Stayed at the Royal Playa Del Carmen 7 days June 15 - June 21.
My overall impression was this resort is super good and really trys to please you as best they can. It is certainly a 4.5 star. 1st time for us in Mexico but we have been to Punta Cana DR last year at The Ocean Blue and there is NO comparison. Punta Cana is young to tourists and still learning but very little infrastructure. So on to The Royal

1. Lodging - Hotel, grounds, room, beautiful and ultra clean. Room is outstanding. Our TV satellite service was very spotty and not of good quality.
We did have some small issues like our Clock Radio broke. We did tell our Concerge Fredrico who was verty nice but not very reliable. It never got changed even after 2 requests to him. We also requested champagne glasses from him for our room which never appeared. Also we asked him for Chef Table rez and Spa rez both of which he said were booked. Excuse me but last I checked a Concerge usually can make magic happen in some cases. BTW we tipped him instantly when we sat down with him to review our room $5.... Again we didn't let it ruin our vacation just save your tip money with this guy. He is a Concerge at the Villa not at the main desk!

2. Food - Unbelivably good. Great presentations at all resturants and they spoke very good english so ALL and I mean ALL our orders we correct. I can't say enough about the wait staff and chef's... Desserts were great too. Room service was great.

3. Beach - We are beach people and I wish we would have done our homework here. The beach area for The Royal was small and very very rocky. I mean boulders in the shore and water rocky!!! Forget about boggy boarding or even swimmimg. Wife also cut her toe on the rocks. Go over about 200 yars to the public beach and it was much better but you lose the services of the hotel. Again BIG disappointment here. BYW, lots of cigarette butts and paper in the sand.

4. Pool - Very clean, very beautiful. Best part of the resort.
Only big big negitive in my oponion that spoiled several of our days was, several people brought there own Ipod with speakers. They played their own music in various areas of the pool, drowning out the resort music. This in my oponion is VERY rude to other guests that might not want to hear other peoples musical taste. In fact, one group had some very profane Rap on. The 6 women proceeded to get drunk doing shots and dancing. We saw Security go over once and they all began to laugh and Security walked away leaving the ladies to continue with their loud music and getting drunk til finally they fell over in the chairs and fell asleep. We did get up and move from another group prior to this group starting up. That said, I feel the hotel should enforce a NO Guest Music SPeakers poolside, PERIOD. I hate to sound negitive but some people can be very rude. The hotel needs to be more sensitive to others that might be disturbed. BTW, we did tell security once and also left our comments on the comments card. I would encourage you to do the same if it bothers you too. Maybe The Royal Management will do something.

5. Entertainment - Very high quality. These kids did a great job on the nightly shows. Lots of varity.

6. Management - Lots of hotel management always walking around making sure everything was tip top. (Wish they would have said something to the loud music/guests at the pool.

7. 5th Ave - If you venture out ot walk 5ht Ave. it was fairly secure, lots of nice places and lots of "seedy" places all mixed together. But overall lots of fun. Note don't be freaked out but the Police have machine guns and we spoke to two of them to ask directions. They were not overly friendly at all even though it said tourist police!!!! But they are there one would assume for you're protection.
8. We did get a message at the Spa. It was very very good. The bad was, they really don't talk with you prior to show you the facilities or hat you are entitled to use so it kind of up for guess. Also the Spa was very noisy when we were getting our relaxing massages. You could hear people and workers and staff talking loudly and moving stuff around. Overall though it was very nice, just could be a little better.

So overall we would return to The Royal because we had a wonderfull time and the staff and facilities was great. DO they have room to improve, Yes, but again it just minor stuff. Hope you enjoy yourself there and make the management aware of what is right and not right.


So that's it. We would return for

My husband and I stayed at the Royal June 13-18. It was wonderful. I have stayed at a lot of places in and around The Mayan Riviera both non and all inclusive, and this was, by far, the nicest place I have ever stayed. The cleanliness, service and amenities were top notch. I'll try to break the resort down by category. There is so much to tell about it.

Room: Our room was number 135 and a perfect location. We had bottom floor which was great b/c we could simply walk out of the patio to the pool, beach, restaurants, etc. Very convenient. ( We did not worry about the door being unlocked unless we were going off the resort property. Our valuables were in the safe) The location was ideal. We were just before the pool started, sort if right in the middle of the property, so we had the convenience of being close to everything and still had privacy. I would not want to be one of the rooms stepping out just in front of the pool b/c of the lack of privacy and noise. The only thing that would have made our room better would to be on the other side...same room just across from courtyard in the other bldg b/c in the morning the sun beat in on the patio so it wasn't too pleasant to sit and drink coffee. the bldg on the left side of the resort had nice shade in the morning. Other than that, it was perfect. I only paid for a Jr suite so this was definately an upgrade. Probably thanks to my TA at Beachbum vacations. Steve did a great job. We did have a slight ocean view and definately a pool view. I expected to be overlooking the parking lot, so the room was a nice surprise.
The rooms were fabulous, from the wonderful bed, to the nice amenities they brought each day; soap shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel.
Also, the stocked fridge with beer, water, etc. was nice. We had to ask for extra water as we drink Alot of water. The snacks provided are nice too. We loved the potato chips. Yum! There is liquor dispensors in the room with four different liquors to choose from but we never used these. We just went to the bar when we needed a drink. The bed and linens were very comfortable. We did not upgrade to the Royal package and did not get to choose our pillows. My only complaint about the bed would be the pillows. They were too fat for me. Dh liked them though. I also enjoyed the slippers and robe everyday. The jacuzzi tub was also wonderful and the turndown service with the candles lit, etc. very nice.... Also, the AC in our room worked great.

Restaurants/bars: Asiana has the best food in our opinion. It has a large menu with a lot to chose from. It does take a while here though. Don't go here in a hurry.

Pelicano's is the seaside restaurant and we tried it for lunch and dinner. Both were good but we liked the lunch menu better. Also, tried for breakfast which was beautifully presented just limited menu T.he buffet has more options for breakfast.

Maria Marie's we only ate here once. It was very nice...atmoshpere, etc, This is one of the two that require long pants for the men and I did see them turn two people away.
The food was not that fabulous. We were very tired that day, so maybe not in the best mood but it was just okay.

The italian place across the street at the sister resort was very good. I can't remember the name but I would recommend it. Nice atmosphere if you like to sit outdoors. Very quaint.

They told us when we got there that since we did not upgrade to teh Royal service, we were not able to eat at the 'fancy" restaurant, the Chef's plate. This was news to me, but someone told me later that it was a new policy. I was disappointed at first but when I caught the menu one day I did not care for what was offered that day anyway, so don't feel I missed too much.

The room service menu was very nice, but we only used it once on the last day and they lost our order so I called after an hour and they sent it right away. We had sandwiches and they were good. People we met raved about the steak and eggs on the room service b'fast menu but we never tried it.

The bars were great. We spent most of our time at Trade winds byt the pool, the Lobby bar, or the Cigar/tequilla bar. Say Hi to Manny for us!! All the drinks were great and the Top shelf liquor selection was wonderful. They also have Coors light which is great as I am a beer drinker. It only could have been better is it were Bud Light but...close enough. Tip - I brought a little cooler/backpack. It's a cooler on the bottom and a backpack on the top. This is what I carry on the plane,,,just use it as a bag.
I used it a lot at the pool. Just filled my cooler with the ice machine near our door and stocked with beer. Great! The beer does not stay cold long in Mexico and often was not too cold to begin with at the bars.

The music in the lobby bar was nice and relaxing. We never paid real close attention to the bands, etc. Some were good and some tried hard, but overall, I enjoyed the music offered in the lobby. We never went to any shows although they do have them.

Beach- The beach was a little more crowded than I am used to with locals and other people walking down but it wasn't a problem. I would have preferred a more secluded, quiet, beach but I'm sure that's hard to find around Playa anymore. i would not suggest this resort for a real romantic place for a honeymoon though b/c there is not much privacy on the beach. The beach beds are nice and the beach service with drinks, etc it very nice to have. It is hard to find shady spots though.

Pool- The pool was great! Nice and big with plenty of room. Some days cold and some days warm. We met friends with a swim-up suite which is right next to the swim -up bar. Very fun. so we spent our days there. We never got in the bigger pool except to sit in the shade in the morning with our coffee. We played volleyball once which was fun. The towel game is being played at the pool. People are saving seats very early in the morning with an umbrella. Once couple sat down next to us and moved towels that they said had been there since 5AM to later be cussed out in German by the "saver" It was quite amusing. There is defiantly not enough umbrellas/shade around the pool. Although, we never needed an umbrella DH had a good idea. If you want an unbrella and someone in saving seat with one. Simply find other seats and move the umbrella or ask an attendant to move it for you. Problem solved!!

5th Ave - We walked down 5th ave 2-3 times to do some shopping and also get our rental car during the day. We never made it down there at night which I really thought we would do. We were always pretty wiped out after dinner and stayed at the resort and visited with new friends most nights. The friends we made that did go said it wsa very expensive for drinks at the bars and some even had cover charges. This doesn't surprise me as I was shocked at the prices at the shops on 5th Ave. They were very high. Not good deals like you could find last time I went.
Anyway, although the location to 5th Ave was nice, I would not use this as a deciding factor on staying at the Royal. I did use that to make my decision b/c I thought we would go to the bars downtown. It turned out to be a good choice though.

The place was spotless and the workers were always cleaning all over the resort. I even saw a man cleaning the trashcan outside our room and this appeared to be done every day!! That doesn't happen too often at many places.

We were really impressed with everything about the resort. The servie was great, food and variety very good, and clean, clean, clean. I will defiantely go back. I don't see myself staying anywhere else anytime soon.

I will end here as this is getting long. There is just so much to tell about the Royal and I am so excited about it. I used this site a ton to plan our trip so I thought I should return the favor and help others. I can't believe it's over already. It went by way to fast. Feel free to ask me any questions you have.

Laura

We stayed at the Royal Playa Del Carmen June 16-23
I use tripadvisor all the time and figured I would share my review.

I am going to compare it to the Royal Cancun which we stayed in October (see other review)


On-line Check In was great! We had us and another couple. We were able to look at the available rooms, granted we went Monday to Monday and there were not a lot of rooms to choose from in our category but enough in each building to see the difference. We had oceanview which really means you can bearly see the ocean but still was nice. We picked room 299 and 295 which is actually poolside so we had a view of the pool and if you looked to the right you saw the ocean. 295 was our room and had a great patio with a hammok. Also had 2 chairs and a table which one day when it was cloudy the 4 of us played cards on the patio. Room 299 actually had a small balcony no hammok. It was at the end of the row corner section. Both rooms were Royal rooms so we got all the Royal ammenities.

Check in was excellent and fast. Because we were in a Royal category and we are "real" members (timeshare owners) we had private conceige service. Our room was ready in an hour after we checked in. This was really nice. We had some champagne and the conceirge spent time with us telling us all the different things about the hotel.

Transfers to and from the hotel were provided by best day and they were also perfect. They were easy to find at the airport, even though at Cancun airport, you get attacked by all other transportaton companies. The hotel had sent us specific instructions on what to look for so we were prepared, for our guy.

The ride to the hotel is an hour and it was pleasent. We even stopped and got some beer for the trip.

Rooms were really nice, nothing to complain about. Room Service on the other hand was inconsistent. 2 days they came at 6pm and we were napping. Our turndown service came at 6 also everynight which was an inconvience so we did not get it all the time. Not a big deal. But the Royal Cancun was better at that.

Food again I am going to compare it to the Cancun hotel. Asiana at the Royal Cancun was much nicer, they had individual Hibachi type grills and the food was excellent. This one did not have that. My friends ate the Sushi and said it was just ok. At the Cancun hotel Sushi was better. Other then though the food was ok. Spice breakfast and lunch was the same every day no varity, and we only ate dinner there one night it was ok. Peliconos was pretty good but again nothing special. Maria Maria was actually really good. I had the Veal and also this Mexican soup which was very spicey but nice.

Bar's all the bars were great. The service was ok, it was kinda dead, and we still didnt get great service, we even tipped everyone just seemed to be slow, which was odd, but again not a deal breaker at all. We made the best, and went to the bar itself to get a drink if the waitress took to long.

The pool was great, nice and clean and actiivites through out the day.

Day Trips- We rented a car at the hotel and drove to Tulum so we could do it on our own terms. It was fun, but warning it is EXTREMELY hot. Be prepared for the heat. We also took the Ferry over to Cozumel one day and did a snorkling trip once we got there we booked something.

5th avenue is great for shopping, of course everyone wants you to buy something, and you have to haggle if you do. But if you say no not interested they leave you alone. Most of the time when someone wanted to get us on a tour of some sorts, I use my famous line of "aww leaving tomorrow".
We went to EZ bar one night which is a sports bar and that was fun went to watch the UFC fight. The bartender/waiter was very attentive to us, and the price seemed reasonable. Reasonable for us we pay NY prices when we go out.

The staff entertainment was really nice during the day. The nightly shows were not so great. I have to say both Royals did not have good shows. We have been to other hotels where its alot of fun to hang around to watch the entertainment at night.
By 1030-11 the hotel dies down. We usually went to the entertainment room, played pool, ping pong and cards and ate snacks and drank when we didnt goto 5th avenue.

Room Service was fast when you did not call primetime. One day we waited 40 minutes another day we waited 10 minutes for food. We also had champagne the first day that took about 20 minutes to come up to the room.

The spa was really nice. I had two treatments done while we were there. I went for the Chocolate Treat, which was so relaxing and then the Aloe sunburn treatment had alittle to much sun and that was really nice. The whole spa is beautiful and the staff were very attentive to you.

Timeshare "Real" members, so while at the Royal Cancun in October we joined the Real members and we did get a really good deal to join. Of course they told us they wanted to just go over our contract and make sure we understood everything. So me and my husband were like sure, sounds good. Of course once inside they tried to upgrade us for more $$. We decided against it. We havent even paid this one off yet, we also want to sell some of our points to make some of the money back. They were very pushy though which annoyed me. But I do understand its there job and there in sales. So not a big deal.

If I were going again, I would stay at the Royal Cancun for the hotel, but Royal Playa does have 5th avenue which is a great addition. Which ever you choose I am sure you will have an excellent time.

I hope this helps!

SNS
Brooklyn NY

Although overall and generally speaking, the hotel was adequate - don't believe the hype about Royal Service - it's basically an evening turn down service.

In addition, don't believe that oceanview means oceanview because at this hotel it means you're looking at the building across from you and if you lean out very far over your patio rail - you can see a sliver of ocean crowded by beach cabanas.

To some this may not be a big deal - but to us it was a deal breaker. This deception and the disappointment from it colored our entire stay. You can overlook alot when you have the beautiful carribean sea out your window! Sadly, since this ambience was not available, we noticed every little off-putting thing.

My recommendation - go with the regular junior suite and when you don't have an ocean view you won't be mad that you paid extra for something you didn't get. Or - go full out - and get the ocean front suite for the view.

Having said that - this hotel is simply average. We have stayed at many hotels in the Yucatan peninsula (most of them less expensive) and the service in most of them compared favorably to this one.

Room service took over an hour (which I don't consider prompt) - and was not delivered "discreetly" to the black box as advertised. The waiter knocked on the door to deliver - presumably for a tip. We had ordered a hamburger and fries.

The beach here was very rocky and littered with corral as other travelers have mentioned. You can walk a short distance and find a more foot friendly area or just wear water shoes when at play in the ocean.

The food is a bit fufu meaning it's borderline gourmet. If you like simpler fare or more mexican than carribean this may not be the place for you. However, all dishes at all the restaurants were well prepared, fresh and plentiful.

Playa del Carmen and particularly 5th Avenue are the ultimate in tourist traps. Don't think you are going to enjoy a leisurely stroll while shopping because you are constantly hounded and bombarded by vendors hawking their wares.

We had been to Playa before but I didn't really remember much of the trip. I had thought that the reason I didn't remember much was because there was alot of rain and we drank alot. Since returning home I realized why the trip hadn't stuck with me - it was pretty forgettable! If you've been to one poor mexican town you've been to them all. Unfortunately, our tastes have changed and the small, quaint villages we used to visit no longer exist. If this is your first trip to the Riveira Maya you won't be disappointed but if you've been many times - try another locale.

We've decided that if we return to Mexico we will go to Cancun which is absolutely beautiful. It's like Vegas with a beach (but no gambling!). But - at least in Cancun there are no pretenses that anything there is anything other than what it is - a place designed to relieve you of your money in exchage for a gorgeous ocean front setting.