El Dorado Royale and Casitas Royale, A Spa Resort, Gourmet - Adults Only All Inclusive

The rooms shown on the website are not what you will reciceve upon arrival. The site also says that it is a gourmet resort. That couldnt be further from the truth. The food was terrible along with the staff. We left after one day and moved to a new resort. The rooms where so bad. The bed was truly a disappointment as well. The room was never cleaned and the staff didnt care at all that we were leaving and didnt even ask if they could do anything to make it better. We were there for our honeymoon and were treated terrible. The food was so bad, overall I give this resort a F.

The El Dorado Royale, unfortunately, did not live up to expectations. The biggest problem was the beach. If you want a nice beach experience, DO NOT go to this hotel. It has been blocked with huge sandbags, and unfortunately, it ruins the experience. The rooms and staff are nice, the meals are good. The grounds are beautiful. The hotel, though, has a bit of a dated feel to it. And, it is definitely quiet, so you must want a get away from it all experience.

Our reservations at El Dorado Royale were for Dec. 31-Jan. 6. We arrived at the resort on Jan. 1st due to a flight cancelation which is whole other story. When we became aware of the flight cancelation we called the resort to inform them that we wouldn't be there until Jan. 1st at approx. 6 a.m. and also to make sure our room would still be ready. They took down my name and assured me that it wouldn't be a problem. When we arrived at the resort our room was not available. They didn't have any notation that I had called the night before. They said my room wouldn't be ready until noon however they would put us in a temporary room to rest until it was ready. When we entered the temporary room we found a person laying in the bed! We immediately went back to the front desk. After waiting 20 minutes in the lobby while they investigated the situation they discovered it was a worker that had worked late the night before. We were shocked! They finally gave us another room that did NOT have anyone occupying it. After sevearal calls to the front desk we finally made it in our room by 1 p.m. which was an hour later than they was stated. Everything was great until the hot tub wouldn't hold water due to a broken seal and then the lazy river that I had paid extra for was off limits due to a broken pipe line. I was very upset at this point and talked to the head concierge. She said she would like to make our experience at the resort more pleasurable. She offerered reservations to any restaurant however this was an all inclusive resort. We didn't quite understand the purpose of her offer. She didn't bother to compensate us for the up charge of the lazy river room due to being off limits or offer a room change. She did offer two 25 minute massages but we had to sign a waiver stating we were being compensated for any past, present, or future problems. She also informed us that we were not being charging for the late check-in because that is their policy. This was after I had informed her that we had called and were reassured that everything would be fine and that our room would be available. We were very disappointed and offended by the head concierge's behavior. Finally after several calls on our part the hot tub was fixed that evening. The next afternoon the lazy river was up and running. Another disappointment was the harassment of another resort concierge calling twice and leaving daily notes under our door to attend a sales meeting to buy a time share. We did not attend based on the fact this was an hour and a half meeting and we were ON VACATION. Despite these negative experiences and the terrible weather we managed to have a good time. On a positive note the room was pleasant. The room service was great! The restaurants were very elegant and served wonderful gourmet dinners. The bars were great as well. These amenitities managed to keep our trip from being a total disaster.

This was meant to be a big posh trip for my wife and I. We payed the extra money to stay at a five star and really splurge on our honeymoon. The El Dorado Royale (EDR) was a big disappointment! I've been to many all inclusive resort in the 4-star range that provide a much better experience than the EDR. The biggest let down was the room...nothing like the photos online. We upgraded to the ocean view room. We had numerous issues from our AC malfunctioning, small bugs everywhere, the shower drain was clogged (you couldn't take a complete shower without turning off the water), a mechanical noise than consistently clicked on and off, bar fridge that was luke warm and more. I understand than many of these things are easy to get over and on most vacations I wouldn't have bothered to write about it, but given we paid the extra cash for a "5-star" resort and an upgrade on the room, I was thoroughly disappointed. Second to the room, the other issue with this place was the arrangement between the EDR Villas (our section) and the El Dorado Casitas (the exclusive section). We really felt liked we'd been duped into a timeshare scheme. The EDR Villas are the rundown rooms that they fill with tourists who they want to expose to the ownership program of the Casitas section. If you are staying in the EDR Villas you can walk in the Casitas section, even use the pool or get a drink at one of the bars, but there are signs restrictng your use of the chaise chairs, palapas, etc. Basically you can walk around and see what you are missing, but don't dare relax there. This only fueled our discontent with the room and made our stay much less enjoyable and relaxing that it would have been. On another note, I would like to say that the staff were great. They were the one redeming factor of our holiday. Very friendly and helpful.

THIS HOTEL IS WAY OVERPRICED,ROOMS VERY OLD,SMALL.UNLES YOU WERE A VACATION CLUB MEMBER,YOU COULD NOT EVEN RIDE A BICYCLE.I EXPRESSED MY CONCERN TO THE MANAGEMENT DEPT,I WAS TOLD THATS THE WAY IT IS.[...]

I have been to two other all inclusives in Riviera Maya which I liked a TON better. This was suppose to be the nicest, and it had the worst service by staff that did not appear to want to be there. All other resorts we have stayed at have had incredibly wonderful, inviting staff and bartenders, so I was very surprised. The resort was not busy, seemed understaffed at best, with the staff pokily going about their job. I would go up to the main pool bar where I would wait 5-10 minutes until the one bartender would look up and ask if I wanted something to drink, and by then there would be a line behind me. You had to make reservations (which you could only do from the casitas side for 2) for dinner. If you walked up with more in your party they were flustered (even though the restaurant was half full) and then it took forever to get a table. Trust me, we tip for everything, but here it did not seem to matter. We were able to corral friends and family to a casitas pool where the one bartender would get to know us and serve us a little better. Everywhere else we have been, the bartenders were incredibly happy, gave wonderfully fast service, and tried to help you with anything you needed. Here not at all. The rehearsal dinner took 4 HOURS. The wedding was lovely and shockingly there the staff was quick and efficient. But that was the only time. If you are looking to have your wedding here, please look elsewhere. I would have given it only 1 star, but the room was beautiful. We were on the casita side. The beach was not too nice to view (sand barges everywhere to protect the beach)... nicer on the casita side. The food was good, but the service was horrible. All the casitas pools were suppose to be staffed by 9am but we were lucky to have a bartender by 10am. This hotel was incredibly far spread out with shuttles (golf carts) to take you from one place to another. They were suppose to come every 10 minutes, which they most certainly did not. Thus trying to go to breakfast/lunch/dinner took a while, then having lunch/dinner took a while (breakfast buffet was fairly quick), then trying to go somewhere else after took a great deal of time away from our vacation and relaxing poolside. I would NOT recommend going here to anyone.

The El Dorado Hotel is in a wonderful location. the rooms,the grounds and the beach were nice. If you are looking to go outside of the hotel via taxi, bus to the next town it can get expensive. I like to be able to visit a town or village and see how the locals live. Eat at local restaurants. Over all this was a nice hotel but was for the money I would stay somewhere else next time.

Just okay, have stayed at much better resorts in area. Rooms kind of tired and run down. Service was good. Don't think I would go back.

Let me give you a synopsis of the experience of my 3rd year anniversary trip. Pros: The activities and entertainment on site were wonderful. My spouse and I sweated for the first 3 nights because the live entertainment was so great. You did not have to leave the hotel for activities. Included in the stay was a bike and boat tour, tennis lessons, basketball, dance lessons, towel figure making,etc.. And they also provided other activities like parasailing, arts and crafts for a fee. The staff was very personable and friendly. The hotel is designed to make you feel like you are a part of the elements. We often dined at a resturant that was located near the beach. This was very refreshing and relaxing as long as the local birds were not fighting for your bread. The food was above average. My husband enjoyed the food more than I did. I never ate so much grouper in my life. Some of the dishes were a little to fancy for me but I must give the hotel an A for presentation. The breakfast was great! The grounds were clean and neat. Cons: The disappointment was with the room and restaurant selections. The hot water in our garden suite was BROWN!! OMG!! The room had an old stuffy smell to it like an attic. I slept with my t-shirt over my head for 4 nights because I did not want to breathe in the smell or irritants. The white drapery for the canopy styled bed was filthy!Come on! The lighting was horrible. The cable went out twice. The tub had the shower in it. I was expecting a shower only room. Upon our arrival a worker was plastering one of the columns outside of our room. How romantic? There was a lot or construction going on arouund the central spot of the hotel. The construction stole some of the ambiance. The gym was not available and 2 of the restaurants were closed which limited our dining selections. The drinks were AWFUL!(They drinks tasted as though they were watered down)I am not a drinker so I can tell the difference between a cocktail and sweetened water. I requested wine most of the time and I don't like wine. Finally, I could not take the room accomodations and went to the front desk to request a room change from the garden to the ocean view suite. There was no additional charge. This suite was a lot better than the original one. It had upgraded amenities like a modern shower, remote control, and better ligting. The air quality was better and the view was beautiful. Unfortunately, there was an infestation of small ants in the bathroom near the sink. They gave us a coupon to use for our next visit. I will not visit the hotel again and I plan on writing a letter of complaint to headquarters. My husband and I have visited another hotel in the area for around the same price, so the lack of cleanliness was unaccepatable for this hotel. Bottom line they gave us a room that apparently no one had been in for months and if I had not demanded another room they would have allowed us to stay in it. This made us feel like we were not valued as customers. The hassle at the airports is enough for someone to abandon flying as an option of transportation but we braved it to get to this location and was given a room that no one should have been staying in. And our clothes smelled of the old room. DIGUSTING!The entertainment and activities were the only reason we did request a partial reimbursement from the hotel.

The good: Food and restaurant choices were excellent, the rooms and grounds were impeccably clean and beautiful. The bad: No WiFi in our room (which all rooms were avertised to have), which was important for us to have. Requested it to be fixed or change room with no success in getting, just received a lot of lip service. The shower swung across extreme temperatures at a rapid pace, requested it to be fixed with no success. Beds were very hard. No alcohol beverages in room other than beer. There were many things not included in the all inclusive package, ie., lobster dinner at JoJo's restaurant, if you wish to purchase they start at $55 a lobster, bottles of wine can be purchased to serve in room starting at $65 a bottle, candle light dinner on beach and other higher end dinners were extra. One thing that really bothered us is that you felt like you had to tip everyone that served you. Tips should be included but you were made to feel uncomfortable if you did not tip. Lastly, if you wanted to take a nap in your room during the day, it was virtually impossible to have a restful one because there were approx. 4 people a day to service your room for various purposes. We tried to fend them off with our Do Not Disturb sign, but when you used that they would call your room to make sure you do not want service. Lastly, if you asked one person for assistance and it was not their job, they could not and would not help you, other than direct you to a person who could. We did not use the spa services or any other excursions so cannot comment on those.