Our experience of our Cancun All-inclusive resort

Now that we’ve actually been to Cancun, I can actually tell you that it’s literally a strip of hotels.

The strip where it says ‘Hotel Zone’ is where all the hotel lines up.
Most hotels have a beach view, while some have both lagoon and beach views.
Some of the hotels are more elaborate, and have water park within the hotel.

So it really depends on what you are looking for!

For us, we were looking for an all-inclusive resort where we would mainly chill at the pool and the beach as a family. So what we were looking for is very specific.
As for our experience with Now Emerald Cancun, it was decent.

• Food – They had 5 restaurants: A buffet that is more casual, a Pan-Asian restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and a fancy adult only restaurant. There’s also 24/7 room service.
  • Note: Restaurant hours are pretty limited, so it was a little hard to accommodate for younger children who eat earlier than normal hours
  • Note: There are dress codes for most restaurant besides the buffet. So make sure check on those as well to bring some along.
• Accommodation – rooms are decent, room service several times a day.
  • Note: All-inclusive resorts are also attractive for young party goers, so there could be late night folks walking around kinda tipsy and loud at night
• Beach – there are bench chairs for hotel goers, and service from hotel at all times
  • Note: Water can be rough at most of the coastline and beach section is kind of narrow.
• Pool – There’s a tier of family pool, another tier of regular pool, and third tier of pool to wash off sand from the beach.
  • Note: Family pool water can be chilly because of the sun shade
• Kids club – They have an Explorer club that starts from 9am – 8:30pm for kids 3 years old and up. There’s a specific area where they have a kids pool section and an indoor area. They do indoor activities, go to the beach, play beach soccer, pool time, feed the kids and even have movie night for them.
  • Note: Kids that we saw who enjoyed the Explorer club were some older kids, age ranging from 7 – 14 years old.
• Activities – There’s a daily schedule that is sent out to guest everyday informing activities that will happen
  • Note: These activities can be quiet loud and happen in the pool area. Good thing, is the windows are very well sound proofed.
  • Note: Travel agent and the hotel would push and try to get you to go explore beyond the hotel. These additional day trips can add up and cost a lot. So really think about what you want to do, and if all-inclusive is the best deal for you.
    We did go out of the hotel for 2 mornings since it was too cold to be by the pool.
    We took a bus and did a submarine trip (which got my husband who has bad seasick really worried about himself), and went to La Isla mall for a walk. We spent the bulk of our time at the pool and beach.

Overall, we think it’s not a bad deal and spent too much out of what we expected.
Now Emerald Cancun was decent for us, staff were friendly and super attentive.

Last note, if you are planning for an all-inclusive trip, make sure you figure out if gratitude is included or not.
We did end up spending a bit on tipping people who helped us but it was still within our budget range.

Hope this article was helpful! Please share your all-inclusive resort experience with us if possible!