Grand Riviera Princess All Suites Resort and Spa - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

13174 reviews

• 

  Disappointed

  Some of the staff wasn't very friendly. The food was not good.. Tasteless mac n cheese. Not much thought put into the food. The bread was good. Eggs where nasty. Food was a big disappointment. Was easy to make reservations. The grounds were well taken care of and beautiful. It was a very large hotel, which I'm not used to. I did enjoy all the walking.

  Jan 19, 2025
• 

  Sadly not feeling it. Very basic.

  Broken tv. Scum ridden bath. And zero benefits cf going “platinum (you get room service but cheap beer and only snacks., hardly premium). The best thing is the wild life. They did come and bring a whole new tv. Shame when you just want to get to your room and relax rather than calls to reception, maintenance doing their best etc.

  Jan 19, 2025
• 

  Good experience

  I was skeptical when I booked this resort for my 4th vacation to Mexico. I have been to barcelo and majestic elegance before so I thought that I might not have a good experience as this was cheaper to book for us budget wise. But I was wrong. The resort set up is a little different in terms of distance from rooms to the beach. But it does not take that long to walk to beach from the main lobby. There is an option for golf carts to move across the resort but they are not readily available. Food wise, the food is great at a la carte restaurants and there are many. We are vegetarians and we did not have any difficulty finding food options. Most the al la carte restaurants bookings are in the evenings. Chill out restaurant is the only al la carte restaurant that is option breakfast, lunch and dinner- but it is only for platinum guests. Buffet food is average. Entertainment is the best I have experienced so far! I loved all the evening shows. Playa de Carmen downtown is like 10-15 min away. The hotel provides shuttle, you just have to pay 85 pesos/person each way. They have designated pickup and drop off times. The pools are great. There are some busy with kids where are others you will find more adults. Honestly, you won't regret booking this resort.

  Jan 18, 2025
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  Do not go here. A few pros but many, many cons.

  Don't waste your money, or expectations, on the platinum upgrade. This might be a little chaotic, but these are the thoughts my family had throughout our trip. We will not be returning to this resort. ** Let's start with the very long list of cons: - Check in was subpar. We had 2 parties checking in at the same time and one party got important information which the other party was not given (2 examples - the fact that you have to use your room key to use the room lights & that you MUST book return transportation within 24 hours of arriving. The latter not being told to us is very concerning.). One party was charged the tax at check IN, while the other party was charged at check OUT. No one in our party was given a map or any sort of information regarding restaurant locations, making reservations, etc. We, apparently, needed towel cards for the pools... none of us were given towel cards or even informed that we needed them. - We upgraded to the platinum suites and the "private concierge" couldn't provide answers to any of our questions. We asked her to help us book reservations and she said we had to come back later to do any reservations (by the time she allowed us to come back, ALL reservations were completely booked). She never told us that we could do all reservations ourself, on our phones. - The view from our floor level room was disappointing, to say the least. Our room faced the ocean, but the ocean view was completely 100% obstructed by overgrown brush. We asked to change rooms but were denied. We literally had to ask for directions to find the ocean.... even though our room was ocean front!! Seriously, the garden view rooms were 10x better than our platinum ocean front room. Absolutely unacceptable. - The rooms had handles broken off of the bathroom door. There is no dresser or drawers for clothes and maybe 10 hangers. So I guess you are expected to keep your clothes in your suitcase all week. The balcony has not been well kept, part of it is broken off and I tripped over one of the boards that is not level. It is a serious hazard. - You have to pay for premium wifi. There is no special code for platinum guests. The free wifi does not work *at all* in the platinum rooms. - When we checked in we were told, "you are in the platinum suites, which means you are VIP". We did not have a single whiff of vip treatment at all during our week long stay. - Went to speak with reception after being dissatisfied. She told us she was getting a manager... my husband was waiting over 15 minutes to speak with a manager. When he finally came, he told my husband there is nothing they are willing to do to make the stay better. How is this platinum service? - There is a total lack of communication from staff to guests. And every aspect of staying here has been very inconsistent. Sometimes house keeping does a great job & sometimes they leave trash & dirty towels behind. Sometimes room service shows up at the time requested (typically 45 minutes), sometimes they take 2 hours. My parents roomed right next to us - we got a welcome fruit plate and champagne... my parents got nothing. One bar told us 1800 tequila was included in platinum (she even looked it up to confirm) while another bar told us we had to pay for premium liquor (it was supposed to be included with platinum) - The service from staff was the worst I've ever experienced from an all inclusive. At the buffet, you wait forever to get a drink (even water) and drinks are never replenished during your dinner. The coffee bar outside the breakfast buffet is nice, but if you are sensitive to dairy, they will not make anything with a dairy substitute... even though they have it available. We constantly felt like an inconvenience to the staff - even inside the exclusive platinum lounge. - The rooms are all exactly the same. The platinum rooms are not at all different or upgraded compared to non platinum rooms. - The only benefits of platinum are: private pool with drink service (the platinum pool is lame. No music or anything. And it is completely disjointed from the "regular pools" so you cannot easily go back and forth), roped off beach area with padded seats and drink service, and free room service (which is terrible quality. AND they have premium options like cheese platter and chocolate covered strawberries- but you have to pay... even though we already paid to upgrade). (You have to pay for room service if not platinum) - Went to concierge at 1pm on Monday and couldn't get any reservations for Monday or Tuesday for dinner. Concierge would not allow us to book any dates beyond Tuesday. Went back at 8pm Monday (which is exactly when she told us to come back inorder to book Wednesday) and everything was already booked up! We got here Sunday midday and had to eat only from the horrible dinner buffet until Thursday. Absolutely ridiculous. One night we decided to ask a restaurant if we could be seated without reservations & they said we had to buy a bottle of wine in order to sit. We did not do it, obviously. We asked concierge the next day about it and she told us that "some seats are for sale" and that, since we had 5 people, we need to pay $100 in order to get a table without reservation. Which means, they have the ability to seat us, but only if we pay them. Nevermind the fact that we already paid to be upgraded for the "vip" experience. Out of all the issues we had, this made us the most angry. - There is a special dinner on Thursday for platinum guests. Luckily we were able to get a reservation but it was at 8pm - and with a 6 year old, thats a tough time for dinner. Thursday morning a waiter walked around the pools asking if anyone needed a reservation... we asked if we could get in earlier than 8... and imagine our surprise when he enthusiasticly said yes! We get to dinner Thursday night and the place was DEAD. why were were only allowed to book for 8pm through concierge?! - We took our son over to the Family Club pool, assuming since we were platinum that we had access. The pool was not crowded at all, and yet we were told to leave. Also, Family Club has their own private buffet .. private every single day for them. ** and for the very short list of pros: - the beach was fine, but not anything special. Very rocky and there is a drop down into the ocean. It's not a nice flat transition. My dad and I were both cut by the very sharp rocks in the shallow part of the ocean. - there were multiple large pools which never felt overcrowded. Plenty of beach chairs, but you need to be out by 7am saving seats. Each main pool has a raised jacuzzi area. These are nice for sitting & tanning while still be cooled by the water. (Note: while we enjoyed the jacuzzi areas, not a single one had all jets that worked.) - most areas appeared to be well cleaned. ***overall, this was a truly disappointing trip. We have taken many all inclusive trips and this was one of the worst. Definitely do not waste your money upgrading to platinum. If you decide to give this place a try, the best options seem to be the swim out rooms or family club.

  Jan 17, 2025
• 

  Warning Avoid this Hotel

  Upon arrival at this hotel we had to queue for 40 minutes before we could check in, there was no welcome drink or refreshing towels and this should have served as a warning to us. The arrogant attitude of the staff had to be experienced to be believed. Our allocated room was very damp, dark and depressingly smelly. The furniture had delaminated, the curtains were unattached to the rail, the TV remote had no batteries. An immediate complaint and request to change rooms, was treated with utter and complete contempt by all the staff. After my wife became ill on the third day, and in an effort to get a manager to take the dampness issue seriously, we finally got someone to attend the room. He agreed it was bad and said he would get a mobile de-humidifier installed. It did not arrive. when I chased it up I was told there were 3,000 rooms and they don't have enough de-humidifiers! It finally arrived 2 days after having been promised during which time our continued complaints to the various anonymous managers, solicited an offer which we swiftly accepted of an alternative room. Having spent in excess of £20k on this 10 day break for 7 of my family I was livid to find out that in order to accompany my grandchildren to the Kids pirate pool, my wife and I would need to pay another £300 for this privilege. Most seriously however were the safety issues. With many young toddlers around it is unacceptable to have unlocked and open doors to deep maintenance service shafts, left open along balconies. It was also noticed that many of the pool filter pump emergency kill switches, along the children's swim way were broken, hanging off and in one case a bare wire. Had there been an incident these were likely to be inoperable. Many of the public toilets, of which there are too few, were blocked and unusable. The general décor is tired. We found a lot of the food to be tepid and not hot. The A la cart restaurants lack atmosphere, and the steaks are thin, unappetising, gristly and frankly inedible. As a senior citizen with mobility issues there are too few elevators, the pool access is only via steps, with no ramped entry/ exit there are only uncomfortable sun loungers around the pools and a request for a chair to sit on was met with the usual unhelpful, sorry this is not possible. The Tui representative was sympathetically pleasant but powerless to fix problems. in conversation with other inmates it was clear that our experience was not unique. There are many, many better hotels in the area than this one, which should be avoided.

  Jan 16, 2025