Royalton Riviera Cancun

Joelle at the pool behind the main stage was great, was pleasant, helpful and got us what we needed.

Manuel at Zen was phenomenal. The service was excellent and food was great!

We just returned from a 6 day trip. We had a swim up room in the Hideaway adults only section and Diamond Club. Carlos and Ulises were EXCELLENT butlers. As soon as we arrived, they made dinner reservations for us for our entire stay, and we got in at 6:30 every night. Most days we didn’t need their help much but they would give us a list of activities going on for the day and were prompt if and when we did need more items in the room or something. The pros outweighed the cons to this property overall. We didn’t leave the property for any excursions, choosing to relax every day. Pros: There are several pools, so while the chairs are totally spoken for by like 8-9 am, the pools weren’t crowded and you could always find somewhere to sit or the pool butlers would help find you chairs at the Hideaway pool. It is a very clean property - there is a very large team of staff cleaning all areas of the property at all hours of the day, including testing the pool waters throughout the day. So-So: They have sooo many people pushing you to purchase spa services or take pictures, but most would politely move on after the initial “no.” You will be saying “no thank you” several times a day though. The food was overall ok. Not spectacular but not bad. Some restaurants were better than others. We had delicious food at Zen teppanyaki even though we aren’t seafood/fish lovers. Agave Mexican food was not great for breakfast but was excellent for dinner. Dinner here provided more flavor than probably any other restaurant besides maybe Zen. Grazie Italian food was not as good as most US Italian restaurants but was ok pizza. Hunter’s steakhouse was the most disappointing of all of them. For a steak house, they only served two steaks and both were very tough, fatty cuts (New York strip and flank) with zero seasoning or flavor. Just gray, tough meat. The mashed potatoes and broccoli we got with also had zero seasoning or flavor. Dorado had the best breakfast of the few breakfast options available, but not liking seafood we only ate breakfast here as we didn’t find anything we’d like to eat on the lunch menu. Cons: The water stunk from faucets and showers and you would catch a whiff of it around the property in different areas. They also didn’t clear seaweed from the beach, so this isn’t a place to go if you want to play in the ocean. Some people did but very few. The only coffee and gelato shop was on the far end of the property, it would have been nice to at least have a coffee station in the Hideaway section for those wanting something other than regular coffee without having to walk 1/3 mile each way for it. Communication isn’t the best as far as what amenities are available and where to find them. I found way more information in TripAdvisor reviews than through the resort website or app. It would have been nice to see restaurant menus before we went - if these are available somewhere, we never found them. The swim out rooms are absolutely not worth it unless you are on a side of a building that gets sun. They are NOT heated so most are shaded by the buildings and are freezing cold so most people didn’t use them at all unless they were in a sunny spot or enjoyed cold plunges. Our package came with what we thought was $600 spa credit but it was resort credit which comes as a booklet of small coupons for their wildly overpriced alcohol or spa services. What would be a $20 bottle of J. Lohr wine in the US was like $200 and you could get something like $15 off with a coupon. So the resort credit was completely unusable to us, which was disappointing. We did get free hydro therapy sessions with our package which we did use. It was a series of stations - sauna, multiple warm pool jacuzzi stations, then a cold plunge. It was ok, but don’t think it was really worth the $120/each fee it would have been to pay for. Tips/Tricks: Saturdays they bring in vendors with touristy goods like t-shirts, jewelry, artisan items so you don’t have to leave the property if you want something like that. The pool bartenders are very busy so the drinks come out weak and inconsistent. The bartenders in the restaurants and non-pool bars made better tasting, stronger drinks. We unfortunately didn’t figure this out until our last day. Bring bug spray. There are some mosquitos around the property (though not as bad as I would have expected with all the plants around) and you are nearly guaranteed ankle bites from sand fleas if you go on the beach sand at all. Pack snacks! There isn’t much to offer between meals if you want a little food with your alcohol. Also, there isn’t food available after the dinner hours. We we so happy we packed snacks so we weren’t paying gift shop prices for snacks on property. If you are celebrating a birthday, anniversary, etc, be sure to let them know. There were often extras like special desserts or room decoration given for free if you were celebrating anything while there.

Our service providers, Oscan and Nassar were second to none. They made our stay very relaxing as they made sure we were well looked after. Thanks guys.

Positives: Nice property Nice room, spacious and clean All staff friendly and helpful Pool areas great for kids Abundant towels and don’t need to sign them out Room cleaned and fridge restocked daily Public restrooms clean and nice decor Negatives: Not enough amenities/staff for the number of guests Not enough chairs at the pools Not enough servers at the pool- one day we never got asked once if we wanted to order drinks ; each server had a massive area to cover Long wait to get drinks from pool bars Long wait to get food from snack bar and food truck- I felt so bad for the lady working at Nibbles, she was always slammed Seating area at the buffet has gross fluorescent lighting and smells weird- couldn’t wait to get out of there each meal Nobody answers if you call guest services and tried to order extra soap for the room through the app - that didn’t work either The two deal breakers for me are the lack of pool chairs and not enough servers/slow bar service. We barely drink but I imagine if you actually wanted to get drunk it would take a lot of work. And I refuse to spend any energy trying to find/reserve a spot by the pool. For that reason alone I would not come back.