Catalonia Grand Costa Mujeres All Suites And Spa

What was supposed to be an amazing family vacation turned into a bit of a nightmare. I don't normally write negative reviews, but want to ensure that no other family ends up in the same position we were. I'm going to divide this up into two categories: things that were annoying (e.g. ‘first world problems') and the safety issues that drove us to the resort five days early. All of these comments are from the perspective of having booked the upgraded ‘privilege' suite or room. The scary and unsafe…. The entire family came down with food poisoning on the Tuesday night after eating at Tao Cat. We had to call (pay for) the hotel doctor and my son and husband ended up in hospital. Food poisoning happens, but I've never seen my son this sick (ever) and the way the hotel reacted to this situation was scary and totally unacceptable. - Around 1am I found my son in bed, screaming in pain and face down in …he couldn't move. We got him into the shower, called housekeeping (who were wonderful, but spoke no English) and changed the bed. - We did this another 2 times and then decided we needed the hotel doctor. - The front desk didn't pick up when I called and after 3 tries I ran from our room to the lobby to request a doctor. - The doc was amazing, however after administering an intramuscular shot and a couple of prescriptions, realized our son needed to go to the hospital bc he was losing fluids from both ends and could barely move (sorry, not sure how to make that not TMI). - The doc brought a wheelchair and helped us take our son to the lobby. By this time our daughter and my husband are also feeling ill. - Before the ambulance arrived our son passed out in the wheelchair in the lobby and again lost control of his bodily functions. Thank god the doc was there bc not one employee came to help - they all either stared at us or walked the other way. No offer of help, water, nothing. Just stares. - At the same time this is happening, our daughter started vomiting further down the hall. I went to her and noticed a woman, who'd been sleeping on a couch, had gotten up to talk to her. Turns out the woman was one of several guests who were drunk and sleeping on couches in the lobby bar! (Seriously, I couldn't make this up if I tried.) My daughter tried to stop an employee, but she said they just took her room number and just walked away. - The ambulance arrives and the bellmen outside just kinda stare at me. I had to ask them to translate bc the EMTs didn't speak English and the doc was with my son. Turns out they made the doors of the hotel too small and the ambulance gurney wouldn't fit through. …so we had to put my son back in the soiled wheelchair and wheel him outside to the ambulance. - The ambulance leaves and nothing - no one asked if we needed anything, if my daughter needed anything, nothing. That entire night we never saw a manager or met anyone who seemed to care (other than housekeeping). - No one called the next morning to ask if we were okay, needed food/medicine/a doc, or with an update on my son and husband. - I had to track my husband's phone to figure out what hospital they were in and get in touch; which was hard bc he was now sick himself. - I went to the front desk around 2pm to share our experience (my daughter was still sick and so we'd been in the room most of the day). It's then that I learned that the hotel had been in touch with the hospital all morning - but hadn't bothered to share that or any information with me.(They said that they thought the entire family had gone to the hospital; which is a bit unbelievable given only 2 ppl got in the ambulance and the employees watched my daughter and I walk out of the lobby and back to the room. - …they had no problem telling me that I could buy Gatorade and Electrolytes for $4 US each at the hotel store to rehydrate my daughter. - Based on what had happened and the fear of non-existent support/the safety of my family when they were discharged, I made the decision to leave the resort half way through our vacation. And so I packed our bags and left in an Uber at 7:00pm for another resort. - it took the entire family 2 weeks to recover from the food poisoning once we returned home. Ultimately Catalonia Grand Costa Mujeres did absolutely nothing to help our family or try to remedy the experience we had. The annoyances… - When we arrived, we wanted to upgrade our room to one that had a plunge pool. While there was a room for 7 of the 9 days we were there the hotel told us that we could not upgrade because their accounting system requires guests stay in the same ‘level of room' the entire time they're there. To be clear, we going to pay for the upgrade and even offered to pay the two extra days we wouldn't have the room to make it happen. The answer was ‘No, our accounting system doesn't allow that.' Really?? - We were placed in the absolute loudest room at the resort. I mention this because with the ‘privilege' level we assumed (from stays at other resorts) there would be a dedicated block of rooms in the better locations…nope. They placed us in a room that backed onto the DJ area of the ‘loud' pool and the other side of our room was adjacent to a restaurant. It was so loud even our 17 and 13 year old asked if we could move. - Guests can only have one beach towel at a time and need to swap them at a towel station by the pool…so imagine what happens when it rains - there are no towels…if you're at the beach and want a dry towel - you have to walk back up to the pool to exchange. - You can't leave any belongings on pool or beach chairs bc security will come and take everything. This means that when we left the beach for lunch, we had to take every single belonging with us. - Spa and gym are 18 and up. So while you might have privilege status, if your kids are less than 18 they cannot access anything. - Room service menu is very limited and if you're a wine drinker don't expect to find wine in the mini fridge…you have to get it at the bar and bring it back to your room or buy a bottle. - My daughter's Crocs (the only sandals she had) were stolen from the pool three days into our trip. Good things …but not good enough to change this review or have us go back… - Beni, the PADI instructor, was awesome, especially with our 13 year old daughter who hasn't done it before. Highly recommend scuba in the pool and booking a trip. - Saul from the front desk was amazing and helped relocate us from the ‘loud room' to one that was quieter - even showing us rooms so we had a choice. When we left on the Wednesday night he also took the time to ask me what the hotel could have done to change our experience- he was the only person who asked that. - Frederic, who I believe was the day manager was wonderful to us on the day after the food poisoning and tried to help as much as he could. He offered to help us with different food from room service and arrived at the beach with a wheelchair when my daughter passed out at the PADI hut (and helped her back to the room in a wheelchair). - The water therapy at the spa is lovely - Housekeeping and room service employees were lovely [Details]

We arrived at Catalonia Grand on April 25th. Check in was straightforward and we requested rooms next to each other and although we were not given them, we were reasonably close. We were travelling with our 2 children and their friends and booked 3 Privilege Club Family swim outs. As were travelling with a 17 year old, we chose this hotel so that he could wander the resort without restrictions. That's about the only positive mention for this resort.
After checking in we decided to separate into 3 groups to check out the resort. The 2 youngest 17&18 went to their room and ordered room service. My son called me shortly after to tell me there were 2 large maggots in his soup.
I proceeded to go to their room to look. I took pictures and then went to front desk. I was told management was coming to speak to me at the front desk.. but then received a call from my son that management had gone to his door instead. I told him to ask wait them to wait for me to come to his room. By the time I arrived at his room.. (I left my husband in the lobby to continue waiting) the staff members had left. I was on my way back to the front desk and I saw my husband and 4 staff heading again towards Ben's room. I caught up to them and we had a long conversation.. I was holding the plate in my hand and they wanted to take it from me. They said they would cook our food personally for us all week and apologized. The hotel offered to send us to their other resorts.. but said they were more natural and not a 5 star property. We booked a 5 star and did not want to downgrade. I was advised to not accept anything until I spoke to the onsite rep in the am. We went to see the rep the next morning and he took the events very seriously and completely understood our reason for wanting to leave. He mentioned that this was the 3rd event in recent weeks.. although he did not disclose to me what the other events were that he said they were concerning.
As we stated to management, you can't unsee what you have seen. At 7 days x6 people x3 meals a day it doesn't make you overly excited to eat collectively 130 more meals when you've had maggots in your food for your first meal.
They were attentive to the situation and by offering to downgrade us to another resort but nothing was offered aside from paying special attention when preparing our meals for the week.
We met with –
Salvador Ávila - Food and beverages manager
David García Torres - Reception manager (apparently there was no manager on that day)
Salvador – Guest Services Manager (fellow who tricked us into signing wrong form, most likely following the advice of someone)

I mentioned to the rep that I saw the sushi sitting directly in the sun at the buffet as well as another guest mentioned she saw a cockroach walking across the dessert selection at the buffet. He said this is not the first issue he's had with this resort where they don't take issues seriously and that the resort either tries to blame it on the client or dismiss the issue all together. I am a travel agent and I also have my BSc degree in Nutrition. Their food safety measures left much to be desired even if my son hadn't found MAGGOTS in his food.
Even more concerning is how Catalonia management treated us when we wanted to leave. Upon selecting other resorts, the rep attempted to get us a new reservation but was waiting for the form to be sent back to Catalonia to release the booking. They were delaying and making excuses. I told the rep I would go to lobby and get the form sent.. the guest services manager told me that he was waiting to hear from the rep and that he had the forms ready for us to fill out. He unfortunately tricked us and had us fill out guest forms for an early checkout and not the form to release the booking even though I continued to tell him that the form that the rep was waiting and the form had to come from reservations.. he reassured me that this was the correct form. I asked to send a picture to the rep to make sure but he didn't wait for the rep to confirm. Salvador took the forms to the front desk and had our reservations checked out. We had not been able to secure a room at this point as the rep was waiting for our reservation to be released. Once the error was realized and the rep told us that Catalonia checked us out versus released the reservation, the rep said he didn't like what they were doing and how they were handling the situation and that he thought we should go to our rooms and not leave because they were being shady and trying to get rid of us. We felt extremely unsafe, now homeless and had been tricked into signing the incorrect forms. The rep involved a manager who also was attempting to figure out new accommodations for us but couldn't get us booked anywhere until the following night. I tried to call to different hotels and to my insurance but couldn't make any outgoing calls from out hotel room.. I don't feel like this was a coincidence, but no way to prove this. We felt extremely unsafe and vulnerable. The manager finally figured out the room for the homeless night and gave us the prices. We had no choice but to pay even though it was over an additional 5k.
We went to the Majestic Elegance by taxi which is next door to Costa Mujeres and it was a night and day experience. The staff were incredible, the food was amazing, the rooms were amazing. Costa Mujeres had NO UMBRELLAS on the beach, they had canvas draped between trees. Majestic Elegance had umbrellas and day beds all along the beach and drink service on the beach.. I would highly recommend this hotel.
Catalonia kept the money for the first night, they would not refund. They just wanted to get rid of us so that we wouldn't tell any other guests what happened. I've never felt scared at a hotel before and couldn't believe what was happening. Never will I book Catalonia Grand All Suites.. and am so disappointed that we wasted the first day and a half of our vacation.
I was never so glad to leave a place. We felt so unsafe. I will never go back or recommend this resort to anyone. [Details]

Great food, great service. Clean. Plenty of room, no line-ups even though the hotel was at 90% capacity. [Details]

We were very happy with the experience. With small children, we only ate at the buffet given the flexibility of time and variety of food. For our 9 day stay, there was always something delicious to choose from. With little kids, we didn't bother booking restaurants. The day bars/snacks were great too. We liked the pools, kids splash pad, beach. Rooms were new and modern. Loved the privileged suite with room for kids. Took advantage of the kids club, staff were nice. The beach would benefit from more frequentl cleaning of the sea grass, but it wasn't bad. Pools were hot at the end of the day, so it wasn't very refreshing during a hot day, but these issues were pretty minor. We would come back. [Details]

I couldn't have asked for a better Vacation it was super clean very accommodating. The beach was beautiful and very clean.Food was amazing and plentiful staff went above and beyond. Beautiful spot! I have no negatives at all! [Details]

Had an excellent time staring here. Last year I stayed at the Dreams resort and the hotels were comparable with size, amenities, food, service etc. however, the Catalonia was much better as there was no high pressure sales tactics trying to shove timeshare down your throat. Our stay at the Catalonia grand was relaxing, uneventful, easy and beautiful [Details]

We stayed in room along 5th Avenue with Side ocean views. Participated in games around pool. Played volleyball, walked the beach.
Overall good variety at buffet especially the breads and baked goods. [Details]

Overall this was a nice place to stay and had good amenities but it feels like there are some notable lacking points. It was a real nice place to stay and comfortable but there were a few small issues that shouldn't exist and can easily be fixed.

1. The kids area was never once open so we never got a chance to take our child to play on the park or do anything in that entire section...so that was weird. I would go as far to say that this is a bad place for kids under 10. The teens room looked like a lot of fun.
2. It was Thanksgiving week and unfortunately there was one channel that didn't work, ESPN. So there was no way to watch sports...I called the help desk and when I asked if it could be fixed the advice was just "oh, thats too bad"...It never got fixed.
3. General Service / Room Service - Occasionally (10% of the time) my drinks just never came. Often (50% of the time) my room service never came...Furthermore, the late night and room service food options were very lacking. How chips and salsa are not readily available is surprising. No mexican food options for room service as well.
4. Food and restaurants. The food that was delivered to table all looked amazing. The presentation is top notch. However, very often the food either came cold or cooked wrong (over cooked, under cooked, etc). Overall this is still very good resort food, just not what I was hoping for based on the reviews. Could I have sent it back and gotten new food? Absolutely. But I do not have the patience for that.
5. Restaurant booking process. Unfortunately, the front desk lied to us or misspoke to us how to book restaurants. Bookings do NOT start at 9AM they start at midnight. If you wake up and wait until 9AM to book a restaurant you will not get a time and table you are looking for. [Details]

On arrival at Catalonia we did not get the bedding configuration that we requested. Staff did not accommodate and told us to return every day to see about a new room. The door person walked our family to the center of the resort and pointed to a building and walked away. We were tired and had no idea where our room was.
I wasted 2 more days standing at the lobby to wait and ask for a new room. Very dissatisfied with the costumer service.
The hotel finally had our room on day three and they told us to be ready to move at 1pm. We packed up three kids and got ready to move only to be told the room was still not ready and to wait until 3pm. I feel like this waisted another whole day, just waiting at the resort to move. We were threatened, if we were not ready we would lose the room.
I would not recommend this resort due to bad costumer service at the front desk.
We would have to track down housekeeping most days, some days they would leave 1 liter of water for a family of 5.
The buffet food was lacking. It never changed and was the exact same food every day. [Details]

Great hotel, rooms,food and service. [Details]

Positive. Very clean, staff very friendly and helpful. Best meals. We're buffet breakfast and noon at the hamburger spot. [Details]

The hotel was decent and offered everything that you wanted. [Details]

This resort was bought on a great deal otherwise we might not have looked at it. We had the Privideged pachage whi h gave us access to certain restaurants, beach bar and beach area. We really enjoyed it! Beach is beautiful although it was quite often windy. The staff at the beach bars were great. Good booze. Great lounge chairs. The two pools were also nice. Lots of loungers with sunshades and umbrellas. The quiet pool had a swim-up bar as well as a walk up side. Loud pool only had the swim up side. The restaurants were fabulous. The buffet was the nicest I have ever experienced. So many choices! The asian restaurant needed a reservation, as did the privileged only restaurant. Steak house you can just stand in line. Tried them all. There is also a "food court" area in the center on the resort as well as 2 food trucks. These were great and kinda fun. The only trouble with them all is you needed to scan a QR code for menu and ordering. This was a problem for those who dont have a smart phone. Even those of us who do had trouble. They shiuld definitely have paper menus as a back up. We didnt watch much of the entertainment but the Super Bowl party was great! The rooms were beautiful. All suites. Nice balconies. Wifi was great throughout the resort. Rooms were clean and any maintenance issues were addressed quickly. There were only 2 bars in the evening...the lobby bar and the bar set up in the courtyard at night. The disco really never had much going on. If you want a party party place, this is not the place for you. All in all this place is fabulous [Details]

This is a modern resort with beautiful suites. It is very clean and the staff members are friendly and helpful. There are many restaurants and the pools are nice. [Details]

The facilities were beautiful and well-kept for the most part. The staff was friendly and accommodating. The food in the buffet was great and the restaurants we attended were also good. Two very large areas for improvement is the restaurant reservation system which limits the days when you can make reservations. You had to come back daily to make future reservations, it would have been better to be able to select and reserve over the period of your stay at one time.
The second issue was with the plumbing and sewage system in our suite. The showers flooded the bathroom about every second day and even though the staff sent someone to repair it quickly it was very frustrating. I also think there may have been an issue with the sewage system as occasionally a very strong and offensive odour could be smelt. Thankfully it is windy there and the stench did not stick around for long. [Details]

A vacation in general is not just about food; it's about location, relaxation, activities, entertainment, cleanliness and more, but restaurants' experience in an ALL INCLUSIVE vacation is one important factor. This resort well managed all other factors but kept scoring 6.5-7.5 after each meal ... very generous but never impressing.
GOOD JOB all over except food! [Details]

Overall, a very nice, clean and modern hotel. Staff very pleasant and professional. Plenty of locations to get a drink. Very nice beach and cleaned every morning. If there was seaweed, that is mother nature's doing. Great variety for the breakfast and dinner buffets. Good choices for the lunch fast food restaurants. Excellent cleaning staff. Very good room design for family of 4. Wished we stayed a few extra days. Great impression and would stay again at this hotel. My family loved it. [Details]

This hotel is remarkable, clean, safe and beautiful. The friendliness of the employees is extraordinary. This hotel is unfortunately not well known enough, and deserves to be known. The site is modern, chic, elegant and extremely clean.
The beach is beautiful white sand and very spacious with palm tree and umbrella. It is possible to take a very long walk. [Details]

We knew we made a good choice when we were greeted at the front desk upon check in, got a tour of the resort on the way to our room, and was welcomed into an amazing room. Being a newer resort, we experienced the effort involved by all the staff to make our experience and vacation memorable. It was transparent that some of the people were new and learning, but the efforts to make our stay comfortable and fun showed in what they did. The entertainment staff is unbelievable. The shows they put on are first class. The entertainment group would even remember our names when we saw them in passing. If you want to make a 6 year feel special, this was it, so thanks Gina (Gigi), even though she was not directly involved in Kids club directly. Yes, our trip was even more amazing because of the thrill of our 6 year old received from going to Kids Club. The bright smiles of Geraldine, Alejandro, and Alex, who welcomed her, made going to Kids Club fun. Our daughter found friends from the staff that actually wanted to play with her, and was disappointed when they closed. The staff are truly amazing in what they do. The food is amazing, great variety of international dishes never left a disappointment with our choice. Pools and amenities were always clean and tended to that always made you feel welcome. Thanks to Jose that would always remembered our drink preference. I highly recommend this resort to anyone who wants to experience a first class treatment. [Details]