Completely dissatisfied

Hello, I’d like to start off by saying that this is not my first time at a Riu, nor my first time in Mexico, nor my first all inclusive vacation. I travel frequently, within Canada , the U.S, Europe and Caribbean. This was by far the worst vacation I have ever taken. I’m only going to list the cons, as these are the basis for my overall complaint: 1. No bar down by the beach (there are servers who come, but it’s a far walk for them & a lot of beach to cover) 2. Our water in  [... read more]our room was not stocked & we had to ask multiple times for someone to re-stock; people should have water each& every day during their stay. 3. Liquor across the resort was Bottom shelf swill that was disgusting . 4. No room service, which is very frustrating if you are not well & can't make it out of your room. 5. 24 hour snack bar is laughable - microwave hamburgers, soggy hot dogs & stale nachos hardly qualify for something worthy of a snack bar. 6. There was poo floating in the water on the beach everyday. I have yet to ever see this anywhere but at the Riu Dunamar. 7. The beds were incredibly small; looked and felt smaller than a double bed, but larger than a twin , but either way, was uncomfortable for my husband and I to share . 8. Thé A/C must be set on an energy savings plan, as the setting could not be changed & the a/c temp was less than satisfactory. 9. The staff do not speak English (the front desk is fairly fluent). Used google translate to communicate most of the time. 10. A buffet server told my husband & I that we could not eat our plates of food we already had in our hands due to closing (there were ppl eating at tables still). She used her cleaning cloth to push the placemat and utensils on the ground, followed by her walking away. INCREDIBLY RUDE behaviour never seen anywhere other than at the Riu Dunamar. 11. My Sons things were stolen from his room, an investigation was done and the cleaner advised she thought they were garbage and threw them out. They wanted to reimburse us for some of it but also have us sign something - no thanks! Tell your staff not to steal, discipline them for it, perhaps screen them properly and not take anyone off the street . Again, I have yet to experience this anywhere except for at the Riu dunamar. 12. My entire family of 8 had stomach & bathroom issues related to the food / drink despite taking dukorol. 13. Thé entertainment is amateur, geared to kids & unworthy of attention. That’s the one thing I look forward to on vacation; I was bummed & underwhelmed. 14. At a family resort, they have adult only pools (swim up bar pools). My daughter who is 14 was the only one of our family members who was not allowed in this pool. We were approached by security and she was asked to get out of the pool. She was incredibly sad and cried over the securitys agressive and uncalled for tone / behaviour. there was a blow out over this between me, my son and the security. I still can’t understand the reason for this policy seeing as the bars all over the resort at ANY time of night were allowing young children to occupy bar stools (entertainment bar, and sports bar). Not to mention other resorts allow kids in the swim up bar pool. Again, something not experienced any where other than at the Riu dunamar. 15. The a la cartes were awful , usually these are the better choices and quality of foods at a resort. That was disappointing. 16. The elevators were small and not air conditioned. 17. The front desk wasn’t informative when we checked in and we had to ask multiple questions throughout the stay. Also blindsided by the tax amount upon check in.. they would only accept pesos and it was more than told by our agent. 18. They had no coffee bar, which was disappointing. 19. There were army men / police officers walking the beach armed. This was scary & prompted me to google the resort … which led me to read about a shooting on the beach at the resort. 20. No umbrellas at the beach. I’m fair skinned and need some relief from the sun. 21. My parents room had a awful smell of musty old water or mould. 22. The pools closed at 7, and not allowed in after this. 23. There was no lighting down at the beach at night, so you couldn’t enjoy a late night dip or walk on the beach. 24. The resort was boring to say the least. Overall, I had the worst time away at an all inclusive here. There are fundamentals that I expect from a self proclaimed 5* resort were not met. I think that resorts like this need to be mindful in brand integrity as I do expect a certain base minimum for a Riu. I encourage management to review the feedback I’ve seen on many reviews similar to mine and make changes. Surely the ratings equate to a 3 star resort - truly disappointing to have spent a total of $11,440 cad to celebrate a 65th birthday with my mom here; waste of my family’s vacation time and money.

Awesome Resort

We were there last aug 19-26 2023 and it was a memorable experience. The hotel overall was very good the food was great , I can see that they try to do their best to give people a good food everyday diff. Menu as much as they can!the room was clean and tidy, you will not give the benefit of doubt in giving tips to the cleaner, because they do their job very well, love to swim everyday and sit down on the seashore, satisfy how they clean the seashore even though their is a little bit of sea wids  [... read more] but over all it’s all clean, the snack was great , the bar tender was friendly you will not wait long time for your request they do their job well, our kids was satisfy and happy with Riu Land the sliding pool is amazing, and the staff was friendly, the only thing I was looking for was the live show at night hope they will change not always singing dancing it was boring, we are looking for some acrobat show live,

Decent Resort

Nice property, nice rooms, great entertainment, but poor quality food for a Riu resort. The A La Carte restaurants are actually just buffets with lower quality food than the main buffet. The hotel staff are polite and friendly.

Amazing resort

The hotel was great. I found it to be very well kept, The staff worked day and night and provided great and friendly service. My family and I had and excellent experience. I would definitely recommend!

Rio Dunamar was good! Sun Wing has no customer service!

Sun Wing has no empathy toward their client! No respect what so ever! Delayed over 1 full day departing. No explanation no excuse from Sun Wing staff! Return flight was the same, delayed, unable to get any information from Sun Wing! Only able to get AI answering the phone - runaround!!! Trying to get compensation from them - Mechanical issues so they don't have to pay, is their go to excuse!

First Time & Last Time

Disappointed to say the least. Lodging: We called after making our initial reservation for a family suite they said yes. Get there and no family suite. Someone forgot to write it in. Switching suites was painful and took 2 days. The suite we ended up with was ocean view and beautiful. Good Point! Room Bar had crappy liquor. We had to call to get our room restocked of drinks which was hardly enough for a family of 4. No room service with this hotel. House cleaning was great! Also walking the  [... read more]hallways was kinda creepy reminded me of a hospital or something you see out of a movie on a pysch ward. Food/restaurants: NO RESERVATIONS NEEDED! That was CRAP! The steak house you had to be there at 5 pm before they opened at 6pm in order to have a chance at the very least to getting the last seating at 8pm. Just saying leaving a generous tip helps you get in faster. Your more MEMORABLE. The buffet food was less then spectacular. Other restaurants were meh. Sports bar offered refrigerated burgers/hot dogs and sandwiches to be microwaved. Selection did not change day to day. Always seemed to be running out of sparkling wine. The burger stand I think was the best thing for lunch fresh fries and burgers on the fly. Beach: Beautiful. Serving staff were great. Had police patrol center and a helicopter on Saturday that came by and sat watching for a bit. Went one day as most days too windy to really enjoy the water with kids. Pools and reserving chairs: It says not to but after the 1st 2 days. Enough was enough. Had to get up at 6 am to reserve chairs for our group. Foam party was fun. One pool was quieter then the other. Wheel chair ramp accessible was cool. Pool Swim up bars. I asked a staff member if children were allowed in and they said yes of course. We go take a far corner bench and table with aunt uncle and our 2 small children minding our own business and we start getting the whistle blown at us. No one seemed to know the rules at Dunamar. One person would say one thing the other another. Kids Water Park: Our youngest can't go down by themselves. So i would but them on my lap and slide. I GOT THE WHISTLE BLOWN AT ME. I could agree to no tube slides but then I got it blown again at me for going down an open slide. I could only go down 1 slide out of 7 with my child. Misconception: When booking it says you have access to all Riu resorts. We thought we'd go adventuring to the one next door.....Then it says no access to Riu Dunamar guests.....WTH!! So frusturated. By the 3rd day and 2nd degree sunburn we were ready to go home. My husbands aunt and uncle kept apologizing to us as this was a poor excuse for a riu as they have been to several. Night Entertainment: Couldn't really Comment about this that much other than if you were facing the inside court yard where the entertainment was it echoed into your room like no tomorrow. We were on a corner suite and it really echoed.

It couldn’t be any better

We made a last min decision and booked a night before departure but in reality we couldn’t have picked a better choice. Staff are amazing. Hard working and all smiles. Rooms are big and clean . Pools are great and bars are very generous in their dispensing. Beach was nice…plenty of lounges.

Wonderful resort

the food was superb, the grounds immaculate, swimming pools were very clean they just needed a deeper end. The beach was awesome but unfortunately couldn't spend long there as it was so windy. Unfortunately not much to do other than the beach and pools, suggest something like miniature golf, shuffle board, pickle ball, bicycles with a path around the perimeter of resort. If you wanted to do any day trips they were close to 2 hours away. Would recommend this resort as very family oriented and  [... read more]the staff are very friendly.

Excellent will return

Our second time to this hotel first time in February of 2020 and happy to be able to travel again ! Went from Feb 12 to 18th and had a great time . Travelled with our 5 yo and he enjoyed the beech pool and crafts at kids club! Food was great ! Service excellent ! Freddie the bar tender is very attentive and polite ! Will return for sure !

January Stay

The Grounds were kept really well. The beach suffered from a lot of seaweed. The weather was windy, and as a result the beach had pretty high waves most of our trip (but that's not within the resort's control obviously). The loungers by the beach were always pretty readily accessible which was nice. The room was okay, the pillows were definitely really thin (if you require a good pillow, I recommend brining one with you). The in room bar was stocked every other day. The couches in the room showe [... read more]d signs of wear, and as other guests may have commented, if you are sharing rooms with children involved, you can see a silhouette of everyone showering. The bathroom included a a generic cleaner (shampoo/body wash combo) so I would recommend packing your own shampoo/conditioner especially if you are a little sensitive. The have pretty decent activities through the day (fitness activities, pool parties etc.) and you can walk for kms along the beach and across through other resorts (which was super nice). There's a couple pool tables in the sports bar (2 USD/Game). There are no reservations required for any of the restaurants, but it's almost impossible to get into the steak house, and the Asian restaurant. The food was good, the coffee was not my favorite!

Amazing resort

Resort is clean, food is great. Restaurants have wonderful service. Beach is beautiful, I would recommend this resort to other friends Room is completely spacious and serves are good. But I would not recommend Sunwing serves since my confirmed excursion messed up and we missed the excursion due to Sunwing booking system even though next day they recooked for us and we could make it.

Great Beach

The beach was the nicest part of this resort. The entertainment was alright also but nothing special. Beware of the food. The food at this resort is horrible. Being a RIU resort it should have been better but it was really comparable to any resort in Cuba. The hotel is super far from the town. The drive was about 40 minutes. If you want to take a taxi to the main strip it will cost you 60$ us for one way. Do yourself a favour and stay on the hotel strip for an extra $200. We are Riu members  [... read more]and I can say that this hotel is super mediocre.

Enjoyable stay even during rainy season

We travelled October 8-15 which was reportedly during the rainy season in Mexico but we were not inconvenienced by weather at all. The rain lasts for very short bursts and the increased winds were refreshing with a humidex of 36. The resort was busy but at no time did we struggle find a seat by the pool or the beach, there was prompt service at the bars, restaurants and front desk. There was a wide variety of food even for a very picky eater like myself and we ate mostly at the buffet. The only  [... read more]challenge was the restaurants were first come first serve so if you did not show up when they opened it was an extremely long wait. The maître de had some challenges with the reservation list and because we are not pushy we were passed over until it was more than 30 minutes past our projected wait time of 1 hour. Overall a pleasant stay

Beautiful resort

The hotel is clean. People are friendly and hard working. Pool and beach were great. The bartenders knew all the drinks wd had requested and made them to our liking. The food was very yummy. Loved everything about it. I would definitely recommend this resort.

Great place

I think they need to make everything all inclusive, we had to pay for the pool in the snack bar. Was very pricey. Seemed it lacked communication since they mixed up our excursion times twice. Great people great place though

Very good Resort

We like the resort but is too far from the airport and the road needed to be fix. The Ocean sunrise was great , just magic, seemed like the sun was coming out of the water, great view. Could n't swim in the ocean due to sea weeds, was too much, very dirty water at the front. The resort had someone cleaning the sea weeds but he left just outside the water, the wave comes take everything back in the ocean. We really enjoyed the sunrise and the morning walk on the sand. Also the elevato [... read more]rs kept breaking and took them little bit longer to fix, we were on the third floor, taking the stairs was issue. One more thing I want to mentioned that, our departure was early in the morning 9;45 but we had to leave the resort 4 hrs early , the no restaurant open at that time, so coffee, no breakfast. they need to open the area at around 6;00 instead 7 a.m. or have one counter open for people leaving early etc. just a suggestion.

Be warned

Grounds are kept clean constantly. The food is mediocre and never changes. My disappointment was in the pool bar. They would literally recycle plastic cups and reuse them for shots and drinks. By recycle I mean they would dump the used cups in a sinks and rinse them quickly with water and reuse them. The alecarte restaurants were terrible food, stick to the buffet. The resort does not have small bills for usd and when you convert, you only get Mexican pesos. It was a real struggle finding chan [... read more]ge for tips.

Could have been good....

The resort was Fully booked and from pool chairs to food services the hotel was not able to handle the amount of people in the resort. We have been to many RIU's and this is not what we were expecting. School breaks in the US and Britain had the resort crowded with families. Set our alarm at 630am to get a beach chair otherwise you were out of luck, as they literally could not find another chair for you! Empty serving dishes everywhere at the buffet for both breakfast and lunch every day for [... read more] 5 days until the crowds diminished. Waiting 2 hours in line for a la cartes then another 2 hours to be served - terrible. Employees are amazing, they worked hard in every aspect of service but just not enough of them for the amount of people in the resort. Clean, followed COVID precautions, great facility. Just wished we had picked a different week, for the money we spent it was a great disappointment!! Based on our experience the week of 2-9 April, 2022 I would not recommend as you are not getting full services you paid good money for...We are very seasoned travellers, at least twice a year to Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Caribbean every year for 20 years........

Great water activities, food could be better

Great beach, lots of waves (Sargassum can be an issue), great pools, great water park. Staff is really nice and friendly. Food could be better, the a la carte dinner restaurant system is a nightmare, since people have to line up or wait for a long time (with a beeper), because there are no reservations. People cannot ask for special drinks at any of the restaurants; only soft drinks, draft beer or wine. In other resorts, a la carte restaurants not only offer cocktails but also offer premium  [... read more]brands. I was able to visit 3 of the a la carte restaurants and found that the wait was not worth it, specially at the asian restaurant that is also a buffet... Another one seemed to always be closed. I found that at the buffet restaurant the most popular items would run out quite fast and would take time for them to be replaced (eg ketchup, syrup, guacamole). Finally there was no room service which is very useful specially with small children. The rooms are spacious, almost no decoration, the bathrooms are also spacious, but hand only soap, body wash/shampoo and towels are offered, none of the other things that can be found at other hotels is offered at this one (body lotion, mouth wash, sawing kit, conditioner, shower cap etc...). Finally quite a few times they ran out of clean beach towels and people would have to wait to get new ones (even tough the resort limits to 2 changes of towels per day per room).

Amazing resort

Hotel very nice and clean Food always fresh staff very friendly beach nice and clean We have very nice weather But still windy yellow and red flag every day i heard it's normal for Cancun all of that 4.5. And 5 no problem 2 things I don't like it's charging us some environmental fees (but when I was talking to others they didn't pay any extra fees) that I need someone to explain it to me Second people who work for sunwing, day before I did confirmation for check out and transport to airp [... read more]ort Forgot guy name (I was frustrated) he told us be ready for 11 am. Bus left 10:30 (I know time was shifting) but we was on front lobby at 10. But it was 11 i guess. No problem they order taxi to airport and tools us sorry we will pay for But after all I pay 110 us dollars and guys from sunwing at the airport was very wondering And told me we can do nothing I will try to claim at least taxi. Don't know story about environment fees i been few times in Mexico never pay fees at the hotel