Paradisus Playa del Carmen - Riviera Maya

The GOOD: - the food is phenomal, there’s nothing we could complain about - shout out to Carlos in The Lunch Box. Be truly made our breakfast enjoyable everyday and we looked forward to seeing him - Cappella restaurant was our favourite. Blue Agave was decent but no A/C & mediocre tacos. Celsius snack bar has amazing fish tacos and tamarind chicken wings - sooooo many pools, you can always find Bali beds or sunbeds. Pirate pool and main pool are lively - love the kids activities including kids club, daily parties and bouncy houses - the Water Park was the highlight of our trip, our boys loved the toddler area and bigger kid area The BAD: - the buffet was terrible, the food choices were limited - the family concierge pool was freezing cold, actually unbearable unless it was sunny outside - some areas including rooms could use renovations…pool tiles are falling off, cupboard door in room had damage from humidity - the people promoting the Circles Rewards were becoming annoying. Stopping us during our lunch to ask if we were coming to a meeting, after we already declined - cleanliness was hit or miss, some days are rooms were spotless…other days there was hair not cleaned around the sink *** KIDS club, some of the workers are very rude. One told us verbatim “this isn’t a daycare, if your child cries for 10 mins…we’ll call you and you need to pick them up.” She was very criticizing saying “you need to talk to your son because he didn’t want to participate in a certain activity.” Honestly we felt so uncomfortable, we didnt send our children to the kids club again. And the UGLY: - the sargassum consumed the beach. The workers tried their hardest but it was an endless battle ** overall we would consider coming back especially now that we know what to expect. It’s still great value and we felt the family concierge was worth it - we loved Nestor, he really went above and beyond for us :)

“Warm welcome, friendly staff, and an easy check-in process. The resort made a great first impression from arrival.”

We have just returned from 2 weeks at this lovely hotel, overall we had a lovely time. The room was big and spacious although a bit dated, however it was exceptionally clean (as was the whole resort, very impressed) We enjoyed all the food at the buffet and a la cartes, cappella was our favourite, I would say the buffet at lunch is a bit hit and miss, rarely had chips which is not what I go on holiday for it is an easy option for young kids so often we got lunch at the pool snack bar. Our kids are 2 and 4 and they loved the swimming pools, the water park (good for toddlers and younger kids as it’s small/mid size slides), they enjoyed all the shows in the evening. There was a conference going on our first week so some shows were in the north bar instead of the theatre which was HOT, I really feel this area needs some fans, it is kind of outside/inside but just makes it very uncomfortable in the evenings with the humidity. Everything kind of shuts down by 10pm on the family side. An absolute special mention to Kidsdom and the ladies that looked after my 2 several times over the 2 weeks; Yessenia, Leticia, Yadiva and Carlota, my 2 (Maci and Max) loved it there and it really made it a holiday for us, being able to have that break knowing they were being so well looked after, playing, doing crafts etc was great. We used it most mornings and 2 evenings so we could have dinner/drinks on the adult side. THANK YOU (A note on this I witnessed one father speak incredibly rudely to them because he wouldn’t accept that his kids would be “separated” due to their ages, demanded to speak to the manager and then spoke about the ladies rudely in front of them. They split the ages to work within ratios, not to be difficult… He then expected them to look after his kids… they work so hard and really care for the kids, please be kind!) I think the hotel was at a low capacity when we went as we had no trouble getting sun loungers (prime spots were gone by 9.30), we never had an issue with kids club capacity or getting restaurant reservations. My only real “complaint” is the use of plastic cups for all the drinks… I understand glass isn’t practical but if of an evening when I want a glass of wine, I do not want to drink it from a plastic beaker cup… restaurants had glasses but it was rare for the bars too. One night my husband went to 4 bars before they had a wine glass - not being precious but hopefully wine drinkers agree 😅. We would love to return in the future or to another one of their hotels.

his will be sort of long but very detailed. Our trip started out fantastic! Paradisus is a much smaller all inclusive that we have stayed at, which we loved! We previously stayed multiple times at Iberostar Paraiso Lindo and Iberostar Maya, and RIU. We take a trip once a year to an all-inclusive. The room was nice and everything was super close. We had a room right in between the kids pool and regular pool. They have rooms with swim up pools but they were much more pricy. The pools were nice, however, at other resorts we stayed at, we observed the staff testing the pool water multiple times per day and that was not the case at Paradisus. We stayed at the pools daily from 10am to about 4 pm and never once saw anyone testing the pool water. The pool water did not seem dirty so maybe they do all that overnight? There were plenty of pool chairs no matter what time you came to the pool, which was great. The ocean and beach were full of seaweed which is not the resorts fault, but the smell of seaweed was awful and would linger around resort and sometimes even in the room. That was disappointing. The food was good, not great, nothing special. The restaurants for dinner need to be booked as soon as you get there, which is the norm, but it felt like the food at the buffet was better than the restaurants, which is odd. Hibachi restaurant is smaller and our reservations were at 7:30 (only time they had available) and we didn’t get seated till 8. If you have smaller children who get cranky at night, I would consider booking Hibachi, earlier. They had daily shows which were great for the whole family. The drinks were good, nothing special. You are also walking distance from Playa Del Carmen, which is great if you want to leave the resort, which we did. I do have to say the staff friendliness (for the most part) was great and most staff were very nice! If you had a question or needed help finding anything, staff would walk you to the place vs just telling you where to go. We typically like to do laundry at the resorts we stay closer to the end of the trip and this was the case with Paradisus. We love coming home to very little laundry :) and I don’t mind paying for this convenience. I have done this during all of our stays at all-inclusive resorts. I called down the front desk at 8:30 am on Sunday to have our laundry picked up. I filled out the form and indicated the quantity of all the items of clothing along with indicating it was a standard service, not express (which is more in price due to it being completed same day) and that I only wanted it folded, not ironed or hung up on the hangers. Let’s be real, why do I need to iron it or have it on hangers only to throw it in my luggage. A young lady came in to pick it up and she spoke no English. I tried explaining it to her in Spanglish and called down to the front desk to confirm she understood (by front desk confirming with her in Spanish, by handing her the phone) it will be standard and folded services which will be back on Monday night, as we were leaving early Tuesday morning. She assured me along with the front desk guy we are in agreement. We got our laundry back on Monday night around 6 pm and it was on hangers and ironed. When it came time to check out, I received a bill for 187$, which is nowhere close to the amount of clothes I had (it should have been 101$, as it lists the price for each item and I added it up) and the front desk at checkout told me it was full service laundry which means it was ironed and hung up on hangers and he also confirmed it was express service. I told him this is not what I requested and I had confirmation of my request. Plus, if it’s express why am I getting it the next day? He called the manager ( I’m assuming that is who he was) named Francisco. This guy was so rude and kept telling me that it was standard full service laundry even though the previous employee already told me he saw express service in the computer. He proceeded to tell me that he will let me pay lesser amount not bc I’m right but bc he is making an exception and we had to leave for the airport! What kind of customer service is that? You want to charge me for something I didn’t request and in return just want to be rude and making me look like I was at fault! He needs customer service training and should not be a manager or speaking to guests in that manner. He asked me to write on the invoice why I’m refusing to pay the full amount. I simply stated I’m paying for what I requested on the invoice. He ruined our experience at checkout service, end of our trip, and for that reason alone we will not be returning. We would have definitely returned due to the positives. Paradisus should hire managers who actually know how to be managers and not make guests feel like that. The guys at the front who collect your luggage have better customer service skills than Francisco “the manager”.

From Frank (front desk manager) to Jorge our concierge, our stay was very enjoyable, made us feel very welcomed. Sebastian (Flora) and Leonardo (Bana) made our restaurant experiences extra special. Great accommodations, great service! Seaweed was bad but they were doing their best…