Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa

This was my second visit to the Hotel, we picked this as a last minute trip because I remember we had a nice time when we went as a family, as always upon arrival we were greeted with the usual fresh towels and the welcome home greeting, we were taken to the preferred check in area where we could have nice appetizers and the welcome home drink, our room was not ready but were told to get lunch and come back. Room – The layout is different but doable; the bed was comfortable, in the bathroom space, the tub was outside, and we never used it, in the shower we had good hot water, but it had a low pressure. The double sinks offer good space to keep all your make-up and toiletries there. Room A/C was good and there was also a good ceiling fan. Food – All our meals were good, especially the fish tacos at seaside grill. We visit Coco Café often as we love coffee and snacks and the service, we received was always pleasant. Beach – Ocean was a bit cold for my liking, but it was nice and calm with some seaweed. The sand was soft and good for long walks. Pools – People tend to stay in the main pool as is the one with the entertainment staff. But there is also another pool nearby where people played water volleyball and a small shallow one for young children to play. Even in preparation for Super bowl night people were still able to enjoy both pools. We visited the Spa for massages and had Hydrotherapy twice, all the Spa staff were really friendly. The service staff are helpful and are willing to go above and beyond; special thanks to the following people who made our vacation memorable: Bell boys - Sergio (George Clooney), Alexis, they always had a nice smile on Aaron our concierge at Preferred Check in Oceana lunch - our waiter Jesus Pool attendants- Freddy and Jesus Infinity pool – Alex and Victor Bali bed by the regular pool- Ricardo, Romeo Buffet – our waiters Jesus, Abbie, and Seaside Breakfast- Paulina Coco café- Efren, Jovani he is a true barista artist Portofino- Reyes Ceviche Making Class - Juanita Seaside lunch- Martin Entertainment- Erick and Uzzi UVC – We stopped by the Ulounge on our second day, but our rep was busy, we never got a chance to meet her, but it was ok as we were not interested on anything from them. The hotel is a favorite one for weddings, but they don’t disrupt your vacation. We will come back if we ever need another quick escape.

Amazing family vacation. The resort is the perfect size, clean, and very well designed. We have a 1 and 3 year old and we were able to actually feel like we were on vacation - which speaks volumes. Santiago, Maria, Ricardo, Freddy and Ricardo were all amazing and made us feel so welcomed. We were so sad to leave and will definitely be back because how could you go anywhere else after such an amazing trip!!!

Overall, this is an amazing resort. The food and drinks are five star level. You can truly taste the alcohol in each drink and the food is high quality. I am celiac and they had no problems accommodating my food requirements. The resort is smaller, but that is not a bad thing. If you want to place where you can get from the pool to your room quickly, this is the place for you. The beach was nice and clean, great to swim at! The pools had a good mix of a kids pool, activities pool and infinity pool. I feel like this resort doesn't over sell their rooms to keep the numbers reasonable, which I appreciated. The Cabanas are about 100.00 usd for the rental and worth it! We rented a cabana for our last day and we really enjoyed it. The staff is incredible. We are talking about friendly, engaging, attentive, kind and very knowledge. I would argue that people is this resort biggest strengthen. It appears that they treat their staff well and I would encourage folks to be generous with tips when here. This staff deserves it. The only critique, and this is a minor one, is there wasn't a lot of storage in the room (we had a double bed room) but again, that is very very minor. If you like storage, it may be an issue, but other wise, this is 10/10 resort!

Absolutely brilliant holiday. It’s a long journey from England, but totally worth it. Food. The food was really good at the buffet with loads of choice; really delicious meat dishes, great salads and a really good selection of fruits. There was always fresh sushi available, loads of fish dishes, and vegetarian options too. The restaurants were really good too - I’m so glad we booked in to see the tepinyaki show and o was delighted when we asked for noodles for the kids and they brought spaghetti with a tomato sauce. The poolside barbecues were incredible, and if you just wanted pizza slices and beef burgers / hotdogs, the Barefoot Grill was really good too - far better than the kids section of the buffet. Kids club. The Explorers Club was amazing. We barely saw my 7yo once he discovered it. On the first day he was there from 12pm - 9.30pm. They give you a buzzer so they can contact you if your child wants to leave. We kept going back to check on him and he was pleading us to let him stay there. Andy, Gio, Yareth and Laura were amazing kids club hosts and my 5yo also had a great time there (although he didn’t stay quite as long as his brother). They do all sorts of fun activities including water fights, trampolining, crafts, watercolours, games, cake decorating. And they take the kids to the buffet or get them picnics. Absolutely brilliant! Babysitting For the kids club you have to stay onsite. We wanted to go on a snorkelling tour, so we paid for a babysitter. It was quite expensive, but we had Zazu, and she was absolutely amazing. My kids loved her. It cost $40 an hour (for two kids) with a minimum of 3 hours - fairly expensive, but worth it. Swimming pools. They were great, clean, not too crowded. It wasn’t too much of a struggle to get a sunbed if you didn’t leave it too late. The kids loved the kids pool, and although the infinity pool says adults only, they allow kids with their parents. The crazy games in the activity pool are also really fun. The drinks and drink servers were amazing. Tipping tips! Most of the people who come here are American and there is a big tipping culture that I hadn’t really expected. Bring dollars! Loads of single dollar notes. You don’t *need* to tip, but most people give the servers / barmen $1 per drink. It’s also customary to tip about $1 per bag for the bellboy, restaurant staff (I didn’t really work out how much), and I think it’s usual to tip housekeeping $3 dollars per day - but the housekeeping maid is different to the lady who turns the bed down in the evenings, and different again to the person who tops up the minibar. Dollars There’s a cash machine at the hotel which dispenses dollars only (and charges really high fees). When you ask prices for anything, they always tell you in dollars, so better to get your head into dollar-pound exchange rate rather than Mexican pesos. Shops The shops on site are an absolute rip off! Especially the one by the pool. They’d be better having cheaper prices and selling twice as much stuff. Prices in the local town are a lot cheaper, but the taxis are also expensive. $40 dollars for a return journey which was a 5-minute drive. That said, the driver will wait for you for up to 3 hours to get the return fare - which makes things easier and seem much better value. Make sure you take intent repellent and after it’s because the mosquitos come out at 6pm-ish, and the shop there chargers more than double what you’d expect for these things (and sun cream). Preferred Club It didn’t offer a lot extra for the money. There’s an exclusive bar (which is the same as any other bar but has some snacks - also available elsewhere), there’s an exclusive section of beach (but they don’t check if you’re preferred club or not), you get a nespresso machine in your room, and Pringles and M&Ms each day (but the mini bar refiller was a bit hit and miss too - maybe we didn’t tip enough, but who knows?!). It also included a 1-hour hydrotherapy session at the spa which was lovely although slightly rushed. Preferred club was advertised (with the travel agent I booked with) as having access to the Bali beach beds, but they were at an extra cost ($250 per day). Mattresses beds by the pool were $100 per day. I thought that was expensive, but obviously not too expensive because they were always full. Sea The sea wasn’t clear enough to snorkel off the beach, but the tour took us out to the reef which was pretty cool. We saw fish, rays and a turtle. The sand is incredible. We had an absolutely brilliant week and would definitely recommend.

Bordeaux restaurant was amazing and we had great first class service from our waiters Eduardo and Abraham! Eduardo made a special dessert for us and we are very grateful. We enjoyed lamb and tartare and had great appetizers with dessert. We hope to visit again!