Travel agent told us it was a 4 star all inclusive resort, it will be great!Boy was she wrong, I should have went with my gut instinct when I first looked at photos of resort on trip advisor,but I did not so heres the run down.
We arrived at resort by bus from airport, forget about curb appeal this resort or should I say hotel was located on a back alley,thought they were going to have to pack us in with donkeys to get to front entrance. Check in went smooth got to room and air conditioning barely blowing.Called front desk told them problem they sent maintenance up to room,all the maint. guy could tell me was frio air , work good.Then went down to front desk requested another room ,they showed us another room which was a little cooler so we moved. While at front desk we questioned the sign they had displayed that said it was a 5 STAR resort.We tipped room service everyday this got us clean room and bath towels,never received hand towels or wash cloths,so don't waste your money.Also I had read comments about tipping at bar would get you better service, what B.S., maybe if you were hispanic. I tipped regularly 2,3,4, dollars at a time.If I walked up to bar at same time as hispanic Ijust had to wait until they got served,needless to say I stopped tipping after that.
As for the workers there they work hard but you just can"t polish a turd!Now lets talk about the beach , dirty water and dirty sand.I am from Texas if I wanted to see this kind of beach I could have saved alot of money and just drove to Galveston, no difference in beaches. Oh did I mention the beach vendors, they will drive you insane even stand at sidewalks of resort begging you to buy something, if by chance you bargain with one they all come a running.
Now lets talk about day trip excursion we booked through resort lobby with Vallarta Adventures.Was told it consisted of snorkeling,lunch at private beach,waterfall tour,and drinks.Now let me clarify they load 140 adults not counting kids under 9, onto a catamaran boat,(should be called cattle boat), about 1 hour ride to snorkeling site that had about 3 foot visibility. By the time everyone got off boat 10 minutes later they yelled vominos and loaded everyone back up.Then on to the so called private secluded beach, or should I say public dump.There was all sorts of debris and junk piled up everywhere, meal was served under a pavilion with no drink of any kind.If you wanted any kind of drink from pepsi to beer you had to pay for it.The only time drinks were provided was while you were on boat.You had to make choice b-4 getting off at beach to go to waterfall or get ff at beach,not both.About 5 hours later they herded everyone back onto boat and returned to port.This was a total waste of time and money.

Now back to the resort, the food was ok considering the quantity served and number of guest .The main buffet was open from 7a.m. to 11 p.m., there was wide variety of food and wait staff done a good job.The best way to sum everything up is you get what you pay for.Do not trust star ratings do the research b-4 booking a trip,if price sounds to good to be true then avoid it at all cost.I can honestly say this will be my first and last trip to P.V. Please don't be fooled by random reviews that give this resort a good rating, at best it is a 2 star .

I stayed at this hotel for 5 days with my mom and that was not enough time. We absolutely loved it. The staff members were soo friendly and accomodating, and the service was great. We went to the french restaurant twice, and the food was delicious. They had really good bread that they bring to you when you are looking over they menu. We also went to the Italian restaurant once. That was also very good and filling, but i think the French was the best. We went every night to Club Nitro. The shows were excellent. Some of the staff puts them on, and they are very entertaining. The staff also does little activities and games in the maiin pool area. Like crazy games, where they say we need 6 men, or 13 kids, or something like that and do a competition, like belly flopping or something,its cool. I was actually picked for a game, which I had to go around the pool and kiss as many people as I could, and another girl went against me. I won the game and got a free sunset picture. They game was very fun and the sunset picture turned out great. It was a beautiful sunset. If i had to pick a downfall, Id say the rain. It only rained at night, though. During the day it was beautiful, nice warm weather and very sunny. But it was rainy season when we went, soo. Also, the water wasnt as clear as it usually is because of the rain. The rain washed down the mountain into the water. But it was still nice. They have buggie bording, kayaking, snorkeling, and wind surfing. Me and my momm tries wind surfing. It was really fun, but its harder than it looks. We had a really nice instructor who taught us how to do everything. I absolutely loved it and hoping to bring the whole family back in a few years. I definetely recommend this for families.

You get what you pay for up sums up our week long stay we just had at the Crown Paradise Club. We have travelled extensively with our family of three kids, currently 8, 6 and almost 2. We have done all-inclusives in Jamaica and the Mayan, as well as the Disney Cruise so we feel we have lots to compare it to.

Having already done a two week trip to Maui this year as well as a Disney Cruise at the end of 2007, and a Disneyland and Vegas trip still to come this fall, we were looking for a vacation rather last minute somewhere warm, where my husband could do a little surfing and mostly, one that was going to be really inexpensive given the amount we have invested lately into our family vacations. In the past we have spend between $8000 and $14000 for our all inclusive trips, one for a week, but the rest for two weeks. They were all fantastic 5 star vacations. This trip however we paid $4500 for the five of us for one week. When you factor that the flights and transfers were likely $600 to $700 each, we paid very little probably less than $1000 for the resort for the room, food and drinks. Pretty cheap, and pretty cheap is what we got. It was what we expected as it was what we had paid for. We knew exactly what we were getting into on this vacation, with the help of the reviews here, and by factoring in what we paid, so we were in no way disappointed, we made the most of our trip and overall had a good vacation. Despite the fact that the Crown Paradise was a 2 star property.

The family room, poorly maintained, noisy, very outdated, but clean. The food, the worst we had at any resort ever. The cleanliness and food prep was terrible. Never once saw anyone wash hands, although there were sinks there. Food was prepared with the hands. Watched the pancake lady scoop a lump out of the batter with her fingers, toss it on the floor, then proceed to scratch a wound on her arm. Found it really hard to eat any of the fruit and salads, the flies were really bad. Food was generally cold, unappealing and really, how many ways can you serve a hot dog?? Mostly we went to the grocery store, bought our own apples and bananas and a few snack foods, this got us through but I have never been as hungry as I was here, and certainly never lost weight on an all inclusive vacation before, but I did here. Main pool was way to small for the amount of people that wanted to use it. Pools were warm, and poorly maintained. Beach, well it is the ocean, but when you have seen the waters of the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, it certainly won't take your breath away. Really hard to enjoy it with the venders. We did keep track once, we were approached 23 times in one hour. We were even approached while eating in the buffet and at the snack bar tables. A constant annoyance to say the least. That being said, we ventured an hour north to Sayulita for surfing, beautiful beach, town and area. Best day of our trip. Our best meal was at the Liverpool mall, at Chilis.
Our kids were unable to met any other children to play with as 90% of the guests were Mexicans. Nice family oriented people, loved feeling that you really were in Mexico, although the food and music did reflect this.
My youngest did get sick within 6 hours of us getting home. They still have not determined if it is E Coli and or parasite. The sickest we have ever had a child. Despite 7 weeks spent at Mexico all inclusives, this is the first time this has happened to us and we are VERY careful. Not surprised though as the standards are not there for this property. Never saw them once check the pool water and test it while we were there. Saw this happen almost hourly on the Mayan side. Also, saw probably six kids a day not in swimming diapers that should have been, the Mexican families never used them. Spent most of our time at the small quiet u shaped pool as it seemed the cleanest.

All in all if you are used to staying at higher end places, go to hotels that are $400 and $500 a night, you will find it really hard to have a good time and look past all the negatives. If however you don't mind $100 or less accomodations, and food to go along with it, this place will be great given as well you have kids as it is a family resort. For us, we would never go back. Although we had a good vacation, we know that we would rather spend the money on the four or five star properties. When it comes to this resort, I would have to agree with those leaving the negative reviews. The positive reviews especially the raving reviews, I would have to believe they are from people who just have not seen what is really out there for beaches and all inclusives. If however the Crown Paradise is all that your budget will afford, it is worth a try, just know that a vacation is what you make of it and if you can look past all the negatives (with this resort I really mean ALL the negatives) you can still have a good time for very little money as we had a good vacation.

We just returned from a 7 day stay at this resort. I was worried after reading some reviews, but if since there were so many positive we thought, well...there are always people complaining.
But here is the deal: When we arrived we were kind of "shocked" . The place is small and the noise level is tremendeous, aircondition only in the rooms, granted that we were a group of 7 with 3 little kids, yes, we expected a family resort.... however after 2 days it kind of grew on us. The room was small but clean, nice view on the ocean, but the aircondition !!! Geez, as if a 747 is flying thru the room. But I have too say we called and they replaced the obvious damaged aircondition with a ...slightly quiter one. Our friends who had the family room ( which btw all overlook the street..no ocean view) switched room due to the loud noise. Its rainy season and it rains every night, so the street gets flooded and the pump runs all night.
The kids pool was ok, but after 2 days even our kids got sick of it ( fortuantely, because there is no place, chairs or anything for the adults). We hardly used the main or adult pool, because they ( god knows) heat them ( hey, its 90 Degree and humid, you needs a COOL pool!). The pools are simply too small (and kind of fall apart).
The food, well, the food, we went once to the "japanese" restaurant, which was average the most, and we used once the french, which was actually pretty nice. We never got a reservation at the italian. The rest of our days we ate at the buffet, which btw does not have an aircondition ( so be prepared for some good sweats). I am picky with food and - again- I was shocked first, but I got to like the food. The problem is that the display is not very appealing, but once you dared to try some food, it was actually pretty good.
The staff was friendly ( I found it rather amusing that the guys from the activity desk entertain during the day and then dance at night at Club Nitro)
The vendors at the beach were really annoying although after a few days you got to know them and it could also be entertaining.

All in all we had a nice vacation, but would not go there again.