After spending 9 nights at the Four Points by Sheraton Cancun Centro and enjoying Olivier’s presence at the JW Marriott, this Mexican stay continues with a little treat I’ve given myself.
Coincidentally, my birthday coincided with my stay in Mexico, so I decided to shorten my stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Cancun Centro and book a night at the Marriott Cancun Resort, in the same hotel zone as the JW Marriott.
Booking
When you try to book a resort room on July 31st in Cancun, especially a few days before (not having originally planned to spend a night in a resort), you can’t expect miracles in terms of price and availability. A room at the Marriott Cancun Resort cost no less than 550 euros, including taxes and resort fees.
That’s where my points from the Marriott Bonvoy program come in, and for the relatively reasonable sum of 35,000 points with a surcharge of 90 USD, I have direct access to an Executive Suite.
Arrival
I leave the Four Points by Sheraton after a very good breakfast service and decide to take an Uber for a few euros to the hotel zone where my resort is located for my birthday day.
Note that Ubers take customers to the hotel zone, but generally very few from the hotel zone, due to reprisals from the local cab cartel.
You have to pass through a road checkpoint to get to the hotel, where you give your room number. Yes, but not very convenient when you come for check-in and don’t have one… So I’ll give my name.
No sooner had the Uber door opened on arrival than the concierge greeted me with happy birthday wishes. Beyond the sympathy of the gesture, I wonder how he could have known that I was in that car, unless the checkpoint at the entrance had told him!
My luggage is taken care of and I make my way to reception.
Here again, an employee comes up to me and hands me this little gift: coasters with the “Marriott Bonvoy” logo. What better way to welcome guests home for a drink when I’m back from vacation!
Check-in goes smoothly and I proceed to my room. The property is very large and the hotel was full that day.
Room
Unlike the JW Marriott reviewed by Olivier, the corridors leading to the rooms at the Marriott Resort are not inside the building but out in the open, so it’s quite humid at this time of year.
I reach my room and engage the entrance corridor.
Immediately to the left as you enter, a closet containing a safe and a bathrobe.
A bathroom with shower and washbasin can be accessed from the entrance hallway, which separates it from the living areas (something I appreciate when I’m sharing the bedroom with other people, but that’s not the case today).
I deplore the absence of a bathtub, which is quite dear to me!
Between the bathroom and the lounge is a minibar area, with a few bottles of water, but the rest has been emptied, as in most hotels by now.
At the end of the corridor is the lounge, whose separation from the bedroom is characteristic of a suite. It gives access to a private balcony with two chairs.
Accessible from the lounge, of course, is the bedroom with its king-size bed, another television set and a second private balcony.
Two bedside tables are arranged on either side of the bed.
The “bedroom” balcony also features two chairs and two small tables, with an unobstructed view of the resort’s facilities and the Gulf of Mexico in the background.
Overall, the room is large and contains everything you need, but clearly needs a little sprucing up : the furnishings are quite old-fashioned (typical of many Marriott properties, you might say) although not particularly worn, and the impression is that only the bathroom has been renovated and the rest left as is.
video :
Discovery of the hotel facilities
My one-night stay before heading a little further south to Tulum was obviously short enough to discover all the hotel’s facilities (spa, …).
Impromptu room service!
Just as I had put on my bathing suit, someone knocked on the door: someone had brought me a very nice birthday ice cream!
Once I’d finished this unplanned snack, I made my way to the pool, wandering through the hotel’s many corridors. The facilities stand up well, but are a little dated and have that colonial style that I’ve found in many resorts around the world.
Some photogenic installations, I suppose for wedding ceremonies. Behind the low wall on the left are the JW Marriott facilities.
Pool
After a few detours to wander around the resort, I reach the pool. This one is quite full by the looks of it, but many customers play the towel game, which means that for many “occupied” deckchairs, there are few physical people bathing…
When I pass by at the end of the day, some customers think it’s possible to bring their loudspeakers and play their music in public. Not only did I not share their taste in music, but finding it rude and disrespectful, I ended up sending a message to the hotel front desk asking them to do something about it.
The front desk claims to be sending a security guard, whom I would indeed see arriving, to watch the scene from afar and turn back. I can see that the hotel doesn’t pay much attention to enforcing its own quiet rules (although they’re not as lax about late check-outs…).
This incident didn’t prevent me from enjoying the pool and the view.
The beach is public, and the hotel has direct access to it, with a few deckchairs reserved for guests.
At sunset I pack up my things to get ready for dinner. I pass through the hotel lobby, which is very pleasant at sunset, with its beautiful light.
Restaurant Kasai Isakaya & Ramen Noodle Bar
After a week of eating almost exclusively Mexican food, which is admittedly a little far from my roots, I decided to try out the hotel’s Japanese restaurant. Olivier and I have already eaten in the teppanyaki section, so today I’m turning to the Isakaya side.
I start with some sushi, tempura and tsukune (chicken skewer). These items arrive quite quickly, but when I receive the order, I say to myself that I’d like to accompany it with a bowl of rice, which I ask for immediately. As I write this article 7 months later, I’m still waiting for it!
Those who know me will know that the one dish I never order in restaurants outside Japan is ramen… Still hungry and having given up on the rice, which seems to have been imported directly by plane at the customer’s request, I decide to break my conviction and have the mini-ramen, which takes about 15 minutes to arrive.
I had been warned that it was a small portion, but I didn’t expect the bowl to be the width of the palm of my hand either!
To round off this birthday meal, I opt for a matcha agé-ice (a scoop of matcha ice cream with fried food around it), which I find original. But the already long service time for the ramen was even longer: I waited almost 30 minutes for this dessert. The waiter even had to wake me up because I had dozed off on the table!
The same circus will start again for the request for the bill, which will take some time. I’ll pass on my dissatisfaction to the team, who will apologize.
Breakfast
The next morning, like Olivier at the JW Marriott, I enjoy a continental breakfast courtesy of my Platinum status. After a few minutes of hesitation, I wouldn’t opt for the extra $10 + taxes needed to have a full breakfast with hot dishes, eggs, etc. I’d be happy to pay it.
The otherwise pleasant breakfast room is packed with American tourists.
The continental breakfast options are nonetheless extensive, with a wide choice of cold-cuts, pastries, drinks and, above all, this thick slice of bread that I love and that reminds me of summers in Japan, where we also eat these thickly sliced airy sandwich loaves.
We’ll have a surprise guest in the breakfast room with this trainer and her raptor who come to train without disturbing the guests for a moment.
Departure
Departure formalities will run smoothly. This property being a resort, late check-out at 14:00 for Gold members, and 16:00 for Platinum and above is not guaranteed, and was not honored here due to the high occupancy of the hotel. This won’t bother me this time, as I have a short drive to make before arriving at my next destination, the beautiful seaside town of Tulum, 80km to the south, where I’ll be staying at the ALoft, which will also offer me a very nice stay. But that’s for another review!
Bottom line
Marriott remains a safe bet with a certain standard of service.
But it’s true that the hotel’s hyper-frequentation in summer and the democratization of “mid-range” resorts like this Marriott Cancun Resort, for which the neighboring JW Marriott is a little less affected, is pulling the property’s initial luxurious side down a little. The bedrooms also really need a facelift in terms of furniture and paintwork.
The attention paid to my birthday, even though I didn’t mention it at all (only the attentive eye of the hotel front desk on my Marriott Bonvoy profile would have indicated it), really pleased me and will help me to remember this one-night stay in a positive light.
If the opportunity arose for me to return to Cancun, I wouldn’t exclude this Marriott property from my choice, although my eye would also be turned to properties in a similar price range, such as the Westin Resort & Spa or the Renaissance Resort & Marina.
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