TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Ari and Michelle and Fernanda and Ely were great hostess and made sure we had a great time! We will definitely go back when we visit Hard Rock Playa Riviera next time we go. ?? ?? ?? ?? We did the Bowl a...nd Boogie tournament and I won, it was amazing! ?? ??

Unfortunately this rating is all from the front desk manager at day 1 after check in and after another visit and conversation with the manager and his managers boss. We checked in and the room we booked ...was not the room given, I have a broken ankle from 3 days ago and have a knee scooter. The door to the washroom isn’t large enough to even enter the washroom with the knee scooter. So we went back to speak to the manager and asked if there is another room option as I can’t even use the washroom. We were told we could update to the presidential suite for $700 US a night! for our 7 Days. The accessible suites aren’t available for families. They offered us a family unit for $500 US a night but again these prices are crazy. We found out from our other guests that we travelled with that booked on the family side with us that the hotel overbooked and the only way to make it right for the guest that encountered these hotels problems was to buy our way out. Even with other room options available. With multiple issues and stories from the hotel manager and his boss clearly only money talks here. Very disappointed with the handling of this by a reputable hotel chain.

We chose this resort for spring break because we had been to the Hard Rock in Cabo and really liked that resort, and because this resort had a ton of kid-friendly features. Vibe City is their building with... the trampoline park, indoor playground, game room, laser tag arena, rock climbing and bowling. The trampolines and playground are included but the rest are additional costs. The additional costs were reasonable enough so we did all except rock climbing. Our kids loved spending time in Vibe City and really liked staff members Eduardo and Rene. We liked having another option other than the beach or pools to let them get out of the sun for a bit, while still having fun and burning some energy. The beaches were great and because of the rock wall that breaks the waves, the water was calm and seaweed free: perfect for swimming. We also took out the kayaks a few times and that was fun. The pools were nice but we found that it was impossible to get a chair or umbrella unless you were at the top level of the Hard Rock membership, or if you woke up by 7 to grab a spot. The restaurants were all good with great service. Alejandro at Zen took great care of us and we liked their food at the regular tables, as well as the hibachi. Alejandra with the Legendary team was so great and made sure we knew about the various activities and shows throughout the week. There were a lot of entertainment options and the shows that we saw were amazing. We especially liked the Neon Humans show. Our daughter got her hair braided at the Posh salon and Citlalli did a beautiful job. We were disappointed in our room because it had a lot of issues while we were there. This is one of the older Hard Rock resorts and they told us the rooms are going to be renovated but as of now, they are small and dark. We had multiple leaks in different spots in the room throughout the week. They dealt with them quickly but when you're on vacation, you'd rather not deal with maintenance problems. We were also frustrated by the room service a few times. The room service menu offers 3 pizza options, none of which are cheese. Our 7 year old is a picky eater and would only eat cheese pizza and fries but when we would attempt to alter the pepperoni pizza to be just cheese, 75% of the time, they would ignore the request and bring pepperoni or on a couple occasions, they even called and said they couldn't do cheese pizza since it was already prepared. Had this been a more romantic or adult centered resort, I might have understood but with this being a family friendly resort, I would expect cheese pizza to be a staple. Overall, we had a great time and I could see us going back someday but I would probably wait until the rooms are redone.

This is our 2nd time visiting HRRM. Family of 4 with two kids aged 12 and 15. First time we visited in Mar 2020, second time Mar 2025. It felt like a different hotel in a lot of ways compared to 2020. Wi...th many of the restaurants being renovated, a la carte restaurants changed to “first come first serve”, and most significantly… more buildings are being opened to families. So a big portion of the resort we never saw until this visit. I have broken down my review into the great, good, bad and ugly. Along with some suggestions to the hotel and final thoughts. The great - Larger portion of resort opened to families. We got to see and use a lot more of what the resort offers because of this. More pools, beaches and another lobby. This also makes the resort great just for walking and sightseeing. Which is important to us. - The food. I would say the food was better than in 2020. With a few minor exceptions I’ll note later. But overall, it was very good. Variety is good. The food is part of reason we would return. - Hard to beat the beaches. Sargassum was definitely present in Riviera Maya during our visit. And there were a couple very windy days where the waves were intense. But with the beaches contained behind a rock retaining wall… there’s barely any impact to the beaches at HRRM in these scenarios. They’re still very usable during those times, not wavy. - Service. Getting drink service at beach and pool a big plus. This isn’t always available at all-inclusive resorts. - Lunch buffet available at the pools that can be eaten at your pool chair. This is a big plus and not always offered at all-inclusives. Barcelo and Planet Hollywood in Cancun area don’t offer this. - Room key is your bracelet and no towel cards. You have no idea how big of a bonus these are until you go to a resort that uses key cards to enter your room and enforces towel cards to exchange beach towels. No worrying about somebody else stealing your towel and paying $75 USD to replace. And no worry about forgetting your room card. - The tablet in your room. Can order maid service, mini fridge refill, toiletries, room service. Get restaurant menus, hours, etc. Was very useful and a great addition they didn’t have in 2020. - The grounds are impeccably kept. Was neat seeing the big water fountain/pond that’s in what used to be adults only section but families can visit now. - Snacks included in the room are a nice touch. This wasn’t offered in our 2020 visit. - Free room service. This is something we rarely use, but it’s a “nice to have”. We only used it once. But still - it’s nice to have the option when somebody can’t leave room for whatever reason (sick, injured, tired, etc.). - Even though the resort was full during our visit, we can always find somewhere to have our own space. So it never feels truly “full” even at peak times. The good - First come first serve at restaurants. For most part this unexpectedly worked out well for us. Most restaurants we got in less than 30 minutes… sometimes only a couple minutes or less. They are MUCH more organized than the “first come first serve” that Planet Hollywood Cancun used when we visited there in 2023. But, the reason I don’t put this in the “great” section is because we tried twice to get into Toro without success. First time were told 2 hour wait. Second time, 1.5 hours. So would have preferred that specific restaurant use reservations because it’s always in high demand. And Ciao restaurant… we were told it would be 45 minute wait ended up being 1.5 hours. - We liked the hot tubs near entrance to “blue lobby”. Water wasn’t really warm though. And the jets only worked one time. But it was a nice find near end of our trip. The bad: - Lack of pico de gallo at buffets. At breakfast I like it on my eggs. And at lunch, I usually like to just eat tortilla chips with pico de gallo and guacamole. This is pretty standard stuff at a Mexican resort. But for whatever reason… the breakfast buffet only has pico de gallo behind a counter window that only staff can serve you. The staff were always busy and I chose not to bother them. And at lunch… I never saw pico de gallo at the pool bar buffets even though there’s lots of chips available. - The hash browns at breakfast were truly terrible. This was actually something we liked at HRRM in 2020. But something changed. They tasted like you can taste exactly what the grease trap they’re fried in that day tastes like. - Chilaquiles only available if you make it yourself. And it’s annoying - if you put it on your plate, the sauce leaks on entire plate. So it gets on your yogurt, fruit, etc. Would prefer it already made because the sauce has already soaked into the chips, and the chips are soggy (which is better) and it doesn’t leak as much. - Hotel Room bathroom door doesn’t close. Well - it does, but you need to use all your muscle, would take a couple minutes to completely open or close, and a LOT of noise. It’s a giant heavy sliding wooden door that easily gets stuck and jammed against the floor. - Doors to bathroom toilet and shower don’t properly close all the way. One time I was stuck in the toilet because the door was so jammed. I was concerned I would break the glass if I used too much force to try to open. - No self serve alcohol at buffet. Usually they have champagne so you can make your own mamosa in morning. Or vodka for Bloody Mary. Etc. This was available in 2020. But no longer. - Room needs two night tables… one beside each bed with electrical outlets at both sides. Especially with the tablet installed on the only night table… very limited space to put any stuff on there at night. - Sales pitch of being offered discounted rates for future visits at Hard Rock properties moments after we’ve checked out of our room. The staff were professional and pleasant to speak to. But I’m sorry, getting up early, packing, checking out and feeling rushed to be on time for airport transfer already sucks and is depressing. I’d rather spend the last few minutes of my stay with my family and enjoy the weather rather than saying “no” to a sales pitch at least 15 times. To two different people. I said to second guy as he approached me “I’ve already been given the details of this offer and I have zero interest”… then second guy goes on to give details and another sales pitch. It’s exhausting trying to show body language I have no interest and not trying to be rude. - The exclusive pools for the legendary/upper class guests seems like wasted space. They were barely used. Why not just offer all pools to all guests? Unless it’s solely for kids or adults only, of course. - Two of the main “big kid” water slides were out of order. This wasn’t a huge impact to us as our kids weren’t interested in the slides during this visit. But it’s notable. - No eye glasses or jewelry, including earrings, allowed on water slides. I’ve never seen such a policy anywhere before. Thankfully my kids weren’t really into waterslides this visit. Because I personally can’t see without my glasses. And wouldn’t have been able to join my kids on the slides. - So we took our one child to “Vibe City” to go on the trampolines. Jumped for about 10 seconds. Then staff member told to stop because we didn’t sign a waiver for our child. Then we go back and take a good 5-10 minutes filling the waiver out. Immediately go back to the trampoline park and without even stepping on trampoline again, the daycare kids walk in and my child was told to leave until the daycare kids were done jumping. Which… who knows how long that would’ve been. Hard not to be frustrated with that experience. We didn’t go back. - The beds in room are comfortable, but need to be queen size or bigger. Two double beds for family of 4 isn’t desirable or ideal. - Spring Breakers. We stayed at Planet Hollywood Cancun and Barcelo Riviera Maya previous 2 March trips. They were definitely much worse at Barcelo and PH as compared to Hard Rock. But having said that, there are definitely College Spring Breakers at Hard Rock in March and are unavoidable. So just wanted to note that as it can be a turnoff for some travelers. The ugly: - Beach/pool chair reserving. It’s pretty bad at HRRM. This wasn’t an issue for our visit in 2020 which was at same time of year both times. Perhaps it wouldn’t be as bad if there wasn’t chair reserving being done by butlers for the “Legendary” status or whatever they call their higher status guests. If I were to pick one reason why we wouldn’t go back to HRRM - this is it. No question. To be honest it’s pretty insulting going out to the pool at, say 10am, and almost all chairs are reserved with only a couple people in the pool/beach, or even sitting on the chairs. Nothing says “welcome!” like an empty pool with fully booked chairs. - In 2020, there were coolers at the top of the steps to the beaches filled with cold bottles of water and cans of beer. This was a big appeal for this resort from our perspective. So we can always get water, and don’t have to wait in line for beer. However - really disappointed it’s no longer available. - View from our room balcony. It was a bunch of giant wooden boards for construction. They’re renovating what’s in between buildings 4 and 5. It used to be some sort of obstacle course in a jungle, with rock climbing, Riviera Maya sign… and can’t remember what else. We used these during our last visit and liked it. And was a nice view from our balcony at the time. I mean… I “get it”… construction happens and the resort needs to constantly evolve. Noise wasn’t a problem. But would’ve been nice to be offered something additional for our lousy view. - The swings are gone. The ones that overlook beach, and the ones by volleyball/basketball courts. These were something we used a lot in our last visit and were disappointed they’re gone. - The walls in the room are paper thin when it comes to sound proofing anything that happens in the hallways. During our 10 day stay, we figure we were woken up after midnight by very loud groups in the hallway at least 6-7 of the 10 days. Like I’m talking LOUD groups. I’m a deep sleeper, so if they wake me up, that’s significant. A few of the times they were large wedding groups, a few were Spring Breakers and others were just drunk people coming back from late night at bar. Suggestions for the Hotel: - This resort severely lacks a mini golf course - Bring back the coolers with cans of beer and water bottles at the beach - Bring back self-serve champagne/vodka/tequila for breakfast drinks. - Bring back the swings - The golf cart transportation between lobbies is a great service. But the carts need to be bigger. They only carry 7 guests plus the driver. When you have two groups of 4… somebody isn’t getting on. We’d sometimes have to wait 3-4 carts because there’s too many people waiting, or others would rudely go in front of us. Or people would have luggage taking up spots. First world problems, I know. But I do think larger carts would make a big difference. In summary - we had a great 10 day stay. The positives definitely outweighed the negatives. This is one of our favorite resorts and we’ve visited many other all inclusive resorts. Service and value offered for families is better than most of our other past resort visits at other locations. Resort is beautiful and the grounds are impeccably maintained. We would definitely consider coming back. Only reason we wouldn’t is because we want to explore other resorts in general Cancun area, or other side of Mexico.

My family and I stayed at the resort from March 14 to March 24. When we arrived, we were greeted by the bellhop and they took our bags so we could check in. The check in process was seamless and pretty q...uick. Right after we checked in, we were greeted by another hotel staff showing us discounted excursions or benefits we can get. However, this person actually works for the Legendary Vacation Club and they will try to book a breakfast meeting on the house. Isn't breakfast free at an all inclusive? We managed to get out without meeting with him because I read about them from other people's reviews. What I heard is they are trying to sell you future vacation time at their affiliated resorts and there are 4 tiers of selling starting from $20K USD all way down to $2000 USD for a week. Don't feel pressured to take the deal but they do make it hard for you to leave. How can I buy future time at their hotels when I haven't completed my stay at the current hotel? Rooms: We booked the family room and they placed us in building 8. This building is connected to the main Hacienda Roja building and is very close to the main pool. Overall the room was well kept and was clean as it can be. There are minor things that can be fixed. Our bathroom door didn’t fully shut. The door for the toilet wouldn’t stay close as well. The jacuzzi in the rooms does not get clean properly so I wouldn’t use it. Pool Chairs: If you are not part of the Legendary Vacation Club, you can't reserved the chairs. However, you can make friends with the morning Pool Concierge by tipping them to get the chairs but that doesn't mean you can show up super late to the pool. There were only a couple of days where my wife had to be at the pool by 730 to get the chairs and location, we wanted by asking the Pool Concierge which chairs were actually taken. We sat in the chairs until my kids woke up and we went to breakfast and left our things on the chairs and then went back after and stayed there pretty much the whole day besides venturing down to the beach. There is a time limit that they can free up chairs. I think 8am is the first round of freeing up chairs. Noon might be the 2nd round. Lunch Options at the main pool: Lots of selection around the pool. Snack Bar serves up chips, chicken wings, spring rolls, onion rings, fries, samosas, etcs. Pizza stand with a wood burning oven. Burger and Hot Dog stand and there is a stand that serves up different food each day. Ceviche, Paella, Pork Tacos. The buffet is available for lunch as well. One of my favorite place is the cafe. It serves up Gelato all day, Iced Coffee Drinks or Iced Chocolate Milk and they have salads, basic sandwiches and desserts. The Cafe at the other lobby has toppings for the ice cream. Dinner Options: Hacienda Roja has Toro (steakhouse), Zen (Teppanyaki or sit-down Japanese food), Frida (Mexican) and the buffet. Hacienda Azul has Ciao (Italian), Los Gallos (Mexican) and Le Petit Cochon (French and Adults Only) There are 3 other restaurants at the Adult side that we didn’t go to. Toro: Overall good steaks and cooked perfectly but the sides were just lacking in flavor Zen: Teppanyaki: Show was great by the cook. Overall food was very salty and meat was overcooked. Fried rice was salty as well. Ciao: Great pasta options. Mushroom Risotto, Gnocchi, Norcina, Salmon Vodka and Lasagna were very tasty. Burrata and Pizza was great as well. Frida: Had the Skirt steak and Prawn dish. Both were flavourful. Le Petit Cochon: Everything was great. Beef Carpaccio, Salmon Dip, Lobster and Onion Soup, Rack of Lamb. All done perfectly. Nighttime: The daily shows were great. Didn’t make it to the Fire or the Neon Human shows. You have to reserve spots for those shows. Michael Jackson show was good, but I liked the Queen Tribute show better. The impersonator actually looked like Freddy Mercury. Can’t go wrong when the whole crowd sings Bohemian Rhapsody. Hacienda Roja Lobby: There is a different thing that happens in the lobby after the night time show. For me, the best show is Karaoke with the guests and when they are already intoxicated. My biggest complaint: There were nights that Ciao and Los Gallos was closed to the public with no notice. There was no advance notice. Luckily we went to Ciao a couple of times but we wanted to go back before we left since it was one of our favorite restaurants. I went in the middle of dinner time to check out the closed restaurants. It wasn’t under renovations, there were no wedding dinner being held there. They were just closed. What I noticed was both restaurants are at the other lobby that was definitely quieter. My assumption is: There wasn’t enough guests at the resort so they pushed guests with kids over to the main lobby to save on staff costs.