Paradisus Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya

When we left the room we need to ask front desk to clean it , if the people of servibar pass and the room was busy we need to ask for it . The consiente only contact us the first day in person and since we didn’t want to assist to an evento to upgrade , then the rest of the week was impersonal and no pamper as other times . No upgrades, no gifts, not as before . Once you buy shared time the first years are golden , the you neeed to upgrade or you are treated as regular customers o worst, as cheap. But that’s the way things work.

Eduardo Monroy provided outstanding concierge service throughout our stay. He was proactive, incredibly responsive, and always checking in to see how he could help. Most importantly, he made our kids feel truly special — creating little moments just for them. His attention to detail and genuine care made a big difference in our experience. We couldn’t have asked for a better concierge service.

I had an smiling vacation with my family. We had the best service at the lunch box thanks the best waitress Mrs Rachel Nesera and the chef Efren.

Semi-organized review from recent stay, hopefully this is helpful for people on the fence or that have random questions this answers. I'll start by saying that I think the energy you bring is often the energy you get. Not in a cosmic karma sense, but in the "if you're a jerk and treat people like a jerk, people are more likely to be a jerk back" way. I say this as someone who has to work on not being a jerk. But I always read the one off horrible experience for places I've been, or see how people are acting at places I've been, and can't wonder if there's a correlation. Stayed from 24 to 30 December. 2 adults and 2 kids (toddler and preschooler). Originally booked the junior suite nature view. Contacted about 10 days before trip about upgrade to Family Concierge. After some negotiation we settled on upgrade to both FC + Suite. Supposedly they'll also offer it at arrival, depending on occupancy. We didn't necessarily want someone doting on us, but the room upgrade would be nice for napping kids, and some of the FC perks looked nice. I wasn't contacted about dinner reservations- apparently my upgrade contact hadn't passed info along. I tried emailing 2x, then called when we were 3 days away. They didn't have my upgrade info, but took my reservations and said they'd confirm. Didn't get the exact times because we were close, but they were good enough and all ended up working out. Arrival was good- taken to the FC check in, took maybe 10 minutes, walked to our room, bags were there soon after (or maybe already there? didn't have to wait). Room was nice- no suprises. Clean, functional. Light switches have no rhyme or reason sometimes, but you just keep flipping til you find the right one. The suite does not have a bathtub, if your kids dislike showers. There is a jacuzzi on the porch that counts, though it takes a while to fill up. Food- we generally liked our food. I'll agree/echo that the chicken was generally overcooked/tough. When it was in a sauce it was fine (e.g., breakfast chilaquiles), but if there was a standalone dish I wouldn't order. Fish was always good. Steaks were generally....uninspired? to me. But I don't eat red meat often. Sides were almost always good. Desserts were OK. Not bad, but I think my wife and I just have a different dessert palate than most resorts cater to. We really liked Cielo, the Mexican restaurant. We also like Flora a lot. Blue agave, the taqueria was also good. The steakhouse (included with FC) was a nice experience. The teppanyaki was our favorite experience, and was good food. For breakfast and lunch we usually ate at the lunchbox- the FC exclusive spot. I think the chilaquiles were my favorite for breakfast, and the fish was really good at lunch. Avocado toast was also good, and my wife enjoyed the salmon bagel. Kids usually had pancakes/waffles/french toast, and chicken nuggets/fries. Ice cream was nice and central. Nice selection of flavors- morning you can get a shake (vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry), after lunch you can get all the flavors. The coffee shop is nice and has either pastries or sandwiches, depending on the time. It's not a "true" coffeeshop though, depending on how purist you are- they use nespresso pods for the base. The FC snack area was nice to have- snacks and drinks that changed throughout the day, with a self-serve bar and nespresso machine. We didn't really use the mini bar in the room, just because we aren't beer people. Had a couple of sodas. The snack drawer was kept nice and stocked- I don't know if putting a small tip in there every day made the difference or not, but we were loaded to the point that we were not wanting for snacks on the way home. Entertainment- we enjoyed the nightly shows. The neon one (Alebrijes) was awesome. The Lion King was enjoyable enough, as was the magician. We didn't really do the DJ scenes or anything. Kids - we generally kept our kids with us, dropping the older off for random activities. Youngest sometimes has rough time at daycare, so we only dropped him off for the steakhouse and the included "water ritual". Do note- there are only 4 slots for kids under 2, and apparently usually there's a line starting before 6PM when the kid center opens back up during dinner hours. Family Concierge- I think it was generally worth it. We did a lot of the legwork ahead of time making our dinner reservations, but our person (Paola) handled the cenote and the water ritual. She sent morning messages about activities for the day, and helped us with random tasks- we missed the balloon animal parties almost every day (didn't seem super well advertised on where/when), so she brought balloons by for our older kid twice, which made a huge difference. Also brought by 2 sets of gifts- beach bag and mini backpack for kids one time, and 2x axolotl the second time (typical leaving day gift?). Just to emphasize, Paola was fantastic. The steakhouse was a nice experience, and adds to the value. The FC pool/bar/restaurant and snack area were also nice haves. The cenote (included with FC) was also good- we were probably only going to do one small excursion since our youngest is so young, and this was perfect. Full breakdown of the excursion: you drive for about 45 minutes, get there and change, then do yoga. Walk a bit and then have a shaman lead you in a ritual (which he seemed to genuinely care about) for about 5-10 minutes. Then you go to a cave cenote, wearing life vests. You're not supposed to/can't reach the ground, so you need to be able to swim. Our youngest was given a lifesaver ring, and they let our older one have one too. Wouldn't have been possible for the youngest otherwise, helpful for the older. After about 15 minutes you head to the above ground cenote, where you can platform jump, zipline, or just get in and swim. Change/dry off, buy any pictures/gifts, head back. Runs from 2p-6p, so make sure you have a later dinner scheduled on that day. The FC pool used to be heated, but wasn't. It was cold- not unbearable, but the kind of cold where you'd rather not get in, and then are OK (only OK) once you are. Supposedly the liquor selection at the swim up bar there is better. Random, but we liked how there was some commitment to reducing waste- wood utensils at the coffee shop and ice cream, and several items that seemed reusable or compostable (cups for kids, some trash bags). The circle- several "salespeople" hovering around the entrance into the central/main area of the resort, where all the restaurants and snack areas are. Can be pretty persistent with their desire to get you to go through their timeshare or whatever presentation it is, to the point of it being annoying. Even after I think I said bluntly "we're not signing up even if we attend". So that was annoying. Probably the only true negative from our experience. Final note: tipping. Divisive topic I'm sure. This is not the kind of resort that claims that any employees caught accepting tips will be fired. There are tip jars at the bars/coffee/ice cream. I didn't get the impression that tips were expected/demanded for good service. But we tip, and my viewpoint is we're only able to go on these vacations because they're cheaper than in the US, which implies a level of exploitation of the country/resources/people. So tip the people and be respectful.

We had a wonderful trip with our family. Miriam our Club Melia concierge was very welcoming and helpful! She made our vacation seamlessly relaxing and fun!