This review will be long but it will be worth the read if you want all the pros and cons. First, let me start by saying (all of my past reviews will back this up) that we do all-inclusive resorts 4-5 times a year every year (a couple of times a year with the whole family, which means 8-10 ppl and a couple of times with 2-4 ppl) so our take on these resorts do come with a lot of experience and comparison, making them pretty fair and accurate. Another thing to note is that we had just had a stay less than 90 days before at Catalonia Gran Costa Mujeres and it was excellent so our expectations were for all Catalonia properties to have the same standards where service and quality is concerned.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE:
Pros: lots of options and definitely something for everyone even for the pickiest of eaters so you will not go hungry. 5 a la carte restaurants that anyone can enjoy and 1 for privileged guests only (which most of our party was), as well as the buffet, pizzeria, creperie/taco bar, food trucks, and juice bar. There were also 3 bars, as well as limited beverages at the creperie/taco bar. The food options and quality were very good for the most part and we enjoyed our meals at every place we visited. The teppanyaki restaurant was by far our favorite but all of the restaurants did not disappoint where food was concerned. For those of us with the privileged package, we really enjoyed Bloved for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well. The very best of the staff in food and beverage was at the bars and by the pool. We usually are better at making notes about specific employees that go above and beyond but somehow it got erased. We do want to note that Carla, who was in the lobby at night, by the pool some days, and at the juice bar, was AMAZING. There was another guy that was at the pool almost every day and he always remembered our drinks and gave us service with a smile every time. These few employees that went above and beyond and were so friendly and attentive made up somewhat for the lack of service in most places, but the cons far outweigh the pros on service. Another thing to touch base on is that the quality of the drinks and the presentation of food/drinks were very good.
Cons: The buffet was very disappointing both food wise and service wise. Again, we have frequented many different all-inclusive resorts all over the world but mostly in Mexico, where we have found the people and service to be some of the best ever. Every single day, we had service related issues and let me remind you that we are not hard to please at all and our expectations are not unrealistic. Some of examples of this are, The Grill (steakhouse) where we had probably the worst experience service wise. Our main server from the get-go, acted like he was doing us a favor by being our server, rolling his eyes every time we asked for anything, after a long wait for him to even acknowledge us and we were a party of 10 so we were hard to miss. Please keep in mind that we are big tippers and we know how hard they work and how little they make. We ordered the Lobster Cream soup and it was very fishy (we live on an island and eat a lot of seafood so we know seafood tastes like seafood). One person in our group simply asked for a Caesar salad instead, as she didn't like the soup and what appeared to be the manager (Julio) preceded to tell her with an attitude that lobster was seafood so it's supposed to be fishy, at which point she explained that she was a big lobster eater and knew what lobster was. By the way, we are still waiting for the caesar salad after reminding them several times. We could go on and on about different examples at each restaurant, but we won't, we will just say that we were disappointed service wise at every restaurant except Toscana (Italian) and Bloved (privileged). The buffet was probably the worst. We had a few meals where we never got so much as ice water, even after asking multiple times. It is also important to note that the Tequila Bar (lobby bar) and beach bar would close a significant amount of time before it was supposed to. The night club was also spotty on time and opening at all.
PROPERTY LAYOUT:
Pros: If you are in buildings 1 or 2, you are close to the lobby, buffet, night club, and theater (theater was closed for rennovation). If you are in buildings 3-5, you are close to pool, a la carte restaurants, shops, and beach. The property is very beautiful and well-maintained, with lots of wildlife and vegetation. There were lots of coati and a few monkeys spotted during our trip.
Cons: If you are close to the lobby area, you are very far from the pool and beach area, as well as a la carte restaurants and vice versa. At night, the pathways are very dark and could be challenging for anyone with accessibility requirements. There are also no elevators and steps or rocky pathways to get to some areas. While the theater is totally closed, shows are in the lobby, which is too small and very hot to have the whole resort in there to watch shows. The pool had a HORRIBLE layout, probably the worst I have ever seen. On one end, it had the very convenient walk in like walking into a beach but then as you went around that, you had to climb up steps from within the pool to swim in water so deep that a 6ft adult could not touch in, to another set of steps to reach the tiny swim up bar. Unlike most resorts where you can make your way around the pool easily to where you want to be, at this resort you had to choose your preference without being able to easily navigate the pool.
ROOMS:
Pros: All rooms have the fridge with soft drinks, water, beer, and coffee machine. The TVs were also decent and had lots of channels. Never a problem with hot water or water pressure and the beds were comfortable compared to other resorts. Having the room key on your wristband was definitely a plus.
Cons: So... 3 of our 5 rooms had AC problems (Again, we frequent Mexico. We know the AC is not like it is in the States at most resorts). 2 of our rooms had to be moved 3 times to get an AC that worked at all. One of our rooms waited half a day for maintenance to come and then another couple of hours for guest services to come move their room after finding out that the AC was completely broke. So imagine that you had to spend a whole day of your vacation in your room, waiting because you were told if you left your room they would not do anything about it. Their resolution in the end, was to upgrade the 2 rooms that had the most problems after noon on the very last day (we were there for 8 days) so on the very last day, we had to pack up again for the third time and move to have AC.
ENTERTAINMENT:
Pros: Shows were okay, even though theater was closed and they were packed into a small area. They also had some activities by the pool daily.
Cons: Shows were very packed into the small and hot lobby area and you could not get a seat unless you were very early. The entertainment staff by the pool did not make the way around the pool to let guests on the other side know about upcoming activities. We always participate in things like the crazy games, water aerobics, bingo, pool volleyball, and more but we were never alerted that these things were going on since we were on the other side of the pool and again, you could not rush over there in the pool due to the layout.
Overall, we had a decent time because we make the best of every resort and trip but we would not return to this resort because the cons far outweigh the pros.
