Moon Palace The Grand

Alessandra(Concierge)) ,Antonio & Jose (Butlers) mastered hospitality . Thanks , guys, for the lovely welcome and beautiful flowers .
Casa Mía and JC restaurants have excellent service and we really loved the food .Habibi has very good food too Unique pool has very profesional staff and Wellness pool Candy and Jose and Juan make the difference. Housekeeping , bell boys and room service were very helpful And last but not least , the huge, beautiful spa and its wonderful staff made our stay extra special , thanks Fany

We recently stayed at Moon Palace Cancun and, overall, it is a beautiful resort with an enormous amount to offer. The grounds are impressive, there are plenty of pools, restaurants and activities, and there is certainly no shortage of things to do without ever needing to leave the resort.

That said, despite many positives, there were a number of issues during our stay that ultimately meant I wouldn’t choose to return.

The good

The resort itself is beautiful and there are plenty of facilities to keep families and couples entertained. There is a wide choice of restaurants, and we had some genuinely excellent meals.

The Riviera Maya restaurant was particularly good, with excellent food and very good service. Max looked after us brilliantly and the whole experience was exactly what you would expect from a high-end resort.

Tavola was another favourite. We enjoyed our first meal there so much that we returned for our final evening. The food remained excellent, although unfortunately the service was noticeably slower and poorer on our last visit.

We also had a very good experience at The Grill, where Ricardo was attentive and friendly. The restaurant is outdoors, though, so be prepared for the heat as there is no air conditioning.

Casa Mia was another enjoyable meal, with Pedro providing lovely service.

Breakfast at Caribino was also a highlight, particularly thanks to Carlos, who was very helpful and gave us some great recommendations about places to visit.

There were also individual members of staff who really stood out. Ivan from Guest Relations was extremely helpful and deserves particular recognition.

The not-so-good

Unfortunately, the service could be very inconsistent.

At the breakfast buffet in Saul, the first waiter we encountered was particularly rude. Rather than properly cleaning the table, he appeared to simply push the mess around it.

Our first experience at Habibi was also disappointing. The first waiter appeared as though he didn’t really want to be there, while the second got our order wrong and then blamed me for the mistake. The service came across as very unfriendly.

Interestingly, when we returned to Habibi for an evening meal, the experience was completely different. The food and service were both excellent, which really highlighted how inconsistent the service could be.

The Boulangerie was lovely once you actually got served, but getting there could be an experience in itself. The queue was disorganised, the ordering machine wasn’t always working, and then there was another rather chaotic wait for the food.

Room service and housekeeping were another disappointment. On one occasion we returned to our room at around 4:15pm and it hadn’t been properly serviced. We requested that it be done as soon as possible because we needed to get ready for dinner. By 5:30pm it still hadn’t been done, despite the light being switched on requesting housekeeping. Eventually, we had to contact the team again and ask for someone to be sent up.

Our room

There were also maintenance issues with our room, 89131.

The fridge wasn’t working and there was an issue with the back/patio door. We were advised to keep the door closed to prevent condensation, but because of the lock issue we couldn’t properly close and then unlock the door using the scanner.

Unfortunately, I subsequently slipped on the stairs, hitting my head and bruising my elbow and hip. The fall itself wasn’t the hotel’s fault, but the circumstances surrounding the faulty door were frustrating.

It took until day nine for somebody to finally come and repair the lock.

The room was also very noisy. We could hear children running up and down the hallway and could hear full conversations from the neighbouring room. Obviously, guests being noisy isn’t necessarily the hotel’s responsibility, but it did affect our enjoyment of the room and ability to relax.

Pool safety

One of the more concerning incidents involved the Caribino Pool.

There were broken tiles on the bottom of the pool and unfortunately my daughter cut her foot, leaving around a one-inch cut to her toe.

The lifeguard was also the first aider and came to assist, but didn’t have everything required to treat the wound, meaning we had to wait for another lifeguard. Pool maintenance was subsequently contacted to identify the damaged tiles.

I appreciated that the wound was dealt with, but I was left wondering how quickly the damaged tiles would actually be repaired.

Balloons and allergies

There were balloons everywhere around the resort during our stay. For someone with a latex allergy, this was quite difficult.

I politely asked someone to move their balloons away from where I was sitting because of my allergy. Unfortunately, they refused, explaining that the balloons were attached to their luggage. I explained that I simply wouldn’t be able to breathe if they remained where they were.

The response felt unnecessarily dismissive. In a large resort, I would have expected a little more consideration when someone explains that they have an allergy.

Getting around the resort

The resort is huge, so the transport carts are important.

Unfortunately, during our stay they seemed to be affected by ongoing work, making them somewhat hit and miss. There also didn’t seem to be any real queuing system. Getting onto a cart often felt like a free-for-all, which wasn’t ideal when there were lots of people waiting.

Restaurants and booking

We were told that Agra was one of the best restaurants on the resort, so we had high expectations. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to them for us. We found the Indian food disappointing and felt that many of the dishes relied heavily on pepper rather than the herbs and spices we would expect.

Definitely book your restaurants in advance. We saw someone attempt to turn up without a reservation and she was understandably unimpressed when she was told there was no table available.

The spa

I had a massage, full-body scrub and wood massage with Gloria. The massage itself was very good, but unfortunately I felt that she didn’t really listen to what I was saying or asking for, which detracted from the overall experience.

Sales pressure

One of the biggest negatives for us was the constant sales pressure.

Elite members were subjected to strong attempts to sell shares/timeshare-type packages, and even when leaving the resort there were people with clipboards trying to sell vouchers for upgrades on a future return.

I appreciate that this is part of the business model, but we found it intrusive and it contributed to the feeling that the resort was more interested in selling something than simply allowing guests to enjoy their holiday.

Excursions

We did a trip to Chichen Itza, which was a real highlight. It was fascinating to learn about the symbolism behind the carvings, including the snakes, and it was particularly interesting to hear about the acoustics and sounds that would have been experienced in the ancient sports arena.

We also stopped at one of the cenotes. It was beautiful, but be warned that there are lots of steps, some of which are slippery. Water shoes are definitely worth taking unless you want to pay inflated prices for them at the gift shop.

The included meal wasn’t particularly impressive and, if you’re a non-drinker, be aware that the drinks voucher was apparently only valid for beer with no alternative offered.

We also stopped briefly in a local town, although unfortunately we only had around 40 minutes there, so there wasn’t enough time to see much.

We visited the Cancun Designer Outlet simply for a change of scenery and actually had a lovely time browsing. The flower ice cream was expensive but beautiful and delicious.

The overall experience

Moon Palace is undoubtedly an impressive resort. It is beautiful, there are loads of facilities, plenty of restaurants and activities, and you could quite easily spend your entire holiday without leaving the property.

However, for us, bigger didn’t necessarily mean better.

The sheer size of the resort made it feel quite impersonal, and at times there were simply too many people. The inconsistent service, maintenance issues, noise, pool tiles, housekeeping problems and constant sales pitches gradually took away from what should have been a relaxing luxury holiday.

There were plenty of moments that were genuinely excellent, particularly some of the restaurants and individual members of staff. Unfortunately, there were also enough disappointing experiences to leave us feeling that the resort wasn’t quite what we wanted from a holiday.

Because Moon Palace is tucked away from the main areas, we also felt that there wasn’t a huge amount happening immediately outside the resort, and excursions or organised trips were necessary if we wanted to experience more of the local area.

Would we return?

Probably not.

That isn’t to say that Moon Palace is a bad resort. Quite the opposite. It is a beautiful, huge and well-equipped property with some excellent food and some fantastic staff.

But for us, it felt too big, too busy and too impersonal, with too much emphasis on selling upgrades and memberships.

We enjoyed parts of our stay enormously, but when weighing up the whole experience, I wouldn’t choose Moon Palace for our next Cancun holiday.