El Dorado Casitas Royale by Karisma

My husband and I stayed at the El Dorado Casitas from Nov 23-30, 2024. We booked a second floor casita suite. We originally were in section 27. I think there are 7 sections 25-31. Sections 25-27 do not have swim up suites and therefore there is no lazy river. They have a small swim up pool just like the other sections, as well as the beachfront casitas. We moved to the second floor casita in section 28. This section had a lazy river- which I preferred even though we were in a second floor casita. Beautiful ocean view and view of our section. Big outdoor decks with double ged and table and chairs. Room was lovely. The bed was quite soft in first room but much better in second room. Outdoor shower was amazing. Bigger in second room. The bar fridge was not stocked daily. Sections 30/31 are for return visitors. Although the beach at Casitas is not great for swimming- we actually spent most of our time at the beach. There are king size Bali beds with a terry cloth cover and 2 loungers. They are well spaced with lots of privacy. No need to reserve early. Only one day over American Thanksgiving were they all taken by mid afternoon. The bartender from the pool will make sure you have drinks. It was quite lovely- and we typically are pool people. Room service was ok. Only ordered pizza and quesadillas. We ate at all 3 resorts. The Palms at Generations was right on the water. Excellent a la carte service. We ate breakfast and lunch there. The Chefs Market also at Generations was a very nice buffet for breakfast - much nicer than Cocotal at the Royal. Never tried breakfast at Santa Fe. A la cart at La Isla - poolside - Royal was great for breakfast. I would avoid Sunday buffet. Cabana Pizzeria - poolside Royal was excellent a la carte for lunch. We ate at Santa Fe, Italian, and Kampala ( Asian) all at the Casitas section. Also at at Habb (Indian) at Generations. I loved the Indian and Asian and my husband loved the Italian. Evening meals were very good to excellent. Service was excellent most nights. Did not enjoy the Mexican night at the Royal. We didn’t try Rincon Mexicano at the Royal - but it did look lovely. I should point out there is no where to get food to eat at pool or beach. I believe this is to try and keep the animal population control, which is a good thing. We did not do any nighttime entertainment. Not much happening at the Lobbies. We participated in the included snorkeling and catamaran boat ride at Marina beach. Although there is an El dorado resort there- you do not have access to the resort. There is a public entrance to the beach. The beach is absolutely amazing. The catamaran ride was ok. Big boat. Lots of people. Snorkeling was decent- but we have done many times before. Excellent pizza included at beach after snorkeling was done. Transportation was included- but we headed back to resort early. 23 American. Less than 15 minutes away. We did the on site horseback riding. 210 American for 2 of us. We were the only 2 that afternoon- so more or less private. Guide was very knowledgeable about Mayan culture. Learned a lot about local trees. Very interesting. The horseback riding was a 45 minute walk through the jungle. Not difficult at all. Upon check in at the resort you will be asked to visit the concierge. We were offered free horse back riding and a couples massage if we attended one of their sales pitches. Ultimately we declined. It is apparently a 3 hour sales pitch. Possibly worth it to some people. We preferred a morning at the beach. Overall this resort is quite lovely. Beautifully landscape. Good food and service. Can’t really fault it in any way.

I only have excellent things to say about this resort. The staff are very attentive, the facilities are very clean and well maintained, and the food and drink is great. Some people have said the rooms are tired but I think it's personal preference as I loved the room. It was huge, had everything we needed and more. The outdoor shower was a lovely experience! There was a day which was overcast weather but there is so much to do on the resort it doesn't affect your time there. I tried archery, beach games, shooting, did lots of walking around with a drink in hand, said hello to all the local wildlife like the iguanas and coatis, and had some chill time in the room jacuzzi. The stretch of white sandy beach is gorgeous and the sun loungers are comfortable for those of us who get bad backs :)

This property was new to us - we have stayed at several other resort brands throughout the Rivera Maya as recently as last month. We chose this brand based on reviews about the outstanding service and great food and knew up front that the beach area was not great and that all of the meals were al la Carte. Here are my thoughts on positives and negatives: Positives first: the property is lovely, the food was indeed better than other resorts we have been to recently, and the service was mostly great. We stayed in the Casitas area in a swim out suite and loved the architecture and cleanliness of the room and pool area. The room did need some minor maintenance and updating, but overall, it was cool and airy, and the bed was very comfy. Our casitas bartender was great, and he didn't hesitate to make drinks to our specifications when possible. The quality of our food at all meals was better than expected. Even the meals from room service were good although they were a little less than warm. The grounds were well maintained, and staff was always working to keep the property beautiful. The negatives: There were some things that we felt were big negatives here that actually do impact our thoughts on visiting again. Number one is the lack of beach - yes, I knew the beach was not great, but I didn't realize that meant the beach was basically unusable. There are rock walls, exposed rock and coral, and large concrete pyramid structures all up and down the beach, which I understand are intended to break the surf and create a reef. There is no safe swimming anywhere here - at the Casitas, Royale, or Generations areas. They have made one "grotto" for swimming, but the water didn't exchange with the sea very well and smelled/felt stagnant and sulfuric. There are beach beds on the sand above the rock retainer walls bus no use of the beach itself. To compensate, the resort offers all inclusive trips down to Maroma Beach Club about 20 mins south of the property where El Dorado Maroma is located, but you are not a guest on the El Dorado Maroma property. You are one of many many visitors to the beach club next door - which is nice but crowded. To be fair, the beach at Maroma is beautiful with powdery white sand and shallow swimmable water, a restaurant, bar, and several street style food options, which are all included. This is also where you take the catamaran to snorkel or jet ski. So nothing beachy is located at the resort you stay at, and they bus you down the highway like you are going on an excursion. We kind of felt like cattle. I expected a more curated experience, not standing in line waiting to pile into a large bus or van and then having to do the same to get back at the end of the day. This was a big negative in my book. If the resort could figure out a way to provide access to Maroma Beach in a more personal and less mass-transport way, it would really help. Also, a negative - the dinner reservation process is stressful and not well done by the resort. There is an app you download at check-in to essentially do anything on the property, including making dinner reservations. I am a big fan of using an app for mapping the resort or chatting with a concierge and such, but this dinner reservation process was a pain. We literally opened the app within 1 hour of our arrival to make dinner reservations, and there were almost no open reservations anywhere for the bulk of the week. You can forget a reservation at the more popular restaurants unless you are just really lucky. The few open seats were either as soon as the venue opened or at 9 pm. There are no buffet or walk-up options for dinner. At all. This was a problem for us. One nice walk-up dinner food outlet or buffet somewhere on the property would be really appreciated. We ended up having room service dinner multiple times because there were just no options that suited. Last negative - we like to enjoy a glass or wine or two, maybe listen to some music, people watch, and such. Most resorts have a welcoming lobby area that becomes a central area for entertainment in the evening. This resort lacked that warm feel, and the main lobby felt sterile and business like. There are several small bars on property, but they get crowded, and there are no casual seating areas to just sit down and enjoy a drink. There is a sports bar - again crowded. There is a theatre for live shows and such, but the shows didn't suit our low-key vibe, or we didn't want to walk to the other end of the resort. Im not even going to get started on trying to catch a golf cart - we walked almost everywhere due to long transport wait times. We really missed the evening after dinner relaxing outing. Overall, I am not sure if we will stay at this resort again in the future. While the people are lovely, the grounds are beautiful, and the food quality is excellent, we can get that and a nice beach for a similar price point elsewhere. If you are happy lounging by the pool all day and are good with room service , this resort may suit you better than it did us.

We stayed at a 5 star swim up room suite that had a nice bed. The swim up had a path directly alongside it so no real privacy and the net curtain didn’t come all the way across so there was no real privacy. We had to move the sofa up against the window to hold the curtain in place. The internet was not very good and there was the constant noise of the cleaning staff going in and out of their storage room and the dropping and breaking of dishes etc. A member of staff one day walked right across our patio area to the swim up pool, which should not have been accessible to anyone but whoever was in the room. To top it off she came back 5 minutes later and when I came out to challenge her she had disappeared somewhere. Of the three resort areas Generations was the best but they wouldn’t allow us to transfer, even though we offered to pay, saying it was full. We checked the next day and they had lied to us. We thought it would be similar to Sandals but compared to Sandals, this place would only get 2 stars from us. It was disappointing, although most of the staff were warm and friendly.

We just spent 11 days at El Dorado Casitas Royale from November 10th to 20th. generally the weather was very nice--couple of windy days and two mornings with rain--but overall sunny and nice temperature. The food is outstanding and the personnel do a great job. Our butlers--Melissa and Meriam were outstanding and Jhonny was very helpful when he filled in for them. The restaurant wait staff at the Italian Casitas is outstanding--Silverio and Juan are both excellent. We had breakfast at the Palm many morning and Alex and the chef do an outstanding job. We also went to Habb--excellent Indian food and the Italian Villas--David is a great waiter. The transportation provided by Lomas was excellent and timely. Overall we had a great time.