busterbeaux

We are looking to take a family vacation in August with our two daughters (ages are 7 and 9). I am debating between these two resorts as the flights and airline miles work out the week we are wanting to go.

We have been to Los Suenos in Costa Rica and Wailea Beach in Maui. We are looking for something comparable to those. We had a fantastic stay at both.

The Casa Magna will use less points (we have 300,000+ MR points, but want to save some for Christmas). The Grand Cayman is more points, however the beach looks beautiful.

We are looking for snorkeling, swimming, kid friendly activities, and pure relaxation for a week. We will do 1 or 2 excursions off the resort, but mainly planning on laying by the pool/beach 4-5 days.

Husband is platinum and we would hope for an upgrade.

Any thought/experiences will be helpful.

VickiSoCal

The Grand Cayman pool is small and has no slides, etc.

coffeeguy2010

We've stayed at GC Marriott 5 times and once at Casa Manga. Seven Mile beach in GC has all of the things you're looking for. Fantastic snorkeling from the hotel's beach. The stingray excursion is a must do. Plenty of restaurants are within walking distance of the Marriott. Be aware, as VickiSoCal mentioned, the pool is small. But who needs a pool when you have a world class beach steps away. We also like that the airport is 10 minutes away by taxi ($20) and the basic standards of the island are comparable to the US. You can drink the water, sanitary food prep, relatively low crime rate, sidewalks, street lights, etc.. The only downside (in my opinion) is that everything tends to cost more in Cayman. Expect 20-30% premium over average US prices.

Casa Manga is more of a mega-resort. Huge hotel. Huge pool. Nice swim up bar. Decent beach. However, when we were there (end of May). The surf was too rough to swim so we spent most of our time in the pool. Otherwise, we found the hotel to be nice and very affordable. Decent prices of food and drink. We didn't leave the hotel on this trip. So I can't advise on the area.

I hope this is helpful.

BostonFlyer1624

I have not been to the Cancun property, but did go to the Marriott in GC last year.

I had a great experience, and really loved the property. The beach is enjoyable - nothing like fish tacos and truffle Parmesan fries on the beach.

deemkaa

Thanks to the previous posters. I'm looking for more honest reviews about CM Cancun

mrsspike30

We have been to the GC Marriott twice as a family of four, I'm Platinum. Received a small upgrade to a courtyard view room but never a suite upgrade.

The GC is in a great location and the kids loved snorkeling straight out from the beach. They also have a kids club with at least one hour long activity almost every day if you need some alone time. Our kids usually dread kid club stuff but loved it, they snorkeled, made bracelets, made and sailed a boat etc. Bring some cheap chips to feed the fish with if you can bring free checked bags, that was one of our favorite things, right from the beach, tons of brilliant colored fish.

We rented a car a couple days and did kayaking in the bioluminescent bay (one of only a few in the world), Rum Point etc. as well. Otherwise we just laid about the beach, drank tropical drinks and enjoyed the beach.

The pool is small, but we rarely used it, the kids did occasionally.

VickiSoCal

Please don't feed the fish. It's not good for the reef environment at all.

Djlawman

I'll offer another opinion. Beach directly in front of the Marriott is terrible. Very shallow (from hotel to water). Also, tons of ironshore if you go in the water directly in front of the hotel -- that you will stub your feet on, run into if frolicking in the surf , etc. If you look closely at the Google maps images, you will see it. Or see it here:

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/31426048

Hotel itself is great, and I understand recently renovated, very nicely. But they can't really change that beach.

There is good snorkeling, if you get in the water past all the ironshore, and then snorkel over to the left. Two reefs , out about 100-150 years, between Treasure Island and the south side of the Marriott. Also visible from Google maps satellite view.

If you do go there, I strongly recommend investing in water socks/ aqua socks for everyone who is going to spend significant time in the ocean. You'll see why when you get there. Buy them here -- lot cheaper than the price you will have to pay for them in GC. Something like these

http://www.amazon.com/Speedo-Womens-...ds=water+socks

The beach pales in comparison to that of the Westin further north on Seven Mile Beach. IMO.

That being said, GC is a great island -- very safe to walk around with your kids in the evening and visit lots of other restaurants. Nearby the Marriott is Deckers, which I highly recommend.

We've been going to the island for about 25 years, and know it pretty well at this point.

hhoope01

The RC is right next to the Westin. And the RC there is very nice, much nicer than the Marriott (though it will be more points/cost as well.)

But I think the latest question was really about the CM Cancun. I can't really speak to it as I've never stayed there, but there is a CM Cancun master thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...rt-mexico.html

mrsspike30

I certainly never heard that feeding the fish inshore from the beach damaged the reef, as we attempt to be relatively ecologically conscious I'm sorry to hear that. The main damage we saw to the reef was people standing literally on top of the coral and occasionally not picking up their trash. I wished that there was more signage in terms of people respecting the natural environment there.

I agree that the Marriott does not have the widest stretch of beach but it was a more relaxed environment than RC with two 10 year olds. RC definitely has them beat though if you want a beautiful stretch of sand. We liked walking up there sans kiddos for an amazing pina colada. We spent a lot of our time in the water snorkeling or taking walks down the beach so it didn't bother us as much that the immediate beach was not enormous. That location is also a nice base to walk to restaurants, head to other locations etc.

owflyer

This info for GCM is spot on, and if the Marriott beach is a C, then the Ritz is a D-. Sand is constantly eroding away at both locations which makes for a very cramped beach experience.

Much better settings at the Westin or any numerous Condo north of the Westin.

iflyjetz

It's been a few years since I was at the Casa Magna Cancun. Nice hotel; got an upgrade as a Plat. It was definitely much cheaper than Grand Caymans.

If you're going to scuba dive, Grand Caymans is much better.
If you want to sightsee a bit, there's more to see outside of Cancun (Tulum, Chichen Itza). We rented a car for cheap and drove to both. My wife and I felt comfortable travelling all around Cancun and the surrounding tourist sites - this was during the height of the 'druglords are executing everyone' scare.

If we were to go on vacation tomorrow and had those two choices, we'd go to Casa Magna but YMMV. Your tourist dollar will go much further in Cancun than Grand Caymans.