Ok, I'm somewhat picky, but this is a real review. Not what you want to hear, but what we truthfully experienced.

Excellent , very efficient service. European/Spanish corporation and efficiency is top notch.

Clean, well kept rooms. We left little gifts for the maids each day including makeup kits, toys for children in addition to cash tip. That might have helped with the excellent service from the staff. Fridge was well stocked and room was impeccable while we were there.

Activity pool was gross. Plain and simple. It was overcrowded and murky looking. Never saw anyone clean the pools. Quiet pool as very nice. They close the pools at 7 pm daily. Too early in my opinion.

A kid defecated in the pool at 5pm on Wed, numerous complaints were made by many different patrons. The crap was still there the next day at 10 am. A guest from England went inside and went insane on the general manager ( from Spain) . He personally came out and cleaned the pool. 17 hours to clean the pool? People were swimming around with turds in the pool.

OK, now here's a weird one. We were sitting in the lobby at 12:30 AM, talking as a group. There were many groups of people talking quietly and visiting. All of the sudden all of the lobby lights are shut down !!! I mean pitch black! THEY CLOSED THE LOBBY! the only place there were lights was the front desk. The entire place shut down. WEIRD. They did this every night. Nothing like "Hey folks, we're closing down for the evening. Just shut down the lights

Hotel was generally quiet, not a major party place.

Food was very average at best, with the exception of the Japanese place which was 5 star in my opinion.

We ate at all the specialty restaurants. They were never full, it was a total crock the way the reservation system worked. I talked with one couple who were there for 7 nights and were only able to book specialty reservations for two of the evenings. Truly, the food was fair.

The buffet closes at 10:30AM and 3:30 pm for turnover to lunch and dinner respectively. No problem. The only issue I had was they would seat until 3:30 and then turn off the air conditioning and fans immediately. Basically another get the hell out statement by trying to sweat you out in 95 degree weather.

Again service was otherwise excellent.

Would I stay here again? No.

Did we have a good time? Generally yes.

Would I recommend this place to others? Yes with some reservations. If you aren't looking for a party place, don't mind the occasional turd floating in the pool for 12 hours and food isn't that important to you, this is a fantastic hotel.

ROOMS – the ocean views are absolutely gorgeous. We were in room 428 and had fantastic view of the water and the pool. Love that the soft drinks and purified water in the mini-bar are included in the all-inclusive and you can request as many as you want. They replenish the mini-frig every other day. They have a nice drying rack on the balcony for swim suits.

SOFA BED – if you get a room with a sofa bed, be sure to ask for the foam pad to go over the mattress as it would be quite uncomfortable without it.

COFFEE VENDING MACHINES – They have coffee vending machines on every guestroom floor. All drinks are free and unlimited, including espressos, cappuccinos, lattes, etc. Quite fun, but addictive.

FOOD – fantastic! We loved the buffets. The breakfast buffet is especially fun. They also have specialty restaurants where you can make reservations. We didn’t care for the Seafood Buffet night so much, so we’d recommend that you make reservations for one of the other restaurants that night. We especially enjoy that there is a great buffet near the pools where you can get a super lunch outside and not have to get dressed up. I think the food is so outstanding because the entire hotel is All-Inclusive. I don't know where the people normally eat who complain about the food at this hotel as we loved it. Even my 14 year old who is a picky eater could always find plenty to eat.

LOCATION – near shopping, gorgeous views, you can swim in front of the hotel, but as you enter the water from the beach area, go as far to the left as possible as there aren’t many rocks on that side.

We loved our stay. We have enjoyed the Riu Palace in Los Cabos and the Riu Palace in the Riviera Maya as well and enjoyed this one the most. We highly recommend this resort!

June 2008 Jonesboro, GA
This was our second visit to the Riu, having really enjoyed our first visit despite negative reviews (not all) viewed on Trip Advisor. We booked through Perx.com and on this visit decided to pay extra for an ocean view room. Our stay June 27-30.

On check in, we had to stand at the front desk and wait to be attended to while we noticed a lot of other guests being directed to the adjacent bar and offered a welcome drink. They were seated at the bar while they were checked in. We were not!!

I advised the check in lady that I had paid extra for ocean view room and wanted to be sure we got what we paid for. Wrong. The room we were assigned had partial, maybe garden view ?from the left of balcony and a view of the rest of the hotel balconies from the right side balcony!!

They did try to mask the musty odor in the hallways leading to the rooms, the beach chairs had no shade umbrellas, in fact it was very difficult to get even poolside chairs with an umbrella. People would go down at 7am and place towels and books to reserve their chairs etc.

Food was good, the Japanese rest. was a joke!! The Italian was great, the steakhouse great, the Tapas was mediocre. Buffet was good.

All in all, we will not be back at this facility, it is too far from the main hotels that enjoy downtown shopping and nicer beaches. At check-in we were not advised of included activities at the hotel. The evening shows were good.

Oh my god, this hotel is amazing. We arrived and the weather wasn't great and the next morning it was raining so i pretty unhappy but by 11am it was gorgeous sunshine and it basically only really rained at night after that. There was a constant breeze so the heat was more bearable.
The hotel is great and the entrance and reception is pretty amazing. Some previous reviews mentioned funny smells in the hotel but we didn't notice anything and it was immaculately clean, you could see your face in the reception floor. One tip though don't buy anything from the hotel shops, they are scandalously priced, there are shops over the road for snacks etc.
The food in the hotel was good quality, all though we did get a bit fed up of the buffet food as it became very samy after two weeks. The restaurants are all nice and it's not a major hassle to book them, just go to the lady on the terrace who has the reservation lists. Defiantely try the Gourmet restaurant, it was outstanding and very cosy!! The brazilian and steak house were nice too, wasn't too keen on the tapas one as it was a lot of seafood which we don't like. There is food 24hours a day. The Italian during the day time was really nice aswell.
There are two pools; the one near the reception was quite noisy with quite a few kids, and because there was no kids club (there is next door in the Riu Cancun) they were bored and so spent all day in the pool. The other pool is quite noisy too and the entertainment staff at that pool can be quite annoying after a while, but it was all good fun really.
We found a little hideaway, on top of the buffet restaurant is a sun roof terrace with a jacuzzi, we hardly saw anyone else up there for two weeks an it was really nice and relaxing with a gorgeous view of the sea.
We popped in the Riu Cancun next to have a nosy and we would definately recommend the Palace as it was a much higher standard, well worth the extra money. No-one from the other Riu hotels can use the Palace but we could use the others, which was nice as you didn't get loads of non staying people there.
I would defiantely recommend CocoBongo's for a nightout, you basically pay $40 (sun-thurs) and you are paying for all your drinks all night plus an amazing show, a definate must. DO NOT go fri or sat night, we went on a sunday and it was still really busy, apparently it is even busier at weekends.
Also recommended is Xcaret, it's like a ecological park, loads of animals and snorkelling in caves. The sea trek is pretty cool as well. We payed for the plus package and we didn't have to worry about money for food, snorkell gear, towels etc, don't take towels, if you pay for the plus deal they are included, then give them back when they are wet, we had to carry ours round all day, nightmare. The plus lockers are in the middle as well but if you just pay the entrance fee the lockers are right near the entrance and are miles away from everything. Stay for the night show aswell it's really good.
The beach is quite small but has gorgeous white sands and it is owned by the hotel so you can get drinks from the waiter etc.
The drinks in the hotel are all named brands and Albundio the barman was great and really funny. As a Brit we tend not to tip well as we are not really used to doing it but if you tip you will get great service and constant waiter service. Instead of tipping for every drink we just tipped at the end of the night before we left. Some places outside of the hotel expect 15% and won't let you leave til lyou have left it, which i think is a bit cheeky.
Oh the maid service is amazing, they clean everyday unless you don't want them too. All the staff are really friendly and we had a great time. I would defiantely recommend this hotel, and I will be booking a Riu again in the future.