Coming backkkkk

Second time here and second time in Mexico! We absolutely love this resort. Did not like how they sent a letter to my room no smoking on balconies. 10/10 otherwise Food always hits, Workers are amazing!! Staff always so nice to us. Do not go if you do not like wildlife. This is their home, do not wish death on them. They are so sweet the Coatis, and iguanas and such. Staff do their best so patrons aren’t bugged by them. But it’s their home remember this. Sad that the prices will be go [... read more]ing up due to Marriot Purchase, will most likely not be returning if too expensive but this is well worth 1200-1500 CAD for 7 days

Great 2nd experience

This was our second time.to Bluebay , once again grounds are still dated with leaks on building 4 but with that being said food was good , drinks were cold and staff was great. Great budget resort. We even made friends with one of the waiters and enjoy a day at playa del carmen with them. We will be back again in the future.

Nightmare

I would not go back to the Mayan... The coatis are everywhere steeling food right out of plate... Population of those things is totally out of control .... You can't sit outside these things try to get into your room.

Will not and should not recommend this hotel to anyone

If it was a five star hotel it downgraded to a three the transportation was terrible around the resort you had to wait for half hour to be picked up on the little shuttles. The food was mediocre and the beach was terrible. It was dirty. The water was disgusting. The only good thing was certain servers were great.

Resort experience

We recently stayed at this resort and had a mixed experience. On the positive side, the staff were all very friendly and the food was consistently good throughout our stay. However, our vacation got off to a rocky start. As soon as we arrived, we were pressured into attending a timeshare presentation, which ended up wasting three hours of our first day. It was not how we wanted to spend our first moments relaxing. The initial room we were given had a noticeable mold issue. We brought this  [... read more]to the staff's attention, and to their credit, they moved us to another room right away, which we appreciated. The resort is surrounded by lots of wild animals, which can add to the atmosphere for some, but might be a downside for others, depending on your comfort level. Overall, while there were some definite positives (especially the food and friendly staff), some unfortunate issues took away from the experience.

Extremely Disappointing Birthday Vacation

I had high expectations for this resort, but unfortunately it was one of the worst resort experiences I’ve had. We arrived after being up since 4:00 AM to catch our flight and reached the resort around 11:00 AM. When we finally got to our room, the lights didn’t work, making the room unusable. On top of that, the patio offered virtually no privacy, as it wasn’t properly separated from the neighboring room. As two young women traveling together, this made us feel very uncomfortable. After r [... read more]eporting the issues, we weren’t moved to a new room until around 5:00–6:00 PM. Instead of enjoying our first day of vacation, we spent hours waiting in the heat for a solution. The replacement room wasn’t much better. The bathroom flooded every time we showered, and the safe malfunctioned and beeped throughout the night. The beach was another huge disappointment. The water was full of seaweed and debris, making it impossible to enjoy or even comfortably swim. We actually had more fun leaving the resort than staying on it. To make matters worse, it was my birthday weekend, and nothing about the stay felt special. We were also unable to book à la carte dinners at reasonable times, even though the restaurants appeared to have plenty of empty tables. The servers were friendly and hardworking, but the overall customer service and management response were extremely slow and disappointing. Between the room issues, lack of urgency, disappointing beach, and poor dining availability, this resort did not provide the relaxing vacation we were looking forward to. I have stayed at many all-inclusive resorts, and this was by far one of the most disappointing. I would not recommend staying here.

Wonderful stay!

The room was comfortable and everything we could have wanted. The grounds were well kept and very pretty. The wildlife was not 'wild' but not approachable either. It was nice to sit out on our deck and watch deer, coatis and raccoons walking by foraging. The food was good but the staff were beyond belief exceptional. Virtually everyone employed at the resort is always smiling and helpful; they were a joy to be around. The resort was fantastic but a swim-up bar would have made it perfect!  [... read more]I love how their carts pass by every 10 minutes or so, and you never had to call them and then wait until they got around to fetching you. Would be happy to return! The one downside was the seaweed or sorghum that was rampant and stank up the beach. It is the Mexican government's job to clear it, and they weren't doing their job. According to the Internet, this has become an issue since the summer of 2025.

Beautiful stay at the blue bay grand emerald

Myself boyfriend daughter and my sister had a wonderful stay staff was perfect food was great only thing we where disappointed with was the beach you could not swim in the ocean as there was so much seaweed the walk to the lagona is about 10 minutes from resort beautiful I would definitely recommend this resort

Great plece

I travelled with family from may 3 to may10 . We had a great stay. The staff were amazing always there to help. The food was good and the drinks were great. The hotel is older and needs some updating. The beach was terrible you could not swim as there was to much sea weed. There is a luguna a short walk down the beach that you can swim. The is two large pools which are very nice Over all a great stay at the blue bay

Resort is huge

Overall our trip was good but we won't be back to this resort. We were in the furthest building from everything so it's a 10-20 min walk to the lobby, food, drink and beach. In the hot sun with no place to rest and little shade. The trolley car that makes a loop of the resort is inconsistent. Sometimes it would go by every 20 min and sometimes not at all for an hour. Our room was musty and clung to our clothes. The food was mostly good. The a la carte were excellent but the buffet was so so.  [... read more]Some dishes were great, others were inedible. Same with the drinks. Early in the day the drinks were great. The later it was the worse the drinks were. The bar staff were run off their feet and let syrups run out on the soda gun. The pools have no shade while in the water but do have some shade for loungers. However, the only way to get a lounger is to sneak a towel in the middle of the night on one. Don't worry about the No Reserving Loungers signs because they are just for show. The activities during the day can provide nice bits to your vacation. If you can find where they are. The nightly shows were good or terrible. Mexican night and fire show were excellent. Pop stars and Disney night can be missed. The sand on the beach was fine sugar sand. We didnt go in the ocean because there is currently a bloom of seaweed in the area and there were massive amounts in the water at the shore.

Not overly impressed .

Most of the staff is pretty good but everything else was we’ll be low standard. The food was average, the alcohol was terrible. It is old outdated and in poor shape. You get what you pay for with this resort.

Great Stay

This was a trip for me and my husband, strictly for sunshine and relaxation! It was a great pick for us and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I had been here before, section of rooms by the lobby, this time we were closer to the beach. I do prefer the rooms closer to the beach, big pool and buffet was all nearby. We didn’t spend much time at the evening shows at the Black & White bar but it seemed most people enjoyed them. The food was great, highly recommend the Steakhouse restaurant. It’s a goo [... read more]d idea to get the App on your phone work b when you check in. Through the App you can book your own hotel reservations instead of lining up for the concierge. We originally intended to travel to Cuba but that plan didn’t work out, however we were very happy that we booked this instead. The beach was not super spectacular but the water was nice to swim in. The issue with loungers was a problem but we were up and at the beach by 7 and never had any problems to find two together. I highly recommend this resort to people looking for a budget friendly, great value resort!

The Smell of Seaweed and Cigarettes .

firstly, it was seaweed season, so the beaches were practically un-swimmable for the whole week, and smelt terrible. this was also, quite obviously, a very smoke friendly resort, with ash trays on top of every trash bin, and smokers puffing away everywhere. including poolside. i rarely got a hot shower in my room, even the friends that i went with were all complaining about the inconsistent water pressure(if any) and temp of the showers in their rooms as well. the rooms themselves were n [... read more]ice, bedding was very comfortable, but the doors allowed for a lot of noise from the resort to come through, making ear plugs a necessity for a good nights sleep. the buffet food was pretty good, though the steakhouse was disappointing. thankfully, the italian and mexican restaurants were very good. the app kept failing on us and we were not able to book the french restaurant, but we heard great things. the pools were great, the staff was incredibly kind and overall our experience was really good. though, i doubt id ever go back due to the amount of smokers literally everywhere.

Not what i was expecting

This hotel was listed with 4 star reviews. I do not agree. The rooms were dated, buildings falling apart, areas of the resort smelt like sewer, every few hours the bathroom toilets were plugged, toilet paper floating in the pool, very little night entertainment, they didn't rake the seaweed like other resorts, and not enough seating for the amount of guests.

So much fun!!

The grounds on this resort were impeccable and well maintained. The food was great, minus the seafood ragout. The steak house was superb, filet was cooked perfectly. The service was above board. The variety of the buffets was great! Our ac worked intermittently, but for the most part worked when we needed it to. The rooms and resort is dated, but clean and welcoming. Front desk staff was fantastic. Pool was a perfect temperature. They do what they can regarding the seaweed.

Well done

Great fun pool restaurants Food excellent Thankyou Great staff Bus drivers well done Sunwing staff said thankyou for clothing for Mexican male kids and Female donated We enjoy our Sunwing ,and westjet flight s

Average resort

The hotel is starting to show signs of neglect. All buildings are in need of new thatched roofs or as a minimum, patches. Many fridges don’t work, fixtures are rusting and showing signs of age, water pressure is poor at best, elevators don’t work and rooms are in need of paint. Our room was not very clean either. The good news is that the beds are comfortable, rooms are spacious, staff are wonderful, and the pool is large enough to hold a lot of guests. The food is good. Entertainment is ave [... read more]rage. While the beach is nice, there is little to no shade and serious lack of lounge chairs. I have no idea where the photo on the side of this review came from as there are no structures with shade. Overall, this resort is average and will start having return guests in a year or two.

3.5star

Old resort rooms rundown we were locked out of room for over 4 hrs.when we arrived lock on door would not work had 4 different people come and could not fix lock finally changed lock then waited another 2 hours fer security to come and program the lock asked for different room were told they can’t change room because we didn’t like i we told them it was because the lock was not working we had not even seen the inside of room at this time lots of people complaining about the same problem.we compl [... read more]ained to main desk and were told they could not change anything.this was our 3rd.trip to blue bay got worse each trip then we kept getting more hidden taxes will never be back plus never recommend it to anyone. Prob. Never return to Mexico again to many nicer places to see

Not Impressed

The hotel itself and area are quite beautiful. However, upon entering our room we were hit with a massive smell of mold and mildew. It was so strong and it was worse when the AC was on (which was always as it was 29 degrees outside) By day 2 We couldn't take the smell any longer as we were feeling sick. When we went to the lobby to ask for a new room we were told we had no choice but stay in that room for the night. We were staying in building 8 which is closest to a water/waste treatment buildi [... read more]ng. You could very clearly smell the treatment plant at the back end of the resort. the next day when we were told our new room number, I was a bit upset that they were keeping us in the same building. They moved us from the ground floor (our room was at the front corner of the building) up to the 3rd floor and in the back corner (nearest possible room to the treatment plant) The room did not smell, however we could not spend time out on the balcony due to the smell from the plant, our room phone was not working and the fridge was so covered in ice that the bottom was full of water. Also there was no coffee for morning. When I asked for the phone and fridge to be fixed, and coffee to be brought to the room, it took 3 days!!!!!!!!! Each bar at the resort only staffed 1 bartender so you were always standing in line for at least 30-40 mins!!!!!!! And the concierge guys were relentless!!!! Every single time we entered the lobby they were on us to upgrade to cirlce one status. No matter how many times or even how polite we were, they NEVER listened. If someone says "No thank you, we are not interested" then leave them be!!!!!! Lastly, I'd like to say that the seating available at the beach and pools was atrocious!! If the resort holds 5000 people, there was only chairs/spots for aprox 1250 people. There were clearly signs posted saying that saving of chairs was not allowed, but almost everyone there was up between 5-6am just to put their towels on chairs to save them. We will never stay at a Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda Resort again!!!!!

Great Week

The grounds were beautiful, pools were beauftiful, staff was amazing and drinks were good. That being said, rooms are very dated, but were clean. We were on the second level in section 8. The big concern was lack of loungers at pools and beach. There are only 6 palapas at the beach (unless you are a Circle One member). No shade. That was a BIG disappointment.