TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

First, let me say the staff here are what makes this hotel ! Truly wonderful service from the bartenders Felipe and Luis Hector, waiters like Williams, Jose Gerardo, Caesar Gonzalez and others. they all made our stay here a great one! They always went above and beyond! The food/buffet was good, we always found something we enjoyed, although as other posters noted weiners/hotdogs are a mainstay at breakfast, lunch and dinner! Our ocean view room was nice, beds were good, air conditioning worked, nice balcony ( no balconies at all on street view rooms) There was a very strong sewer odor in the room throughout our stay, I think from the bathroom drain, and the shower was HOT all the time, impossible to get any cool water, even at the sink. Even the water in the toilet was hot! That was strange! WiFi works well in rooms and even on the beach. They tell you at the front desk that you can only have the wifi on two devices per room, but we had it on 5, no issues during the whole two weeks. The hotel itself however needs improvement in many areas ! If you are looking for a quiet vacation spot this is not the place for you . The “BANDA” roaming the beach in groups of 6-9 with trumpets , tubas and drums from noon till about 6:30 p.m. (or later) destroys the atmosphere totally as they all use amplifiers to compete with each other in making the loudest racket possible. All the ocean view rooms are above the pool area and the noise making from there carries on until midnite or 2 a.m. most evenings. The beach chairs are all in very poor condition, many broken ones they still keep putting out every day, and quite uncomfortable. Covered in bird poop (never cleaned) and if you leave your chair for a few minutes there will likely be fresh poop on your towel when you get back. The hotel does nothing about the bird problem, there are hundreds, and poop is on everything. The beach itself is nice but not very clean, garbage and cigarette butts all over in the sand and not cleaned by hotel staff other than a bit of raking around 9 a.m. ish. The hotel is not “senior friendly “ with a lot of steps/stairs to navigate , even in the buffet and around the pool, need to be extremely careful not to trip and fall! The hotel is mainly used by Mexican families, lots of kids, very very few English speaking people at all. Staff here speak very little English, even the concierge at the Information desk - no English at all, not one word! Only a couple of the staff at the front desk speak a few words of English, they try to be helpful, but it can be difficult. We made the best of everything and enjoyed our stay, but not likely to chose this hotel in future. Star palace hotel, pacific palace, Luna palace are all sort of connected and they say you can use facilities in others too, but pacific palace is rooms only, star palace exact same buffet, we didn’t go into Luna palace so not sure there. Nightly shows are kinda non-existent. Never found one, no info.

We ended up in Matzalan for a variety of reasons, we usualy go to Cancun. We had no idea what we were getting into as I read previous reviews. BUT we were very pleasantly surprised and absolutely LOVED our stay! The service at Oceano Palace was excellent. The staff are so observant and helpful. For example, our waiter noticed grounds in my coffee just by walking by and brought me a completely new cup without me asking. Our pool waiter carried chaise lounges to where we were standing. Our rooms were cleaned everyday. The resort is clean and right on the beach. If you are looking for a luxury resort and a foodie experience, this may not be the place for you. But the beds were comfortable, the rooms nice sized, the food was good and we enjoyed it (lots of fresh fruit and veggies and the omelets at breakfast were very good). Hot dogs do seem to be a delicacy there (it seems very popular all over in Mazatlan), but it was not the only thing on the buffet. If you are fitness enthusiasts like us, the gym was a solid gym to get good workouts in. The AC needs to be fixed in it (made for extremely hot workouts and cardio), but the equipment was very good and in working condition. One of the best gyms at a resort we have been to. For us gringos from the states, this was as close to an immersion of the Mexican culture as we have been. It was amazing seeing all the families enjoy their vacations together, the music from the various bands on the beach and the friendliness of everyone we encountered, staff or not. We did go off the resort and walked around quite a bit, ate at some of the other eateries around the resort for variety and it was safe and overall clean. The staff at the resort arranged an english speaking cab driver that took us on a city tour that was amazing. It was a highlight of our trip! The beaches were wonderful to walk on, the sand is very fine so it was comfortable on your feet. I would recommend Oceano Palace without hesitation. We will plan to go back again ourselves. Happy traveling!

GOOD HOTEL WITH GOOD FOOD IN A GOOD LOCATION, WITH RELIABLE WEATHER ALL YEAR AROUND. THE HOTEL HAS RESTAURANT WITH LARGE SELECTION OF DISH. THE BEACH MAKES THE SWIMMING POOL VIRTUALLY OBSOLETE BECAUSE THE BEACH IS HUGE.... THE HOTEL STAFF ARE PERFECT.. 5 STAR

We had a wonderful stay at the Oceano Palace Beach Hotel based on the help of Eduardo Ayala and Daniel Nava at the reception desk helping us get situated in our lovely rooms. They have three variations of ceviche ….each is divine (one order can feed 3 people) with totally fresh fish. Everyone at the hotel is very friendly and helpful. The hotel has wonderful ocean views and is honoring of the Mexican culture. This is not the sterile Americanized hotel ambiance so you can get actually get a sense of being in Mexico.

Spend the extra couple of hundred dollars as stay ANYWHERE else. The Pros. Staff is friendly although handle very few issues satisfactorily. Booze is plentiful. The Cons (and only a few of them) Two elevators and one was broken all week. Wait times were half hour. Food is absolutely awful. The food on the buffet is unrecognizable or cut up so finally you can only put it in a taco. No carving station. No full piece of meat all week. Lots of refried beans (puke). Hot Dogs seventeen different ways!! Gotta give that nine year old Chef Kudos LOL. There are three A la Cartes. One is a two and half hour supper "experience". Painful. Terrible food and worse entertainment. The Pelican resets every three nights. I haven't witnessed a NY Strip Roast that was so horrendously overcooked!! Quite a feat!! Tried the fish two different times - inedible. I have eaten Icelandic Flat Fish that had more moisture!! That band that belts out on the beach needs to be terminated. So loud So bad. Sounds like the UofS College Nine when they were too drunk to stand LOL. Pool is saturated with children, dirt, empty cups and fine film of ooze on the top of the water. The crowning glory was when we checked out at 11am but our airport shuttle did not pick us up til 3. They cut off our wrist bands and we had NO FOOD OR BEVERAGE privilege's. Very classy. I have travelled lots and I have wrote very few reviews but this trip deserved it. Loud, terrible food and no effort to fix any of it - although that is Mexican way. Like a said spend an extra bit and stay somewhere else Mazatlan is worth the trip.