First let me say that this is a beautiful facility and you will get the pro's and con's of it versus other truly 5 star resorts in the Playa Del Carmen area in this review.

What you will also get is a serious review of management inadequacy which is the most serious problem this resort has.

I certainly would not want to be at this resort with a hurricane approaching as they would be fiddling like Nero while the Valentin sinks!!!!! I have contacted the facility directly with my views so this review isn't a surprise to them.

As noted in another review the Valentin had a serious power outage that could not be fixed after 21 hours. Managment told it's employees to tell us various lies throughout the day, including that the power outage was all up and down the resorts between Playa and Cancun. The worst was as the day began to winddown, at 6 p.m. we checked with the front desk and told the power was coming up even then. At 7 p.m. which was dusk, I returned to the front desk only to be told that the hotel was being evacuated and we would be required to leave. Try packing in the dark. We were moved to a comparable hotel, Secrets Capri and they were wonderful to us. - The only thing that kind of rescued the vacation. We had previously spent a long week at Secrets Capri and it is an excellent hotel with great staff and facilities.

Management should have made a decision earlier, contacted the guests in preparation and moved us to other comparable hotels quickly. There would have been far less issues with them. Failures happen but it is how you deal with them that makes the difference.

When we reached Secrets, it became much more apparent that we had been lied to about the power issue. The only issue was at the Valentin and had never affected other resorts. I was extremely unhappy about being repeatedly lied to and made it very apparent to the management that we were displeased. For some reason they didn't think we should react when a vacation planned for months goes belly up due to their incompetence. The resort was closed for 3 days and travelers who were still registed with Valentin had to relocate back to them on 3/17/08. What a way to waste ANOTHER day of vacation. God help anyone who plans a wedding here. They lied to the groom of one wedding numerous times.

Enough said about that problem - Here is the review of the facility overall versus other resorts, The Royal - Playa, Secrets Capri, Moon Palace.

Overall Facility Layout - The facility is rather spread out the Air conditioned Ala Carte restaurants and the buffet are at the main building which is a significant walk from the beach, pool area. At night the lighting is poor at best and you can easily get lost. Somewhat similar to Moon Palace with respect to walking required to traverse the resort.

Beach - The beach at the Valentin is excellent. It is long with clean sand and enough Palapas for everyone. This is very similar at Secret and far better than Moon Palace or The Royal - Playa. You have to go about 1000 yards up the beach to swin but the water is clean and there aren't any rocks. The bar is right at the beach and Jariel was wonderful

Pool - Probably the finest pool I have seen at a facility. It is a Salt water pool versus Chlorine which I truly enjoy and was a true delight. Samuel the bar tender at the bar is excellent and an old friend from another resort.

Rooms - The rooms at the Valentin are the best I have seen. Truly spacious with a couch in front of the TV. These were the lowest level of rooms so you can expect more in other higher classes I would expect. The Bed was outstanding with a soft foam mattress over a firm base. The Royal was a similar situation but Secrets and Moon Palace are pretty hard with no foam. The softer top is great for us with a few aches and pains. Don't expect much of a view if you aren't in the ocean front rooms or on the 3rd floor. There isn't any but there is a large patio on each.

Restaurants - The ala carte erestaurants are truly outstanding for an all inclusive. We ate at the steak, Mexican, Italian & had the Mexican buffet one evening.

My only real issue was the buffet facility . It isn't air conditioned and as a result you start your day off sweating before you even get to the beach or pool. While the area where the food was is airconditioned, the seating area wasn't. Lunch is also only available at a non-air conditioned areas so no respite from the heat at Breakfast or lunch.

It is impossible to get a cool glass or orange juice or a mimosa to enjoy on the beach without a long walk to the buffet and then back to the beach.

Summary - it is a shame that this beautiful facility still has issues after 6 months of being open and that the management is not experienced enough to make informed decisions in the best interests of the guests. Would I return to this facility, perhaps after I know, through Trip Advisor that all issues have been resolved and only because the first few days were truly enjoyable and it has the facilitie to be outstanding.

This is a beautiful resort, the staff were great, the food was bordering on terrible with a couple exceptions.
We were greeted by cool towels, and a glass of champagne. Staff were very helpful.
Rooms were very clean, nice comfortable beds in our swim-up suite. The pool for the swim-up suites do not connect to the other pools, and for our room after 1200 pm it was not in the sun.
We were in room 7105.
Room service was prompt.although staff answering phone did not speak english well. YOU CANNOT ORDER BOTTLES OF WINE, even though you can order 10 glasses of wine. Unable to get staff to tell me what wines were available, so just ended up with a white wine. If you are a wine person, this is not the place for you, because your only choices for a red or white were from Chile and Mexico, none of which were good. You could get other wines but they were not included in the price of the all-inclusive.
The food at the buffet was generally good. The lobster restaurant was not all that great, lobster was overcooked and very tough. The Japanese restaurant was good, but do not expect to be able to order sushi from the table, only able to get sushi if you sat at the sushi bar within the restaurant. The Italian restaurant was mediocre at best. Pasta was cooked to mush, parmesan crisps in the salad was like eating leather. The Mexican restaurant was not good!! IN Mexico, you should have good mexican food, and someone needs to teach the bartenders how to make a margarita. Oh and the Mexican restaurant does not have salsa for tacos......they looked at me like I was crazy......not sure what all that was about.
Shows were ok......some of the late night things scheduled, such as disco night were not held.....no announcements, just not done.
The staff do work very hard to make sure you were satisfied, and were accomadating......All in all though, the restaurants need more staff, and they need to taste their food before they serve it, because they would not be bringing some of those plates out if they did.
You were unable to get food at the pool or the beach......just nachos, empanadas, and 2 other things.....which were gross by the time they got to you. Not even able to order a shrimp cocktail anywhere!!
If you like wine and great food this is probably not the place for you! It is a beautiful resort with a great beach & great pool.

A beautiful property and excellent food, BUT on second day of our arrival the electricity went out for 21 hours with no water other than swimming pools to flush toilet. We were reassured that all would be fixed several times and then finally we were all told to leave within 15 minues to pack our bags in the DARK with only a candle for light and moved to another hotel with much less accomodations. We were given the run around and never told the truth anytime we were asked. Kinda hot in May with no a/c. Will never return to give them a second chance. Don't trust what they say

We stayed at the Valentin Imperial Maya April 26 to May 5, 2008. I booked the trip with Apple Vacations by Cindy Rapley of Batavia Custom Travel in Batavia, Illinois.

WORKERS: I would first like to thank the following workers of the Valentin for the service excellence and friendliness we received during our stay. Concierge's Martin, Omar and Jose; pool bartenders Samuel and Ray; beach bartender Daniel; Luiz at the French restaurant; Carlos, Ivan and Ricardo at the Steak restaurant; Manuel and Ezmerelda at the Buffet. I can not say enough about the treatment we received from all. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

CANCUN AIRPORT: Getting through customs was relatively quick. They had many agents so the lines moved fast. There were many timeshare people in the lobby but we were not bothered. Once outside we found the Apple Rep and he directed us to our transportation.

TRANSPORT TO RESORT: We were transported to the resort in a large van. There were 8 people in the van. The route was all high way and took about 30 minutes. The Valentin Imperial Maya was the first stop so we did not get to see any other resorts.

RESORT CHECK IN: We arrived at about 12 noon. We were greeted by 2 bellhops, one took our luggage and the other showed us to the lobby for check in. Champagne and a wet towel were given to you, very nice touch. Check in is done at individual desks. You wait for one of the clerks to get free. A room was ready and we were upgraded, Thank You Valentin. Now you are transported to the room via golf cart. Our luggage showed up shortly after.

BRACELETS: No bracelets to wear at this resort.

ROOM: Our room was in Tower 13 room 205, 2nd floor, ocean front. Tower 13 is close to the pool, beach and the beach restaurant. The views from the patio and bathroom Jacuzzi were spectacular. There is a folding door you can open in front of the Jacuzzi and enjoy the view, the breeze, and ocean. The Jacuzzi drain plug did not stop the water completely. The patio had 2 chairs and a table perfect for observing the ocean. Bathroom was nice size with dual sinks. Water pressure was good. There was plenty of hot and cold water. The water appeared to be softened. The toilet was in a separate room. At times it could get very hot in the toilet room because there was no ventilation and no windows to open. The TV is a flat screen with a good selection of channels, and the remote works. A DVD player is also included. There is a nice size safe in the closet. There are motion detectors in the room. If there is no movement in the room I believe the AC shuts down, or it certainly seemed that way during the night. If you open any of the ocean front doors the AC shuts off. The AC was not cold on 4/26, 4/27, and 4/28, 2008. There was barely any airflow from the vent and it was not cold. The overhead fan helped somewhat. I made continuous calls to the operator. That was pretty much worthless; no one came to check the AC. I discussed the problem with the concierge's Martin and Omar. They investigated and I was told there was a problem at the plant that supplies the cold water to the rooms. On 4/29/2008 the AC was working. The AC was not as cold as we would like. The safe did not open on 2 occasions and was repaired promptly. The folding door in front of the Jacuzzi was difficult to open and close. I called the operator about the problem. I think it was repaired but did not use it anymore during our stay. There is another door by the Jacuzzi you can access the patio. BE CAREFUL, the door locks behind you if closed. It has a key lock and there is no way to unlock it. If you use that door to get to the patio, and the door is closed, and the patio door is locked, YOU ARE STUCK, LOCKED OUT OF YOUR ROOM ON THE PATIO. I would suggest when you are in the room to unlock the sliding patio door. The power went off while we were in the room several times for about 30 seconds.

POOL: The pool was the largest we have ever seen. Two water falls you can go under, a fountain and a bridge to walk over. Lots of chairs to choose from. Of course there were those people who have to save a chair at daybreak in the shade. There were blue rafts you could hang on to and float around the pool. The pool was very clean and the workers were out everyday cleaning it. Two pool bars to choose from. The bartenders were excellent. You can also order drinks and some food from the servers around the pool.

TOWELS: No towel cards at this resort. Towels were abundant and they were constantly picking them up and washing them. We never had a problem with towels.

BEACH: The beach was very nice with lots of chairs. The sand is like powder and is soft so it is not that great for walking on. The water in front of the resort has rocks and swimming there is not allowed. Just to the north there is a large roped off swimming area. It has mostly a sandy bottom and great for wading in. The surf was mostly rough during our stay. There were 2 days the surf was calm. You can also order drinks and some food from the servers around the beach. There are a few vendors on the beach selling things. There is a wood walkway to the beach. On a sunny day be careful the wood gets very HOT and you can not walk on it with bare feet.

INSECTS: Barely any insects to speak of. No bees at any of the bars. Pretty amazing for a tropical setting.

RESTAURANTS: All the food was excellent. Le Marche' Buffet was great for breakfast and lunch. Mar and Tierra at the beach has a continental breakfast and 10 am, and serves lunch and dinner. Both restaurants are under the same roof. They offer Steak, Seafood, and Lobster Pot but not all are open at the same time. At lunch the choice is Steak or Seafood. At dinner there could be several choices, Steak & Seafood, Steak & Lobster Pot, Seafood & Lobster Pot. The lobster pot has great lobster tail served several ways. Steak has a variety of steaks and the only place you can get a baked potato. There is NO STEAK SAUCE at the resort. L'Alsace the French restaurant was fabulous. Ask for Luiz to serve you, he was great. Chateaubriand was out of this world. We ate at the L'Alsace twice and it was terrific. The rolls with bacon and cheese, Yum Yum. Ginger the Japanese restaurant was good. There is NO SAKI at the Japanese restaurant. The La Hacienda the Mexican restaurant we did not try. The II Olivo the Italian restaurant we did not try. We had room service for dinner two times and it was delivered fast and the food was great.

RESORT: The resort is huge. The entrance from the highway to the resort is at least 1 mile. The grounds on the way to the resort are very well maintained. All areas of the resort were very clean. Being new they are still working on the landscaping throughout the resort.

WEATHER: The weather was fantastic. 90 degrees every day, some sunny and some partly cloudy. It rained one morning from 3 am to 8 am. There was no more rain during our stay.

BUSINESS CENTER: The Business Center had 3 computers you could use to access the internet, at no charge. The hours were 7 am to 11 pm. Some of the symbols on the keyboards are different from those in the US. You have to experiment with them to find what you need.

CELL PHONES: We have Verizon phones and they worked fine. Dial 001 area code and number. Verizon suggests you get the phone setup for international calling. There is no charge.

RETURN TO CANCUN AIRPORT: I called the bellhop to pickup our luggage, He arrived promptly. We were transported back to the airport via a large bus. The bus made 2 stops at other resorts on the way. It was nice to see other resorts.

CHECK IN AT USA 3000: It started off very smooth. Then we were advised that we were allowed only 1 checked piece of luggage per person. I was sent across the terminal to another USA 3000 counter where I was to pay $25.00 USD for each extra piece of luggage. My wife is waiting at the check in counter while I am paying for the luggage. Why don't they take your money at the check in counter????? I had to return to the check in counter and show the receipt before the luggage was checked in. Poor, poor service USA 3000!

FLIGHT AND ARRIVAL TO O'HARE IN CHICAGO, IL: The flight was fine. Getting through customs and luggage pick up was very smooth. The fastest we have ever had at the O'Hare International Terminal.

SUMMARY: Valentin Imperial Maya is a very beautiful resort. The workers really make this resort great. If you like an oceanfront room, request a 2nd floor room in Towers 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Read the reviews to determine if this is the resort for you. Try it you will not be disappointed.
If you have any questions Email me at blue_eyes1952@yahoo.com.