My husband and I chose to stay at El Dorado Royale after doing a lot of research on Tripadvisor. We were celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary and were looking for an adult all-inclusive. I was prepared for all the possible downfalls of the resort that I have read in previous reviews, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the resort made our stay almost perfect. I'll break my review down into sections to make it more thorough.

The Cancun Airport:
First and foremost, DO NOT make eye contact with the vendors that stand in the area between baggage claim and the transfer area! They stood around like vultures just waiting to attack! I'd been warned by a previous poster, so we didn't have any trouble, but I saw them bothering a lot of people. The baggage claim area and transfer area were fine, but the walk-way between was a little scary!

Check-In:
We arrived at 12:30 and were immediately greeted by a glass of champagne and a cool washcloth. They took our luggage and we checked in, which took less than 5 minutes. We were immediately taken on a tour of the resort by golf cart and were dropped off at the casita check-in. While there, we were served more champagne and were told our room would be ready in 30 minutes (at 1:30), which is terrific since check-in technically isn't until 3:00. They took us by golf cart to the nearest beach bar so that we could enjoy ourselves while we waited. Once we did get into our room, the bell boy arrived less than 10 minutes later with our bags. It was all very quick and smooth.

The resort:
The grounds and beautiful and immaculate. All the plants are beautiful and I don't remember seeing trash anywhere. The resort itself is very long, but not very wide. You could walk from one end of the resort to the other in 20 minutes or less. As stated before, there are golf carts that come by "stops" every 20 minutes if you don't want to walk. Also, many times we walked, we would be passed by the golf carts, and they would always offer us a ride. The restaurants are well-placed throughout the resort, giving you choices near your room or further away if you are willing to walk. We really enjoyed the resort's gym. My husband and I were able to work out on the elliptical and treadmills every day for 30 minutes without having to wait for the equipment. The best piece of advice I wish I had known about is to pack bug repellent! The mosquitoes are bad at night time and we retreated to our room earlier than we'd hoped most nights because they were eating me up!

Staff:
We never had to deal with any rude staff. They were all polite, eager to please and most spoke very good English. Everyone was friendly. We were able to find out about some of the best restaurants from our turn-down maid, who didn't speak English, but was willing to put up with my not-so-great Spanish. :) We tipped the people who made our trip unforgettable (our casita bartender, our maid, the bell boys, and our turn down maid), as well as anyone who provided great service at restaurants or bars. However, tipping is not required or expected and I rarely saw other people doing it and they received the same great service.

The casitas:
My husband and I stayed in the casitas based on the room amenities, as we were looking for a romantic vacation. The room was beautiful! I had booked an upstairs casita because I wanted some extra privacy on our balcony and it was perfect! Every one of our needs was met perfectly. Our favorite parts of the room were the outdoor shower (it is fresh water), the balcony bed for afternoon naps (the sides are draped with chiffon to provide protection from the bugs), and the beautiful canopy bed (that also provided some protection from the air conditioner, which you do have a control for, but still blew directly at me). :o) We had daily maid service and a daily turndown service with aromatherapy. Although we only tipped our maid on the first day, we received fresh flowers and towel animals every day. The jaccuzzi worked well and we enjoyed watching dvd's(from our concierge's dvd collection) every night. We did have a leak in our bathroom and a few sugar ants, but we reported it to our concierge and it was fixed within the next few hours while we were at the pool. Later that day we received a courtesy phone call to make sure that it had been correctly fixed. Each section of casitas have their own pool with swim up bar. We loved the proximity to our casita and our bartender (Abel) was fabulous. If you get to meet him, have him make you a Riviera Maya (1 part Midori, 1 part pineapple juice, and 1 part strawberry daiquiri...delicious!). The casita pools are available to all hotel guests, and they were typically much quieter than the main pools. I was able to sit on the steps to the pool and read a magazine while tanning and enjoying a drink... it was great! We also loved the availability of the beach palapas in the casita section. My husband and I wouldn't reserve one until after lunch and never had trouble finding an available one in front of our casita section. As for casita guests being able to make reservations at the restaurants, we did chose to make 7 pm reservations every night. However, I did not see anyone having to wait for a table during our entire stay. The resort was only 17% full during our stay, which may have had some impact. We were asked once or twice about attending the time share meeting, but we declined politely and firmly and were not bothered about it again.

The Beach:
The beach was beautiful and clean. The sandbags aren't really a distraction and we saw many people snorkeling around them looking at the artificial reef that they have formed. The resort suffered a lot of damage when Hurricane Wilma hit several years ago, so the sandbags are there to help protect and re-build the beach, so they serve a terrific purpose. The beach in the casita section is rocky, so I'd recommend keeping on your shoes, but the sand is softer on the beach in front of the hotel area.

Anniversary/Romance Packages:
As part of our anniversary package, we received tuxedo strawberries on our first night we arrived. We also received complimentary use of robes and slippers, as well as a bottle of champagne. The champagne did not come on the first night, but we contacted our concierge and received our bottle later that day. We also received a complimentary 1/2 hour massage lesson that was wonderful. On our final night, we had our candlelight beach dinner. It was romantic and beautiful, being directly on the beach and having the saxophonist playing for us nearby. They offer a lobster dinner for an extra charge, but we chose to have the fondue and salmon instead, which was unbelievable!

Bars:
The bars were great! We never had to ask for top shelf liquor b/c they automatically used it. All of the bartenders were friendly and we never had to wait in line for a drink. One of my favorite bars, outside of our casita swim up bar (Papagayos), was Guacamayas, which had swings! They were fun, especially during the nightly entertainment.

The restaurants:
The restaurants at this resort are amazing! Many offer a 5 course menu, but you can order as you please. There were many times my husband and I chose to only order 2-3 of the courses and they were never upset. Also, even when we chose to have the 5 courses, we were able to complete a meal in less than 90 minutes each time, most were less than an hour.

For breakfast, we ate at Kampai, Cocotal, and Fuentes. Our favorite was Fuentes, by far. Kampai's breakfast is mostly by order only and my husband was hoping for a buffet, which is what Cocotal and Fuentes had. Fuentes had a broader selection and was closer to the resort gym, so we preferred that restaurant.

For lunch, we ate at La Isla, Cabana, Jo Jo's, Kampai, and we had room service. We really enjoyed La Isla and Jo Jo's b/c they are both open-air restaurants, but are kept shaded and cool. The only restaurant I did not enjoy was Cabana, which was hot and the food was not as good. The room service was fantastic, they arrived much more quickly than they had promised and the food was hot and delicious.

For dinner, we ate at Kampai, JoJo's, Cocotal, and the Candlelight beach dinner. Kampai had the best sushi we've ever had, JoJo's had amazing seafood (try the Jamaican stone pot), Cocotal had the best chocolate dessert I'd ever had, and the fondue at the Candlelight beach dinner was to die for. I loved every bit of our meals. It was fun to try some new foods and wonderful to endulge in the 5-star type meals.

Check-out:
Our bellboy arrived 5 minutes earlier than our scheduled time to get our bags and he even walked up the stairs to get them. We were able to eat and enjoy 1 last drink right before our transfer left at 2:30, even though check out was at 12, which is wonderful for the resort to allow. We were allowed to wait inside the air conditioned lobby and when our transfer arrived, a bell boy came in to get us.

Overall:
I would highly recommend this resort to anyone looking for a relaxing, romantic vacation. Every one of our needs was anticipated, or met very quickly when we asked. Any small problem was fixed quickly and I can't say enough good things about them!