Finest Playa Mujeres — Hotel in Quintana Roo

This was our second visit to FPM after staying in September 2023 for 3 days.||We booked Excellence Club 2 story rooftop terrace suite for 11 nights and upgraded to the Imperial Suite with pool for the last 3 nights.||The reason for our return was the staff and within an hour of arrival we knew we had made the right decision. This review is mostly positive especially regarding staff however will be balanced as a few even better ifs.||Arrival at the resort was smooth with Seasons pick up at airport and through security quickly at gate. From there a well oiled operation - welcomed by name as car door opened, bags taken and walking to Excellence Club reception with champagne in hand and checked in within 15 minutes of arrival. Each place we got to knew they were next in our return experience - the joy of radios.||Starting with the staff and apologies if we missed a few however shining stars for us were as follows in order of meeting (seemed fairest)||Review (except food)||Ana Paula - concierge at Excellence Club reception. Friendly, bubbly and great at her job. Little did we know how much of a huge positive she would become. Always smiling, asking how our day was with some great recommendations. We have kids her age and my girlfriend thought she was great (so did I)||Carlos - beach star! Bearing in mind we stayed for 3 days two years ago he recognised us. He walked by Sandra, said hello, who was 5 yards in front and as he walked towards me could see he was trying to place her, saw me and smiled and said welcome back and shouted her back. Absolutely outstanding service day in day out with the friendliest of attitudes. His improvised beer cooler at the beach still makes me smile and has been shown as part of the holiday snaps. See you soon amigo.||Cleaning (Room 6461) starting 3rd September for 11 days when we talk about even better if our cleaner deserved that from me as I never got her name. She was a joy to welcome into the room, I unfortunately can’t speak Spanish and communicated through common words and hand gestures. The towel designs left for us daily were both cute and comical. My partner loved the one with my baseball cap, whisky and tv remote. Can someone on staff translate for us and pass on our thanks.||Gabriel Bartender at EC lounge. He welcomed us in each interaction and took a real interest. We noticed it wasn’t just us but every guest got exceptional service. He was really a true professional and the friendship built over the holiday meant after rotation we still went to his bar. A true gentleman and we were lucky he shared his family story with us. Take care buddy until the next time. If you have a staff recognition scheme he would be a worthy winner.||Eduardo, Angel and Gabriella - Beach stars with Carlos - friendly and professionalism from moment of meeting and as we got to know them they became beach stars! We look forward to seeing them on next visit.||Alejandro - Trainee Manager - only recently started however a real desire to get excellente customer service. He would regularly check in with us and great getting to know him. Best of luck in the next stage of your career.||The rooftop terrace room was also well laid out and spacious and worked well for us. It was well appointed and good section of soft drinks, beers and snacks. I’ll cover the Imperial Suite later.||The grounds are very well kept and the gardening team are unsung heroes discreetly working in the shadows. ||We also enjoyed the hydrotherapy treatment which was included in the room rate.||Food||We enjoy food as part of a holiday. We have dined in multiple Michelin starred restaurants (including 3 star) and in terms of food was good for an AI resort (will never be 3 star Michelin) and we enjoyed different restaurants each night. We did not go to evening service at Dukes or Insieme due to fear of mosquito bites. I’ll cover later.||Our favourites were Dommo at night and Market Kitchen Buffet in the morning. Snacks throughout the day from Sweet Corner, Las Dunas and the La Cocinita Food Truck. We also got room service 3 or 4 times during the stay and was nice to have a chill night.||Carlos & David (and the chef at Dommo) - worth the upgrade cash alone for evening meals. Food exceptional (yes did have the perfectly cooked tomahawk steak but not every night) and varied selection all cooked and presented to perfection. We went three times during our stay. Carlos with exceptional service and we caught up with David throughout the resort and always a pleasure. A must if you are Excellence Club.||The Team at Market Kitchen where everyday was brightened by the welcome from Daniela & Lucero at Front of House. A genuine welcome from fantastic employees. They were ably assisted by Edgar, Julio, Francisco, Javier and Adam on service. Staying 14 nights they got to know us and our orders and look after us so well. At this point it is worthwhile mentioning the cleanliness and allergy management. One morning we could see the inspection of cooking stations - staff on attention and the joy when told it met the standard was great to see - well done Team Market Kitchen. We were asked each morning by each member of staff about allergies. We don’t have any but other people do so not an issue. Some may suggest when same staff serving you they could remember however get it wrong once it could be fatal. A simple confirmation is easy for those without allergies.||Sandra from Dunas (& sometimes Market Kitchen) - last but my no means least we loved our interactions with you. My Sandra (your Tocaya) looked forward to your smile and hugs and she has now started Duolingo to learn more Spanish. Sandra (and I) look forward to seeing you again and receiving service with a smile. You’re a star.||Imperial Suite||Fantastic room with outstanding amenities and we were looking forward to the private pool. When we passed in the first 11 days I would say we rarely found it used which we found strange. We looked forward to our turn and unfortunately we found why it wasn’t. Within 15 minutes we had accumulated a number of mosquito bites each. We rarely used and reverted to the beach which is a real shame.||The highlight of Imperial stay was a Cocktail Masterclass in room from Ovidio. He was great and when we spoke to him he remembered us fron the first stay and when we joined the dots it was great to see him. We loved the experience and would highly recommend with Ovidio (or Gabriel from Excellence Lounge). Luis the captain also checked in during the experience and took some memorable photos we’ll cherish. Do it!!!||Our last moments at the resort are with the Seasons Tour driver who takes you off site and to the airport. Great service and we have emailed them separately to thank them.||Now the even better ifs!||The mosquitos situation impacted our stay. Rarely used the Imperial Suite pool and chose not to dine in outdoor restaurants at night. I appreciate we are in a jungle habitat but don’t remember it being so bad on multiple visits to Mexico. I am not sure whether spraying has reduced however if it has it needs to be increased again before losing guests.||Low season is perfect for us as we got to relax and enjoy food and drink in the sunshine. A number of wedding parties with varying numbers and sometimes some of the larger ones must make it difficult to balance all guests needs.||Thanks FPM we...

Trip started off wonderful, but finished very weak and disappointing. My wife, our two young children, ages 2 and 4, and myself checked in on September 11th, and we are going to check out today September 18th.

Our trip cost; Flights from Europe to NY - $3,100 Flights from NY to Cancun - $1,700 Swim up suite - $3,700 Tips to staff- $500 Total trip cost - $9,000

The good; Hotel is beautiful and clean. It is very aesthetically pleasing. From the lobby, to the bars, the rooms, the beach it is all clean and very pleasing to the eye. the working staff are very polite. wedding we attended was very beautiful the wedding venue on the beach was beautiful. The music was amazing and the food was delicious. The highlight of the trip was definitely the wedding. the junior swim up suite is good, when things work. buffet food is good, when its open room service is great. The food comes within the hour and is very tasty(from buffet) minibar service is great

Food experience; buffet is open for breakfast and lunch, not for dinner. This is bad for a family with young children, because the restaurant experience is awful. We could not eat at the french restaurant because we have children. We could not eat at dommo because we have children. We could not eat at gusto because we have children. Surf and turf, and the brass steakhouse wait time was 1.5 hours, we obviously cannot wait this long for dinner with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. Therefore only restaurants we could eat at were Legends, Dukes lobster, Lizo, Shoji, Shoji Hibachi and Tinto and Tapas. dukes lobster and seafood; Getting a table for 7 was a challenge, even though you can see plenty of tables free. Made us wait around while they spoke to management. Why are you speaking to management about? Fix the tables and get us food lol. Food was very underwhelming. Lizo; drunk waiter was asking us to confirm our names and checking it off on his phone, he asked my two year old daughter her name… he was not putting order in telling us we ordered enough, and would not take our drink order. I went to the front and spoke to the manager and requested a waiter to be changed. She changed the waiter and the experience became better. The food is not good. Ive had better Mexican food at taco bell lol Legends; the smash burger, curly fries, nachos and wings were delicious. Food wait time was about an hour. During our stay there was a boxing mega fight between Canelo and Crawford. They shutdown the tv’s and the bar while the fight was happening… 🤦‍♂️ Tinto and Tapas; they made us sit at the bar with two young children in high chairs. Super uncomfortable. While we were looking a table freed up and we asked to move which they did move us. The place looks empty but they have a pretend of it being super busy. The food here was good except for the sandwich bread which was very stale. The paella, the soups, beef in wine sauce were all delicious. Overall happy once we got seated at a proper table, which did feel like they were doing us a favor(they’re not). Shoji hibachi; made a reservation and it began right on time. My children’s first time eating hibachi and they were very pleased. Food and service were great. shoji; The food and service were great.

Issues; our room was 4008, lost electricity on September 16th. Reported issue at 7am. Had to go to front desk 5+ times to finally get a new room at 1pm. During the room change, wife’s jewelry box was stolen. made report for stolen jewelry box. They sent us manager Louis whose name tag said “trainee”. LOL. I have no faith in this situation. our new room 4020, AC stopped working and toilet is not flushing. hotel never accommodated us for lost time with anything complimentary. ice machine not working (see video) none of the outdoor jacuzzis for building 4 work. (See video)

On the surface it is a wonderful hotel. But when you scratch the surface you begin to see the reality. Staff is not there to help. Completely disorganized and clueless. With this budget we will never consider your chain of...

Tl;dr: have stayed at many all-inclusives, including other Excellence properties, and have mixed feelings about this one - mostly nice with a few hiccups that didn't leave me with a great feeling (disappearing waiters, maintenance issue, rude concierge.... but great bartenders, decent spa, good gym, some very kind people)

This was my first time at Finest because we brought a young family member, but I have stayed at Excellence Riviera Cancun and Beloved several times each and I do have the highest status level (not that hard to obtain) with this chain. I would return here if I came again with a child, but of the 3 I've visited, it was my least favorite.

We were Finest Club level. The bellhop was great and very friendly. Check-in at the club was fine, although the club itself was small and with less impressive/varied offerings than similar clubs I have been to. They only have two desks so if there's a line, check-in or getting help can be very slow. The guy who helped us was friendly, but did forget to add a credit card to our room for incidentals and this caused some problems later when we went to buy things.

We were in a Rooftop Terrace Ocean Front with Plunge Pool and it was very pretty. Although, keep in mind there is usually no main bathroom door (there is one to the toilet but not the shower) so that was a little awkward. Also, our first day, my family member I guess left the Jacuzzi running, and I had laid down for a nap - I woke up to maintenance frantically knocking on the door because it was leaking to the room below. Leaving it on was definitely on my family member, and I'd have turned it off if I knew, but I was honestly kind of shocked that there was no overflow drain. So that was weird and I felt bad.

The food was on par with other resorts. Some really good stuff, some just okay. We had a great time at the Italian restaurant because Luisa and her manager were lovely. At Duke's though, we waited forever for our waiter to come back and when we finally asked someone else we were told he went on lunch without saying anything. It was also VERY difficult to find anyone to take food/drink orders at the pools most of the time. Every bartender we ordered from though was lovely.

I had a massage and hydrotherapy at the spa, everyone there was great. I had Raquel for massage and got a great one. I unfortunately can't remember the name of my hydrotherapy "guide" but she was very sweet.

The nighttime show we saw (pirates) was very entertaining and my young family member loved it. Talented performers!

I think my least favorite interaction the whole trip was with Manuela in the Finest Club. Our flight was delayed twice, then cancelled, and we were trying to figure out what the heck to do - it was very stressful and she was rude and unhelpful. To their credit, they did change the time of our pickup once. Lulu in FC gave us a hospitality room (greatly appreciated) and was very, very sweet. We were told the latest we could be on resort was 6 pm, so when the flight was fully cancelled, we figured we'd change the pickup to a little later, and hang out till then so we'd have time to find a hotel near the airport (most were full and it was tough) and call the airline to sort out flight home. Manuela was unwilling to assist us with any of this. She did not understand what I was asking and told me "if you stay at the resort you have to pay" with quite an attitude. Great, I know, that's why we are trying to have the transfer take us to the airport hotel. I asked her about staying til 6 like we were previously told (this was about 2 pm and we weren't quite sure where we could stay the night yet). She said no, pay or leave, and she literally turned away from me (sitting at her desk) to start talking to another customer. I've never felt so poorly treated at a resort and I really felt like she was acting like I was being dishonest/a scammer, when really we were just stressed and trying to make sure we could be taken to the right place/not dropped at the airport with no flight. Embarrassing and...