Having booked Ocean Coral way back in November for our 25th wedding anniversary, I had been reading other reviews for quite a while and like others have said, I cannot understand how some people can give this hotel such poor ratings.

This truly is a beautiful hotel, with wonderful staff that provide such excellent, friendly service, that we were sad to leave after our 2 week stay.

We had upgraded (with First Choice) to a room with a jacuzzi, not knowing at the time about the Privilege service that this afforded and I am pleased to say that this ended up being a great decision, as in our opinion, the benefits of the Privilege made the stay so much better for us.

After being greeted by the charming Gabriella, we were delighted to find that we had been allocated room 7209, a beach front master suite directly above the Privilege lounge. The room itself was amazing - a large comfortable king size bed; large bathroom area and walk-in shower; flat screen TV in the bedroom and also in the lounge side of the suite and best of all, the large balcony with sun loungers, shower and jacuzzi that overlooked the beach and ocean.

As already mentioned, the service was fantastic - another major contributor to our memorable stay. Gabriella, the Guest Relations Manager, made us feel like special guests and the service levels from other staff members was also first class. The grounds and rooms were kept immaculately clean by the hard working staff.

We preferred to take breakfast in the Privilege lounge, often outdoors on the terrace, where we could order freshly cooked, delicious food which was served at your table by the pleasant staff. Tere was our usual server and she was so polite listening to my fumbled attempts to order in Spanish! After a couple of days, she knew which hot drinks to bring us without being asked. The free internet access was handy for sending emails back home.

We fell in love with the lovely beach and would mix sun time by the ocean edge with shade time under the palapa. The sea did have sea grass, but was not the huge issue others make it out to be. We were served by the polite Joachin, who would bring us drinks and snacks throughout the day and took our photo for us. We enjoyed the mojitos and bahama mamas and the freshly cut plate of fruit was so refreshing.

After the beach and maybe a swim in the ocean or adjacent pool, Angel would make us coffees or cocktails from the lounge, before we got ready for the evening.

We found the food to be fine. There was something at each of the restaurants that we enjoyed, all cooked well and served even better. The highlights for us were the show at the Japanese grill; the Villa Marina (Hola Pedro numero dos); and Mike's for lunchtime filled baguettes and afternoon cakes. As part of the Privilege package, we were able to order the cowboy steak one evening at no extra cost.

We were there for a quiet relaxing time, so did not participate in the activities and only watched the Mexican dance show one evening.

We did get out of the hotel to do the Chichen Itza tour with Ecab Explorer; visit Crococun Zoo; had not one but two devine massages at Jungle Spa and popped in to the quaint Puerto Morelos a couple of times for a cervesa at Pelicanos. We thoroughly enjoyed all of these.

To summarise, we had an unforgettable time at Ocean Coral and enjoyed our first time in Mexico so much, that we plan to return to this area and hotel again in the future. The friendliness of the staff in the hotel and of the local Mexican and Mayan people made us feel really welcome. Wish we were back there right now!