First and foremost, every single staff member that we encountered in our 7 nights there were terrific. They all seemed happy, were friendly, looked at you and smiled when they walked by you, always made time for you, always gave you "the right of way" if you met them in a narrow hall or path, etc. I could go on about this for a long time...but if you are used to the opposites of what I mentioned above, this will be a pleasant surprise. Truly, this is 90% of the reason that I am giving this an excellent rating.

It is a beautiful location and my wife and kids (4 and 5) all loved it. Great beaches, nice variety with the two different beaches.

We stayed in a club room in the tower, which had great views of the point. Yes, it is an older hotel - nothing out of the ordinary for an older hotel. Still decent-sized rooms, TV was fine, decent bathtub, etc. No complaints, just don't expect a brand new facility.

Food was good - not excellent, just good. But, a "good" rating at an all-inclusive is probably about the best you can get, I would think... Plenty of kid-friendly meals (hot dogs, hamburgers, etc), and room service was always solid.

Kids club was amazing! We've been to other resorts where we took the kids once and only once. After all, the idea for us it so have a great time with the kids, and only take them to the kid's club if they enjoy it - not just so my wife and I can be alone. After we took them the first time, they constantly begged us to go back to the point where a couple times we didn't even let them because we missed them and wanted to play with our kids! Knowing that this was not just a last-ditch option, but something the kids would love was awesome - after a really long day where we didn't have much energy left and didn't want to control the kids at a nice dinner, they could go here for an hour or two and be much happier than having to sit at a boring grown-up dinner. Elena and Felisa were two of the superstars there - just great with our kids, truly cared, tried to make them have a good time and made us feel very safe about leaving them there. There were others, all excellent, but I didn't get their names - sorry!

One last thing I'll mention just in case. 4 out of 4 people in our family got sick during the trip. We were careful about drinking only purified water, and generally tried to be as clean as you would normally be at home - for example, washing hands, etc. I cannot say for sure that any or all of that was the hotel's fault since there didn't seem to be a common thread (food, drinks, water, going to a certain place or restaurant or whatever). I guess just a head-up - if you are the type that worries about this kind of thing, you might want to do what all the "Dateline" type shows tell you to do when you check in - get out the Clorox bleach wipes and wipe down the phone, coffee maker, TV remote, etc. Again, who knows if any of this had anything to do with the hotel room or food or drink, but being sick on vacation is obviously not fun so I wanted to bring it up.

Overall, it was a great place because of the people and the service. This isn't to say that everything else wasn't good...just that the people definitely made it a great experience instead of just a so-so experience where everything was "okay".

We booked our stay (8/16/2008-8/23/2008) with Expedia in March, 2008, And yesterday(8/14 at 7pm) we received a phone call from Expedia that hotel is overbooked and can not accept us. This is within 36 hours before depature. Family with 2 little kids (4 years) was kicked out from the hotel they booked well in advance. How nice is that?
I've read nice reviews here about this hotel, but after what they did to us I will never try to book it again.

My brother and I stayed at Dreams Cancun Juoy 30-August 5 and we had a wonderful time. Vacation is what you make it!!! Despite all of some not so good reviews, I still decided to go to Dreams and was not dissapointed. My kids and all of the adults (totaling 6 of us), 3 kids and 3 adults had a nice time. The resort's staff greeted us with champaigne on our first day and since we arrived before 3pm we had to wait a little for our room to be ready, but it was no problem since we immediately had access to the resort's facilities. We decided to go eat at Oceana and I ordered the fried fish (It was good). Once we got room, we arrived in it to see a very clean one. Love the sheet spread that they use. Every day we had someone knock our door for clean towels and every day our fridge was filled with bottled water, coke and coronitas. The kids loved the fact that they could drink a coke when ever in their rooms. The entertainment staff is great, especially Freddy, Victor and the girl (believe she is the only girl, but can't remember her name). For the night life, every night the staff will pick a club to go to and they will let you know which one it is during the day and have you meet by the piano bar at 10pm if you were interested in attending. We did a total of 5 clubs (Cocobongo, Bulldogs, Daddy rock, Pat O'brien) and on my own went to Azucar which is located next to hotel for latin music lovers like me. The entrance in Azucar is free for Dreams guests and the first two drinks were free also. The fees for the other clubs ran from $25-$40 US dollars which included open bar all night, NOT BAD....We had a ball. Almost all of the clubs are walking distance from the hotel and those that are not too close provide a bus to them but you would have to take a cab back to the hotel for about $8 US dollars. It is still not bad considering that you only pay the entrance fee which includes drinks and a bus that takes you to it. The kids stayed in a safe environment at hotel playing pool or simply wondering around the resort. They loved having their own independece while parents went out to have fun. The hotel is well maintained and is very clean. The kids didn't get out of pool and wanted to stay in there all day. My nephew and my daughter loved the bungie trampoline and so did I at 33 yrs. The beach was very nice and the Delphinus experience is to die for. My daughter, nephew and I did it. It is a good hour of dolphin encounter and you don't have to leave the resort (all for $149 US dollars per person). We loved it!!! We would definetely consider going back there again....we miss dreams and their crew!

My husband and I stayed at Dreams in Aug. 2007. We loved it so much we decided to stay there again this year. We stayed from 7/31 - 8/5. Once again, we had a great stay at Dreams.

Check In: When we arrived at the hotel, we presented our "I Prefer" card. They informed us that the IPrefer benefits only apply if you book your travel through the IPrefer website. But, they upgraded us from a lagoon view room to an ocean front room anyway! That was nice! When we entered our room, I encountered the "musty" smell that other reviewers have mentioned. Our room was on the ground floor of the pyramid building. We asked to look at another room, and they gladly showed us one, but ultimately decided to keep the original room. We don't spent that much time in the room anyway. The manager even called to make sure we were satisfied in that room and were willing to help in any way. We just burned the incense(sp?) stick that is in the room and all was good!

The Food: I've read several reviews saying the food is not that good at Dreams, but EVERYTHING we ate there was wonderful. They have some of the best salads, great meat (and we're from the Midwest, so we know good meat when we get it), the breaded grouper and the Cuban sandwich(Oceana) are excellent, as are the Nachos Machos and the fajitas (Seaside Grill). And the Dreams Club sandwich from the room service menu was great at 3am! (Room service arrived on time) We did not eat at Himitsu, but everyone said it was wonderful. We ate at the World Cafe for dinner a few times too and have no complaints. We missed "Italian Night" this year, but it was really good last year.

Bars: No watered down drinks, and you're never without a drink in hand! The service here is EXCELLENT. We pretty much hung out at the Baracuda Bar and then the lobby bar after Baracuda closed at 11pm. There is such a great mix of people. We met people from all over the world.

Entertainment: We saw the Caribbean show which was amazing and the Hypnotist show. If you are staying at Dreams, you MUST see the hypnotist. I laughed so hard, I cried!!

Vendors: One night during our stay there were vendors set up near the lobby area with jewelry and souvenirs and stuff. They were very willing to bargain. Especially when they are closing up!

Pools/Beaches : We did not use the pools, as we travel to Cancun for the ocean and beach. The beach at Dreams was never crowded. Not one problem getting a chair. The pool was pretty busy early in the day, but seemed more quiet later in the afternoon. There was always someone cleaning up the beaches. And the beach waiters are wonderful. Anything you need, they'll bring it to you!

Safety/Security: OK, due to recent reviews concerning the safety of Dreams, I feel that it is necessary to say that we NEVER felt unsafe at Dreams. Not for one second. I would travel to Dreams alone in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact, I would send my grandmother to Dreams alone and not worry at all !! We even left our bag on the beach every day, with our camera, money, and whatever else inside and never even worried about it. Safety was not an issue at Dreams. That's all I'm gonna say about that...

Calling home: We could not call out from our cell phones in Cancun. We could receive calls and send texts. When we needed to call home, we bought a calling card from the gift shop and used them in the phones right outside the hotel lobby. They are NOT spanish-speaking only and are very simple to use. You can call from your room as well, but there are fees involved. We found the calling cards to be just as easy.

Tips: We tipped everyone. The maids, waiters, bartenders, bellboys, cab drivers....NOT because we had to, NOT because anyone was expecting us to, but because It's the right thing to do. I have never seen such hardworking people in my life. They deserve every dollar we gave them.

Excursions: Since this is a review of Dreams, I'll keep this short. We took a great catamaran trip to Isla Mujeres. I tell about it in detail in the Cancun forum here on T.A. Look up my post called Great Isla Mujeres Trip. I highly recommend it.

Overall, we LOVE Dreams. We have had 2 wonderful vacations there, and plan to take the kids the next time we go! Just remember that NO resort is going to be perfect. Dreams is an older hotel, but the service is second to none. And if you do encounter a problem, they will go out of their way to fix it. I would recommend this hotel to anyone!