Moon Palace The Grand Cancun: Everything you need to know when traveling with kids

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Are you planning a trip to Cancun with kids and thinking of staying at Moon Palace The Grand? We’ve got you covered! We recently visited the mega resort with a teen and there are some positives and negatives to staying here. If you’re debating between Moon Palace and Moon Palace the Grand, the biggest difference is you have access to the waterpark at the Grand and can use the amenities and restaurants at Moon Palace Sunrise and Moon Palace Nizuc as well. The restaurants are also supposedly better on the Grand side (we disagree), the rooms are larger and your kids have access to a large indoor playgroom and waterpark. Keep reading to see if Moon Palace The Grand is the best Cancun resort for families with kids.

Where is Moon Palace Cancun located and how do you get here?

Moon Palace Cancun is one of the first resorts closest to the CUN airport. To get here, book your flights to CUN. The resort offers a free shuttle to and from the airport for stays of 4 nights or longer. Make sure you book this on the app or website at least a couple of days before you arrive. To find your driver at CUN, keep walking past all of the taxi drivers that are going to haggle you as you walk out of the customs area. Once you get outside, walk past all of the taxi stands past the market and you will see all the hotel shuttles and just look your driver there.

Best time to visit Moon Palace Cancun

While we aren’t all inclusive people and much prefer more active trips, once a year we visit a tropical destination for a few days (usually around our September anniversary) and this year it was Cancun. We also don’t like to travel to these locations during peak travel season (think holiday weeks) so we came the 2nd week of September after US schools have started. This meant that the resort was deserted. There were very few people at the pools, we had no issues with reservations for restaurants and it just didn’t feel very crowded at all at most places. If you have an opportunity to come on a random, non holiday week, do it! Your experience will be much better. I’ve heard horror stories from people who visited during peak travel times and who weren’t able to get any dining reservations during their entire stay so they had to eat at the buffet the entire time.

Also I will mention that we usually love swim up rooms and were debating whether it was worth the extra $700 for our stay. We decided against it and were so glad we did after seeing the swim up rooms here. They were nothing like what we’ve had at other resorts and definitely not worth the upgrade price! Our room was just the regular room and was very spacious with a large patio area (we had the ground floor). It was perfect for our stay and the pool was a 1 minute walk from our room. It seems like there was a small pool near most buildings and the smaller ones were never crowded.

What is included with your booking at Moon Palace The Grand

Since Moon Palace The Grand is an all inclusive resort, it means that most of your food and drinks will be included in your stay. You have a fully stocked fridge in your room with water, juices and all sorts of sodas. There are also snacks, but very minimal and honestly not the greatest. Think potato chips, oreos and tiny chocolate bars.

The food at the restaurants is also included, though some restaurants have items you can up charge and pay for (like “better” cuts of steak or lobster).

You also have access to the water park, play room and arcade (all games are free) while here. Those staying at Sunrise and Nizuc have to pay admission (I believe $100) to enter the water park or sit through a timeshare to earn their passes.

Things to know when traveling to Moon Palace The Grand Cancun

• You will most likely have a resort credit during your stay, ours was $500. Don’t be too excited, there are actually very few things you can use this on and there are many restrictions. For example, you can only use $150 of that towards the spa so if you want to do a couples massage, you’ll still be shelling out hundreds of dollars since most cost $600 and up. You can also use it on a couple of items at the gift shop (hats, expensive costume jewelry and sunglasses) but you have to pay a high tax on those items making it not worth it at all. The other items they offered us with this were excursions that were over $1k each, so basically our $500 was unused.
• They are huge into ownership/timeshares here and will try to get you to do a timeshare presentation. We said no at check in, they called the next morning to try again. Be firm and don’t fall for it. They even tried calling my cell while we were out of the room.
• If you’re looking for an all inclusive resort in Mexico with great food, keep on looking since this isn’t it! We were shocked at how bad the food was here and allegedly The Grand is the best of their resorts here food wise. Flavorless, cold and just not appetizing. The best meals we had here were breakfast at Habibi and tacos at Los Tacos (poolside restaurant).
• Download the Palace Resorts and link your reservation as soon as you have a confirmation number. We heard horror stories of not being able to get dining reservations but I went on the app the morning of our arrival and was able to get every single night booked, there was a ton of availability. Do not call and do not wait til you arrive, do it from home the morning of your arrival day.
• If you’re looking for a beautiful tropical beach with clear turquoise water, you won’t find that here. Sargassum is a huge issue here and the beach had lots of it here. They have nets out to try to prevent it from coming ashore but they can only hold so much. The water looked brown from all the seaweed.
• The resort does not have carbon monoxide detectors so we brought our own travel carbon monoxide detector on the trip. You might want to do the same for piece of mind!

Things to do at Moon Palace The Grand with and without kids

Head to the pool

If you’re visiting this family friendly Cancun all inclusive resort, chances are you are here to enjoy the water. Moon Palace The Grand has 9 swimming pools, including a water park, dedicated family pool and adults only pool. Most of the pools aren’t massive, definitely nothing like we have experienced at other resorts we have been to. Basically just small pools near each building area for people from that building to use. If you want more poolside entertainment, the water park will be your best bet. There are a couple that are bigger with swim up bars and those seemed to be more crowded.

Since we traveled with a teen who didn’t always want to be out and was able to stay in the room alone at times, my husband and I visited the adults only pool which was our favorite out of all the pools here. Be sure to bring your own pool floats since the ones the hotel sells are very highly priced!

Find the hidden speakeasy

Keep in mind that this is for adults only so if you are traveling with kids, you won’t be able to enter. On the ground floor of the lobby building look for the wall that looks like a bookcase. There is a doorknob hidden among the books and a really cool speakeasy behind it. Definitely a fun night out for the adults!

Visit the playroom

Looking for indoor activities for kids at Moon Palace The Grand? Their playroom, located in the water park complex, is one of the best we have ever seen on our travels. There is a large climbing playground, arcade, bumpers cars, mini golf, ropes course, mirror maze and an entire play area for little kids upstairs. Keep in mind that this isn’t really for kids over the age of 8 but if your kids fall into that range, they will have a blast here.

Visit the water park

If you are staying at Moon Palace The Grand, one of the perks is entry to the water park whenever you want it. They have several slides, a flow rider, wave pool (super tiny), lazy river and 2 large water playgrounds for little kids. This water park is especially great for the under 8 crowd, they will have a blast on the water playgrounds.

Go bowling

Moon Palace The Grand has a bowling alley on the ground level of the lobby that requires reservations. If you want to do this, be sure to reserve ahead of time.

Play games at the Wired Lounge

Located near the lobby area, the Wired Lounge is a large arcade with free to play games. When we checked in, they said it’s intended for teens but that was not the case. While they had air hockey, basketball games, all sorts of video games, etc., it was packed with toddlers just running around so we didn’t stick around for long. I will say that the Wired Lounge at Sunrise was great, though smaller than the Grand’s. It had only teens and young adults and my daughter made friends quickly and they played games. It would be nice if they had just one dedicated teen area since they have a 2 story playroom for the younger crowd. The family who ate hibachi with us that evening expressed the same sentiment. Their 2 teens (15 and 13) were saying how there are so few teen only activities at Moon Palace.

Go on an excursion

While the resort offers many (highly priced) excursions, there are many you can book on your own. One of the most popular ones is a day trip from Cancun to Chichen Itza, one of the 7 world wonders.

You can also do a day trip from Cancun to Isla Mujeres. We have done this several times on different trips to Cancun.

Visit the Grand Outlet Riviera Maya

Located directly across from the Moon Palace complex is this open air mall. We took Uber here (less than $3) so that we can visit the Hello Kitty Cafe. There are lots of stores, restaurants and a kids playground here. It’s something to do if you don’t want to sit at the hotel all day!

Hang out at the beach

As I mentioned earlier, the beach has a ton of seaweed (which has a smell) so keep that in mind when booking this hotel! That said, there are hammocks and lots of shady place to hang out in the sand without actually going into the water.

Restaurants at Moon Palace The Grand

So this will be controversial since for some reason, this resort has a ton of people who fangirl over it and if you go against their opinion, they’ll come after you. But the food at this resort is downright atrocious. We were honestly shocked at how bad the food was. By day 2, our daughter was asking us for a hot meal since everything was lukewarm at best (even at sit down restaurants). We visited several restaurants here and only 2 stood out as being decent. While we didn’t expect the best food at an all inclusive resort, we also didn’t expect it to be this bad especially given this resort costs at least 30% more than its sister properties next door. Here are the restaurants we tried at Moon Palace The Grand.

Circus

This was our family’s favorite dining experience here but not because of the food. The theme is super cute and well done, but the food is definitely not great. They have performers throughout dinner and a fun circus theme throughout the restaurant. If you are visiting Moon Palace The Grand with kids, this is a must. The desserts are buffet style and some were actually decent but we ended up having to grab something else for dinner after. Come for the theme, plan on eating dinner elsewhere after! Keep in mind that this is a restaurant designed for and by kids and really intended for families with kids. I would not dine here without children.

Tavola

The Grand’s Italian restaurant, Tavola, is located right near the lobby. You can watch them making the pizza and firing it up in the oven. I ordered the margherita for mine and it had absolutely no flavor. I ate one slice and ended up leaving the rest. My husband had the meat lover’s and it was slightly better.

Habibi

Our favorite restaurant at The Grand was Habibi. We only visited it for breakfast, but both days we went our meals were excellent. Try the shakshouka and khachapuri, both are excellent! Their hummus is really good too and comes with freshly baked pita bread. This is a much better option than the buffet for breakfast. It’s also the place with the best coffee at the resort. I wish we tried it for dinner!

JC Steakhouse

For our 17th anniversary dinner, we decided to book JC Steakhouse. You can upgrade your steak to some of the more premium cuts, which we did. We got the tomahawk for a $70 up charge and honestly, it wasn’t worth upgrading, just order off the menu! It was the worst tomahawk we have ever had and the meat was super chewy. I’m not sure what their off the menu steaks taste like, but at least you aren’t paying extra for them.

Buffet at Moon Palace The Grand

Moon Palace The Grand has 2 buffets-The Grand Buffet, located in the lobby building, and Cusco, located by the pool on the complete opposite side of the resort. There is honestly not much difference between the two so just go to whichever is closest and open at the time since they have different hours of operation. We weren’t very impressed with the buffets and most times, I would go in just to grab a plate of fruit. The food was cold and not very good. I have no idea how so many people kept piling up their plates and going back for seconds and thirds. We tried breakfast, lunch and dinner once each and never went back again.

La Cantina

Something we didn’t discover until our check out day is that La Cantina (ground level of the lobby building) turns into a buffet for breakfast on some days. We thought it was only a dinner place. They say it’s an international buffet but 80% of the items were Mexican, including some of the best freshly made tacos. I wish we found this sooner. This was actually really good and the food (Mexican portion of the buffet) was very flavorful. It’s a much smaller buffet than the one upstairs but the fewer options tasted so much better and the taco stand where they make your tortillas fresh was really good.

Momo

After several days of awful meals, we decided to stop booking restaurants at The Grand and instead decided to try one at Sunrise. We booked hibachi at Momo for our last night. There is bus transportation between the 3 resorts, so you can easily get to the other buildings. Staying at The Grand means you have access to all their restaurants as well (they can’t come to The Grand to eat).

The hibachi was better than any of the dinners we had at the Grand. Our meal was actually hot and flavorful (compared to everything else we had here). I wish we tried their restaurants sooner!

Boulangerie

If you are craving sweets or coffee, this coffee shop is located on the lobby level at The Grand. I’ll be honest, the coffee here was awful and we tried multiple drinks both hot and cold. Once we discovered the coffee at Habibi, we just got it from there after.

This coffee shop has ice cream, milkshakes, crepes (sweet and savory), coffee drinks and lots of dessert options including cakes, chocolates and macarons so easy to grab your kids a quick treat.

Los Tacos

A 1 minute walk from our room was Los Tacos, a little taco restaurant located by the pool. I wish we visited this place sooner since it was one of the better dining options at The Grand. They are only open for lunch and serve only tacos. We loved all the ones we tried and would have gone back (and skipped breakfast) had we discovered it sooner.

Coconut Bar

Located on the beach is a dedicated coconut bar. Here you can get a fresh coconut with just coconut water or alcohol added. Since neither one of us drinks, we got ours all natural. These are really good and a great way to hydrate on a hot day.

Overall impression of Moon Palace The Grand Cancun

I’ll be honest, this isn’t a resort we would ever return to. We love mega resorts but this one just didn’t live up to our expectations. The biggest pros were the proximity to the airport so you aren’t in a car for 45 minutes after your flight and kids 17 and under stay free (many resorts charge adult rates for 13 and up). Also the little kid amenities are a huge plus if you’re traveling with kids 8 and under. Definitely consider this resort if your kids are little.

While we didn’t expect world class cuisine, we also didn’t expect the food to be as bad as it was especially given the hype this resort gets from their fans. We also came to the conclusion that all inclusive resorts aren’t really the right fit for our family. Neither I nor my husband drink, so no alchol was consumed at all. We are also not huge eaters. Like we aren’t going to go up to the buffet 5 times because it’s there. Once was enough for us! We basically had a small breakfast and dinner while here and for us, it would have been cheaper to go to a resort that didn’t include the food.

Should you stay here? If great food isn’t something you need and you are traveling with young kids, then certainly consider it. Their little kid amenties will make up for the lack in dining options. But since we traveled with a teen, I will say this certainly isn’t the best Cancun all inclusive for families with teens.

Some other family friendly Cancun all inclusives you should check out are Finest Playa Mujeres, Hyatt Ziva Cancun and Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach.