Ocean Riviera Paradise, Riviera Maya

Resort is huge and a regular shuttle is required to take you from the lobby through to the 4 complexes: Eden (regular); El Beso (adults only); Privilege (premium) and Daisy (children). Great food at main buffet, with massive selection. Specialty restaurants are available depending on your package, by pre-booking once there, include Japanese, Mexican, Steakhouse, Italian, Romantic, American. There is a "village" feel for shops that include a coffee shop, ice cream parlour, arcade, gym, spa, bowling alley, movie theatre, pop-up bars and juice bar. Keep your eye out for the coati and monkeys on premises! Good food and amenities - no complaints. I would give it 4.5 stars. Great for families, and a 45 minute drive from the Cancun airport. Good access for a day trip to Tulum. Rooms are spacious and the cleaning staff excellent. One complaint was lack of a business area to do work - very surprising as its the first resort I have ever seen lacking this basic requirement. Given the scale of the resort, it is even more surprising. However, given a general assessment of the average clientele, perhaps there is little need for this.

We completed our second stay at Ocean Riviera Paradise in Mar2025. We came back to this resort after ~1.5 years because we found that it was a huge value for the price if you stayed in the Privilege section of the resort. In the original stay we found both the service and the food to be top notch, while the condition of the resort was in need of a bit of repair. Since, in our opinion, service and food are our top priorities we booked here again in hopes that we would find the resort in a similar state as our previous experience. We were pleasantly surprised to find that not only was the resort just as good as the first visit, essentially every item we had pointed out in our first review as needing some attention had, in fact, received attention. Additionally, after ~1.5 years, the two staff members that we mentioned in our first review (Liliana butler in the Privilege section and Fidel waiter in the Privilege lounge) were still working there and remembered us! I personally think that it says a lot about a company (particularly in hospitality) to be able to keep good employees there and happy for an extended period of time. We felt that all the staff we interacted with were happy to be there. Everyone was so friendly and helpful throughout the whole resort. At check-in (which was quick and easy in the Privilege section of the lobby) we were able to ask for Lili specifically as our butler, which thrilled us. Lili still had my phone number saved so we picked up right where we left off from our last trip. She remembered our preferences and was a blessing for our whole trip. Whomever reads this from Ocean Riviera Paradise please do whatever it takes to keep Lili happy there, she is a true asset to your company and brand. We will be coming back to this resort next year just because Lili is so amazing. Reasons we will definitely be coming back to this resort: 1) The service is top notch from the moment you step out of your transport to the hotel to the moment your bags go in your transport from the hotel, youre treated like royalty 2) The food is great. Our favorite thing about this resort, at least in Privilege section, is that you can eat a la cart for every meal. We are not big fans of buffet and have really resented the big resorts where you can only go to a la cart restaurants a limited amount of time during your stay. Our favorite restaurant was the Privilege section we ate breakfast there every morning, lunch there twice, and dinner there twice. Overall excellent food and service for all meals. Special shoutout to Fidel who was our waiter during the dinners. Other outstanding restaurants were Blue Moon (French) for dinner, Margarita (Mexican) for dinner, Sakura (Japanese/teppanaki), and Pez-Vela (Caribbean) for lunch and dinner. We also loved the view from Pez-Vela since it was open air right by the ocean absolutely beautiful! 3) Kids are not excluded from the Privilege section as in many resorts that offer a higher level of service for a portion of the resort. While this trip did not include our kids, our next trip will. 4) The resort gives you just the right energy level when you want it. We are quiet people and enjoy a quiet vacation. The Privilege areas (pool, lounge, beach) were all quiet and relaxed. Even though kids were allowed there, it was never overly loud or rowdy. However, there were plenty of areas that were higher energy if anyone wanted to partake in that. The Eden and El Beso pools had a lot of activities during the day. The Daisy pool catered to kids and young families. The main beach area and pool were active but not loud or party themed. The nightlife was varied. I enjoyed the street vendors coming in on Saturday night they had some fun souvenirs and jewelry at a better price than the on-resort shops. 5) Ocean Riviera Paradise is just the right size. It is large enough to offer a little something for everyone, but not so big that you feel like youll die walking from end to end like some of these massive mega-resorts. We are middle aged in moderate health. We could walk end to end without feeling tired. We never got lost, as it is a single straight street from entrance to beach. Some of the mega resorts do not have a direct path anywhere so youre walking through building courtyards that all look alike and completely miss what youre looking for, meaning you then have to walk even farther thats not fun. The resort does have golf carts that run all day. We never took them except when we arrived and the day we left to carry our luggage to the front. Areas that had improved since our last stay we were very happy with these updates: 1) We had recommended previously to do away with the keycard and move to use of RFID wristbands. We were delighted to find that this change had occurred. It is so much more convenient, never worrying that you left your card in the room or trying to keep up with it while youre at the pool or beach. 2) We also recommended a bit of maintenance around the resort. We found that the resort was in a better state of repair than our last visit. There were no noticeable repairs needed to walls/buildings. All the lounge chairs were in good shape. And there were much less noticeable dirty areas (particularly around trash cans some of the wildlife was a bit out of control around the trash cans the last time we visited). Other great things about our stay: 1) The room was amazing. We stayed in the Privilege master suite rooftop room. Its a regular junior suite that has an upstairs with a huge terrace for lounging, sun, relaxation and a big hot tub. We enjoyed the room so much every evening we spent out in the hot tub listening to music, watching the stars, and just chatting. It was a wonderful way to reconnect with my spouse. 2) The Privilege beach area had been improved upon from our last stay. It was a bigger area, well shaded, and it had its own beverage and limited food service (from the Pez Vela restaurant). 3) The beach area in general was larger I think perhaps the shore had been built up since we last stayed. Before there was barely enough space to walk the beach front, now there was ample space for walking. It was also quite clean and seaweed free. It was always a beautiful view. 4) Blue Moon (the French restaurant) no longer required men to wear long pants. While we dont mind dressing nice, its hot there year-round, so its nice to not have to pack extra clothes for just one restaurant. Final thoughts Ocean Riviera Paradise please keep up the great work and continue to keep your employees happy. They really do make the experience for visitors. We had the most wonderful couples vacation of our life, and it was in large part due to Lili and the rest of the team providing services to the guests.

My family and I had an amazing week at this hotel, since we arrived the staff was very friendly and attentive, delicious food and variety of drinks. We spent a very fun night in the salsa class with Benjamin from the experience team who explained how to dance salsa being beginners with an unparalleled charisma and the best thing is that he said it in Spanish and English so that we could also dance like him, besides, hours before class my children and my husband were in the bowling alley with Benjamin and he was always very kind and attentive to us

Overall the resort has everything you need. The rooms are spacious, clean and updated. We stayed in Eden and had a jacuzzi suite. Eden is the closest to the beach but the farthest from the restaurants and bars. Eden pool bar closes at 5pm which meant we had to go to the lobby for the all inclusive drinks which was a bit of a pain. Mini bar is only stocked with beer so it was difficult to have drinks on our patio. Recommend staying at Daisy as its closer to the restaurants. Restaurants were ok, we mainly ate at the buffet. It got a bit tiring by the 5th day as the same items are servedbut the food was still good. If you want to eat in a restaurant you need to book your reservation at 830am or you wont get a table. Also a few restaurants cannot be booked via the ocean app so you need to line up at 830 am to get your reservation. Kinda a pain. Pools are great and plentiful. Beach is BEAUTIFUL. White sand and no seaweed. It was very windy when we were there so we stuck by the Eden pool. To secure a pool chair you need to be up before 7 am and place your pool towel and belongings on your chairs. If not, dont expect to have one. Im an early bird so this was not an issue. To get around the resort there is a shuttle which comes every 10 mins. Super convenient. Shout of to Benito who made are transits fun, always had great info and recommendations. We will miss Benny! For entertainment there are lots of spider monkeys on the resort that enjoy bananas and other fruit each morning at the sonata. So fun to see them each morning. If you have kids, teens or just want an adult get away this resort is highly recommended.