RIU Palace Riviera Maya All Inclusive

I am a huge fan of the Riu chain of hotels. When staying in Cancun, the service, hotels, everything was beyond fantastic. I had always wanted to stay at the Riu Palace Riveria Maya. My husband agreed to stay there for our honeymoon and I was thrilled. However, it didn't take long for my excitement to turn to disappointment. In the total of four days we were there, we were moved to three different hotel rooms (the toilet didn't work and maintenance never showed up to fix it; a screen door was missing so we couldn't enjoy the patio; the tub leaked; the hot water was shut off at certain times during the day so we couldn't take hot showers; etc.). The linens in the dining rooms were dirty and stained. It's hard to believe this is a 4.5 star hotel. I believe my expectations were too high and because of that, I was very let down. I will never stay at this hotel again.

We walked in to a musty smelling lobby. The room was just as musty. All bed linens and dining room linens looked dirty and overused. The food was bad. We will never stay at a RIU hotel again.

We went on our honeymoon expecting to be a romantic hotel as we were told, but it was not. The upkeep of the hotel is very good and it's very beautiful outside, but the rooms were very average, and for a 5 star hotel, i expected it to be better. i took pics of the bathroom where the paint and wall of the ceiling were ripped and getting brown and some places on the wall looked very old and musty smelling. I expected luxury, but i felt like we were in a typical cancun resort. I did not like the fact we had to make reservations beforehand to eat at the one of the 5 restaurants and we only had a time between 12pm - 3pm to make the reservations. If we waited too long to make the reservation, then we were not able to eat at the restaurants. We were stuck eating at the one buffet restaurant they had. Some customers were trashy and made the environment around the pool very loud and party mode, but we only wanted to spend a quiet, classy luxurious time for our honeymoon without the party atmosphere, which unfortunately, was party atmosphere with some roudy customers in the pool all day making noise and at night. The hotel did not make any effort for our honeymoon, I had to ask them to send us something like champagne three days after. Once they sent up a plate of fruits (apples and bananas) which had ants crawling in them when we walked in the room in the evening. We were very upset and disgusted, then they sent champagne after I shoed them the plate and sent it back and complained. I don't feel they did anything or made any effort to compensate us for that or make it up at all as a customer service effort. We also asked many times for different things from room service or front desk, and they would take an hour and many reminder calls from us to finally bring up the stuff we ordered. When we checked out, they had nothing to say to us or the manager never bothered speaking with us regarding the room complaints we made, the ants in the fruit plate or anything else, despite us asking to speak with the manager many times. Overall, I wished we had spent our honeymoon at another resort that was more luxurious and the rooms and service would have been better and more classy. I felt we just went to a regular resort in cancun where anyone can go to party. Also, the food at the two restaurants we ate at was not that good. The only really good thing about the resort was the beach, the pools and the outside maintenance and where the band would play.

The outstanding staff could not save this hotel from the awful food. All inclusive = already has guests money do not have to make food good to make profit. Better off going into town for meals.

We were looking forward to a fabulous experience because of all of the good ratings for this hotel.. HOWEVER we did not enjoy our stay at all. When we first got to the hotel, we were joined by a large group of people who were waiting hours to have their rooms ready for them to check in to. The front desk staff were rude, and they ignored us multiple times throughout our stay. Even though it was low season when we went, it was nearly impossible to get any dinner reservations, so we were stuck eating at the buffets all of the time. The buffet food was pretty good, but the service was terrible. There are way too many people staying there for the low amount of workers they have. The pool water was very colds so unless it is a extremely hot day you probably wont want to go swimming. The beach did not have any service on it, and there were cigarette butts and trash in the sand. The bedsheets in our suite were damp every day, and the rooms were not nice at all. Dark and dismal! In addition, one of the cleaners stole our digital camera with our trip photos. We spoke to the GM of the hotel and he did nothing about it. On the positive side, the beach of playa del carmen is amazing- you can walk right from the hotel beach all the way down to the downtown 5th st. in playa del carmen where all of the shops and entertainment are. It's a great walk to do in the afternoon, and to come back by sunset. If you choose to taxi one way, it is an inexpensive taxi too. The hotel is also very grand. Beautiful lobby and live piano- huge chandeliers and domed gorgeous ceilings. It was a beautiful property, but we just weren't impressed with out overall stay. Instead of staying here, I would DEFINITELY suggest that you stay at one of the Palace brand resorts. If you do this- I can PROMISE you that you will have the best vacation of your lifetime. My boyfriend and I have travelled a lot together, and our stay at the Cozumel Palace (just a ferry ride from Playa Del Carmen) was by far the best experience we have ever had. The Cozumel palace has fabulous promotions on that give you free spa treatments and tours, and gorgeous rooms with huge Jacuzzi tubs! They are a smaller resort, with really good service. Perfect vacation for couples ( I wouldn't recommend it for kids of families though). Hope this helps! Have a great vacation :)

We have traveled to Playa Del Carmen on numerous occasions. For the most part our trips are great. This was not our first time at a Riu and was our second at this particular one. Good things: the service and staff were excellant, everyone was very friendly. Thank you [...]. The hotel is close to town which is why we selected it. The bad: Yes, there were cockroachers in the rooms. We have never encountered this in all our trips to Mexico. Also the pool was dirty. It was never cleaned the whole time we were there. This was also very surprising for the caliber hotel this is supposed to be. We will not return to his hotel.

The hotel is pretty and well maintained. The food is good. The buffet is good. We tried all the restaurants except the Mexican because my mother does not like Mexican. The only one we really liked was the Krystal. We had asked for a handicapped room because my mother is elderly and is slowing down. The room itself was nice and located near the buffet restaurant. Unfortunately the handicapped rooms are way down in the lower level with a fabric covered tennis fence right in front of the balcony and in your view. We would have loved to sit on the balcony but it was against the solid green fence and the noise of the tennis players. Also all the staff entered and exited walking in front of our balcony and could look into our room. We decided to upgrade our transportation for our return to the airport at the end of our week. We were told to meet the Orbitz representative at the hotel the day we arrived at 4:30. We met with an older fellow named [...]. He was the only unfriendly local person we met all week. To upgrade from a grey lines van to a private car cost $18.00 and that was fine with us. We paid him and he had no change as if he expected a tip or something. Towards the end of our meeting he became just a little more friendly but with attitude. When I confirmed our car a day before our departure I found out [...] never called in the change to Grey Lines and I had to arrange the private car myself and was able to leave 1/2 hour later not the one hour later NOE said we would have. He never told Grey Lines that we paid him the cash either. The receptionist at the hotel told me there would be a bellhop to help my mother and I with our luggage early the next morning. When I called in the morning there was no bellhop and the receptionist/concierge could not care less. There was not much breakfast available too even though we were told there was 24 hour room service. There were men in the room service area. It would have been nice if they could have helped us with our luggage to the front door.I only saw a stretch class on the beach given once, the first day in the seven days we were there. I wanted to take the class and after our first day no one ever offered it even though it was on the schedule. We enjoyed the after dinner music and the shows. Unfortunately the kids show had to happen in the theatre in between. It was unpleasant. We love the kids but it would be nice if they could do their show by the pool and the grown ups can listen to more music. We took a taxi to Playa del Car?, little local market and Playa del Carmen. It was easy, $5 each way and great for us because Mom could not walk so far. We also visited the Aviary down the street. I enjoyed that very much. There were lots of birds an animals to see. We loved our Maitre D's and waiters. The fitness center or gym needs a big renovation and upgrade, bad equipment and no diagrams. Lunch at the buffet restaurant was very nice and quiet. The lunch at the buffet by the pool was CRAZY, to much going on. I powerwalked on the bike path every morning on the main street and so did many others. It was nice. You can get your own to go coffee at the buffet and go. That was nice. It was a very busy week but we were able to get pool towels and lounge chairs every day. I did go in the early morning to put towels down on the weekend. The cabernet served at Krystal was the best wine of the week. The other wine in the hotel is just OK not great. I guess the week was a big MIX.

For the Money it was Just Ok !

This was our 2nd stay here. It is a beautiful location, but they are letting it go. There was trash by the pool and on the beach. The pool towels were old and stained and you are only allowed one per person. The tables at the pool and beach were dirty. The portions at the gourment dining restaurants were small, the buffets were very good. Dress code was not enforced at the restaurants. We could not find our Orbitz representative all week and wasted 2 hours one day waiting for him. On a positive note, the staff was very nice and tried to be as attentive as posible. This trip we took an excursion to X-Caret. It is beautiful there, but in order to get your money's worth I recommend planning your day BEFORE getting there and bringing bug spray. The mosquitos are fierce and the park map is difficult to follow. I would definately return to PLAYA, but would NOT return to this hotel.

Nice, clean hotel, great service in the restuarant and by the pool/beach. Could only eat dinner in the buffet restaurant b/c all other restaurants were booked for all 4 days we were there, which was very disapointing. The buffet was fine and had 1-2 main meals that were very good, rest of the food was fine to average. Plenty of chairs to choose from by the pool and beach, no need to stake-out a chair by 9am.