Hotel dekat Pantai Mandala, Cancun

alejandro, the host was great. He answered all of our questions and was very helpful in identifying where to eat and hear live music

To start with, this wasn’t my first trip to Cancún, and I’d stayed at a few hotels there before—I’m talking about budget options that were still in good locations. This time, I chose Crystal Cancún; it was much more expensive than the other hotels, even though the difference in location wasn’t that significant. For some reason, when I booked the hotel, (Trip.com) it was listed as all-inclusive, but it turned out not to be. Upon arrival, the hotel asked me to pay an additional $600 USD for the all-inclusive package for 3 nights. The room I was staying in had a door leading to the neighboring room where other people were staying. It was open. There was absolutely no soundproofing. The window facing the street didn’t close tightly, so you could hear everything. But I’d like to give a special thanks to the staff and the housekeeping team. The service was excellent.

It’s very nice hotel, a big mall across street. We enjoy our stay a lot!

Everything was amazing at this hotel except for a couple things. The service was wonderful. Enjoyed that part the most. The food was also very good. Especially enjoyed the gourmet Italian restaurant, Chianti. Service there is the bomb! The pool is small and overcrowded, however. Not much seating around the pool either. The beach was sufficiently stocked with plenty of palapas and chairs, which was nice. Didn't have a problem getting a space on the beach any time of day. The color of the water in this location is absolutely breathtaking, but the roughness of the beach is tremendous. Very difficult to enjoy the water at all. Next time I will have to find a place with calmer waters. Getting a reservation for the gourmet restaurants is daunting, as usual for Mexico. I can never understand why making dinner reservations is so difficult to do at these all inclusive hotels. It is really ridiculous. The day we arrived, the ”concierge” (but really the timeshare sales person) promised to make a reservation for us for a few nights later to eat at the Italian restaurant, and she told us to check with her the day before to confirm the reservation. So I did exactly as she said but I was told that they cannot see what reservations are made until the day of the reservation. So I had to check again the day of, and of course there was no reservation made for us. They were able to give us a reservation for that evening, however. Good thing because I would have really been upset had they not, especially since we were going to be leaving the next day! Soooo very tired of this BS at the all inclusives. It's coming to the point where it's not even worth it to do the all-inclusive anymore. So very ridiculous, I swear. Something so easy has to be so difficult for them. Anyway, I wouldn't stay here again because we were not able to enjoy the pool at all, nor the beach because of the roughness of the water. Almost constantly there is a volleyball game going on in the pool and there's no room for anything else unless you want to get hit in the head by the ball! But the music around the pool was good most of the time.

The hotel is close to restaurants, entertainment, and shops. Staff are very friendly. Guess room is spacious and clean, although the bathroom fixtures are a little outdated. The ocean is clear and calm. They will offer guests free breakfast and spas after check-in, in turn to attend a time-share presentation. After we politely but firmly declined the offer; they did not push again through our stay.

The hotel was fantastic. We got a free upgrade to a family suite room which was really nice! We only spent 2 days there but I thought everything was good. The hotel seems like it’s been there quite a while and it’s not particularly modern, but they maintain it really well. For that area the price and quality it’s definitely worth a stay!