We stayed at the Royal Caribbean on a time share exchange, from 05/17 to 05/24/08; our second stay at a Royal property in Cancun. We pre-arranged our hotel transfers with Thomas More Travel, Royal's in-house travel agency; our transfers being billed directly to our resort account.

The Royal Caribbean is one of five Royal properties in Cancun; situated between the Royal Mayan and the Royal Islander. The resort has 207, 2BR-2BA, 1,448 s.f., ocean-view villas. The villas are well furnished and laid out perfectly for two couples and/or a family of six. On each side of the living area/full kitchen are a bedroom, bathroom and huge walk-in closet. The floor plan optimizes privacy for two couples. The kitchen is fully furnished and equipped with everything needed to prepare/consume meals. The villas are equipped with three televisions, CD-DVD player, two large safes, air conditioning, internet (dial up access @ $30 per week), iron and ironing board. The master bedroom is furnished with a comfortable king size bed, the 2nd bedroom has two double beds and there are two Murphy beds in the living area. Each villa has two balconies; a large, furnished balcony that can be accessed from the living area or the master bedroom and a small "step-out" balcony that can be accessed from the 2nd bedroom.

The Royal Caribbean has all the amenities you'd expect to find at a luxury resort: 24-hour front desk, huge swimming pool with swim-up bar, exercise room (fee), beauty shop (the Spa is located at the Royal Sands resort), gift shop, laundry room, guest service/business center, small children's playground, sports/activity desk (snorkel gear, golf clubs, tennis racquets, bicycles, beach towels, etc.), car rental office, travel office, lobby bar, and convenience store. There are two computers (fee) in the convenience store and there is free wireless access in the lobby. The Royal Yacht Club (off-site) offers complimentary sailing lessons and free use (one hour per day) of sail boats. Unlike other time share resorts, maid service is provided daily (except Sunday); however housekeepers do not clean the kitchens. "Spring-breakers" are discouraged from staying at the Royal Caribbean and are put on notice that un-acceptable behavior will not be tolerated (one guest in each villa must be at least 25 years of age). The resort staff appeared to be enforcing the posted rule regarding the saving of un-attended lounge chairs around the pool.

The on-site restaurant, Tradewinds, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The "Tradewinds Express" offers chicken, ribs, sandwiches, salads, etc. to go and provides free delivery. Pizza is also available from Bartolo's. There are additional restaurants at the neighboring Royal resorts (Royal Mayan and Royal Islander), as well as at the Royal Sands. Free, inter-resort shuttle service (except Saturday) allows you to enjoy the facilities at all five Royal resorts in Cancun. The shuttle also stops at Captain's Cove restaurant (accross the street) and Hacienda Sisal restaurant (at the Royal Sands). Meals at the above restaurants can be billed to your resort account. We dined once at the Tradewinds and had chicken and pizza delivered on another occasion; both experiences being a little disappointing (greasy French fries, dried out chicken and one of the worst pizzas I've ever had). We also dined at Captain's Cove. Everyone in our group enjoyed our seafood, although it was a little expensive. The day after we arrived, we took the 65 cent bus ride into town and bought a week's worth of groceries at the Wal-Mart Super Center (there is also a Sam's Club next door), returning to the resort by taxi ($14). Food at Wal-Mart was about 1/3 the cost of the resort's convenience store.

Although the strong winds that prevailed throughout the week rendered the ocean unsafe for most people, the beach was beautiful none the less. The resort has dozens of palapas with lounge chairs and there was a beach life guard on duty.

Service at all levels (housekeeping, wait-staff and front desk) was excellent and the resort was well-maintained. Despite my disappointment with the food quality, I would definitely return to the Royal Caribbean.

Feel free to contact if you have any questions.