Riviera Maya

Highly recommend. This was our second time at this resort, and while a little pricey, it's well worth it. All employees are very friendly and extremely polite.

We have vacationed at the Excellence Riviera Cancun more than 15 times over the years. Some might suggest that we branch out but the amenities, location and especially the outstanding staff keep us coming back. While we're sure that most staff deserve excellent reviews; these are the women and men with whom we engaged on our recent trip and with whom we have the utmost gratitude, affection, and respect. The following staff members are listed in no particular order, but it should be noted that these superb folks keep us coming back. Laylan: Manager for the Excellence Riviera Cancun. There were 6 people in our group. After multiple travel delays and challenging incidents, we arrived at the resort tired, hangry, and irritable. We encountered further frustrations when we learned that our booking agents had not shared some of our specific requests with the resort. Customer service is often a thankless job, but we say thank you Laylan for all that you did for us. We recognize you and your enormous efforts. Your professionalism, effectiveness and calm approach turned grumpy customers into grateful customers. Thank you. It's important to note that an organization is only as good as its employees, and employees like Laylan help make the Excellence Riviera Cancun a terrific resort. Miriam: beach concierge in the Excellence Club. Miriam was an absolute delight. She was energetic, friendly, courteous, efficient, and professional at all times. Miriam went above and beyond, treated us like royalty and could always be counted on to provide excellent customer service. She was a highly effective team player. Thank you, Miriam, for your unceasing commitment and dedication. You always went the extra mile and as such, you are a wonderful ambassador for the Excellence Riviera Cancun. Eleuterio: resort gardener. While always busy with his numerous tasks, Eleuterio went out of his way to engage with us. This is a man who does extremely well with guests. He made us feel most welcome with his friendly, welcoming, and gracious manner, all the while, approaching his duties with passion (the gardens and grounds are beautiful). He was charismatic, thoughtful and customer focused, also going above and beyond. Eleuterio is a loyal and exceptional ambassador for the Excellence Riviera Cancun. Well done. Moises: pool waiter in the Excellence Club. Once you've met Moises and experienced his humour and infectious laughter, you will never forget him. We met Moises years ago and are always impressed with his dedication, high energy, efficiency, loyalty, and professionalism. He is a joy to know. Moises is a thoughtful, conscientious, and excellent team player who puts the comfort of guests first and foremost. A highly skilled and competent employee, Moises is also a remarkable ambassador for the Excellence Riviera Cancun. Carlos Senior: waiter at Magna Restaurant in the Excellence Club. We enjoyed 2 experiences with Carlos Sr. He was attentive, proficient, friendly, courteous, and professional. A skilled server, we noticed how other staff treated him with respect and dignity – obviously a fine mentor. Amir: waiter at Chez Isabelle (wine cellar). Here was a man with impressive knowledge and skill. With 6 people in our group, Amir exemplified professionalism with his friendly, respectful, and excellent customer service accomplished in an elegant and sophisticated manner. Alberto: waiter at Oregano Restaurant. Last but definitely not least. We have known Alberto for years in his many roles at Excellence. We are very proud to count him as a cherished friend. When I asked my wife Wendy to describe Alberto, she said, “kind; a lovely man!” While true, Alberto is also a loyal, dedicated employee with a wonderful, positive disposition. His talent and customer service are stellar, and his hard work takes the resort to new heights. The Excellence Riviera Cancun is fortunate to have Alberto on their team – another fine ambassador. Until next time Alberto . . . Phil and Wendy H. * * * * *

Loved our stay here. Beautiful location and resort, on a lovely bay with calm waters. Friendly helpful staff. We came with our two toddlers (age 1.5 and 3.5) and it was very family friendly - there is a toddler pool and a kids club (under 4 you can use it if you stay with the kids). Food was solid and lots of options, drinks were excellent, had 1 hour free of snorkelling each day. The yoga was amazing and the studio is stunning. Oh and it is incredibly accessible for strollers and wheelchairs. We paid extra to stay on the ground floor and that was worth it - while all rooms have ocean view, ground floor you have a patio with a jacuzzi right on the beach basically. Finally, it is only 20 minutes from Tulum ruins and close to tons of cenotes. One tip, I'd fly into Tulum rather than Cancun because of the traffic there.

We needed a get away from a difficult year so we checked a lot if reviews. We absolutely loved our selection!! It was a perfectly sized adult only resort. A lot of activities took place down near the beach and pool area, where the buffet and lunchtime restaurant were situated, while the evening, a là carte restaurants were near the main building (the buffet is open for breakfast and lunch but not in the evening). The benefit of the buffet being closed in the evening was that we went to the other restaurants at night. I'm not sure we would have so many otherwise. Reservations are easily made on the website provided when you arrive. With respect to preferences... definitely go to Rauxa. It had great food and a wonderful show!! We also went to the Royal Grill steak house, twice. Our server, Enrique recommended we have the skirt/arraché steak with grilled vegetables and oh my was he right! It was excellent!! It was a large steak and more than we would normally have, but we enjoyed it so much we simply took our time so we could enjoy every last bite!! We got most of our drinks at the bar down by the pool and the bartenders there were great both during the day and during the evening activities. Our room was in Sol, a building also close to the main entry. A previous review mentioned that the beds were comfortable and we would agree. At first I was a bit worried that being close to the main building would leave us feeling far away from things but it didn't at all. In fact, the walk among the trees from the entry all the way to the beach was beautiful and relaxing. We enjoyed searching for the animals making sounds amongst the trees along the way. We really appreciated the entertainment team. They encouraged us to participate but weren't too pushy!! Thank you so much Paulina, Charlie, Tita, Shamed, Diego and Abraham. You are all amazing and I hope we get to see you again someday!! Different, talented local performers were brought for some of evenings and they were very good. Extra activities we enjoyed were the aquagym, crazy games, daily questions and trivia (music), hat painting, canvas painting, and Olympic Games. The beach was beautiful and the water was warm, but we spent more time around the pool because of the wind during the week we were there.

The grandness of this beautiful hotel was almost overwhelming! The food at the buffet and restaurants was exceptional as were the staff at all. We had dietary restrictions and the staff was super helpful with what we could order. One server at the Palace buffet even got the chef to make a gluten free cake for us! The landscapers dealing with some sargassum moss that rolled in were amazing and hard working! Cleaning staff worked hard and kept everything in fabulous shape. The pools were nice though we spent most of our time at the beach. Snorkeling fromthe Beach was fair. If you go to see the turtles at the Palace, please don't feed them- it's not healthy for them and they come right up to you without it. The evening buffet was a little light at the adult only - we suggest taking the bus to the Palace. That buffet is actually two sections and they keep the gluten free baked items in a display so they don't dry out. The burgers at the buffet were exceptional, as was the Adobo chicken, mousse desserts and healthier options. The variety was amazing. Our room was always clean by the time we returned from our daily activities and we even got some towel art! Absolutely no high pressure sales and we felt very relaxed. We had 3 minor issues. There are not enough beach chairs for maximum capacity which resulted in a lot of "reserving" that tied up chairs for the full day when they were really only used a couple of hours. There's plenty of room for more chairs. The other resorts were worse- barely any chairs at all.The second issue may have been created by the group that was there - people were lining up in single file at the pool bar instead of along the bar. We tried to convince people to belly up but someone must have complained about it as the staff would only serve the ones in line the last two days. We just went to the Music bar instead as that one was traditional bar service. The third minor inconvenience was that there is only one bar serving at this resort in the evening and there seemed to be a lack of staff for a couple hours every evening. Likely they expect more people to be at dinner at this time but the folks there when we were there all seemed to be thirsty at the low staffed time. We found it better to sit at one of the couches and order from the servers. We are old and would have preferred more comfy seating but that is an us issue. The plastic chairs looked cool all lit up but weren't very comfortable. All minor things for sure.

Sunwing rep told us our bus was leaving the resort to airport at 1240pm the bus left at 1140 spoke to the rep at resort he didn't care said I guess you gotta take a cab then, cost over 100 Canadian to get to airport.

Beautiful resort, beautiful beach, great for snorkeling, great evening entertainment, good food, drinks were good.

Will never return. Paid for Grand Villa, room didn't have hot water until 10 am, lights didn't work on balcony and over stair entry. Room service took 2 hours and room service took my pajamas and never returned. Food was horrible at both buffet and Al a Carte and beach was un usable due to seaweed.

Our experience was excellent. The swim out pool attached to our room was great when the bigger pools got too busy. There was lots to do to keep the kids busy and staff were there at all times when you needed anything. Everything was clean and the food was good. Special mention goes out to our diamond club butler Rene. He was very helpful with reservations, and was available whenever we needed him. His recommendation on where to eat were spot on. Which brings us to Grazie, the Italian restaurant. It also has breakfast where we met David. He was fantastic, and made us feel very welcome. He would do little things like taking an interest in our daughter's teddy bear and bring him a small glass of juice every morning. We went back and requested him every morning for breakfast. Rene the diamond club butler and David the waiter at Grazie for breakfast. I cannot say enough good things about how they enhanced our experience.

We arrived Feb.17th until March3rd