My boyfriend and I stayed at this resort for 9 nights and 10 days! I’d highly recommend staying here but it does have its pros and cons depending on what you are looking for. The grounds are absolutely beautiful and the staff are ALWAYS working so hard. The room we stayed in was fairly dated and our air conditioner was leaking all the time but besides that it was cleaned daily. The resort Is fairly large but there are little shuttles that are always going by so you can grab one, and walking fr[... read more]om one end to the other would maybe take 10 mins max if you have a far away building from the beach. As for the buffets we weren’t very pleased with them but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. I would highly suggest making sure to book your a la carte a day prior , we really enjoyed those.. they were so yummy and we really looked forward to trying a new one every night. On Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day they have a lot of great shows and events going on!! There is always something going on here you won’t get bored!
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Private -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Not that great
The beach front was very dirty and not well kept.. There was nowhere to snorkel out front, due to the bad visibility..And when Becky hurt her hip and was unable to go on the excursion, the kept the whole $130 American she paid to them... 👿 Not impressed with this place at all...
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Private -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Great food, friendly staff, not-so-great beach
The hotel grounds are very well maintained, the rooms are clean and the resort is very beautiful. The staff is also very friendly and respond to issues promptly (we had a leak due to excessive rain, and they were very accommodating, helping us switch rooms). The food is probably the best that I've had on all inclusive resorts with this level of rating (4 star hotel). They had 6 a la carte restaurants, and 2 buffets (one was closed) and the food was tasty with a good variety. The only thing that [... read more]I did not like is the beach which is probably the worst I've seen thus far. It is a nice beach in the sense that it is scenic and very pretty, but the water is murky and there are LOTS of broken sea shells all along the beach, so you are not walking on sand, you are walking on sea shells (can't really walk along the beach barefoot). However, their pool is very nice, so we still had a good time and enjoyed being in the water. If going into the sea water and a nice sandy beach are important to you, I would recommend looking into another resort. The beach is the only negative about this resort though, it was great on all other aspects!
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Ross -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: great place
This hotel is beautiful,rooms were nice and big and clean,pools were clean and warm,very friendly staff,the food was plenty and good, the La carte steak house was fantastic would recommend this resort.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Kelly -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Diamond Luxury Boutique Hotel: Incredible Luxury!
We just came back from Blue Diamond Resort and had a lovely time. The grounds are beautiful. A ton of wildlife...peacocks, a type of raccoon and monkeys! The rooms are absolutely gorgeous and huge. The mini fridge is stocked everyday.
The food is ordered by menu for every meal which we loved. The food is fresh, varied and delicious. The staff is very friendly and attentive.
We travel a lot and I would consider this one of the top places we have stayed.
My mother is going back in 3 month[... read more]s!
I think I will be back next year as well.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Private -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Nice Resort
The resort is just the perfect size, with lots of quiet areas, as well as enough activities to keep you busy if you want to be. The rooms were clean (though getting run down and not fancy) and the staff were lovely and fun.
Caution about ordering items from the a la carte restaurants (those that cost extra). If the food is not cooked well (in my case a burned $32 USD lobster), they will not refund you or make it right (i.e. prepare it again or offer something else). I took my complaint to [... read more]the Customer Service Manager, who said "no one else complained so we won't refund the money or let you eat there free". That was disappointing.
When we arrived (my daughter and I who share the same last name) they put us in a King Bed suite (we had Platinum VIP). We had to wait till 7 p.m. the next night to get switched to a double room (after being told 5 p.m., then 6, then 7). The room was ok - it had a terrace, but it was not as nice as the other room. I also had to go ask for our free bottle of rum (which was supposed to be in our room along with a welcome fruit plate (we never got that). But it was delivered eventually.
The beach was lovely - lots of day beds and chaise lounges. The food was excellent in the buffet and (other than the lobster dinner) the a la carte restaurants. Staff was amazing and personable!
Overall a great 10 days. I would go back again for sure!
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Josephine -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Blue bay esmeralda
It certainly was not the best hotel I stayed in. We had to have staff spray for ants or bugs. Food was pretty good. Towels could have been softer. Did not like the critters walking around that much.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Kass12 -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Great trip!
The hotel was nice, rooms need some updating. Having a quiet pool was great. Merchants continuously asking for you to buy things on the beach made the beach area not enjoyable. Overall was a good resort for relaxing week.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Private -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Blue Bay Villas
The resort itself is nice but do not expect much. Some days housing cleaning would not come unless we called. We were constantly harassed by hotel employees to join their “vip circle one†after numerous times telling them we weren’t interested. When you would go to the beach you were attacked by the beach sellers to buy their stuff/excursions. Not in anyway could we enjoy being at the beach unless we were in the water. Security would not do anything either. Bar service was subpar, even if [... read more]you were the only person standing at the bar the employees would not acknowledge you.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Queenie -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: 5th time
First off this was our fifth time at Blue Bay we absolutely love it.
They have completely redone the large pool at the ocean fantastik job.They are in the process of redoing the small pool and I cant wait to see the job finished when we return.
Food was great room clean as always.Service outstanding as always.
We cannot wait to return in november 2020.
Never disappoints
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Mama Donna -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda
We were very pleased with our room. Very Clean and had some pretty cool animals on our bed everyday😊
The resort looks even more amazing since they completed the renovations at the big pool.
Staff were very friendly!
This was our second time at this resort and it was just as great the second time around.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Keats -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Worth Every Penny
The resort is small in size, but it makes up for it in service, and the beach. The staff are amazing, accommodating, and they make you feel like family. The beach was the best part; clean, and relaxing
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Deb -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Amazing
This was our 3rd time at the blue bay Esmeralda . Everything was perfect we got the rooms that we requested . The staff at the resort are fantastic and go above and beyond to get everything you need. Food very good . Pool great, beach very clean . All in all great time was had by all the family!
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Arismel -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Good hotel
The public areas is good, restaurants good, the rooms need renovation,
The beach is terrible.
In conclusion is a good hotel with a good service persons, and a terrible beach.
Oh I forget, really love the care of the hotel have wit the nature.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Donna 65 -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Great time
Front desk staff was fast and pleasant Maria and Lorelei at the swim up bar were great. Waldo and Julio with the entertainment staff was funny and a pleasure to be around. The food was good I just think that if they are going to close something down then it should be the a la carte not the buffets, guest should be given the chose not told they have to have seafood or Japanese. The hotel rooms are nice but housekeeping never once refill our fridge we had to go ask for water. Over all great tr[... read more]ip
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
KKWW16 -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda
A little background first. We are a family of four, with a 5 year old and a 3 year old. We have been to 3 All Inclusives before, two in Riviera Maya & one in Punta Cana.
We stayed at Blue Bay for 7 nights, 8 days.
THE ROOM
We were put in block 6, 4th floor (top floor) Garden View.
On Sunday(arrival day) the shower drain was clogged and the water wouldn't drain so we went up to the lobby to get maintence to fix it. They sent someone to plunge the drain, problem solved.
On Monday, th[... read more]eir was a downpour, which started leaking from the ceiling into our room onto the headboard/pillows/mattress. When we reported it, they informed us we could not stay in the room and would have to be moved. So we were moved down to the second floor. Whole process took about an hour.
On Tuesday, we headed back to our room around 9pm at night with our kids who were tired and hot, only to discover neither of our room keys would open the door. My husband had to go down to the conciege desk to call up to the lobby to report the issue, who sent a bellboy with new keys, but that didn't work so we had to wait for the security guard to show up and let us in. This took about 20 mins. Asked for 30 mins to get our kids ready for bed before they come back to fix the door issue. When all was said and done, the door issue took about 1hr 5mins.
On Wednesday they came to fix our mini fridge as it wasn't cold which we had mentioned on Tuesday night during the whole door issue.
After this their were no issues with our room. I will mention though that both rooms had, were defintely in need of a update.
Housekeeping was great though and I did actually see them moving furniture around to clean behind and under the big items. Knowing the room was at least clean, we were able to handle the dated items.
THE BEACH
No seaweed but you do have to walk through a thick line of broken shells before the soft sand. As well, the shells are there when first entering the water too. Nothing the resort could do about this though, that's just nature. If you bring water shoes, you should be fine. The kids loved looking for different shells :) We met a travel agent while walking on the beach who told us Blue Bay usually has the nicest beach around but there has been alot of erosion lately which shows. We ended up spending most of our time at the main pool.
THE POOL
Being the off season, half of the main pool by the beach was closed for renovations, not a huge deal as their were plenty of chairs around the pool that was open. The part that was open was very nice and had shallow areas for the kids to be able to stand up and splash around.
THE SPA
My husband had a pedicure and I had a chocolate wrap. Unfortunetly, I didn't get too far into the spa to look around as my service was being done in another building. Turns out, it was just a random room in my own building block #6 (closest block to the spa) set up with music & 2 massage beds. My husband & I love doing hydrotherpay circuts & we got an email about 3 weeks before travel saying the Spa was under renovations so we couldn't partake in that particular activity. So not sure if the wrap was done in a regular room because of renovations or if that is the actual regular spot. So that was pretty disappointing. The wrap itself was nice, though not convinced it was worth $90USD. My husband says the pedicure was "good" lol.
THE FOOD
Typical fare at All Inclusives. The dinner buffet is themed differently each night, Italian, Oriental, Mexican etc. Tried 3 a La cartes. The Steakhouse, The French & the Oriental.
The Steakhouse
When we booked this restaurant we were shown on the map where it was, at the restaurant down by the beach. Get down there and nope, "not here, don't know where" was the response we received from one guy, the only unfriendly/unhelpful staff member the whole trip. We eventually managed to find out that it was back up at the top of the resort in the Mexican restaurant. I guess in the off season, they don't utilize all the restaurants, and some will share double duty as a La cartes. As we were already late for our 6pm reservation, we couldn't wait for the little tram to come around to take us back up so we had to walk, in full dinner clothes, heels, and our 3 year old. We were very hot & sweaty by the time we made it to dinner. The saving grace here was the food and the waiter, Alfredo who was amazing!
The French
Definetley recommend dining here if you get the chance, food was great, atmosphere was great and our server Wendy was great! Hands down the best service we got all trip! Wendy deserves a promotion, raise, recognition, something, absolutely the best!
THE STAFF
Amazing! Very friendly, (other than the one guy at the beach Steakhouse.) Everyone was very good with our boys too, high fives, fist bumps, 1 waiter even made our eldest a locust out of palm fronds during lunch one day.
THE ENTERTAINMENT
Shows were good. There was a different show each night of the week. They start at 930pm which is a little late in my opinion. Would be nice if they could move them up to 9pm for the littler kids.
Circus show on Monday night was great but no live animals, more acrobatic performances.
Saw the Peter Pan show on Thursday night, only stayed about 20 mins or so as our 5 year old wasn't feeling well and our 3 year old was scared of the loud noises & flashing lights.
Saw the Grease show on Friday night, only watched about half as my 5 year was bored & wanted to leave but I loved what I did get to see!
THE GROUNDS
Bring mosquito spray!!! Lovely grounds but it is a very long walk to the beach/main pool and this resort is in the middle of mangroves/swamps. Could use more lighting along the paths at night. I'm serious about the mosquito spray, my kids were covered in bites and I was spraying them everynight before we left the room to go to dinner.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
We have yet to return to the same resort twice as we like to discover new things, but if we ever did, we would not do a repeat of Blue Bay & don't feel like we could recommend it to anyone. This was our first trip in 6 years and our kids first trip ever and though they don't know any different (they just loved swimming everyday) we were pretty dissappointed. I had to keep reminding myself, that at least I was on vacation and that was better than being back at home working:)
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Greg DaCosta -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Had a great time..
First off. The food is amazing here.Buffet an especially the el a carts. Steak house and Italian WOW.. Rooms are getting a bit dated but all and all we have a wonderful time with the exceptional staff.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Janine -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Not recommended
This is our 3rd time in Mexico. We've been to Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and now here. While we love Playa Del Carmen, we would never stay at this hotel again. This is definitely not a 4 star hotel and we are easy going not high - maintenance people.
To begin, as soon as you check in, the time share reps swarm you like bees. In the end, we agreed to go to a stupid meeting only because we got $200 in resort credits which we used to buy the Coco Bongo excursion. (can only be purchased through you[... read more]r flight rep ie:Air Canada rep at the hotel, not the club reps by the pool)
The food:
Buffets were good. Steak house was good. Mexican restaurant was terrible. Shout out to Augustine in the breakfast restaurant by the pool. The only server that seemed to have genuine conversations with the guests.
The room:
Had cockroaches in ours. Absolutely disgusting!
The entertainment:
Tuesday evenings they have vendors on site selling their "handmade goods". You can find it cheaper at their Walmart!
The evening shows we're ok. It's so hot where they do the shows that it was usually unbearable to sit and watch.
Nightlife :
We're in our 30's and nightlife is non-existent here. So boring after the shows are done. They have a "beach party" from 11pm til 1am but it's super boring and you can barely hear the music.
The pool:
Our cousin sliced his foot open in the pool. The staff didn't care.
The beach:
What beach? It's dirty brown and closed off,not to mention it stinks like an outhouse. Ten minute walk to the left takes you to a lagoon. 10 minutes to the right takes you to the beach in front of other hotels.
Other points to mention:
It costs $375 pesos to take a taxi into Playa del Carmen or $25 USD. Coming back you can pay about $20 USD. The resort offers a bus to take you into town and back at set times for $5per person. It conveniently drops you off in the back of a jewelry store that you have to walk through.
We love Mexico but would never recommend this hotel or come back here.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Karissa -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Questionable Place
This hotel was questionable, there were wanting to sell you time shares as soon as your arrive. The front desk staff were horrible, we arrived 10:30 am tried at 1 pm were told our room wouldn't be ready until 3 pm. Came back at 3 pm only to be told our room wouldn't be ready until 4 pm. The front desk didn't care to accommodate at all considering we were the first group checking into the hotel that day. When it came to the grounds staff they were amazing.The rooms are very damp that your clothe[... read more]s in the rooms get moldy. There is an infestation of there raccoons to the point that they were jumping up on tables stealing patrons food. When we had booked our trip it would have been nice to have been informed that you were not able to swim in the waters due to the fact that they are land filling to extend the beach further into the ocean. Due to the fact we couldn't swim in the beaches we stayed in the pool, where my fiance his foot on broken tiles at the bottom of the pool. Trying to get band aids is just like to trying to get bottles of water VERY hard to get. The food was good at all the restaurants. If you are looking for a quiet hotel that has nothing to do in the night this is the place for you.
Location
Value
Food
Beach
Rooms
Service
Helpful?
Report
Zaed -
Verified Purchaser
Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Blue bay villa Dorados
In general the stay was good food has been limited varites the resort has big issues with washroom in the room there's not enough spare for more than one person they should improve the layout they staff are friendly only few days we had buffet dinner.