After just returning from the EDR I felt that I needed to write my comments right away while all is still fresh in my mind.

Please let me start by saying mucho gracias to all of the wonderful, dedicated, hard working staff at the EDR. Everybody was more then helpful. But I would like to say a special thank you to Hugo (main pool bar), Jorge (our conceirge), Francisco (casita section bar) and Aranais (Cocotal restaurant) who truly stand out and I think went above and beyond to make our stay special. Also, a big thank you to the staff in guest relations who honestly answered some of my tough questions prior to our arrival.

Now for the nitty gritty...

My husband and I chose the EDR after reading many reviews about the resort from TripAdvisor members. We were very happy with our decision until shortly before our departure to spend 10 days @ the EDR to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary when all that seemed to be posted were negative reviews. I was a bit nervous about our choice until we arrived at the main entrance....

Our 10 day vacation started with a quick and painless exit through the Cancun airport. What a pleasant surprise. As we have been to this area several times it was the 1st time that we had NO problems whats so ever getting through customs/etc. We were quickly bussed to pick up our rental car and began our drive down to the EDR.

We were impressed as soon as we pulled up to the EDR. We were greeted by smiling faces who helped us out of the car and with our luggage. Checking in was a breeze. They were able to fulfill our request as to where we wanted to stay (building 200-OF). During our check in we were asked if we wanted to upgrade to a casita suite as there were some available. Yes, yes, yes I wanted to, but we did not!!! As we turned to receive our complimentary welcome glass of champagne, it dawned us - NO bracelet around our wrists as some of the AI's do. What a nice, unexpected surprise.

We arrived before 3pm and our room was not ready (no biggie -we're on vacation) so we were escorted by a staff member on a golf cart who graciously & relatively quickly showed us the entire resort/layout/restaurants/pools/spa/bars/etc. Once we finsihed, our room was still not ready but we were able to drop off our luggage and begin our vacation by having someting to eat and some drinks.

Shortly after 3:00pm we were in our room and all I can say is that I was so happy that we did not spend the extra money for a room in the Casita section as this room was just beautiful. It was all that we needed. It never entered my mind again to upgrade to the casita room. Our OF room was perfect. But I will also say that we met a couple who stayed in the 800 building which was considered a garden view room (and I understand it was a bit cheaper) and their view actually was of the garden, main pool and ocean.

I do not see a need to stay in the Casita section. We were able to go into one of the casita rooms and yes it was nice to have a more private balcony/terrace/patio but really......My husband and I requested that we be close to the casita section because I was told from staff prior to our arrival that we could indeed use the facilities in the Casita section and we did. And NEVER did we feel as if we were intruding, never did we feeel uncomfortable or unwelcome.

We did not experience any trouble with making reservations for dinner, but I will admit that we made reservations for our first 2 nights prior to our arrival. Our 3rd night was our actual anniversary and we went into Akumal and had dinner at LaLunita. But the next 7 nights we were able to get reservations where we wanted. Maybe not always at 7:00pm but nothing to horrible. Our favorite restaurant was Kampai as we had dinner there 2 nights. Both JoJo's and Carreta were excellent as well. Fuentes was a bit "showy" for us but he food was delicious. The mahi-mahi was to die for. Cocatal was probably our least favorite restaurant for dinner and I honestly think that is only because we associated it with a breakfast place. Which we loved for breakfast. Pure indulgence when you can have a bloody mary or a mimosa at every breakfast. Some evenings we were just to tired to dress for dinner so room service was a great option, and honestly that cheeseburger tasted really good!

All of the wait staff was superb!!! Honestly!!!! They were so on top of their job. Never did you feel rushed or hounded by the staff but some how they were always there to take away that dirty plate at just the right time and always was a new drink being brought to you when you were finishing your last sip. Just amazing.

My husband and I loved the pool bars. Just to hang out and relax. We met some of the most wonderful and amazing people/friends. And if any of you remember Tricia & John from Chicago who were celebrating their 25th-keep in touch (really).

Which brings me to chairs around the pool area. Yes, there are chair savers, but isn't that everywhere? Not the fault of the hotel staff but on rude vacationers. My husband and I never had a problem finding a chaise at the pool BUT we did not want to be around the pool itself. We opted for a more private spot off to the side (but only steps away from the pool) under swaying palm trees. This was more pleasurable to us.

We did notice alot of palapa savers as well but we were fortunate enough to get a palapa when we wanted one.

The beach is not one of the best beaches in the area, but it was fine for floating and enjoying the salt water. We were fortunate enough to have a car so we were able to drive further south and go to some of the other beaches (which are quickly disappearing do to building and growth in the area). If you are content with sitting under a palapa, reading a book and watching the waves roll in then you will be happy with this beach.

We truly enjoyed our stay @ the EDR and felt as if we were well taken care of. If anybody has any questions please contact us at FourSals@aol.com and we will try to honestly answer them for you. I do not think that you can go wrong with staying @ the EDR. I honestly cannot wait to go to their new Azul Blue in Tulum.

Now I must get back to reality and stop expecting somebody to pick up my plate, pick up my cup, make my bed, clean my bathroom, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, there is one small, itsy bitsy drawback - the cricket, water, lizard, dinosaur noises coming from the ground are NOT needed. Just to stroll along the walkway without this noise would be fine.

Enjoy, relax and have a splendid holiday.....

Well after lots or reviewing and second thoughts we went to EDR to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We were there from October 15th to the 22nd. We are in our mid-50's and from Texas. I don't know what all the bad reviews are about, we had an excellent stay. We had previously been to the Azul and had a great time, but we would definitely go back to the EDR and plan on doing so. I guess you just can't please everyone; and I know I'm pretty picky! We stayed in an oceanfront room, building 4 on the 3rd floor. Perfect, great view, you could even see the water from your bed! The third floor wasn't a problem as you don't carry your own bags anyway and the stairways were nice and wide. We requested the third floor for the best views! Building 4 was great. We didn't have the noise of a bar or restaurant in front of us, just heard the ocean! The room was beautiful, bathroom great. How much time do you really spend there? We enjoyed having coffee on the balcony or reading in the late afternoon and looking out over the water. We never had any problems with making dinner reservations, we were even able to change our minds for the next night and had no problems. The food is a little fancy for us, but we never had any problems finding something to eat, after all, isn't it fun to try new things? You're paying for it, so if you don't like it, send it back and get something else. Tropical drinks were great, the house wine wasn't that good, but it was nothing that was going to ruin my trip. Didn't feel that we were totally surrounded by people on their honeymoon, met other people our age. We really enjoyed the beach in front of our building. Had a palapa everyday, swam in the ocean and the fish were all around you. The beach whales didn't bother us, and it was very windy and rough our first two days and they really helped. They were fun to walk on and look out at the other fish. The water was beautiful! Not all of the beach is totally swimmable, but there is more than enough beach that is and a ton of pools. We used all the pools and bars, even in the casita section and never had any problems. We had no problems walking to any of the restaurants, it really wasn't as far as people were saying and we never took the shuttle except to check in and check out. We met a lot of very friendly people, the staff was excellent and couldn't have been more helpful with any questions. The grounds are gorgeous and beautifully maintained. What are people complaining about????? We never felt like it was crowded and at times were the only people in a pool or at a swim up bar. We had our anniversary dinner on the beach, it was great and they made a special dessert for us. They really cater to people and make you feel special. Daily we would walk from one end of the resort to the other and stop and jump in a different pool to cool off. I don't consider going to a resort that has a convention center a vacation place, so the EDR was just right, large enough to have all the amenties, but not too large to get lost and not be treated special. Our only bad experience was the trip to Tulum that was great, but we were misled by the Funjet rep and spent most of the time on the bus going from hotel to hotel and on a 7 hour excursion, were only at Tulum for no more than 2 hours, but that sure didn't ruin my trip! I would have gladly paid more to go directly instead of spending all that time on the bus. That was our only excursion and we were perfectly happy being at the resort the rest of the time! We enjoy staying in luxury accommodations, and felt that the EDR lived up to our expectations!

My husband and I stayed in an Ocean Front suite from Oct 11th-18th and we loved it!! We were thinking about upgrading to a Casita but there was absolutely nothing wrong with staying in the villa we were in. Our room was 511 and was very close to the main buildings. It took us less than a minute to walk to La Isla, JoJo's , and the hamburger/pizza restaurant.
The only slightly annoying part of the trip was the dinner reservation system. Our consierge, Juan, did a very good job of making reservations for our dinners, but we still got stuck eating at Coctotal two nights in a row and having room service for another two nights due to time constrictions from excursions , and availability at the restaurants. But none the less, we never ate the same food twice and it was all excellent! I personally wasn't a big fan of Jo Jo' s for dinner simply because I am not a big fan of Carribean food, and the dinner on the beach was a bit exotic for my taste. But the whole gormet experience made me try some new foods that I ended up liking. My husband and I never spent more than 30-45 minutes eating dinner, but that's only because we could never eat more than a main course and maybe a dessert. We were never hungry (and believe me, we usually eat the usual American size portions at home)!

We decided to do two excursions while on our vacation. We booked the Mayan Encounter excursion through Lomas Travel and Xel-Ha/Tulum through Best Day. Both were excellent trips and well worth the money. Just be prepared for long rides because after picking people up from other hotels the trips ended up being at least 1.5 hours each way! The Mayan Encounter was an unforgettable experience. We got to kayak to a jungle trail that lead you to a cenote (partially underwater cave). You then went swimming in the cenote, repelled down a cliff, and zip lined across the jungle. Amazing!! You will be very tired after that trip and make sure you bring water. Tulum was beautiful! You can get picture perfect views of the ruins and the ocean. It is just extremely hot and there is very little shade to block the beating sun. Xel-ha was a lot of fun. We got the all -inclusive package when booking this excursion so all the ice cream, drinks, and food were free. The food at the buffet was not that good, but edible. The snorkeling there was great and we got to see a lot of different fish. The only bad thing about the snorkeling was the cold water. This water park has fresh and salt water in the snorkeling lagoon, so when you hit the fresh water get ready.
As for El Dorado, the beach is a tad rocky but it wasn't so bad that you couldn't go in the water. We walked the beach every day and had a lot of fun exploring the tide pools between the Casita beach and main beach. There are so many sea creatures to be found that we probably spent hours looking around. The sand bags were not a huge deal either. We had three days where there was a red flag warning on the beach, and if the sand bags weren't there, then we wouldn't have been able to go in the water without being beat up.
All in all, we had a wonderful honeymoon and I highly recommend this resort. If you try not to be uptight and picky then you won't have a problem with it either. Relax! You're on vacation! We did tip everyone that served us and we only gave them $1-$2 at a time. Even with doing this we didn't give out more than $100 all week, but we also only had 4 drinks in the seven days that we were there. Also, if anyone needs transfers from the airport, we only paid $45USD per person round trip through Best Day and they were very good! Enjoy your vaction, you won't be dissappointed!

Warning: Long review (hopefully informative). My husband and I have been to Mexico 4 times in the last 5 years. We went to Aventura Spa Palace (about 60 min south of Cancun Airport) in 2001 and 2003 and thought vacation couldn’t be any better than that. We were wrong! In July 2005 we wanted to try someplace different - Eldorado Royale Spa Resort. Good thing we did, because we read on Trip Advisor just days before we left for vacation that Aventura Spa Palace got wrecked badly by Hurricane Emily and was expected to be closed well into the fall!.Our our vacation at EDR last year was so fantastic, we booked again for this year, this time booking one of the new junior swim up suites for Oct. 7-14 (last year, we had a Garden View room that was really great, conveniently located right near the main lobby and 2 restaurants.) Seeing some first-hand pictures of the swim up suites from previous vacationers clinched that decision for us.

Our arrival at Cancun airport was less of a hassle this year than previous ones, I think having a passport instead of shuffling around fragile birth certificates and driver’s licenses helped. Also the customs lines were much shorter, and they have been working on modernizing the airport over the years. Unless it was because it was October and there were less travelers (we usually traveled in July), the efficiency of the processing seemed to be greatly improved. Also we had our hotel transfers arranged and paid for in advance with Lomas Travel (excellent car service by the way) We opted for a private car to avoid stopping at numerous other resorts along the way (it’s not that much more expensive than a “group” rate, so we went for it). We were offered cold Coronas by the driver (nice start!). When we arrived, we were greeted by smiling and friendly EDR staff members, one who took care of our luggage, another who presented us with a tray of cool, moist fragrant washcloths to freshen up after the trip, and still another one to escort us to our concierge, who greeted us like we were old friends, and brought us chilled champagne. It only got better from there! Shortly thereafter, we were whisked off to our room in the golfcart, along with our belongings.

Our suite had the Jacuzzi for two, a firm kingsize bed, complete with towel art and flowers, lots of closet space, TV, mini fridge, etc. and a spacious bathroom. But the best was when we stepped out of our sliding door out the back -- onto our tiled patio, down 2 concrete steps that wrapped around the edge of all our swim up suites, then onto a shallow water ledge where your sunchairs go…and last, but not least, a lazy river about 5-6 foot wide and about 4 foot deep. We had indeed arrived at Paradise!

We were in the 5400 Building complex and had many fantastic neighbors from day 1 (there was a large contingent from the UK at EDR, and we were told that this time of year is more reasonable for them to travel. Most of them came for a 2 week vacation- lucky people!). We made friends quickly, and hung out with some of our neighbors often. We even enjoyed waiter service in our lazy river. The drinks were incredible! (May I recommend the Mango Margarita??) We had many options for swimming, relaxing and sunning ourselves…the lazy river lead to Las Fuentes pool and swim up bar, and the beach was only several hundred feet away from our room. But most mornings and a few afternoons, we opted to stay by our room. There is also a nice swim up bar and pool near La Isla restaurant, a smaller one between La Isla and the main lobby (Tucanes), and of course, there are numerous Casita swim up pools to enjoy, and a salt water pool, which by the way, is cool to observe the attractive fish in! Friends we met from Scotland were actually giving the fish little pieces of banana and the fish seemed to enjoy it!. Truthfully, I think all the pools were a bit salty…but no consequence to us.

We took advantage of room service several times during the week (breakfasts and an afternoon snack). All were delicious, very fresh and nicely presented. El Cocotal was our preferred place for breakfast out (they have buffet and menu) ; La Isla was OK. We tried the snack bars too. La Cabana was delicious, and so was the food at the snack bar near Las Fuentes, which was new, but service was a bit slow there —even for Mexican time! Oh, don’t forget to try the Healthy Bar (near the Casitas section) the smoothies are devine! We also had dinner reservations for D’Italia, twice with La Carreta, La Fondue, JoJo’s, El Cocotal, and Kampai. All the dinners were a work of art (especially the desserts!) We opted not to try Las Fuentes as we heard many disappointing reviews from people that ate there. Maybe by next vacation, they might work the kinks out! By the way, do try to make all of your dinner reservations ASAP. If you have the option of making them online, better yet.. We made only 5 out of 7 reservations in advance, and it was a little dicey to make the last 2 after we were there, plus we tried to adjust our reservation to have our friends join us. That turned out to be more of an effort than we anticipated, but the concierges did their best to make us happy. We gave them an “A” for effort!

The beach beds are a delightful refuge from the blistering sun, but as mentioned by many, you have to be the early bird to get one to use. We had no problems as we are early risers, but truth be told, most of the time we only really needed it about an hour or so, tops, and usually late morning/early afternoon. Too bad there wasn’t some type of fair rotation so everyone could enjoy it for 2 hour intervals to let more people have a chance to use it. Anyone have a suggestion regarding that? There are many more beach beds on the Casitas section side, but that is exclusively for the use of the guests in that section (as you will see on the signs in the casita areas). However, the restaurants, the use of the beach and the pools/swim up bars I believe, are fair game, at least for a little while longer.

Now we didn’t just eat and drink ourselves silly, we also did a good deal of walking from one end of the resort to the other. We intended to snorkel one day but always seemed too busy so didn’t happen. We also considered a bike ride (try the jungle tour if you can, we did that last year and it was pretty cool seeing the alligators!) but it was a little too hot to ride.We took advantage of a sunrise couples massage (with mimosa drinks afterward!) and it was worth it. The breeze coming off the beach was delightful and the view was equally as splendid.

Most people commented on the beach not being so hot. I have to admit it was a bit rocky, and the sand bags in the water are not the most attractive, but I wasn’t planning on spending my whole day in the ocean and frolicking on the beach, so it was OK with us. The rest of the resort more than made up for a less than perfect beach!

The Guacamayas Bar was great to hang out in at night with the daily shows, the great drinks and the open air atmosphere. Many daytime staffers perform in the nightly shows. I don’t know how they work all those hours and still have a smile on (so please appreciate them!) If you are going to experiment with drinks you’ve never tried before, do it at an AI resort such as EDR, at least if you don’t like it, it doesn’t cost extra! We loved sitting on the swings in the bar instead of at a table. It’s not like a wild dance club you might find in Cancun or Playa, but it was fine for us and our “new” friends. Very laid back and fun, but not insane. The last night we were at Guacamayas , a couple that had just gotten married that afternoon on the beach had an informal wedding reception right next to the bar, and we danced a bit with the bride and groom, their parents, and other friends and family, who were from the UK. Because it was especially warm that night, most of the wedding party took a dip in the small swimming pool where their tables were set up around. We opted to stay dry though! We congratulated the couple and thanked them for letting us “crash”! Isn’t it funny how you can mingle with people you have never met before when you are on vacation, and most people are cool with it? I guess people are in a more relaxed frame of mind when on vacation, and are there to just have fun, just like us.

We also visited the Martini Bar a few times, we even had the husbands order Jalapeno martinis to see if they could drink them, it was quite entertaining! LOL The chocolate martini and the Pink Lady were quite tasty, as were the Cosmos. They had a huge TV screen, where we casually watched a little soccer and some baseball in between conversation.

All too fast, Saturday came rolling around, and the thought of going back home to 50-something degree weather was too much to bear. We had a 2 pm flight, and had to be in the lobby by about 11 a.m. Our driver came to greet us and escort us to the car, and when we got outside, we were amazed to see our ride was in a Lincoln Navigator stretch limo that took up most of the length of the curb. So we drove back to the airport in style! It did help make leaving a little easier! Thank you again, Lomas Travel!

I know many Casita visitors raved about their accommodations (some even made it sound like the rest of the resort was for “commoners”) and I have no doubt their rooms and amenities were magnificent, but I don’t think you will be disappointed no matter where you stay at EDR. Every type of accommodation has its advantages, and you will enjoy them. We will be back again, and again! So if you have any apphrehensions from a few reviews by travelers who seem to find fault wherever they go, ignore them and have yourself the time of your life!

We would be remiss if we didn’t give credit where credit was due…To Pepe and Carmina in Concierge Services, thanks for taking good care of us! Also to Julio, the best bartender in all of EDR (Las Fuentes pool bar!), Gaby in La Carreta restaurant, she is very sweet, and also Raul at JoJo’s (he takes politeness to a whole new level!) Actually just about all the staffers, from the waiters to the spa attendants, the bartenders and various other staff members, thank you all for making our stay most pleasant!

And last but not least, to the wonderful new friends we made while we were here: Sharon and Ivan from Scotland (looking forward to getting together in March), Kurt and Jessica from St. Louis MO (hope your honeymoon was full of good memories!), also Mark and Kelly from Minnesota; and Sharon, Martin (aka “Tom”), Rob and Jane, all from England, thanks for making our stay the best ever!


Tips- Tile floors & patios can be (and ARE) slippery when wet or damp, so be careful! One of our neighbors had 2 incidents of slipping.
Take lots of sunscreen -- it’s very expensive in the gift shop (and you may need higher SPF than back home). The sun in Mexico is much more intense than you think! A hat helps too.
Bring lots of singles! Tipping is not required or expected, but when we felt they deserved it, 1 or 2 dollars here and there for meals, or bar service, was appreciated. These people work sooo hard to please you! We tipped more for massages, car service etc.