Why we chose Hotel Emporio
Once we had decided to go on a long weekend getaway to an all inclusive, we knew Cancun would be the obvious choice. Cancun is just a 2 hour flight from Houston, and we enjoyed it the last two times we went. Although we're still wanting to get back to Moon Palace, we wanted somewhere a little more affordable this time. And although Panama Jack was affordable, there's just so many resorts that we didn't want to repeat the same one twice yet.
So I just started searched online through Expedia and Trip Advisor and came across Hotel Emporio. It seemed like a great fit for us because it wasn't crazy expensive, yet still had good reviews. We were able to use our Chase Sapphire card points to book our hotel and our Southwest card miles to book our flights, making the trip basically free for us.
Since we decided to go without our daughter, all I felt comfortable doing was a long weekend because it was the first time we had both been away from her overnight. We ended up flying out early Friday and flying back Sunday afternoon, which was a great trip, but maybe one day too short.
A pro tip I learned when I studied abroad is that most hotels will actually allow you to arrive to the hotel prior to the check-in time. Your room won't be ready yet as the last occupants are either still there or they just left and the room hasn't been cleaned yet, but the front desk will likely store your luggage until your room is ready. They likely will still give you your wrist bands when you get there and allow you to start enjoying the hotel while you wait for your room to be ready.
Hotel Emporio Cancun Review
I'll be honest, this resort didn't really impress me much at the start, but it grew on me as we stayed. The lobby is one of the tiniest lobbies I've been to, and it was a crowded and slow process to get checked in. However, I did notice that there were a LOT of pilots and flight attendants checking in both on the day we got there and the day we left, so it seems to be really popular for flight crews.
One thing that I did like about the check-in process was that your resort wristband also had an RFID chip in it, which acted as your room key & could be scanned at the bar or restaurant to show you had the all-inclusive package. I love not having to carry around a room key and always knowing I have my room key on me, even if I'm just in a bikini. I hope more places start to adopt this technology, because it's the easiest customer experience.
This resort had the option for food & drinks included, breakfast included only, or pay-as-you-go. I'm not a big fan of resorts having different packages with all-inclusive or not. It goes faster when you're trying to get a drink in the bar because no one is having to sign a receipt, we're all just grabbing a drink & leaving a tip & moving on. I also don't like it because it can be very hard to tell what is included in the all-inclusive and what is an extra (like certain restaurants or drinks).
The hotel reminded me of Europe because there are LOTS of stairs to utilize the resort. The main level had the lobby, kid's pool, adult & kid's pool, and pool bar/buffet. The level above the main level had the buffet. The level below the main level had the kid's splash pad, adult's-only infinity pool & bar, the gaming bar, and a restaurant. Then there was another set of stairs to an adult's-only oversized hot tub. Then the level below the adult's-only pool was the beach. It was very confusing to know we're you're going and a lot of things seemed to be hidden, so it's worth it to spend a day just wandering around the resort to find out where's what. But, that being said, all the steps did help to really space things out. The toddler splash area is its own area, the kid's pool is a completely different area, and the adult's-only was its own area.
 |
| The view from the adult's only hot tub |
 |
| The all-ages pool has hammock and a entertainment coordinator who runs games like cornhole |
 |
| The kid's pool had a pirate ship slide |
 |
| The toddler are had 2 water tables and lots of sprinklers |
The staff was iffy on service. I asked our room attendant for an extra water bottle and she said no, the front desk gave my husband a hard time about towel cards (which was a weird process itself), and we spent our whole time during the days either on the beach or in the adult's-only hot tub, and only once at each location did a server come to take a drink order. But, the staff at the bars and the staff helping with luggage and waiting for our ride were fantastic.
The rooms at Hotel Emporio
We reserved a "suite deluxe sea front" room, Room 902L. It was a nice room, but I don't know if I would call it a suite deluxe. It had a bathroom with a large shower and separate tub, a king size bed, a couch, and a balcony that overlooked the resort mainly, but if you looked up you could see the ocean. Usually, we love to order room service for breakfast and enjoy it on our balcony, but this resort charged $20 for room service. This wasn't worth it to me, but the buffet was a trek from our room, making it unrealistic to go grab something from the buffet and bring it back to enjoy in our room.
The room itself was a really nice, standard hotel room. It was clearly renovated recently, the bed was really comfortable, and the AC worked really well. There were two closets, one for hanging clothes and one that I think was intended to store your luggage. It had a table that you could not move, so I think that was supposed to be an upgraded version of a luggage rack.
Unlike other all-inclusive resorts we stayed at, this one didn't keep any snacks in the room or beer/soda in the fridge. We got 2 water bottles by the mini fridge and 1 water bottle in the bathroom. We did not realize on the first day that the water bottles would be so hard to come by, so we accidentally drank all our water down at the beach and then both woke up parched in the middle of the night that first night. Like I mentioned earlier, on Day 2 I just so happened to run up to the room while it was being made up and the room attendant wouldn't give me a spare water. I'm so glad I brought a stainless steel water bottle that I could have the bartenders fill up with drinking water, because we would've been rationing water without it.
Eating at Hotel Emporio
While we waiting for our room on Day 1, we headed straight out of the lobby and to the pool bar and buffet. The bar gave us great drinks fast, and it was easy to find a seat at the buffet. That buffet is right in between the kids-focused pool and the all-ages pool, so it makes sense that the only options were hamburger, hotdog, chicken fingers, or tacos. And I mean only options. The hamburger and hot dog buns were definitely above what you'd get at a sonic, but the meat wasn't great. At first we thought this was the only buffet option, and I was starting to panic that we had chosen the wrong resort if that was our only option.
Luckily, my husband asked around and found out about the roof-top real buffet that you get to by walking through the pool buffet and up the stairs. It was great! The views were amazing and they had a lot of choices and a lot of freshly cooked food, some even made-to-order. The one downside was that we ordered a beer and glass of wine when we sat down, and we were almost through our meal by the time our drinks came. Then, our waiter mentioned something to us about how we'd have to sign something for our drinks so we waited and waited and he never came back, so we just left. I'm assuming maybe it's because he first didn't realize we were all-inclusive but then realized we had already pre-paid for our drinks? Not sure, which is why I don't love these hybrid resorts where not everyone is all-inclusive. We had dinner at this buffet the first night and breakfast here the next two days.
For our one full day, I went ahead and ate lunch at the roof-top buffet by myself while my husband took a beach nap. After he woke up, he was headed up to the breakfast buffet and noticed there was a restaurant right by the adults-only pool and checked it out. He said the pizza was amazing and it was a really great restaurant. I was bummed we weren't staying long enough for another lunch and already had dinner plans, so I never got to try it.
On our first night, my husband discovered the Italian restaurant, Bacoli Trattoria, tucked behind the lobby. It was fully booked for that Friday night, but he was able to get us a 7:00pm reservation for the next night. When we got there at our reservation, the hostess asked us if we were celebrating anything special, and we told her that it was our 3rd anniversary. Then she sat us down at the table right behind the hostess stand, where we were so close I could have high-fived her, even though there were less than half of the other tables occupied. I understand that people make reservations and then get busy (or drunk) and don't show up, but it was annoying that we were sat right there in a half-empty room, especially after we had just told them it was a special occasion. Although we've been given a free glass of champagne one night on our last two anniversaries, I don't expect this everywhere we go. But still, it was weird that they took the time to ask if we were celebrating anything and then seemed to not care a bit that we actually were. Other than that, the food was actually pretty good. I'm glad we had the all-inclusive package so we could order multiple appetizers to try out the food. One warning though, the bruschetta had a ton of chopped olives hidden under the cheese. I've never had bruschetta with olives, so I was caught off guard on that one.
What to do at Hotel Emporio
I think this category is where this resort really shines. Like I mentioned, there's a whole area dedicated to just babies/toddlers, a whole area dedicated to just kids, and a whole area dedicated to adults only. It seems to be equally as family-friendly as it is perfect for an adults-only trip.
The adults only pools had day beds you could rent, but we spent most of our time down at the beach or up in the oversized hot tub. What was weird was that the adults-only infinity pool also had a hot tub, but the heater seemed to be broken on that. The pool was probably 75 degrees, which would be great on a hot day but too cold for an 80 degree day. If the pool was heated, we would have hung out there the whole time. The views were amazing and it had it's own swim-up bar. This was actually the bar we went to the most often, because it seemed to open earlier than the beach bar and it seemed to not be as packed since the cold pool was basically empty.
The oversized hot tub on a different deck was great. It was huge so it didn't feel crowded and it was partially covered, so you could choose how shaded or not you wanted to be. It didn't have an actual bar to it, but staff was able to walk around the full hot tub to take drink orders (although I found they didn't come that often and took a while to bring back drinks, so I recommend just taking turns going down to the other bar for a drink). There was only 1 instance of kids getting in the pool, and although they were just sitting and talking, the staff did make them relocate soon after they got in, so it's nice that adults-only areas aren't run over by kids.
In between the adults-only bar and the restaurant where my husband had lunch on our one full day, there was a little sports bar. We went there after dinner on our last night and it was a great find! It was a long room that had partial room dividers with foosball, ping pong, and pool sections. The last section was a bar area with tables and a DJ (who was much too loud for that small of an area) with a karaoke TV going so it was a group sing-a-long. After the sports bar, we wandered around and found a horizontal rock wall at the end of the infinity pool that my husband had fun climbing.
The beach was great. They had a large area reserved with lots of chairs, umbrellas, daybeds, and chairs. The daybeds couldn't sit up, so it was a rush to make sure you got a chair that wasn't flat the whole time. And not every chair set had a table, so I was glad that my beach bag could serve as a table. There was a good sized beach bar that had swings while you waited for your drink. There also seemed to be jet skis that you could rent, but it wasn't clear if that was the resort renting them or if they just allowed a company to rent them out on their property.
Overall thoughts on Hotel Emporio
I think this place could have grown on me if I had a few more days to explore what it had to offer, and if I went in the summertime where it was hot enough that a cool pool was welcomed so I could have enjoyed the massive infinity pool overlooking the ocean. The bar staff was great and the drinks were good. The food overall was pretty good. Although there were a LOT of stairs, I liked how things were spread out so that different age groups could enjoy the resort without other ages being right there.
I just really wish they had given us more waters plus some beers and snacks in our room like other all inclusive resorts. This is the first all-inclusive I've stayed in out of 5 different resorts throughout Mexico and the Caribbean that didn't even include basic beer and potato chips in the room. It's just nice to have a late-night snack or a beer before the bars open.
If there was a bachelorette trip or something that wanted to go here, I wouldn't be opposed. But for now, I think there's other options out there that are worth visiting first before I come back to Emporio.
Our next trip
A month after booking this trip, my iPhone memories started showing me pictures of our daughter on our last cruise and I got mom guilt thinking about Ryan and I traveling without her. I just went on Royal Caribbean's website to see if there were any sales, and there was a kids sale free and 2nd passenger 60% off sale! That was all the convincing I needed, so our next trip will be a quick 5-night cruise to Mexico!
