While we were staying at the Beach Palace at Cancun Mexico we had the opportunity to visit The Grand at Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico. My in-laws had stayed at Sunrise the year before and raved about the property and all the activities for kids, families and adults. You can buy a day-pass, or take a timeshare meeting and get free passes, or perhaps use your resort credits if you are staying at another Palace Resort. When we saw the price per day ($230 US for kids and adults $265 US), we had to go check it out The Grand.
The first thing you have to understand is that the Moon Palace resort property is BIG! Moon Palace actually comprises Sunrise, Nizuc and The Grand. Sunrise is a family-friendly resort that has a wave pool for surfing, bowling, mini golf and more. It is essentially a resort in itself. Nizuc, is the adults only resort. Which leaves The Grand, which is well… it’s Grand! The Grand has 1,300 hotel guest rooms, 9 pools, a water park, 16 restaurants, 9 bars, convention centers , world class spa, bowling alley, did I mention a lazy river & amazing restaurants??
We were excite to see whether The Grand is worth the fee for a day visit?
Water Park
This was the main draw for The Grand and it was not disappointing. As you walk up to the water park you are surprised at the size of it. The Grand waterpark has 10 full sized slides! There is large spiraling slides, a water park, kids area, wave pool, playground area, and wave pool for surfing and boarding.
There was a great wave pool, lazy river, and arcade were great for kids of all ages. To be honest, the lazy river is where I spent most of my time.
It was disappointing that the larger slides we couldn’t go on because both myself and my 2 kids were under the 5 ft 4″ height requirement. But there was still more than enough activities for the kids to be kept busy. And now my kids have a reason they want to come back again!
One of those activities that kept my kids very busy was the surfing wave pool.
Even when they wiped out, they kept trying!
This was also a great activity for older kids. The wave pool and arcade are great for younger kids, but if your here for longer than a day, the surf wave pool is something older kids could keep coming back to and further develop their skills.
Of course my husband had to show the kids how it was done!
Don’t worry about the wiping out, there are pool towels available at all the pools.
If your kids need a break from the water, they will want to check out the arcade.
This is a great place for kids with lots of energy to burn it with climbing walls and all sorts of fun games.
The Beach
As I mentioned in my review of Beach Palace, we had people who were staying at The Grand who came to Beach Palace for the beach. When we were there the Beach had a ring out in the ocean to keep seaweed away from the beach.
When we were there most of the beach was being used to be set-up for a big country concert that was happening. To be honest, I don’t think people would have swam on the beach anyway because when we were there we could smell the seaweed and sewage that must be coming out somewhere close to the beach.
The Grand has a pool for everyone, including an adults-only day club, a family pool, and an activity pool. Amongst these amazing pools, there was tthe BEST layout for doing laps that I have ever seen at a resort.
Food
The food is something that I can’t say enough about. Everything was AMAZING! Especially the Jade contemporary Asian restaurant. Although you have to make reservations, we were able to call only a short time before and get a place at any of the restaurants we wanted to dine at. This may not be the case if you are there during peak time.
Of course the steakhouse was my husband and sons favorite. My vegetarian daughter didn’t have any problems finding food everywhere she went.
Everywhere there was top quality food. Whether it was the buffet, restaurants or even the snack bars. It was all great. The only real problem was that we didn’t have enough time to try them all.
If that wasn’t enough, did I mention the buffet had FRESH MADE DOUGHNUTS!! that was enough for me to want to come back. Just don’t ask me how many I ate!
Service
The service was GREAT! Wait staff was constantly walking around offering food and drinks. As with Beach Palace, there was a surprising amount of food options to choose from by the poolside, beach and bars. Everything was always nice and clean too, which is nice to see.
I have never seen such clean bathrooms! Beautiful and clean. I actually found out that there was this beautiful bathroom below because I saw people talking pictures and talking about it.
Other
It was great to have the option of the mini bus driving around that you could hop on to get around the resort. You could also rent bikes and tour around the resort to see The Grand, Moon Palace Nizuc and Moon Palace Sunrise. It is a REALLY big resort and when staying at The Grand, you get access to the other resorts & the golf courses, so if you want to see it all, you may want one of these options.
If your kids aren’t into the waterpark, they can spend time in the wired lounge. They have all kinds of 3-d and virtual games that will make your kids jaw drop. Be aware, that the games do cost money.
It’s important to note that there is free wifi throughout the resort, that has great signals from everywhere on the resort.
Speaking of all the most impressive things about the resort is how beautiful everything is arranged within the hotel. I’m not usually one who pays attention, but the artwork and displays throughout The Grand were beautiful.
Check out these other stories about Mexico & family Resorts:
