I stayed here and had the best experience. Deysi Ixba and Alejandra Jimenez were amazing servers and really made my time there enjoyable ! The pool was clean and very well attended too. I couldn’t love the service anymore! Thank you very much!

10/10

This is the 2nd trip to the Barcelo Maya resort. 1st time was to Barcelo Maya Palace mid December 2019 (Pre-Covid), and we just returned from a 7 day stay at Barcelo Maya Riviera. 1/17/21 - 1/24/21. My wife and I's vacation was supposed to be at the Palace with my Mother and Father inlaw in the Premier Ocean front room. Upon arrival, they had booked my in laws in the Riviera and us in the Palace. We immediately complained and said we were supposed to be together. So they upgraded my wife and I to the Riviera and told us it was an upgrade. So we agreed to try it out. When we got our room, it was NOT in the Premier section of the hotel, even though that's what we paid for. I will most likely return, but honestly I will not return to the Riviera.
Of the 2 trips, they were completely different in terms of Pre-covid and post. The mall, the Ventura Fly and Ride Park, the Broadway style shows were all shut down because of Covid along with many of the restaurants at different times. Between the Palace and Riviera this time, they only had about 1/2 capacity at most. The staff were amazing (as always) and they are EXTREMELY careful about following all covid guidelines. I understand Covid has made things difficult on everyone, but Barcelo has done a fantastic job with adapting! On that I give them 5 stars! Can't wait for things to get back to normal.
My complaints...
The palace and the Riviera are on opposite ends of the HUGE resort. In order to go back and forth, you have to get a golf cart ride or take about a 10-15 minute walk. If you are a guest of the Riviera, you have access to the Palace and the entire resort. However, If you are a guest of the Palace, you do not have access to the Riviera and all of its perks.
Food - If you are staying at the Riviera, you have the choice of buffet for Breakfast or Lunch. But they shut down the Buffet for dinner leaving you to travel all the way to the Palace for Dinner Buffet. There are several sit down restaurants that you have to get reservations for days in advance! There is a French, Italian, Mexican and Japanese Hibachi grill and a Brazilian Style Steakhouse way over on the Palace side (which was booked full the entire 7 days we were there). The restaurants were very nice and elegant...too the point of being TOO elegant in the menu choices. For an example, the Mexican restaurant you would expect to at least see a good old fashion Burrito with steak or chicken. NOPE! All the food was more like what you would see in a 5 star restaurant. Smaller portions and too "foo-foo" for my liking. I found myself Googling the entire description of every dinner to find out what I was going to order. Another example...the Italian Restaurant - Starter - Ham and Melon Salad or Octopus and potato salad (neither of those even remotely sound good to me. For one of the soups..."Stracciatella alla romana with Pecorino Cheese". How many people have a clue what that is without having graduated from a culinary school? My suggestion to the resort...keep it simple! keep at least a few items that are "Meat and potato" types of meals.
Spa - We got there right when the main resort spa and beauty salon was being shut down. That place was awesome! They had a sauna, hot tub and steam room and ice pool that was all part of a "water therapy" that you could go to everyday if you want. The massages were FANTASTIC! They also had an extremely nice gym that was HUGE and well equipt. They shut that down and had a spa in the Riviera with less features, a smaller gym and the massage rooms were HUGE and less "intimate" feeling. It was very up-scale feeling...but almost too much. It was nice, but I prefer the previous spa.
Riviera Building - I have been in Construction 30+ years and have a degree in Architectural Design and Engineering. This building was building was designed to be Grand in size and very Contemporary. With that being said, The design had a lot to be desired as far as functionality! It was designed by an Architect with very little thought about how the average guest would use the building. There is VERY little in the way of art work or color of any kind and the ceilings were all extremely high. Everything was stark white and very angular (other than the curve of the main building) It just had a very "Cold" feel to the building. There was no feel of being in Mexico where you typically think of curves and arches and bright colors. The palace feels like what you would expect in Mexico. Luxurious and bright and colorful and fun all while preserving the cultural feel. The Riviera feels like something you would see in California or New York.
Examples of design issues:
1. The restaurants were on the middle of the 2nd floor behind the main structure where all the rooms are. There is an elevator at 1 end that never worked the entire time we were there. The nearest elevator on the other end was near the lobby or there was one hidden away in a massive conference center. The main building where the rooms are, there were very few elevators for as big as the place is. So be prepared to do a lot of walking and if you are like me and have bad knees.. be prepared to use the stairs a lot.
2. Nightly entertainment nightly near Lobby - Every evening, they have some sort of "entertainment" on the back of the Lobby on a huge Patio area with a bunch of chairs . This is located directly over the massive Buffet room on 1st floor. The nights included 70's and 80's night, karaoke night, Game night etc. They had a "DJ" that would play the music, but unlike most DJ's this guy was boring at best! The 70's and 80's night was a joke! There were a few 80's songs at first (certainly not the best selections to represent that era AT ALL) and no 70's songs....and he QUICKLY went to 90's and 2000's songs. Game night...still not sure what that was supposed to be. I was expecting something like Trivia or a newlywed type of game or something like what you would see on a cruise. Certainly wasn't any of that. Overall..the DJ sucked!
During the evening entertainment - The waitresses were extremely good about constantly making sure you always had a drink. That was great! The bad part is the Bar right off of the patio didn't have a bathroom. So the nearest bathroom is no joke about a football field away! A bathroom right off of the Patio would have been really nice and same for the Buffet downstairs...Nearest bathrooms are a long walk away.
The rooms - The rooms are HUGE and the deck/patio is the size of a bedroom. There is a hot tub on the patio with a hand held sprayer and a 2 person table and 2 chairs. We wanted a King size bed, but got 2 full size (you get what you get). The bathrooms are large and spacious with a super large barn door that is a nice design touch. There is a nice double sink with a shower to the left and toilet room to the right. Where it gets REALLY weird is the frosted glass wall that separates the shower from the beds. From about 5ft up to the ceiling, the glass is clear, then it fades to an lightly opaque frosted glass. The door for the toilet area is very similar! While you may not be able to see details of someone taking a shower or a dump....you can absolutely see what's going on. The other thing with the shower. There is a VERY bright LED light in the ceiling of the shower. If you are lying in bed and that light is on...you are blinded by it! If someone gets up early to shower, it will certainly wake up anyone in bed. If they had taken the frosted glass all the way up, it would have helped.
The pool - The pools are HUGE! on the bad side...THEY ARE COLD! So short of the outside temps being about 90 degrees....be prepared. Once you get in, it takes a few minutes to adjust...then you are fine. The ocean is actually warmer.
Music by the pool - For whatever reason the music by the pool at the Riviera sounds more like night club which I am sure is great for millennials. The constant thumping of "club" type music gets on the nerves after a while. Over at the Palace the music was much better! More of a mix of 70's, 80's 90's and 00's.

If you want to Premiere rooms at the Riviera, they are close to the ocean and beach....however they are a LONG WAY from everything else!

Given the choice... I would pick the Palace over the Riviera any day. If I want Contemporary and cold architectural design...I will vacation in California or New York.

This resort was the definition of the word elegance. It was immaculate, pristine, and suave. Everyone on the resort was beyond kind and caring and truly loved our family as we were there! We had exceptional service at every restaurant we encountered and despite COVID19, all of the proper safety measures were taken to ensure it felt like we were in another world! They took our temperature before every meal, always sanitized our hands, and wore masks everywhere.