Amazing Family Trip!

We traveled January 17-24 with extended family...a group of 14 in all. We had four rooms in all, three luxury junior suites, and because we have six in our own family, we upgraded to a family suite. The three regular rooms were all nice, but had a view of the mangrove...they were quiet though. The family section of rooms was not yet open when we were there, so we were put in a one bedroom presidential suite, which was great! It had two bathrooms, a living and dining area, and a very large separa [... read more]te bedroom. It overlooked the Diamond Club pools and had a pretty good view of the ocean as well. A definite upgrade! I don't know why the usual max occupancy for that room type is only 4, it's much bigger then the family suites...I would like to be able to book that room type in the future for our family of six instead of the the family suite. The hotel is beautiful! There are so many pools to choose from, some heated, others not, and a huge splash area for the kids! I think all of the pools with swim up bars are heated, and in the afternoon, the kids loved going to the one in the family section to get a Shirley Temple or virgin mango daiquiri. The pools never felt crowded, and there were always fresh towels. While we were there, anyone could swim in the Diamond Club pools. Since our room overlooked them, I noticed several people with regular Royalton wrist bands swimming there. We never used them, there was no need....too many other choices. I can see how it would bother those who paid a significant amount more to have an exclusive area though. The beach is beautiful! Wonderful sand. The water was crystal clear for four of the days, a little murky for two, and on the day we left it was pretty full of seaweed. They really do a good job of cleaning it up though. The kids went paddle boarding one day, it was easy to sign out the equipment...there were lots of other options as well. It was $3 for a wrist band that is good for the whole stay. All in all we were pretty happy, we're mostly pool people though. The restaurants were amazing!!! So many options and all delicious. The buffet was great for breakfast, lunch and dinner....they even have a little kids area with lower counters so they can serve themselves. So many made to order stations at each meal time and great desserts...ice ream too! We loved the Tex-Mex and Italian for lunch...awesome fish tacos and pizza We also tried the Beach Grill for lunch, it was the first day they were open, so it was a little slow, but delicious burgers! The Greek restaurant and the steakhouse were good, and the show at Zen was great..food was okay. We didn't try the authentic Mexican place or just the regular sushi at Zen. All in all, the restaurants were great! We were a large group, and although we had to sit at two tables, other then at the buffet, we never had to wait longer then five minutes for a table. We did go for dinner right at six though, opening time, and we did notice as we left each night, that they were getting pretty busy. There are cracks, missing pool tiles, and some construction going on. They are fixing it, and I must say, it never once took away from our experience. They set up little tents around the work areas, and are not too loud for the most part. I do think the people who were here in December had a rough go of it. I was pretty nervous about our trip in mid-Jan, but it really was great! Anyone headed there now should relax and get ready to have a good time. There will always be negative people out there, but it really is a nice place, and the the staff couldn't be nicer...except for the front desk, they have some work to do. We had a great time and are planning to come back next January, can't wait!

Fantastic Resort

Everyone who posts a negative to this resort doesn't travel very much. It could be that they are very fussy. It could be they have nothing better to do then complain. People need to relax and enjoy their holidays. Ive been to many places good and bad. We were in Cuba last November and couldn't wait to get home. This place allows you the want to stay and come back. The people are amazing. Starting with our friend Victor who serves around the pool or on the beach. Look for him he will take amazing [... read more] care of you. We couldn't get a drink finished and another one was in our hands. Head into the restaurants. yes sometimes there is a little wait. At home when you go to a good restaurant your waiting. Its night time. Who's in a hurry to eat anyways?? Unless your a complainer and need something to complain about. Stop by the Hunter restaurant and ask for Christian. Very good server. Always smiling. Many restaurants ti choose from and in our 9 days we tried them all. All exceptional. Drinks were all premium which is a good thing for those who crave their brand of cocktail while travelling. After your day of cocktails and eating the room are way above the Mexican standard for this area. Well done Royalton. Ive now installed a rain shower in our house because my wife loved the way it was. Always loved the mornings. We were in a swimsuit room. Kids got up and went for a swim in the swim out pool. Water was a little warmer then the pools. Beach was fantastic. Yes there was some seaweed that washes up on shore when its windy but please its nature. Not Royaltons fault. The beach is so big who cares. They clean it all the time. Didn't stop myself and the kids from throwing the football around in the water. After our throwing of the football Victor was always there with a drink for us. Alcohol or non alcohol he knew what we wanted. Cheers to Victor. The only thing that Royalton needs to do is to add some bathrooms by the pools so there is a place to go after drinking those cocktails. If your wavering on this place please don't. One of the best in the Myan if not the best. Go know while it cheap and take advantage of it. Bravo Colin and Stephen Hunter love what you have done. Please try and get some Canadian feed into the spots lounge. Love to watch a Raptors or Leafs game from the bar. Last thing is the drive from the airport. We stayed at Dream Tulum last year. 2 hour drive. Royalton was 22 minutes from airport to their front door. Forget about the 11 minute drive in from the highway. Sit back and have a corona enjoy your trip.

EPIC!

Been home for a few days now and cannot wait to go back, bit first we need to loose the weight we gained. We loved pretty much everything, the food was amazing even in the buffet. Our room was perfect and the wife loved the jaccuzi tub, the beds are awesome and struggled every morning to get out, the dual rain head shower was great to speed up getting on with our day. There is a bit of repairs going on but never let it interfere with our stay. The booze selection at the resort is amazing we are [... read more] not hard alcohol drinkers but the quality was great and indulged a little too much. Make sure you go see Luis at martini he is great, and took care of us on most nights. We would go back in a second, we dressed up most nights and did an a la carte then enjoyed drinks then shut down the night club.

Awesome New Resort!

This was our first time to a Royalton resort, and we had a GREAT TIME!!!! It was newly opened a month before our arrival, so we knew to expect a few hiccups, but you get that with anything new, you just gotta be realistic! We were upgraded to the Hideaway section, which was nice. We never got a swim-up room or jacuzzi on the balcony (we had a swamp view) with the ocean to the one side - BUT having this less than desirable room, we were able to get late check out until 6pm, no problem! (Others w [... read more]ith swim-up rooms etc couldn't because their rooms were already booked for 3pm check in!) The food was amazing! EVERYONE gained 5-10lbs! We were all on the bus going to the airport comparing how many pounds each person gained - we were gonna have a contest! (the resort really needs to start selling sweat pants at the shops for people to wear home!!) The best a la carte for me was OPA! We never went to ZEN, Armadillio or Grazie - but went to the Hunter Steahouse, OPA (twice), Agave and Dorado (the Hideaway restaurant). The buffet was huge and had amazing food as well! There was nothing bad there at all to eat! Everything we ate (from the pizza to the eggs) was amazing! The good thing was that if you couldn't make all the a la carte restaurants, you could go to them for lunch! We tried going to Grazie (Italian) for lunch one day but they messed up our order and we never got our food for like 2 hours, so we just went to the buffet.(No big deal because that can easily happen at home too!) The rooms were awesome!!!! The shower had two rain heads and the jacuzzi tub was divine! The bed, comforter and pillows were super comfortable - it was an overall amazing room! They always stocked it with water, many, many towels and beer, pop and chips! The TV had some great channels too. (HBO, AMC etc...) They also had turn down service, where they came in again at night to tidy up your room. It was all very luxurious, the rooms and the service! There are workers working round the clock on the various stuff around the resort - the cracks in the concrete, tiles falling off in the pool, etc....but it's a new resort and there are growing pains. None of this stuff really bothered us - at least they are fixing the issues! They set up white tents for the areas they were working on so it was covered up and no one got dust or anything one them. But the workers must have been super hot!!!Again, it didn't bother us! The beach is OK - but that's because we just came back from Cuba! It's not as teal and clear at all, but we went in a couple days. The beach has nice sand - lots of seaweed - but they work to get that cleared asap. It's a problem across the coast, not the resort's fault about all the seaweed:) There are lots of chairs and ottomans, and they have servers on the beach and really cool beach bars! There are many pools....I like the Hideaway pool best! The bartender at that swim-up bar was making awesome shots for all of us, they are very creative and have fun when making drinks and shots there! There are lots of servers around the various pools ready to take your order. They have bottles of water everywhere - each bar has them whenever you want water! Very handy!! They have towel stations, so you get a new towel everyday at the towel stations and leave your towel at the end of the day in the USED TOWELS containers they have around the pools/beach area. Very nice not to have to worry about your beach towels all week. The resort uses top shelf booze - Grey Goose, Crown Royal, Don Juan tequila etc....and they were not using it sparingly!! We had a lot of tequila! At the AGAVE a la carte restaurant, they have tequila shots for after-dinner drinks! It's very fun there! All the a la carte restaurants are beautifully decorated! We went to the Disco a lot too. Once the Martini Mix bar closed, people would travel upstairs where the disco and sports bar was. The Sports bar was open all night and served food too. Ask for Cesar at the sports bar - he is a great bartender! Ask for Luis at the Martini Mix bar - he always makes fun and exciting drinks! There's also a cute coffee and pastry shop near the resort shops and Nexus tours office. It looks like a regular coffee shop, I thought we had to pay! The cappuccino's and chocolate croissants were awesome! (all the pastries were tasty!) We were going to go on the free Nexus shopping tour - but it involved going to a jewelry factory for 45-minutes to listen to a whole speel, then you can go to the mall across the road. We heard from other tours that they can be pretty ruthless with making you buy something, so we opted out. There was also a $31 shopping tour in Cancun, but it was booked up and we weren't too interested in going to Cancun. SO we got a taxi and went ourselves to Puerto Morelos, a cute little fishing town with shopping and restaurants. We ate lunch at La Panza, a cute place on the beach with amazing food at great prices! There's a cool snorkeling & fishing place there in town that only costs $25 for 50-minutes owned by Mario and his wife Natasha. The taxi prices from the resort are very pricey! They could be cheaper then more people would probably go out more on their own. It was $40 one way - $80 round trip - and the guy waits 3 hours there for you. (There's no way you can walk to the road and take the bus because the resort is built so far back - it takes employees 35 minutes to walk to entrance way!) Another day we went to tour Playa Del Carmen ($100 - round trip and he waits 3 hours). It was too commercialized for us so we went back to Puerto Morelos for lunch again at La Panza on the beach!! Both our taxi guys were great, helpful and courteous.! We had Angel Arreaga the 2nd time. Overall, FANTASTIC time and we'd LOVE to go back one day! (HIGHLY recommend this resort!!)

Beautiful 5 star resort

One of the best resorts we have been to. Think entertainment could be better and more seating for shows. Stage to far away. Steaks in the Hunter Restaurant were good but room was very noisy and felt rushed. Liked that you didn't need reservations and no limits. Liked the choice of good quality liquor. Beach chairs. Uncomfortable. Need pads.

Going to be great!

New resort, just opened. The design, amenities, atmosphere all satisfy a discerning standard for a 5-star all-inclusive resort. The food was great but not amazing - choice was exceptional. The rooms were impressive - beds comfortable, showers huge! + Gym/spa/tennis (3 artificial grass and sand courts), gelato/cappuccino and retail shops, sophisticated bars and the lobby lounge. - Hideaway pools feel too enclosed, significant settling of all the concrete paving areas throughout the resort means t [... read more]hey will be working on repairs for some time (seems like quality was sacrificed in a race to complete) - will band-aid solutions suffice or will a major reconstruction be required during the low season? This construction activity was noticeable but not a nuisance. The pools and buildings are not suffering from the same settlement issues.

Great Resort

Everything was great, they still working on some stuff as the hotel is brand new, but their staff is so excellent and everything else is so very amazing! The restaurants had a great selection of food.!

Fantastic Place, Fantastic Price !

With not much else to compare to other than a "5 Star" resort in Cuba from a few years ago we were very impressed. We went to this resort just two weeks or so after their 'soft opening' and arrived the day after their official Grand opening. As it is a brand new resort it still has some things that need to be finished, and some things that need to be fixed, but they are shortening their to-do list on a daily basis. The room we got was incredible...very luxurious although it also has a small list [... read more] of things that needed to be tweaked and repaired to make it perfect, there was nothing we found that was a deal breaker. The staff everywhere on the resort were very friendly and helpful, and the food was tremendous at all of the restaurants and the buffet as well. Thankfully all of the guest rooms are not yet complete so they couldn't fill it to capacity which meant lots of room around the pools during the day and generally easy to find somewhere to sit and lounge before, during, and after the evening shows. All in all we were very impressed and wouldn't hesitate to recommend this resort.

Good resort but teething problems

Large luxurious facility with very courteous staff. Well organized in terms of entertainment, rooms, restaurants - service at times is very slow possibly due to staffing issues. Pools are good and well maintained Weeds in water all along the beach but consistent efforts to clean. All restaurants are not yet open but Ok for week long stay - could be boring for a longer duration.

Growing Pains

Beautiful property with excellent staff but not yet ready for travellers. I would give it at least 6 months before trying it out. Currently value for money is not there but certainly has the potential in the future.