My husband and I just got back from Sandos Playacar after a 5-day stay. We were there to attend a…read morewedding on Saturday.
Pros:
-This was my first time staying at an all-inclusive resort and it was super nice. Most drinks and all food were included. We went to the buffet a few times which was also nice, and the bride and groom had told us to make reservations at the dinner restaurants beforehand, so we did that.
-Buffet was actually really good, I'd say comparable to Vegas ones I've been to.
-The Italian restaurant was very good, and the Brazilian churrascaria was okay. The steakhouse was unfortunately just so-so but the empanadas and sides were good.
-Awesome beachfront view from room. The bride and groom were Royal Elite (they're members of Sandos, I believe) and they booked us all under their reservation, which meant we had access to special parts of the resort. I was also able to text a concierge via WhatsApp to get our dinner reservations.
-Complimentary minibar with beers and sodas which was refreshed daily, also a bottle of mezcal and champagne
-Water bubbler in the room for safe water to drink (don't drink the water if you're not used to it, in Mexico). We also used this for brushing our teeth.
-Room service was also free, although we always tipped. We did continental breakfast twice, and the Royal Elite menu had some other tasty things like prosciutto, burgers, guac and tortilla chips, etc. on it.
-We were able to schedule a bellhop the day before we left, for 8:10am the next day, and they showed up promptly.
Cons:
-Overall the food was just okay. The Italian place on our first night was the best of the three we tried.
-Wifi was great everywhere in the resort EXCEPT our room. Which was a problem because my phone provider charges me $10 a day extra in Mexico, so I was hoping to just use WiFi. Also meant streaming TV shows on my iPad was rough/laggy.
-This didn't happen to us but it rained heavily our first night there, and some people in our wedding group said their rooms flooded. It did rain Monday night too and walking around the resort was tough because some of the walkways were super watery.
-Check-in took a while, maybe 30 minutes including waiting in line and actually checking in.
As for the wedding itself, it was on the beach on Saturday and then the reception was outdoors in a semi-private area a few hours after that. Both were really nice and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to book a beach wedding, although we were lucky the weather was good that day (I believe they do have a rain plan though).
Overall I would stay here again, I did read other Yelp reviews saying that if you aren't Royal Elite a lot of the amenities are not open to you, but because our friends are members we were included in their perks.