Grand Riviera Princess All Suites Resort and Spa All Inclusive

The staffs were not kind and had no willing to help customers. I don't want to stay there again. I won't recommend this hotel my friend.

The resort is very large, so if you want to go to the pool or beach, you have to walk about 15 minutes if your in the front units. Don't pay for the differnce between the Deluxe Jr. suite or the Jr. Suite, there is not much of a differnce. Rooms were not done until after 3:00. You can check in before 3:00 but they will not issue keys until 3:00, so when 3:00 approaches, you waiting in line for about 30 minutes to get your keys. Service was good in very few resturants, otherwise, you had to call them just to bring water to you. we complained, and they always mentioned that they were totally booked so we felt that was there out, to saying we are sorry. Only two beers per day in the mini-refrig. provided in the room, so its not fully stocked. No alarm clock in the rooms. Too many merchants booths line up on the beach, so you do not get a clear view of the beach from your lounge chair. Could not see my kids when in the water. Beach is a little rocky and water is not clear, unlike the Beaches in Cancun, which are cystal clear. I would not recommend this resort or ever go back.

Although the resort wait staff was OK, the front desk staff was dis-respectful and less than helpful. After messing up my reservations, they put me in the wrong type of room and really could have cared less if I was a happy guest or not. It wasn't until I reached out to travel agent that things got straighten out. Thank you to my travel website for rescuing my vacation. No thanks to the front desk at the Grand Princess. I will not be staying there again.

We stayed here along with another couple May 18th-22nd. The other couple had the same disappointing experience we did. We arrived at 12pm, check in was not until 3pm, my fault for not checking. They are very strict on this, so don't come early thinking you can get to your room a little early (even if you offer to pay more). We get to the room to find the 'minibar' un-stocked, a half empty water bottle, and fridge warm (no freezer in the mini fridge). Normally we would not mind but we were traveling with our 9 month old daughter so we needed a cool place to store her milk. The bathroom was dirty (found a huge toenail on the floor GROSS!) The tub was dirty or stained, and there were only two bath towels, and no hand towels. These things all sound minor but when you arrive at a hotel, you expect things to be clean, and pretty... not the case for us. On to the beach. This is probably the WORST part of this resort. When you think Riviera Maya, you think beautiful blue beach, amazing views, and relaxation. Not the case here. Unless you are in the privileged suites area, you walk onto the beach and are IMMEDIATELY harassed to do a massage, snorkeling/diving trip ect. There are vendors lined up all along the beach selling everything from scuba trips to henna tattoos. You cannot bring your beach chair past the vendors (it's roped off) so you get to sit on a beach, in a beach chair, and stare at huts selling junk. Behind the huts is the beach, which gets very overcrowded because of the lack of space between the vendors and water. Next is the privileged suites only amenities. Unless you have booked your privileged suite, you DO NOT HAVE FREE WIFI it's $60 a week for us regular folk... top shelf alcohol is available at all bars FOR A CHARGE if you are not a privileged patron. I don't mind having special amenities for people who pay more but it was quite embarrassing when I was told I do not have the correct wrist band to order absolute vodka in my drink, and WiFi is free in EVERY SINGLE other all-inclusive resort I have stayed at. Buffet was sub-par, steakhouse/grill restaurant was delicious, and the Mexican restaurant was essentially the same you could find at the buffet. Needless to say we will not be returning to this resort, and I highly recommend Sandos Playacar over this resort any-day.

We had a negative experience from the beginning of our arrival at this resort. We booked a Platinum Suite on the Riviera side of the resort. However when we received our key, we had to find our room on our own. We were instructed that the only place serving food was the Sports Restaurant, and we were hungry, having not eaten since before our flight 8 hrs earlier. Food was horrible there. We arrived in our room, our luggage came shortly there after. I knew this was not the Platinum Suite that was described on the Orbitz site. The staff member comfirmed that it was not and the Platinum suites were at the Sunset side only. I immediately called the front desk, and they said that this was a modified Platinum room. I then went to see the concierge, and she was kind, understanding, and promised to put us on the list as 'number one' for the next Platinum room. When nothing happened the next day, I went to the concierge and was told the original girl was not working for several days, and they knew nothing about this. The third day, we could not take it anymore. We tried for it not to ruin our vacation, but we were on the third floor, and no elevator in this building. Our view was of the woods. The only thing they did to this regular room to make it "Platinum" was they placed some amenities in the bathroom. On the third day, I went to the front desk, and told them this vacation was not what we had expected. We had intentionally booked this resort after researching many, because of it's Platinum rooms being close to the beach and pools. The Princess did correct the problem, but explained to me that Orbitz, as well as all of the travel agents were informed that the Riviera section of the Platinum Suites are all under renovations, and are not opened. The Sunset Platinum are opened with limited amt of rooms. Orbitz should have informed their customers who think they are getting a Riviera Platinum resort, (paying for such also), but not receiving one. When we finally did get the Platinum Suite on the Sunset side, there was a huge improvement in the room, size, amenities, LOCATION, respect, buffet, and everything overall. I think that the resort needs to explain more about where everything is, besides handing you a map, which does not have everything labeled. The second half of our vacation was wonderful, The grounds were well maintained. Staff was friendly, food was just ok at the buffets, but the ala carte restaurants were very good.

This was my third trip to Mexico in the past 5 years. We picked this resort because we thought that it was in Playa del Carmen but it turned out that we had to take a 20-minute ride to get to the center of Playa del Carmen. The resort and the rooms were beautiful. The beach was full of seaweed and it was rocky in many areas. The beach area was full with massage huts and vendors, which blocked the beach views in many areas and limited the number of available beach chairs under huts. People were going very early in the morning and leaving their towels and books on the chairs to reserve them. By 8 am, there were no chairs available. The all-inclusive package included buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. It also included vouchers for “a la carte” dinners. We arrived on Saturday morning and went immediately after checking in to reserve for the a la carte dinners. We were able to reserve at one restaurant twice at 9 pm and all the others were completely booked. Apparently, they limit the a la carte dinners to 40 people per half an hour, which is unrealistic given the size of the resort. With a 2 year old, it was difficult to eat at 9 pm and they were not very accommodating to us. Additionally, in the buffet restaurants, we walked out with a banana and a bread roll in our hand for our daughter because she didn't eat anything that day, the waiter followed us outside the restaurant and wanted us to put them back as if we were stealing food. I didn't pay $6,000 for the vacation to steal a banana and a bread roll. The quality of the food in the buffet restaurants or the a la carte restaurants was average to below average. The staff in general was very kind and friendly. The front desk staff and concierge service were not very nice and nor very helpful. We were trying to call a local taxi company (Grey Line) to confirm our return trip to the airport. For some reason, the hotel phone lines were "unable to call the number" because it was considered "long distance". However, we could make the call from our room with a $5 connection charge then $1.60 per minute after that. Eventually, I called on my cell phone and had them confirm it for us. There was entertainment every night. It was not great but it was ok. They had music bands, dance shows and fire shows. They also had a sports bar that was open all night with billiard tables, air hockey and foosball tables, many flat screen TV’s showing NBA basketball, college basketball, tennis, soccer, and hockey. I certainly had a much better time during my previous two visits to Mexico and my stay at the other resorts was much more relaxing and enjoyable. The resort is just way too big, crowded and it took almost 10 minutes to walk from our room to the beachfront. The bottom line is that the hotel advertises things that it does not provide. It offered a beautiful beachfront, great food and restaurants and a 4 star rating. What we got was a 4 star resort and room appearance and a 2-3 star service.

If you're looking for a weekend getaway with pool and drinks this is fine. If you want good food and more amenities look elsewhere. If you don't upgrade to a suite the only restaurant reservations made available to you are 6PM and you aren't allowed to dine at over half of the a la cartes.

We usually stay at the Riu resorts in Mexico and Jamaica which we absolutely love but decided to see if we were missing out on some better resorts. We paid a lot more to stay at the Grand Riviera Princess than we would have paid to stay at a Riu so we were thinking we were getting a better resort. This is a beautiful resort that falls short in so many areas. Basically, you check in and are then left to figure everything else out on your own, from getting to your room to where restaurants are and everything in between. We were in the platinum building and my sister was in a villa for one week. We knew we were entitled to extras amenities but were never told about them by the resort staff. The staff is not friendly (came across one friendly guy on a golf cart making a delivery) and they don't know anything about the resort other than things that pertain to their job (the main building with all the restaurants is very large and we had to ask 2 different people where one restaurant was as there are no maps posted or signs directing you to the restaurants). There are so many common sense things missing such as no towel hooks in the bathroom, no instructions in the room on how to turn on the electric (knew from reading forums that your key card is put into a slot by the door to turn it on), how to turn on ceiling fans (sliding tabs hidden on the walls) or how the AC works (it is in Spanish and has many settings). Breakfast at the restaurant by the platinum building was not done well - ran out of bacon almost every day and even ran out of scrambled eggs one day forcing us to have an omelet made by a very unfriendly lady. It's not as though we were getting there just before they closed, we were usually there between 8am and 9am. They would have mustard out for breakfast but no ketchup and then at lunch, no mustard and the ketchup would run out so no condiments for the hamburgers and hotdogs. Guacamole ran out everyday and like everything else, was not re-filled. Lunches at the platinum restaurant were pretty good but choices were limited. We are used to endless choices at the Rui. Will say the dinner buffet in the main building was very good every night. We ate at the Japanese restaurant (hibachi table) one night and it was very good and entertaining. I talked to a lady one day staying in a regular room with her parents and her son. They called to get extra coffee and were told they would have to pay for it!! We didn't go to the beach because the water was so bad - filled with rocks and tons of seaweed. I'm from NJ and can tolerate seaweed but this was wall to wall in the water and on the beach!! The large center pool where the entertainment takes place each day is a lot of fun with music playing whereas the other pools are more quiet and no music. The pool by the platinum building is massive huge but other than the 12 seats around the swim up bar and inside the jacuzzi there is no place to hang out - no built in tables with stools, no seating ledge around the perimeter. Also, the only way in and out of this pool is by ladders or the one area where it becomes very shallow whereas the pool in the center of the resort has multiple areas with steps - very strange to do in one pool but not others. We talked to quite a few people and everyone of them said they would not go back even though it was a beautiful resort. It is such a shame to have built a truly beautiful resort and to not have thought through the simple things that would make it superior and to not insist that your employees know the resort and know how to interact with the customers. Even though I have written a lot of negatives, I will say we didn't let this stop us from having a great time as it isn't worth letting the things you can't change ruin your vacation. Back to the Riu Resorts for us!!

The resort itself was absolutely beautiful! We stayed in a Platinum Suite, which had some positives and major negatives. The room was nice and big, but had a horrible horrible musty/mold-like smell and was EXTREMELY humid! No matter how low we tried to turn down the A/C it never got rid of the humidity and never got any cooler. We had issues with the outdoor jacuzzi knob breaking and having to get replaced (lost one night of jacuzzing b/c of it) and it took FOREVER for it to fill up (also the same one in the bathroom). We also had issues with breakers blowing if too many things were plugged in/on at the same time. We were under the impression that we would have vodka included in the room, which it wasn't. The premium bar consisted of a small bottle of tequila and 2 different types of rum. The Platinum Suites private pool and lounge was nice, which included free use of computers/Wi-Fi. The bar that was in the lounge closed at 11pm, which sucked considering the closest bar was all the way at the front of the resort...about a 15 minute walk or you had to catch a shuttle that came every 10-15 minutes. The lounge also had a 24-hour concierge available, which was helpful and we utilized numerous times! The beach was beautiful and very relaxing. We never had to worry about getting lounge chairs at the beach, which I know some people complained about. The grill on the beach was great...some of the best food at the resort. Beware that when getting in the water, the first 1 1/2-2 ft is covered with small pebbles/shells/rocks, which HURT your feet really bad! The water temperature was perfect though and hardly had any waves...nice to just cool off and float in the water. The food was overall pretty subpar. The buffets were terrible. We found that the best way to order breakfast was through room service, the best place for lunch was the grill on the beach and the restaurants open for dinner were hit or miss. The mexican restaurant and italian restaurant were terrible...food was cold and not good. The grill and chinese/tepanyaki restaurant were fabulous! Highly recommend only eating dinner at those 2 restaurants. The nightly shows at the resort were great and the drinks were pretty good at most of the bars. Sometimes the vodka had a weird taste like rum...but you couldn't go wrong with margaritas or fruity type drinks. The resort had 2 really good drinks I would highly recommend....Bahama Mama and Purple Rain. Overall, we had a nice time, but would probably prefer to stay at a smaller resort in a non-humid room!

Unfortunately, the hotel staff do not know how to respond to single travellers. The accomodations were lovely, but the staff always made a comment when I appeared for dinner to ask why are you alone, where is your husband. Single travllers are increasing and I had to continual explain that I was travelling alone on purpose for R&R away from my spouse and daughter. There was a free shuttle to Playa Del Carmen and this was only mentioned upon check out.