Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: beautiful property

The grounds were lovely and very well maintained. There were people on the job 24 hrs a day. Although many of the staff didn't speak English (there were multi-language guests so you can't expect all to speak your particular language) , all staff you happened upon always had an HOLA & a smile. We were in OXMAL 4123. Miguel was our housekeeping. He is fabulous! Everything was clean and tidy. He didn't take any short cuts. We saw the difference when he had a day off. Not hat his replacement  [... read more]did bad job, Miguel just does a better job. Gracious Miguel! Concierge - Mauricio & Fernanda deserve special mention as they go beyond their duty to assist. Both are an asset to the resort or any of your other resorts. Gracious to both! The Buffet by the Lobby - Gilbert, Santiago, Alberta & Angel made eating at the Buffet very fun. Their happy spirit was infectious & the make you feel so important & valued. We dined in all restaurants but this team were the best! Gracious to all of them.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Nice resort

I loved the beach and great if you like to go for walks. Overall was good The staff was very nice and hard workers I liked the water show and the bubbles pool part was fun there is a casino close by lots of shopping at the mall and on the beach and if you said not interested the workers would just keep going not pussy great tours to go on wifi in the lobby

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Looked fresh and clean pictures but....

Rooms looked great in pictures but old and needed more up keep structurally. House keeping were doing a great job working with what they had. The grounds were okay and public areas. Meals were great and flavourable at the buffet. All staff were accommodating. Beach area needs cleaning up with all the smokers that were on the beach. The evening entertainment was pretty sad, could get rid of the show and just have dancing in the evening

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: You get what you pay for.

TripCentral emailed asking for this review, but honestly I probably would of wrote it either way. Officially my first review to give some context, but I was motivated to at least inform potential guests either way. I'll ramble for sure, but hopefully it is useful. First and mainly, this resort is O-K. Not great, not terrible. I read dozens of reviews prior to my trip and there were plenty of both. Here's whats true imo: - The beach is awful. There is a lagoon about a km down you can wal [... read more]k to, but its not great for swimming. If you want to tan there are plenty of chairs, great. If you want to swim, hard no. Pool, or excursion. I highly recommend Xel-Ha. -The rooms do smell musty. Some worse than others. Our first room was awful, but one phone call, 10 mins and we were moved. The second room was noticeably better, but the A/C does have a musty smell. Credit to the service team here for quickly moving us. I can easily see why reviews can go off the rails here. You get what you pay for. -The resort is old. It is worn in many places, but is kept very clean. The grounds, rooms, pools, restaurants are all very clean. We saw plenty of staff working to clean all of these areas regularly. You get what you pay for. -The sewer smell is real, but its not sewage. You can be educated on this if you need to be. Its not overpowering, but its there occasionally. It never ruined any of our experience. -The buffet is nice. The restaurants were OK. Steakhouse and Mexican were good. Italian, Seafood and French, were not. It was simple to book through a concierge and were never turned away as we booked in the morning the day prior. -The Pools are great, probably the best part of this resort. They are old, and there are tiles needing repair. But we did see workers attending to this almost every morning. -Drinks are o-k. If you want premium booze, you will need to ask for it. Otherwise no name well shots used in most drinks. Our room was also restocked daily with beer, pop, water and we were given a free bottle of tequila on day 1. - Free activities - not much going on... at all. There is options for pay to play jet-skis and excursions. Some worth it, some not at all. Even less going on at night. Black and White bar is ....a resort bar. There was a market three nights until midnight with local vendors. Prices were...eh..touristy. - The nightly shows are O-K. Some of them were pretty entertaining, just dont expect Broadway. You get what you pay for. - The sales pitch. You WILL be harassed. You will have a BEST FRIEND until you attend one of the sessions. Personally I went just to see what it was about, but you can tell them to take a hike. We were given 200.00 toward excursions for 2.5hrs of chat. So take that for what its worth. I went, I learned, I passed. I still got the 200.00. Once you do go and say no, you will never see your best friend again. You will still be approached regularly by others. In short, cleanliness, the food is OK, and the pools are big and nice to hang around. The bad I have outlined above. Mostly that its an older resort, not a bad value if you get it on the cheap and that the beach is basically non-existent. The the main point is that you get what you pay for. This is an OK resort, but I would never pay a dime more than I did to go here and I doubt I will ever go back. I paid about 1400.00 CAN and had a nice time. I dont feel burned. If a friend asked, I would tell them to spend a couple hundred more, to go to a much nicer resort.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: You get what you pay for

I do not generally write reviews, and relise everyone has their on opion but I feel people need to be aware of this resorts star rating. Blue Bay Villas would have been a excellent resort at some point. The resort is a far cry from any other 4.5/4 star resorts we have been to. Though the staff is friendly, I would not say exceptional. The facilities themselves are very well laid out, the beach is fine and the rooms are big enough. HOWEVER, apon arival we were given a very dark, dirty well worn r [... read more]oom I would expect from a 2 star resort. We had to pay $140 cash to upgrade to a room I felt comfortable enough in to unpack, but once again maybe 3 star worthy. The pool for me was the biggest disappointment. It was Dirty, we are not talking a few leaves dirty we are talking clumps of hair, white goo that sticks to your swim suit, greasy build up that sits on the water and makes you need to drink more in order to get into it. The food was nothing to write home and the selection was lacking (very little variety between day to day) however was a notch above cuba and no one got sick or gained weight! The entire resort needs a good renovation. The pool is missing alot of tiles, pool deck is in bad repair with lots of broken or tiles popping up when you walk on them. The room furniture is what you expect from a well worn motel and the general cleaniness just seems to be lacking. BUT, you get what you pay for and this was a cheap vacation. I do highly suggest the star rating for this hotel be reviewed.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: good resort horrible beach

hotel was great clean great view of ocean, fridge always stocked, the odd time through out the resort there was a septic smell, grounds were very pretty and well kept up. food was great too. lots of walking but we didn't mind it helped work off all the eating and drinking. the gym was also pretty good. Rooms were average size but always clean. bugs love my husband and this time he only had a few bites. Now my biggest complain was the beach....Seaweed was terrible, I mean terrible, piles everywhe [... read more]re and water was dark and murky from the seaweed being turned up, I didn't go in, if only they kept up on it maybe it wouldn't looked as bad, it was a small beach so it seemed worse maybe, so that was a disappointment if you are a pool person then having a crappy beach may not bug you as much. I probably wont go back but will try another resort in that area.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: 2nd time around just as good as the 1st

This was our 2nd time at the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda. It was just as good as the 1st. Staff were very good, rooms were very clean. We had room service one evening and that was just as good. We plan on returning next year!

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Great Resort

Not a place to visit alone better for couples or families stayed in block 8 very compfortable Great entertainment Cab to 5th ave 370 pesos Shuttle from hotel 80 peso per person There is a variety of foods Rating 1-10 Mexican favorite 9 Steakhouse good 8 Seafood poor 1 Italian fair 4 Chinese fair 5 French didnt make it there Pool by beach our favorite plenty of activities poolside Left maid service small gift on pillow daily as a token of appreciation

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Great people!

What really made this trip memorable was the amazing people. The employees At BlueBlay were so friendly and always a smile on their faces. From nightly shows to general pool games and entertainment, they really made our vacation that much more fun. Also, the staff in the buffet were welcoming and remembered our faces every time we walked in for a meal.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Great value for your money

This is my third time to this resort in 5 years. I come back to this resort because I think it is good value for the money, however, you need to set your expectations, as it's really more like a 3 star resort in my opinion. Pros: beach is clean & you can walk a long way, food is decent...lots of selection, resort is small so you can walk everywhere & it's easy to meet new people, 3 pools 1 being a quiet pool. Staff are hardworking & friendly. Cons: this resort is dated & needs some mai [... read more]ntenance, but it's clean. There is a lobby bar but it's a cash bar. Everyone complains about this, but they don't change it. No one wants to pay for booze at an all inclusive. Improvements: you can now get wifi in a couple of spots on the resort, but it seems to be word of mouth thing to get the password. The Circle One timeshare people were far less aggressive then they have been in the past. What to bring: box of Kleenex and your own hangers, they have some but limited dressers. I will definitely return to this resort.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Very good resort

Nice quaint resort, grounds well kept, rooms a bit outdated, very clean, management very eager to accomodate. Mr Guerro looked after us very well at front desk, beach was great, lots of shade, specialty restaurants good, could always find something to eat at buffet. Bartender Emmanual was very accommodating. Annamation crew fun and lots to do, Veronica was friendly and always interacting with us. Would definitely put on list for a return visit.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Good value but has some issues.

Grounds: excellent. Hotel: needs to be maintained better (broken floor tiles and door handles etc.)and there is a lot of echo noise from the rough surfaces on the hotel hallway floors. Also, there should be better security control over late night party people around 2am to 4 am. Beach: needs better erosion protection and machines to remove sea grass more quickly. Food: about 1 in 3 people I spoke to had been sick during their stay at this hotel, myself included. This seems to be a high perce [... read more]ntage and should be investigated as to the source of the problem. Staff: everyone was very friendly and seemed to be happy to be serving their guests. This was the best part of this experience in my opinion.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Very Nice Resort

This resort was very lovely. I was afraid it was going to be a lot of walking but it was laid out well so maybe 10 minutes either way. The staff are so friendly and he rooms are nice and clean. Had a great time.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: A tired worn down hotel grasping at 3.5 stars

The best thing going for this hotel is it’s staff. Air conditioning didn’t work. Fan didn’t work. Blow dryer didn’t work. When we left the roof was leaking on last day. Terrible pillows. Thread bare linens. 3.5 stars is pushing it at best.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Paradise

Great vacation, great food, the staff could not do enough for you. Would recommend this resort to all my friends. Always something going on around the pool area for all ages. If you didn’t have a great time on this resort there is something wrong with you

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Fantastic Resort

Other then Mother Nature depositing mass amounts of seaweed on the beach the resort was very well taken care of Extremely friendly,outgoing staff The ac was not working very well and they attempted to repair yet still not working the best I would recommend Blue Bay to anyone Great stay at Blue Bay

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Was a beautiful resort

The grounds were perfect and cared for to a t. We enjoyed our stay, food was fabulous. Cant say enough about the service and quality of everything. Staff was always ready to help with any request. Would go back again to blue bay.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Excellent

First and foremost the food was incredible! Great beach. The rooms were dated but super clean and functional. Avoid rooms with balconies that have the thatched roof. The service in the resort was excellent and all the employees went out of their way to make you feel comfortable. The front desk employees could be friendlier but that would be my only negative comment. Shout out to Miguel who got us a very comfortable pool front room which made our 2 week stay much more enjoyable.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Lots of good some bad

Have to agree with some reviews...... lots of walking at this resort for sure. The talk of it smelling? I didn’t notice anything amiss. Maybe it was The time of year? The food was amazing. The drinks were very good as well. The beach was crap for sure. Very disappointing to say the least. Not enough shade to go around. The chair game is terrible..... you need to. E up by 5 am to get a place in the shade. The shows really need revamping, needs to have some kind of nite life here.  [... read more] Will. Ever go back? Probably not. I like the beach and you cannot swim in the ocean. Which is a vacation must for me, The staff was very friendly and very helpful.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Beautiful resort

The resort was alway clean, easy to get around, food was good, customers service was great. Would recommend 100%. Lots of action down at the big pool, slow and relaxing at the smaller pool. Drinks were Awesome