TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Dec 21st- Dec 28th 2024. I won't be returning to this trio of resorts. Ventus at Marina El Cid, Marina El Cid, Ventus Ha' at Marina El Cid are all 3 laid out like a college campus. This is the prevailing business model we are seeing in this are from Cancun down to Play Del Carmen. First off, our check in was about 1hr long. It could have been 10 min. We booked with a local travel agent thru a charity voucher. We already paid for everything. We had to listen to never ending up charge options. When we said no they had something else to offer us. On and on and on. We had been on the go from 2am to about non when we got there. We were ready for our vacation to start. We got in around noon and they didn't have a room for us, which was fine we didn't need a room to enjoy the rest of the resort. After the check in desk the time share folks are waiting for you like vultures over a hot carcass. We have been to these type of resorts before, "listen to our time share BS and we will give you a massage or an activity(s) for free/reduced rate. You give us 90 mins and we will give you these in return". The start you off with breakfast with a nice relatable guy. He shares his life story, you move on to the next guy. They asked us about our stay so far and we brought up the horrible check in experience. We told them why would you charge $48/ per phone for WiFi? I have never stayed in a hotel or resort in the planet that has charged me for WiFi, yet. It was pretty upsetting this place would do that. If you were a Mexican resident and had local phone coverage I can see not needing it. However, these resorts are catering to the US, Canada, and rest of the world, not Mexican natives. It would be nice to be able to message home and say, we made it safe. They said "we will look into getting that taken care of for you." He puts on more pressure to get a sale. You tel him no, they always send in a 3rd guy to be the "closer". More pressure. Finally, I have to point out they had wasted 3hrs of our time for a 90 min presentation. They get all huffy and you leave. The food: Food was not all that good. We go to a lot of the all inclusive places in this are of Mexico. Usually you share multiple resort restaurants as your all inclusive packages. We had 3 meals out of the 21 meals we had that week that was decent. Not 1 meal was wow, that was amazing, I'm glad we ate here. I've never had that experience in Mexico. You only have a few places to eat dinner in a weeks time. I had a steak dinner in 3 places that described it being prepared 3 different ways but it was just the same piece of meat with a brown gravy on it. Of all the meals we had, there was a Mexican restaurant that we had grilled chicken and fish that was the best meal at our lunch time. The dinner meals were "ok" only. For me, the hibachi (Kobo) was probably the best dinner time meal. I liked the hibachi meal, the sushi rolls for appetizers, and the raspberry cheesecake dessert. My girlfriend thought the seafood at Akat was her favorite. I really liked 99% of the wait staff in these restaurants. They were very personable, and made recommendations, flavor suggestions. We couldn't tip them enough. The room: We booked a regular room. Room was musty, moldy smelling. I thought the room had not been stayed in so I cranked the AC up to filter the air. By the 3rd day it was ok.They housecleaning staff cleaned up well per our towels/no towels flag on the door. The bed was very nice. They offered a firm and soft pillow. The daily/nightly activities Were pretty good. I really enjoyed the activities the resort had for the guests. Some cultural and some seasonal. This was my first time traveling during Christmas. They made an awesome attempt to make the Christmas spirit in the air. The resort got a little less crowed on Christmas day and day after. They ran around on golf carts with Christmas decorations kind of like a Christmas day parade with characters dressed in costumes, It was really nice, I felt so bad for the people wearing the costumes they had to have been really hot! Drinks: The bar and restaurant staff were really nice, hospitable, polite. We have stayed in Mexico before and you had that vibe they didn't want you there and this place was not like that at all. Drinks were contingent on your location. Most of the pool bars have minimum ingredients. They are slinging the pina coladas, tap beer, easy blend and go stuff. The hotel bars had the good drinks. Have to have a sombrero and Tamarind Margarita from the "Ha" lobby restaurant. They had the best bar staff in the whole place. The pools/hot tubs/beach: Pools were nice, but freezing cold. They had 1 adult only area that was small. The infinity pool was freezing and i went in 1 time the whole week. The 2 hot tubs were nice to sit in, but 1 was filthily, mud looking water and everyone avoided it. Made the other hot tub prime real estate and it only had the capacity for about 12 people. Not much space for a whole resort. Beach was practically a lagoon. They had 2 rows of what looked like sand filled socks. I assume they were wave breaks but they were just barnacle holders. The water in that area was about shin too knee deep, bottom was nasty. There were hardly any chairs to sit on at the beach. The beach plain was terrible, but if I'm going to Mexico I still want to lay near the shore and relax. No excuses for not having some lounge chairs down there. There was about 8 chairs only. Spa: We went to the spa for a couples massage and facial. They were very nice, relaxing. The checkout: Was just a disappointment, just like our check in experience. They told us on day 2 they would take care of our WiFi charge and comp the fees. They did not. The front desk told us they did not have the ability to refund the charges, only the accountant had that authority. We waited 40 min for them to do something about it and they would not let us leave the resort until our bill was settled. These are all that way. All the shuttle or taxi have to have your all paid receipt or you aren't going anywhere. Finally, when we were going to be late getting to the airport we said we needed to go and they just avoided refunding the money. We have been 2 weeks since our stay and they just playing dumb and running us around in circles hoping we would drop it. We have the persons signature on paper with our discount code, but we can't get anything done about it. In summary, never going to stay at an El Cid resort again. Food was ok. Pools were cold. Drinks and bars were good. Service was great. Room and bed was good.

If you really want to get away but have options this is the resort for you. Many polls and the Gulf. Good variety of restaurants, many activities. Near the Marina for fishing tours and dolphins. Lots of natural space for your enjoyment. The staff is also very willing to please.

Our butlers, Alejandro, Eric, & Samuel were fantastic - checked in with us regularly to always make sure we had anything and everything we needed. Looking forward to our next visit in Dec 2025!

Great experience..especially the nightly shows and entertainment. The performers were awesome. Food was great too!

There was not one activity or entertainment at night. The only thing was an "unprofessional show " or music held on a platform in a grassy area of the complex. You couldn't get a decent time for dinner because "members" could pick times before they arrived. We had to wait until we got there to book. We could only pick two nights reservations each day. The normal dinner times were always full. We had to eat at 5:00 or 9:00 every night. The food was terrible! Only good good meal was our last night at Japanese. It was excellent! We left with one good meal! Our concierge was wonderful. He helped us as much as he could. He shouldn't have to try and fix all of your inadequacies. In your restaurant in the of Ventus was horrible. I ordered a filet mignon. It looked like a very cheap cut of steak (maybe round ). It was thin and definitely NOT a filet mignon! The whole steak was fat and gristle. I ha about a 1" piece of actual meat I could eat. My salad had black slimy lettuce in it. Couldn't order French onion soup or the quiche because it wouldn't be ready for 1 1/2 hours. No explanation why. It should have been done when the restaurant opened. The waiter didn't apologize, ask if I wanted something else or send a manager to our table. The whole experience at the resort was "unbelievable". We spent alot of money on NOTHING and wasted our weeks vacation time. Your tour people were so pushy; I thought my husband was going to get into a fight with the big fat guy that came second. He didn't want to let us leave. He got in my husband's face. We had four different people in 3 hours (which was supposed to be 90 minutes). Also all workers for the presentations were disruptingly loud from drinking (on the job). The excuse was because it as New Years. That is not acceptable when you are working! Any other business would have fired them on the spot. Our person kept apologizing for them. It was a week of torture and disappointment.