Dreams has some nice features, such as not having to make reservations for any of the restaurants - but at the same time the hotel is old, plumbing is poor, pools are bad, the main beach is imposible to swim at - full of seaweed. The other, smaller, beach is better - but also somewhat rocky and full of seaweed on most days.
We paid a 5-star price for a 3 star hotel - what a rip-off!

Before we left for Cancun, I was really worried as I had read some really bad reviews about Dreams. I even rang my travel agent! However, from the minute we got to the hotel, we loved it.

While we were checking in, we were immediately brought two cold wet towels and two glasses of champagne. When we got to the room, we did get the musty smell but just burned the incense stick and that was the end of that. The bed was very comfortable and we found the room to be nice, bright and spacious. We were staying in one of the pyramid rooms which had an ocean view - beautiful.

Staff: Everyone we encountered in the Dreams works really really hard. House keeping come twice a day - once in the morning to clean the room and once in the evening to turn down the bed (but they always gave us extra fresh towels and left cold bottles of water beside the bed even though the mini bar was full). There is always someone cleaning the grounds of the hotel.

Food: We ate in all the restaurants on the hotel grounds. We ate in the world cafe for breakfasts (and some lunches). Great selection of food and waiters really really nice. We didn't really like it for dinner - just didn't like the hectic-ness of it. The Himatsu and seaside grill restaurants were our favourites. Food was fabulous and drinks never stopped coming. Again, waiters really nice. Room service really prompt and tasty.

Beach: We went to the bigger of the two beaches every day. Never had a problem getting chairs. Waiting staff were brilliant.

We booked a trip to chichen itza through the hotel. On the way back, we stopped at a beautiful young sink hole where we were able to swim. I had told the lady in Dreams that I couldn't swim and she said it was pretty much bottomless so that was an end to that. However, when we got there, I was really disappointed to see that I could've hired a life jacket. So if you do go on this trip and aren't a great swimmer, still bring your swim suit. My husband said it was amazing.

Word of warning: Be careful of people selling trips in the shopping mall la isla. They are trying to sell TIME SHARES. And even if you ask is this a time share they will say no. But it is....

All in all, we pretty much stayed in the hotel (which is unusual for us). We were so relaxed after the first day. It was such an amazing holiday. We met some lovely people from all over. We will definitely be returning to the Dreams. I really don't know how anyone could complain about this place. There might be little things wrong but the ambiance and location of this hotel more than makes up for them.

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.