Nathanael F.
Yelp
My wife and I spent our honeymoon here, it was a combined gift from our entire family. I've never written a review before, because I used to think that it was a waste of time. But this experience made us want to forget our honeymoon.
We stayed at the Mayan Palace. Once we walked in the door, we noticed that there were dozens of these tiny, flea like insects all over the counter. We smashed them, not worrying about it. Little did we know, they would continue to show up the entire time we were there.
The resort is like a maze. It is extremely difficult to get around initially, we had to ask every single time we wanted to go somewhere, because the signs are misleading. That's if you want to walk- unless you want to be at the mercy of the trolley-train-carts. They take you around all the resort, but you've got to wait in line for the right one, and sometimes take 2 different trolleys to get where you want to be. We even got a map, and that didn't help, because it seemed that the roads we were talking on weren't even pictured.
The staff were mostly friendly and helpful, thankfully my wife is fluent in Spanish or else it would've been even more difficult for us to get around, even with my intermediate Spanish speaking ability. Next, let's talk about the food.
We did not want to leave the resort at all, because it was advertised that they had everything we needed. Our family, who grew up in this area of Mexico were adamant about the danger, and told us that going out of the resort is a terrible idea. That sounds great, until you realize that the food on the resort is at a bare minimum of $20USD, per person, per meal. It's usually around $30-45USD per person, per meal. With only my wife and I, we were spending on average, $60 per meal. If you want 3 meals per day, you're looking at atleast $200 per day. Just on food. Not including the hidden Mexican government fees and taxes that are added every single day you're there. That's not including drinks, snacks, trips, room service, anything.
This resort feels like a blood sucking parasite; charging you for breathing. I haven't even gotten to the best part, the reason as to why we want to forget this trip ever happened. So 2 days in, we realize that we can't afford this ''luxurious' Vidanta lifestyle, (even though the week stay was about $3000 initially), we decided to throw caution to the wind and leave the resort to get groceries in order to cook most of our meals. We spent $100 at the grocery store, and were able to cook breakfast for a couple mornings, and dinner atleast 3 times. Then, In the middle of the week, a tour salesman approached us. He offered a boat trip to Isla Mujeres, drinks, lunch, scuba diving and other entertainment, all included for $90/person. We were planning to take atleast one trip, and we took this one. It was phenomenal, 10/10. The most fun I've ever had on a vacation.
Here comes the best part: We left for that trip at 8am, and came back around 7pm. Once we got to my room, I searched for my wallet that was hidden in my suitcase, zipped up, under all my clothes. Once I found it, I found that my $1000 in cash was gone. Completely. All the money that we received from gifts at our wedding a couple days before, was completely gone. "Why do you carry that much cash?" Well, we needed it for taxis, food, tips, groceries, and to pay our bill at the end of the week. (The services around the hotel do not accept cash. They charge you by asking for room number and signature. You spend more this way, psychologically.) Why didn't we just use a card to pay for the bill? Because they charge a '16%-20% additional charge on all plastic use.' That's why we were using cash. I suspected housekeeping, because the only way to enter the room is to have a digital bracelet key that they tie around you wrist at checkin. So I immediately report it to the front desk, and the security comes to the room and 'investigates.' They looked through the entire room, searched every pocket of all our luggage, and had me write a report.
The following day we were informed that, in order to continue the investigation, they were interviewing every member of staff that worked the day we were gone on our trip. After 2 days of interviewing, they call us to the main lobby and tell us that they can verify that housekeeping entered the room twice while we were gone, but that there is nothing they can do, because of no evidence. They can't even slightly discount our bill, offer us a free ride to the airport, nothing. They basically said 'sucks to be you' and told us to be on our way.
This resort is a money sucking nightmare, and by the way, the beach is filthy. Don't waste your time, or your money. You would think that you could feel safe about leaving valuables in your room at a resort as expensive as this one, but apparently not. So we're out $1000, have been rationing the groceries we bought at the beginning of the week, excited to get out of here.
