TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

My husband and I stayed here with a huge group of my family. We were there to celebrate my Grandfather's 80th birthday! Overall we had an absolute BLAST. The beds were so comfortable; there was plenty of space for clothes; we loved the shower (didn't use the bathtub); and the food was DELICIOUS! We took part in the foam party, watched my cousin & her husband compete in the floating obstacle course & went to the St Patrick's Day Beach Bash. The only negative I have, is on our last day, one of my other cousins was walking with his daughter and he slipped by the pool. The staff were not very helpful & they didn't have a medic/emt on staff, so he had to depend on a security member to clean him up. He definitely should have had at least butterfly closures. Even with that happening, I would stay here again.

TL; DR The overall score is a 3 out of 5. Or a C This is an all-inclusive resort, and I will rate each part of it separately. Food: B. Lots of choices and most are good, always something available to your taste. This includes specialty restaurants. Nothing jaw-dropping but solid. We had nightmares from RIU Aruba regarding food quality. Luckily here is much better. Deserts are mostly meh, except always good ice cream. Specialty restaurant reservations are problematic to get and have rather very limited and complex opening hours/days. Some restaurants were clearly understaffed like Olivetti and El Museo. Some were just closed like El Tapatio. Drinks: B, considering value. included domestic beer, XX Dos Equis, which isn't bad, especially with added lime. Some bottles in bars (non-club) include decent choices like Wild Grouse and Bulliet. Also, few gin choices. All strictly budget stuff, but decent. Ground: generally, very pretty and well maintained, but not spotless. 4/5 Activities: C here's the reason I must reduce at least two stars- the main reason my family picked this resort is due to very spectacularly looking slides. The baby waterpark/pirate ship was open, and so was the lazy river and wave pool - all good, but the damn water slides were closed for the entire duration of our 8 day stay. Rumored to be open the next day after we left. Generally, the resort calendar is full of various activities, but without the resort app, it's nearly impossible to find them. Do check the resort app or call the resort directly if you're planning to enjoy a specific activity or facility. Transportation: B The golf cart train was helpful, but the app missing real-time updates. A major letdown. Also, while golf cart drivers were generally very helpful, it seems it's running more on a good effort, rather than a well-oiled system. (Carts are electric, but you catch my meaning). There is no way of calling them (other than for a check-out), not very clear which cart goes where other than asking the drivers who are also busboys. The beach: C Honestly it's barely okay. The seaweeds there were indeed cleaned but not very thoroughly and only twice a day by a special tractor. Plenty of waves as there was nothing to break them (such as riffs or island) During our boat trip the captain was nice enough to let us hang out on the beach a bit south of the hotel where the water was protected from waves by riffs and it was a spectacular alas secluded beach. Coati (the Mexican equivalent of raccoons) were cute at first but rapidly became a food-stealing nuisance. It makes staying on near unpleasant unless you don't consume any drinks or food. Staff does nothing to them. Speaking of animals, tons of coatis, some small variation of water pig (the size of a small pug), peacocks, wild monkeys, and rumored but unseen by us - a pair of flamingos. Finally, the room. Solid C. We picked double beds (2 adults with 2 pre-teen kids) and later added another twin folding bed. The AC was fine, you could easily adjust the temp from inside and it wasn't overly noisy. The cleanliness was ok. The tech: The TV was small (about 40"). 98% of 40 or so channels were in Spanish and all of them are in 480p or non-HD. Cmon, this 2024 ffs. Somewhat less than intuitive if you switch to HDMI1 port you do get some customized versions of Chromecast devices, which are sometimes buggy but work. It doesn't support Airplay, do plan accordingly. Wi-Fi around the property could be spotty but it was good in rooms and inside hotel buildings. Another "feature" is once you leave the room, and there are sensors both inside and outside, all 3 electrical outlets in the room getting turned off. Not very convenient if you plan to both leave the room and leave something charging. Room location near beach meant that it was pretty far away from only the lunch/dinner buffet restaurant, so it wasn't ideal. Choice your poison so to say. The room was ok in terms of finish, and no real issues with cleaning, but in terms of finishing quality I spotted plenty of cut corners and shoddy workmanship, especially in the bathroom. See pictures, with a crack inside one of the sinks, is particularly glaring as not expected in a so-called 5-star hotel. So, the room has a mini fridge that includes a few sodas, juices, and beers. Sometimes cleaning people bothered to refill all sometimes not. Also don't drink tap water here or you'll get bad diarrhea. Water bottles are in the room but are empty and you are expected to fill them yourself at the end of the hallway like in a cheap motel. I get whole nature conservation stuff, but imho for 5-star hotels these bottles should have been prefilled by room service. The sales meeting was indeed annoying and never lasted the promised 90 minutes. If you're not interested in timeshares, once the breakfast starts tell the salesperson that they are on the clock. Luckily they never bothered us again after it. Maybe because we were very clear we didn't want it. The bottom line is, would we come back here? Never without kids, but with kids, it is possible but unlikely.

Amazing resort, The rooms were great, loved the little touches of Mayan culture everywhere. Entertainment was fun, ocean was swimmable with no sargassium(hit it lucky), staff were great especially Sergio and Nayeli, (concierge)they both helped us out a lot when we had trouble with some mobility scooters we had rented from offsite. Enrique bolaras? at steakhouse remembered our drinks and made a special effort to make our meals there great. Also guy at main pool bar(not swimup) was very accomidating in making me a special order cucumber Mojito and also teaching the other bartender how to make it so I could have it on his day off. all staff we dealt with were great. Only 2 possible areas that could be improved a little, 1 the coffee in the resterants always tasted burnt, and the game prizees were really lame compared to other resorts We have been to. We would definitely return to this resort.

I am a IHG member and regular traveler. I am almost 50 and have spent time in many resorts over the years. This was the WORST experience I have ever had. We checked in with our family (2 adults and 2 children) and they immediately said we inputted 2 adults and two infants/toddlers (they being less cost I assume). I confirmed that we registered for 2 adults and 2 children (not little ones) correctly with their ages as 7 and 10. I had this reservation for months. They were super rude and tried to insinuate I didn't register the children as children but infant/toddlers. I had to get on the phone with Expedia who immediately confirmed my reservation and let me know they would send that confirmation again to the reservation department and that Iberostar has an error in their system. Since our room wasn't ready, Ibersotrar sent us away while they "looked into getting it sorted". They didn't do anything during they 7 hours we waiting to get our room and when we went back they told us they wanted to charge our card for "today's rate" for 2 children or an additional $800. I knew they had not even tried to get it worked out with Expedia. They tried to say Expedia didn't work on weekends but I had just spoke to someone quickly who confirmed the reservation for us both. We got someone on the phone (yes, Expedia has customer service on the weekends), and confirmed our information again. They let us go to our room without taking the additional payment and we thought it was all sorted and we could finally enjoy our trip. Wrong!! They hounded us, emailed us, said Expedia was not offering to pay them extra (not sure for what-I realized a scam was a -brewing. On our checkout, they literally held us hostage and wouldn't let our driver leave with us to the airport until we paid them $800. We were so upset and left with a crying 7 year old and almost 50'year old. This was an Expedia/Iberostar discussion and should've had nothing to do with our prepaid vacation. They ruined the entire trip with their disgraceful, non chalaunt attitude and then made us pay them an additional $800 before letting us leave the property. They would not respond to us in english (our language) despite their ability to speak it so we were left in the dark about what was being said and some of the emails to us being in a language we did not understand despite hundreds of workers there who spoke English, including management. The whole thing felt shady and scam-y. We searched review and found out they do this regularly. Please find another resort. Even if you don't use Expedia/Travelocity to make your arrangements, their behavior was abhorrent. I have never been treated like that and wish you better than that type of experience. We spent thousands only to have it ruined by their treatment. Food was the worst of any resort we ever been to like most of the reviews are saying. Definitely true! Low shelf liquors. No beer or wine variety ( you get 2 options only and we were I. The next to highest level). And What Mexican resort only serves stale bagged tortilla chips? !? The Mexican and seafood was absolutely uneditable (somehow). And don't forget the sales presentation scam you get pushed into sitting through. Ugh. It lasted way longer than they promised and concierge lied about how he'd really owe us one if we went. Afterwards, never saw him again. Positives-hard workers around the property-tip your waiters, bartenders and cleaning staff! Also, children's club was used a couple days and was a mostly pleasant experience. Otherwise, RUN. Excellence and Dreams were both pleasant experiences in Cancun and are recommended. But I will never visit an Iberostar location and deal with their scams again.

This is VERY long. I summarize pros and cons at the end. Day 1… We had no issues at the airport. Customs was simple and quick. The last time we came to CUN it was like herding cattle lol. We used USA transfers. They were very friendly and it was only a half hour drive. We were greeted with an AWESOME fresh pineapple-ginger juice. Check-in was extremely simple. There was no one in front of us. Everyone was very friendly. We asked if we could get and upgrade. Most reviews we read on Facebook said that they received an upgrade without even asking. Well, they “upgraded” our room at a cost of $700!!!! We went from Lindo to Maya. Wasn’t really happy with the fact that they charged us that much when they clearly weren’t at capacity. While we were waiting for our room to be ready, we went for lunch. The lunch buffet was amazing! Great selection and everything was so tasty. Then we sat down with concierge to book some dinner reservations. That was fairly simple as well. However, we did not get away from him without the “pitch“ to join the club in all the “free“ stuff they could give us if we attended an hour and a half seminar. We declined as we always do. We do not need to least vacation time sitting in a room hearing about timeshares or anything else. We got to our room, 6005. The rooms is beautiful. The room was a great location! Near a very quiet private pool that is located right next to our building. just above that pool is one of the main Maya pools. The main pool with the swim bar is just behind that. Spent some time walking the gorgeous property and beach. Spent some time in the pool near our building, both Maya main pools and even the Lindo pool with the foam party. We went to Olivetti for dinner on our first night. It was a bit of a disappointment. There were no reservations so we had to wait at least 40 minutes to get seated. Then we waited about 10 minutes to get greeted at our table. The Caesar salad was OK but very different than a traditional Caesar salad. The Caprese salad was very bland. The main dishes took FOREVER to get there. Once everybody else’s came, mine took at least another 10 to 15 minutes to show up. The main dishes I must admit were very good. both of my sons got the fillet. one came out overcooked so they had to remake it. My wife got the sea bass, which I thought was pretty good. She did not really care for it that much. It was a little bit on the bland side. I got the salmon which was really very good. for dessert, my wife and I got the tartufo. And I have to say that was amazing! Day 2 We had a buffet lunch and breakfast. We had a very fun day utilizing the beach and the pools. We played volleyball and some poolside games. we had a late afternoon snack at the hamburger bar on the beach. The hamburgers there are not horrible but nothing to write home about either. While Stretch we were waiting to go to the restaurant for dinner. We stopped at the Maya lobby bar for a couple drinks. I had a very good old-fashioned. My wife had a lemon drop Martini which she thought was just OK. We had dinner at El Rancho steakhouse. It was OK. I enjoyed my steak. We enjoyed the Caesar salad. Do not bother getting the creamed spinach. it’s basically creamed onions with a few hints of spinach. Day 3 We started our day at our usual buffet breakfast at the Maya buffet. I found it to be not as good as the day prior. I do like their selection of fruits and juices. one thing that I thought was really interesting. Is the homemade taco bar. They made the tortillas right in front of you. That was pretty good. Again, we spent our day in the pool and the beach. Played pool volleyball and met some nice people. for lunch, we decided to stroll over to the mall area. We checked out both the hamburger place and the taco place. Both of those were very good! After lunch, we headed back to the main Maya pool. Unfortunately, they shut down that pool for the afternoon because someone (assuming a child) pooped in it. We moved to a different pool, however, it rained like cats and dogs while we’re in the pool during the afternoon. The rain did not really put a damper on us. When we returned to our room to get ready for dinner our room had not been cleaned. I called and they said that they would do it when we were out to dinner. Before we left I called to remind them. For dinner we planned on going to the seafood restaurant. It was no reservation required and listed as OPEN on the app. When we got there it was closed and we pretty much had to beg the El Rancho restaurant to take us. This is the same restaurant we went to the previous night. The food was still just ok. Afterwords we went to the disco. This was BY FAR the most happening disco that we have ever seen at any resort in the past. When we returned at around midnight our room STILL was not cleaned. I called and spoke to them again. I told them I wanted it done first thing in the morning. DAY 4 This was our “drunk” day. We woke up, had our typical buffet breakfast. The we spent the entire day in the Maya pool. hanging with people, playing volleyball, participating in the foam party and getting intoxicated. we missed lunch and almost dinner. When we did stroll out to dinner, we went to Under The Sea because we were told that it would be open by the front desk. We got there and it was closed. We were told that the restaurants were closed because the resort wasn’t at capacity. This shouldn’t affect my experience. At this point getting pretty aggravated with the food/ restaurant situation. So we went to the La Pagoda buffet. It was probably the worst food so far and the selection was a bit weak. DAY 5 Today we spent at Xplor adventure park. The food there is better than the resort. Iberostar should take some food prep pages out of their book. This was BY FAR the best day of vacation so far. If you can afford it, I would STRONGLY suggest spending your vacation at the Xcaret property. We used a taxi service to and from the bark. They charged nine dollars more to get back than they to get there. it was $38 to get there. It was $47 to go back to the hotel. DAY 6 Today was a typical buffet breakfast and pool all day with drinks and volleyball. The beach grill was lunch. For some reason the burgers tasted better today than the other day. What was surprisingly fantastic was the meatless burgers! I LOVE beef but my wife had this and I tried it. I was SHOCKED at how good it was. Dinner tonight was BY FAR our favorite!! We went to El Puerto Smoke House. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. I thought the chicken was outstanding. The pulled pork was good and the brisket was also very good. What really got me was what they called Mississippi Mud Pie. If you like rich, dark chocolate GET THIS!! DAY 7 Today was a typical day for us. Not much to report here. We did the hydrotherapy in the spa after the pool. We had a very good day. The previous day I had asked them to do something nice in our room for our anniversary. we’ve had some really, yeah that’s tough. really outstanding room preparation in the past at other resorts. This was kind of weak to be honest. A bottle of champagne, and rose petals on our bed. That was it. Many other resorts have done much better. They have drawn a bubble bath with rose petals, champagne, fruit and other snacks, a sash on the door, towel, art, and rose petals on the bed. DAY 8 Departure day. sad day. Quick buffet breakfast Called for bags…the were very prompt. Checkout cost us $26 for both rooms departure taxes. USA Transfers was on time. No traffic getting to the airport. Airport was a breeze!!! no lines, very easy. PROS Property is beautiful and HUGE Everyone is friendly The entertainment staff was good. Shuttle service room service The amenities / activities were abundant. Nice / fun disco. Nice clean beach Coatis on property Beach snack bar plenty to eat and drink coffee shop CONS Overall the food is below average for an all inclusive. They don’t seem to cleanup the empty cups left around the property quickly. They don’t seem to enforce the NO SMOKING rules Dinner generally takes a VERY long time to get the food. Children are allowed at the pool bar. Drinks should be consistent from bar to bar There should be a meetup party or event for young adults. They seem like the forgotten group. They need to be more conscious of following through on requests. OVERALL OPINION This is probably the best property we have been to on the east coast of Mexico. I do think that the Maya property was better than Lindo, but not much. Most food and dinner service was not great. Nice people, beautiful property, lots to do, eat and drink. At this point we are thinking this may be the only place we would return to in this area. The only thing that would keep us from returning is the food. Otherwise a great resort our favorite restaurant BY FAR was the smoke house.