Riu Palace Peninsula

We loved this hotel it was amazing. Exceptionally clean fabulous food and fantastic staff. 2 members of the team in particular were Tania and Paco in the main restaurant they were both exceptional and made the holiday for us. My only point of criticism is the volume of the entertainment around the pool. It was impossible to get away from. The entertainment team did work very very hard and were well supported by a lot of the guests but for those not wishing to take part who just want to relax it would very much more pleasant if the volume was turned Down.

This place was amazing from check in :) to check out:( The rooms are big and very clean! the food was amazing and drinks where always brought with a smile..The beach is still amazing with no seaweed invasion...

One of my worst expierences at a resort. The biggest problem was that our key cards would constantly deactivate. Every single time I would come upstairs, my key card would not work. I had to go back down and get new cards. EVERYTIME, they would blame it on me keeping it close to my phone. Which never happened! I kept it in different purses on purpose. We stayed for 11 days, and it happened every single day for the first 7 days(sometimes multiple times a day). There was twice that they activated new cards, my sister went upstairs with the cards (so obviously had no time to be by the phone) and the card would not work. I proceeded to go back downstairs, got brand new cards and again it did not work. The maintenance guy came and couldn’t figure out what’s wrong because it wouldn’t open for him either, but after a while it worked so he left. After that we would close the door when leaving, and it took about a minute for our door to actually lock. Like you could easily walk into the room without anything. After the fixed it, it was fine for a day and then started again. I begged them to move me to a new room, because obviously it was the problem with the door. (We had 4 rooms with my whole family, and they keep their room keys right behind their phone, but key cards always worked). They REFUSED to switch me. Said someone will come to check your door for an extensive 20 minute check and only then will we maybe be able to move you. The guy arrived, slid the key card, and said “battery ok” (a solid 15 seconds). I told him that’s what they all say but somehow it doesn’t work everytime. All he had to say to me is “battery ok”. Worst experience of my life!! SMOKING: If you think this is a hotel with “smoking in designated areas”, think again. Smoking is allowed everywhere!! And even encouraged!! They pass out ash trays to everyone around the pool. Even in the restaurants they don’t care if you smoke. In their fanciest restaurant, the steakhouse, the ppl sitting by us, smoked the ENTIRE time, while we had a 3 year old and 7 month old breathing the smoke in. I cannot tolerate it either, so we were literally choking the entire time. And they have ashtrays in the center of each table, so obviously it’s encouraged. Very disappointed with this. THE POOL ONLY WORKS TIL 7pm! Which is so annoying! I love later swimming without sun, but that doesn’t work here. TOWEL CARDS: if you can believe it, they give you 1 towel card per person. You are allowed one towel, which you hand the card to the towel person. You are to return your towel and get your card back everytime. If you lose your towel card, or don’t return your towel, you have to PAY to get another one!! The most ridiculous thing I’ve heard. You CANNOT have 2 towels. Every single room is OCEAN VIEW! don’t let them make you pay more online, because they will automatically “upgrade” you to ocean view when you arrive. The only thing if you buy ocean view, you might be a few floors higher. Every room faces the ocean, the hallway to your room faces the lagoon. There is no other option. The problem with this “upgrade” is that they use that to place you in the worst possible room. We were placed right above the entertainment/concert area which is outside. They BANGED on drums until midnight every single night. There is no possible way to sleep. If you don’t plan on going to sleep earlier then 12, then that shouldn’t be a problem but we did and it was a huge problem. I tried closing my ears and putting pillows over my head, but that barely tunes out the RIDICULOUSLY loud music going on. If you’re the more modern type of person in regards to decoration, this is definitely not your place. Everything is very very purple. Very colorful. The rooms are very old and dirty. The waters stinks for shower and sinks. You have to use bottled water to brush your teeth. The drawers in the room are so old that you can barely open the drawers with difficulty. The SAFE was broken in our room so we had nowhere to put our passports and valuables, but they didn’t want to do anything about that. CUSTOMER SERVICE: with the exception of some sweet ladies in the coffee shop, and a few waiters in between some of the restaurants it was terrible! There is one guy (who appeared to be like manager that always hung around the coffee shop/bar area) he was so rude! He has no business being a manager with no customer service skills. First day he took our order at the coffee shop, before we even finished he was already moving on to the people behind us. He just dismissed us. We had to get back in line to order again. He was constantly just standing there and watching everyone like a hawk to catch them doing something he didn’t like! Yet when people are smoking everywhere it’s okay!! Many waiters were rude and almost aggressive. One waiter, took my order at the steakhouse. I ordered a steak and shrimp skewers. My steak came, my shrimp Never did. And I know he knew I ordered it, I repeated it multiple times. Some wouldn’t let you order more then 1 item off the menu, even though this is an all inclusive resort. Lots of the people here barely understand English, and don’t understand what your asking for. Many times we order non-alcoholic drinks but received alcohol (not sure how you can not understand the word “virgin” or “no-alcohol” especially when we repeated it 4 times everytime we ordered since they kept making everything alcoholic. NO complimentary late checkout. Nothing. I asked about it and he said “no there’s no availability” and I asked him after all the problems I’ve had here you can’t give me anything?!? Nothing at all!? And he replied “you’ve had problems here?!” Acting like he is stupid and I didn’t talk to him on earlier days about these exact problems. When I mentioned the problems, all he could offer complimentary was a whopping 30 MINUTES! That’s it. If you want more, you must pay $47. I’m just in shock from this hotel, their customer service is the lowest I’ve seen in all of my travels. FOOD: for breakfast, there is one restaurant available. A buffet (las olas). The buffet is large, but gets very very repetitive especially since we were there 11 days. The menu does not change at all. For lunch, the buffet is open and the Italian restaurant. There is a grill outside, which they do hot dogs and cheeseburgers for a short period of time. The buffet menu (which is in the area where the steakhouse is at night - not Las Olas), rarely changes, they occasionally switch one or two items but other then that, it’s the same. The Italian restaurant was alright, but waiters were rude. For dinner, there is a few options. Mexican, Italian (same as lunch-no change to the menu), Japanese, Krystal (a gourmet fusion restaurant), steakhouse, and the las olas Buffet. All the restaurants are fairly small and there are no reservations. First come, first serve. So expect a 45min-1hr wait almost everytime unless you’re there the minute the restaurant opens. Targeted for most people to go to the buffet. The menu there also rarely changes. The desserts throughout the hotel are all pretty much the same, there things they change the colors on, but flavors are identical (ie. eclairs: the topping and colors of what they are dipped in are different but all taste the same and having the same filling). I can honestly say there wasn’t much delicious desserts here. There were a few here and there. I do not recommend the Japanese restaurant, worst food I’ve tried at the resort. There are these horrible strong smells with everything. We all ordered different items, and none of us liked what we ate. Theyre main focus is on activities, there’s no quiet time. The music is always banging, someone is always taking into the mic. Everything else, falls by the wayside. Would never stay at this resort again, especially after the treatment we received. Since this is considered the highest of all RIU hotels in Cancun, I can’t even imagine what the other RIU hotels are like. They don’t know what “I’m sorry” is. They will never apologize. Worst experience for me.