El Cid La Ceiba Beach Hotel

, Cozumel, Mexico
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El Cid La Ceiba Beach Hotel

, Cozumel
3 star

Rooms: 71

Carretera A Chankanaab 4.5 - Cozumel - 77600 - Mexico Hotel Website | | 987 87 20844
482 Traveller

Reviews - El Cid La Ceiba Beach Hotel

1/10
El Sewage
Submitted by: A Travel Library User in 22/01/07
  • Age Group: 31 - 40
  • From: United States
  • Traveller type: Young Couple
I wish we could give zero or negative stars...

We too were suckered by a friendly airport operative into "getting shown some property" in exchange for various tickets and a cheap car rental (these turned out to be far less than met the eye). The whole experience left us in disbelief:

- the "property tour" of the El Cid consisted of a 2+ hour (would've been longer if we hadn't insisted on cutting it short), hard sell onslaught. It started with gross breakfast where the agent ate with us & pretended to make friendly small talk for 1/2 hour before getting to the sales pitch (to get it going my wife finally had to ask what we were doing here).

- the fast-talking spiel consisted of an endless stream of jargon ("gold Crown resort", "point system", "vacation club", etc)...it wasn't a timeshare but something oh so much better!!! What it boiled down to is that you could pay $200-300/month (+ 500-1000 year maintenance) for a studio or 1 bedroom (more for larger rooms). To earn points to use the room, sorry, "suite", you've already paid for, and maybe get a room upgrade, you then have to either take $900+ cruises or sell them to friends, family and co-workers(!) Sounds like fun.

- The numbers don't add up, either...they quote a huge number for your estimated vacation costs over the next 20 years if you don't join their club (ours came to $21,000+). Then they explain how using their system it's only $220-300 per month (for a studio or 1 bedroom)! They don't mention that this actually adds up to 40-70K over 20 years, or that, unlike the initial calculation, it doesn't include airfare. Also, you have to flog cruises to people you know to earn points to use the property you supposedly own. In short, it's the worst deal I've ever heard of. Seriously.

- They proudly talk about how they keep their maintenance costs down by paying their local employees only $10/day, as opposed to the $10/HOUR they'd have to shell out in the States. Super, I can save a little bit of money by exploiting the native population!

-they showed us a simulated computer video presentation of the supposedly exciting buiding process of a new property under construction. In it, apparently, a lush green jungle is overswept by a magic tornado of progress that leaves a resort, mall and huge marina in its wake. Bikini'd women stroll around this property endlessly--presumably to appeal to teenage boys and husbands with a wandering eye. We were torn between laughing out loud at the cheesiness of this vision and being outraged by the pride they seem to take in covering nature with a concrete mall.

-the property tour revealed that they're building a huge cruise ship dock, perfect for blotting out the ocean view and polluting the water and air. The rooms were modern, characterless and cheap looking. We passed a dismembered bird leg on a patio which our agent laughed off, "a vulture must've dropped that!"--seemed like a good symbol of what were going through.

- the whole place is overrun by their sales operation. They have a huge room full of computers and literally dozens of employees going at once. As we were touring the rooms we couldn't help wondering how the actual guests were enjoying this endless foot traffic.

- Maybe worst of all, when we told them we wanted to get on with our day, not only didn't they listen, they redoubled their effoprts to spiel us. Earlier our sales agent had told us "it's not for everyone, at the end you can just say yes or no." Yeah, right. We told her it wasn't for us, at which point she brought over her "financial advisor". A truly creepy looking bald man appeared and started by asking "Jets or Bears?" when we said we were from NYC, then launched into the same spiel we'd already wasted our morning hearing. Fed up, we said sorry, we'd decided the answer was no. He kept going with his numbers. We said no again and that we were anxious to get our day statred,. He kept going, saying "I wouldn't feel right if I didn't give it 100%". Huh? Finally I was forced to interrupt and say "look, I don't want to waste any more of your time, we've already decided, our answer is no, and we are going to leave now." He became petulant and told us, "hey, you aren't wasting our time, you're wasting your own time, you've wasted your whole morning!" We were so shocked by the illogic and stupidity of this we didn't know what to say, except "ok, but goodbye." As we left he made a big show of crumpling up the paper he'd taken down our info on. As we walked out of the room in disgust, another tanned Ken-like man blurted out, Congratulations!!!
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1/10
Stay AWAY
Submitted by: Loren Freeman in 12/08/05
  • Age Group: 26 - 30
  • From: United States
  • Traveller type: Young Couple
Stay at El Cid at your own risk!!! I had such high hopes for this vacation. My girlfriend and I were really looking forward to it but it was a true disaster in all respects. We were led to our room by a bellhop who practically ran down the halls with our luggage. We chased after him so we could get in the elevator before the doors closed. Our room smelled of mildew and mold. We complained at the desk and they moved us into another room. The second room was better. However, it did have cockroches in one of the bathrooms and the other bathroom leaked on our heads from toilet water in the above unit. We told them about the bugs and the manager asked me why I didn't like cockroaches. I think he was joking but it was hard to tell. The staff sprayed but never cleaned up the corpses. They remained the ENTIRE vacation even after we informed the manager that they were in the bathroom. The air conditioning unit in the hotel blows directly on your face when you sleep. The TV gets very poor reception. We ate in the restaurant on Monday afternoon in the resort. I ate shrimp bisque for lunch and received severe food poisoning. I vomited for three days. When I told the manager about this, he said that this is common here. he, admittedly told me that he gets sick himself in his own restaurant every six months. He offered to give me a gift certificate to another restaurant knowing I could not eat-no apology or anything. In fact, he told me I had to calm down or he would not help me. Would not recommend this hotel to my worst enemy!! If you want a lousy time, go to El Cid. Please contact me at freemalo@hotmail.com if you want more information.
9/10
La Ceiba...little gem by the sea
Submitted by: Mary in 18/05/05
  • Age Group: 31 - 40
  • From: United States
  • Traveller type: Adventurer
I have stayed at the La Ceiba twice now. They have a dive shop right next door to either shore dive down to the plane wreck or boat dive. VERY convenient. Get a room on the first floor facing the ocean. Just walk right out your door and into a hammock. Very nice for the price. Close to Chakanab and downtown. Very nice staff, pleasant decor, great breakfasts and nice rooms. One downside is the ship liners dock close to the hotel, but not very distracting.
8/10
We had a great time!
Submitted by: Tracey in 15/03/05
  • Age Group:
  • From: United States
  • Traveller type:
My husband and I just came back from a week at El Cid La Ceiba. We found it to be very relaxing and the staff very accommodating. The suite was kept extremely clean by the maid service. The resort itself did lack activities it seemed but, our focus was to relax and enjoy the weather so it was perfect for us. We've stayed at several resorts and although this was not our favorite place as far as accommodations, activities etc, it was what we were looking for. The only disappointment was that the "beach" consisted of about 20 feet. The resort had a stone barrier which incompassed the rest of the resort. On further exploration of Cozumel, we discovered we were not alone. There's not alot of beach to be had on the west side of the island. The east side however was all beach although no facilities. Bottom line, we had a great time and would go back sometime in the future..
4/10
Find a better place to stay.
Submitted by: Tara in 15/03/05
  • Age Group:
  • From: United States
  • Traveller type:
This is not gold crown. It is a 2 star hotel that El Cid took over. You could stay in a $25/night place and get the same thing. You're lucky if you get the room you reserved. Most everything didn't work in the room. We had to call maintenance daily. The beds are hard. To close doors, you have to slam them and the walls are thin. You won't get a good night's sleep. The service is horrible. The concierge is part of the timeshare scheme. They take a 20% service charge. You can get stuff cheaper if you go directly to the site. They mark everything up 50% then tell you that you get a 50% discount if you go to a talk. I definitely plan to go back to cozumel but I will not stay at La Ceiba again. Do yourself a favor, find a better place to stay.
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Top Local Tips for Cozumel

All inclusive wrist band Beware if you buy the all inclusive at the El Cid. They will give you a "bracelet", which will attract the attention of every other timeshare seller on the island. You will constantlybe assailed with offers to go view other timeshares, free meals, etc. If this is your thing, great, otherwise, be prepared to say no thanks, alot.

El Cid It's absolutely amazing to me that Platinum owners were told that "reservations are never guaranteed". This ceraintly is never relayed during the sales presentation. You are frauds! You should be ashamed of yoruselves! I will never recommend this resort to anyone and, in fact, I will encourage others to stay away from you through online reviews.

Cozumel is the second best place to snorkel Just off from the El Cid La Ceiba is easy snorkeling. I like to go just south from Chacanab to Corona beach. Buy lunch or get a refreshment and use their facilities as an entry to some great snorkeling among great coral that survived the huricane.

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Other names for El Cid La Ceiba Beach Hotel

  • el cid la ceiba cozumel
  • el cid cozumel
  • Address: Carretera A Chankanaab 4.5 - Cozumel - 77600 - Mexico
Travel Library Traveller Rating?
8.0/10

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"El Sewage" - A Travel Library User

"Stay AWAY" - Loren Freeman

"La Ceiba...little gem by the sea" - Mary

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