Super Clean!

We just returned from this resort and it was everything they said it was. Super clean absolutely everywhere you go on this resort, be it in the buffet restaurants or just walking through the immense acreage. The gardeners really show their pride with manicured lawns and beautiful hybiscus hedges. The people working at this resort, (and there are many to look after your needs) were so friendly and eager to go out of their way to help or serve you. The staff at the front desk were always plentiful [... read more] and efficient at assisting with any enquiries. The quality and presentation of the food in the a la carte restaurants would rival any top notch high class restaurant. I would recommend this resort to anyone wanting to come to the Blue Bay Grand Esmerelda to either explore, shop or relax.

Disappointing - Air Transat rated it a 4* ??

Upon arrival at check-in we were giving keys to our room and told our luggage would be taken shortly. We did not know where to go, and being tired from flight, we felt it was not a welcoming atmosphere. Other resorts welcome you with a special drink, take you to your room along with luggage. We had specified an upper floor with King Size bed. We were giving a very dark room on lower floor. It felt like being in the basement with absolutely no view. We insisted on changing room, then they gave us [... read more] a room on fourth floor with double beds. Better than dark dingy room, but one of the bed, the mattress was in very poor condition. One big dip in middle... Just awful... The grounds were very nice and so were pools. Bar service was very slow, often just one or two bartenders to serve long line-ups. We felt they did it on purpose to save on drinks, as we often just gave up and went without... Food and service at buffet and restaurants were fine. The Italian Restaurant was by far our favorite! The beach front is not nice at all, but we were told that and we expected it. Beach should be rated a 2 star, but would rate the pool area a 5 star if bar service be improved! Overall as it is, I feel it is more like a border line 3 star, but has lots of potential if they would improve service and update mattresses in rooms. Staff were friendly, except for reception upon arrival.

Job well done. fun resort , beautiful accomodation

Beautiful resort, well laid out, good food, average beach , very nice pool. Close to Playa Del Carmen. Fun bars and ggod variety at buffets. A la cartes were average Will definetly recommend. Blue Bay rocks

LOVED the resort

We enjoyed our stay at this resort and would go back without any hesitation. The grounds were beautiful! The food was very good in the ala carte restaurants as well as the buffet. The rooms were clean and we had no complaints with our accommodations. The beach area was the only negative of our trip but we knew that from tripadvisor when we booked.

Wooow

everything about this place is amazing, you have your own personal concierge in each building. it is very clean and you and don't even get me started on how good the food is. the only drawback about this resort is that it smells like sewage when you are walking to the beach but the beauty of this hotel and staff outweigh any negatives it has I recommend this hotel every person who wants to go to Rivera Maya

Great value!

Booked this resort on the recommendation of a trip central agent who had been there.Though it wouldn't be classified as a luxury resort it is a solid 4/5. It loses points for mediocre beach.The rooms are comfortable and clean.No tub in our room but a spacious 3 x 8 ft shower stall. The food is very good for resort food- lots of choices.Coconut ice cream! Pools aren't overly crowded so swimming was great.Didn't swim in ocean.No complaints.Had a great week!

Thoroughly impressed!

This resort is excellent. Staff, accommodations, food and atmosphere. Food is good, but don't bother with seafood. Worst meal of the week. Salmon was served at room temp, which is worrysome, and my dish came undercooked. There are two distinct sections. One we called quiet , and the other a more party atmosphere. Both sections have their pros but we preferred the quiet area near building 6,7 and 8. The beach was disappointing. Erosion and excess seaweed ( or whatever it was) made the water gross [... read more]. However it's worth it to visit the lagoon the left of the resort. It's really neat. The beach is no reflection of Blue Bay though. OverLl this resort is one I would recommend to friends and family.

Ok Except for a Couple of Incidents

Our stay at the Blue Bay was ok with the exception of the following: A mess up at Cancun airport. We did not receive bus chits from Trip Central so we were running around like two very exhausted, overheated chickens trying to find a ride to the hotel. Worked out in the end. Not enough towels even after communicating our requirements with the housekeeper. Some days we had a mat for the inside and outside of the shower.....some days we did not. Asked for extra hangers during our first week. The [... read more]y didn't show up until about four days before we left during the second week. My friend inadvertently left a skirt on her bed when we left the room for the day. when we came back, the skirt had disappeared. We talked to lobby staff who talked to our maid. Funny.....no one knew anything about it. Interesting how the maid was hopefully the only person to enter the room other than ourselves and the skirt just melted away somewhere. Then the day before we left, I had left a bottle of nail enamel by my bed so that I would remember to polish my nails. That evening.....I couldn't find the nail polish! I noticed something odd....a reddish dried blob on the floor by my bed and later a red mark on my sheets. This was on the far side of the bed....so the polish was carried across the room. Obviously, the maid decided to help herself to my nail polish and the bottle broke! Nothing said to me at all. Nada! The beach is not at all great.....lots of seaweed and crud. Laying on the beach one day, we enjoyed the sound of a tractor going back and forth raking up seaweed....not good. The French restaurant was excellent....the others were a wash. This was talked about by many of the tourists. Other than those concerns, the trip and the staff at the Grand Esmeralda are excellent!

Wonderful Winter Getaway!

Trip dates were January 17-24, 2015 Had a fabulous vacation at The Blue Bay Grand Esmerelda. I would definitely recommend the resort and classify it as a 4 star for sure. I read all the reviews before going and was more than pleasantly surprised to discover that from our perspective, none of the bad reviews were true. We had an amazing week in Mexico. How wrong can people be, or is it just going with a positive attitude? Travelled with my mother and brother. Our check in took about five minutes [... read more] with a very nice young gentleman, Carlos serving us. They will only give out one key on the first day, but the concierge at your building can make you a second/third key if required. We were driven to building 4 with our luggage; ocean front, which we had paid for, third floor Room 4323 with a wonderful view. We loved our location. We required a third bed which was delivered at once. We had a great room with free safe and stocked fridge, water, beer and pop each day. The fan and AC worked great. Our room service was great and our elevator took seconds to arrive, never a wait. The patio door locks when you close it, so either make sure someone is in the room to let you back in or leave the door open a bit, so you can get back in. We were steps away from the pool, buffet, swing bar and beach. The beach buffet served a wonderful breakfast and lunch daily, it converts to a Steakhouse and Seafood a-la carte restaurants for supper. We all enjoyed the beautiful beach, wonderful buffets and five of the six a-la carte restaurants that we attended. Reservations can be made for the current day and the next. This can be done in the lobby or with the concierge at your building, very convenient and never an issue getting a reservation. The bacon wrapped fillet at the Steakhouse was delicious! We also had a lovely welcome dinner the night we arrived with entertainment, for West Jet customers arriving that week. We all gained weight, with such a wonderful variety of food choices. The resort is very large but the carts/trolleys were always handy to take us to the lobby area. We shopped in Playa del Carman and at the resort stores and the market that comes in once a week on Saturday nights. The beach water is not as clear and blue as some of the Caribbean water but the pool more than makes up for this. The seaweed is cleaned early every morning and the only sandbags to help build up the beach are in an area in front of the buffet that you don’t even see anyways. There is also a quiet pool around buildings 6, 7 & 8 with another buffet which we didn't get to. I walked the beach every day. To the left is a clear lagoon area that is quite nice. The free wifi worked very well, throughout the resort as well as on the beach. This is a nice added touch to keep in contact with family and friends at home. Unfortunately, my brother fell and cut his head on the third day. The doctor was there within twenty minutes. Every morning and evening paramedics came and cleaned and changed the dressing. Our thanks to Alonzo Avila, Public Relations Assistant Manager for all his help and the wonderful paramedics. We all loved our vacation at BBGE and would certainly recommend it and would return any time.

Amazing family vacation!

Hotel and resort was amazing. We had a family reunion of 13 people and had a wonderful time! Loved it! If it wasn't for tripcentral, my family of 4 would not have made it to the reunion and memorable vacation!

Great Bang for Your Buck!

The amenities, service and atmosphere were wonderful. A la carte restaurants excelled in presentation, but too often disappointed in taste. On the other hand, the buffets were awesome. It was quieter at the pool by buildings 7 & 8, active and raucous down by the beach! Overall an excellent value and enjoyable experience. The occasional waft of sewer odour was unpleasant and should be dealt with immediately.

Beautiful Resort

The resort was very well maintained. ALa Carts were amazing and the service excellent. Great variety in the Buffets. Amazing pool! Rooms were really clean. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. Nightly entertainment was very good.

Awesome resort

I loved this resort. It was very clean. The employees are very friendly and helpful. Always something to do. I think the prices for stuff was a little expensive but they have everything you you run out of something. The only thing I didnt like was they try to get you to buy into a time share there threw the resort. So if your going watch out for these people cause they are in the front lobby waiting for you.

Fantastic Teip

Took my 16 yr old daughter, it was our first time to Mexico, I loved the resort. The pools were beautiful, the grounds were clean and the rooms were large and roomy. If your a beach person, it is not the greatest beach. I didn't mind since I'm a pool person. The staff is friendly and very helpful. I would definently recommend the resort and would go back again

Excellent Resort

Our stay at the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda was great! The hotel is beautiful with many dining options. There were 8 of us all together and everyone loved the food whether it was the buffet, late night snacks or the many a la cart restaurants. Our room was in building 6 which was nextdoor to the outside breakfast area with a pool. We were a little ways from the beach, it took about 10 minutes to walk or about 5 minutes if one of the many trollys were driving by. The rooms were beautiful with a show [... read more]er worth mentioning. Our view from our garden view room was great. It was very jungle like and there were many animals out on the lawn to view. The beach was very nice, although, I feel it must be mentioned, if you are looking for turquoise waters it might not be the one for you. There was a lot of seaweed and a lot of rocks in certain areas. Otherwise it was spectacular!

Great Stay

The food was top notch, rooms were nice, clean and updated, the grounds were kept very tidy. We were a little disappointed with the beach, sand was great and their was plenty of chairs but the water was not, we were hoping for the typical aqua blue water (Like Cuba or DR) but if you walked either direction for about 10 mins the water was beautiful.

Very Accommodating Well Managed Resort

The Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda resort was very well managed and most professional. The service was top notch and the staff were extremely friendly, fun, fast, polite and paid attention to your needs and details. We felt very safe and security was discreetly in place. The resort is conveniently located between Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen, making it only about a 30 to 40 min drive from the Cancun airport so you don't spend half your day travelling to get to your resort:) In the evening ther [... read more]e were 8 options as to where to eat. A dinner theatre,6 a la carte and of course the buffet...all provided excellent food choices...the best Filet (SteakHouse Restaurant) and Blackened Tuna (Seafood Restaurant) I ever ate!! Amazing!!! I just wish we did not have to make reservations thur concierge. With technology being so advanced a more efficient method could probably be developed. One nice thing formal dress code was only required at a few restaurants not all. Having the option to dine casual was nice especially for the men who often enjoying not having to wear long pants especially if it is hot:) Food for thought re formal dress code "A man can still dress formal in shorts...just travel to Bermuda:)" Entertainment was well organized and if you choose to be involved it looked like fun. We've been to many resorts where the entertainment staff were always pestering you to get involved but not here. The resort is divided into 2 sections,one closer to the beach and the other closer to the ocean. Depending on which tour company you travel with I think that is how it is decided which area you will stay. However if you choose to stay closer to the ocean just ask the worst they can say is no. We had no problem in them fulfilling our request and at no extra cost. Our room was in Building 1. The best I can describe it is that it was "worn" but most accommodating. We travel extensively and having a big soaker tub in the middle of the room may look beautiful but just does not work!! Our room had a separate bathroom with a great vanity that provided ample space to lay out all your ammentites. All our room really needed was an update other than that we had no issues. We go to these resorts for the sun and beach. The beach that everyone seems to make issues of the seaweed, well all I can say I have never been to any beach ever where there was no seaweed. I'm more concerned about the cleanliness. All the beaches in the area had seaweed but all resorts tried to manage it. The Blue Bay has a big tractor and in the early hours of the day the staff were always on task. One nice thing if you enjoy walking the beach you can what forever as long as you go to the right (towards Playa del Carmen) The beach was very clean and staff were eager to serve you and always picking up after those who do not:) The swing beach bar was always a great place to have fun and get some shade not to mention the great service and cocktails! Top shelf liquors are not part of the package we had but for more $$ this resort does have that available. Overall this resort was one of the best we have been to. We were just in the same area in November at a 5* resort. Doing a comparison this resort far exceeds the service and options. If having room service is important to you this resort does offer it but at a price. I often say you get what you paid for but in this case we got a lot more. Thanks to Shauna our superstar agent for helping us make yet another great choice!!

Beautiful resort

It was my first time in Mexico. I really enjoyed staying at the resort. Everyone was friendly and there was so many restaurants you can choose to eat at. The beach was really nice to and how they set it up.

Great Time at the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda!

This hotel has everything you need for a great vacation! While the beach isn't the best I've ever seen the pool and everything else is amazing! We stayed in block 8 and our room was giant and newly renovated. Would definitely go back again!

Overall, a good resort

Hotel and food good. Service at steak restaurant needs improvement. The waiter was not very good, plus steak was not cooked properly. We found the resort too spread out. For example the beach area is a long way from the Gardenview area.