Great for kids, wish the food was better
02 Dec , 2019
jpaprocki
Activities:
Kids club - children 4+ can stay inside the supervised, air conditioned area with the parents signing the child in and out. There's a play gym, WiFi consoles, movie theater,some activities require sign up the day before at 6pm (t-shirt making, cookie making, chocolate factory, sutarring in the Disney show).
We went in the bike tour with our 2- and 3-year-old. There are helmets for everyone and the children seat strapped to the bike. It's a short ride, stopping at the cenote and Mayan ruins. You can also take the bikes out at your leisure.
Pottery making every day at 1:00, face painting at 2:00.
The cenotes are gorgeous but we didn't go snorkeling as our kids are too young and we only brought one life jacket for the 3-year-old.
There's a farm and suspension bridge as well. We did the animal keeper activity and the kids got to feed the donkeys and rabbits.
***Sign up for the romantic boat ride. It's a 15-minute ride for 2, adults only. They give you a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries.
Shows:
Disney show was fun for the kids. Your child can even be in the performance as they have costumes for the little ones so they can dance with the performers on stage.
Superhero show was great for the kids, think Batman and Ironman dancing with pyrotechnics.
Fire show on Saturday night is a must. Costumes were great, dancing was ok.
Shows are at 8:00 or 8:30 with ample seating. There's a popcorn machine and a bar outside the theatre. After every show, there's live music/karoke/dancing.
Mexican fiesta night in Sunday was super fun for the kids. There's table with carnival games and using the "money" that you win, you can exchange for a little toy.
There was a casino night, keep the money as there's an auction afterwards.
Beach:
Clear blue water, no seaweed problem when we were here. Wear water shoes! I stepped on a bee in the sand and had to pull the stinger out. A kid in our group stepped on sea urchin in the water and ended up going to the hospital. There are sharp rocks and broken pieces of glass on the sand, so do watch where you're stepping. Sunrise is around 7am, I do recommend you see it at least once.
Waterpark:
Tons of slides for the little ones. There are bigger slides, but my 4-year-old have yet to try them. Think there are 4 adult slides. Hubby says his bum and back is sore from going down the slides so many times
Mosquitoes:
You are living in the jungle, as only 30% of the land that the resort is on is build on. My daughter and I got over a dozen bites during the week, used bug spray (we brought our own, though there are natural bug repellent dispensers throughput the resort) and wore long pants in the evening. My son and husband didn't get a single bite even without using bug spray.
Food:
We're here with a 2- and 3-year-old, waiting for 90-120 minutes to get a table, then another 2 hours to finish a meal was pretty horrible.
Los Lirios (steak and seafood restaurant) was our fav. Lamb was amazing, beef tenderloin (beef fillet) was good too. Be prepared to spend 2 hours from being seated to finishing your dessert. We went twice so far and I still have no idea why service is so slow. Tip: order right away!
Japanese teppanaki was fun for the kids as they juggle the utensils and cook in front of you, though some cooks are better than others.
Avoid dinner at the buffet. We went on our first night at the resort and the only edible thing was the best.
We always go to Toscana (Italian restaurant) for breakfast (made to order omelette or eggs) and lunch (stone baked pizzas!) for the air conditioning. It's a smaller restaurant and if your kids run around like mine do, it's more manageable than going to the buffet.
My only complaint about this resort is the food quality and inability to make reservations. Waiting to get into a restaurant for more than 15 minutes can feel like hours to the kids. We always arrived at 5:00 with the fam. Better to wait 30 minutes for a table than the 90-120 minutes once the restaurant is at capacity (can be early as 5:37 as there are wedding parties everyday at the resort).
Final thoughts:
I would 100% come back to this resort if the food quality improves. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, but if it were only my hubby and I, I probably wouldn't return.
Interesting resort
01 Dec , 2019
Rosalyn45, 154984
We spent 1 wk in the adult select section. The adult pool is great as well as all the beach area. The room needs updating. Simple things that housekeeping should make sure is done like the remote control for TV was broken, we didn't have any soap, the drinking water container was empty. Also our phone didn't work. It all got sorted out but we had to let them know. Food was hit and miss. The international buffet was good. The Brazilian was ok. The Italian was terrible I had lasagna but couldn't eat it because it was very very salty. It also took 25 minutes to get the main course. The Riviera was amazing and so was the steak and seafood restaurant. The property was very well maintained and there is lots to see from the animals to the cenotes and hidden waterfalls. For the kids there was always some activity going on. Location was great for a short taxi ride (12$) you were at 5th Ave. One warning if you are a mosquito magnet please bring your repellent I got at least 50 bites ...not exaggerating.