El Dorado Royale by Karisma

Eldorado Royale Stay: February 22-28 2025 (6 nights, 7 days) Room 5312 Resort Grounds: Stellar grounds. This is a very neatly groomed property. Flowers, palm trees, mangroves. Beautiful. The beach could be seen as a negative as it is rocky and has concrete pyramids added to help with damage from hurricanes, but the ocean view is still absolutely stunning. Pools: There are a lot of pools. The largest main pool gathers the largest crowds. There are enough options that if you find any specific pool not matching your preferred vibe you can move and find one that does. Most pools have swim-up bars or easy drink access. The pools did not seem heated, but even in February they were warm enough to spend a lot of time in after the initial chill when first entering. Rooms: Overall the room was comfortable. The bed was okay. The room cooling very good as it had a great air conditioner controlled by remote and a ceiling fan directly above the bed. A nice table for room service. We tried using the Jacuzzi tub then ended up with flooded bathroom floors - this issue was resolved after two submitted maintenance tickets via the resort app. We also submitted a maintenance ticket due to the TV remote batteries died and it was completed very quickly. Food: The ala carte breakfasts at La Isla and Rincon were very good. Servers refilled coffee and green juice regularly. Customization to orders were completed without hesitation including the addition of potatos, guacamole, bacon, etc. The breakfast food quality was good and the assortment of sweet rolls was appreciated. The lunch options were also very good. We found the Health bar and Kick (I think the name was Kick, on the beach with picnic tables) were favorites of ours. The panini was really good with a banana peanut butter smoothie and the hot dogs and bacon cheese burgers on the beach were better than the rib tacos and pizza served next to the big pool (this surprised us). Also, we enjoyed the pop up food cart on the ocean malecon serving tacos. The dinner ala carte options were overall disappointing. We enjoyed Fuentes, but we paid extra money for (>$100 USD) with drink pairing option. However, we left still hungry as the courses were very small portions with no option for additional plates. Sante Fe, Rincon, and D'Talia Casitas were all... well, gross. The molcajete had really poor octopus as it was rubbery and I was worried it would make me sick. The dark mole was okay, but the red mole was some of the worst I've had at any of the 10+ all inclusives I've stayed at in Riviera Maya. Many guests raved about D'Talia Casitas, but the filet was such poor quality. I don't think I've ever not finished a filet in my entire life, but again the quality bad I thought it may make me sick. Kampai was okay, but not because of the sushi. The sushi at Kampai was poor because the fish quality shouldn't be served. However, the pad thai was decent. We showed up at the Habb even though the resort app showed no available reservations and we were surprised to be seated immediately and not be busy at all. The Habb was our favorite, non-extra cost restaurant. The chicken tika, lamb josh, and garlic naan was really good. 'More Inclusive': We were emailed about the 'More Inclusive' program at El Dorado days before our trip began. We didn't know El Dorado does FREE ROUND TRIP TRANSPORTATION from/to the airport, so we had already purchased ground transportation via Expedia when we booked. By we realized transportation was included it was too late to have the redundant transportation refunded. We booked the catamaran/snorkel at Maroma Beach and it required meeting in the lobby at 8:10am and the transfer was very short. Once arriving we took advantage of paddle boards and the lunch options from a buffet and the food for lunch was very good. I'm very sun sensitive and ended up skipping the catamaran as other participants were returning sun burned and really drunk. Three loud hours with 30+ people didn't seem as appealing as a quiet pool back at the resort. There are many more options with the 'More Inclusive' program including cenotes, a water park, and more. Demographic: We would guess the resort patrons to be 90% or more blue collar Americans that are of age 55+. We talked with truck salesmen and corrections facility officers and school teachers. Activities: We participated in the bicycle tour and really enjoyed our tour guide. Evening Entertainment: We were lucky to make it to the Burlesque show. This was fantastic. We appreciate adult-oriented entertainment and wished for more. We don't care for Michael Jackson, Traditional Mexican Dance or mariachi as we find these are so overly done at the all inclusive resorts.

Just returned from 8 days at El Dorado and we had a great time. Weather was great, the food delicious, the cocktails flowing. All perfect, if one thing stood out more than the others it was the staff. Everyone of them, but for our stay, specifically: Angeles Vera - our butler, didn't just handle our requests perfectly, but also anticipated what we needed before we even realized. Adriana H. - The butler for my family members Just on top of everything, so responsive, so friendly. These two young ladies alone made the vacation, but also Emiliano Baillet - our concierge, helped us with our spa bookings, made some perfect suggestions and arrangements for our activiities. Andres- the shuttle driver we used frequently. He was always on time- and frankly he made the shuttle ride as much fun as the destination was. A member of our party had some mobility issues and Andres would stop every time he saw him to ask if he needed a ride Maria - our chef for the Chef's Table dinner. This young lady looks like she's 19, but she cooks like she's been doing it for 50 years . (fyi- the Chef's Table dinner was easily the best thing we did this trip0 The sommelier at the Chef's table dinner, paired the wine for the different courses beautifully, even brought back one of the bottles so my wife could get a picture of the label. I feel bad I did not get her name. The entertainment was great, we liked the shows, but really really liked the live bands that played before the main show. Last (but nowhere near least) Luis - the bartender at the swim up bar adjacent to the Spot restaurant, was incredible, always a smile, handled special requests with eagerness and I don't know how, but he would remember everyone's drink favorites one day to the next. Also the staff at Lomas were perfect at accommodating a family member with mobility issues.

We loved our stay at El Dorado. The bartenders have excellent craftsmanship especially Adal and Benjamin in the Martini Bar off the main lobby. The variety of pools and on site Cenote were fun to experience. Attended healing Yoga classes most mornings and enjoyed dinners and dancing in the evening.

The grounds are lush and beautiful and sprawling everywhere. Excellent views and beautiful for taking long walks. I’m going to miss the greenery. Staff are so accommodating and welcoming. Food was delicious and exceptional at the Mediterranean and Italian restaurants. I never felt like I needed more. Lots of options.

The resort is very nice. It’s kind of spread out and they have golf carts running constantly so it’s not to hard to catch a ride with drivers periodically stopping and asking people if they need a ride. We had a ground level room with a curved shape pool that connected to the bigger pool. Pool area wasn’t crowded and it was very easy to get a cocktail at the swim up bar. Also , when we stayed in our immediate pool area right outside our room, a server came over every 20 min to see if we needed another drink. The service was spectacular. Overall the food was really good. The only meal I didn’t care for was the Mexican Fiesta with the Mariachi band playing. Fuentes dinner show was really good too. Excellent fish and steak both being served as part of a 5 course with the chef demonstrating how he prepared each meal. It runs almost 3 hours and was a little long, but the food was worth it. Our consierge “ Ivan “ was spectacular as well. Our only negative things to say about the resort is that the beach is very rocky, so we didn’t swim in the ocean. Also our pick up when we were leaving for the airport was over a hour late. We almost missed our flight. It was very disorganized. One driver said he would take us to the airport if we tipped him. Really ? We already paid for the transfer. No one seemingly in charge knew when Amstar would be there after repeatedly asking. He said traffic was bad. I think that’s a standard answer. When we finally got a bus ride? There was no traffic jam. He suggested we call a cab. So my wife randomly started asking the bus drivers and one agreed to take us. Our ride still hadn’t arrived over a hour late. We would take a taxi next time.