TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Ernesto the pool side dancing ice cream cowboy makes our whole vacation. Nothing tastes better than the cookies and cream ice cream served poolside.

They did a very good job with the hair and makeup!

Our family loves Moon Palace. This is our third time returning. One of the many highlights has been our experience with Ernesto who is the dancing cowboy ice cream man. He is absolutely the best. In between trips we constantly talk about getting back to Moon Palce Sunrise just so we could see him again. He always greets us with a big smile and some dancing and we have a great time while he serves awesome ice cream. He makes the experience incredible and we highly recommend becoming friends with Ernesto,the dancing, cowboy ice cream, man. Ernesto dances around poolside at Sunrise with his ice cream cart and it’s very entertaining. We love this guy. Thanks Ernesto for making out trips do fun and memorable.

Stayed March 17-22, 2026 with my elderly mother and two kids (ages 9 and 11) at Moon Palace Sunrise. The good: the resort is big with plenty of pools, a solid kids club (Playroom and Wired Lounge kept my kids entertained for hours), and enough restaurants that you won't get bored. The beach has seaweed but the pool areas make up for it. The bad: the Palace Elite timeshare sales operation is embedded into the check-in process and it tainted the entire stay. At check-in, staff wearing green shirts approached me, identified me as an "Expedia VIP," and offered two complimentary Grand Day Passes to The Grand. Sounded great. It was not. It was a timeshare sales pitch disguised as a guest benefit. The condition: my entire family had to attend a 90-minute sales presentation. My mother is 76, speaks only Mandarin — no English or Spanish. My children are 9 and 11. I offered to attend the presentation alone while they enjoyed the resort. Refused. All family members must attend, including a senior who cannot understand a word and two young children. Since I couldn't meet that condition, the "free" passes were withheld. I paid $600 USD out of pocket ($200 per adult, $100 per child) for passes that had been offered as gifts five minutes earlier. When I complained, the resort offered a $200 refund — but only if I signed a "Release of All Claims" with a confidentiality clause that would prevent me from writing this review. I declined. I also learned after the fact that my Expedia VIP Access booking included $250 in resort credits. Nobody mentioned this at check-in. They went completely unused. The only VIP benefit anyone communicated to me was the timeshare pitch. Advice to future guests: ignore every person in a green shirt from the moment you step into the lobby. Do not engage with any "VIP" offers or presentation invitations. If you want Grand Day Passes to The Grand, budget to buy them yourself. And ask about your resort credits at check-in — they won't volunteer the information.

Every year I come, Ernesto is the first guy I try to find to get some amazing ice cream from him! He is always dancing and smiling me and my family love him!