Moon Palace Cancún Sunrise – All Inclusive Resort Review

My family and I visited Moon Palace Cancún Sunrise in Mexico, and this is a review of our full family vacation. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Moon Palace Jamaica to celebrate our anniversary a few years ago. Naturally, Moon Palace Cancún Sunrise Resort in Mexico was top of mind when booking our recent family vacation to Mexico. After we settled on Moon Palace Cancún, we had to choose between one of the three properties that were side by side: Sunrise, Nizuc and The Grand. We stayed at Sunrise, spent seven nights and eight days at the resort, and did one excursion there, so most of our time was on the property.

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Check In

Check-in was smooth and lasted about 20 minutes. Though there is a bar across from the check-in desk playing loud music, it made for a noisy affair and made it hard to hear. It did seem a good vibe for a Saturday night, though. We arrived late evening, around 8:00 p.m. and by the time we checked in, made it to our room, and our bags followed, it was about 9:00 p.m.. We caught the buffet for a late dinner.

The Room at Moon Palace Cancún Sunrise

The room was okay, though I did find the proximity of the sink, the path to the bathroom and the hotel room door to be quite confined and cumbersome compared to the rest of the room. That aside, it was good, with a hot tub, a nice garden view of the property and a hammock on the balcony.

Food

The property had several restaurants, two serving buffet breakfast in the morning, and one at night. The other required reservations. Snack huts are throughout the property, but the selections remained mostly the same throughout the week we were there; not much variety.

I was also disappointed that there wasn’t any patio dining for breakfast or early dinner. So, most of the time while dining, I was itching to go outside. The food was okay. Most Mexican cuisine is new to me, and I spent the week trying new food; some I liked, some I didn’t, but overall I think it was okay. So take that with a grain of salt.

Property and Amenities

Booking with Moon Palace Cancun gave us access to three Moon Palace properties. Each property is large and, by my standards, a bit overwhelming.

Moon Palace Cancún resort has more than enough activities on-site to keep guests occupied. There are shops, bars, a gaming lounge, a nightclub, mini golf, water sports: sailing, kayaking, flowriding, and more. These activities are all the more attractive based on cross-over access to the three hotels.

Excursion Packages at Moon Palace Cancún resort

There are also excursion packages if you have an appetite for doing something local. My family and I chose a package that included seeing the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, swimming in an underground cenoté and snorkelling with turtles. The package included transportation, access to the local places and required gear, towels, snacks and lunch.

The Beach

The sand on the beach at Moon Palace Cancún Sunrise was beautiful. The shores, however, had a lot of seaweed. There was so much of it, it was a pastime to watch the John Deere tractors drive up and down the beach all day collecting it. Still, as soon as it was cleaned up, it would accumulate again.

The sea itself was a bit rough, too. People hardly swam in the sea. As a testament, there weren’t many lounge chairs, and the few that were there were mostly empty. This is a stark difference from the beaches in Jamaica.

Notwithstanding, the pools are an ample alternative.

The weather in April

Mexico was hot as hell. As a Jamaican, I wasn’t prepared for it (I should have been). And since we spent considerable amounts of time in the sun from touring the ruins, to pool days, to sailing and kayaking, all three of us came back from our trip with very noticeable sunburns despite copious amounts of sunscreen and hats when possible. Since our trip was in April, I imagine a summer trip would be hotter still, so something to think about.

There is just one thing I did not appreciate…

They do this by asking to show you a presentation for 90 minutes, for some perk they covertly offer. Their sales pitch for financed vacations over several years and perks is very aggressive and, quite frankly, unpleasant. The agents say ‘no’ is okay. But, no is only accepted after no less than five to seven different salespeople take a stab at you, trying to sell you something else, that costs a little less.

One of the agents even said something to the effect of, those last agents didn’t work out all their commission’ after asking us what the last number we heard was. Now, we did go through this in Jamaica as well, but not to this degree. This was something else, and it ruined our plans for the day, especially after the sales push continued, when our child was upset and crying, and we tried to disengage from the process.

In conclusion, Moon Palace Cancún Sunrise is…

We expected the Moon Palace all-inclusive experience, and it was delivered. The staff was warm and helpful. Most spoke English or understood enough of it to understand my requests with the right Spanish word thrown in (I don’t speak Spanish). If I had to compare, I prefer the Jamaica resort, and since the hotel chain is planning a second location in Jamaica, there is a strong chance we will visit it at some point.

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XO, Shandean.

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