Coco Bongo Cancun — Restaurant in Cancún

This was without doubt the biggest disappointment of our honeymoon to Cancun. This is simply a scam. You'll notice all the high rated reviews are fake and created by "Local Guides".

I can't talk about spiking of drinks, drugs, the up selling that other reviews talk about. I can only talk about what we saw and experienced.

The "show" is nothing more than a collection of YouTube music videos on a giant screen and flashing lights with the worst choreography I've ever seen in my life. None of the "dancers" were in sync. I've seen better dancing at a kids birthday party. But that's not even the worst part.

We had VIP front row tickets sold to us by our TUI rep, he also scammed us by up selling us, these tickets are a joke there's nothing VIP about it.

Your told doors open at 8 and the show starts at 8.30 nothing like it. We were treated like a herd of cattle waiting to go to market. We waited in a hot sweaty bar that served watered down drinks. So bad we stopped drinking them after the second one.

We arrived at their VIP bar about 7.45 and waited until about 8.15, then a queue started to form which was total chaos. We stood in this queue with no air conditioning for about 45 minutes with staff pushing past us and customers trying to get to the toilet. The doors didn't open until almost 9pm. By this time we were already feeling like we wanted to faint.

We were ushered to the most hot sweaty cramped seating area I've ever seen, a row of uncomfortable bar stools with everyone shoulder to shoulder. There was no way I could sit on these for the 3 hour show! This was not VIP treatment. The warm up show consisted of a bunch of local "dancers" with zero talent doing what looked like their own thing. Zero choreography, this was nothing like a Las Vegas show.

We were told this was just the "warm up". But it lasted for far too long just lots of young dancers doing their own thing. We had seen better dancers at our hotels RUI themed nights!

After about 30 minutes of this nonsense. The camera then went around the audience for far too long while they tried to have their moment of glory on the big screen looking like extras from a very bad movie. We felt like we were in the twilight zone.

People who were too drunk to know any better were trying to dance on their seats. Down below us we could see the table areas that others have talked about. Thank God we didn't get scammed into trying to "upgrade" apparently as the night goes on it gets so busy down in that area that you can't even sit at the very expensive table you paid for.

We knew not to let the men with masks put their hats on us that were walking about with a Coco photographer, if they do they take photos they then scam you for more money. (We were caught out with that one the day before when we arrived to check the place out. Two guys in "Mask" style outfits came over to us, put a hat on us both and got us to take photos. We were then scammed out of £16 for 4 photos with them!)

The first show started which was nothing more than an ABBA music video on the screen with what looked like men in drag trying to play the two female singers. It was just miming to the YouTube style video. By this time we were losing the will to live. I had honestly seen better shows put on by high school kids. My bum was numb, and my back was aching. We had already turned down the food that looked more like a McDonald's happy meal, a few skinny chips and a tiny little burger!

We could see the show was not going to get any better this was it!

We had now been in there for almost 2 hours in total. So we decided it was time to leave. Getting back the selfie stick they took from us (for security reasons) was a nightmare.

By 10pm we were back out on the street and heading back to our hotel. £300 down, and what a let down it was!

Thankfully we managed to avoid all the other problems that other reviewers have talked about.

So just don't go! Save yourself the very very poor experience. IT'S NOT A SHOW! Only those that are too drunk to care or don't know any better...

Place like this requires a planning to enjoy and get most out of it. I and my friends all enjoyed our visit there and here are some tips: Ticket option: Choose option of your ticket wisely depending on your day and time to visit. There are three levels of ticket: regular ($90), gold ($150) and front row ($185). Regular entry is standing up at 1st dancing floor and you need to navigate through crowd to get your drinks (unlimited) at nearby bar. If you don't mind of standing and dancing for 3+ hours, you can get this ticket (they open for 5 hours, at 8-3 am)The GOLD MEMBER and FRONT ROW tickets have access to a special area with limited space with a table and you can enjoy unlimited drinks from the premium menu (staff will walk around frequently to get your orders). The GOLD MEMBER area is located on the upper level of the room with a preferential view of the show. If you like dancing with others and want to be where actions are taking place, you need to be at 1st floor either with regular ticket or front low VIP ticket for tables at the 1st floor or you can freely walk up and down to enjoy and rest. Often, discounted tickets are offered at the location of Playa del Carmen if you like to try out. Day to visit: Friday-Saturday is their prime time, more crowded and hard to navigate for visiting restrooms and bars. Tickets are more expensive. If your schedule allows you to visit week days, you can enjoy coco bongo much more and easier to navigate. Time to arrive: I strongly recommend to arrive at 7:40 or earlier than 8 pm to get better seats. I purchased a gold ticket at my resort and I am glad that I took his advise to arrive early. Even gold tickets will get you seated among wide seat choices at the upper floor. The earlier you arrive, better seat (with better view) you can get. Some gold seats have obstructive views (reason of lower review points from some) and you might need to pay $35 to upgrade at the club if that's the case. Response to comments on 'objectifying women or midget' : please remember you signed up for one of the most secular/vulgar entertainment venue to visit. There are video cameras all around the corner to pick up people with different actions and wild dancing moves (?) and they will be projected and screened at the wide front screen. Some of them were invited to come up and dance at the main dancing stage (right in front of screen) where strong winds often blew their skirts up. All of those arrangements are made on spot and PEOPLE VOLUNTEERED themselves and CHOSE to do so. I enjoyed the fact there were so many people (young, old, good looking, not so much, light and heavy body) who just enjoy themselves. Show quality: I have visited 20+ resorts in Cancun area where night entertainments are provided. Some commented those are better than coco bongo's. They lie because they were mad somehow. Coco Bongo definitely has a great quality of show that requires years of practices and sophisticated arrangements of light, sound and tech system. Overall, it is worth of visit and loosen up yourself and be part of the fun! Transportation: I thought about driving but decided to take a bus. If you stay cancun hotel zone, there is a bus running ($1 or 12 pesos) in front of your hotel. Use them instead of driving and struggling to find a parking nearby. Ticket sellers at street block entries of parking lot of the shopping mall where coco bongo is located. Some buses run 24 hours and I took one crossing two streets from coco bongo to come back to resort at 1 am.

*Tip 1: no need to stay where you are guided to be seated if you purchase a gold ticket. Ask what other options of seat are available and choose one that you like. **Tip 2: feel free to move around (up or down, dancing floor or stage). No need to be seated and be a passive audience *Top 3: Tickets that you purchased are valid for an year. When you buy a ticket, you choose date yet I visited a day after...

BE CAREFUL!!! THEY TRIED TO SCAM US WITH THE “PREMIUM” DRINKS!!!!!! AND THEY PROBABLY SCAM MOST PEOPLE EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!!!

Me and my boyfriend paid for the premium drinks pack. In the waiting area before going into the actual venue, we waited at the bar and we got served our first drinks. Good taste. It was premium alcohol, which we paid for. We saw the waiter serving it from the bottle, so all was good. As soon as we walked into the venue and got seated, waiters began taking orders from people. They would come back and serve your drinks. My boyfriend noticed the taste of the alcohol we were drinking was not what we are used to. It tasted different. I told him he was probably being paranoid or it was something he ate that changed his taste. He insisted saying it tasted different, even different to the one we were drinking previously in the waiting area bar. Something that I did notice on my side at that point is that the waiters would bring you a new drink before you even finished the one you were drinking. Some people had 2-3 drinks EACH, on the table, at a time. Its like they were avoiding people going up to the bar themselves. We continued drinking a couple more drinks and my boyfriend was still feeling suspicious about them, so he said he was going to go order at the bar directly. He wanted to see this “premium alcohol” that we were being served with his own eyes. When he reached the bar the waiters rushed to him and told him to go back to his seat, that they would take the order and bring it to us. My boyfriend told the waiters “don’t worry, I rather come up to the bar and get the drinks myself actually”, which they all started feeling uncomfortable about. Looking at eachother suspiciously. The vibe started feeling off. My boyfriend proceeded to order our drinks, and the waiter (looking ANGRY), picked up a white tank with a label on it that said “whisky”. My boyfriend asked “what is that?” Waiter replied “whisky”. My boyfriend answered “whisky? I paid for premium alcohol, why is it not being served from the original bottles?” Waiter replied with an angry face “sir, go back to your seat”. At this point my boyfriend was beginning to understand what was going on. What they do is they charge you a higher rate for “premium” alcohol packs, but really, inside the venue when she show is on, everyone gets served the same CHEAP alcohol, no matter what pack you pay for. Alcohol with no name, just a label stating which type of alcohol it is. At this point my boyfriend told the waiter he would only take the drinks if he served them from the original bottles, and that from this point until the end of the night he would come personally to order our drinks so that he could see the waiter pouring them from the original bottles. They could not refuse, of course. At the end of the day they knew we paid for something and they couldn’t refuse. They were angry and were rude to us the entire rest of the night, but we managed to drink premium alcohol for the rest of the night while the rest of the clients that paid for the same pack were unknowingly being served cheap alcohol at the tables.

The show itself is cool, and quite professional too. However, quite long and we did get tired/bored after SO many shows one after the other. Overstimulated too maybe. Thats us personally though, other people were loving that vibe!

Also, at one point where they kept picking girls from the audience downstairs, lining them up, and bringing them to dance to songs on a high platform. Specific types of songs. S*xual/provocative songs. They would press an air machine below them so that their skirts/dresses would rise and everybody could see their underwear. It was a little strange…. By the end of the night these girls that mostly looked underage too, were super drunk laying around everywhere 👀

In conclusion, BE CAREFUL. I personally will...