Barceló Maya Palace - All Inclusive — Hotel in Quintana Roo

Just got home from a week here. Overall, scenery, food, and staff, was fantastic. Weak spot was the rooms.

Food: Several different dining locations were available and close to the beach, your room, or other areas. We have two small children so we ate solely at two nearby buffets, Hacienda and Mirador, with a few pit stops at Coral Grill. The variety was amazing for each meal time, and we were able to find something (or several somethings) to everyone's liking at each meal/location. The scale on which they need to prepare food calls for a cafeteria type experience, but things were always stocked, hot, fresh, and just plain better than food I've had here in the states. I definitely made note of some of the combinations, to look up recipies to make in the future.

Location/atmosphere: Beautiful and well maintained. Not the focus of my review amd what I want to share, though.

Service: The staff is phenomenal. Everyone we interacted with was courteous and helpful. There are varying levels of English speaking but we had no trouble communicating with anyone (my wife speaks solid Spanish and I know enough that I was able to have a few Spanglish conversations). The Housekeeping staff does a phenomenal job with what they have to work with (more to come on that qualifier). We always came back after just a couple of hours to fresh towels, fresh nicely tucked sheets, clean floors, clean bathroom, and refilled toiletries. The staff was also out regularly maintaining the common areas and cutting back foliage. The staff on duty in the restaurants were all super attentive, there were a few miscommunications here and there (we had one lunch where after being seated we never got water/drinks, but we could have easily said something) but in general, plenty of check ins, drinks refilled frequently, and plates cleared promptly.

Rooms: This is where things fell short. As stated, the Housekeeping staff worked with what they could. We had a Junior Suite at Michoachan (sp?) and this may have been an anomaly but overall we were glad we did not spend much time in the room. The closet and dresser space was nice. The beds were in my opinion a 4/10 comfort-wise. The main issue was a need for a true remodel of the room, and I believe its an issue of age more than anything. We saw staff performing repairs on neighboring rooms more or less the duration of our stay. The "Villa" style open outdoor building with closed off individual rooms was fun. First glances of the room itself, things looked nice. Then we flipped the switches for the bathroom, the lights came on but no working ventilation (which is rough when it's constantly 85° or more with 95% humidity). The toilet was mounted to the wall, but even as my 25 lb daughter sat on it, it pulled away ever so slightly (could see a noticeable gap between the caulk and the wall versus when it was left unoccupied). The guide for the toilet room door was busted so you had to be very gentle with the 6 foot plus tall solid glass door to not slam it or make it fall off its tracks. The hairdryer was melted on the "use" end. Mirror had some very apparent intentionaly looking etching. The rainfall shower was pretty good, could have used some CLR for a couple clogged outputs. The shower fixture for the tub however, the top pulled out of the tile the first time we tried to use it. The drain stopper for the tub was also just loose, and I had to pull it up with a beach toy shovel to drain it. The A/C worked well, but the control panel liked to fall out of the wall. Couldn't reset the safe to use it. The mini fridge was...slightly cooler than room temperature. TV had a big line of broken pixels through it and the remote was either dying or needed new batteries. Balcony was OK; the outdoor light didnt work, the furniture was noticeably weathered, and the door didn't lock (we were 2nd floor so truthfully not the end of the world). There were some cracks in tiles and paint chips here and there, not horrible but definitely noticeable.

Overall, great vacation and would be happy to return (maybe in an...

If you never read reviews, take the time to read this one. My husband and I stayed at this resort this year from June 7th-14th. We were here for our wedding (the wedding was not on the property), we had about 50 guests also staying at this resort. To start, check in was a nightmare, there were not enough people checking in guests on the weekend. Us, along with many of our friends and family, waited an hour+ just to get room keys issued to us.

Room - We stayed in a Junior Suite Ocean Front Premium Level room which was not cheap. When we got to our room it was nice, but the toilet wasn’t secured tightly to the wall, every time we sat down we thought it was going to break off the wall. Multiple of our friends and family said they didn’t have hot water in their rooms for consecutive days at a time and others said they never received extra towels upon making a request. Other than that, no issues with the room. While we were eating employees walked around and asked you to leave them 5 star reviews on Google. This happened on multiple occasions during breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. to us and multiple members of our group. They bantered you to “fill something out” and wouldn’t leave the table until you left them a review. Really didn’t appreciate that while I was trying to eat meals with friends/family/my husband.

Food - the food was like any other resort food, you have to make reservations to get in to the restaurants, no problem, that’s pretty common. The resort was accommodating with my husband and I because we were there for our wedding so they made multiple reservations for us which was great, however, many of our guests couldn’t get in to most of the restaurants because they were booked for the entire week we were staying there, that includes the sister resort restaurants we also had access to, which was very frustrating.

The pool bars were ok other than one incident, we spent most of our time at the adult only pool. On one occasion a member of our party was told they couldn’t be served that day because there were no employees to work the pool bar, which is disappointing because there was just one adult only pool.

Within the first few days being on the resort multiple people were sick. Not hung over, sick, they couldn’t get out of bed or keep food down, sick. My husbands mom ended up terribly sick at the wedding which was on the 14th (profusely vomiting). She barely made it through the mother/son dance. Another family member almost didn’t make it to the wedding because he was so sick. I thought maybe it was a fluke situation so I didn’t think much about it, maybe they didn’t have enough water. Three different guests had to go to the hospital (not including the people already mentioned) on the resort that week because they couldn’t stop throwing up and needed medical care. When we got back home we learned multiple other people were sick while at the resort as well.

On the last night of our stay my husband was so sick and throwing up so bad he couldn’t get out of bed. Thankfully I wasn’t feeling too bad, but the next morning I was also sick. We hardly made it to the airport to get on the plane and we stayed in bed for DAYS when we got back home. We, and most of our friends and family, have been to multiple resorts in Cancun and never had this experience before, I’m disappointed it happened while we were there for our wedding and to our guests that traveled near and far to celebrate with us. Sadly we...

BEWARE OF BAIT AND SWITCH. Had reservation for July 19 to 26th 2025. Upon arrival was directed to Barcelo Riviera for check in. When I explained we were supposed to be at the Palace I was told "you are at the Palace it was just updated 5 years ago". We had watched videos on the Palace as we wanted to snorkle and swim at the beach and this looked nothing like them. Next day we figured out we were almost 1 mile away from the Barcelo Palace we had booked and the Riviera beach is to nasty to even swim in and it stinks. After numerous conversations with desk staff we were finally told the Palace was overbooked and we had been "upgraded". Later talked to more than 10 other couples who had been "upgraded" to the adults only Riviera. Finally on our 3rd day i followed a man and his family who had been "upgraded" to the check in area and they could not stay there as their kids were under 18. They were also told the Riviera was the Palace then staff backtracked when found out kids age.. I followed this family to the Palace where they were given 2 rooms I then told the same Palace staff person we wanted to move to the resort we had reserved like this family and were told no rooms were available until the day before we check out. There is no comparison between the two hotels, Riviera has larger pools and two swim up bars but it is a vegas type mega hotel and convention center. The palace has. Beautiful foliage and rooms are suites and closer to the beach. The beach is nasty nasty nasty at the Riviera and no one is staying here so Barcelo is obviously overbooking the popular Palace and moving couples to the Riviera without telling them like us and many others we talked to to get their numbers up. No problem if you are there to swim in the large pools and drink, that's not why we came to Mexico. We are now traveling by shuttle and walking each day to the beach at the Palace which takes about 45 minutes each way to use the amenities we paid to be staying at and we come back to eat at the Palace as the food is also much better. So book this place if you dare but if you are a couple without kids be prepared to go a mile away to a newer resort with no water access, a mediocre buffett, poor entertainment and our room is also not a suite as we booked. No help from Barcelo staff as in there minds the Riviera cost more so it is an upgrade, never mind it has none of the benefits we were looking for. Very disappointing high priced trip and we booked through Trivago which is zero help. We might get a return email from Trivago by the time we check out. Photos are of contrast in the two beaches and standing room only non air conditioned shuttle we have had to use daily. We would not have been in it once if reservation we booked was honored by Barcelo. Many other places to stay on the Maya Riviera then taking a chance on this happening to you. Recieved a confirmation 2 days before checking in of our stay at the Palace. While eating at the Palace buffett we noticed no couples at all dining so i am guessing all couples were rrerouted to the Riviera to make room for families. They know exactly what they...