Dreams Vallarta Bay Resort and Spa: Good resort

Good Points • Service was quite good. Anything I asked for, I received with a smile. • Food was good. Every meal I had was delicious. Buffet for breakfast and lunch was good (less food available at dinner...maybe they are expecting you to be at a restaurant?). • Pools were clean; grounds were kept immaculate. • House keeping was very good (although it was done much later in the day than I have ever had at other resorts) with turndown service. • Room was comfortable, large enough,  [... read more]and great bathroom and AC. • Everyone (including cab drivers) had amazing English. Language was literally never a barrier. • I felt safe both on and off the resort (but note I was not wandering the streets after dark). • Entertainment staff (in particular Noe) is great, they are friendly and fun. • The Mexican fiesta was lovely. So many thoughtful touches, from the décor to the food to the entertainment. I really enjoyed myself there. • I liked there was no bracelets or towel cards. Just grab a towel whenever you want, so much better. • Beautiful view of the ocean from nearly every room. • Hotel is close to the marina, airport, town. It is nice to not travel on a bus for an hour after a long flight. • Beautiful sunsets! Less Good Points • Seriously loud bands in the evening. I wore earplugs and slept with a iphone white noise app to try to drown out the loud music. I am not sure any room would have been different. The layout of the hotel means you (and your children) will be awake until fairly late (midnight or later). • The shows at night need some venue improvement. If it was raining it was held in the basement of Secrets (that was fine actually since it was air conditioned). The venue at Now was not covered so rain (which happened half of the evenings in the summer) was a problem. When it was not raining it was so bloody hot, please get some fans. No breeze at all and it was too hot to properly enjoy the entertainment. • I wish we were able to go to the Italian restaurant (we have kids so not allowed). My kids are well behaved and eat the same foods as us so I am not entirely sure why they aren’t allowed. • The only place to go in the evening is the lobby bar. I really think this resort needs at least one other place for people to hang out, preferably a place with AC. • The kids club….while I heard other families enjoying the kids club, mine didn’t seem to. First off, it is a bit weird that you can’t see what they are up to in that space. And the bungee trampoline for example, why not have it out in the open (say by the pools) so that it can be used (with staff assistance) for more than 1 hour a day? Also, the whole thing is quite scheduled so I think it’s a bit rigid in terms of what activity is done when. • When we got off the plane in Puerto Vallarta, the sharks pounced on us to sell us time shares and inviting us to look at some Cirque de Solei property. They posed as if they worked for Air Canada so beware of that. Don’t hand your hotel voucher to anyone. Also, I am used to riding in a coach bus to the resort. We were shoved in a taxi (and we crossed our fingers we were actually headed the resort). • The beach isn’t great. The water is full of jelly fish, the bottom is full of painful rocks, and there is no bar down there. • The pool (in particular the one with the water slide) has a rough concrete bottom. Every kid’s feet were shredded until they were bleeding from the rough surface. We tended to go to the other pools for that simple reason. • The elevators. OMG so hot in there. Please install a fan, somebody will faint in there!

Royalton Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa: Amazing Resort

This was our first time at this resort and we absolutely loved it. They have thought of everything and it was very impressive. The food is the best we've ever had at a resort, the amenities were ridiculously great. The nightly entertainment was different from any other resort. Very grown up type shows, not the usual mickey mouse type shows. The only criticism we have is that they tried to push the time share thing and it was a bit annoying, but that was only the first couple of days, so afte [... read more]r that, they didn't ask again. Great staff, very friendly, hotel was amazing, many restaurants, many pools, great bars. we'd definitely return to this resort. Bartenders at the pools were very friendly and hard working and always delivered with a smile. The only disappointment was that we did not get a room with a view as we enjoy sitting on the balcony at night and having a glass of wine as we look out into the ocean.

Hyatt Zilara Cancun: Great Resort but....

What was great: The hotel is beautiful. The staff were awesome - very welcoming and obviously trained in both hospitality and diplomacy. What was horrible: Food safety was brutal. We went to the buffet and staff were handling raw meat and cooked product and other items with the same tongs cross contaminating everything with the bloody tongs!! Not cool. I complained about this to a manager who agreed with me but no corrective action followed. Sigh. Additionally, the ice cream scoop we [... read more]ll was turned off allowing bacteria to culture on the standing water. I turned on the small tap and the same manager I spoke to earlier turned the tap off!! Ugh This is just what I witnessed as a guest. Turned me right off eating there. I can only imagine what goes on in he kitchen. Yikes! The Unfortunate: The beach was all seaweed and not suitable for swimming. The Awesome: Large sea turtles can be witnessed at night laying eggs. The turtle tracks in the sand were beautiful too. The eggs are gathered and stored safely until they hatch. Unless the food safety standards are upgraded l would unfortunately, NOT recommend the Hyatt Zilara. Too bad, it really is lovely otherwise.

Bahia Principe Explore Coba: Great resort, HORRIBLE BEACH

Distance: Resort was 2 hours away from the airport. Pools: It has a water park for kids, 2 big pools, a pool bar, and a snack bar close to the pool. Maintained clean. There are several lifeguards that patrol the pools and all are very strict and seem to have a deep affinity with their whistles. They blow their whistle every 2 minutes, so it was very annoying. Pools are only open from 7:30 am-7:30 pm. Towel service is only available from 7:30 am - 5 pm Service: a lot of the service folks do no [... read more]t speak English so unless you speak a little bit of Spanish, it’ll take a while before you get what you asked for. The staff are friendly and are really committed to their jobs. Room: clean, spacious. The AC did not have enough ventilation to reach the farther part of the room. The pillows smell like sweat so we had to put towels over them. Safety lock is extremely outdated. You need to carry along the key each time and it’s $20 if you lose it. Food: they have a wide variety of selection. Very kid-friendly and their healthy food selection is pretty good too. Beach: WHAT A LET DOWN. covered in moss, we didn’t get a chance to swim in the ocean as there were truckloads of moss being hauled out for the entire day. Tips: although not required, you’d feel bad not tipping. The servers barely earn $2/day.

Royalton Hideaway Riviera Cancun: Lovely resort

The resort is beautiful, our room was beautiful, service on the most part was very good, staff were great. Was very disappointed we couldn’t go into the ocean as there was so much seaweed so we never spent any time on the beach (would be helpful if travel agents gave that kind of info at time of booking a trip) would of been nice to have seen a sunset over the ocean, but on the wrong side. These are things I will ask about on booking a next vacation as they were Important to us. The time I  [... read more]sent at the Spa was such a wonderful experience, worth the cost I will go to the Royalton Hidaway resort again, but not in Maya Rivera, Cancun only because of the problems with the ocean & no sunsets. Again the staff were all great. Was nice that we updated to the Diamond Club, the extra perks were nice. The butler service was nice to have & both the butlers were great Diane Todd

Grand Sirenis Matlali Hills: Nice resort

The rooms were new and spacious in building 5, at the highest point on the hill of the resort property. The adult pool near building 5 / 6 was quiet, service was not consistent with some staff coming around often, others not at all for drink orders. The reservation restaurants were good, but the buffet was small and disappointing food. No variation buffet food offered for breakfast. The layout of the resort was as advertised, very hilly but lots of greenery to look at. The shuttle bus was a  [... read more]great help to get around to the resort, restaurants were at the bottom of the resort. The beach club was good, food was good, service was good, but the beach was quite rocky. There were attempts to sell the "membership" to the resort, the members had a separate section at the main pool, reserved cabana at the adult pool, reserved tables at the small buffet as well as access to the larger multi-bedroom villa rooms. In all , a satisfactory trip but would not return.

Riu Palace Pacifico: Great hotel

The hotel is clean, beautiful. with a relaxing environment. The staffs are very friendly and helpful. The foods are very good. We enjoyed the food and service in Krystal 's during our stay. It was excellent!

Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach: If you love the beach, don't go to this hotel

Great Resort, awesome pools, buffet tries to cater to everyone, so big variety, little flavor, but still good. Staff are great. The only issue, is that if your a beach person, this resort is not for you. The seaweed is MASSIVE, words cannot express how much is on the beach. You will not be able to enter the water. The other truth no one tells you is that the seaweed stinks. You can actually smell it well into the resort. On top of this, the resort had to literally carve away their bea [... read more]ch in order to stop the seaweek coming up on shore. This leaves the little beach that's left with very rough, coarse sand. Again, not the hotels fault, (mother nature, global warming, who knows) but they can't really keep up with cleaning the beach. The other natural beach this resort has is protected due to sea turtles, so it's a disaster too.

Grand Riviera Princess: Great Vacation with Great friends! Hope this review helps.

This is the second time to this resort for me. I travelled with 8 adults and 5 kids ranging from 4-16, from July 24-31. Large resort but I really enjoyed it! I would definitely return to this resort again. PROS: No problems checking in. We were upgrade which was a nice surprise (not to the platinum section). All four families were located close together. Wifi is available everywhere it seems. We used WhatsApp to keep in touch with each other. The only trick there was to remember to reconnec [... read more]t when you moved to a different part of the resort. It didn’t always stay connected. Great food at the buffets, lots of variety, maybe the best tasting hamburgers on the beach I have ever had. The steak restaurant was very decent but the best was the Miso restaurant where they prepared the meal in front of you on a grill. Fantastic! Great drinks at all the bars (Jesus was fantastic, made the best mojitos) served in 500 ml plastic glasses. Rooms did not smell musty which can happen at these types of resorts. The a/c worked great in the rooms and the beds were very comfortable. Rooms were clean and functional. We spent a lot of time in the sports bar, great service and great drinks, also a place to cool off in the a/c and play some pool. The evening shows were hit and miss for us, really depends what you like I guess. Aladdin and Moana were the big hits for the kids. They had fun meeting the characters after the show and getting pictures with them. They were well done. The grounds are very well maintained and all the staff I met was always polite and friendly. I was told it was 98% occupancy when we were there but there were still lots of chairs on the beach and around the property. Chairs around the pool were usually taken by 8 in the morning. Saw monkeys and lots of the Coati mundi - tropical raccoons, especially at the beach bbq. CONS: Fondue restaurant was just okay, wouldn't choose to do it again. The trolley could run more frequently. On a separate note, there was/is a seaweed problem in all of the Caribbean. The resort did a good job keeping the beach clean when they could. From the plane you can see small island size patches of floating seaweed so when one of those hits a beach it is a lot of work to clean up. This resort did a good job. If you have a chance, go snorkeling with the whale sharks if you can. It was an amazing tour! Saw lots of giant manta rays as well. Highlight of my trip!

Dreams Puerto Morelos Resort and Spa: just ok

We just got back from SS and for the price point, it was just ok. We have been here 2 times previous and we were disappointed in so many things this time. If you are beach people, avoid this resort. The beach is a disaster and has a terrible smell that sometimes wafts up into the resort. The resort is only a 15 minutes or so from the airport so that is nice. The grounds are well kept and the people are wonderful. The resort caters to a younger crowd. The rooms clean, stocked daily. Our ro [... read more]om lacked bedside lights, desk light - had a dining table but no chairs. the balcony missing the table and chairs. You expect the room and amenities to be ready when you arrive. We had to ask for bathrobes and slippers. There were many other glitches, too many to mention, its enough to say that they are missing the mark in service delivery. The breakfast buffet, Mexican theme night was great and all the restaurants were comparable to other all inclusive resorts. There is a main pool where all the action is and everyone there seemed to be having a great time. The other pools were quiet and you could find a quiet space. The staff save this place. Most are helpful and friendly. We likely will give this resort a pass next time we plan a get away.

Grand Sunset Princess: Its ok

The resort is huge. It takes about 10 minutes to go to the ocean from our room. Lots of pools. Buffet Food is pretty good. We went with 2 children. Child friendly. We had some problems in our room but as soon as we mentioned it there was someone there to fix it. All in all a pretty good resort. Beach had ALOT of seaweed and had a funky smell the whole time we were there, probably due to all the seaweed rottening in the sun. That was pretty disappointing but that nature out of our control.

Grand Sunset Princess: Gréât resort

The hotel was beautiful . It was breathtaking to see how clean and proper everything was . The decor the gardening the pool section , the restaurants and the entertainment was just amazing . Loved every moment spent at the Grand sunset princess .

Royalton Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa: Royalton Mayan Riviera

We just returned home from a week at the Royalton Hideaway and wanted to share a little of our experience while on the property. We are keeping in mind that we travel frequently to both Cancun and the Mayan so trying to be as objective and fair as possible. The good: Great selection of places to dine and better yet, only one requires a reservation (the asian cuisine one i believe). Terrific set up for younger kids as well as teens. They recognize that they are some distance from the hotel  [... read more]zone and the ammenities of shopping and entertainment so they have done a very good job of providing lots of options to keep everyone occupied while guests at Royalton. The rooms are spacious and comfortable. Nothing too flashy but better than average in our opinion. The food is quite good and the service in most of the dining facilities is excellent. The bad: The main dining facility which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner (every resort seems to have one of these catch all buffets) is called Gourmet Marche. It might be more aptly named the Cattle Call Cafeteria. It's a very large glorified hall that high school students would be at home in and had a food fight broken out, I would not have even blinked an eye. Its chaotic, loud and borderline obnoxious. The food there, although a large selection, left much to be desired. Again a reminder that we have been to numerous resorts in Mexico and this point should be taken with an objective eye. Royalton is a very large resort (not sure the number of rooms on site) and depending on where you stay, you may spend much time walking to destinations on the property in the heat that is Mexico. This may be a moot point for some but I prefer smaller, more intimate venues with an easier proximity to points of interest on the property. (also, please see cattle call in previous remark). The beach: Well it is the Mayan Riviera and its always an uphill battle with the seaweed which for many people is a large deterrent. The locals work very hard to clear the seaweed but it is inevitable that you will encounter it daily on the local beaches. The staff are very a typical of an upper echelon Mexican hotel. Cheerful, polite and attentive for the most part. I would give this resort a solid 4 for anyone interested. Hope this helps a little

Grand Sirenis Matlali Hills: Pros and cons

Matteo Quintieri Resort review - Grand Sirenis Matlali Hills July 22-29th I have a few things to address about my Vacation at Grand Sirenis Matlali Hills. I will start with pro and cons. (Pros)- 1 This resort was beautiful. We loved the area and every aspect of the resort. The lay out is great. The pools are amazing. The rooms are gorgeous. Nothing bad to say about the actual resort. 2. Breakfast was amazing (Cons) - Unfortunately there are many cons. 1 ) The buffet is [... read more] terrible. Not very much Options to choose from. Always the same stuff. The buffet closes at 10:30. We went to dinner at 9:00 one evening and by 9:30 they were taking all the food off the buffet. 2 Good Luck getting a reservation for the restaurants they always say they are fully booked. Even 2 days in advance. I randomly walked into one at dinner time and sat down. Only to see at least 10 tables empty. Was not very happy. 3 The concierge staff do not stop bothering you about time share meeting. Which if you go they will give you a free massage. What really bothered me is that I told them about me not being able to have a proper dinner at the restaurants because there is never any availability. Then they said if I go on the day tour to another resort they will be able to get there $100 bonus and they will make my reservation happen. I was floored. I can’t believe that I pay just like everyone else but if I do a time share meeting they will get me in for a dinner reservation. Couldn’t believe what I was hearing. 4 This is the best part. I booked Adults Only section but to wake up in the middle of the night to a crying baby in the room next door to me. I woke up and went straight to concierge and told them what had happened. The only thing for him to tell me was that this was impossible. Lol I asked to be moved but they told me the resort was fully booked. This is the end of July and the resort was empty. They said I can upgrade my room for another $200 US per day. Then one guy behind the desk winks at me and says Amigo I can get you the room for $80 US per day. Again I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. At the end of the day I just wanted a relaxing vacation but this really turned into a long stressed out week for me and my Fiancée. I will never go back to this place again. Beautiful place yes but not worth dealing with all these issues on vacation. The client care was terrible and they don’t care about any issue that had occurred. I have to say I work very hard to save money to go on vacation and I am very disappointed in this situation. I want to say I love trip central and the amazing assistance of Graham O’Neil. He did everything he could to make my booking very easy. Excellent client care on his behalf and I will book again with him. Great work

Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun: Secrets Maroma

The hotel was great and the staff and services were also very good. Low marks in the wet bar as the hotel would not provide bottles of wine to the room. Our biggest disappointment was the seaweed (sargassum) on the beach. If you want a beach vacation, this may not be the spot for you.

Bahia Principe Escape Sian Ka'an: awesome stay

Great for people who want to book all of their meals being al a carte. If like higher end meals book more or all in the Gourmet restaurants and wear long pants. Golf is fantastic, mention that flew with Air Canada for better rate, even if didn't, they don't care. Off the beach, however shuttles to beach, or Bahia Principe properties Telum and Akumel leave regularly.

Dreams Riviera Cancun: Okay trip not the best!

We hadn’t gone on vacation in six years.. We chose to go with Dreams Riveira Cancún Resort & Spa. Not the greatest stay.. food was very blan, always the same choices not many variety. Entertainment team wasn’t the greatest lack of popular music needed to be played. They mostly played jazz everyday at the pool, when we at least expected Latin music to be played. Beach was full of sea weed but they were working hard everyday to clean the beach. We enjoyed our breakfast/lunch server at the w [... read more]orld cafe Anacacio made our mornings a good one. Don’t plan on going back to this resort mostly because the food was not the greatest!!

Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya: Great Resort with Great Food!

My kids and I really enjoyed this resort. The food was excellent. Loved the clean pools and the lazy river. Wasn't a fan of the beach area. :( .But the snorkeling in the area was amazing. The incredible Dolphin swim was right on the resort saving us time by not having to take a shuttle for this experience. Overall I was very pleased with Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya.

Bahia Principe Explore Coba: Good quality but has its drawbacks

Pros: Always good to open with what worked at this resort. Overall maintenance was good. Area is quite lush and full of vegetation, plenty of lizards )although far too many fed the Iguanas which have become quite brazen and the Hotel is trying to manage) and other wildlife which adds a good dynamic. Grounds are well kept and Villas are in good upkeep. Food quality is very good and there was never any issue with supply or access to food. Pasta, crepe and Omellet bar service was fantastic.  [... read more]Friday night is themed Canadian night at the buffet which my kids enjoyed. From a cosmetic and food quality perspective the resort fully met expectations and lived up to the Bahia brand on these levels Cons: for late July this resort was very busy and I understand likely at capacity and in my opinion understaffed for the inner of guests in hand!!! Why? We had to wait for a table to eat at Buffett (breakfast and dinner) and you had to ask for the table to be cleared, supplied with cutlery and good luck getting drink service (water, juice, soft drinks or alcohol) unless you booked a restaurant for dinner and it did not matter if it was peak dining time or not. In fact we caught on that if you wanted a table cleared you had to stand up at the table until you caught someone’s attention to clear and set the table. Even then is was 50/50 for drinks. For reserved restaurants we could only book 3/4 reserved restaurants as all the times had booked up literally within a 2 hours of our arrival so get in quick! To be fair we could have booked a fourth but they offered a 930 pm seating which I did not feel was practical. During buffet dining which you will have to partake in during your stay, If you left your table for food service it would be swiped so someone had to remain at table at all times. I found this to be very annoying. Staff in the buffet area were not friendly in this restaurant. This is likelh a symptom of being over worked. To their defence they could barely keep up to the number of diners present. A similar rule applies to pool chairs. Folks would place towels out at 730 am only to return at 1pm (no enforcement by he resort here) and in general getting a chair poolside or in shade was a no go on two of the 7 mornings. Some people were forced to lay out towels in the grass under a palm tree for a place to sit. Again - not enough resources to service a full property. The Coba resort is quite the inconvenient distance from the “Tulum” property where you can access the beach or various reserved restaurants. Large resorts will use a buggy or train service as does this however using the “train” service was frustrating. Be warned there are Significant wait times and a race to get on the train when it would arrive from the main lobbie or Hacienda! Even with small children, strollers etc. people would not hesitate to jump the line. At times common manners lacked from the guests - again likely a symptom of operating at capacity devoid of sufficient resource to manage guests. The walk to the beach from Coba was way too far so if you like being fairly close to he Beach or at least see Ocean in the distance even if a pool person you could find far better options. Essentially this resort was too big and set back to far from the Ocean for my liking. In comparison to the Bahia Principe Punta Cana the recommendation would be to visit Punta Cana if you had the choice. Uncontrollable: seaweed on the beach during June and July is evidently a natural phenomena. While we prefer the pool a traditional walk along the beach to look for sea shells etc or a pleasant stroll was impossible and not enjoyable in an area that is reknown for beautiful beaches due to the excessive amount of accumulated seaweed. And I mean excessive! While the resort employed full time people (gruelling work) shovelling and removing seaweed on bobcats stacks were remained up to 4 feet high in late afternoon. If you are looking for a beach experience be forewarned to steer clear at this time of year. I’ve been to Mayan Riviera many times and had never seen the beach like this. To be fair we were warned by the agent and having experienced seaweed around the same time in Punta Cana last year, I was not prepared for what I saw here at the end of July. The Hotel has installed barriers in an attempt to control the problem albeit the downside is they diminished the beauty of the ocean view. In fact it may have made things worse and they seemed to trap the seaweed in a designated swimming area. The children’s water park is suitable for kids up to about the age of 7. Overall the resort experience was fair and in hindsight compared to the high standard set with this chain in Runaway Bay and Punta Cana disappointing and not a preferred recommendation for the money.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Great Trip

Let's first start with the resort itself. The place is massive so be prepared to walk a lot to get from building to building. If you like to stay at the main pool or the beach, if you're situated in Building 4 or 5, you have a long walk to get to the main buffet or a la carte restaurants for dinner. Despite the resort being so spread out in size, it really is a beautiful place. The Pool Area is nice. There's always fun stuff going on there between music, activities etc. There are 3 pools on  [... read more]the resort. One is closer to the lobby and two are closer to the beach. These are the main pools. I was a bit disappointed to not have a swim up bar, especially since the water in the pool was virtually a hot tub. The Beach: It's seaweed season apparently at the moment. So the water isn't that clear blue colour from your dreams ;) At the start of our trip, the seaweed was in piles along the beach. My guess is they pile it to let it dry because within 2-3 days, it was gone. Despite the water being darker in colour, we still stayed at the beach more than we did the pool. We swam in the ocean multiple times and it was no problem for us. Far more refreshing than going into the hot tub that was the pool. The beach only had one bar which was the only downfall. It was always packed and there were always lots of people at the bar. There's also a great little lagoon to visit. If you're looking at the ocean, turn to your left and walk about 10 minutes. You won't regret visiting this little paradise. The Room: Very well air conditioned. Got too cold at one point. It has everything you need for a standard room. Nothing more, nothing less. Washrooms were great, shower is great. The food: By far the best food I have had at a resort ever. The main buffet near the lobby was a pretty good hike from our room so we typically ate breakfast at the beach buffet. This restaurant became an a la carte at dinner so it's only available for breakfast and lunch. We never really ate lunch there as we'd typically walk to the lobby area to get some drinks at the sports bar before heading to lunch at the main buffet. We ate dinner at the seafood a la carte (beach buffet during the day) first. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. I'd put in that middle area that you'll be content with but won't have good things to say. The food tasted good, it just didn't have enough seafood for me to call it seafood. We did the Mexican a la carte next which was amazing. really good food and great vibe in the restaurant. The last a la carte we did was Italian. This was also really really good. Very romantic setting if you're celebrating anything special. There was also a french a la carte and a steakhouse which we were unable to try because we had booked excursions and got back late.But I heard both are fantastic. Staff: Contrary to some reviews we read - we never had a single issue with staff. They are super nice and helpful. The only thing to be aware of is some of them are a bit aggressive trying to sell you an upgrade. It starts off with an invite for free vouchers at the spa and breakfast to find out more about there VIP program. We said no to all of it but from what we heard, it ends up being a presentation for time shares. Accept the offer at your own risk. We also declined to deal with staff for excursions. We booked everything through our travel company which was west jet vacations. They had a rep on the resort all day to help and answer all our questions. The only negative for service was at checkout. We called in advance to have a cart come pick us up at our building so we didn't have to walk with our luggage. We waited for almost 40 min and no cart came so we decided just to walk instead. Excursions to Consider when visiting Riviera Maya: Island of Cozumel, Ruins in Coba, Ruins in Tulum - The island of Cozumel has a secret beach you'll want to visit 10 times over. Overall we had a great time and experience. Would I go back to this resort? probably not but we're also the type of people who like to try new resorts. None of them are ever perfect anyways. We'll definitely visit Mexico again though.