When my wife and I wanted to take our four young kids on an end-of-summer vacation, we first considered a cruise. We’ve cruised five times before with Princess, Carnival, and Disney and had good experiences. But concerned about potential COVID-19 disruptions, and unsatisfied with the pricing and availability options for the amount of nights we wanted to travel, we decided to instead book a six-night all-inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Having visited Cozumel, Mexico, on a past cruise, we knew we wanted to explore nearby Playa del Carmen in Mexico further and started looking at pricing and availability of resorts in the area. We found many tempting resorts to choose from, but booked the Royal Haciendas All Suites Resort & Spa because of its close proximity to the Cancun airport, and affordable pricing of $5,487 for all six of us, including all activities, food, drinks, taxes, and fees. Before booking on Expedia , I was also swayed by the hotel’s overwhelming positive reviews.
I saw it had a 4. 5 out of 5 rating from more than 1,000 previous guests. That combined with a sprawling beachfront location had us sold on an all-inclusive resort instead of a cruise vacation.
It was one of the best travel decisions we’ve made to date. When cruising, my family of six needs to book two staterooms. Even with more than one cabin, I find that it always ends up feeling cramped considering each stateroom that we’ve stayed in was typically around 200 square feet.
At the Royal Haciendas, all guest rooms are suites, and we booked a two-bedroom suite that I thought felt palatial in comparison to a cruise cabin. Our room was over 1,600 square feet with a living area, two bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, two balconies, and a huge, jetted tub on a private terrace overlooking the ocean. Two Murphy beds pulled down from the wall of the living room, which also had a sofa bed, while one bedroom had two double beds, and the primary bedroom had a king size bed.
So many sleeping arrangements made it extremely comfortable for my family, especially compared to cruise cabins we’ve booked that had far fewer beds. After checking into our rooms, we proceeded to explore the grounds. At first, I thought it would be very busy because we were staying at the hotel at the height of summer.
Instead, I found that the property’s expansive size meant all guests could spread out enough for it to never feel too crowded in any one area. From the beginning, and wherever we went, I never bumped into or had to weave around other guests at the resort as I usually do when cruising. There was also never any rush to save pool chairs, beach cabanas, or seating at entertainment venues as we have had to do on cruises.
During our stay, I saw many empty pool chairs and cabanas. We never had to wait for a table for dining, either. In fact, in all seven days we were at the resort, the only waiting I did for anything was when another family was at the billiards table before us.
Perhaps my family’s most frequent complaint on cruise ships is how limited the pools can be. On all five cruises we have been on, there were only two pools, with one for adults only, which never bodes well for my young children. As a result, there’s usually only one pool for everyone onboard the cruise ship to use.
In my family’s experience, that pool can feel so crowded that my daughter started calling it, “people soup. ” By contrast, the Haciendas resort has six pools and four hot tubs. We primarily used one pool devoted just to kids, and two other large lagoon-style pools.
And when we tired of them, the ocean was right there on property as well. The only aquatic offering I missed from cruise ships was water slides. My kids and I loved the unique options we’ve had on cruises, such as the AquaDuck water slide on the Disney Fantasy, or the AquaDunk on the Disney Magic.
At our Mexican resort, there were a handful of small slides, but only in the kid’s splash pad play area. Though my wife and I have loved getting a couple’s massage on all of our past cruises, I think those cruise ship spas were considerably smaller than our resort spa, with fewer amenities offered. The Spa at the Royal Haciendas has a spacious waiting room, his and hers “wet areas” that include a steam room, sauna, and jacuzzi; plus 12 types of massages to choose from, a dozen body wrap services, eight facial options, drainage treatments, foot relief, natural fish therapy, and much more.
I also thought that the resort’s spa services cost less than on our cruises. Our couple’s massage onboard the Disney Fantasy, for example, cost more than $300, while the same duration and treatment style was $205 at the resort. When my wife and I wanted to be pampered at the spa, we left our kids at the hotel’s kids’ club , which was included in our rate.
I thought the staff were friendly and professional and kept a close eye on our kids. They also took them around the resort to experience different opportunities and let them play in a kids-only splash zone. At the same time, however, I would have preferred if our kids remained in the kids’ club instead of moving around to different areas.
Our kids range in age from 4 to 11-years-old and it made me uncomfortable not knowing exactly where they were at all times. Though it was exciting to my kids, it was a bit unnerving to me as a parent. On cruise ships we’ve been on, the single-entry method of kids’ clubs are closely monitored and secured, and they never leave, so there’s no worry of a child potentially being able to get lost anywhere on the ship.
With that said, we had no issues with the resort’s kids’ club and our children liked making crafts, exploring different stations, and and asked to go back several times. In my experience, cruise dining is somewhat flexible aside from the main dining room where we’ve only ever had two options for dinner: eating early or late. Dining at our resort, by contrast, was very flexible.
We went to a massive buffet for breakfast and dinner with rotating cuisine themes like Caribbean, Brazilian, Mexican, steak and lobster, Italian, Asian, and BBQ. Reservations were never required and I noticed that guests would come and go at their leisure. For lunch, we chose from two poolside restaurants and an all-you-can eat pizzeria.
The resort also has two upscale restaurants, including a Japanese hibachi restaurant that my family loved. These restaurants allow and recommend reservations, though they weren’t required, and some meals there do incur an extra charge. We also ordered poolside snacks and drinks, and enjoyed 24-hour room service.
Everyone in my family liked the food, and overall, I thought the quality was superior to most cruises I’ve been on, except perhaps Disney, with which I think it was on par for flavor and quality. Unlike cruising, however, I felt compelled to tip at every meal. Every server, be it poolside, room service, or at the buffet, brought us a check afterwards that showed a zero balance for the meal but included a line where I could, and did, write in a tip to be charged to my room.
I much prefer the way cruise lines handle tips where guests either prepay a single amount to be divided among all the staff, or tip each crew member individually at the end of the trip. I thought the recreational activities at the resort were far more flexible than I’ve experienced on cruise ships. The resort has a huge gym with aerobics and yoga classes, plus billiards, outdoor table tennis, an aqua park, volleyball, corn hole, bikes, golf, horseshoes, snorkeling, basketball, ladder ball, tennis, and an on-site diving center.
I also spotted handcrafting stations where families could make a variety of crafts together. Every day, the resort posted activities such as kayaking, pickleball tournaments, bingo, group games, blackjack, and movie nights. None of these activities incurred any additional charges.
Of course, cruise travel offers similar opportunities, but in my experience, many of those onboard activities felt crowded or came with long lines. The expansive space of our resort, by contrast, made it so that we never had difficulty participating in the activities we wanted, and we never had to plan ahead or rush to get in line for the things we wanted to do. Though we’ve fared well on most cruises we’ve been on, in one instance, we did deal with particularly choppy waters where we spent much of that voyage laying down in our staterooms.
Cruising is also highly dependent on countries and local cities allowing ships to dock for the day , and on one past cruise, our planned full day at Disney’s private Bahamian island, Castaway Cay, was canceled when the ship captain said the water was too rough to dock, resulting in another “day at sea” instead. Once we were at our Mexican resort, however, we never had to worry about such things. The resort offered many excursions to hotel guests at an extra charge, such as ziplining, horseback riding, and swimming with dolphins.
We opted to arrange our own day trip and hired a local company to take us on a private, guided tour of the ancient city of Tulum. We explored Mayan ruins while our guide taught us the significance of everything we observed. After Tulum, the same company took us to the theme park Xcaret, with dining, shopping, and animal encounters, plus natural and cultural attractions.
On another day, our guide took us to Chichén Itzá, where we saw the massive stone pyramid, El Castillio. Afterwards, we visited a cenote where members of our group dove off small cliffs and explored the fresh, clear water. On each excursion, our guide stayed with our group, got us to and from everything safely and on time, and the price included tickets for all venues, meals, and drinks.
We didn’t feel pressured to only pursue excursions offered by the resort, as we have on cruise ships, and I thought the excursions we booked on our own were cheaper and less crowded than the ones we’ve booked through cruises. On cruises we’ve been on, it felt to me like a large number of passengers were vying for the same excursions in the same limited timeframe. But I never experienced the same rush at the hotel and thought everyone seemed to be coming and going at different times.
The cost of our all-inclusive resort vacation for our family of six was significantly cheaper than what we paid for our last cruise. Our full stay, including round-trip, non-stop airfare from Salt Lake City to Cancun, plus our suite and all resort activities, food, drinks, taxes, and fees came out to be $5,487. That’s about half of what we paid for our seven-night Disney Cruise onboard the Disney Fantasy in September of 2019.
On that sailing, we needed two staterooms for the six of us, which cost $9,566. And that price did not include the additional $1,468 we paid for roundtrip airfare for the entire family to and from Orlando, Florida, to begin the cruise. Going forward, I think my family will still go on cruises, but only when it makes sense.
I plan to shop around first for better deals, and I think I’m mostly likely to find them at all-inclusive resorts. .
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/all-inclusive-resorts-mexico-vs-cruise-review-photos-2022-8
