Allegro Cozumel

Occidental Allegro Cozumel Review
–Check-​In
Arrived at 3:30pm after a 17 hour day of travel ready to check into our room, NOT! It was not ready which seams strange as they had the reservation and it was late in the day. They held our luggage and said they would find us by the pool when the rooms were ready. We paid for 2 rooms as the hotel only allows 4 per room and we have a family of 5. This was a bummer, but the price was so cheap it was fine. At 6pm we still waiting for our rooms. We went back to the front desk and they said our room was ready and they had upgraded us to a 2 bedroom VIP suite that could room our whole family. Sounds good, but why don’t they offer this on their website? We were also given VIP wristbands and were told this would get us VIP access to private areas on the facility. This was not the case, we were not allowed to use the VIP members only club. You can read more below, but at this point I was too tired of checking back with the front desk on every other issue we had with the restaurants and could care less about the VIP room. We were able to use the VIP room for about an hour until they kick us out. About the only good thing about the room is the VIP had a private continental breakfast, snacks, private bar, 2 Mac computers, and internet access. Internet did not work well and about the only good thing was the bar as it had no lines!
–Restaurants
Occidental Allegro Cozumel advertises 5 restaurants on site. This is comprised of 2 buffet settings (one location for breakfast and dinner, they other location for lunch near the pool). The remaining 3 are their sit down restaurants that are available only with reservations. They have an Italian, Mexican and Oriental restaurant at 3 different locations. Although, there is a very big hitch that is not advertised on the website anywhere! One is you have to show up at 9am to make your reservations and two you are restricted to the amount of times you can make a reservation during your stay. I was told after I made two reservations upon check-​in to come back tomorrow to make two more as they could only make two at a time. I went back the next day and they told me because I was only staying 7 nights I was only allowed to make 2 reservations for the week and the rest of the time I could eat in the buffet. This did not fly with me, and I argued that it was not on their website and demanded a reservation. At this point the lady made one more reservation, and told me not to tell anyone as it was against the policy. She also said to talk to the front desk. I did this, but at this point I was told if you stay 1 – 4 days you get 1 reservation, if you stay 5 – 7 days you get 2 reservations! This was at the front desk. Once again, I argued. She said she would talk to the restaurant managers, and to check back at the hospitality desk in the morning and she would get approval for more reservations. I went back the next day and checked in with the front desk lady, and she said she got approval and to wait in line and tell the hospitality lady about the approval. I waited in line for 30 minutes and was told that I could not make anymore reservations. I told her to speak with the front desk lady, of which she walked over to discuss the approval but the front desk lady was on a break and there was nothing she could do unless she spoke with her. Again I argued, and told her I wanted to see the hotel manager. Of course that person was in a meeting. I said I would be back at 5pm and wanted to see the hotel manager. At 5pm I met with the manager, and was again explained the policy. I said your advertisement states 5 restaurants included and not anywhere does it say there was a restriction on the amount of reservations you could make during your stay. She tried to explain that the hotel is busy and they don’t have the staff, so that is why they have that policy. I said Occidental needs to advertise the restrictions or hire more people when the hotel is full! Bottom line, I said I don’t care about your policy at this point, and I am tired of wasting my vacation waiting in lines and dealing with staff that can’t make accommodations as advertised. She then pulled out receipts for reservations at all restaurants for the rest of my stay, stating that she understands how I feel therefore she will break the policy. I thanked her but told her the policy is ridiculous and to relay that Occidental needs to put this information on their website!
Now onto the food! It was not horrible, but definitely run of the mill ok food! Far better than the cattle call buffet, but only a bit better! I did eat fish one night in the Italian restaurant and right after the meal threw up with symptoms of food poisoning.
Part 2: Look for upload.