Excellence Riviera Cancun — Hotel in Puerto Morelos

Excellence Resorts are wonderful Resorts. We have stayed at three resorts over the years and have always enjoyed ourselves. I cannot thank Fernando more for assisting us with setting up our dinner reservations for out group of 12 people for the week. We also have to give Michelle and Angelo with activities big shout outs as well. they were fun and personable every time I saw them! ||The rooms are comfortable and we did not have any trouble with them at all. I can say that traveling with a group of twelve there were varying reviews on everything from the rooms and food and activities. Here is my best summary of everything.||We stayed Sunday to Saturday, so basically a full week. We all had swim up suites on the lazy river. We were not Excellence status. ||Rooms are great! Two of our group had small issues with a patio door and one couple had a noise when they flushed the toilet. They both said that it was taken care of quickly and sufficiently! One couple swears they did not get the slippers they leave by your bed until Thursday night. We had them on arrival. Out of the 6 couples we were the only one that got towel animals during our stay and it was only the last two nights. Our patio door did lock behind us when we left via the patio door but we slipped the curtain in the doorway and were able to get back in no problem.||W enjoyed breakfast on our patio twice during our stay. Warning to everyone about the wild life. The Coatimundi, the Capybaras and the resident cat will come visit you during breakfast on the patio and they are all interested in a hand out. The Coatimundi are bold in asking for what they want and they do know what they like and do not like. We did not approach them but did share our fruit with them. One of the males has a big sweet tooth and was brave enough to attempt to steal the sugar packets from the table as we were sitting there. As long as you are calm and let them do their begging they will move on with no harm to you. The Cat and Capybara did have a little stand off over some egg we left out for them. The cat didn't really want it but didn't want the Capybara to have it||Food: the hibachi was EXCELLENT! the "show" was fun and interactive with us and I have to say it was one of the best hibachis I have had, flavoring was spot on. The Grill we had perfectly cooked steaks although a few of our group said theirs was tough and one person said their steak was overcooked. I had what was supposed to be Truffle mac an cheese, it was pasta with a minimal amount of cheese sauce waved over the top with a few bacon bits, not what I was expecting. The French Cuisine was very good! Again part of our group had steaks and some were excellent as others said they were tough and not cooked right. The Lobster house was just okay.||One note is that they will NOT seat you unless your entire party is present, does not matter if you have reservations or not. I get it, many places insist that your entire group arrives before they seat you; however, I do have to say they can take it a little to far for. One day we arrived very early for breakfast at the Kitchen (buffet). There were two couples ahead of me and one couple behind me, they had just opened so there was NO ONE else around and I asked for a table for 8 and they insisted that I had to have all of us in attendance before they sat us at the table they had for 8 people (there are about three tables that accommodate large parties here). One person was in the bathroom and the rest were all headed to the buffet i just happened to arrive before them. After the couple behind me sat down I asked a lady if I could go ahead and sit down since they were all on the way and she did let me.||Now on that note one night we had reservation for 6 pm at the Lobster house and we arrived probably two minutes to 6. I walked up to the hostess and said hello we had reservation for 6 and she looked and me and then continued to stand directly in front of me and fold a napkin with out so much as a Hello, I am sorry we do not seat until exactly 6 pm! Nothing. After her napkin was folded she picked up her tablet looked at it for 30 seconds or so and then 2 exactly 6 pm she looked at me and began her conversation with me. Keep in mind all the servers and workers were all just standing around looking at our group and the line that was forming behind us the entire few minutes. It was odd.||Activities. We are joiners so yes we looked at the app every day to see what activities they had planned and we discussed what we wanted to participate in and that decided if we would stay at the pool or the lazy river daily. Warning about the app, it was very hard to decipher exactly what some of the activities they listed actually were by the title. Example it took us three days to realize "in the Move" was actually the crafting activity. I just happen to click on it to se if it was dance class or exercise and realized it was hat painting! So click on each item to see what it actually is. We didn't even know there was archery and rifle shooting until the last day and there was a tequila tasting mixed in there we missed.||One other note on the activities is that even though it is on the schedule for the day there were a few times that we showed up in order to get a spot and the activities people did not show up. No warning that it was cancelled or not going to happen it just didn't happen. This happened on one of the craft activities and one evening after dinner there was supposed to have a Quiz Game before the entertainment and a music Trivia game that never happened that we had showed up for and one day we showed to play poker and waited for about 10 minutes when finally someone came bay and was like "Oh, you wanted to play poker...."|| Other than these few small items we had an amazing time and hope to...

This was our fourth trip to ERC. We have stayed at a lot of AI resorts and this is still the best resort that we have stayed at.| |The Season’s transfers were very good and on time. The SUVs are large and clean. The drivers are safe and courteous.||The Wi-Fi was good throughout the resort.||No bracelets and no towel cards.| |We found their app to be very helpful.| |The food was very good at all of the restaurants. The service was outstanding. They are willing to accommodate any reasonable request. Our favorite restaurants were Magna and Agave. Magna is a step up in food quality, service, and ambiance from even that at the other restaurants. You can get virtually anything served at the other restaurants for breakfast at Magna. Bar service was very good and the drinks were very good, not watered down that I could detect. There was virtually no wait time to be seated at any of the restaurants (no reservations required). We had room service deliver coffee and cinnamon rolls each morning in the x-box-always on time. The coffee was good. We did miss having ice cream available as a desert option at many of the restaurants,| |There rewards program is very good and well worth joining. We are Diamond members after three stays and there were a number of nice benefits. We received a bottle of champaign, a bottle of wine, a nice flower arrangement, a complimentary spa treatment and a small backpack. There is also a two-category upgrade for future stays for diamond members. ||We stayed in an Excellence Club Beach Front room in building 8. The rooms are large, very clean, and have great ocean and sunrise views. The balconies are large with a table and chairs, hot tub and lounger bed. Unlimited towels. The beds are comfortable and the AC is good. The Excellence Club is well worth the extra money in our opinion. The Club check-in was quick and efficient. The Club beach was very quiet. Always palapas available. The Magna restaurant is the best on the resort in our opinion.| |The resort is fairly compact but does not seem crowded. The grounds are very nicely landscaped and well kept. There are many pools; and some are quiet and others have organized activities.| |Housekeeping was very good, morning and turndown; and always within the times that we requested. We scheduled the times for housekeeping at check-in. The room was kept very clean. The mini bar was kept well stocked.||The beach is very nice. Plenty of Palapas providing good shade. Unlimited towels. There was a lot of Sargassum (not the resort’s fault). They have a barrier that reduces the amount reaching the beach and they have a tractor with an implement that cleans up the sargassum. That tractor ran several times a day and kept the beach pretty clean. There was some odor the first day we were there but we did not notice it after that. There was considerable sargassum floating in the water most of the time though.|The pools looked very clean. There were staff constantly cleaning the pools.||The only downside was that there were a number of large groups that were very loud at dinner. It appeared that they had had too much to drink. There were also several wedding receptions that were very loud. One reception was in Las Olas which resulted in Las Olas closing at 1 PM and being unavailable to other guests for afternoon drinks and snacks. Another was in the palapa at the south end of the Club beach. This detracted from the otherwise enjoyable experience. These activities could be moved to the far north end of the property which would lessen the impacts on the quieter area of the resort.||The dress codes are not enforced. Men were in the restaurants for dinner in sleeveless t-shirts. Women were in the restaurants for dinner in short shorts. If there is address code, it should be enforced so that it is fair for everyone. | |The beach service was hit and miss this time. The beach concierges were largely MIA. Not a big deal to us, but a significant change from our past visits. They seemed to spend most of their time around the pool and in their hut. They only visited our palapa once and set up towels once.| |The beach drink service was poor at first. Then Alba came on and provided good service. Moises was there for our last day and he is always outstanding, sets the standard for the others to try to meet.||The service throughout the resort was generally very good. However, some stood out for us: Jessica in reception, Ricardo in reception and bellboy, Aurelio in Lobster House, Daniel in Las Olas, and Marco and Veronica at Magna. ||We are returning in October of 2025 and...

Where to start with Excellence Riviera Cancun... We've been vacationing to the same resort for the past 16 years and unfortunately, they closed for a major remodel until next year. We did a lot of research and picked this resort for our annual vacation spot. The resort is very well laid out and has a lot to offer for a wide range of vacationers. From beach front (ish) rooms with swim up suites to swim up suites at the back of the resort with a lazy river next to the spa (which is amazing in itself). We chose to have a beach front swim out. The room was very well appointed and has everything you need including full bottles of top shelf liquor. Even tho the property is about 23+ years old they maintain the grounds in expert fashion. The foliage, flowers and palm trees are everywhere and it's nice to just take an evening stroll to take it all in. The food I would rate as some of the best we've had in the region from the massive breakfast buffet to the private dining availability at their fine restaurant Chez Isabelle. A definite must if you're a foodie. The chef will come out and greet you and explain that he's making a special off menu meal of several courses including desert that will blow your socks off. The staff is extremely friendly and accommodating to your needs. I recommend the Excellence Club upgrade for all the reasons stated previously so you can experience the full pleasure of the resort without having to worry about anything at all since it's all included. Including a 40 oz Tomahawk steak should you desire! Private check in with a bar and high end dining are offered with this upgrade. After a couple of days in the pool right outside our room. We spent next 6 floating in the lazy river all day long. What a fantastic idea for a quiet day relaxing with spa music piped in to make it even more special. We did have a couple if issues that were resolved promptly and to our satisfaction (no need to explain details). It's necessary to let you know this because a lot of lower class resorts (Royalton Chic Cancun namely) wouldn't bend a finger to do anything for you. Not here! Francisco the gentleman that checked us in fixed the first issue without hesitation. When we were going to have a day on the water for deep sea fishing on a private charter. Jennifer at the Kitchen Table (buffet restaurant) really pulled out all the stops so we could have some food to take with us due to our early departure time from the resort. She made sure we had sandwiches and snacks to take with us on the boat so we wouldn't starve to death for our 6+ hour excursion. Then comes in Fernando that helped us get our private dining reservation (that we didn't even expect) just to make it even better. Since we went down during the 4th of July celebration (amazing spread by the way) we weren't aware there was the possibility of reserving a table in the lower center of the open aired pavilion that was already booked solid. Then comes in the best of them all!! Leylan Velazquez... She is absolutely one of the best personal concierge individuals we've ever had. Hands down!! She talked to the director of the festivities, Edgar, who actually had a couple of his crew members make a spot for us with a table that didn't exist just for us! That's tip top service if we've ever seen it. During our two dinners at Chez Isabelle (the first being in the main dining room). Miguel and his team of servers were on top of everything. Even making me a Tequila drink I've never had before that is now my favorite. Ask for it when you meet him. I feel bad that I can't remember everyone's name on his team. Wilson stands out to me because I've never met anyone south of the border with that name. Let's just say they all deserve big applause for the service they provided. From the time we got to the resort and met Arturo and Poncho to help with our bags and almost anything else needed that would be in their wheelhouse to the checkout process. We can't say enough about this resort. Again, Leylan Velazquez was phenomenal to say the least and definitely deserves...