Depending on your kids, the high-end restaurants at the Marriotts may not work out so well. They are very formal and designed for an elaborate, slow paced evening. Example -- At Gustino's, we went with our kids right at the opening, figuring it would be quiet then and they'd want to expedite our service and get us out of there. In Marriott style they were all very nice and accommodating (one child just wanted a simple pizza -- OK, even if not on menu), but they seemed absolutely unable to speed up the service (it took forever to just to get the menus after we were seated, for one example). It reminded me of the top-level restaurants at Disney World -- "look, you've signed on to have an Experience tonight. You will be Very Impressed. There is one Order of Events for each step of the evening. Everything that arrives at this table will come with a Formal Ritual that dictates how it is Presented. This is what Fine Dining is." But they can't deviate from the script.

I would recommend the Japanese restaurant for the Teppanyaki menu (prepared in front of you) -- just make sure this menu doesn't require you to pay a supplement.

Breakfast and pool menus at the JW are slightly better at the JW than at the Casa Magna.

They don't make it easy to use the pool at the JW if you're staying at the Casa Magna, but they don't seem to forbid it either. You absolutely can't have any JW green towels. But, if you want to stand out from the crowd with the Casa Magna blue towels that you carried over, they allow that. JW pool is definitely quieter -- no competition for lounge chairs.

Especially with kids, the Gulf beach at the Casa Magna is more swimmable -- especially at the far end from the JW. There is a very long shelf of sand that keeps the water about knee deep there -- even on rough days, this spot had yellow flags while red flags were everywhere else. Kids spent more time in that surf than they ever did at any other vacation.

Overall, the off-property food in Cancun was not too impressive compared to other places we've been. Lots of shopping-mall, theme-oriented restaurants. They're well run factories. So, if you just want to relax, the package may work out well.