Family Selection at Grand Palladium Select Costa Mujeres - Family Hotel — Hotel in Quintana Roo

Our family (44m, 43f, 15f, 11m) had a fantastic 7-night vacation and a great time here. This was our second visit, and we would consider going again. We had a ton of great experiences and only two bad ones. We have stayed in the greater Cancun area 15 times over the past 21 years. We tip, but are not big tippers. We are pretty easygoing and spend most of our time at the beach. All in all we would go back again. It works great for our family. ||The Great:|-A la carte dinners were delicious, and the staff were terrific. We did not have a bad dish (other than the Nest, which was okay) or a less-than-great experience at any of the restaurants (Indian, Italian, Mexican (twice), Nest, steakhouse, and adult-only steakhouse). Miriana at Adelita went out of her way to discuss with me the importance of one of my favorite dishes, Cochinita Pibil, to her family. We also loved the coffee shop and the Nest for breakfast. We also ate at Posideon most day for lunch and loved eating tacos al pastor by the ocean. |-The beach: tons of space, chairs not right on top of each other, plenty of umbrellas and towels. They worked hard to clean up the Sargasso, which was the most they had seen in this area, but significantly less than south of here. We are beach people; this is a massive deal to us. |-We loved our room. We stayed in a FS Loft Jacuzzi Suite Ocean View. We loved the extra space and privacy that was provided. The double bathrooms were the big winner. We also like the additional storage. The view from the balcony was amazing.|-The resort and transportation: The resort is beautiful, and the grounds are well-manicured. There were a ton of golf carts and boats to get around. Rarely did we have to wait very long | |The Okay:|-The butlers were not a big help. I had to find ours on our first day, 3 hours after we arrived, and we were assured that they would stop by. They got us some reservations, but it was not easy to do with them. We made only two other requests: an extra hair dryer (which never happened) and the batteries changed in our TV remote (which did happen). |-Housekeeping: Our day-to-day housekeeper was excellent. The turn-down service and mini bar refreshments were very hit or miss. Maybe 3 of 7 nights. We were gone most nights from 6:00 to 10:00. |-The entertainment was okay. There was nothing We really enjoyed or hated; it was just there. I am still not sure if the Canada section of the International show is supposed to be satire or not. |-Check-in process: It was pretty quick and easy, but the timeshare sales pitch was uncomfortable. Luckily, this was our second time, and we were familiar with the resort layout, so we bypassed their "help" and just asked to be taken to our rooms. |||The Bad:|-Reservations: When we arrived, we couldn't get a reservation for the first night, which wasn't a big deal; we just went to the Nest (the worst meal we had all week). The following two nights, we only had one choice for reservations. It didn't get much better the rest of the week. We were unable to secure a hibachi table at the Japanese restaurant at any time. That's right, over a 7-night stay, even with the help of a butler, we were unable to secure a reservation. When we arrived, we were informed that only three à la carte restaurants were open each night due to an occupancy rate of less than 70%. Also, Chang Thia is no longer. Our butlers were able to secure reservations that I couldn't see on my app, but the choices were limited, even when scheduling with our butler days in advance. I also heard another visitor complaining to a manager about this issue. It felt like you were playing a game and were losing. They advertise all these restaurants and then make it almost, or in some cases, impossible to get into them. It feels like false advertising. ||Beach Service: We love the beach, and we spend almost all day there. Beach service was erratic and took forever (45 minutes to get a drink). Most of the time, the servers would stay in the back and talk, making a round every hour or two. On any given day, we were asked if we wanted anything three times over eight hours. It isn't good. The bar is not too far away, but if you are counting on beach service, this is...

We just returned from our first ever all-inclusive vacation as a family. We have a 1 year old and a 3 year old and we had an absolutely fantastic stay with Family Selection at Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres. The entire resort is stunningly beautiful, clean, and there is so much fun entertainment.

Positives (there are many!): Rooms - Very spacious and comfortable. We had plenty of room for a baby crib in addition to the King sized bed and sofa bed. The beds were super comfortable and we slept soundly every night. The rooms were quiet and curtains did a great job at darkening the room. We loved the rain showers, too! Butlers - Brandon, Daniela, Alan, Ericka, Edith, and Javier were so kind and helpful throughout our stay. There were a few issues with communication through WhatsApp, but the staff did everything they could to reach out to us often. They arranged everything from dinner reservations to daily surprises and treats for our children. The team secured late checkout for us, which allowed our baby to nap comfortably in our room before we departed for our late flight. The Raggs stuffies as a farewell gift from Daniela were the cherry on top of a great experience with the butlers at Family Selection. Family Selection Kids Activities - Olga and Jessi were fantastic with our children and kept them busy with a variety of activities all week! From tattoos to piñatas to balloons to games and visits from Raggs, our kids were treated like absolute royalty. The puppet show was a highlight and such a fun time for the kids! Family Selection pool - Gorgeous pool with tons of chairs and cabanas. The bar staff were friendly and we loved being able to snack on popcorn and ice cream throughout the day. The Es Niu restaurant and pool staff were also fantastic, especially Adrian! Tasty lunch options! Private Family Selection beach area - The walk to the beach from the Family Selection buildings is quick and easy on the boardwalk and can be done with a stroller until you get to the sand. The beach area was comfortable, well staffed and we never had trouble finding chairs! The Nest - The staff were very attentive and polite throughout our stay. The buffet was well stocked and there was always an option to order off the menu as well. The Kids Buffet always had cute fruit plates in the shape of animals. My son loved them! Baby Club - Great staff! Our 1 year old visited the baby club most mornings for her nap and slept in the quiet, comfortable cribs for 1.5 to 2.5 hours every day! Thank you to Diana (we LOVED you!), Nicole, Alexia, and the rest of the staff for spoiling both of our kiddos! Spa - Miguel visited us at the pool and helped us book our spa treatments. He was so friendly and we were happy with the promotions offered and availability of services. My husband and I each got an 80 minute Zentropia massage. Luis and Jazmine were both amazing, they were so professional and our massages were incredibly relaxing. We would love to go back!

Negatives (there are very few!): Food - We weren’t huge fans of the food offerings at the resort. In my opinion, the Mexican foods were by far the best buffet options. We found a lot of the other food to be a bit bland. That said, the food was always fresh and staff were constantly ensuring that all food options were available. Our favourite a la carte restaurants were La Adelita (Mexican) and Sumptuori (Japanese). Check in - our check in process was smooth but it took a long time to get our room. It rained the day we arrived so it was nearly impossible to get a golf cart to bring us and our luggage to our room. This mostly just seemed like bad luck with the weather, though! Travel Club sales people - they are mostly quite pushy and a bit of a nuisance.

Overall, we had a wonderful and memorable stay at GP Costa Mujeres! We would highly, highly recommend Family Selection to anyone travelling with kids, especially kids under 7 or 8. The extra facilities and butlers made our trip feel so special and we would 100% return to this resort! Thank you to...

PTC Check-in: A nightmare - full of falsehoods, trickery, and ultimately a slap on our face! We had booked our room last year during a Black Friday event. Everything was confirmed and day before our check-in, we were told our room was going to be ready as per the booking. When we got there, a completely different story unfolded. Our room wasn’t available as we had not booked it under the “new” category they had created that we had never heard of “FS Pool Access Beachside”. Our booking confirmed FS Beachside, Ground floor, Building 12.

After much arguing, showing email proof, we were informed a few rooms would open up the next day. Then all of a sudden, we were told no rooms would open up. Having had enough of nonsense we told them to give us whatever they had. As were unpacking we heard from Alan (the master in falsehood, trickery, and great at slaps in the face) that a “pool access room” had opened up. We went to 11001 and as we unpacked we realized the AC wasn’t working which we were told would be fixed soon. When we came back from dinner we noticed the toilet light doesn’t work, the AC was still not working and the TV looked like it was going to fall off. We approached Nathaly, our FS butler, and she said it will be taken care of tomorrow. Then as we were getting into bed we noticed ANTS in our sheets. 1 am and we had staff come in with ant spray and clean up. We slept that night in a nasty ant ridden bed - torture! Thanks Alan. Thanks PTC. Thanks Nathaly. David - great at avoiding eye contact when things have gone wrong. We were finally moved the next day and we wanted to have nothing to do with any PTC staff after that.

Butlers: 11001: Nathaly doesn’t seem like she wants to actually deal with issues that arise because of PTC. She was quite rude. 12012: Michelle went out of her way to help us. She showed us how kind and genuine butlers are still in this resort and that not everyone is jaded, fake, and only looking for tips!

Restaurants: Bhogali: Armando was simply fantastic - hardworking, kind, polite, friendly. The food is really good!

Chang Thai: Awesome wings, red curry, and pad Thai. Hostess -very kind and polite.

Portofino: Host/manager - wonderful. Server- rude. Food - mediocre.

The Nest: BBQ - impressive. Breaskfast - horrible.

Sumptori: desserts - delish.

El Gaucho: Fantastic food and service.

La Boheme: Good apps!

Zentropia: Massages: Good as usual. We were sad to find out our favourite massage therapist has moved to a different resort. Alex is always wonderful in the lobby and very efficient and capable.

Facial: This alas was a waste of money.

Pool Service: Family Selection Pools - extremely limited service around the bottom half of the pool (away from the bar). Not as much staff as there used to be.

PTC Pool - can use more staff. The staff there was busy with groups that were tipping in high numbers. Guess that is what works. The Food Truck chef was absolutely amazing. He was humble, kind, and very helpful.

PTC Check-out: The night before checkout we received a message from the PTC front desk to ensure our BD car was scheduled. I asked them to ensure that our checkout balance was tallied and to confirm. It turns out that they had decided to overcharge us for the room and not honor the rate provided at the time of booking. We already went over this during checkin! An hour of our last night there was spent on the phone convincing them that this is an error and finally after us digging through our paperwork and submitting confirmation they agreed. What a waste and they were quite unprofessional in not having their ducks in a row, while making it our responsibility to prove to them of our reservation...