The Beach Palace is the oldest of the Palace Resorts chain. However, we found it to be a wonderful resort. The room in which we stayed was on the 8th floor. The seventh and eighth floors of the Beach Palace were added more recently than the rest of the hotel and are extremely nice.
The room was quite large with marble floors, columns, a king-sized bed, and an in-room, two-person Jacuzzi. Everything was immaculate and the bed was very comfortable, as were the water jets in the Jacuzzi after a long day of activities.
The resort staff left fruit and/or chocolates every day and they also created animals out of the towels and left them on the bed, which my girlfriend loved. Views from all the rooms are great, as you face over the lagoon or the beach and each view is picturesque. The hotel staff members were friendly and courteous and everyone spoke English, which was helpful given our limited knowledge of Spanish.
By staying at this Palace resort, we had access to all other Palace resorts in the area (Sun Palace, Cancun Palace, Moon Palace). We also had all-inclusive access to all restaurants, bars, and activities at each of the resorts. That was a great benefit that we didn't fully appreciate until we experienced it for a full week. Some of the other palaces had mini golf, scuba, and snorkeling lessons, and the list goes on and on. Our resort hotel was closer to the downtown area and clubs than the others and it had a perfect beach. There were several nice pools there as well and volleyball could be played in the pool or on the beach. The restaurants and waiters were excellent and the service in general was of the highest order. Activities (such as tours to Chichen Itza or Isla Mujeres) could be scheduled in the lobby of each hotel, which was very convenient. The gym at the Beach Palace was quite rudimentary, but some of the other Palace resorts had more extensive offerings.
Having been to all four Palace resorts in the Cancun area, I would only recommend the Sun Palace over the Beach Palace, and that is a close call in terms of restaurants and accomodations. All in all, we were totally satisfied with the accommodations at the Palace Resorts and we are thinking about going back next year or the year after.