Plaza las Glorias/Occidental Allegro/etc

[richhagelin]

I'd appreciate a comparison of the following: (price is not an issue)

Plaza Las Glorias
Occidental Allegro
Park Royal
Melia Vacation Club
Occidental Grand

I'm taking my non-diving wife down for a week, so I am interested primarily in beach access, quality of rooms, quality of on-site food, snorkeling and location.

I've already got my dive op picked so I am not worried about the on=site dive op.

Thanks

Rich Hagelin

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I can only speak to PLG. Here goes:
Beach Access: None. The only beach is man-made. I never missed it but my wife may have objected. The pool is really nice with a swim-up bar.

Quality of Rooms: Not bad. A little musty but all of Cozumel shares that problem becuase the AC runs all the time. Try turning it off and airing the room every day. The pictures of the rooms on the internet are pretty representative. They have a fridge which is great. The beds are Cozumel hard but who cares (besides your wife). You can ask for pads.

Quality of on-site food: Pretty good all things considered. Perfect for after-dive lunch. You can save quite a bit of money by skipping the breakfast buffet and making your own simple breakfast. There is also a great place for breakfast down the street next to the Barracuda. Name escapes me but it is a good inexpensive place for eggs, etc.

Snorkeling: Excellent. The hotel sits on ironshore and the water right in front is 6-10 feet deep. Great fun. Awesome swimming and snorkelling.

Location: Excellent. Within a 10 minute walk of downtown. Close enough to not need a cab. Far enough away so you don't have to deal with cruiseros. There is a grocery store right across the street. It sells everything you can possibly need. We walked over there the first day and bought all our booze for the week. Lots of fruit and cereal for mornings (wash well), etc. etc.

All in all the PLG was a good bang for the buck. Check out Bay Adventures for some good packages. If your wife is a bit of a princess you might want to consider stepping up to one of the other "finer" hotels. If she's there to dive then it is the perfect place.

Couple of tips. The maids have been known to be sticky-fingered on occasion. Find yours the first day and tip the hell out of her. It was well worth the extra effort. You might also want to get receipts for cash upgrades, etc. The front desk can have a short-term memory problem about cash they received. Try and develop a relationship with one of the waiters. We took care of him and he took care of us. Definitely take advantage of two for one happy hour.

 

[5615mike]

Occidental Grand is the nicest of your list by far. Facility is only about a year or so old. Beach access is ok....small but not a great deal of beach. Southern location so access to town is not as easy as PLG or Park Royal. OG is also AI only. Food is good, not great. The nicer rest., I believe they have two, are more formal and reservations must be made. Food is very good. Your AI are not going to have all around great food so don't expect it. Depends on whether location or facility amenities/quality is highest on your list.

 

[cyklon_300]

Agree with the majority of what Tim posted, the rooms were decent and our view was quite nice. The snorkeling right off the pool deck was really interesting...barracuda, mini-bait balls, baby octupus. We started every day snorkeling and did several night excursions, too. Saw squid and morays.

PLG is close enough to town to walk to some restaurants which was a good thing as we thought the hotel food was horrid...had coupons for some free meals and wouldn't even use them...

The timeshare salesguy that accosted us multiple times per day at the lobby entrance got to be a complete nuisance...I finally gave him $10 to leave us alone, best money I spent on the whole trip.

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

The timeshare salesguy that accosted us multiple times per day at the lobby entrance got to be a complete nuisance...I finally gave him $10 to leave us alone, best money I spent on the whole trip.

Thanks for the laugh. I never got bothered by a time-share guy there. I must have got lucky.

I must say too that we stuck with very basic food when we ate there. It was mainly calamari, salsa, guacamole and chips. We ate breakfast there once and decided to eat elsewhere based on a value assessment. We never ate dinner there.

 

[cxg31s]

Quality of on-site food: Pretty good all things considered. Perfect for after-dive lunch. You can save quite a bit of money by skipping the breakfast buffet and making your own simple breakfast. There is also a great place for breakfast down the street next to the Barracuda. Name escapes me but it is a good inexpensive place for eggs, etc.

The place Tim is referring to is likely Rock-n-Java. It's a few-minute walk north of PLG in the same complex as the Barracuda hotel. You can get there, have a great breakfast and still make the dive boat and it's well worth it. Their daily breakfast special is great and cheap and other food is excellent as well--try their spinach salad! We ate there a lot for breakfast and lunch when we stayed at PLG because the food at PLG's restaurant is generic and VERY expensive. Good luck in your hotel decision!

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

The place Tim is referring to is likely Rock-n-Java. It's a few-minute walk north of PLG in the same complex as the Barracuda hotel. You can get there, have a great breakfast and still make the dive boat and it's well worth it. Their daily breakfast special is great and cheap and other food is excellent as well--try their spinach salad! We ate there a lot for breakfast and lunch when we stayed at PLG because the food at PLG's restaurant is generic and VERY expensive. Good luck in your hotel decision!

Thatas the place. Very "American" if you get my drift. Reminded me of diners back home.

 

[scubajim]

You can't go wrog with PLG, I stayed there twice last year. Rooms with ocean views, close to town, the store across the street, One day around the pool there were about 5 topless female sunbathers.... Only one day last Dec. a guy told me that they were europeans that work on the cruise boats. Decent diving off the pier too.

 

[dnhill]

I have stayed at the PLG more than once and have found the quality of the rooms always acceptable. However they have varied in quality quite a bit. The last time I stayed there (Feb 03) we had two rooms, and in one room the tub would not hold water, lights were out, the fridge was broken and the air conditioner was not working. However the other room was near perfect.

dnhill