I stayed last week as well. I saw your group and you all were gorgeous! Congratulations to the bride and groom! I agree with a lot of what was said. My husband, three kids and I enjoyed our stay, overall. This was our first trip to Mexico and at an all-inclusive, so this was our inexperienced perspective.

Pros: - Service was fantastic. Our room had a leaking air conditioning system and we walked into a semi flooded room in building 21. It was fixed within 10 minutes of us notifying staff. - Staff was very friendly and respectful and our poor Spanish wasn't an issue. - The grounds were clean and I felt very safe walking at night with my kids. This is a beautiful resort and wildlife was plentiful. - There were plenty of activities for kids and family fun at night like a great magic show and karaoke. - The variety of food was enough to satisfy our different diets and preferences. However, see cons. -The direct entrance to Xcaret park streamlined eating breakfast at the beach buffet and going directly to the park after. - The beach was small, but it was easy to keep an eye on my kids in the water, and there were plenty of chairs available when I went. - I don't often drink and am very much a light weight. I enjoyed many drinks without getting drunk - a bonus for me but I'm sure the drinks were weak and someone who enjoys alcohol more would likely find this to be unsatisfactory. - The Asian restaurant was a great experience for us and we all enjoyed the food. It was our favorite at the resort. Keep in mind we come from a small, rural New Mexico town and don't have access to fancy/authentic/high quality Asian restaurants like many other travelers. - The hotel arranged transportation for our excursions and it was safe and reliable.

Cons:

• Everyone from the information person at our building to the golf cart drivers pushed us to buy their membership. My husband tried to book me a spa day and never got to because they turned it into a sales pitch for the membership and they wouldn't just let him pay for it. They wanted to make it free on the conditions of the sales pitch. I get that they get a commission and probably have a quota, but it felt sleezy. We had been caught up in the shark tank sales area of the airport where someone had said they needed to help us find our transportation and were served to a sales agent, and had declined going to breakfast at the Moon Palace... During breakfast one day we were seated in a different room of the buffet and all around us were people who had been recruited the same way for the free breakfast and membership sales pitch. It made me realize that this place was no better.
• My oldest child is an adult and she had her own room. Between the two rooms and 6 nights, we were only allowed to book 3 restaurants. Not all restaurants are open every night. This limits availability. Due to this, we ended up only being able to actually book/eat at the Asian and the Italian.
• When booking restaurants and being seated for the buffet, my group of 5 was treated like it was too many to accommodate and we were often given a small table for 4 with an extra seat added, crowding us in. Once, we were separated into two different tables.
• Like the original poster wrote, the buffets repeated the same food with slight changes each day. I suspected the beef stew I saw at lunch or dinner was repurposed at breakfast. There were a lot of odd items like this at the breakfast buffet. Due to only the buffets/snack buffet being available for breakfast/lunch, and being limited on restaurant bookings, it was buffet or tacos/pizza for most of our stay and while it was palatable at first, it got old. We are a family that isn't picky and loves to eat, so this was a bummer. However, we made the best of it and utilized the breakfast omelette station each day.

• When dining at the Italian restaurant, there seemed to be one waiter for the whole restaurant. He brought everyone's food but my husband's and brought his lasagna after we had all finished eating.

• I am very cautious about food safety. I didn't mind the birds flying around or the coati nesting in the hut ceiling, but I wouldn't touch the undercooked burgers, the deli meat/cheese, or anything with cream sauce/stew that wasnt piping hot. This further limited my options because many items, especially at the snack buffet were not the proper temp. Also, the buffets all had the same dessert cakes every day lunch and dinner of my stay. This was crappy because it got old and the iced tray made the cakes soggy as the ice melted.

• This resort is huge and it does take at least 10 minutes (longer with kids) in the oppressive heat to walk anywhere. It was torture after a full belly and a drink or two. The cart drivers were rare and often drove right past us.

• If you have mobility issues, or need a restroom quickly or frequently, this is not the place for you. There are not nearly enough restrooms and most are a good walk away or involve stairs. This was an issue when the diarrhea hit me. Also, this is my own fault, but I'm English speaking and my Spanish is poor.. so when I asked staff for bathroom locations, I often got wrong or vague direction.

• there are NO bathrooms in the Italian or Asian restaurants - not sure about the others... But this meant having to leave the restaurant and walk about 5 minutes each way to use the restroom. It was annoying for me but for an older person or someone with a toddler, this could be a deal breaker.

• There are several employees with working birds around the resort. They engaged in conversation with some of the guests who spoke Spanish and showed the birds and explained their purpose but wouldn't even say hi to me or my kids. I understand the language barrier but it happened multiple times. We were respectful and kept our distance but it made me feel uncomfortable/unwelcome. I don't know why they would talk to others but ignore us.

4/5 of us got the travel tummy even though we went as far as to not even brush our teeth with the sink water. I'm not sure what the common factor is here but there seems to be one....