Grand Luxxe at Vidanta Riviera Maya — Hotel in Quintana Roo

Day 1 - Chose not to deal with the Shuttle Service Vidanta offers. Just personal preference. Chose USA Travel and that was efficient, stopped by a grocery store which in hindsight was really not needed after seeing the grocery offering at Vidanta… and can deliver it directl to the room. If USA transfer, ask for Javier… top notch service.

Once in the resort have patience for the shuttle transfers and as you move from central check-in and then to you resort check-in and finally to your building / concierge location. Try to appreciate that much of this initial check in process is due to security reasons as well.

Time share presentation offer – happens after check-in at you local resort, Grand Luxxe for us, and after the representative offers you discounts for your stay. It was our preference not to attend the sales presentation and then we only were called once at the room and we declined again. Other than that no pressure to attend the presentation. We are “Go New” vs “Go Back” travelers so a time share …even though one can trade for other locations,…just is not to our liking…(other than DVC and return to DW every third year)

Wonderful room – one bedroom suite. Full kitchen, and a much needed, for June, Cool Plunge Pool. In the June heat we looked forward to lowering or body temp in the plunge pool upon almost every return to the room. ISSUE 1 - My wife went to hit heat up a pastry in the microwave of our grand Lux one bedroom suite and we noticed a worn / rusty looking spot in the back of the microwave. Needless to say when she went to warm up the pastry, she saw sparks and then the microwave went out. No longer working. When we returned form dinner we were told that it had be fixed / replaced… it had not. So, we had evening house keeping call and speak with Concierge. They replace the microwave the next morning, so that was good.

Night 1-

Nektar restaurant (large fans but still quite warm/hot) very nice except people kept cutting through the middle of the restaurant from the exiting of the, AMAZING, Joya - Cirque du Soleil show. This was very annoying. They should do something to prevent people from cutting through the middle of the restaurant while people are trying to enjoy their meal. Nektar and Joya are the longest shuttle rides so we did Nektar at beginning of the week and ended with Joya.

Day 2 - Beach club pool very nice. Music was a bit loud, just depends on proximity of speaker and kids were throwing balls everywhere ISSUE 2 - a Nerf football hit my wife while she was reading. Even though the policy clearly states NO PROJECTILES NOR BALLS in the pool. Shortly after my wife got hit by the ball while she was reading. I did see a manager come over and tell the people to get closer together if they’re going to be throwing but within 10 minutes they had spread out across the very small pool as it is. I expect this kind of behavior at the jumbo pool at Mayan palace which is 100s of yard long but not at the more intimate Beach Club.

Night 2 – Gong Restaurant (A/C) Really good Asian style food .. sushi rolls etc.

Day 3 - We spent the next day at the grand Lux pool. Very peaceful only a few balls being thrown. Not obnoxiously. We had the most amazing burger at the gourmet burger bar. The peppercorn burger was phenomenal. The downside of the grand Luxxe pool was the water was so warm that it was not even refreshing and little breeze available. If looking for spot with a breeze, make sure to sit across from either of the 2 walkways to the beach….lets breeze through. **Great Service today from Fernanda, she was great.

Day 4 back to Beach club. Great breeze here nice vibe. Refreshing pool. Still balls flying around. two days at Beach Club and one day at Luxxe pool. The only pool attendant we have been impressed with is Fernanda.

Loved the Mezcal class with Rafael at La Cantina. As well as Rafael’s palapa bar ... custom drinks in terracotta cups.

Day 5 Beach Club June 22. Finally, some great service. Carlos (the younger) and his supervisor Fernando Adjusted chairs etc....

This review is for the hotel and its services only, and will not get into Vida Vacations or its associated entities, whether spending a full day for a member “update” is worth your time and a trivial 10% off food and drink (and may determine which room you may or may not be given), etc.; there are plenty of other reviews exploring these topics.

Grand Luxxe Riviera Maya is a very nice facility. Everyone is extremely nice and generally quite helpful. Because of my in-laws, we stayed in a 3 bedroom loft and had Platinum benefits, so needless to say, it was a lovely week.

Check-in/check-out – with check-in at 5pm and check-out at 10 am, if you stay a week, in reality you only have 6 days on-resort. This process has never seemed to change over the years and is rather lengthy and seemingly inefficient. Even with check-out at 10, it took 30 minutes for the luggage carts to come to our rooms to retrieve our luggage. At check-in, you must decide if a free breakfast is worth spending upwards of a day to get a member “update”. Getting a taxi to and from the airport was easy and facilitated by Vidanta.

Rooms – Luxurious and well-appointed suite. Starting to show its age though. For example, the floorboards in one of the second floor bedrooms were warped, didn’t butt against each other in some spots, and even had a couple large “splinters” poking out. View is of the “jungle”, but still nice and I found it to be relaxing. Had a couple unwelcome, large insect guests, however having lived in tropical areas, I understand this is inevitable. Overall though, they are very enjoyable and luxurious.

Restaurants – Good food and drink, albeit overpriced. Reservations weren’t too hard to get. Wait for food was a bit lengthy, but the overall experience was good. I do like the variety, however at the same time, I don’t ever crave Asian or Italian food while in Mexico, or anywhere in the Caribbean for that matter; some may though.

Grounds – this place is beautiful, but very large. While I used to love this feature and like to stretch my legs, we took 3 kids under 5 years old this time, so shuttles were a requirement for our sanity; there is no way we could push 3 kids in strollers along uneven wooden walkways in scorching heat all across the grounds. Without the Platinum benefits, which included separate golf carts that would be called in, the transport situation would have been very frustrating given the multiple transfers, length of time waiting in line, etc. RM is not as large as Nuevo, but still quite large and it takes time to get anywhere.

Pools – lovely pools, and several to choose from. That said, little for young kids to do there. Without Jungala (separate charge, of course) I think our kids would have got bored quite quickly. There were good activities from the Joy squad for our kids to participate in though.

Beach – pretty beach, but rocky and swift current and seemingly not much of a swimming spot. When we were there, there was an enormous amount of seaweed, but this was even the case in Playa Del Carmen, so this was no fault of Vidanta. There were even bulldozers trucking the stuff away!

Ability to leave the resort – it is not hard to get to Playa Del Carmen or Puerto Morelos, should you choose to. Taxis aren’t outrageous, and it’s a quick drive. Yes, you’re in the middle of nowhere, but the option to leave and do other things is there and not difficult to execute.

Staff – the staff has always been a high-point in staying here for me. Everyone is very nice and generally helpful. The one negative is that we broke a glass and needed a broom to effectively clean up the tiny specks that spread all across the marble floor. I asked twice, but the broom never came. To be fair, there was one concierge on duty in the early evening for the entire building, but it was clearly a safety issue that we needed help resolving.

Overall, Grand Luxxe RM is a lovely place to stay. While no place is perfect, this is a very beautiful and well-run facility. Of course some disclaimers apply, but that is up to you at the...

Luxurious, new, and well maintained. Totally worth the long travel from Spain.

Photos just don’t make justice to this hotel and its amazing installations and staff. It is a large gated city of more than 2 acre, 7 pools as far I could count, and counts with its own Cirque Du Soleil inside, but still you feel at home —the staff is so friendly you will never want to go— and the transportation between areas is easy but it should be updated as the only downside of a perfect experience in food and treatment.

I recommend Grand Luxxe at Vidanta specially for long stays as they have two bedrooms or three which was our case, and a large kitchen with all furniture and items you may need to cook. (Large fridge and vitro ceramic)

Recommendations : In grand luxxe I would recommend: take the tower 1 or 3 closer to the beach and pools and also to the lobby where you take transportation for other facilities …

Extras highly recommend: Jungala is such a great park. Don’t miss.

Car: I recommend to ask your concierge at desk to help you rent a car. Doesn’t worth to stress on that at the airport. The service for rent in Vidanta is great ( Valet and parking around 5 dollars per day and car rental 80 dollars per day which is great considering a taxi only 25 min would charge already that amount )

Places to visit outside : by car you may be able to visit other beaches as Cancun, playa del Carmen, Xcaret (park / dolphins / shows) Isla mujeres (park there and get a boat to the island, la isla shopping centre, or any other places 20-30 min away Vidanta. There is in playa del Carmen Walmart and other places to buy groceries if you consider cooking any time of your stay but heard in playa del Carmen there are many local shops which are worth seeing.

Breakfast at Vidanta: Take a healthy strong breakfast at Lago with lake views. They have all kinds of Mexican food, fruits, even roasted turkey, all kinds of meat and tacos, omelets, just great 👍🏽in open air (8 am to 1 pm) and also we recommend Quattro which is also amazing and has views to the beach, this is a bit more smart-casual elegant place and the food amazing I totally recommend…! We were in Quattro the 24th of September only once in our whole stay but Need to congratule so much the staff who attended our table. He was such a great person and got us a beautiful spot to have a more private brunch with views. Thank you so so much.

Transfer inside hotel: if you need to go to from Grand Luxxe to main lobby I recommend take first car A or B and then at transfer at Mayan point to car C, because c is a long train that takes a bit longer time to get to places and during hot days this may be an issue.

Days to stay over: remember the place is a gated city with many things to do and Restaurants of all budgets to eat, you would never get tired but a week is not enough to try everything … so try for at least 6 days, and ideally 2 weeks.

Even thou the hotel is huge you may see every garden and green areas are very well kept, beautiful birds and species everywhere, all installations are extremely clean, specially the pools (Main pools at Mayan and the beach club, and the Jungala park pools ) where you may see the staff quietly cleaning the pools every two hours or so. The music around pools is perfection, never too loud and a great DJ and all waiters are so friendly. I totally recommend you take a natural coco or piña colada with the friends at the Mayan beach, as on other beaches and pools they do not have natural drinks.

I would have to give a 5* also to all construction and builders working being unnoticed.

The concierge staff at desk are so friendly and discreet, cleaning ladies as well they kept everything up to date ( would come to prepare our room in the morning and in the night for an update in anything we needed in the room) and helped in everything we needed.

On my last day I needed to print something very urgently and the concierge at my tower (3) was so kind to even take the prints to my room. Such a lovely and professional treatment.

Armando,...