Secrets Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa — Hotel in Quintana Roo

This is more like a 2.5 star review. Long story short: if you are looking for a luxurious experience, go somewhere else. If you want a resort where all you do is drink by a pretty pool, it's fine.

Check in: check in is good, until you get to a hidden sales pitch for a time share presentation. What really irked me is that staff called me the next day first thing in the morning, and woke me up, to ask where I was for my scheduled presentation. The first time I didn't answer, so they called back. I had never even agreed to one. Doing that is simply unprofessional, and really gets your relaxing vacation off to a bad start.

The room: we had a swim out room. Unfortunately, our room smelled musty. The shower, as other reviews mention, smells like sewer. The A/C will automatically turn off if your doors are open. Our sensors were broken, so, our A/C didn't turn on until we called for help and they overrode the sensor (twice). The rooms are large, the beds I found very comfortable. Our swim out was awesome. We were facing the pool, and so pool bartenders regularly came by, and brought us food and drinks. Our swim out was the saving grace of this hotel.

Service: Anytime we called staff via our room, it was a mess. Most of the time they didn't pick up "after hours" -- which I think is after 5 pm. So, the first two nights I wasn't able to get an extra pillow or blanket (there were only three pillows in the room?). When I asked for an extra comforter on the third night (and I specified comforter), I was brought a regular blanket. If i called the spa, no one picked up -- I had to schedule in person.

Food: most of the food at this resort is straight up bad. Like, the chefs had never seen salt, or a spice cabinet in their lives. The exceptions were the Italian restaurant and rosewater, both of which we enjoyed. Service at the restaurants felt clumsy. We were often brought the wrong order, our food was cold, things were slow, drinks were forgotten, etc. At the buffet, staff gave our table to another group before we had even left. It's not a dealbreaker, staff was nice, it just felt different than the last resort we stayed at where service was impeccable.

Drinks: Drinks are the best part of this resort, but even they are hit or miss. The preferred club bartender Luis was wonderful, and offered far and away the best drinks at the resort. Highly recommend his pear martini. We'd usually stop and get our dinner drinks from Luis before going to dinner, because the restaurant bartenders couldn't come close. The rest of the bartenders were hit or miss, depending on what you ordered. I do wish there were cocktail menus. Sometimes its overwhelming to have to pick your own drink from an unlimited number of options.

The pool: the pool was great. Beautiful. Servers came around regularly. Loved the beds in the middle of the pool. Great view of the ocean.

The ocean: unfortunately it was red flagged our whole trip so we only briefly went in when there was a yellow flag. I'd reccomend water shoes if you plan to enjoy the ocean -- lots of rocks, sand dunes and seaweed. It's not the clearest water, but, hey, it's an ocean.

Spa -- I did a massage and the hydro circuit. The hydro circuit was kind of stressful since staff were on some sort of script. Staff ushered us from thing to thing, and would ask "do you want 5 minutes here or 10?". I was first led to the sauna (which I generally hate) and not given the option to leave. I felt literally trapped until I walked out. Then same thing with the steam room, a pool with weird pressure, and finally, just a regular jacuzzi. After, I was led to the bathroom with a "people usually go to the bathroom here...". My massage was enjoyable. Just not the deep tissue I had asked for -- it devolved into a Swedish.

The "breathless side." - The breathless side of the hotel has most food and most pools. It's the "party' side. And, it is. There are lots of drunk people everywhere doing drunk people things. If that's not for you, I'd avoid this hotel. There isn't enough on the secrets side to...

Honest Review Nov 7 to 14, 2024 Room 2414

Overall, we would recommend to a person who has never been to an all inclusive because it will set the bar reasonably low. Many other places are much better!

First Impressions - Construction I completely understand maintenance has to happen at resorts (and this one needs it! but…) on our first day we encountered a team of construction workers hammer drilling the concrete around the swimming pool causing a lot of noise as we entered the pool area to get drinks and food while we waited for our room. Luckily this only lasted the first day but first impressions are lasting impressions.

Speaking of first impressions, shout out to the best servers at the following restaurants, you all made our stay so much better! Rosewater - Yesenia, Lilly and Amara Secrets Pool side - Urbano and Mar Preferred Club- amazing and kind Luis! Makes the best Mexican Hat on the resort. The Grill - Christian He is knowledgeable and attentive and very nice

There are so many workers and they were all so pleasant and nice and noticeably hard working! If not for the staff, this place would be so much less tolerable.

Also, there is lovely scent on the main floor by the reception/preferred club, even our toilet paper had a delicate scent.

Within a few hours of getting into our room the ceiling leaked water causing a large and dangerous puddle on the marble section of floor which could have resulted in a serious injury. My girlfriend slipped pretty bad but luckily didn’t get seriously hurt. When I called the front desk/reception, they didn’t want to believe that we had a leak. They simply said to open the patio door. I said, that's not the issue, there is water nearly pouring in our room. She dismissed me and said open the door then hung up. Not satisfied, I went to where we checked in and said what had happened. Within 5 min a lady showed up to clean up the water, as soon as she saw the water running from the ceiling she got on the radio and a maintenance person was there to clean out the AC drain. Not a huge deal but the ignorance and dismissing of a guest was unacceptable not to mention what would have happened had my girlfriend hurt her head when she hit the deck.

The Room Rooms were very clean, and the cleaning staff was there every day. The rooms don’t have any wine, vodka or hard liquor and instead there is a very light Mexican beer, soft drinks and water.

The shower is very exposed which is ok for some but not for all. Even the curtain you can close leaves two sides with open glass. The toilet has frosted glass but no lock and open top and bottom. I’m sure you get the gist here, not much privacy especially for those very self conscious.

We missed having towels made into animal figures or roses spread on our beds, not required but some places do that every day.

General Observations Elevators are not air conditioned making it very hot, they also smell moldy.

The restaurants and especially the buffet have poor AC making it very hot and humid to enjoy dinners. We found ourselves rushed to eat and leave so we could get out of the heat.

Building 2 ground floor hallway has no ceiling lights making it a little too dark to walk back to your room at night.

The outdoor restaurants don’t have any ceiling fans which makes it extremely hard to sit for long, it’s so hot, a small breeze would make a world of difference. For the indoor restaurants, they don’t have ceiling fans and run the AC on low or off. To add that it takes a long time for the food to arrive doesn’t help. One example, at the Asian restaurant (Silk City) it took 1.5hrs for our main course to arrive. Not all were that bad but most were around 45mins with the exception of the Grill. But on the positive note the food was very tasty and fresh at all times and at times some waiters went out of their way to get you what you wanted even if they had to walk at night in the rain to a different restaurant.

Continued... In the Noteworthy section because I exceeded the...

My wife and I stayed at Secrets Riviera Cancun at the end of July 2021 with another couple who are close friends. My wife and I had both done the resort thing in the past… we can’t remember the names of those resorts, which tells you how well those trips went. We became more roadtrip-oriented vacationers, never staying more than 1 night in the same place, and like to plan everything ourselves. Needless to say, we were trepidatious about going back to a resort. Happily, we had no reason to worry. This place is on another level. We had a much more relaxing vacation than is typical for us, along with plenty of activities so we did not get bored. Being at a resort made it a much easier couples trip, as well. The staff at Secrets, Breathless, and the Relax Spa are what made the stay as special as it was. We felt like the red carpet was rolled out for us the entire stay. The first people we want to shout out are Omar the manager, and Esteban at Breathless. We had our original booking at xhale which used to be the quiet area of the Breathless property with a private pool and restaurant to which regular Breathless guests would not have access. We’re in our mid 30s now so this is more the vibe we were after since Breathless is generally a party resort. Upon checking into our xhale room we were a bit shocked by how loud the DJ’s music was through the walls of our room. We were expecting a quiet room, so we knew something was wrong. We called down to the xhale desk and ended up going down to speak with Omar and Esteban in person who offered to move both us and our friends over to Secrets (the original xhale area) the very next day. It seems old xhale bookings are not automatically transferred to the newly branded Secrets, so we were thankful Omar and Esteban made that happen for us. It was an entirely new experience. It was whisper quiet, serene, and peaceful at the pool and at the room. Everything went perfectly the rest of our stay. We made the acquaintance of the muy guapo cantinero Luis at the Secrets Preferred Club Lounge, who mixed our favorite drinks of the whole trip. Ask for his espresso martini made with Licor 43, we all loved them. He also has a jalapeño-infused blanco tequila that makes a killer margarita. Rosewater, the exclusive Secrets restaurant, was also flawless. Manuel, Julio, Sergio, and Pablo were all incredibly attentive. A special shout out to Jose who, despite wearing a mask, you could always tell had a huge smile. We always had a fun meal when he was around. There was one particularly memorable evening at Rosewater that featured a set, coursed-out menu starting with a gazpacho, then a manchego charcuterie, a filet or salmon course, and finally a dulce de leche iced cream served over a lemon tart. We ordered each protein and shared them. Everything was perfectly done. I could have eaten two of the deserts. The chef came out to greet us, and that was a classy move. What set it all over the top, though, was the 7 piece flamenco band that played for the duration of our meal, complete with a flamenco dancer. I also have to recommend going to see Julio or one of the other wonderful Amstar reps to book a tour of the Cinotes. I’ve done day excursions in the past, and they’re always a good time, informative, and adventurous. But the Cinotes tour exceeded any I’ve done in Central America. It’s a perfect blend of thrill, relaxation, and education. Luis was the name of our guide/driver and he was awesome (some say he’s a retired rally driver), and Mikey is the talented photographer. We seldom buy tourist photos, but we bought his without hesitation. On our last day before checkout, we did the hydrotherapy circuit for an hour at the Relax spa, followed by massages. It was the best deep-tissue massage I’ve ever had. I regret not committing my therapist’s name to memory, but my wife and friends had the same thing to say about their Swedish massage, so it seems you can’t go wrong. 10/10 would go back to any...