Ah, the Moon Palace! Just the name sends tingles down my spine! Good tingles, that is.
For most Cancun connoisseurs, the Moon Palace Resort in the best that the Cancun and Riviera Maya have to offer, and who am I to disagree? So after a brief two day stay at this hotel, I jumped on the boat with the connoisseurs and I have to agree: this is the best resort in Cancun, hands down.
Let’s start by describing the property, for those of you who haven’t heard of the Moon Palace before: you drive South from Cancun about 9 minutes on the main federal highway and you get to the Moon Palace. It’s impossible to miss! It has its own highway bridge and lots of signs announce your impending arrival. Upon entering a beautifully gardened path, your vehicle stops at a guards’ gate, where you must inform them of your name and reservation number. After confirming your information, they’ll grant you entrance. This means that not just any Joe can enter, something that certainly ensures your safety and the resort’s exclusivity.
Inside the expansive complex (I am talking about miles of gardens, jungle and well manicured grounds), you get to one of three distinct hotels, all part of the Moon Palace: the Sunrise, the Nizuc and the Grand. Don’t let the names fool you, they are all GRAND!
Enter your hotel via a magnificent oversized, Vegas-style lobby, where you are greeted with a refreshing drink, a moist towelette to cool yourself and a warm welcome by the efficient friendly staff. Once given access to your room, you don’t get a key card, meaning that you don’t have to encumber yourself carrying a card to the beach or the pool. Instead, you are given an identifying bracelet with a tiny magnetic card about 3/4 of an inch long on it. This is the key to your room… may I say that this is the key to paradise as well?
Walk about 5 minutes and you are in your room. Ours was a standard room with two queen size beds, a jaccuzzi, a balcony, and a seating area. That’s the bottom of the barrel, things go up from there and the suites (which I’ve only glanced at passing by) are truly amazing. Paradise indeed!
The resort sits on the beach and most rooms have an undisturbed view of the Caribbean sea. Some (the most expensive ones) actually sit on the sand, so you just have to open the sliding door to be at the beach. Speaking of the Moon Palace beach, it is not as amazing Instagram-Picture-worthy as the ones in the heart of the Cancun hotel zone. For some reason, despite being very clean, the beach here is a little darker, and the water is not as cristal clear. The resort, though, makes up for it with over one mile long of pools. Yep. Pools that come in all sizes and shapes, from kiddy pools with an inviting water park smack in the middle of them, to deeper pools with meandering curves surrounded by lavish palm trees, all the way to a surfind pool with an unstoppable source of waves that will keep you entertained for hours and will make your under-aerobicized body feel terribly sore the following morning!
These pools are tended to by an army of solicitous waiters who offer a never ending supply and variety of good quality drinks, which are obviously free, since the entire Moon Palace is an all-inclusive resort where ALL your food and drinks are included. Ask for any drink you want in any variety you can think of, and which whatever liquor you prefer, and you’ll get it. No cheap spirits here, everything you’ll get is top quality, so guaranteed you won’t have a headache the following morning.
Finally, I must dedicate an entire paragraph to the food at the Moon Palace resort. It is worthy of a special mention:
There are over one dozen restaurants inside the Moon Palace complex, which range in variety from a tremendously varied buffet with international and Mexican cuisine, to a Mediterranean, a Brazilian Steakhouse, an Asian, and a Mexican restaurants, just to mention a few. All included in your reservation, so you can choose your favorite cuisine. It is important to mention that at check-in time, you should choose which specialty restaurant you want to dine in that night.
The culinary fun doesn’t stop at the restaurants, though. There are a couple of snack bars by the pools, serving burgers, sandwiches, salads, pizza, and other light options all day long. And my personal favorite: a bakery and café next to each lobby, where they serve the best croc monsieur sandwiches I’ve had in my not-too-short life. They offer an array of salads, wraps, sandwiches, along with the most delicious macaroons and desserts! And coffees, of couse, any way you want them: hot, cold, frozon, on the rocks, with ice cream or blended.
I hope I have given you enough information about the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, to understand why I must give it my HIGHEST FIVE STAR rating. This is a Cancun hotel that won’t disappoint and that you’ll be braggin about for years to come!
