Sensira Resort And Spa Riviera Maya

We are a very well traveled, large family group who visited January 15-22/26. I, like many others, have wondered at the amount of extremely negative reviews about this resort. Many, I feel, are not even real reviews - or perhaps someone who only stayed one night and didn't even get to realize the various offerings at Sensira. This is a 100% real and recent review from someone who has been at dozens of all inclusive resorts throughout the Caribbean and Mexico. We are the grandparents (mid 50s); we had our 2 adult children and spouses with 3 children under 5; and my brother and his wife in their 40s with 3 boys 10-15. 
 Overall, we all really enjoyed Sensira. It was a great spot for our bunch. It is small and compact; had great food, drinks and service in general; is quite close to the Cancun airport; and has loads of stuff to do and enjoy for young children. There are a few areas to be addressed that I will add as well.

 The Rooms: they are lovely, clean and large - and most would have some type of ocean view. There was a slight “musty” smell from the closets when we first arrived, but nothing that permeated our clothing or actually bothered us. Running the A/C and ventilation during the week seemed to keep the room fresh. The fridges were stocked every couple of days with water, pop, beer; which we were fine with. If you don't get restocked, try to catch them when they are going around and just ask- it's not your maid who fills it. There was very little to no snacks in the rooms; which we did not care about anyway, but they shouldn't advertise if they're not going to do it. There was a Nespresso machine and pods which I enjoyed every morning. Our room had beautiful, hot water every evening between 6-7pm when we showered; which was great. The bed and pillows were exceptionally comfortable. Our son with the 3 little children had one of the Sapphire 5 Rooms with the children's bunk room (which was one of the reasons we originally looked at this resort). It was perfect having a separate sleeping area for little ones just off the master bedroom area. The suite was huge. I will also add, that this resort is good value for a young family of 5 which is hard to find these days. The Food: Overall, the food was very good. The main buffet is right off the lobby, past the lobby bar. The breakfast buffet is excellent. They have the most cut up, beautiful fresh fruit I've ever seen at a resort which was replenished regularly. Lovely homemade breads, you can cut and toast; smoked salmon and various meats/cheeses; a large pastry section; Mexican food section/ homemade mini pancakes/waffles; omelette station; mimosa station; juice and smoothie station; eggs cooked various ways; sausage and hashbrowns; yogurt/granola/raisins/nuts…. you name it. The only niggle our family noticed at breakfast is the bacon supply….. as most everyone has mentioned, they only bring out a bit at a time; people are waiting for it, and then it's gone again in seconds. This is important to many people. I'm not sure the solution, but it should be addressed. Perhaps, have someone serve it a couple pieces at time to spread it out more? I, personally, don't care about the bacon, but I know many do. We got lunch most days by the pool. The waiters in the aqua color uniforms will take your orders around the pools for drinks and food. Once peak food hour arrives, it takes time; regardless if you order yourself or order with them. Once you're there a couple of days, you can kind of figure out the system and order a bit ahead of time; or either before or after the busy hour. There are some foods you can grab yourself to snack on, but most has to be “ordered”. They have fish tacos, fish/chicken/beef burgers; calamari; nachos and guac/pico; fries and hotdogs; chicken nuggets, etc. We all agreed that some variety of tacos would be a nice addition at the snackbar. Also, I feel their ceviche could be improved upon at the snackbar. The buffet would have basic lunch choices. The Tea House down the stairs in the center behind the kid's pool (kind of under the main buffet) has a selection of sandwiches/fruit/salads midday as well. But it also has excellent made to order hot and cold coffee/tea drinks; icecreams; sweets, nuts and CANDY! It was quite a treat for all of us to be able to go down and grab little “snacks” and coffees during the day. We all loved it! By late afternoon, you can also grab basic snackbar food just off the lobby by the kid's trampoline park. 
 Dinner/Supper was a mix. Although we found the buffet food generally good, it was a small offering most nights (and often not very hot in the dishes). It seems they need to step up the buffet at night in my opinion. There are often too many people to try to get into the a la cartes, so many are left with the somewhat “lacking” buffet often - especially in the earlier seatings when most of the families with young children are trying to eat. They only take reservations for the steak house. What if they at least let people reserve their spots for the first seating at the Italian and Mexican? And leave it open after 7:15 or so for walk ins. Also, why not allow people to reserve maybe 3 days out at least... I think it would make the whole process less painful for everyone. The whole dinner situation needs to improve; it's chaotic for the young families. My hubby and I had no problems as we just took our time and went at the later times when the young ones would have been done. But at a resort that pushes it's for families, they need to look after their young ones better at supper time, too. Most of us didn't want to eat at the buffet because it was too small at night. We thoroughly enjoyed the meals in all 3 of the a la cartes… At the Mexican, we loved the steak tacos and the wrapped cochinita (like pulled pork tacos). The fish dish was a bit too spicy for us; although good otherwise. The Chile en Nogada stuffed pepper was good and not spicy. We ate at the Italian 3 nights. The beef tenderloin was always good; we enjoyed the shrimp and chicken parm; the rucula salad; the asparagus soup (more like potato bacon idea). the mini ham/pineapple pizza as an appetizer; and the spaghetti bolognese. At the steak restaurant, our bunch ordered an assortment of steaks and I had the ribs. Everything was good. The side servings are small though, so if you're gonna be hungry, maybe order an extra side. The volunteer guests riding the mechanical bull earlier in the evening were fun to watch. I will give a shout out to Laura and her co worker at the concierge desk for helping us arrange one family dinner with all 14 of us at the Steak restaurant one evening. She went above and beyond helping us get it arranged. Thank you, Laura. Also, our waitress, Ana, and the crew there surprised us with an awesome birthday celebration for our 5 year old with sparklers and singing! We had not even asked about it before hand. When we arrived, they asked if anyone was celebrating anything… Levi was thrilled. Thanks so much. In general, we had good service at the various bars and dining areas. A few staff stood out as exceptional: Bartenders- Daniel, Diego, Miguel; Waiters- Jacabo, Alberto, Janitzia, Ana, Francisco, and Claudia at the lobby bar. Thank you! The drinks were surprisingly good and didn't seem to be watered down (unless you wanted them to be) like so many other resorts these days. The Beach and Pools: The beach itself was fine for our littles; however, as is widely known, the water is not clear or very blue near shore; it's murky, and there's lots of seaweed. They do try to clean it up a bit in the mornings, but it's not easy especially when it's windy. There are 2 pools just above the beach which are nice (when it's warm enough) - one is a quiet pool that's adults only. It was very cool this month, so the unheated pools were FREEZING (and I like cooler pools typically). The front pool was heated the first of our week, and then the upper level pool by the kid's splash park was heated our last couple of days…. It was sooooo nice once the water warmed up. The resort should stay on top of this when the weather is more chilly…. we were VERY pleasantly surprised when our upper pool started getting heated. Yes, it's January, and the weather is unpredictable. We knew going this early was taking a chance on weather. We still all enjoyed ourselves and got to spend some time in the pools. The little kids liked the splash park area too. The towel game is as bad here as I've probably ever seen. There are a few reasons for this I think: there are bigger family groups who want to sit together; there just aren't enough chairs by the pools when the weather is cooler and not many people go to the beach; and people can take as many towels as they want every day when they're available. The resort could help themselves if they start keeping more track of the towels (cards for example). I can't imagine the amount of laundry every day from pool towels that aren't even used other than for “holding” chairs. It is what it is…. if you're fussy about where you sit, you'll need to get out early to mark your spot. Thankfully, our children on the ground floor were out early most days to grab a few spots for us all. Then we just pulled up the odd real chair if we needed it. Also, please don't reserve chairs if you are not going to use them! We signed up a couple of our kids for the Adventure Club where they could come and go as they pleased (when they're signed in and out). You need their passport to sign them up- ages 4-12. There is a huge indoor playpark which they enjoyed very much. The workers there seemed organized and efficient from what I saw. There are various activities daily as well. Our kids also enjoyed the indoor trampolines; zipline; mini golf (surprisingly quite good condition); basketball; movie theatre; pool and pingpong; etc, etc. There was lots to do for the various ages- especially for kids around ages 4-12. There were height restrictions for the zipline and trampoline room. We watched a couple of the shows in the big theatre at 9pm. The live music at the lobby in the evening was nice. We would have enjoyed it even later as we don't really like to go to the shows much. As a couple of the recent reviews have said, we ran into some problems on our last day because the whole resort was being rented out for a big convention. Hundreds of guests started arriving for this convention the day before we were leaving. For all the regular remaining guests, they closed our buffet and most of our restaurants with no notice (even the pool snackbar). There were hardly any normal food offerings for the many regular guests who were still at the resort. We were glad we were going when we were. This should never have happened - especially without any prior notice…. We went to go to breakfast our last morning, and the staff didn't even know where to send us to eat. I'm estimating 100-200 of us were sent down to the Italian with a tiny, 10' limited “buffet”; we could order basics, but people weren't told that either, so many didn't know (or the wait was too long). One of the workers there said the manager had told them there were only a few guests…. Nope, there were LOTS of us - and I heard there were some people still staying a couple more days. I hope they found some food. Every booking where this convention overlapped their vacation should have been pre notified when they booked. (or they should never have overlapped!). The services given were nothing compared to what is advertised those last couple of days. Two things we noticed right above the Tea House behind the kid's pool. There was a big wasp/hornets nest in a tree. We showed them, but it was not destroyed the whole week we were there. Seems a no brainer to get rid of it; especially right by the kid's area. Also, the concrete ledge where the stairs go down to the tea house should have some type of higher guardrail on it. We saw 2 young children sitting on this because it's low enough to climb on. A simple slip, and they could have fallen 12 feet or more down on hard concrete… there needs to be some safety rails installed there. It's quite dangerous. My impression is that there are some “managers” calling the shots for the resort who aren't actually there…. it seems there should be more on site management who are truly running and overseeing the whole resort. Things just appear disjointed and maybe the left doesn't know what the right is doing.… The reviews for the last 4 months have consistently addressed the same issues that are continuing to happen… Someone with some power needs to be addressing these concerns. There needs to be more organization and consistency especially with the dinner time dining, so things will run more smoothly and easily; especially for the young families. Also, check in is painfully slow. It would be nice if the resort could start offering online check in; and then it could be quicker when the guests actually arrive. A huge remark I will also add is that the lobby and public washrooms are TOO SCENTED! PLEASE lower the amount of strong scents for people who have sensitivities. We did truly enjoy our time at Sensira. If it was a bit later time of year and a good deal, we would possibly consider it again with the children. It was a great spot for littles. Thanks to all the staff who work so hard day after day. Many of them were truly excellent. Sorry for the long review, but I feel Sensira needed a “real” review from someone the public forums know and trust. [Details]

We had a wonderful time from the time we stepped onto the grounds until we left. Upon arrival we were greeted with a smooth check in and personally shown our room and how to operated items within it. Our room had a beautiful ocean view with sunrise. It was cleaned and tidied multiple times throughout the day with turndown service. The service was topnotch from poolside service to the service at the restaurants and buffet. All staff were extremely friendly and there to assist with anything you needed. Although the resort was at capacity it was well staffed and we never had to wait for anything. [Details]

Our vacation started off a little rough. We booked through an agent and paid for an ocean view. When we got there, we were given a room with view of the kids pool, that was just on top of the English pub. The room was dirty and old and we had music blasting until midnight. The main pool was also closed due to an issue, so everyone was very cramped around the kids pool and the infinity pool without chairs available for most people. The basketball and tennis court was closed due to poor conditions and you could tell the whole resort is in desperate need of repair and refresh.

However, once we voiced our disappointment with the front reception, they were VERY quick at helping us and ensure we were happy. They moved us to the 5th floor, in a much cleaner room with view of the ocean, like we had originally paid for. A couple days later, the main pool was fixed and reopened and it felt A LOT less cramped. The staff there is all around amazing, welcoming, kind, polite and friendly. We didnt get to try any a la carte restaurants, but the buffet always had great food and a wide variety. The kids club was great for our 4 year old, and the trampoline area and movie theatre were awesome! They always had some kind of show or event in the early evenings in the lobby and we enjoyed the kids karaoke right after dinner. The staff in the buffet were by far the friendliest (thank you Ever and Alexander!). The housekeeping unfortunately always forgot to replenish our mini fridge and give us fresh towels, but they were quick to bring us what we were missing when we called the housekeeping line.

If you're going there for the beach, you'll unfortunately be dissapointed since they have a huge issue with seaweed and garbage that gets washed up on the shore. They do have a cleaning crew that starts cleaning up the beach at sunrise and they do a fantastic job, but swimming or walking on the beach isn't very appealing.

All in all, I highly recommend this resort. My family had a wonderful time and the fact that it is so close to the airport is a huge bonus! It is also worth mentioning that despite the resort looking a little rundown in some areas, they had staff working all day every day while we were there to fix those issues and refresh the look of the resort. [Details]

It was nice that it was so close to the airport although the road in was quite bumpy. The resort itself was a bit older but still nice. They were repainting the outside of the building while we were there and it definitely freshened it up. The buffet had decent food and there were always lots of options. We only went to the steakhouse and Italian restaurant once but both had good food. I asked for medium rare filet mignon and it was unfortunately medium well but still tasted good. There was some obvious breakdown of the waterpark area and pools with some areas missing chunks of material; however my boys still really enjoyed the pools and waterpark. There was also a trampoline room, movie theatre, outdoor chess, outdoor connect four (which was broken), and mini golf. Our son was too young for the adventure club but we spent a lot of time in the baby room (ball pit, bouncy castle, lots of toys) as they had family time every day from 9am to 2pm. Overall for the price we paid I was happy with our experience. [Details]

We have just returned from a week vacation at Sensira resort, family of six: two grandparents, two parents and two boys age 8 and 11. We had wonderful time and fully enjoyed everything this resort could offer. The resort is nicely appointed, well kept and very clean, that includes all areas used by guests. Rooms were large, with two queen beds and nice balcony overlooking pool area and beach. Rooms were exceptionally clean and included everything one needs for comfortable stay. Main buffet restaurant was serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with variety of food for every taste. Tables were available at any time during the hours, only twice during lunch hour there was a short line up but it cleared in few minutes. We have dined at Steak House and Italian restaurant. Food was excellent and service very professional with just right amount of personal touch. For our two boys, there was enough activities to keep them occupied and happy both at the pool and games areas. And the last, but not the least, the resort staff. We did not remember staff members by name, but everybody we have encountered had been very professional, polite and did everything they could to make our stay enjoyable.
Slight disappointment was the beach but we were warned ahead not to expect pristine Caribbean beach with crystal clear water, so the beach did not come as surprise. The beach itself is wide filled with clean sand, but it was the sea weeds that spoiled the mood. Although resort staff worked hard and clean the weeds from the beach every morning, they could not do anything for the weeds in the water. Yet, we enjoyed two days with low weeds and swim in warm water of Caribbean Sea.
In summary, we enjoy our stay very much and can definitely recommend Sensira resort to our fellows prospective travellers. [Details]

Our experience was great! We had a perfect ocean view from our room, we were on the bridge connecting the 2 buildings. The resort was clean everywhere, the bathrooms were impeccable, and the drinks were tasty. [Details]

This resort was a dream for our little family. It was affordable, clean, felt safe and had so much for our children to do! They never once said they were bored. The food was delicious with a lot of variety. Including vegetarian and gluten free options. We preferred the buffet over the A La Carte's. We had to wait almost 45 minutes for our shared transfer to organize at the airport with two tired little ones and though it's 20 ish minutes from airport the shared transfer made it almost an hour and the road into the resort was very torn apart and bumpy. We ended up booking private transfer to return at end of trip.

Mario in the buffet was a high highlight in our trip. His service was unmatched. He remembered every detail of things we ordered and didn't order. He'd have it ready for us before we even had to ask. We were so sad to say goodbye!

Alicia was absolutely fantastic to watch and learn from during our daily water aerobics. Her energy was the best and we had so much fun!! The pool and music was a vibe. The kids loved it.

I was nervous coming after reading poor reviews. I can see where some might complain over areas that were outdated or out of service ( tennis court, mini golf) there is some wear and tear around for sure .. but plenty of other things to do as well. The beds and pillows were SO comfy. The rooms were always so clean and the washrooms? Every single one was always spotless. The workers work so hard and it didn't go unnoticed to us. The pool servers were hustling and delivering meals around the pool and beach to ensure pure relaxation. I cannot get over the amazing time we had and will always recommend this resort despite the off reviews. The nightly shows were SO good. There wasn't a single one we didn't love. Such talented performers!!!

The beach still had plenty of sand to play in. The water wasn't blue or crystal clear and reminded me more of a lake back home but that didn't bother us. We experienced another beach during an excursion. The resort still felt modern and luxury with the incredible service from hotel staff,. Staff went out of their way a few different times to help us! Pool chairs were hard to get past 7AM. No change getting a cabana pretty sure people reserved them at night with towels. Frustrating but not the end of the world.
BOOK at Sensira! You'll love it as much as we did!

From a Canadian mama who stressed over nothing!! [Details]

It was a fun and friendly place [Details]

It was amazing experience. Service 100%, 5 ⭐️
We've stayed at Sensira hotel and enjoyed every day and moment, plenty of activities and things to for kids, excellent service special thanks to stuff member named Ever that provided absolutely great.
We will be back !!! [Details]

This is just my opinion. This resort has something for everyone. Family events, adults activities and teen areas. Surprise to see zip lining in the resort. Not too high or fast. Food is ok in the buffet, I have had better. Fresh omelette for breakfast was the highlight. I personally enjoy the restaurant dinners. I had heard bad reviews about the Mexican restaurant but it was surprisingly good!! Loved the bone marrow taco. Easy to make reservations at the concierge. Drinks are delicious too. My favorite, tamarind Margarita. Staff are very friendly. I was surprised that they don't have wristbands and everyone gets top shelf alcohol with no restrictions. If you are going to Sensira Resort, I highly recommend going to the French restaurant!!!! It was a nine course dinner experience paired with wine. It was included with our stay but you have to make reservation. Limited seating. You let them know of any allergy (for example, gluten free) and the Chef makes a tasting menu around that. FYI, the menu changes every week. Definitely will come here again. [Details]

We had a great time with our family at this resort. There was something to do for everyone. The food was great and the stay was amazing. Would highly recommend this resort [Details]

Overall our experience was good. The hotel is well kept and food and drinks were excellent. Would be nice if people didn't take/reserve chairs for an entire day but use rarely. Hotel is family friendly but not a lot of things to do past midnight in terms of a night life for guests. [Details]

Hotel and rooms were clean and beautiful. It is seaweed season but the staff did their best to clear it off the beaches for the guests.
The grill at the pool bar was excellent. Italian restaurant was our favourite.
Very friendly, helpful staff. [Details]