Ocean Maya Royale, Riviera Maya

We (family of 4 from Toronto) stayed for 6 nights in Feb 2025 at Ocean Maya Royale. Its a great resort generally speaking. Service is really good. Welcoming staff. The food is amazing. Never had an international buffet good at a resort that great. Variety and taste delicious. Small resort considered but just perfect. Rooms are very nice, clean and dated. One buffet Leila Havienda was great. The French Romantic Blue Moon restaurant is amazing and the food delicious. The Italian La Dolce wasnt that good. Weather 4 of us ordered different food, nothing was good so we went to the buffet to get the great food and get full. The Japanese Yookoso wasnt that good okay to me, good for my family but nothing special. The Mexican restaurant was really good. The coffee at the coffee shop in the lobby is always good. Drinks generally sweet u less you ask for less sweet for the ones that have syrup. But we were told most guests like sweet drinks. But most of them were good (there are better drinks in Punta Cana). Try to have Paloma, amazing. Wifi is great everywhere. (For non Privilege as well). Best part is the wrist band has the door key in it. Great idea. Entertainment team are amazing specially in the day time activities. Kenddell, Carlos and Viri are amazing. Others as well I just didnt get their names. Foam party was awesome! Do the Lagoon free tour. Its amazing spot to see thats different from the resort and beach. Great walk and good info to learn. Amazing scenery for photos and you can see the fish under the water. (Swimming activity btw). The beach is nice, fine white sand but just like any other beach in Mexico it has lots of sea dirt and their shoulder be more efforts to clean. A few things needs improvement: No shuttle from the airport to the resort and back. The lobby is outdated and the washroom/bathroom in it needs to be renovated. Some reports have amazing new style lobby. Beach and pool benches get booked up quickly and very early in the morning. Finding spots and in shade is a great challenge. Not enough umbrellas. Some more flowers to be added to the amazing landscape. No disco/night club while its Adult only resort (weird). So majority of guests are very mature adults which makes the resort less energetic. Night time activities at 9 needs improvement. We saw only one great showing 6 nights. Thank you Ocean Maya Royale for the great experience!!

This resort is amazing!!! Food, Rooms, staff all 5 Wanna give a HUGE shout-out to Kenddell Sansores and his endless hard work!!! Him and the entertainment team are unreal!!! Keep the energy going all day long!!! We will return. Much love Family!!!!

This is a difficult review to position and is written from a UK cultural bias. No apologies. We came here for a relaxing vacation in the sun away from the UK winter and our family pressures at home. We have travelled, eaten, drunk, and worked extensively globally. We're British and retired. We enjoy life's luxuries as we feel we have worked to earn and deserve them. We favour adults only and H10 hotels, being Grand Class members of their loyalty scheme. We love being close to the beach and ocean, and I truly love swimming and snorkelling in clear ocean waters. Sadly this was my biggest disappointment here as the Ocean was always rough and visibility very poor, marred by suspended sand from the rough seas and turbulent undertow, so neither swimming nor snorkelling were either enjoyable or worthwhile. Thankfully, we also booked a Privilege package here, as this gave us access to pre booking the a la carte restaurants, a tranquil private breakfast area by the beach and exclusive relatively tranquil pool and beach areas with loads of loungers available, and dedicated beach butler service of water, drinks and fresh towels. We are also not loud or demonstrative or extroverted, which was a bit of a cultural misfit here. We enjoy alcohol in its many and varied varieties, but not in excess or as a mission from 9am until inebriation sets in...sadly this was a culture in evidence here... We also tip (after rather than before) when we appreciate good service rather than to buy service. Also, there is a bit of a cultural misfit here. The experiences staff around the activities pool and during the varied evening entertainment program in the plaza and theatre really go for active whooping and audience participation which is part of the partying and provision for their usual customer demographic; all well fuelled by excesses of alcohol. Another cultural and demographic misfit for us. The entertainment staff work and try really hard, though, all credit to them. The silent disco was really fun, though, as was the Mexican show and dancing! I won't elaborate anymore. Everyone has different tastes and wants - just trying to help position what to expect. Apparently, this resort is small and quiet compared to Riviera Maya norms. We did anticipate and position our expectations with foreknowledge and previous experience of the Caribbean and Mexico, and I can say that the vacation met, but sadly, did not exceed our expectations. Mainly due to the behaviours of a significant percentage of the customer demographic here, rather than the staff, the location, or the hotel or its provisions I agree with the excellent TA review by Andrea F earlier in January 2025 and commend it to you. I would only add to her comments on food hygiene that illness from alcohol intoxication and heat exposure / dehydration is often mistakenly blamed on 'something we ate..' If no one else was ill - it almost certainly was the alcohol or the heat and dehydration, not the food. So bear that in mind when reading other reviews, take personal responsibility, and don't blame the hotel's food when there is no evidence. Special Staff : - Special staff shout outs to Viri, (Ella es una trabajadora muy buena y esforzada. Ella es tambien una maestra de espanol excellente), Dali (Muy divertido y trabador) and Ozwyn (un gran guia) from the experiences team. They really made our stay special. - Privilege beach butler Jorge goes that extra mile with a smile all the time. He is always attentive and tries to do his best despite the limitations of ageing loungers and umbrellas. - The employee of our holiday was Alejandro in the evening Privilege restaurant. Outstanding courtesy and service always with a smile. Highlights for us were : - The extensive beach walks either way on the white sand. A bit of seaweed, but that is environmentally good. Marred by beach litter and torn breakwater sand bags and ropes. - The guided lagoon walk to the fresh water Cenote and lagoon. Very informative, interesting, and fun. Best swim of the holiday. - The hotel's green policies and wildlife roaming free in the extensive gardens. (Families of Coatis, iguanas, and capybara mainly) - The beautifully kept and stocked gardens thanks to the tireless efforts of the gardening staff. - The Privilege lounge and restaurant. The inside lounge seating is very compact, as is the outside decking for eating, but it seldom gets busy. It is an oasis of tranquility, especially for a pre dinner drink. Breakfast is lush and served a la carte as is lunch. The coco shrimps are to die for. - The fresh juice bar by the El Charro poolside restaurant for healthy non alcoholic drinks. - The fact there were two pools, one for activities with a swim up bar, the other with no activities and quieter, although 'quieter' is relative... Other aspects include some Not So Goods (maybe I'm being a male version of a 'Karen with these), but anyway, here goes : - Butlering by Whats App. You scan the number on arrival and correspond by Whats App thereafter for bookings, etc. You can not book further ahead than the same day on the hotel app, but the butlers' system runs from Sunday to Sunday, so you can book up to a week ahead (hourly slots, on the hour only. Good for weekends, which get busy, but walk-ins during the week tend to also work if you are just a couple... except for the Japanese that needs booking if you want the show cooking. - Variable service and cooking quality levels. A la carte variable, especially Blue Moon, in our experience. Dolce Vita and El Churro are consistently good. Privilege staffing and chefs varied, as did the level of training / experience, but they tried hard. The buffet, La Hacienda, was always very busy at peak times and was self-service with no obvious discipline or manners at peak times. Reminded me of feeding time at the zoo. There is plenty of choice of eats for all tastes and a different theme each day. Fresh fruit, salads, and juices were available. It takes on a different ambience off peak, becoming almost tranquil with plentiful food and no queuing. - The January weather and turbulent, cloudy sea water being under red or yellow flag most of our vacation, with quite an undertow. Snorkelling from the beach was impossible. There were attempts at sandbag breakwaters along the beach but these were mostly eroded into washed up ropes and shreds of sacks, or overflowed and so basically of no use, leaving you to swim in no / low visibility churned up sandy seawater. Visibility is important as there are quite a few close inshore underwater hazards like old jetty posts and rocks with which you do not wish to have an accidental encounter. The only clear sea we experienced was in the Cenote lagoon, which is 1500 steps each way and well worth the effort for an invigorating swim. - As mentioned by Andrea F in her earlier review, we were plagued by inconsiderate loud and drunken guests from mid day on, and up to 2 am disturbabces on their loud stumbling return to their room If they confined their revelries to the activities pool and entertainment areas, that is ok, part of the demographic expectation and the human rights entitlement of North American (I include Canada in this definition but not as the 51st state) vacationers letting their hair down and partying. But not at the expense of consideration or thought for others, please. - Rules / codes that are not enforced or just simply ridiculous. I accept that the term swimming pool is outdated as they are mostly used as a cool communal mass drinking and socialising area. If you want to swim it's early morning or late afternoon, or the sea. What is ridiculous is that one of the pool rules is 'for hygiene reasons no drinking or eating', both have bars and one has a swim up... Seriously, this needs revisiting. (The afternoon temperature of the water in the pools in the afternoon seemed warmer than the morning temperature most days, even on cool days, I wondered why?) Dress code at restaurants - not enforced. No reserving of sunbeds - not enforced. Access to the privilege area is enforced. So keep what you enforce and scrap or amend the ones you don't. - Ageing loungers and umbrellas with no pins to hold them up - depending on availability, these have to be supplied by the beach butler. (And of his availability) I toyed with the idea of acquiring one on day one and not returning it until we left. Too honest / naive / British to do it, though! Hey, Oceans, this needs your attention! - Sand flies / chiggers, ankle, and arm biters abound in the morning in the sand around the beach loungers. So remember insect repellent and anti histamine tabs and creams. Mosquitos are around. The hotel is in the middle of a mangrove swamp, so no surprises here, but it seemed well controlled and not much of a problem. Tropical repellent seemed to keep them away. Would we come again - especially as this includes an 11 hour flight (time and expense) and a 5 hour time difference to get here? You may be surprised after reading this review, but the jury is still split on that. Hence, 4 / 5 rather than the 3 I had originally considered... Hope you find this helpful. It's meant as that..

My husband and I stayed at the hotel with two other couples, all in our 70's. The resort is beautiful and very well maintained. The rooms are very clean and well-appointed, the staff is well-trained and cordial. We thought the food in all of the restaurants was very good. (We didn't go to the Japanese restaurant because we would all have had to stand in line for half an hour just to get a reservation). The beach was lovely with comfortable chairs and palapas, and the water was pleasant. You can walk a long distance on the beach, past other resorts. We went on some excursions to snorkel and my husband enjoyed scuba diving in two cenotes. Our only problem was that the area around one end of the pool had rock music blaring much of the day. We requested a room change after one night because of the noise. Our new room was close to the adjacent resort, which had a dance party with a DJ until almost midnight one night, but was quieter after that. Clearly a lot of the guests enjoyed the party atmosphere and the free drinks. We will look for a quieter place next time, but for people who enjoy a lively atmosphere, this is a great place.