Location.
On the beach in Cancun (Cancun Hotel Zone), The Royal Islander is close to Playa Delfines, El Rey Ruins, and Aquaworld. Additional attractions near this condominium resort include La Isla Shopping Mall and Luxury Avenue.
Property Features.
The Royal Islander has a marina, an outdoor pool, and a children's pool. Wireless and wired high-speed Internet access is complimentary in public areas.
Complimentary wireless high-speed Internet access is provided.
Spend the morning on the beach or by the pool, play tennis or join in the daily activities lined up for you. Sign up for an hour's sail boating on the lagoon or try your hand at pottery painting, and of course you can also enjoy the facilities at the neighboring Royal Caribbean and Royal Mayan.
There are lighted tennis courts at the resort and tennis gear can be signed out at the Sports Desk.
- Aerobics on site
- Bicycle rentals on site
- Bird watching nearby
- Boating nearby
- Boat launch nearby
- Dock on site
- Ecotours nearby
- Fishing nearby
- Golfing nearby
- Golf lessons on site
- Helicopter/airplane tours nearby
- Kayaking nearby
- Motor boating nearby
- Parasailing nearby
- Personal motorized watercraft on site
- Pilates classes on site
- Playground on site
- Running track/path nearby
- Sailing on site
- Scooter/moped rentals nearby
- Scuba diving nearby
- Snorkeling nearby
- Surfing/boogie boarding nearby
- Swimming on site
- Table tennis on site
- Tennis lessons on site
- Tennis on site
- Volleyball on site
- Water skiing nearby
- Whale-watching nearby
- Windsurfing nearby
- Yoga classes/instruction on site
Wi-Fi access is available in the villas and throughout the resort. Water sports can be arranged at the lagoonside Royal Marina next to Captain’s Cove restaurant. Guests can also use the facilities at sister clubs The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Mayan and a shuttle bus service links all five Royal Resorts.
We tried all the Royal Resorts restaurants in Cancún and we can safely recommend the following. If you are going for the buffet breakfast, stay away from the restaurant at the Royal Islander. Oddly it is not as good as the Palapa restaurant in the Royal Mayan (stroll from the Royal Islander through the Royal Caribbean on to the Royal Mayan). If it is a Sunday, go to Captain's Cove breakfast. In fact, the only restaurant of the Royal Resorts in Cancún that we can recommend is Captain's Cove, both for breakfast and for dinner. Food is good and the price is justified.
We played tennis on the courts one day, and they were very nice and kept up nice with lights so you could play at night too. The raquets and balls were complimentary. But on the bright side, the wifi was very good throughout the hotel.
Oh, we ate breakfast in our room almost everyday with the purchases we made in the Royal market
Free wifi (but pretty bad connection in the room),
no toiletries provided (shampoo, conditioner, body wash)
market place to get drink mixers, water, milk, eggs, bacon, toast, pico de gallo and ice for our 8 day stay. The priced were reasonable, not as cheap as WalMart but very reasonable. We planned on having breakfast 4-6 days in the suite and eating lunch and dinner out. We ate at Pacos Tacos several times, the fish tacos are the best I have ever had, ever.
the bus only costs 8.5 peso per person irrespective of distance
If you need internet, make other arrangements. The resort provided internet on a complimentary basis and we received very limited service. Enough to check email, but not much more. If you are bringing children and plan on streaming netflix movies. Not going to happen.
enjoying complimentary chips & salsa around the pool during happy hours
Go to the welcome party, free drinks! We met our concierge Shari who was such a delight. She gave us some advice on the best places to shop, snorkel, and eat.
It is actually easier to use pesos than the american dollar, but you have to continually remind yourself of what the exchange rate is or again you will pay more for things than they are worth. The best shopping we found was at market 28 in Cancun.
Always a great stay but the internet service is terrible. I have stayed here before and never had problems, but this time was the worst
Many activities that were included in your rental fee - sail boats, snorkel equipment, games, classes.
Upon arriving in Cancun, we caught the shuttle for our pre-booked airport transfer with Thomas More excursions. It was a nice ride and the driver and porters were very nice. The upon booking, you can enter your room number (if known) or the hotel confirmation number and the fee is charged to your room. Pretty convenient.
limited amenities (no shampoo, conditioner, lotion which seem to be standard in all the hotels and timeshare resorts we stay in these days). We were in a small studio which appears to be a lock off from a larger unit and included a small microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker and a drawer with plates and silverware but I would definitely not call it a kitchenette--more like a hotel room with these minor additions.
We were very appreciative to find out there was free WiFi but subsequently disappointed when we discovered how sporadic the service was. We kept getting and loosing signal even though the signal always indicated it was very strong
According to one taxi driver The Royal Islander has the best beach of all Cancun. I liked the beach very much.
Gotta love happy hour!!! Free chips and salsa and half price on drinks.
We used Cancun Shuttle for transporation and they were cheaper than Thomas Moore and were friendly and prompt!
the drinks were usually fairly strong. I especially liked the “vacation” sized margaritas in the Paco Taco restaurant. There were happy hours each day with half-priced drinks
NS: The location is probably the biggest con since you are pretty far from most Cancun restaurants and shopping. The resort had a shuttle bus but it was very small and only ran a couple times a day so it was not very convenient and filled quite quickly. So we ended-up taking taxis (easy to get) or used the city bus (very cheap). Again related to location, the Islander isn't on the main street where the bus ran so you had to walk all the way to the Mayan and then a couple blocks to the main street to catch it. The Royal Sands is in a much better location and about the same price (and newer). The internet was very spotty at best and very slow when we could connect. I can only imagine how bad it would be in the winter when they have a lot more guests
only a towel for each person in the room and they charge for extra towels. So this can be a problem but you can work around it by checking out a pool/beach towel and exchanging it several times a day if you want to. Finally, while it is true you have a personal “concierge” assigned to you, I found that his primary job was to try and get you to take a tour of their latest property and try and sell you on a membership. I ended-up unplugging the phone so he couldn't bother us. You can book tours through the tour desk anyway (and they can answer any of your questions) so I didn't see much value in having a salesman assigned to me.
For us the downside of that is that when you are signing in, you are assigned a "personal concierge" that you are supposed to have access to all week and that will give you recommendations and make reservations for you, etc. Actually their main job is to make sure you hear a timeshare presentation. We have always made it very clear that we are there on an exchange and are not going to buy a timeshare there right up front, so as not to waste their time or ours
The different restaurants have various theme nights throughout the week. Our favorite, and the one my husband has always called "the deal of the week", is the Mexican Buffet with live show at La Palapa at the Royal Mayan on Monday night. The buffet is quite good, and margaritas are included with the meal. The waiters continue to walk by during the show, long after you've finished your meal, making sure you are not thirsty. We have not found these to be all that watered down either, in fact, quite the opposite, and it always surprises us just how free flowing the margaritas are.
hear the bell ring at 3pm from the pool bar signifying that Happy Hour has begun. Prices are half off
And we love Pacos Tacos there at the Islander also. They have a great combo plate that I recommend trying. It's alot of food
I was looking forward to sailing the small and free sail boats again, but that didn't go well. They were unable to provide me with a reasonable wind :)
Other reviewers stated that the rooms needed updating. We did not find that at all. They were exactly as shown in the photos on their website - very nice.
The welcome party on Sunday afternoon was fun. Free beer and rum/coke for drinks. You could purchase food. Great way to meet other guests. They also have "Happy Hour" from 3-6 each day. Drinks are 1/2 off. Drinks and food kept me from rating this a 5 star. The drinks were watered down. You couldn't get a buzz on if you tried.
We used Cancun Transfers in lieu of Thomas Moore.. cheaper..
We particularly love the fish tacos at Pancho Willys
We also borrowed golf equipment from the sports desk (towel hut outside) and played golf at a Par 3 Course, the Grand Oasis which is a short walk away. It was a nice course and we had it all to ourselves. It was $20 to play if you don't need to rent clubs or buy golf balls.
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