I am not a complainer or a loud individual at all) what had happened and they TOTALLY ignored me! They pretended that I wasn't even there! Quite rude... And, this was not the only time we experienced this type of behavior from the staff. On the other hand, there were some extremely nice and courteous people on staff. I remember Juan that drove the golf cart. He went out of his way to make sure that we were having a good and safe time. Also the servers at my niece's reception were extremely gracious and fun. So, there were several good service incidents to somewhat make up for the rudeness.

The other disappointing thing was that several of our party's rooms had air conditioning problems, my first room included. They moved me the first night to what they called an ocean view room but that was only if you stood on your tippy toes and did unnatural things with your body to view the ocean. I had to argue my way to a true ocean view room.

The restaurants were "okay". Maybe I am spoiled with great Atlanta restaurants though. My best experience was the Mexican restaurant... La Fuentes I believe it was called. We had awesome breakfast there and dinner our last evening was fabulous. And it was the least pretentious of the restaurants and probably the easiest to get into. The service was excellent as well.

In summary, I think the resort is okay but I would not return with so many other better choices. I do appreciate the fact that after all of the horrible troubles that my family had with the wedding plans that the actual wedding was absolutely gorgeous and everything was handled perfectly that evening.

Wehad a great stay at the El Dorado Resort. I was interested after reading both positive and some negative reviews on the hotel.
I would say overall our experience was wonderful. The food was outstanding in all the restaurants and the portions were perfect to allow you to have many courses. I think some people thought the portions were small but that's what a I think a portion size should be and the staff had NO problems with bringing out extra dishes or even after the fact if you enjoyed something bringing it out again. We never waited more than 5 mins if we went before 7pm and often were seated right away.
We found the resort to be exceptionally maintained and lots of staff to help you. I was surprised to read about staff being rude in some reviews. We found the complete opposite. It also was great when you tip them (which we did at every meal and pool bartenders) that they really appreciate it and often remember your name or favourite drink.
We found no problem finding pool chairs until about 11am and then it got busy by the pools. We mostly were at the pool near Fuentes restaurant and the staff there were fun. Engaging without hassling. Games were good--some sporty, some low key fun.
The best restaurants in our opinions were D'Italia and Cocital for dinner and JoJo's for lunch. We waited one night for D'Italia for an hour. We realized early on that it's best to go to dinner before 7pm or after 9pm. This suited us really well because we ate lunch by noon and were ready for a 6:30pm dinner most nights. We were done in an hour (they don't rush you but service was prompt) and then we would either have drinks and watch entertainment or go to another resto for dessert.
We also order room service (24/7) twice and it was good and came hot.
The rooms were very nice, always clean, and spacious. We had an oceanview jaccuzzi suite.
A few things that I would caution or didn't really like:
The beachfront is NON EXISTENT. You can't swim in the ocean at all. I knew it was bad, but no idea it was that bad. We booked a trip to Xal-ha natural water park through Ibrahmi by the pool, best price after sourcing it and the trip was AWESOME.
I didn't like that you had to get dressed in either shorts/tee or full coverup to have lunch...all of it is sit down service. Sometimes you just want to grab a burger on the fly. Makes for very clean pool areas though!
I also didn't like that they charge you for wine with dinner at most of the restaurants. You could order any mixed drink and it was of course included but not wine.

Other than these things, I thought the resort and all it's ammenities were fantastic and would highly recommend it to anyone!

My wife and I stayed 5 nights / 6 days in May of 2008 at the Eldorado Royale in Puerto Morales, Mexico, and were both thoroughly impressed with all aspects of the resort. This is our third "all-inclusive" resort to visit (visited Sandals Grande St. Lucian for our honeymoon, and Puerto Vallarta for a weekend getaway), and the food, wait staff, amenities, and overall resort appearance was 5-star.

In regards to the negative feedback of the ocean "whales:" They present no problem when swimming / snorkeling, and even provide a much needed barrier between yourself and the large waves. If the so-called "whales" were not present, the sea would not be swim able, as the current is too strong.

Our only recommendation: Try a cold shot of Don Julio tequila...you'll be glad you did!