General Hotel Experience:  We went to Sandos Playacar for week in May 2010 for the wedding of some friends of ours.  After a long day of travel and the ride from the Cancun airport, we were excited to reach the hotel.  There was no one there to really greet us - the exit from the van with our luggage and where to go and what to do with our luggage was very confusing.  After a while someone assisted us and gave us our luggage tags so we could check in.  We waited in long for a very long time, drinks were on a nearby table apparently for the guest while you waited but our friends had to point them out to us as no one greeted us once we were inside the lobby.  After we finally checked in, we took a golf cart ride to our room.  The grounds were well-kept and the size of this property is quite huge.  We made our way to our room and found it to be quite hot.  We cranked the AC to high but the room never cooled down much.  The perks that we were promised upon booking (liquor, robes and slippers, fruit tray, etc..) were nowhere to be found which we thought was odd, however, we didn't go to Mexico to spend all of our time in our room so we just ignored that.  With all of the restaurant choices, it was difficult to determine which were open and which required reservations.  The bride and groom who had visited the property and bought the timeshare were well-versed so we had to ask them for the restaurant information.  The food at the restaurants was bland but did cause food poisoning for both my fiance and me which made our trip less than fun.  The disco was supposed to open at 9 or 10 but we had to get someone to open the club every time we wanted to go dancing.  We had to meet with our transportation services to arrange our trip back to the airport, which turned into a a huge sales pitch.  In fact, every time we went to guest services area, we were bombarded with sales pitches - which was difficult as you need to get through the guest services area to go anywhere else in the resort.  Our room never cooled down sufficiently and after a few days, the poor AC finally just died (it never got cool in that room so sleeping at night was miserable - compounded by the rock hard beds) so we contacted the front desk to have maintenance come and fix the AC.  This was at 9:00 pm.  Maintenance came to our room quickly but after about 20 minutes determined that they would not be able to fix it.  They called the Front Desk who told us they would move us to a new room.  As we were staying in an ocean view room, I verified that we would be changed to another ocean view room which I was told was correct.  The bell hop came to get our luggage and showed us to a room down the hall in the opposite direction of the ocean.  When we got inside, I looked out on our balcony which only had a view of the pool.  I told the bell hop that we paid for an ocean view room and were promised that we would be switched to another ocean view room.  He looked at the pool and told me that the pool was the ocean.  At that point, I called the Front Desk who first tried to tell me that we were moved to an ocean view room but then told me they had no ocean view rooms left.  After I told them that I wanted a reimbursement for the ocean view room, then they suddenly found another ocean view room for us.  After we moved into yet another room, it was now 11:00 pm at night, and after the bell hop left, we found a note that the property manager had written to "Mr and Mrs Johnson" to welcome them to their room and their stay at Sandos.  There we also found the fruit tray, tequila and bathrobes and slippers that were originally supposed to have come with our room package.  On a side note, which has nothing to do with Sandos Playacar, my fiance and I walked to Playa del Carmen which is quite a ways away from Sandos Playacar.  As it was May and quite humid and warm, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel.  I told the taxi driver Sandos Playacar and pointed out the property on the map to the driver.  He said "yes Sandos Playacar" then proceeded to drive us to Sandos Caracol.  When we told the driver that he was at the wrong resort, he pulled over, opened my door and ordered us out of his cab.  He told us that we should have known he was driving in the wrong direction and told him sooner than reaching the resort.  

Beach:  The beach is littered with cigarettes.  There is a huge drop off from the sand to actually get to the ocean.  There is a great deal of coral and rocky bottom at their site as well so be careful swimming.

Wedding:  Our friends' wedding was sweet to see, however, there is no privacy for weddings there.  Beach chairs are 5 feet from the ceremony and the topless and speedo wearing beach goers are congregating around the ceremony and very distracting.  Prices were too high for a private reception so it was held at the Italian Buffet which was fine but very noisy with the other diners around. 

All in all I would not go back to Sandos Playacar.  Their customer service, food, and overall resort experience left much to be desired.