The Fives Oceanfront

Excuse me? Where are my mushrooms? If I had not spent days trying to get a luxurious experience, I wouldn’t bother typing this. This is but a tip of the mediocre iceberg. This isn’t fettuccini or carbonara. Tomatoes on a Caesar? Come. On. My full candid report is forthcoming. For $400+ a night yall have got to Do better.

So many things went wrong with our stay. -the room we booked (the rooftop) nearly a year before our stay had been “reclassified” and was double booked so we were put in another room. No one seemed to care or apologized. They did compost food and beverage but it didn’t make up for not having the room we thought we were getting. -there were only two restaurants even though they advertise 3, and the service was extremely slow in the Marley restaurant. We also ordered room service one night and the food was cold after waiting an hour for it. -The food overall was really good, though, which is part of the reason I’m giving the hotel any stars. -there were chairs on the beach that were broken and never enough chairs for guests so people would argue over them and it was so unpleasant. -there were paint chips on the balcony of one of our rooms one day. -the cleaning service for our rooms was excellent, though. Overall, a very disappointing stay and I would urge others to think twice before booking this hotel.

What was good: The location is perfect, great pool and just on the beach. The service was generally good and the food was fresh and well prepared. Great drinks and good quality brands included in all inclusive. New year was fun and some good activities for the kids The people there were fantastic What could be improved: You had to go and reserve the sun loungers : it would be great if they had a few more The service one night was very slow with no explanation however when we spoke to the manager it was reviewed and much better the next time we went

Visited Boxing Day to new year period. Positives are position good, cleanliness good, staff in rooftop pool bar great, Eli on front desk is so helpful. However, the hotel has many issues which do affect a holiday. Avoid at all costs junior suite rooms 109, 209 and those in the similar area, side road view as the noise, small and disruption from below are awful. They are positioned over the side entrance to the hotel, deliveries non stop (24 hrs) bin / refuse collection and storage underneath and the lack of double glazing prevents any sound reduction meaning any attempts to sleep are futile. Reception staff make no attempt to move or swop rooms and no one should pay to sleep near, above or beside rooms which are essentially the service area - terrible. Added to this some staff (visiting musicians) routinely and openly use the wall outside the hotel as toilet and it stinks - horrid. Bar staff are friendly and helpful but after external public events such as weddings they are clearly overworked and tired and service is affected. Parts of the hotel are unexpectedly closed due to external celebrations such as weddings meaning areas are closed to hotel guests and staff are stretched to breaking point. Forget even trying to use a sun bed on the beach, these are reserved to the highest bidder (those who tip the beach staff the most) and annoyingly are frequently reserved with little more than an American base ball hat - while other guests are left without places to sit. The numerous “managers” are beyond useless, they are visible in doing absolutely nothing, avoid eye contact and cannot be located when requested. Overall find somewhere else to stay, over priced for such inconsistent and uncaring provision.

Puerto Morelos is a pleasant tourist town with lots of restaurants and a useful supermarket (Chedraui). The town centre is about a 10 minute walk (on the road or on the beach) from the hotel. It's perfectly safe, even in the dark. The beach is fantastic, and the bit outside the hotel is cleaned (and the seaweed removed) twice daily. The seaweed is no big deal. Good things about the hotel: - The room (an "EPIC" suite) was spacious, comfortable and spotlessly clean. It was useful to have a fridge and the balcony was nice. - The minibar was reasonably priced. - We were able to arrange a late checkout (albeit at a substantial cost) which meant we could enjoy our last day on the beach and have a shower etc. before the evening flight home. Not so good things: - There aren't enough sunbeds. - They play music on the beach literally all day long, usually reggae. It became very annoying and spoilt what would have otherwise have been pleasant days. One day, they had someone playing live trance music for several hours which, was equally annoying. - The hotel is very much (and understandably) aimed at the American market. I think maybe they have different expectations to Europeans. - Some of guests are "owners", who have some sort out timeshare deal. Some of them really do strut around like they own the place! - Service is unbelievably s-l-o-o-o-o-w. Notwithstanding this, the staff expect tips. - Breakfast is abysmal. Not a buffet, as you might expect, but table service. The only edible cooked items are the eggs. The coffee is awful and you have to pay extra for a cappuccino. We were B&B so can't comment on dinner. - There is a nice bar on the roof but it closes at 6pm, which is exactly when you might want a cocktail before going out to dinner. The other bars aren't very nice.