We just returned from a week’s stay at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya. Unfortunately, our stay definitely did not warrant more than an average rating. Warning: this is a long and detailed review!!

Service
The service was very sporadic. At times, it was excellent and immediate, whereas many other times it was nonexistent. For example, I called to ask for a room service menu because we did not have one in our room, but we never received it. We requested a wake-up call one morning before a day trip – and never received it. Thankfully we had set our alarm. One evening our toilet would not flush, so we called around 5:30pm and asked that they come fix it. When we returned to our room after 10pm, it had not been fixed. I called again and said that someone needed to come immediately, which they did. However, my husband had to fix it twice more over the next couple of days. These are just a few of the examples.

Dining
Overall, we were extremely unimpressed with the food. For breakfast and lunch, only one restaurant is open and it is buffet style. For dinner, you may either make reservations at one of the specialty restaurants or eat in the main dining room (where breakfast is), which is buffet style. As far as the buffets were concerned, I felt this food was barely better than cafeteria food. There are a few exceptions – like fresh fruit or the hot, chocolate fondue with homemade marshmallows – but overall, it was not very good at all. We had dinner at all of the specialty restaurants except for one, Chili’s, and that was because we just weren’t interested – the menu didn’t look too appealing and it’s also where you had to eat lunch every day.
The Japanese restaurant was decent. Sir Oliver’s was the best, though still not spectacular. This is sort of an Asian-Fusion - not French. The Brazilian restaurant was pretty weak, especially if you’ve ever been to a real Brazilian steakhouse like Fogo de Chao! The “salad bar” was merely the same thing that’s at the buffet every day – lettuce, a few veggies, and mystery salad dressings. Same at the Mexican restaurant, which was not good at all.

Beach
The beach, while certainly not earning any awards for “Best Beaches,” was not as bad as it was made out to be. You can walk a decent length down the beach to the south, past many resorts until you reach a completely empty area. However, walking the beach is not for everyone – the sandbags, pipes, tubes, jet skis, etc create quite the obstacle course. In addition to the sandbags, there are these pipes/tubes that pull in water from the sea and empty onto the beach. You will be asked every five minutes if you would like to jet ski or para-sail, and the equipment sits along the shoreline for you to walk around. (If you are just lying on your beach chair and pretend to either be asleep or involved in a book, they usually leave you alone.) Also, there is an issue with the kelp, though it seemed to only be an issue at this particular resort. Every morning, workers would be out on the beach and dig these massive holes, then rake up the kelp and put it in the holes and cover it back up. The effort was appreciated, but it didn’t smell very good if you got too close!

Pool
The pool is nice, but there is music playing ALL day long. If you like to relax in the quiet until happy hour rolls around, you will have to go down to the beach. The pool gets very busy in the afternoon and you can usually only find chairs in the shade along the outside edge. “Sexy Bingo” is every afternoon, along with other activities like rifle shooting, futball (soccer), etc. Shania Twain’s “I feel like a woman” got a little old after it was played for the 50th time during “Sexy Bingo.” The pool closes at 8pm every night to be cleaned and treated. Based on the size of the hotel, we were surprised there was only one pool.

Excursions
We had booked our trip through our travel agent and there was a company, Olympus Tours, which had two representatives on site every day. We ended up booking our one-day trip through them, even though it was $60 more to do so instead of booking it online before we left – try googling cancun-discounts or entertainment-plus. You do, however, have to be careful with many companies offering reduced price or free tours, because they are trying to sell timeshares. Our trip was to Tulum and then to Xel-Ha. Tulum was great. Xel-Ha was fun, but be warned that the snorkeling is practically non-existent and the water is very murky.

We also took a cab ($5) to 5th Avenue in downtown Playa del Carmen. (This is also where you can catch a ferry to Cozumel if you like.) We had a good time, but don’t expect to get any really good deals – we (nor anyone around us) seemed to really be able to negotiate and haggle like we thought we would be able to do. Plenty of tequila to taste and bring home if you like!

Overall…
We had a good time – after all, it is vacation and the weather was beautiful. However, we will not be returning. At one point I made the comment that it was like seeing the previews for a movie, and then watching the movie – but all the good parts were in the preview. Even though it housed 400 rooms, the resort grounds were not very extensive – it is literally what is within the U-shape of the hotel. The food was not good.

The noise level was very loud, and it was impossible to sleep through the night – we could hear every person that came in after us and got up before us, as well as cleaning and room service carts. When we arrived, our first room (2069) was above the music club, which is open until midnight, and was SO loud. We requested to move, and they told us they were booked to capacity (thought they definitely were not.) Then they moved us to a different room (1053) the next day. The floors on the top level are definitely the best as they offer the best views, and even if you get a “garden view” room, if you are on the top level you most likely will be able to see the ocean as well.

The beaches in Playa del Carmen are not very good either – and this resort had one of the better ones. This was our first time to Mexico, so this may be mainly due to the hurricane damage suffered several years ago. Either way, we will not be returning anytime soon.