Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda - All Inclusive

"Buyer Beware" is all I can say. Where do I start? Room check in was 4 hours late, requested a king bed vs 2 twin beds(who spends anniversary in seperate beds?), my wife and I along with about a dozen others got food poisoning, we had 3 scheduled apts. with our [...]rep and he never showed up for the entire trip(looked for him every day!), 95% of staff was not bi-lingual and spoke about as much english as I do spanish(not good), [...]offered a free upgrade for ammenities that the resort did not honor(gift upon arrival-comp. room service-spa credit-etc.-didn't happen), food was average at best, staff lost all my paperwork for the trip(dinner vouchers for cancun and site seeing along with original flight and hotel info)they were unable to help me at all when I tried to get copies, if you don't tip big they ignore you the entire trip, can't forget the screaming kids. The best part of this entire trip was the maid service and the kid that stocked my mini bar(still not worth a couple of grand though!), had trouble checking out, charged me for room service(which was comp'd) and told me good luck getting a cab that this was Mexico and I would not be able to leave without paying! Honestly who the [*] do these people think they are? By far the worst all-inclusive trip we have ever taken.

Hotel not a 5 stars, badly need renovation. I can't describe this hotel as really bad or good I have really mixed feelings about it. Food in both buffets very simple and bland, but if you can't cook, or you don't care what you eat, you might like it. Italian, Mexican, French and Asian restaurants did very nice food presentation. Steak house was disappointment because it was part of day time buffet building, nothing special, you don't feel that you in restaurant when you sit in worn off low wicker chare and your chin resting on table top. Bartender next to Snack café was very rude, didn't even try to hide his disrespect to vacationers. Sport bar will give you nice service for 24 hours and you will fill special. For me swimming in the ocean or sea and long walk on the beach are main reason for the travel to the Mexico, but beach wasn't there, it wasn't recover since hurricane 2 years ago, Caribbean sea was knee deep, but if you like fish touching you, you might like it, it is a lot of fish there and it is not my idea of fun. Huge problem you might have if you will be unlucky to end up there in rain season. Rain caught us once and in 3 minutes we were soaking wet. And this can be huge problem because large distances between lodgings, restaurants and I don't know what possible to do there in the rain other than sit in Sport bar. Another great service that impresses me it is work of concierge. We leaved in building #8; furthest building in resort and every concierge for our building were polite, patient and responsive. Only GREAT 5 STAR attraction there it is Spa. This is place you must visit if you risked to spend your vacation in this resort. In every resort that I visited and it is usually twice a year, I have at least one spa treatment in every resort. So trust me it is best Spa ever. But bottom line, I wouldn't recommend my friends to visit this resort.

Let me start by saying that I always take these types of reviews with a grain of salt. My husband and I are pretty simple people - we don't demand high class accommodations or service. With that being said, I'd like to share my opinions. The good: Our first impressions were fantastic! The rooms were very modern. Our bed was great as well as the shower in the bathroom. There were always plenty of seats at the pool and beach, even in the shade, at any time of the day. I've stayed at other resorts and open seats in the shade are not always available unless you go out at 6:00am to save chairs. The food was so-so. We ate the buffet mostly but tried out the Steakhouse and Mexican restaurants. The Steakhouse was our favorite! We upgraded our room to receive free room service and enjoyed that a few times as well. While the menu is limited, it only took 25 minutes to get our food. The bad: I was very disappointed in bar service. I am used to going to all-inclusive resorts and receiving exceptional service when it comes to bars and this was my worst experience yet. No one seemed interested in serving us whatsoever. The pool service was slow as well and it was often easier and quicker to get out of the pool and walk to the bar and get our own drinks. Our final tipping point came at check out. Our building was the furthest away from the lobby so when we checked out with our buiding concierge, they called the bus boy and we waited outside in the heat with our luggage for 15 minutes. When he finally showed up, he only had a luggage cart and there were no seats for us to ride back. We were told we had to walk back because the shuttles don't come to our building. We know this not to be true because when we arrived, they shuttled us to our room with our luggage. So we took our 5-10 minute walk back to the lobby in the 90+ degree heat. We were both drenched in sweat by the time we made it to the lobby. Of course, there was no option to take a shower so we were sent to the airport in sweaty clothes with no chance to clean-up until we got home around 1:00am. I can't explain how frustrated we were. Prior to that last experience, I would've recommended this resort to others. However, that just does not send a good lasting impression.

The room was filthy and smelled. Room 2 clean but smelled musty. Spoke to manager, very unhelpful said that there was nothing he could do [...] Upsold us on room with Ocean view. Room had little to no view of ocean, had a great view of mangrove. They say they have 5 resturants. Its only 2 per night. And you can't get a reservation. After we were about to leave the manager made reservations for us. Resturants were good but hardly full. Food was good but servers acted like we were bothering them. Great service in buffet. Poor in Dining room. Entertainment was low budget. If you like spanish TV...it was alot like that. The pool and grounds are beautiful just like pictures. Bartenders very friendly. Over all I give it 2 stars out of 5. Or rate it a 6 out of 10 over all.

The hotel accomodations were terrible. They don't clean your room until 4 5 pm. They don't allow you more than 1 towel for the beach. And most of all the food is terrible.

The resort is nothing special. Beware that the location is in Playa Del Carmen and not in Cancun like the website says it is. The food is ok, the pool is nice, but the beach is terrible.

this place is a joke !!! they wouldnt even give us a straw. they also wanted to charge us 12.00 for roomservice. never again.!!!!!!!

This resort was very disappointing. The beach was very small, the ocean was filled with kelp and you could not swim in the ocean. The hotel rooms were run down and the place in general was poorly taken care of. We changed hotels and refused to stay even a night at this resort. There are so many beautiful hotels in this area but this is not one of them.

never come back again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[...]. There wasn't any kind of welcome drink or smile. We were talked into the "90 min." sales pitch by our building Concierge for becoming "Club Members" it took 6 hours of telling them NO only to be called fools for not signing. A wasted second day.The third day, the building ran out of water for 30 min. and electricity for 10min. The last day the electrical key had us locked out for 30 min. The restaurant food was good, not great. The Mexican restaurant was the best more than you can eat portions and flavorful; the "sexy Coffee" was entertaining and yummy! The Seafood and Steak restaurants were good but nothing outstanding there. The Italian, were very small portions even for a small appetite. The place was clean, very clean. The beach was narrow, and is sand bagged until the beach restoration is finished. Security was handled well when individuals didn't know when to stop drinking. There is a 1/4+ walking distance from the Lobby and buildings 7&8, and 3 of the 5 specialty restaurants to the beach, large pool area and the other 2 specialty restaurants. There are electrical carts to transport you run during the evening hours but keep alert so you don't get hit! Except for the check-in clerk, the others were friendly enough.Heads up, they don't change your coffee cups, they're washed in the room. We had the same cracked cup all week. And twice we received water bottles in the mini bar that had been opened.