ITS A TOURIST TRAP! ACCOMODATION: Mayan Palace building 3 has a broken mirror in the elevator, chipping paint in the hallways, and construction noise waking us up at 9am daily. In our room, the TV, lamp, and fan were broken. Bathroom has no vent or window. The room was spacious and clean. ELECTRICITY: With no notice, our power went out for 6 hours while we were in the middle of cooking breakfast, because they were doing maintenance on the elevator. Our metal countertop became electrified if there was water on it. We literally got shocked multiple times a day. Maintenance couldn't figure out/fix the problem. ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE: Took 1.5 hours to check in. Upon check out there are lots of hidden fees & taxes, which we were able to negotiate off. We were promised the shuttle to & from the airport would be paid for. On the last night learned we had to pay our own shuttle back to the airport, $15/person. They make it difficult to leave (20 minute shuttle to the entrance lobby, then 1/2 mile walk to the main road for a normal priced taxi). Or you can pay double for their taxis. FOOD: Food & drinks are as expensive as airports in the USA. Tastes pretty good, not worth the prices. No free water or coffee in the lobby, or in your room. WATER: Drinking water is not provided. You have to buy jugs of over priced drinking water at the main store & haul it yourself back to your room. THE POSSITIVE: the grounds are beautiful and the nature is lovely. The staff are friendly... Honestly so friendly it feels fake. I liked the beach, ocean, pools, and wildlife. If you don't want to leave the tourist trap and you're happy to pay a fortune for subpar services, this is the place for you. I will never be back. read more

Mayan Palace - Doesn't feel like a 5 star resort... - Hotels Near Me - Playa del Carmen, ROO

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This resort is completely disorganized and feels like a scam. There are at least five different entities operating within the property, yet none of the staff seem to know how they connect or how to navigate the endless maze of walkways. Worse, the ticketing is entirely fragmented--buying a ticket to the water park has nothing to do with the hotel, the main park, or the high-pressure timeshare pitches you're forced to dodge. Navigating both the physical property and the customer service is an absolute nightmare. Save your money and avoid this place. read more

We were charged twice at Havana Moon due to a clear failure in communication--and management has refused to correct it. We arrived with a reservation and asked to sit on the terrace within the same restaurant. Staff accommodated us without any mention that this would result in a full charge for the original reservation. We then paid again for the dinner we actually had. Only afterward did we discover we had been billed for both--despite receiving just one meal. This was never disclosed - and could easily have been shared by the manager that seated us. Had it been, we would have made a different decision. Charging guests under these circumstances reflects a serious lack of transparency. Even more concerning is the response: management has relied on fine-print policy rather than addressing the obvious breakdown in service. Bottom line: We paid for dinner twice--the restaurant was paid twice. That is simply not acceptable. We hope someone in leadership reviews this situation and reaches out to resolve it appropriately. read more

It's truly a shame, because this used to be a very pleasant place. The property is a bit old, but it used to be clean and well-maintained -- it was a pleasure to come here. Now, it's extremely dirty and run-down. The cleaning staff does the bare minimum, it smells bad, and although I always book a suite (even when I come alone) and leave tips, my last few stays have been terrible. There were bugs on the dishes, and I found cockroaches three times. Even though I reported it, they didn't seem to care. They sent a technician three times because the stove didn't work, and the kitchen is just disgusting. I thought it might be just this building because it's the lowest category, but at the pool I spoke with several other guests staying in different hotels within the property, and they said the same thing! People hang their clothes on the balconies -- it looks like a rundown tenement. TERRIBLE! The quality has dropped drastically. What a pity! Some of the staff are still doing their best, and I appreciate that. I really hope things improve. read more

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Great place to stay! Food is too expensive have stayed here for years and it's just gotten too expensive for a family!

​Resort Mayan Palace is one of 5 resorts on the Vidanta property just north of Playa Del Carmen. I have been a member of RCI for 30+ years, and I have traded into resorts all over the world. I'm not sure what caused all the negative reviews of this place on Yelp, our experience was 180 degrees different than many of the reviews. The Mayan Palace is the "least fancy" of the resorts at the Vidanta property, but it's really cool. The rooms are great, and the housing staff is terrific. Because the Mayan Palace is just one area of this fabulous resort, this review is really about the entire Vidanta property. The grounds of the resort are like a jungle, with wooden paths cut through the jungle to allow you to walk from place to place. There are shuttles available for folks who cannot make the walks. All of the pools are beautiful, not a problem finding an empty chair in a good spot any time of the day. The pool waiters are super friendly, bringing food and drinks all day. Pool service... awesome! The food at all the restaurants, food courts, Salum (the new beachside marketplace) was all outstanding! There was not a single bite of food we had anywhere on the Vidanta property that wasn't great. Wait staff is great, thank you all! This is not an all-inclusive place, perhaps they take more pride in the food because of that... not sure, but it was all fantastic. The food was very reasonably priced. Also wanted to include a note about the Cirque du Soleil show available at the resort. Joya ... WOW! Outstanding show, well worth the money. We paid for the VIP seats, and cast members were dancing on our table several times. Make sure you get those seats if you go! A wonderful time, and wonderful resort, we're already planning our next visit! read more

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We are Vidanta members and this is our first time staying at the Vidanta resort in Riveria Maya. Vidanta is not an all inclusive resort, just so you know. It works well for us since we don't drink alcohol and one of us is Vegetarian. Their main pool is huge and clean. But it's not heated so RM won't be our February destination in the future. There are a lot of wild life and nature on this property, which we love. I would give 5 stars for this Vidanta Rivera Maya Resort. The 4 stars review is for the Mayan Palace where we are staying. Our room at the Mayan Palace is just like a regular hotel room. There are two of us and we are married, but they gave us a two full size beds so that was disappointing. They said they don't have any King size bed in the studio of this hotel. Hmm... I believe the Mayan Palace hotel is the original hotel in the Vidanta RM resort, so it's kinda old and the room smell a little moldy. Our bathroom light flickers for a bit before it stays on. Our beds were super soft (well used) and the pillows were super hard so we had trouble sleeping the first night. We asked the concierge to replace the mattresses and pillow the following morning. Surprisingly, they replaced one of the mattresses and two pillows. So kudos to concierge! Overall, Mayan Palace is not for us. We'll be staying at the Grand Bliss next week so stay tune for my review on the Grand Bliss. read more

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Service was fast and workers are super kind. Ac worked like a charm. Beds were clean and comfortable.

Oscar showed up 15 minutes late to our appointment, half ass showed the options for the rooms. We have plenty of money and then some to buy a time share but I wouldn't waste my money on someone who gives up the moment they meet us. We work 3 jobs each, we travel MULTIPLE times a year.... You guys missed out and messed up by putting us in a shit room with mold and no hot water. We've done sales for 2.5+ years, your presentation was half in the bag and nothing was done to sell us. I've signed deals for millions of dollars for 6 months and your team couldn't convince me that they even saw the worth.... Absolutely pathetic, hire better sales people and maybe invest said commission back into the hotels. Don't waste your money for shit quality read more

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Before you book make sure to read the reviews. I booked this trip via Vacationclix.com, upgraded and got 2 rooms at Vidanta Mayan Palace. Upon arrival they take your bags to sanitize it due to covid. At first glance you think, wow they're taking ever precaution and I love that. The staff so warm and inviting and courteous. Back to the room, very dated. Wooden headboards, there's a brown mash pad on the mattress i pulled back up try and inspect the mattress but it's strapped on, but i noticed brown steaks. We got there Thursday and by Monday our bodies were covered in bites. my sister and i slept in separate rooms btw and around the same time we would wake up itching like crazy. Thinking maybe it's just mosquito bites, i dismissed it. It wasn't until i really looked at my bites and noticed it was in a straight line. OH no it's bed bugs. I emailed Vidanta and didn't even get a response. i'm praying i didn't bring these shits on board my flight exposing other people and even worse bringing them home. I am itching like crazy and it is now 4 days after i've arrived home. this trip has costed me peace of mind and now I have to wash all my clothes and hire an exterminator. read more

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I noticed way more nationals than tourists at this place. Talking with a national couple, they said they paid $600 for 1 bedroom. They also said the beach at Riu resort was way better. I do not recommend this place. If you want spend a lot of money, this is your place. You pay for everything including morning coffee in your room. If you want a rocky beach, don't look any further. Pack your wet shoes and get ready for stepping on rocks instead of sand. Jungala is not worth the price. AquaNick is way better. read more

Forget about this place, there are much better places than this, I think even the cheapest All Inclusive is better. Probably if you stay here is because you were invited by a promotion, and this will make you attend their sales event, where they will try to sell something, but when you say no, they will bring a guy that will treat you if he was a millionaire and you a poor person without resources (guess what, you can afford that vacation, and he needs to work there). The food is priced if you were in USA, and TTYTT is not good at all, maybe a few things here and there, but really not worth the amount they charge. Services are terrible, everything is far, so you either wait for the transportation while mosquitos eat you, or walk (not bad idea), if you request something to your room it will take hours, even food! They do not have enough personnel to take care of that many guests, and if they make a mistake they will never apologize, they will find excuses and try to blame it you constantly even is clearly the totally messed it up. If you want a cabana at the swimming pool, you need to be in line around 6:30 AM and wait until 7:30 that they open to take reservations, but you must consume at least around $50 if not they will charge you those $50 plus consumption, which if you had some drinks and a snack, you will for sure go way over those $50 so no big issue there. Really my happiest day on my New Year vacation at this place was when finally we left the property. read more

I expected so much more from a place like this. The resort is absolutely massive and you can get lost in the whole thing and you can do almost anything you want to do. The water park is great, people are eager to help, and the whole place is gorgeous. BUT, after being here for 5 days I have never wanted to return home more in my life. I slept on the couch's pictured in other reviews. My shoulders, back, neck all hurt. I didn't get a single good nights rest. The staff also wakes you up frequently to either clean or whatever. The walls are paper thin and you can hear quite literally everything you don't want to. It's ridiculous. I would absolutely not recommend this if ur coming from the US. At least the drinks are good and so is the weather lol. read more

When you walk in the lobby it is quite deceiving. The lobby smells so fresh and so clean. My room has mold on the shower curtain . The room doesn't smell fresh at all.Luckily I came with Lysol and room freshener read more

Mayan Palace - Bedroom smells bad - Hotels Near Me - Playa del Carmen, ROO

This resort is a giant maze, will take you 25 minutes to get to the beach. The rooms haven't been updated since the 70's. The plane ride there had a better tv than what was in my room. Whatever you do, do not buy into their timeshare/vacation program. It was the biggest scam. They lied to my face and gave me a contract with all the promises, come to find out it was a lie. We tried to leave several times but they are so pushy and it's just a horrible experience . Not to mention the service at salum was the worst , waited read more

The beach at the Vidanta resort has seaweed/algae build up on their beach fronts leaving the beach non swimmable. This has been an ongoing issue for Vidanta (and Mexico) for the last 6-10 years. Please be aware that you are paying for the experience and access to pools. Upsetting is the fact that I can swim in pools for a lot cheaper than what Vidanta charges. My other big gripe is the food. There is very limited places to eat on the resort, and the food is crazy overpriced. This wouldn't be SO bad if the food was excellent - but it's subpar. I've lost weight at this resort before due to crummy food. For example, for 2 of us we paid 80 USD for a breakfast buffet of stale sausage, watery eggs, non ripe fruit, and cold potatoes. I barely ate much and then was extra frustrated upon seeing the bill. Ordering food off the property isn't so realistic either unless you go to a sit down restaurant. My final gripe is the fact that any employee you speak with on the property might tell you one thing, and someone on the other end of the property tells you another. For example, upon check in we were told we could create TWO accounts under one room (ie my friend and I don't have to split the bill of our room at the end, we can charge separately). I put $200 down in my account (the 2nd account) and over the course of 48 hours I was down at Concierge 3x. The bars and restaurants were unable to access the second account, leaving the funds untouched and me having to pay out of pocket. The Guest Service employee told me I shouldn't have any issues when I went to complain, but I had issues the next morning. We ordered room service and it took a hour to come. The employee would NOT leave our room until I paid him, he claimed my account was non existent. Then the employee called their supervisor from our room and made me talk to them - and they had no idea what I was talking about as far as a "2nd account". We paid out of pocket for the food which proceeded to get cold while the employees wouldn't leave our room. The food was also AWFUL. The tacos were hard as a rock and I immediately went down to Guest Services to complain, get a refund, and demand an explanation as to what happened to my $200 and 2nd account. Note: the $200 was in cash which was ultimately the issue - that's okay but maybe just don't offer this to customers in the future bc clearly it didn't work. I was able to transfer the $200 to my friends account and merge back into one account for the room. The $200 was never accessed while at the resort, but the money was credited to my friends account. It was honestly such a nightmare dealing with this the first 48 hours while on vacation when you rly just want to move on and enjoy yourself. The employees give excellent service but the lack of communication and clear policy is a major downfall. Additionally, there is actually little to nothing to do on the resort property besides swim, go to Jungala ($$), or go to to Cirque ($$$). In the event it rains or everything is booked you're out of luck. Where as a cruise ship might have movies playing and indoor events - this resort has no offerings outside of the outdoor activities. It rained the entire week I was here last and we still enjoyed ourselves but it was sad they had nothing to do on the property while it rained. I will never come back here. read more

I was skeptical due to negative reviews, but we had no issues. The rooms aren't top tier, but they are clean and comfortable. We didn't come to Mexico to critique rooms; we came to enjoy a different culture. My son did lose a small stuffed animal that he'd had since he was 2, but the staff recreated a "foreign exchange" with a card from his stuffed animal and a new one. His stuffed animal decided to stay with his friends in Mexico, and he was given a lemur to take back instead. It was very sweet. The staff is top notch! You will not find friendlier service. Checking in took longer than expected, but it's only to give you all the information you'll need. We will be back, next time we want to stay 2 weeks. read more

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I keep hoping I'll have something good to say but no. 7 of us ate at Salum and it was the worst wanna be American food. Boring wings with no flavor, bland corn, McDonald's type french fries. Disgusting. And of course, again, at 7:40am comes the leaf blowers waking me up. Blowing for hours. It's now 10:30 and another guy has taken over. They all just walk around blowing leaves into the air. The DJ is blasting party music right now. This is worse than a hostel for spring break. Nowhere quiet to relax. Oh and all QR codes on menus and map so you can never escape your phone. I can't wait to leave. (& again, I was happy in a yurt on the beach so I'm not picky but bland nothin food and noise at 7am is a deal breaker for a palace!) read more

This was our second visit to this place in the last 10 years (wow! Time flies!) and we were excited to see what changes had happened. Since we flew to Cozumel, it took us probably 3 hours to get here. We were lucky to get to this place late Saturday in the afternoon for several reasons: 1. Lobby was not crowded and we checked-in in less than 15 min. 2. We had no sales people harassing us. They were worn out by this time. 3. Luggage was delivered to our room 5 min after we got here. Once we were installed, we decided to enjoy this stay at most. Upon check-in we got our room cards as well as towel cards, which you have to exchange close to the pool if you want one. Then we took our transportation to our room (Mayan Palace). Room was cool and good for us. We stayed in a suite which has a kitchen with fridge and microwave, good if you want to make your own breakfast or dinner in your room. Swimming pool is open 24 hours, but we skipped to rest and energize for the next day. Tip #1 - if you want to sleep in, recommendation is to unhang your phone to avoid any early calls from the sales staff. Tip #2 - they have several events during the week. Sometimes they bring a Mariachi. This is a must if you are from a different country. You'll enjoy! Tip #3 - Also they have a day with real typical Mexican food (tortas, tamales, Tacos). Same thing. Try them! Tip #4 - before you go to bed, unhang your phone (yes, I'm serious!); unless you have already attended the sales b-fast. read more

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It's been horrible. I'm still here. I can't get toilet paper. I can't get sheets. They say one thing they do some thing else. Two restaurant food was decent, the rest of the Food was horrible to the point where meat was undercooked and we got sick. Some staff is awesome. Some staff is absolutely horrible. If you're considering a resort in this area, I would think about anywhere besides here. We've been counting down the days till we leave and we actually almost changed our flight to come back early just because of the whole experience at this resort. read more

This review is for the Vidanta Riviera Maya resort. We are staying here for 7 days. The Mayan palace resort hotel is the lowest in terms of luxury hotels on this resort. In comparison to the higher end resorts on the property, the Mayan palace looks pitiful. We got a two bedroom suite because my spouse signed a contract for Vidanta for two studios with option to upgrade to a two bedroom suite for a small price once per year over a year ago. The good ( short list): 1) The resort is quite pretty. There is lush tropical vegetation. With that being said, I have stayed at other hotels in Riviera Maya and they too have lush tropical vegetation. 2) This hotel claims to have the largest pool in Mexico. It is quite vast. 3) The two bedroom at the Mayan palace is nice: marble tile flooring, a large area for dining room and living room, with one room with two full beds, not queens, and one room with a king bed. No pull out sofa bed but just to couches you can sleep on. The rooms are clean and the air conditioning is good. The bathroom still had a shower and tub together rather than a walk-in shower. We did not like that and the tub was old and we had to take the stopper out of it so water would not collect in the tub. It is not a luxurious room but it's clean for the most part. The bad: 1) The service is deplorable. Not one staff member asked us if we were enjoying ourselves or if there's anything they can do to make stay more pleasant. Honestly, they act like they couldn't care less. That includes the concierge. There are too many examples! If you ask for help, pray that you even get any. Just, hands-down, the worst service I ever had at any resort that I have ever stayed at anywhere!!! There are just too many examples and not enough text. 2) We went to get towels at the swimming pool and were asked about cards which they give us at check in that we give them, they give us a towel and they give us the card back when we bring back the towel. Not given these cards at check-in. Instead of helping us, they laughed at us and said you must've been excited and forgot!!??! 3) The food is incredibly expensive and the food quality is mediocre. This hotel claims it has better food than even high-end all inclusive resorts. I can assure you it does not! Some of the food was good but a lot of it was just terrible. What a rip off! We get more authentic Mexican food back in the United States than we did here! 4) when we checked in, we were assured there would be no discussion about buying. They lied! Next day AM meeting could have gone on for more than four hours!!! They talked to us about our benefits and we're still confused! Some benefits are were worthless like the Vida dollars. Despite that, they said that that's not possible and they work very well. My spouse and I are both physicians and I think we would know if it worked! What a joke! They gave us this whole story about how they made a mistake on their part on the type of contract signed last year and that it used to be someone else's contract and so they will make up for the mistake by trying to sell us a private residence deluxe property for less than $200,000 instead of the $800,000 they're asking for! Everything they did seemed thought out and planned, like an episode out of a soap opera!!! The whole time I had a funny feeling of how strange they're acting, to the point where it was not genuine, while pushing for us to get our credit cards. I called a good friend whose career is in investment banking and real estate, who made it clear that they were taking us for a joyride and that it was complete hogwash. We did get to see the Deluxxe and Grand Luxxe suites: they are really beautiful. They then asked us if it was a question of money because they would work on a payment plan with us. They will do what they can to get you to buy. Cirque du Soleil is heavily used in their trying to sell. They made a comment that they would be bigger than Disney! Best comedy I had all day! 5) when you check-in, you do not arrive at your hotel lobby. You arrive at central lobby. You then have to take the tram to get to your place or any other place. 6) you cannot use pools of other resorts but other resorts can use your pools. The pools are huge and you have to go explore them in order to find cool areas. 7) The beach is not swimmable and the water is filthy and full of seaweed. It was very unattractive and not relaxing at all. Overall disappointed and would not give more than one star. Way below par compared to other resorts stayed at in Riviera Maya/Cancun Mexico. Hoping other Vidanta locations better. Really let down with this one. read more

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Beautiful location. Nice staff. Unfortunately, we had items stolen from their security while they inspected our room due to another item that was "missing". They did nothing! Spend your money elsewhere... not worth it and NOT SAFE! read more

My wife and I spent our honeymoon here, it was a combined gift from our entire family. I've never written a review before, because I used to think that it was a waste of time. But this experience made us want to forget our honeymoon. We stayed at the Mayan Palace. Once we walked in the door, we noticed that there were dozens of these tiny, flea like insects all over the counter. We smashed them, not worrying about it. Little did we know, they would continue to show up the entire time we were there. The resort is like a maze. It is extremely difficult to get around initially, we had to ask every single time we wanted to go somewhere, because the signs are misleading. That's if you want to walk- unless you want to be at the mercy of the trolley-train-carts. They take you around all the resort, but you've got to wait in line for the right one, and sometimes take 2 different trolleys to get where you want to be. We even got a map, and that didn't help, because it seemed that the roads we were talking on weren't even pictured. The staff were mostly friendly and helpful, thankfully my wife is fluent in Spanish or else it would've been even more difficult for us to get around, even with my intermediate Spanish speaking ability. Next, let's talk about the food. We did not want to leave the resort at all, because it was advertised that they had everything we needed. Our family, who grew up in this area of Mexico were adamant about the danger, and told us that going out of the resort is a terrible idea. That sounds great, until you realize that the food on the resort is at a bare minimum of $20USD, per person, per meal. It's usually around $30-45USD per person, per meal. With only my wife and I, we were spending on average, $60 per meal. If you want 3 meals per day, you're looking at atleast $200 per day. Just on food. Not including the hidden Mexican government fees and taxes that are added every single day you're there. That's not including drinks, snacks, trips, room service, anything. This resort feels like a blood sucking parasite; charging you for breathing. I haven't even gotten to the best part, the reason as to why we want to forget this trip ever happened. So 2 days in, we realize that we can't afford this ''luxurious' Vidanta lifestyle, (even though the week stay was about $3000 initially), we decided to throw caution to the wind and leave the resort to get groceries in order to cook most of our meals. We spent $100 at the grocery store, and were able to cook breakfast for a couple mornings, and dinner atleast 3 times. Then, In the middle of the week, a tour salesman approached us. He offered a boat trip to Isla Mujeres, drinks, lunch, scuba diving and other entertainment, all included for $90/person. We were planning to take atleast one trip, and we took this one. It was phenomenal, 10/10. The most fun I've ever had on a vacation. Here comes the best part: We left for that trip at 8am, and came back around 7pm. Once we got to my room, I searched for my wallet that was hidden in my suitcase, zipped up, under all my clothes. Once I found it, I found that my $1000 in cash was gone. Completely. All the money that we received from gifts at our wedding a couple days before, was completely gone. "Why do you carry that much cash?" Well, we needed it for taxis, food, tips, groceries, and to pay our bill at the end of the week. (The services around the hotel do not accept cash. They charge you by asking for room number and signature. You spend more this way, psychologically.) Why didn't we just use a card to pay for the bill? Because they charge a '16%-20% additional charge on all plastic use.' That's why we were using cash. I suspected housekeeping, because the only way to enter the room is to have a digital bracelet key that they tie around you wrist at checkin. So I immediately report it to the front desk, and the security comes to the room and 'investigates.' They looked through the entire room, searched every pocket of all our luggage, and had me write a report. The following day we were informed that, in order to continue the investigation, they were interviewing every member of staff that worked the day we were gone on our trip. After 2 days of interviewing, they call us to the main lobby and tell us that they can verify that housekeeping entered the room twice while we were gone, but that there is nothing they can do, because of no evidence. They can't even slightly discount our bill, offer us a free ride to the airport, nothing. They basically said 'sucks to be you' and told us to be on our way. This resort is a money sucking nightmare, and by the way, the beach is filthy. Don't waste your time, or your money. You would think that you could feel safe about leaving valuables in your room at a resort as expensive as this one, but apparently not. So we're out $1000, have been rationing the groceries we bought at the beginning of the week, excited to get out of here. read more

We are here at resort now... been a nightmare.. took hours to check in... hours to receive luggage.. called 4 times for pillows.. never received them.. called twice again next day.. never received them.. just refresh towels but do not clean room.. room service took a hour to get through and another hour for food. We couldn't get into a single restaurant on Propery.. stressful... and extremely disappointed.. still have 4 days left.. Hope it gets better So now I find out that at 2:30 in the morning they came banging at my door and woke up my son to give him the pillows ?!! Really !!! read more

Beautiful resort about 30 mins drive from Cancun International airport. We stayed in one of the luxurious, well equipped and spacious 2 bedroom apartments. The resort itself is huge and you need to catch the trolley train to get from the apartments to the beach. This requires a little bit of organisation in terms of timing but the service is frequent and efficient although not necessarily direct! Just make sure you don't forget anything in your room otherwise it's at least a 40 min return trip from the beach. Special mention to the entertaining Jeremy, our trolley driver. There are several swimming pools all of which were excellent, many food outlets for lunch and dinner. Finding a beach chair is fairly easy, although it's a self service operation, which is perhaps slightly odd for a resort of this quality. The staff throughout were very pleasant and helpful, the property is in immaculate condition. One disappointment is that due to the rocky nature of the sea, swimming at the beach is rather difficult , which is a great shame for such a pretty resort. read more

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Eject, eject. If you can cancel your trip, do it! Where to begin? The check in process is excruciating; after a long flight, way too long going from central "check in," giving up your luggage, transporting to hotel lobby, transporting from there to you room, and then waiting for your luggage to catch up. Rooms are SUPER noisy. It sounds like your neighbors are in the room with you. Very difficult to get in/out of the property, so you are captive to some very captive prices. Margarita is $15 US. While the property is beautiful, it is quite difficult to get around with confusing pathways and a Byzantine shuttle system that is infuriating. The food is hit and miss and way over priced. A big positive is the staff who really try hard, are great folks, yet have to deal with the crappy hand that they are dealt. Don't get me started on the hard sell time share pitch to which I stupidly agreed; that was on me, but do not Bottom line, I'm never coming back. read more

This place is so beautiful. The food was great and the pool is so BIG! Participated in bachata dance classes which were super fun and a good chance to socialize with other guests. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful. Communication was easy since we also speak Spanish but I believe the majority of the staff also speaks English. The only thing that could be better is the beach, not the greatest since it is filled with rocks and seaweed so you can't really swim in it. If you plan on going to the beach, Playa del Carmen is waaaay better. Also the buffet and the restaurants there are very expensive like ridiculously. Your best bet is to eat out. There are plenty of places to eat outside the hotel especially in Playa that are delicious and affordable. read more

Mayan Palace - Hotels Near Me - Playa del Carmen, ROO

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HONEST REVIEW TIME: You may or may not agree to this and that is OKAY. Everyone's experience is different and your mileage may vary. I am only speaking through my experience and it seems I am not alone reading through the reviews here. First off, this resort has pros and cons just like all the resorts on the same street here, but in the end, the cons seem to outweight the pros by far. Here goes: Pro: - This resort definitely has great main pool and pretty beach view - It is a BIG resort, perhaps too big. But there is definitely a lot of area to explore. (More on this) - Joya Cirque du soleil is across the street and partner with Vidanta (Mayan Palace) so it's convenient and the show/food/presentation were great. Now the CONS: Transportation system is broken: - Remember how I mentioned the resort is big? Guess what? Walking (to pool or restaurants) for the most part is not a unpleasant walk and the shuttles tend to take you the long way around before going to your destination. - Depends on where you go, the shuttle schedules are weird and they come at a very fixed time with wide gaps between each one (sometimes 3 hrs; like going to the main gate from lobby) (More below) - Going out of resort for a tour? It's long walk from main lobby to main gate, so let's take a shuttle right? Nope, the shuttles come at fixed schedule like 9am, 12pm, 3pm. So if you got a tour at 10am, you're outta luck. Not really, they just FORCE you to pay for cab for 55 pesos. It's not much but they're crafty like that. Big foodie? Yea.. they're not great here: - Balché Restaurant: Woke up late so we were hungry; thought we'd get some mexican restaurant right? Went to Balché by the main pool and ordered some TUNA SALAD and STEAK TACO and top with FRIED CALAMARI because I think they go well together, and then? - I kid you not, the calamari is the worst I've had and I've eaten a week old calamari dish fake Asian American restaurant. The Tuna salad wasn't lettuce with thick juicy seared tuna either, they're legit cat food cylindrical chunk of shredded tuna I would serve my cat. So let's get into how dry the steak was. I swear I was dehydrated just eating that steak taco. - HAVANA MOON: Went there one night for some nice beach view restaurant and some live Mexican restaurant. To our disappointment, we got an American band who resembled retired backstreet boys singing a few Boys2Men songs. Oh the 9oz steak and bowl of Chinese noodle were roughly $72USD. They're about Apple Bee's quality but triple the price because you get to listen to retired boy band. - DEL LAGO: This buffet restaurant is actually good; but about $35-40USD per person for BREAKFAST and they force you to pay for tip. PUSHY SALE (SCAM and TIMESHARE): - Ok we were greedy. So when they said come for complimentary breakfast we naively thought it was because it's for our honeymoon. Then we showed up to breakfast with a guy holding a folder of timeshare docs and realized it was too late. - The sales guy Luis was a nice guy actually. Until we rejected the offer and his manager lady showed up. She was the aggressive lady I have to say, cornering us into getting the timeshare and questioning every reason we provided. Then again, committing to a $30,000 loan with 9% interest for 100 years when we've only got 50 years left sound like a good deal right? - Upon rejecting the manager, she changed face and tone was unprofessionally rude and even yelled at the sales guy who took us to breakfast in front of us. So... uncomfortable and awkward.. THE EMPLOYEES ARE THE WORST (Above everything): - Truth to be told, we stayed at two resorts on this trip(El Dorado was the other), and the difference was shockingly clear. - Most Vidanta's employees did not speak much english to communicate well. They don't know shuttle's schedule, can't understand we need to go to main gate, and gave us wrong check out check out resulting us losing money and paying more. - The bellboys were RUDE! I get that they need tips and I will provide when they've done the job properly and polite. Not when they were LATE by 30 minutes when promised 5 mins and ASKED FOR TIPS at the end! - Their employees were not disciplined or trained well. It's bit insane how much difference there is in employees training between two resorts next door.. Checking out? EVEN MORE SCAM! - We were told we could get a discount on our Cirque tickets after the timeshare presentation, so when we presented the coupon we were told to charge it to our rooms and get the discount at checkout. Then guess what? - That's right, they denied the discount and mentioned we needed to apply it via credit cards and not charge to the room. They even denied mentioning charging to the room. - What happened next? The manager promised us they'll refund us the money one way or another in two days after we return to the states. It's been weeks and the manager is always "out of office" when we called.. - Oh we got massive bed bug bites on first night. read more

I liked the resort. The staff is amazingly friendly.. But I think a few things needed more attention (understaffed). My laundry came late... Asking for a shuttle was hard because it was always booked (that just means you need another shuttle bus). I seen there wasn't much staff by the pool either. If you own timeshares.. Also you'll hate they're sales guys trying to switch you over.. It's like I'm not interested means "hopefully I can change your mind" it gave a bad vibe. Like I wouldn't want to use the timeshare here again. read more

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Nice room and food but don't visit for the beach. Here are a few random comments while they are fresh in my mind. Check-in is very late in my opinion, 5pm to be exact, so if you flight arrives early ask if early check-in is available. We were able to get into an air-conditioned room around 1:30pm. The weather in late July-early August is FREAKING HOT and MUGGY!!!! If you are not used to humidity and dripping sweat constantly you are in for a real treat. With that said...the pool is massive but the water is not as cool and refreshing as I would have liked. I guess the sun constantly beating down on it without much shade is what makes it as warm as bath water. The ocean was cooler than the pool but the artificial reef was dangerous in my opinion and slippery and the water was cloudy and had LOTS of seaweed and kelp which made us not want to go into the water. The pool-side bars were decent. Staff were accommodating and very friendly. Drinks are a little sweet but "domestic" happy hour is from 12-2pm with 2 for 1 drink specials. The food was above average. I enjoyed Havana Moon, Nektar, and Gong. Blue Fish portions were very small in my opinion and not worth the money. The room service "gourmet" pizza was awful. Also, from what I remember the only air conditioned restaurant was Blue Fish. I recommend getting a cab to Walmart to buy bottled water (use for drinking and brushing your teeth) and other food to keep in your room and to bring poolside for snacking. We were told that you shouldn't pay more than 350-400 pesos per way or you are being overcharged. A Word of Caution: Use the "Free WiFi" at your own discretion. Shady shady shady! When I arrived home I started receiving thousands of new spam emails to the email address I provided during the daily sign-up/activation process and am apparently now "subscribed" to many new groups and email lists which is tons-o-fun trying to mark as spam and unsubscribe from along with my bestbuy.com account being hacked and a $2,000 laptop was purchased. Not a fun way to return home from a an exhausting trip...anyway...use their WiFi at your own risk. Bottom line: The room was nice, clean, and the ac was cold. Most of the food was pretty good. We didn't get sick. That's a plus. And the prices weren't horrible. But the beach/ocean exerience sucks and the pool was warm and not very refreshing at all. If you are traveling for the beach experience I would suggest picking a different resort. I probably would have given the resort 3 stars instead of 2 if my email address wasn't sold off to someone to spam and attempt to phish the heck out of me but that is just annoying. read more

100% scam. We signed up to view the hotel but the guy never contacted us or pick us up. Please watch out for Omar Dela Cruz. Other names associated with this individual is Vida Vactions, Grand Luxxe and The Grand Mayan. read more

Mayan Palace - Hotels Near Me - Playa del Carmen, ROO

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This was the second time my family visits this resort. The first time was a year ago and they attended a presentation and were convinced to buy a time share. In my opinion, they should have never done this. The time share they had in Cabo was 100x better than this. First of all, the fact that this is a no-cash resort is extremely inconvenient if you are traveling with a large group. All the charges at restaurants and bars will go directly to the credit card number you leave when you check in at the reception desk. Their internal transportation service is TERRIBLE. There is a "central terminal" where you drop off your car and then a shuttle transports you to whatever hotel you are staying in within Vidanta. So if you ever need to leave the resort, you need to wait for the shuttle to take you back to your car and such. Inconvenient. Not to mention, that if you want to go buy groceries at a store, you need to haul with all the bags as you cannot bring in the vehicle inside the resort past the central terminal. I waited about 30 mins one morning to the gym. They need to find a better solution to this system. The food is above average. But honestly, I only ate at the Belché restaurant one morning. The food choices were great at the buffet. The pool bars are also descent. They have a "happy hour" from 10A to 2P each day that offers a two for one deal on drinks. Not too shabby if you ask me. But again, all charges are made to the room. No cash. No credit card. Again, not convenient. read more

Not for everyone! Most of the staff was very nice. We were booked and paid for for one full week. After one night, we departed no refund but worth it. Property is very pretty. Everything you do requires a Tram. Not a fan. You can't just go to the pool or grab something at the lobby right down the hall. Room was small, dark and noisy. Coffee was yucky. Bed was downright hard and uncomfortable. I requested a room upgrade. I was even willing to pay. Zero help. Not rude, just useless. When I checked out after that and six days early, no one at checkout even said 'sorry' or attempted to remedy the situation. Food was good once you got where you were going. Tram driver was very kind and actually did say, "Sorry you didn't like it." Really sad we missed the timeshare presentation. LOL read more

DISHONEST, PREDATORY A friend bought a vacation package for a stay at the Mayan Palace, and invited me along for a girl's weekend. The initial receipt showed that everything was paid and there was no balance due. This was to include shuttle to and from the airport. We were not picked up at the airport and when we called to request the shuttle, were told they were not coming ( we had also booked a car, which was a whole other crazy fiasco). We had to find a taxi to bring us ( even with a prepaid voucher). When we arrived, they had extra fees that were suddenly due before we could have our room. Then, there was a gentleman who was not wanting to allow us to leave the lobby until we promised to have a "breakfast presentation" and threatened to "deactivate our benefits " ( whatever that means) if we did not come right back to listen to him to try to convince us ( which, btw, included needing our credit cards and id to verify our identity- not that anyone has ever verified my identity with my credit card, so no. ) and then trying to force us to leave a deposit ( which we also did not do). At some point we escaped after heavy pressure to do as he said. After a whole weekend of finding ways to tack on extra fees, we went to schedule our shuttle to the airport, and were told that would be extra ( on the prepaid voucher). These people are dishonest and lack integrity. We have been to the area before and had an awesome trip staying elsewhere. Do not spend your hard earned money here. They are snakes who will change the deal last minute and leave you stranded if you do not meet their demands. read more

The resort is big...maybe a little too big. Walking to the pool from our room was out of the question. We had to wait for the golf carts to come by and pick us up. This was a very minor inconvenience. The majority of the staff speaks English which made it easy for us to communicate with everyone. The rooms are clean and well maintained. The bed is very firm which kinda sucked. The pool is one of the biggest ones in the world, and is open all night. They have two swim up bars, one of which is open until 11 pm. During happy hour drinks are two for one. For the entire week we were out there we spent about $20 a day on food and drinks which was an absolute steal. We ate at 3 restaurants, ordered room service twice, and ate at the swim up bar on a couple of occasions. I have nothing bad to say about the food there. We attended the Cirque show which was extremely disappointing. Cheapest ticket was around $75 and the show lasted a little over 1 hour. Definitely not worth the money because it doesn't live up to the Cirque name. A taxi ride to Playa del Carmen will cost you $350 pessos (around $21 USD) and can be split with the other riders. The shuttle which runs every few hours will cost you $80 pessos ($6 USD) per person. The timeshare sales staff is like any other one out there. Our presentation which included breakfast lasted around 3 hours. When I asked them to speed it up, they reminded me that I agreed to attend in exchange for free gifts. Those free gifts included 2 breakfast buffets, 2 tickets to the Cirque show, 2 tickets to Xel-Ha, and 2 tickets to Tulum. We also got them to discount the Xel-Ha tickets for our friends. They started their sales pitch at $68,000!!! They brought it down several times and even offered to buy our other time share. After they got the point that we were not going to buy, we were sent to survey director to pick up the tickets. The survey director tried one more time to sell us on their cheapest package. After telling her no a couple of times, she sent us to the tour director who was going to tell us about the free stuff we were getting. He proceeded to try to sell us again. After telling him no, he tried to get us to attend another meeting for more free stuff. After telling him no, we were finally free to go. The time share presentation and the Cirque show bring down the overall rating. read more

Horrible customer service. The transportation service they offer from the airport was terrible they made us wait 3 hours before even let us in a shuttle. Then another hour just to check in. 2 of the restaurants (Balche and Del lago) we got sitted and we had to wait 20 mins to even get acknowledge by the waiters and just to take drink orders. Let's not forget how difficult they make for us to get outside the resort, be aware you have to pay a taxi to take you from the lobby to the main door. And if you think having to pay extra for a transportation service is bad wait until you get your bill when you check out.. HIDDEN FEES. Excuse me, I did not agree nor got disclose the "donation fee", and "daily goverment taxes". Don't even ask for a computer they will charge you for that too at their business center. And if you are looking to buy at their market, be aware, the cashier might step away without acknowledging you, once you reach the counter, they just leave you there, trying to pay and walk away. I had to stop someone walking by and ask.. to find out that the cashier went on her "break". I understand they have to take breaks, but seriously, she saw me putting down my items at the counter and the other customer behind me, and she just walked away without saying anything. I call for the supervisor and he made move to another register, there was 20 people in front, I told him how is this customer service? So he move me again to a different register to pay my items. Let's not forget about the room service, it took 3 days for them to pick up the dirty dishes. And the ROACHES.. I had to call for it, they came to do some fumigation, they didn't even try to move us to a different room, they just spray and let us smell all the chemicals. As a Time share holder, I won't be coming back here, I'll bring my money's somewhere else. And if you get sign up for their presentation don't believe they'll take an hour as they said. Because they won't have enough staffing to assist you, like they told us, and made us waste our entire morning. Base on their employee at the presentation this resort makes 4 million a month, you would think they could offer you better service or ensure satisfaction, but forget it. No worth at all read more

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Not worth the hassle.. just read the endless 1-star reviews. After sitting through the Welks timeshare presentation, we won a free stay at Vidanta. The resort itself is beautiful. My only complaint about the resort is the you can hear EVERYTHING through the walls of the hotel. We literally woke up every morning to the noise of people and slamming doors. The worst thing about Vidanta, is obviously the timeshare presentation. Because of this, I advise to simply STAY AWAY. Don't even risk the chance of getting sucked in. There are so many other beautiful places in the world to see without the headache and stress of the timeshare presentation. I thought I could be strong and say no, but they will find away to get you to sign. I promise. First of all, they call your hotel room every morning (EARLY) to confirm your attendance to the free breakfast and timeshare presentation. They even called on a day we weren't scheduled to attend. I wasted an entire day at the presentation. I was there from 9:45am to 5pm. I remember at the end getting so hungry that I actually had to walk away to buy myself some food. They were so eager to get me to come back and showed absolutely no care that I was starving. They make tons of false promises. When you finally get the chance to review your contract in more detail, you will see that make things they promised are in fact not included. Here are a few of their promises which turn out not to be true: - able to book at Wynn, St. Regis, Hyatt, and Trump hotels to name a few - able to book at hotels across the world for only $68/night - able to book at hotels 24 hours in advance guaranteed - able to book on blackout dates (including NYE, Christmas, and other holidays) Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is. On top of that, they never mention the $399 fee to be a member of SFX. The also REQUIRE you to come back to Vidanta within 2 years (or you have to pay the usage fee anyway). They offer you Vida points as an incentive to sign their contract, but guess what? You can't get the vida points unless you go back there. The whole thing is an absolute scam. I'm now getting an attorney involved. Please don't make the same mistake I did. read more

BED BUGS!! I really did not want to write this review because over all I felt the staff and hotel where very nice. However our experience with the sanitation of our hotel bedroom more specifically the bed was completely disgusting. My fiancé and I arrived at Vidanta Mayan Palace 11/4/18, we planed to get married and spend our honeymoon at the hotel. After the first night we noticed bites on our feet and legs, although unfortunate my wife and I dismissed the bites as mosquitoes, however the bites only appeared upon waking up. As the days progressed the bites got worse and worse, desperate for relief we purchased itch cream (which did not work). Over the course of 6 days my wife was bitten 36 time throughout her legs and body and I was bitten 15 times. Finally on our last day my wife began to research and discovered the the type of bite were in fact from BED BUGS! Bed Bugs attack your body at night while you sleep, they're itchy, irritating, costly to treat and can transmit life threatening deceases and cause permanent scarring. Furthermore they can create long lasting emotional distress, in our case we will never look at any hotel the same and plan to bring our own sheets to every hotel from now own. We were completely disgusted and we requested someone some to come see our room and investigate, a hotel room maid confirmed that the bed had bed bugs and I requested we be changed into a different room, which they did. Upon check out we requested to speak with management, but was told management was in a meeting and the best the immediate supervisor van do for all our suffering as a $25 dollar discount, (which we spent $8 on itch cream and $17 on bed bug treatment when we got back) and to let us know that someone would contact us for further investigation and potential compensation. After not hearing from them for three days we reached out to Vidanta at pr@vidanta.com informing them of our experience. They dismissed our concerns and transferred the matter back to Vidanta Mayan Palace management. After 5 days we received a phone call from the management offering us a free upgrade the next we go to Vidanta. As you can imagine I was appalled by the lack of customer service in how they rectified our horrible experience at Vidanta. This was our wedding and honeymoon, and all they can do is a room upgrade for a time that will never happen. To whom ever is reading this.. please understand that bed bugs can be dangerous and potentially liife threatening, take it upon your self to protect yourself from unsanitary hotels. Do not stay at Vidanta!! read more

I am concerned this might happen to other people, we just left the hotel Friday October 14th because we weren't feeling well due to all the bed bugs bites. My husband and I noticed rashes all over our bodies and as soon as we lifted the sheets they were full off bed bugs and just left the hell out of there ... Will never go back again. read more

Lovely resort and highly recommend this place. They have a ton of activities to do at the location from restaurants, night life, 24 hr swimming pool, spa and family activities. The only thing that does suck was at the delay of valet and no benches to wait on, Which truly wasn't that bad which I won't give them a bad review. Far from that the service of the personnel and staff is great. Which they deserve a 5 star rating. read more

Mayan Palace - Hotels Near Me - Playa del Carmen, ROO