Grand Velas Riviera Maya - All Inclusive

“Heavenly week of delicious food, great views and fantastic service”

My family of four (husband and 2 boys ages 12 and 14) just checked out of the Grand Velas Riviera Maya after a truly heavenly spring break week. We stayed in a Grand Class suite and received amazing service from our concierge, Aaron Ruiz, as well as Mario, Michael and Jorge at the Grand Class poo... more

My family of four (husband and 2 boys ages 12 and 14) just checked out of the Grand Velas Riviera Maya after a truly heavenly spring break week. We stayed in a Grand Class suite and received amazing service from our concierge, Aaron Ruiz, as well as Mario, Michael and Jorge at the Grand Class pool and Tyde at the Ambassador pool. Aaron took care of everything we requested like spa appointments and dinner reservation changes, but he also went above and beyond by providing us with an AppleTV so we could stream our subscriptions and having a bag of snacks and drinks ready for us when we headed off resort for an excursion day. He also helped us with having our TV fixed even though it was after the end of his shift. We thought the food at the restaurants was amazing. We were fortunate to have our requested dinner reservation times at 5:30/6:00 which allowed us to see the nightly entertainment on the beach while we walked off the calories from the delicious food. We were also able to try all seven of the restaurants during our stay. (Our boys enjoyed suite service on the evenings we dined at adult only restaurants.) Tip: Don’t miss the popsicles at the pool bar! My husband enjoyed the spa especially the water journey. Grand Velas definitely has one of the best spa facilities we’ve been to in over 25 years of traveling. After taking a break from resorts in favor of cruising the past few years, we truly loved the conveniences of all-inclusive amenities especially with such a wide variety of restaurants. The resort had over 1000 guests during our visit, but you didn’t notice - except for the pool chair “hogs” around the Ambassador pool in the mornings. It was on those days, we appreciated the less crowded Grand Class pool and our private plunge pool on our terrace. All-in-all it was a wonderful vacation, and it has intrigued us to try the other Grand Velas resorts in Mexico.

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“Awesome resort!”

Grand Velas is the most beautiful resort! We went as a family of 4 and the room was such a large size! Our ocean front outdoor seating was the perfect way to start each day. Our concierge, Israel, made our vacation perfect! He made our spa appointments, dinner reservations, decorated our room f... more

Grand Velas is the most beautiful resort! We went as a family of 4 and the room was such a large size! Our ocean front outdoor seating was the perfect way to start each day. Our concierge, Israel, made our vacation perfect! He made our spa appointments, dinner reservations, decorated our room for my son’s birthday and made sure everyday went smoothly. I highly recommend this resort because of the amazing location, wonderful staff and kid friendly environment.

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“Not sure worth the price...”

The resort is very beautiful, overall the food was great. Many of the staff at the pool, and restaurants were wonderful. Some of the negatives: I did a lot of research before booking and loved the idea of a dedicated concierge to help throughout your stay. Ours was pretty much non-existent. ... more

The resort is very beautiful, overall the food was great. Many of the staff at the pool, and restaurants were wonderful. Some of the negatives: I did a lot of research before booking and loved the idea of a dedicated concierge to help throughout your stay. Ours was pretty much non-existent. That was a big disappointment and def not what you would expect from a 5 star resort. We've stayed at other AI's with concierge and had MUCH better service. I took the time to fill out the pre-arrival form, with our early arrival time, pillow requests and made some requests for our kids. I even emailed our pre-arrival concierge with the same requests for the kids, and none of it was followed. When we arrived I asked our concierge for the same requests, and was told he was on it but again, no follow through. I received a mid-stay survey and shared my same feedback. heard back immediately from the guest services manager, and I shared my same requests, and again nothing. I would expect more from a 5 star resort. Check in was bizarre, we arrived early, sat there for nearly an hour while someone took our passports and supposedly checked us in. I asked her twice if our room would be ready and she ignored me. For the next few hours, our concierge just kept telling me he would check to see if it was ready but never did. It was so hard to find chairs, and umbrellas by the pool or beach. It seemed unless you tipped the pool/beach concierge well or got up at 6 am to reserve seats, you were out of luck. Service in rooms was spotty, I think we got turn down service once, on our last night. Overall- for the money not sure this was totally worth it. The most attentive person was the one who called my room and my kids rooms multiple times to try to get us to come to the timeshare presentation.

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“Just OK”

We went on a multigenerational trip to GV RM. I selected it because I wanted the best possible AI experience. We travel extensively, typically booking 5* hotels on our vacations. To be fair, we are a very active group. We love adventures, activities, and trying new things. This was not our type o... more

We went on a multigenerational trip to GV RM. I selected it because I wanted the best possible AI experience. We travel extensively, typically booking 5* hotels on our vacations. To be fair, we are a very active group. We love adventures, activities, and trying new things. This was not our type of experience. The good: Poolside waiters: Our poolside waiter Tayde (and sometimes Reuben) was wonderful. He was so thoughtful and checked on us often. The drink service was fast, and we got towels whenever we asked. No complaints. Breakfast buffet: The breakfast buffet had many options. We don't really love buffets, so we tired of it quickly. But the food was high quality, and the staff was attentive. Photographer: Nadia was FANTASTIC. Cannot recommend her enough. Zen Pool: We stayed in Ambassador, but tried out the Zen pool one day. I thought it was a really nice change of pace, and we got to see monkeys. The drinks were better - not too sweet. The blonde guy at the kids'/teen club (he ran the sand castle-building activity and others around the resort) - was great at getting the kids to participate. The spa: I think the spa is great. The problems: Management: The number one issue at this hotel is the management. We stayed during a busy spring break week, and it was clear that the organization did not prepare effectively. Examples: there are not enough chairs around the pool for everyone. If you wanted a chair, you basically had to get up to save one at 6 a.m. and then worry that your stuff would be moved if you left it for too long. There were not enough umbrellas. How is that possible? How do you not have enough basic equipment for your guests? At this price point, that's unacceptable. Example 2: We made our restaurant reservations well in advance because we were a pretty large party. I saw many families struggling to find restaurants while we were there. We tried to change reservations for one night and were told everything was booked. BUT, when you entered a restaurant during dinner hours, there were many empty tables. This was not a space issue; it was a staffing issue. Example 3: The shows are all at 7:30; I imagine this is to try to push people to the show buffet instead of the restaurants. Anyway, if you want to see a show, you either must eat incredibly early or incredibly late. Good lord, the karaoke bar: In Ambassador, there is one bar. It is a karaoke bar for children. It is my worst nightmare. Trust me, the only people who enjoy this bar are people whose kids are singing. Everyone else is stuck listening to EXTREMELY loud singing by other people's children. It's awful. Awful. If they want to have a kid's bar, why not have a separate adult bar? The food: We did have a couple of good meals while we were there. Frida was excellent. The meat at Bistro was well-prepared. The other food was mediocre food that was made to look fancy. The food and service at Sen Lin were particularly bad. Do not agree to eat family style. We were basically pushed into it - we asked to see menus, and the person basically said, "No, I'll just take care of it," and then served us many dishes that only 3/7 of us would touch. This is not a kid-friendly menu at all. It was bizarre. The service at Luca was fine, and I had high hopes for the food because Italian is relatively easy to prepare if you know what you're doing...the food was not great. Our kids liked the pizza, but the lasagna was covered in nutmeg, my rigatoni was undercooked, and the desserts were not great. We had high hopes for Piaf, but the service took forever, and the food was, again, mediocre. Here are some tips: The poolside menu will get very old very quickly. Order tacos to go from Azul if you want to eat poolside (you can get take-out boxes from the buffet). Never eat at the buffet in Zen. Beach Activities: The beach activities and excursions were dramatically overpriced. They rent out these machines that pull you through the water, which are fun, but the machine costs around $1200 tops. They charged us $360 to rent 2 for 30 minutes. Same with the cost of renting jet skis. I feel like the resort paints itself as a luxe property, but once you get there, if you are used to staying at luxe properties you quickly see that it is not. Luxe properties charge you up front and make the experience completely stress-free when you arrive. You aren't signing up for things all day long, searching for tip money, paying exorbitant prices for simple activities, etc. The actual beach: I was prepared, based on reviews, for a rocky bottom. We brought shoes to deal with this. What I wasn't prepared for was how it would look. The resort has basically constructed enormous break walls and other barriers in the ocean out of cement, netting, and plastic pipe. It looks absolutely awful. If you are picturing a nice look across the ocean, you will be disappointed. Kids activities: If you are planning to come here with kids 8-12 and have dreams of dropping them off at the kids' club for hours or even a day, look elsewhere. The kids' club, which is for 4-12 yo kids, is really for 4-6 year old kids. My 8 yo would not go in there at all. Instead, what happens is the 7 and up crowd goes to the teen club (which is very lightly supervised, but they can leave anytime). This means the teen club is overrun by little kids, and my 12-year-old would not go for long periods of time. This made for a long week. Some of the kids' activities that occurred on the beach or pool were much better (e.g., sand castle building, chips in the pool, etc.). The staff in the actual club was very lackluster and, again, quite young. Concierge service: I liked our concierge, but we missed out on a number of things simply because we did not know about them. For example, the resort has a weekly honey tasting, but no one told us, and by the time I learned about it, it was booked (ahem, staffing). It also has a weekly sake tasting - again, no one said anything, so it was booked. Room cleaning: Again, I think they were understaffed. I know from the reviews below that some people had trouble getting their rooms cleaned. Our rooms were cleaned every day, but at wildly different times and without much attention to detail. To me, this hotel is not worth the price tag. I would rather pay more for a truly luxe, truly all-inclusive experience (including tips, on-site activities, and a useable kids' club)—or less, for something similar to this. My impression is that they filled the hotel up and decided to make some money by cutting back on staff/services. I imagine our experience would have been much better if it was at 60% of the capacity.

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