Good resort, bad customer service

We've been to this resort before, and decided to go again due to the access, facilities, and variety of this resort. We go with a big group of 16 people and are always generous with our tips and interactions. The resort changed their access packages/policies after we booked, without informing people who had booked. Upon arrival, our friends were all upgraded automatically to honour their package and access (2 families from general to family selection, 2 families from general to VIP). However [... read more], we were not. We arrived with a later flight, but on the same day. We were told by the front desk that it's because we didn't book through Expedia, but not all of our friends did. With the package/protocol in place, according to the front desk we had access to 1 pool, a very small area of the resort, and limited restaurants (2 restos, 1 buffet). We ended up having to pay 840 USD extra to get the required access. They said they made a "special price", and we could have the upgrade for this amount instead of 1050 USD. It feels quite dishonest to gauge people for extra money when you're already there, otherwise limiting our ability to spend time with friends -- the exact reason we flew in for. Even though the resort and facilities are nice, this left a very bad taste for us.

Great family section

We loved family section although it was just my husband and I, we were able to use the entire resort, great restaurants, coffee shop, lounges and pools, will certainly return. We were there 14 days Service was great, carts were always available to get to one section to another

Great family section

We loved family section although it was just my husband and I, we were able to use the entire resort, great restaurants, coffee shop, lounges and pools, will certainly return. We were there 14 days Service was great, carts were always available to get to one section to another

Good resort overall, rooms not great

The resort is fine. Very modern in some senses (app to book restaurants, bracelet key, they aren’t militant about the pool towels, etc.) but the rooms are lacking in most ways. Very little storage (zero drawers), no bathroom counter space (instead there are two sinks which is not necessary). One very tiny garbage. Our safe was broken, they fixed it. The TV was also broken but we just left it, didn’t want to continuously have people in the room fixing things. Food is good, lots of selection and i [... read more]t was good quality. We ate at the Italian, Thai, and steakhouse and they are all good, with great service. Airport transfer is easy but SO MANY STOPS, on the way back, the 80km ride took almost 2 hours. Pools are good (a little cold but nothing crazy).

Grand Palladium Kantenah

Our stay at the Grand Palladium Kantenah was excellent. The rooms, food and service were top notch. We’ve stayed at the Grand Palladium Colonial in the past with a similar experience. The resort has only gotten better with time. Keep up the good work! We’ll be back soon!

Wonderful time

This hotel has so many options of things to do, great food at both the buffet options and a la carte. We got a lot of steps in as we walked the resort each day. Lovely staff and welcoming energy. Recommend.

Extremely Disappointing

So many negatives: -5 hour transit time from plane landing to security, then luggage, then drive to hotel (only 45 mins). Hotel states to blame Air Transat, Air Transat says blame Trip Central. Even when trying to review with Trip Central they push blame advising me to call the local taxi company (a Mexican number). This entire package was suggested and supported (not) by Trip Central. -Terrible check in, 6 am flight to get to resort early and in addition to 5 hour transit time, the room w [... read more]as not ready until after 5 pm. -Impossible to book any restaurant. When a few were booked (after complaining and getting to top management), the food was poor. They wanted us to eat buffet all the time and never book a restaurant. -Many bars but line ups and only one bartender. All drinks highly watered down and poor. -Pushy for tips on every request to do anything. -Impossible to get around resort, rude drivers of shuttles on many occasions. -Can't swim in water. Poor. -9 of us went and never again with Trip Central, Air Transit or any Grand Palladium.

Don’t expect to get into any of the Al A Carte restaurants.

When booking our trip we were told we weren’t able to book any of the Al A Carte restaurants prior to our check in. Immediately after checking in I headed to the concierge to book our dinners for our 6 night stay. I was told there were no reservations available for the whole week, also that you could only book 2 days in advance and would have to line up at 8am in order to do so. The following day I tried again with a different staff member. I was lucky enough to get 3 reservations booked for the [... read more] last 3 nights of our stay. Anytime we walked by any of the restaurants ( excluding the buffets) they were empty with maybe 1/4 of their restaurant occupied. One evening we were at one of the restaurants and a family showed up for their reservation and were turned away being told they were there on the wrong day. The full hour we were there there were only 4 tables occupied. Many other guests that we had spoken to during our stay had the same if not worse experience with not be able to get any reservations. When a resort states their many options of Al A Carte restaurants at their “all inclusive” resort this is unacceptable. We tried to make the best of our trip and ventured out of the resort to Playa Del Carmen for a change up in food. What saddened us is this resort is beautiful, the beach is beautiful. This is an ongoing issue from what I’ve read and heard from other guests. We love The Mayan Riviera and will be back but sadly not to this resort.

It used to be an amazing resort...not this time

I have recently returned from Grand Palladium Kantenah resort, in Riviera Maya. This was my 6th time at this specific resort and my 8th time at Palladium/TRS. I had great memories of this resort from previous experiences and that's the reason I have returned. This time, unfortunately, my expectations were not fully met, I was a bit disappointed with my vacation. 1. Because I was a frequent return customer I got a VIP bracelet. Unfortunately the bracelet meant nothing, it came with NO addition [... read more]al perks. I got the same treatment and same access to facilities like a guest who was there for the first time. Pre-covid, I was there on the 5th visit and the VIP bracelet I got allowed me access to all restaurants and all bars. Not this time :-( 2. Overall the quality of the service, in my opinion, has gone down from my previous visits. The food at the buffet was not as varied as before, was quite repetitive and more limited in choices. In the past they had themed nights at the buffet which provided great choices for dinner. Not this time. The a-la carte restaurants did not hit the bar either. Food was served cold, or wait time for the food to be served was long. 3. Covid protocol was non existent. Pre-covid, when entering any restaurant you were asked to hand sanitize, the host had the sanitizer available and everybody had to sanitize - again this was pre-covid. Now, the hand sanitizer was just sitting in a corner and nobody was asked to use it. 4. I have asked for a room that was not on the ground floor. I don't think this was a huge request. I did get one and it was facing the highway and it was very noisy. I've asked to be moved because I could not sleep, they moved me after I insisted and waited several hours. I got a room on the ground floor. Well, at least it was quiet. So, overall, my vacation was not as pleasant as I was expecting it to be. There are many choices for resorts and next time I will likely chose a different resort. VIP bracelet was useless so I have no incentive to go back.

Great Time!

Employees are terrific. Groundsand rooms are very clean. We had a couple problems with AC and sliding door and they were addressed in a couple hours. Food is very good, lots to chose from.Good snorkling out front. Who designed the pool? Its 6.5' deep in 90%. You cant hang out anywhere other than perimeter or play water games with the kids. Remember folks, take some tip money. These wonderful peopl work very hard for almost nothing. A few dollars goes a long way to help them and their families.

Love the resort! Came for a third time.

Loved all amenities, grounds, restaurants, pool and beach areas are stunning. Fabulous staff and great evening entertainment! Staff super friendly and helpful and always smiling. Big enough resort for all tastes and preferences to find something they could enjoy.

The most perfect vacation

We love this resort. We came here 5 years ago and we wanted to come back- after a trip to Hawaii and another resort we decided to come back. It has so much to offer. Amazing food. Beach. Grounds. Room. I ate amazing fajitas everyday. It is quite far from the airport. 2.5 hour bus ride with stops at other resorts. The travel to and from was biggest complaint with various airport delays

Some Major Problems

We had requested a room beside our son and daughter -in-law so we could baby sit our 7 month old grand child while they attended a wedding at the resort.Not only were we not side by side,we were located in a separate building some distance away. it took most of our first full day at the resort to get the situation rectified. There also was not a crib as requested for the baby in her room and initially this was not going to be fixed until the next day.It required repeated requests and threats to  [... read more]obtain one late on the first night. Housekeeping was adequate, although the inclusion of hand towels was hit & miss, and face cloths only showed up once. Staff were very friendly and wait staff were attentive. We did not observe any COVID protocols in place

Very disappointed. This is certainly not a 5 star resort.

Rooms are no better than a Holiday Inn. Small shower in a tub making it difficult for my wife to climb into. We had requested a wheelchair to help get from A to B for my wife. They would not accommodate so we had to rent one. We wanted to have my son who lives in Playa to come and join us for an a la carte supper. No problem to pay for a day pass for him to enter the resort, $110US, but he could not go to the a la crate restaurant unless we got him a room. Food was subpar, often cold, and beca [... read more]use it is a large resort, with a lot of people, the platters were not replenished quickly. We have been to Playa 7 times previously, 2 times at the same resort. All of them were a superior value. I guess it did not start off well as our flight was delayed 4 hours leaving Halifax.

Did not meet our expectations.

We were supposed to be at Kantenah but got moved to colonial without notice. It was a huge day long battle getting a crib for my baby to sleep in. Resort was way too big for little kids to walk around all day. They had trolleys to get around but many times the staff refused to take my kids in the trolleys because it was for “adults only”. Buffets had so much selection and lots of fresh food. However buffet staff weren’t great, we never got beverages brought to our table. The kids club was [... read more] good. We loved all the live music at the resort. There was a massive pool and great water slides for the kids. Beach was disappointing as it had garbage all along the shore line with drug dealers approaching us daily on the beach. The ocean was very rocky, bring water shoes. The zoo animals were completely unnecessary as there was plenty of wildlife to see. We found it very sad to see crocodiles and flamingos pent up.

Lovely resort

we enjoyed our stay at the Grand Palladium, however we were supposed to stay in the Kentanah section and our group was scattered between Colonial and Kentanah...my spouse and I were far from our family with small children ( who could have used our help). We also had issues with securing a baby bed/play pen for which we had reserved many months prior...we were told that it was on a first come basis...The first night was harried needless to say as everyone was very tired and baby would not settle  [... read more]in an adult bed...finally at midnight she went to sleep...only to be woken up at 630 am with a phone call...to say that a crib would come at 9am...(why such an early call)..the crib finally arrived at 10:30 am!

Grand Palladium Kantenah, Mezico

We recently travelled to the above resort for our sons wedding. We were required to be in Toronto to fly Sunwing at 3:00am for a 6:25am flight . We were advised just before the flight that no plane was available with Sunwing and they instead rented a plane from Portugal with Portuguese flight staff. 6 hours later we took off in the most uncomfortable plane we had ever been on. We were served water and two Oreo cookies for a four hour flight. We did get a $20 lunch voucher from Sunwing in Toronto [... read more] but our only choice was Tim Hortons or Subway. We landed in Mexico and we’re put on a bus for a one and a half hour drive to the resort. Upon arrival at the resort we discovered we had not been assigned a room (there were 40 plus members who travelled for the wedding!) we were given a room on the third floor (we are both seniors but we’re up for 36 hours and decided we had no energy left to go back to checkin to change our room) For the first two days of our stay we had NO room service. Also on the second day we lost all hydro and air conditioning in our unit. I called three times only to be told some one would come. Several hours later my husband called and told them they had 15 min to get someone there to repair the issue and restore hydro. Sure enough someone showed up and replaced an overheated breaker! In order to get our room cleaned on the third day I waited for a housekeeper in another unit and using a translator asked to have the room cleaned which they did. For the remaining g four days we had our room cleaned. Our mini fridge was filled sporadically. We had to hunt down the fellow to get bottled water. The resort itself is huge and absolutely beautiful! The weather all week was 30 degrees. Restaurants were ok at best and we tended to stick to the Buffets for variety. My husband was extremely I’ll with fever cough etc. when we returned home we both tested positive for COVID. There was absolutely no distancing and no hand disinfectant available through out the resort. My husband and I took shuttles everywhere and felt the layout was more geared to younger people and not for seniors or anyone with mobility issues.

Resort was nice but hardly felt "all inclusive" anymore

This was our second time visiting the grand palladium. Our first time was about 10 years ago. positives; Resort is very well kept still and clean. Pools are very nice. Staff were very friendly and the food was overall good. buffet was extremely repetitive; exact same breakfast every day and I would say 1/2 the lunch and dinner was the same every day too. The variety of a la cartes is very nice and the food at the Poseidon, japanese, and Thai restaurants was very good. The steak house was not [... read more] great. We upgraded our room at the time of booking to the romance villa suite which was absolutely lovely and you get access to a very nice part of the beach with cabanas whioch were great. The Kantenah ones are right next to the beach and the rooms are very nice it was worth the extra $50/day we spent at time of booking. If you want this upgrade at check in time it is $80USD per day. The negatives; They were constantly doing work around the resort which was very noisy and relentless during the day. Jackhammering and sandblasting for hours. From the moment we arrived until when we left we were constantly being asked to spend more money. At check in they will try to get you to purchase room upgrades, and access to their "VIP palladium club" all at an extra cost. They hound you with resort staff that seem super helpful at first until you realize they just want you to come to their presentation about their new TRS Yucatan resort. many menus have extra items on them that come at extra costs. WATCH out at the a la carte restaurants they will ask if you want wine and then charge you for it. Room service also comes at an extra charge of $15USD. They are not very upfront about these charges and we spoke to another couple that was left with a $100 bottle of wine with their dinner. I would say about half their liquor selection at the lobby bars come at an increase in cost. A massage at the spa was like $200USD. I would go back again if price was right. They also made the salt water pool that used to be part of the white sands hotel and accessible to everyone part of the TRS Yucatan resort and so now you don't get access to this pool anymore.

A great stay

Rooms were clean. Service was amazing. Pools and beaches were fantastic. Staff levels seemed low. Ala carte restaurants were very good. My only complaint was that the food at the buffet was always cold.

Wonderful resort

I absolutely loved this resort from start to finish. It was very clean everywhere. The people are very friendly and very attentive to your needs. The room was lovely and I don't think there would have been a bad view from anywhere. The food was outstanding. They had every kind of fruit you could want. Their buffet was always fresh and had an enormous amount of never ending selection and variety. They catered well to children by way of their food selection and the pool activities with all the sl [... read more]ides and fun stuff there. The beach was lovely but you will need a pair of water shoes to enter in the ocean. There is sand beyond but you have to get past the coral, which is hard on your feet. The pools on the resort were huge. There were also two adult only pools which I loved. There was soft serene music playing in the background too. They all have their own bar as well. The drinks were phenomenal. I would highly recommend this resort to anyone. I will go back for sure and stay longer this time. I loved it there!!!