The Fives Beach Hotel and Residences Playa Del Carmen: Great family vacation spot

This resort ticked many boxes for our group. Food, pools, service, location. All very good. Lots of wildlife which my child loved. Small downside would be the beach as the water is rocky and there was a lot of seaweed but no other complaints aside from that.

El Dorado Royale: A Beautiful Resort

This resort was set up very well. The layout makes it feel more spacious then a single series of buildings. It is surrounded by lovely gardens, pools, fountains and the restaurants are each located in their own area. You can do plenty of walking as the resort is connected to two of it's sister resorts and you can eat at the restaurants in the other resorts as part of your all inclusive package. Regular shuttles go back and forth for those less than avid walkers. The food was excellent and t [... read more]he service was very good.

The Fives Beach Hotel and Residences Playa Del Carmen: Fives Azul pros & cons

Hotel grew on us for sure not typical large resort with huge buffets. Looked like toronto downtown hotel esp the restaurants Rooms very nice but time share set up with kitchen Well maintained and comfy 10 Restaurants Italian and Thai outstanding food decor and service All food was good to great service everywhere super fast and friendly Even room service 15 mins and great variety and adjust if they can Hotel was 1 hour from airport though told 30 mins Lobby small but efficient. [... read more] Can book specialty restaurants for week at one time. Very efficient did aps someday in bipuffet or restaurant even if booked at another Can stop and get tortilla or pizza or a bite all over The hotel caters to kids and so 1-2-3 bedrooms But not loud or crying. Even played modern American music by pool. Several pools all over so can be quiet or fun Dancing and pool aerobics fun and not intrusive So 9/10. Accept water was rough and mass amounts of seaweed most of time so was in pool 90%. But sandy decent beach and can do long walks. $30 for great beach massages vs $150 in hotel Very safe in property and tho public beach not an issue accept Sunday locals dominate with families and food and ugly umbrellas Very good value and 3.40 hr flight always nice. Enjoy Ps took 30 yr old daughter and she ended up loving. ESP massages every other day and food Spend extra if you can to get bedroom vs pullout !!!

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Great family resort

This resort is great for families with young kids. I booked a stay with Sensatori, but upon arrival I learned that I had been upgraded to the Nickelodeon side (most likely because of my kids). The room I booked was comparable to what I was offered on the Nick side, but included with my new room was free access to the Nick water park. The Sensatori resort is attached to/part of the Nickelodeon resort which is jam packed with kids activities and family attractions. There are adult only sections an [... read more]d adult only restaurants on the Sensatori side if you are travelling without kids, but the grounds and most restaurants are shared between both sides. The grounds are well kept and the rooms are clean. It's a fairly new resort so amenities are still very new and in very good shape. The restaurants offer good alternatives to eating at the buffet. I found the buffet to have OK food, nothing special. If travelling with kids, the buffet has limited kid friendly food. My kids ate pasta most of the time. The restaurants have kid menus, but not much options my kids were interested in. My only complaint is the food selection for the buffet and the restaurants kid menus could be better.

Generations Riviera Maya: Overall Not Up to Expectations

To provide some context for this review, our family has been to five resorts, and our most recent three trips have been to the Mayan Riviera. For the past three years, we have visited the Azul Beach Resort, also a Karisma property. Overall, we were far less impressed with Generations then we have been with Azul Beach Resort. Generations did not meet our expectations given our previous experience with Karisma and especially the very inflated reviews on trip advisor, which I am now quite skepti [... read more]cal of. Pros: The rooms are absolutely gorgeous and have a stunning ocean views. (With the exception of building 18 whose views are blocked by the culinary tower). The entertainment staff are to be commended. In particular, the Mexican fiesta was the highlight of the trip. Quite frankly, the two ladies who ran the children’s piñata, were incredibly gifted and their love of children was evident. For our money they were the stars of the show! The bubble party was another plus. The pool bartenders were for the most part attentive, and the beach butlers were exceptional. The wait staff at Palm’s were the most friendly and attentive. The full length pool, while chilly, was a lot of fun and bouncy play structure a great feature. Cons: In no way is the food “gourmet”! Its quality and presentation was much less than we have experienced at Azul Beach Resort and the other resorts in the Mayan Riviera. The chef market is not open for dinner, and if you, like we, enjoy eating breakfast outside forget it! This was an option only on the first day and never again. When I asked why, the hostess at the Chef’s Market ignored my question. Instead we opted for room service, eating breakfast on our balcony. The quality was at best, OK. As pictured, one morning, instead of hash browns we were served what appear to be yesterday’s fries. My daughter and I also ordered cookies and milk nightly from room service. Only once did tasty cookies appear. The rest of the time it was packaged biscuits and once even corn bread! There are three main restaurants for dinner but only two of these are open each day. In sum, by no stretch of the imagination was there that type of choice or quality of food to which we have become accustomed at other resorts. The so-called butler service was anything but. Really all they did was try to sell us time shares, to set up a beach bed one day, and restock our fridge with water. (The bar fridge was not replenished during our week stay.) While there are many beach beds, only a few are shaded, and one morning I noticed butlers placing tee shirts, presumably to hold these beds for other guests to whom they were going to try to sell timeshares. I took a photo of this. The policy says “no reserving beds” but despite this there was the ubiquitous odious American woman who claimed five beds for her extended family one day! Entertainment started too late: 9pm for any of the shows except the fiesta and fire show. The cleaning staff were quite loud in the adjacent rooms, for travellers with toddlers, can screw up naps. We had trouble with the lock in our room not working, and this took two and a half days to resolve. Before dinner, the light on the lock was solid red and would not read our card. Some security guard came and fiddled with the lock and let us in. We attempted to verify that the lock was now working. Returning to our room after dinner, the light on the lock was again solid red and would not read our card. It was our toddler’s bedtime. This time two security guards came to fiddle with the lock and preceded to spend an hour and half trying to fix it to no avail while telling us, “just five more minutes”. Finally, I had to kick them out and tell them to come back tomorrow. By this time of course our toddler’s bedtime was shot and as a result we had a sleepless night. The next day the lock was finally fixed. While this can happen understandably at any place how it was dealt with it was nothing more than a comedy of errors. As other reviewers have commented, the beach was not very good. In conclusion, despite wanting to love this resort, Generations Rivera Maya was a letdown. As another guest commented to me while we were there, “At Generations they seem to say ‘No’ a lot”. Definitely not worth the added expense! We had a good week but next time we will give another resort a try.

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Beautiful resort

Pros - Food was very good with a wide variety , weather was excellent and staff were great . Cons - Kids everywhere and winds were high which meant kids couldn't use the beach so the pool was packed . There isn't really a adults only section on their resort unless you have a swim out room . I must stress that if you want a peaceful uninterrupted resort this isn't the one for you ( way to many kids )

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Beautiful resort best suited for families with kids

I recently returned from my trip to Punta Cana at the Sensatori Resort that was recommended for my boyfriend and I from a Trip Central agent. The resort and spa was beautiful, our room was fantastic. Grounds are clean and impeccable. Food was good/ok, I think I went in with higher expectations with this being the first time trying a Karisma Resort and hearing such great things about the food. The food presentation and the restaurants were beautiful. The resort does do a good job of catering to  [... read more]food allergies and intolerances. Breakfast buffet was always fantastic. The only disappointing news was that we did not realize that the Nickolodian and the sensatori resort shared the same amenities. I thought they were two separate resorts. For example, in the main global village where all the restaurants are located they often have bands playing at night and other activities in the main courtyard, there was always a lot of kids running around so If you wanted to dance to the music the band was playing, you were surrounded by kids.Even the beach bar at night would have parents with their kids hanging out requesting nonalcoholic drinks. The beach party on the beach mainly consisted of all kids dancing, so it felt weird to be one of very few couples dancing amongst children. The adults only pool is located directly in front of other guest rooms so it was not very inviting to hang out there. All in all, the resort was beautiful and we loved our room and balcony And had a great time. Staff and service was great but for a couple (early 40s) with no kids, I would not recommend the sensatori. It’s definitely better suited for families. I just thought that sharing this feedback with you might help in the future.

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Good family resort

The resort itself was stunning and the service was wonderful. If you do not want to be around a very large amount of small children during your vacation this resort won't be for you. If you are a family with small children, not many resorts will beat it as it is a Nickelodeon resort with a gigantic water park. Keep in mind that the main pool and all the restaurants except one are NOT adults only. Only your building will be adults only if you have requested it. The beach was beautiful b [... read more]ut short. We had a swim up room which was good the second week as the first week we were in building 7 and the sun never hits the swim up on that building and it was freezing. We changed to building 8 for the second week which was a great temperature as the sun shines on it all day. Being able to stay on our patio was wonderful (no children).

El Dorado Royale: Great relaxing vacation!

Just returned from the El Dorado Royale and had a fantastic vacation. The room was very spacious, although the open concept (including the bathroom) was a little awkward as there is little to no privacy. Even the closest of couples need some privacy. We stayed in a beachfront junior jacuzzi suite on the second floor and this provided for spectacular views of the ocean. The food (with the exception of the pizza) was fantastic and we enjoyed every meal. The only downside was breakfast where al [... read more]though there was one restaurant that offered a la carte choices, the resort mainly wanted you to select options from a buffet. I am not a fan of buffet, so this wasn't optimal for me.The beach, while beautiful is not really swimable. If you are looking for a beach that you can swim in the ocean, then this is likely not the right resort for you. They work hard to keep the sea weed cleared, but this seems to be a pointless task as it keeps coming all day long. There are also some sand bags and other obstacles that have been put into the water to prevent erosion which we were prepared for and have seen at other resorts. You can't blame a property owner from trying to protect the erosion of their land. The staff were extremely helpful and very friendly. We wanted for nothing. There is a concierge service that is shared between the residents of two buildings and they are somewhat helpful, but it seems their main role is to up sell you on services and try to get you to "tour” their property and sell you either future trips or club memberships. We didn't make too much use of the concierge as a result of this constant push to buy spa or other treatments.

El Dorado Royale: Think twice

Eldorado Royale The hotel catered to their members only and provided second rate services to those who did not join. The Japenese restaurant was not considered one of thier best restaurants but it was exemplary, the food and staff amazing! The 2 restaurants that needed reservations to go to were simply ok,not the best and really pushed an upsell for thier wines and tequilas. There was only one restaurant open for breakfast at the Royale from Monday to Thursday which made it hard to get in fo [... read more]r breakfast, and even harder to time it when there was food in the buffet. Very difficult to get decent coffee at any time unless you paid for Starbucks. The main pool had limited seating and it was hard to reserve seats unless you paid $200 per day for a Bali Bed. The beach was rocky and despite the workers working extremely hard to remove the extensive seaweed it was always dirty. The beach was definitely not swimmer friendly. The entertainment was great! The shows were amazing and Mexican night was one of the best! Jojos bar had late night dancing which Was extremely fun! But they always ran Out of grey goose vodka by 6 pm And substituted it with various low level vodkas. If you decide on this resort make sure you ask for an Ocean Front room? Otherwise you are stuck in the back of the resort. All In all I would rate this place at a 3.5. The staff I would rate at a 5!

Nickelodeon Hotel Punta Cana: Leaves somethings to be desired.

First of all, let me list the positives of this resort. It’s beautifully maintained with wonderfully modern features. The pool was close to the ocean and provided lots of fun times for the kids. The staff were amazing. Kind and happy, couldn’t ask for more there. The Nickelodeon theme wasn’t over the top in your face either which is nice HOWEVER 1. The food was mediocre at best. The fruit was mushy and overripe almost all of time. I’m a big veggie person, but Good luck finding cu [... read more]cumbers or any veggie other than salad really or over cooked broccoli. 2. My husband and friend got incredibly sick (like projectile vomiting for 6+ hours) after eating a pasta meat sauce that had been sitting for who knows how long. My husband had to go on antibiotics when we got home. On the last day we talked to multiple other people who got sick too. 3. The childcare is closed from 5-7pm - which is dinner time. my husband and I would of liked to have dinner alone 1 or 2 times. It’s open from 7-9 which is bedtime for many kids. Very strange. 4. The beds were uncomfortable and the sheets scratchy, which is pretty minor in the end. If my husband hadn’t been SO sick I would recommend this resort.

El Dorado Seaside Suites: Incredible Resort!

The rooms are fantastic, very big, great views from the upper floors and great water pressure in the shower. The food is amazing, always different options at the buffets, the a la carts have great service and incredible food. There are multiple different pools to swim in and the pool bar was always our favorite. The beach is not the greatest on the Infinity side but they continue to work on making it more accessible. The grounds are very well kept and there are always workers cleaning up and  [... read more]maintaining. The staff at the resort are incredible they are always saying hola and more than willing to accommodate your every need. We have been to this resort twice now and would highly recommend it!

El Dorado Seaside Suites: 7 out of 10

We had a wonderful time at this resort. The activity staff were welcoming, fun and good at their jobs. We loved them all. The food was okay and the service was usually good (but not always). We enjoyed the abundance of open sunbeds and loungers, we like their rule of not being able to tag your seat with a towel all day. The beaches were nice. We enjoyed watching the diving pelicans. Unfortunately, the room air conditioner and refrigerator were very noisy, we turned them off at night to sleep.

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Very relaxing resort

The resort was amazing and the staff were very helpful. The spa was wonderful, we went twice. Only compliant would be that the food at the buffets was not that great. The beach was nice and always lots of seat available.

El Dorado Seaside Suites: Unique Place

I would like to start by saying I am a simple man with simple needs...this resort is upscale in food and service to a point of me not being comfortable...very nice but too much for me...the food was like in there advertisement,gourmet...delicious and prepared wonderfully but at times all you might want is some plain old normal everyday food but if you are into all restaurant style meals with 4 and 5 courses served over an hour then this is your place...the bars make wonderful drinks and the bart [... read more]enders work non stop but almost always only 1 bartender at a time working which makes for long waits for a drink at times...the grounds are large but are lovely and well cared for making for nice leisurely walks but there are carts that will drive you if walking is a problem for you...the beach is not the best for any water sports but there is alot of lounges and Bali beds to get in the sun or the shade whichever you want...all the staff are great and will help with everything they can and are always happy to help...this may sound like a bit so great review but it is me just taking a long about way of saying it is a really nice place just a bit too fancy for me.

The Fives Beach Hotel and Residences Playa Del Carmen: Great. Not perfect

Service and food absolutely top notch. Entertainment non existent. Teen club not happening anymore which was a disappointment, as that's one of the main reasons we booked there. Not enough loungers...

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Perfection

So clean. Well kept. Amazing food and ample choices. Staff very helpful and friendly. Up to date decor and very upscale. Our stay was very relaxing. Comfortable and lots of fun. Will go again and recommend to others!

El Dorado Maroma: Outstanding food

Great resort! The service, the spa, the beach, the rooms, all top notch. The clientele was a little older then most resorts. The hotel is situated between to government reserve lands, so the beach isn’t busy but there is a public dock with water sports close by, so you do get a few kids wandering onto the hotels beach.

Selection Riviera Cancun: One of our Favourites!

This is a smaller, walk-able resort. Easy to get around the beautiful grounds and to the wonderful restaurants. All the staff are friendly, helpful and seem proud of their jobs, which we find very refreshing. It is a family resort and it was nice to hear the children playing and having a good time. When you walk into the front entrance, the aroma coming from the spa is immediately relaxing. The wind was blowing in lots of kelp to the beach but the resort works tirelessly to keep it managea [... read more]ble. We spent all our time in the pools anyway and the staff keep them very clean. We would recommend that the young party people remember there are children about during the day and might perhaps chose an adult only resort if they have a day/night party focus. Again, thanks to the staff for keeping it enjoyable for everyone.

Sensatori Resort Punta Cana: Great Resort for Families!

SENSATORI and Nickelodeon share a property, although there are sufficient “Adult Only” restaurants, bars and pools, the resort is primarily geared towards kids and families-that being said, what a fantastic job they do at catering to families. From the moment we arrived, we were catered to. Stools in the room, and at all washrooms to aid in hand washing, strollers, baby monitors, daycare, activities, everything they offer are to help make everyone’s stay more enjoyable. The rooms wer [... read more]e comfortable and sophisticated, the restaurant were clean and offered hand sanitizer at every entrance, the beaches were wavy, but swimable, the food was delicious and presented well. All in all, we would return. The only downside was there is a distinguished hierarchy or guests; Sensatori, Nickelodeon, Premium and Prestige are all treated a tad differently, but we weren’t too fussed. Sun and sand is what we came for, after all. Thank you TripCentral for making our trip easy to book, and offering the prepaid card to help with hotel and parking! We would certainly use your booking site again!