Royal Treatment at the Moon Palace

The Moon Palace is located on the ‘Mayan Riviera’ approximately 20 minutes south of Cancun’s Hotel Zone. This seclusion is one of the best aspects of the resort. Our stay happened to coincide with the 2003 WTO conference that limited access to much of Cancun’s resort region. Other vacationers were faced with intense security as well as thousands of protestors, but the very location of the Moon made those hassles completely invisible to us. That is not to say we felt insecure, as the resort had its own security and only guests could even travel down the road to the resort.

Quick Tips:

Whatever you do, do not forget your sunscreen. During our seven day stay we had to buy two separate bottles at about each, as well as a bottle of Aloe Vera Lotion. While at first we thought these inflated prices might be attributable to the fact that we purchased the items in the gift shop, after scouring the malls and flea markets we found the prices were not only comparable, but in many cases better than the majority of places along the hotel zone.

The Moon Palace seems to cater to two factions, couples and families. The entertainment and bars at the Moon completely satisfied our needs for social interaction, but I can see how a single guest might not get the kind of nightlife at this resort that they would get while staying along the Hotel Zone.

If you are going to Cancun to play in the ocean, the Moon may not be the best place for you to stay. The beach is not the sparkling turquoise water that the hotels along the Hotel Zone enjoy. But with the huge beautiful pools available (with swim up bars!) I never felt the need to swim in the ocean.

Best Way To Get Around:

We arranged transportation from the airport to the hotel by contacting the email address specified on our RCI Trade Confirmation. The Chaza representative met us immediately, and escorted us to a clean, air-conditioned van which took us directly to the Moon Palace. This transportation is included in the mandatory all-inclusive package and is a service that I recommend taking advantage of.

The resort offers transportation to the other three Palace resorts along the Hotel Zone four times daily. It appears there have been some changes in this service. You are now guaranteed a return trip four hours after your departure, instead of being first come, first served. Also, the bus now picks up at all three resorts, instead of just the Beach Palace. If you miss your return bus or want to return at a time interval other than the specified four hours, you can easily catch a cab back to the Moon for .

Local buses run along the Hotel Zone at an amazing frequency. The fare for each trip is 6 pesos per person. These buses are not air-conditioned, but overall I was impressed with the maintenance and cleanliness of the public transportation.

Our room was at the end of the hall on the second floor and because of the architecture at Nizuc we did not even have a room above us. This seemed to be an optimal location. I had heard complaints about being located next to the stairs, but I believe the noise factor would be more of a problem on the Sunrise side than on the Nizuc side, as the hallways were quite open in our building.

All units at the Moon have a Jacuzzi tub overlooking the balcony. Our unit had a king size bed and a couch. The mini-fridge was stocked with beer, soda and bottled water. The shower in the bathroom was quite large with a bench seat. The balcony was not huge, but because we were the last unit our balcony was more open than most. The view was fantastic. We were happy.

I never had any complaints about the air-conditioning other than the fact that the dial was in Celsius, therefore completely unreadable to me. I don’t think our unit ever turned off, and if anything, sometimes it was TOO COLD in our room. Of course, we were terribly energy in-efficient in the fact that we had a tendency to leave the sliding patio door open while the A/C was blowing. But hey, none of us are perfect. And after an incident in Colorado of locking yourself out on your hotel patio in the midst winter, you tend to be a bit careful.

They provide a Do Not Disturb/Please Make the Room sign. Learn it, Use it, Love it. We quickly fell into a routine that included leisurely waking up, venturing out to breakfast, and then heading back to the room to get ready for the pool. We mostly used the Do Not Disturb sign when we left for breakfast, so that we could come back and get changed into our beach-wear without having to worry about the maid already being in the room. We should have used the sign at night, because on the last day of our stay, the maid knocked on the door about nine. It was no big deal, because we were already up, but of course, we would have preferred not to have been bothered. When we left for the pool, we would use the Make the Room sign. We found that our room got cleaned more promptly when we used it.

Best Things Nearby:
Seclusion, pools, non-motorized water sports, golf, airport.

Best Things About the Resort:

The Moon Palace manages seclusion without isolation. It is surrounded by the jungle instead of being encroached upon by other hotels and condos. This made it feel much less commercial than most of the places along the hotel zone. Of course, we never had trouble meeting other couples or finding something to do while at the Moon. There were so many amenities on site that all of our vacation needs could have been met without us ever having to leave the grounds.

The pool areas at the Moon Palace are incredible. You can float, frolic, drink, swim, and play in the pools to your heart’s content. Swimming up to the pool bar to get a beer was so easy that I found myself with a drink within minutes of getting into the water almost every time. There were organized water-volleyball games and water-aerobics that looked like quite a bit of fun. Of course, I enjoyed lying under the shade of our individual palapa wrapped up in a book.

Resort Experience:
When we arrived at the front desk to check in, we were asked for our RCI confirmation, which I had accidentally forgotten to bring. As far as I could tell, it did not hinder our check-in process at all, but next time I would make sure to bring the confirmation with me. First things first, we had to pay the mandatory all-inclusive fee.

Immediately after paying the fee, we requested a room with a king size bed next to the pool preferably on the third floor. Turns out all you have to do is ask, because Gabriel gave us the options of two rooms, one on the first floor overlooking the ocean, and another on the second floor overlooking the pool. We took the second option and I am sure we made the right choice. The balcony had a great view of both the pool and the ocean. Of course, I have no doubt that if we had been unsatisfied that Gabriel would have helped us find another room.

After checking-in a guest services representative brought us over to her desk before we could re-claim our luggage. We thought that that this was where they usually initiated the push for the timeshare tour. Since we were already traveling with RCI, she told us that she would be glad to give us a tour of the suites, but she did not push it on us, nor did she offer us any incentives. She was actually really helpful, giving us information about the restaurants, activities and tours that were available.

On the way to our room we passed the prominent water processing facility. The Moon is huge and probably uses quite a bit of water on a daily basis, but it is all purified. They also provide bottled water for drinking, even though supposedly all water at the resort was safe. I suppose this was probably true because we had plenty of drinks with ice and never had any problems result.

Two out of six pre-selected tours were included in the all-inclusive package. Most of these tours were all day commitments and we reviewed them carefully before deciding that the focus of this vacation was going to be simply relaxing. Therefore, we chose to spend most of our time by the pool. The only time we left the resort was the one afternoon when we took the shuttle to the Hotel Zone.

Overall it was a very pleasant experience. The only problem was that I found myself missing my daughter. We would definitely go back to the Moon Palace and I would not hesitate to make it a family vacation!

• Unit Type: Studio
• Activities: Excellent
• Amenities: Excellent
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

Arrecifes – This was the restaurant where we ate breakfast almost every morning. I liked knowing that I could have eaten healthily at their generous fruit and yogurt bar, but instead I opted for the more artery-clogging route. I frequented the omelette bar topping my ham and cheese omelette with extra cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo. I got more creative every day. My husband particularly enjoyed the Mexican snack section and the very fresh fruit juices.

El Manglar – This was both the first and last restaurant we visited during our stay and featured Italian food. Located just off the lobby, of the Nizuc section it calls out to the newly arrived and almost departed. This restaurant is completely buffet style dining, but the service still does not lack at all. Make sure not to miss out on the pasta bar! I did not even notice it until I had a full plate, and after finishing off that first helping I was too full to try anything else. At all future meals I made sure to really look at EVERYTHING the restaurant offered before even getting a plate.

Palapa Delfines – We ate lunch at this palapa very frequently, as it was convenient to the pool area where we planted ourselves every day. It served mostly hamburgers and sandwiches and of course whatever kind of drink we wanted. One day they brought around a Caribbean Cooler that was made from wine, sprite and various fruit juices. It was just about the most refreshing, best drink I had all week. I heard that this restaurant did sushi at night, but since sushi is not on my list of foods ever to eat, it was really not on my list of foods to eat in Mexico.

Palapa Pelicanos – The only restaurant we visited for dinner more than once, the atmosphere at this palapa was exactly what we were looking for when we decided to vacation in Mexico. Dining in the moonlight next to the picturesque gazebo overlooking the ocean was just so overwhelmingly relaxing. The beef had good flavor, but tended to be a bit tough. The chicken, on the other hand, was really good. We tended to linger here after we finished our dinner, and our drinks were never allowed to run low.

Bugambillias – This restaurant featured probably some of the best service for dinner that we received during our stay. Supposedly appetizers were buffet style, but our server graciously offered to make us a plate of the various choices. The food was good, but the service is what really made us enjoy our dinner here. Before we left, Salvador gave me a rose made from a napkin and also gave my husband a grasshopper made from leaves and toothpicks as souvenirs. It was sweet. If we had gone back to this restaurant, I would definitely have requested that he be our server again.

Momonohana’s – Before dining at the Oriental restaurant, we had gotten mixed reviews of the place. The Scottish couple declared it "shite" while the English/Irish couple told us that it was "brilliant." We thought that the atmosphere was nice and the food was good. I would say it probably was not as good as PF Chang’s, but better than delivery or take-out. It was definitely a different dining experience than the other restaurants and therefore it was worth the effort required to meet the dress code. We had heard you needed reservations, but I guess we went during a less crowded time of year, because I was told that no reservations were needed.

Los Caporales – I thought our dinner here was the best food we ate all week. The soup of the day was Cream of Spinach and I could have eaten two more serving. Both my husband and I got steak and it was a much better quality of meat than what was served at the Palapas. Seriously, though, the soup, oh, the soup was mucho delicioso. This restaurant also served a midnight menu from 11:30pm until 6am. I could have kissed the man who whipped up that club sandwich for me at 3am one morning after an evening of heavy drinking. Oh, and there is no dress code required for eating here on the midnight menu. :)

There were so many places to eat at the Moon Palace that we did not even visit them all during our seven day stay. Of course, we did have our favorites, and my husband could just not get enough hamburguesas. I guess it was a good thing that every restaurant we visited for lunch served freshly grilled burgers on request! Since we stayed on the Nizuc side of the resort those were the restaurants that we tended to frequent.

We heard that the palapas on the Sunrise side offered surf and turf for dinner, but we never made it over there. I heard the menu included T-bones, huge shrimp, and lobsters. If we could go back and eat one more meal at the Moon, I would more than likely have to go this route.

Also, I hear that there are now suites available and that one of the benefits of staying in the suites is room service. We did not take our ‘guest services’ advisor up on the offer of the ‘tour’ of the suites, so I can not confirm this as a fact. But I will say that if I just happened to have an extra week lying around (we heard you have to trade two weeks to stay in the suites) I would be tempted to think about staying in one -– if just to try out the room service!

Formal dining was actually what I would call dressy casual. As long as you were not wearing shorts and flip flops, it seemed you did not have a problem. Of course, when I first called about the dress code I was told that men could not wear white shirts or Hawaiian prints. This turned out to be not true at all, but I have a feeling that they were a bit more lax on the dress code because the resort was not crowded while we were there.

Finally, dinner usually did not start until 6pm, so we would occasionally stop into one of the restaurants for a snack around four or so. There were lite snacks like popcorn and chips available in the bar if we missed out on snacking and were really starving. Of course, we were usually ready to eat right at six, and found the restaurants to be the least crowded at this time.

Overall, I thought the food was very good. And I like my food.

The Moon Palace is so large that it is made up of two separate sections. I had read multiple reviews and had come to the conclusion that the Sunrise side was the preferred side, so you can imagine my dismay when we arrived and were let off at the Nizuc section. What I quickly realized is that your resort experience is completely dependent on what you make of it. We could have let preconceived notions affect our vacation, but instead we decided to take things as they came. It turned out that the Nizuc side actually provided us with exactly the type of vacation we wanted. We have read that it seems most of the Europeans are put in the Nizuc section, while the Americans are put in the Sunrise section. I would have estimated the population on our side of the resort to be about 75% European. I actually found this refreshing. We met quite a few couples from England, Scotland, and Ireland and they were all fantastic people.

We did not spend much time at the Sunrise section, but it looked great.

I believe that the major difference between the rooms of the two sections was that the Nizuc side had smaller balconies with larger rooms that included a sofa, while the Sunrise side had slightly larger balconies that included hammocks. I heard that the Nizuc was better for families as that extra room and the sofa could make a huge difference if a child was staying with you.

Another major difference that I noticed was that there did not seem to be as many rooms overlooking the pool area at the Sunrise section. Instead, the majority of the rooms were spaced out overlooking garden areas with manmade lakes and other landscaping.

Both sides were spread out and required a bit of walking to get around, but the nice thing was that you could manage to go just about everywhere under covered pathways. This provided shade for sunburns as well as shelter from rain.

While at the Moon Palace, we spent most of our time by the pool. We knew that in order to get a palapa we had to reserve our seats fairly early. Every morning between seven and eight I would go out and put our towels on a couple of lounge chairs. I would also leave a few personal items such as books and hats. Now, if you loose a beach towel they charge you $20. This made me a little leery of leaving our towels to reserve our chairs. Next time I would make sure to bring our own beach towels. Besides, the towels they provided were a bit rough. Not very nice for sunburned skin.

I know there have been complaints about the beach at the Moon Palace. I thought it was still nice to look at, if not necessarily optimal for swimming. The stretch of sand between the Sunrise and Nizuc section makes a particularly nice evening walk for a couple wanting a little romantic stroll. One evening we got a bottle of champagne from one of the bars and enjoyed it on the beach while watching the full moon rise over the ocean.

The Palace resorts have a program that allows guests at any of the resorts to use the facilities at any of their other resorts. After a few days at the Moon Palace pool, we decided to take advantage of the shuttle to the Hotel Zone. We got off at the Beach Palace and had lunch overlooking the ocean. While the view was fantastic, the food was not nearly as good as at the Moon.

After lunch, we headed down the Hotel Zone and spent a little time at some of the malls. The best deal we found was at the Hard Rock. We always buy a Hard Rock hurricane or pint glass whenever we visit a new destination. If we bought a hurricane for $12, we could keep the $10 glass. Since we were going to buy the glass anyway, the hurricane was just a bonus. The rest of the shopping was a joke. You can get better deals in the States. Don’t even bother.

We caught the bus back to the Cancun Palace, as we had heard that it was nicer than the Beach. It was. If I wanted to spend some time playing in the ocean this is where I would do it. I heard that the showers available in the gym can be used to clean up after a day of beach frolicking for an evening of bar hopping. The only problem with spending an extended period of time at the Cancun Palace was that the only way to get bottled water was to buy it. I could have used a small, soft sided cooler loaded up with the bottled water available everywhere at the Moon.

I thought about heading down to the Aventura Palace to take advantage of some of the Spa services that were highly advertised. The only problem was that the round trip cab cost would have been about $80. Also, we had gotten so sunburned on our first day that it would not have been very pleasant to get a massage after that. I think if I had not been so burnt that I would have tried to make a deal for the round trip transportation to be included in the price of the spa services. EVERYTHING can be negotiated in Mexico.

We also missed out on spending any time at the Xpu-Ha Palace. One of the tours that we could have chosen to do would have allowed us to play at the Xpu-Ha after taking a tour of Tulum. This sounded attractive to me, as I wanted to see some ruins, but I did not want to spend all day in a bus

I have read mixed reviews of using credit cards in Mexico. We found it to be preferable when making larger purchases (over $20) to buy with credit rather than use the cash we had brought. The hotel took credit cards just about everywhere including the front desk, the gift shop, and the Chaza tour desk. We never had a problem using the card along the Hotel Zone either. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the exchange rate we received when I reviewed the transactions that posted after we got back to the states.

The best thing we did before leaving the US was get $100 broken out into one dollar bills. We also brought along another $100 in 20’s, but next time I would be tempted to not bring any currency higher than a five dollar bill. It seemed that US currency was preferred in many places, but anytime we were given change we received pesos. We met a couple from the UK whose travel agent had suggested they exchange their pounds for a combination of pesos and dollars. Around the end of their trip, they were telling us that they wished they had only brought dollars.

Now, the Moon Palace has a mandatory all-inclusive program that supposedly includes gratuities. I am a firm believer that tips should be earned, not necessarily given out of obligation. Not everyone left tips, as tipping at the Moon is a completely personal decision. The service we encountered everywhere was so outstanding, we felt many of our servers earned a little something extra. We actually found ourselves leaving a couple of dollars almost everywhere. It was a good thing we brought so many ones!