Royalton Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa Vacations

Amazing place, the staff were all lovely. Housekeeping did an amazing job

My experience was horrible..
I will not recommend this hotel, from the minute I entered the hotel, the hostess began with the tour talk! I experienced same at Aqua Live in DR, trying to pull you in to become a Diamond member , I heard a figure of almost 250,000us! So when I recognised the direction this was headed… I had to ghost the host! I decided to vacation in Cancun to celebrate my birthday.. but having issues with JetBlue, the only option available was this hotel! The resort is unsanitary!!! It smells really horrible throughout! The buffet area at the bread and cake stand, bar areas, corridors, etc. the smell resembled that of a clogged drain! The bar areas, they have a plastic clear bin on the counters filled with water, all the plastic cocktail and wine glasses are thrown inside, where every bartender at that station dips their hands to grab a glass! It’s not going through the hot water process and placed to drain properly! What was the point of an all inclusive, spending that amount and the food was not matching the prices! The Caribbean restaurant is not Caribbean foods! The restaurants ask you what your allergies are and still place what you are allergic to on your plate 😑.. The only food I enjoyed was Taj!!! The jacuzzi in my suite was dirty so I was not able to use this! The fridge was only stocked prior to my arrival, so I had to purchase water! Room service food is terrible! When I was about to check out, there were other people also complaining about the poor service! Do better! You survive on we the customer!

Beautiful resort but very big therefore a lot of walking. Some rooms are in need of repair or outdated. Service was okay.

Maid stole items from dressing table draw! Recently stayed at this resort for 10
days and experienced many issues but the tip of the ice berg for us was having two pairs of sunglasses stolen from the dressing table draw where we left them. We have since checked out and are now back in the UK. Hotel staff say the items have not been added to their ‘Lost & Found List’ (What about the stolen list?!) and have since ignored all further correspondence from us. When we call they pick up the phone and then hang up and despite having various hotel employees and departments copied into the email chain including customer support, e-concierge, info at Royalton and three different guest service agents none of whom seem capable or willing to assist us and are obviously happy to harbor a thief amongst their employees, the very people you trust to enter your room when you’re not there! Sickening and shameful behaviour from a supposing 5-Star resort. Avoid and don’t waste your money, read the negative reviews, we experienced near identical issues during our stay.

Small resort great, service, clean and comfy rooms and we were very surprised to get a 2nd level roof top patio with a hot tub
😊

A must go for Mexico, a fantastic hotel with multiple cuisines to try, we had a great 10 days there last year and would 100% go back to this hotel.

Food and service were excellent with extremely friendly staff, only issue was having to ask for the water in the room to be topped up (it’s very warm)

Plenty of pools, shops and other activities to get involved in.

Very short drive from the airport, beach has a sea weed problem but the staff are excellent and up early doors to get it cleared.

Only downside in terms of food was the Caribbean restaurant which was disappointing, the portions were very small and the vegetarian options a bit limited. The buffet though was varied and offered pretty much whatever you wanted!

We had a great time, the food was excellent!!

I normally do not write reviews but I wanted to save you all money and aggravation - do not visit this resort. Everything was horrible all the way down to the cracked concrete by the pools. The negative reviews are 100% real. The only positive was that we never felt unsafe.

I don’t do a lot of reviews but I’m going to write one. I had gone to the bar and I TRYED
to get a drink but to the FIVE bartenders that I asked. NONE of them was willing to give me a drink. I waited 15 minutes to be told to stop and go to the back of line and TO wait. And out of the FIVE bartenders I asked I had to
read the names of their name tag at most
TWO times.

STAY AWAY!!!

Day one, noticed folks putting towels on sunbeds at 6am, it's still dark. 9am not a single sunbed free, maybe 1 in 10 populated with a person. Disappointing start to the hols.

Our 2nd and last time back. Six years later the resort has aged beyond its years, the grounds are dirty, drink service, as well as kids club ok, gym good and rooms decent. The restaurants are the worst we’ve experienced of any resort and we’ve been to a ton. So disappointing!

This is not a 5 star resort, even though that's what they claim. We recently stayed here for 5 days and when I was reading the reviews before leaving, I was regretting my choice and wanted to change resorts. And because I know people look at Google reviews when booking, here is my honest review:

Pros:
- The food at the à la carte restaurants was excellent. We ate at the Indian, Sushi and Steakhouse restaurants and they were delicious. Diamond club was 100% worth it for the ability to make reservations.
- The service at the restaurants, from our room butler, from the pool butlers, the pool waiters and the beach butlers was excellent. They take care of you.
- Also great service from housekeeping
- Minimal seaweed on beach

Cons:
- Beach chairs and cabanas: is it really a vacation if someone has to wake up at 5AM to reserve a beach chair? We've been to resorts before, and okay, 7am to drop towels on chairs is fine, but 5am seems excessive. It's essentially anarchy around the pool. And if you're gone for more than 1 hour, they'll give your chair/spot away. Definitely not enough chairs for the amount of people they pack in the resort.
- Water: no cold water bottles anywhere. No cold water at dinner either. It's not Cuba, so I'm not sure what the deal is with this.
- Drinks: watered down and not cold. Also, Mexican coffee. I remember it being better.
- Rooms: dated and yes, there's a smell of some kind.
- Beach: dirty water - no beautiful blue water here

Next time I will listen to Google and my gut - we won't stay here again. Pay the same price and go to a real 5 star.

Probably the worst resort to go to. So many added fees and surprises. This resort is so far away from everything, the service is terrible and the workers are overworked. They’re working 18 hour days with no relief. The AC is broken in so many places.

The staff seemed to be making up rules and conditions to limit us to doing things, when we met the rules and conditions they seemed to begrudgingly allow us to do what we should’ve been allowed to do in the first place.

The resort booked over capacity, it was so crowded the dining usually ran an hour or two later than promised every day. The pools were dirty and crowded. If I wanted to spend $2000 to sit in a dirty pool I would’ve gone to a local flea motel pool.

There was no alcohol in the drinks for the entirety of our stay, tbh none of us had a good time, and were bored by day 2.

Check in was a nightmare and our room had a bunch of issues. The jacuzzi we paid extra for didn’t work, and our hot tub didn’t work. They were just decorations.

When we called the front desk to address this issue they said they would send someone and they didn’t.

When ordered meals from room service often times it took two hours to arrive, which by then we weren’t hungry anymore. One time it took three hours, and another time it didn’t come at all.

Towels wouldn’t arrive on time. They don’t change bed sheets and they boasted it’s to protect the environment. I feel like the priority should be disease control.

This resort was way too large and you kind of get brushed aside as a guest. The building design has you walking for hours to get to your room.

They had a really cool safe though

Stayed here Mar 16 to 23 2024. This is a beautiful resort and food is excellent! Rooms with an enclosed bathroom would be nice. Can't order alcohol to room. Went on an catamaran excursion one day to come back to a room where the toilet had been used and was disgusting. Toilet was plugged and it took an hour or more for someone to come and unplug it. I guess the day cleaners decided to use it and not flush??? I get that when u gotta go u gotta go, but clean up after yourself. Also do not stay on the west side of this resort if you can help it. Smells like sewer, brutal!!!

Please read this if you are considering booking. I read through the reviews and read a lot of mixed responses before we booked. I decided maybe some people were being a little picky and it was probably a decent resort. I was completely wrong this stay was a disaster!!!!! The only thing good I can say is the location to the airport is good and the food is ok. Check in took over an hour had to wait with a buzzer in the humid hot lobby, the rooms smell like mildew, the room ac's don't keep up with the humidity and keeping the rooms cool, the rooms are not clean, our toilet did not function properly, we did not receive the room we booked, we were to have an ocean view and had a view of the trees, Whole resort smelled like sewer, room service was always to take 45 min max and we waited 2 hours one night, mini bar was to be filled daily and they only filled it once in the 5 days we were there and that was only after we called them 7 times. We called housekeeping several times due to not having towels, trash bags in the trash can or even bedding for the pull out couch we had to use since they did not get us the double queen bed we booked. They would always say they would be right down and would not show up. Called about broken toilet at least 5 times finally got a repair man who could not fix it and said they would send someone in the morning and did not we called several more times no one ever came and fixed the toilet the whole stay. The pools and outside structures are run down and starting to look bad, pool furniture never cleaned and full of bird crap, rooms are not kept up and falling apart, nightly entertainment was only decent one night out of 5. Watched house keeping use a towel to clean the floor then used it to wipe off a counter by the drink station. Drinks were all watered down and weak. Very cheap alcohol used and barley any put in the drinks. This resort was WAY over priced for what you get and how things were handled. Worst service I have ever had at a hotel/resort. Would never stay here again or recommend to anyone!!!

Worst worst worst experience ever. Only thing good was food. Rest all was poor and they overcharged me for room where I get early check in and had to manage myself with cleaner etc to get my room past 3PM , whereas me being DIAMOND option should have got early check in than 3 PM but got at 4:30PM and no empathy was shown. Rooms had sewage smell and no drinks were provided in the Presidenttial suite and had to ask them again n again. Need help with refund.

ON TOP OF ALL - if you are visible minority than Americans , English , basically Caucasian then you would not be treated well at all. It’s NO NO to go to this place

Below is my honest review on our recent stay:

1. Check-In: an absolute joke. We arrived at 1:30 and didn’t get a room until 5:30. Check-in was at 3. There was very little instruction on what to do during wait time. Came back at 3, room wasn’t ready. Told us to come back at 3:30. Room was ready at that time, but their activator for the room keys was down and thankfully they didn’t work because our bellboy walked in on someone in our room. Waited until 5:30 to finally be placed.

2. Room: room was mediocre. Sheets were clean, but stained. Light switches haven’t been cleaned in who knows how long. Room was huge and the air conditioning was awesome - didn’t feel humid once on. If you’re on the far side of the resort (not hideaway side), be aware that there is an event center next door that stays open until 5AM. My husband is a light sleeper and said it kept him up most of the night.

3. Food: we were absolutely impressed with the food. Portions are smaller, but when you get an app, entree and dessert, it’s plenty of food. Even the buffet had amazing food and choices. Waiters were good, too! If you’re not diamond club, you can’t make reservations, but go early and out your name down and get a buzzer. We would go to the restaurant of choice around 6 and we usually ate by 7-7:30. If you want the hibachi experience, you have to go at 3PM day of to put your name down for that.

4. Pools/Beach: we avoided the main pool as spring breakers were there and it was loud with music. We’re over that scene so hung out by the other side. Javier and Alexandro are amazing bartenders!! You’ll want to get up early (by 7) to put towels out or you won’t have a spot. We only hung out at the beach in the morning, but there were plenty of beach chairs. The seaweed was horrible, so we avoided the ocean for that reason. They did clean the beach daily so that was a plus.

5. Spa: our spa experience was wonderful. The hydrotherapy beforehand was amazing! The gym was also amazing. One of the nicest ones I’ve seen at a resort.

6. Night Life: if you like shows and partying, you’ll enjoy that aspect! We liked it, but can’t help but wonder how people slept in the rooms around the entertainment area because it was loud and busy. The shows were good, though!

7. Check-out: went way smoother than check-in. We allowed half an hour just in case and it was plenty of time.

As a whole, our first impression was terrible, so we lowered our expectations, but reading reviews helped improve our stay, because of the tips that were included so we learned quick on how to help better our stay. The staff definitely made it more enjoyable.

Overall a very disappointing start of our stay (currently writing review as of our first day).
1 They did not have the room available we reserved
2. They took our luggage at check-in, and did not bring bring it to our room, 1.5hrs later I went and got the (4) bags, while being harassed by multiple staff members
3. They did not bring the crib we requested at check-in, we had to call multiple times to have it brought to our room
4. They did not bring the kettle we requested (for baby formula), still waiting.
5. The shower and bath smell of strong sulfur. Not ideal smelling like sulfur after getting to hotel and showering after a long day of travel. Possible health concerns too.
6. A "manager" called us asking what he could do to make things right, he said he would make reservations for restaurants during our stay. We went to one of the restaurants tonight, they had no notes of a reservation.

If you are planning to travel to Cancun, save your money and find somewhere else. We arrived at 6pm, just to have to wait 2 HOURS to even get checked into our room. Not to mention the rooms are mediocre at best. You can hear every passing conversation in the hallway, and there is loud music and yelling/screaming until 2-3am at night. The beds are uncomfortable and have stains on the sheets. We thought our balcony hot tub would be fun, just for the water coming out to be brown and very unclean.

For dinner, unless you pay extra money for the diamond club, you aren’t allowed to make reservations and will be waiting until 9 or 10pm at night to eat anywhere. You also have to wake up at 7am to put a towel down on a seat by the pool if you want to lay out, otherwise there is nothing left by 9am, even if people never come to sit or use the towels they left.

They are understaffed and the staff they do have seem overworked, every time I asked for directions I was given the wrong ones, and they do not care to make you wait hours for anything, there is little hospitality or any kind of apologies for the inconveniences that occurred. I called the front desk to bring up waters THREE times and still never got any. It is disorganized and a mess, and felt less like a vacation and more like I had to put out fires the entire time i was here. For the amount you are paying to stay here, it is not worth it at all. You’re better off renting an AirBnB.

Took us 2 hours to check in. The staff didn’t go out of their way when we asked for water at the pool they said “we’re out of water at this bar” and didn’t tell us where to get some or help. The rooms are not insulated AT ALL. You can hear everyone’s conversation and college kids were up late screaming in the hallways and being so loud. The food is not good for what you’re paying to stay here. We only liked one meal the whole time we stayed. Also you have to get up no later than 8 AM to put a towel on a pool chair or else you won’t get one. We went down to do this at 8:45 am, out of all the pools we could only find 2 chairs. Also you have to wait in line for hours just to eat dinner. Every restaurant is so difficult to get in. We always had to eat at 9. Apparently you can only make reservations if you’re a diamond member, we were not told this at all. They honestly just seemed understaffed. We stayed at an airbnb in Cancun before we came here and we loved it so much more. The beach view here isn’t the best, there are places where the water is much more beautiful than here. Safe to say there are way better resorts than here which was disappointing for us.