El Dorado Maroma

This has been our 8th visit to this resort and it has never disappointed. Besides the beautiful beaches, the one thing that stands out is the staff. Everyone is so friendly and goes out of their way to make your stay memorable. Special thanks as always to Rene, bartender extraordinaire, restaurant staff-Augustin, Alberto, Jesus, Ezekiel. Bar staff Betzy and Daniel, he makes the best skinny margheritas, butlers Marbel and Bernie and special mention to the spa staff(spent alot of time there, highly recommended)-Hubert(best 80 min massage), Aisi and Fernanda. So lovely.

Just finished a 6 night stay at EDR Maroma, our room was in Villa 8 and was a saphire swimout. Room location for us was not the best as it did not have much of a view and directly across the porch from the employee lounge and I believe room service. The room was in need of updating, and I believe that is in progress as they were working in Villa 7 while we were there. First off the negative: Been members since 2017 and making trips to one of resorts 2-3x per year annually since. Probably the worst butler service we have ever received. Won’t get into details here only to say we never had the night butler come up and ask us if we need anything and only time we saw her was if we crossed paths on the resort. As for our day butler, he was a little better but rarely checked in with us (we did use the What’s App, but every day had to ask for the same thing). The resort is very small and sleepy, which we really liked. Out of the El Dorado resorts in Mexico by far the best beach of the group and an ocean that is easy to get into. This beach is very walkable and we were able to walk 2 miles a day which was nice. We found all of the wait staff, bartenders and beach butlers to be exceptional and the food was outstanding. Menus had a lot of variety and seems there was more seafood options here then compared to the other resorts. We attended a members dinner wine pairing and that too was exceptional. Shout out to Jesus in Mio; Juan at Peptios; Eliseo, Alberto and Angel at Lima Limon; Beach butlers Miguel and Kevin; Fellippe who we had at both Pepitos and Lima Limon Martiniano at Caribbean Grill and Augustin who did the tequilla tasking.

We had an amazing time. Our personal butlers (Manuel & Enrique) outstanding. Also, the main pool bartender (Alfred) was THE BEST. He searched us out every morning for breakfast cocktails. The wine/tequila officianad (Augustine) was beyond knowledgeable.

We booked this holiday of 11 nights to celebrate our silver anniversary with TUI after reading all the fantastic reviews. After queuing for 3 hours to get through the airport we found that our TUI transfer had gone and left us! They quickly sorted out some transport and we arrived at the hotel. We were asked if we were celebrating anything so we told them yes our silver anniversary. We were asked if we’d like to upgrade to a room with shared pool for €100 a night but said no - we’d already paid £5500. We requested an upper floor but were given lower. We were so tired we just went with it. The room was dark and smelt of damp. Our outdoor area was overgrown, shaded and dark. We met with our concierge and had our reservations made for dinner for the next few nights and we asked about booking a meal on the beach with a fire and hearts and which we’d seen the previously night and looked beautiful. She said it was a candlelit dinner and €300. We agreed as it was a special occasion. We had to choose our meal beforehand. We turned up at the meet point and thought it strange there was no sign of our dinner so we went to reception to be told it was cancelled due to weather. No one bothered to inform us. We were offered the option of the meal in either the Caribbean or Italian restaurant. We asked the manager - David if we could see the set up and basically they wanted to charge us €300 to have the menu we’d chosen in a quiet area of the restaurants. We refused and ended up sitting in a separate part of the Italians behind 2 glass doors and ate off the normal menu. It was very weird like being in a fish bowl! 2 days later we checked we’d not been charged and we had. They said we had to rearrange or pay 50% cancellation! We explained the situation that it was not the same having the meal indoors and we did not want to reschedule as our anniversary had been and gone and that we weren’t the ones who cancelled. We ended up speaking to the manager again and he said he would cancel the charge. Apart from this our toilet kept breaking and 5 times in 7 days it needed repairing. There were times we had to use the public loos while ours was broke which is a joke. I emailed TUI as I was fed up when the toilet started making a loud running water sound 2:50am which went on for hours until my hubby fixed it. TUI emailed saying they had arranged a meeting with manager 9am. This was all a farce too. Staff knew who we were and why we were there then all of a sudden said David was in a meeting and they would contact us when he was available. 2 hours later I went back to reception and they said they had had no communication with TUI regarding the matter. Eventually David turned up. I said I was upset regarding all the confusion over the meal, the room, the toilet and now the jacuzzi bath had broke. I politely asked if we could have an upgrade to make the most of our last 3 nights. He said he would check which rooms were available and would get back to me. Endless to say he didn’t and our concierge did nothing either. Aside from this - The hotel and gardens are immaculate. Staff work endlessly keeping everything beautiful including the beach. The food is absolutely delicious and very well presented. Staff are very accommodating if you fancy something not on the menu. Entertainment is very low key and we didn’t see many activities going on. Staff are absolutely immaculately presented and are so kind and polite - the best by far. There ate different tiers of membership and lots of perks they get with it and a ‘more inclusive’ which surprise surprise we weren’t part of. This includes private transfers to and from the airport, jet skis, speed boats, eating at the mariner and catamaran trip plus much more. Unfortunately for us the manager David let us down especially after hearing of lots of couples getting free room upgrades

Staff was amazing, beach is beyond beautiful! Food choices were all delicious, room was spacious and clean well stocked and the view from our balcony was breathtaking. Kevin our beach butler was attentive and friendly. Very thoughtful young man. The convenience of on site activities was awesome. Catamaran ride, parasailing, jet skis and much more right outside your door!! Activity team was superb, Gustavo, Chris, Graciela, and Hazel kept us moving with volleyball, yoga, and friendly conversation! Thank you Sofia, Felipe, and all the wonderful bartenders for keeping us hydrated!! 10 stars!!!