Barcelo Maya Palace - All-Inclusive

Barcello Maya Palace is very big, took lot of time to walk around from rooms to restaurants.Took very long time to check in. The lady who checked us in speaks very little English. Beach is terible lot of rocks and seeweed, we were there for 4 nights in June 2019 couldn't even swim at the beach at all. Wifi is not included with all inclusive. Food at the buffet restaurants is not fresh and not good at all, I see the same food everyday. Bread is old tasted like 3 days old. Hamburgers and pizza are terible . Reservations for dinners at restaurant are not guaranty some time you cant even get it. Overal we didn't like it at all.

Everything is excelente, except the beach. To much rocks in the beach.

In May, our daughter graduated from college and our son graduated from high school! We had never been to an all inclusive resort but wanted to celebrate with something special! Friends recommended Barcelo Riviera Maya, and after investigating we chose the palace because we didn’t want to miss out on anything! We were not disappointed! Everything was perfect! Our room and theirs were spacious and comfortable! Extremely clean, too! We walked out our door to a beautiful view of the beach! The buffets were excellent but our favorite dining experience was choosing a different restaurant each night! We ate delicious steak, seafood, Italian, Mexican, but our favorite was the Japanese steak house! My husband and son played basketball and tennis. We played miniature golf and paddle ball as a family and had a great time! We loved shopping at the mall! And my daughter and I splurged and paid extra for a Swedish massage at the spa! Totally worth it!!!! The beach was beautiful although during the time we visited, the seaweed was thick. The beach was well kept with plenty of nice lounge chairs. However, we spent most of our time at the relaxing pools! We began our adventure on Memorial Day and the weather was perfect! It did rain a couple of times but not for long! We will book again! AND I need to add we arranged for transportation to and from the airport through Cheap Caribbean! Also, totally worth it! Definitely a plus! Hassle free! I would recommend this vacation to anyone!

This was our 12th year traveling to Mexico to various All-Inclusive resorts. We had very high hopes about Barcelo given we never tried this resort. I leave with mixed feelings and will probably not go back. What we liked: 1) The workers were awesome and made us feel at home. We typically tip for our service however, their responsive-service seem genuine even without a tip. Kudos to the workers to include: Francisco (Palace pool side bar), Fernando & Mario (Brasserie Restaurant), Adan and Oscar (Palace Buffet), and our maid service. Unfortunately we never saw her nor knew her name however, her service was amazing. 2) Staying at the Palace afforded use the opportunity to be served the best drinks and access to the ala carte restaurants. We never had a bad meal. Buffet was ok but keep in mind, it is buffet food serving the pallets of the masses. Be realistic. 3) Easy shuttle service to the various lobbies on a double-decking bus. That was cool. It will take roughly one hour to travel from the airport to the resort. 4) The pools were very nice; plenty of chairs on the beach and at the pool. No need to have towel-cards. Some of you know what I am talking about. 5) The main fitness gym is amazing. We went every day. 6. I did not experience a significant language problem. I took a few days to learn some of the basic language and used Google Translator when necessary. Go figure - we are in their country (on the other side of the wall) and should take a moment to learn the basics of their language and culture. 7) Property: The property is amazing and well maintained. The scenic views are breathtaking. Here is the reason I titled this review "mixed feelings". If you like a lot of pool, beach, lobby, and nightlife entertainment -- you will leave this resort disappointed as we did. What we did not like: 1) Entertainment Activities: a) Pool: There was a water aerobic class, a water game, and maybe bingo each day. Each property had the same daily activities. The activities were virtually the same at each property. There was probably 2 hours of music played at the pools per day. Most people brought their wireless speakers and played music in their area. Literally - no music being played at the pools nor the beach. It became somewhat boring and extremely quite other than personal music and people playing in the pool. b) Lobbies: The lobbies are nice and big however, there are no activities in the lobbies to attract guest in the morning, afternoon, or at night. Completely dead - the lobbies serve as a place to check-in and check-out only. It was really bad. c) Nightly shows: They have 3 theaters to perform the shows. They rotated the same 3 shows for our entire 6 day vacation. So, after 3 days our night life was over. We are not casino goers and there is no other activities at night. For 2 of the 3 shows we left earlier: the kid show (not for us) and the His & Her show. The His & Her show called couples to the stage. You know the rest of that story. Fiesta Mexicana offered traditional dance from various regions in Mexico. It was not bad but I did not want to see the same show 4 more times. I GIVE THE OVERALL ENTERTAINMENT A ZERO. Day time activities were marginal to below average at best; the night time life felt like an ordinary night in a generic hotel. It was the same situation at all the properties; we walked to each and checked, looking for something to do at night. 2) Beach seaweed: The seaweed is getting really bad, smelly, and largely beyond the resort's control. All of the resorts are experiencing the same problem. If you are a beach goer, I recommend the Maya Beach property. There are no rocks and the resort staff work very hard to clear the seaweed daily. They are building a new property beside Maya Beach so be aware of the construction noise. Again, the seaweed this is not the resort's fault. Because of the lack of entertainment across the properties, we do not plan to return to Barcelo. Should we decide to take an all-inclusive vacation where we want quite time and early to bed time, we would go here. Our 13th year and beyond will not be at Barcelo.