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Pool

This was the most amazing resort! Every staff member was so friendly. Cocktails are included but not wine and some shots. The buffets are nice but not something to write home about. I would suggest going to the snack buffets at the back of the property as they are less crowded. The pools are nice, not too crowded, a good temperature, and they have multiple bars in the pools. The beach is also nice with some lounge chairs and a bar. The bars never take too long to get your order and they make the drinks STRONG. The resort hosts many activities throughout the day like bingo, movies, shows, dancing, and live music. It's very fun. As for the room, it was super nice! We got a junior suite with a king bed. It had a great garden tub with jets, a nice waterfall shower, a window with sliding doors to the bedroom, a big TV, a comfy bed, coffee pot, lots of lights, sofa, table and chairs, and a nice little patio. They give you free little amenities and checking in was easy. We got there before checkin time but we able to go to the buffet and get some drinks while we waited. As for the restaurants- every single waiter was very nice, taking pictures when asked, filling our drinks, getting us stuff from the bar, and making sure we liked everything. Maybe skip La Hacienda. The waiter was super nice but the food was so so (a fancy twist on Mexican tastes like pork chop with pumpkin sauce). Las olas was just okay with a variety of seafood. One of our favorites was La Fleur (French food like foie gras, grilled octopus, and fillet mignon). Everything was delicious both times we went. They also have piano music and our waiter Filipe was very nice. La vaqueria was alright with different grilled steaks but not as good as a proper steakhouse. Lastly, the absolute best and most impressive was Miso Teppenyachi. Our chef, Axel, was funny and entertaining. This place has the best grilled meat, rice, and vegetables. Definitely check this one out! There's also a shuttle to take you to downtown which costs roughly $4 USD a person one way. It will drop you off behind a souvenir shop. It runs from 9am to 8pm and is much cheaper than a taxi ($30 USD average). They also have lots of cute wildlife on the property. Overall, this is a great resort with fun things to do and wonderfully nice people working here.

Great Experience

This is not all inclusive, but tiered inclusive. The food was was meh.  Definitely not international buffet. 
Resort is too large to for them to keep up with so parts are very dirty or rundown. 
My sister’s room flooded from her broken ac and she was sent to the hospital. The resort offered her no compensation whatsoever, not even an upgrade to a higher inclusive.

Not what I would call All Inclusive

I would say the grounds are a 5 star very beautiful and very well maintained, however the rooms are so tired and definitely not 5 star, I would say more a 3 star. Soon as we walked into our room it smelt very damp and mouldy when returning home all of our clothes smelt so bad, even ones we didn't wear which os concerning breathing it in for a whole 11 nights! Air con doesn't drop below 18 degrees. The cleaning staff were lovely but we had a constant battle as they kept forgetting to replace our hand towels and a bath/shower mat. We had to ring up a few bars because they kept forgetting to replenish our mini bar. 

The pools were lovely but not a lot to do. We stayed around more the quiet pool but the only downfall was there was no bar so we had to keep walking to the busier louder pools. The umbrella situation is terrible! Hardly any umbrellas and people tend to wake up the crack of dawn to throw towels down to reserve to get the best ones so there were so may families fighting over shaded spots by the trees! Why can't the hotel provide more umbrellas? In 34 degree heat this was what put us off this hotel more than anything, so unacceptable! 

Buffet was okay but very much the same each time, I have stayed in Rivera Maya before in a different hotel and their themed nights had musicians playing and dancers in the a la carte restaurants, where as there was nothing like that here here. A la carte was nothing special all food felt like it was pre-cooked.

We did make the most of our holiday and enjoyed the day trips to Xcaret and Xel-ha but they were so expensive! 

I think it's terrible staff rely so heavily on tips! Everyone expected a tip for the smallest thing they did for you! I think staff need to be paid better and stop relying on tips it's the 21st century now!

I don't think we will return to this hotel due to the number situation, not a lot to do and the ups and down of the room service and room quality!  But overall we had a nice holiday and made the most of it.

3 star not 5

My teen daughter and I spent a week at the resort. Overall we had a great time despite it raining every day. There were a number of things we loved about the resort, including the beautiful grounds, abundant pools and friendly staff. In particular, Isaac Lopez at the Snack Riviera was outstanding. We loved having breakfast there beside the big windows that looked onto one of the pools. Isaac was so friendly and would get our drink orders ready the moment he saw us enter the restaurant. The resort does a great job of planning a variety of activities for the day and the gym is spacious and clean. The pools were awesome, and we loved having a variety in which ones to visit. 

If you are a foodie and enjoy leisurely dinners out this might not be the resort for you. There are no a la carte lunch options (other than a sports bar), no outdoor patios, and the dinners at the a la carte restaurants feel rushed. We tried the Mexican, Thai, Italian and French. The Mexican was disappointing, the Thai was okay, but the Italian and French were really good. The staff were always wonderful, but you can tell that they need you in and out in an hour. We went to the buffet for lunch a couple times, but we mostly just visited the taco cart. We did like the ease of booking the dinners through the app and the fact that you could only book three days in advance. This meant that we were able to find a time slot for every night except the night we arrived.

On another note, when we checked in, we were asked if we wanted to upgrade to a platinum room for an extra $150 CAD (there was no extra charge for my daughter since she was underage). The woman at reception quickly ran through the list of benefits and I mostly agreed since it included a room upgrade. I was a little surprised when we entered the room and found it was a very standard and dated room with two beds and a small sitting area. It turns out the only room upgrade was the tub in the bathroom, which I wouldn't have used since the jets were discoloured. After a trip to the front desk at the platinum building (not our building) it was explained to me that what we were sold an upgrade to platinum "benefits" and not a platinum room. This was a little disappointing since I had confirmed with reception that it would mean a more spacious room, but for the price we decided to keep it anyway. The benefits included:

- access to the platinum area on the beach with waiter service for drinks (This was by far the best benefit for us. We loved the comfy lounge chairs and thatched umbrellas)
- access to a pool for platinum guests only (the pool was incredibly small relative to the other pools so we never visited)
- upgraded alcohol, e.g. international (maybe this was a benefit if you drank beer, but I was always served the same house wine with dinner and cocktails with the same bottle of tequila and rum as everyone else) 
- free room service (this came in handy a couple times when it was rainy heavily)

Overall, I don't think platinum "benefits" would have been worth it if my daughter hadn't been free, but we did enjoy the platinum area at the beach. I think if you prioritize swimming pools and a spacious resort, this is a great option. If you are looking for high end meals and a la carte lunches, there are likely better resorts.

Overall a great vacation

Front Desk Attendant - Verania
Made us wait for service by calling guests who had arrived later before us.
- She did not apologize for making us wait by calling clients who arrived after us (apparently she already knew them, we could have understood if she had apologized or at least thanked us for waiting, which she did not).
- She told us that our requested room was not available and that we would have to stay in another room (she did not apologize. I understand that perhaps that this could be out of her hands, but in other hotels or resorts the staff offers you solutions, such as moving you to the room you requested the next day or they offer you send some amenities to the room.)
- Upon insistence, she was able to secure us a room in another section of the resort
- She failed to show empathy even though we mentioned it was our honeymoon. Not even a congratulations. Because of this we felt the resort made no effort to celebrate this milestone event with us.
- Overall, this agent really made us feel quite unappreciated.

Front Desk Attendant - Adahil
- The best and only good platinum front desk agent.
- He helped us fill out a review claim, although unfortunately, the platinum concierge did nothing to compensate us for our negative experience
- He was very attentive whenever we had a question

Concierge attendant - Jesus
- Definitely the best customer service we received at the resort
- Friendly and always showed a genuine interest to help.
- He even anticipates guest’s needs and makes sure they understand everything.
- Provided suggestions for everything like, restaurants, activities, wines, jewelry and even video games. Recommending activities or restaurants we hadn't thought of.
- Always in a very good mood and shows a lot of patience so you ask him the same thing many times.

Shuttle Driver - Martin (AKA Pitbull)
- Always polite and in very good spirits.

Server at Le Flour restaurant - Luis Quesada
Server at Mamma Mia restaurant - Miguel
Provided top notch service, were very informed about the menu and helped make our dining experience a pleasant one.

Overall comments:
I have doubts about whether to return to this resort. The check-in was quite unpleasant, and for this I give them 4 and not 5. but I appreciate that other members of the staff knew how to make our stay a better experience.
The hotel is very beautiful and the restaurants are really authentic and of very high quality.
Most of the staff are very attentive and spoke fluent English.
The food was excellent and the restaurants really captured the authentic taste of the cultures they represented.
We felt that they failed to show any consideration for our reason for visiting, i.e. our honeymoon. And as such, would recommend against visiting for  anyone who is celebrating an important date since they apparently do not prepare anything special for birthdays, anniversaries or similar events (we mentioned this to the front desk).
We found the staff in the non-platinum zone to be more attentive than in the platinum zone, I don't feel that it is worth paying more for a lower quality service, or maybe they should move your best staff to that zone. The only real benefit of platinum that we found was the complimentary room service. Otherwise we felt we would hav been content in the less expensive area of the resort.
I never received the hotel feedback survey which several staff members told us we would receive. I would hazard a guess that they deleted our email because we had already submitted a complaint and they wanted to avoid a bad review (which is why it's a 3 and not a 4).

Platinum upgrade not worth it.

Surrounded by tropical gardens and an extensive pool landscape, the Grand Riviera Princess has Mayan inspired architecture with thatched roofs and enjoys a wonderful setting directly on the white sandy beach and the crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean Sea. Various thematic restaurants leave no culinary wish unfulfilled, 10 bars and a wide range of services and amenities are at guests disposition.

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Grand Riviera Princess