Review of Hyatt Ziva Cancun
Introduction Best resort in Cancun for families Check In Family of 3 (2 adults, 1 eight year old stayed 17 nights (2 trips one with kid and one without) in a combination of rooms as follows:5 nights in a Swim Up King5 nights in a Sky Swim Up King (Adults Only Tower)7 nights in an Ocean Front Room (with kid)Check in was nice and secure. For our driver to even get past the gate we had to provide our names to ensure we had a reservation. Upon driving past the gate we came to the bellman area and they unloaded our luggage and escorted us to the front desk where they asked what coctail we wanted. The fun began. Room Swim up King (5 nights) - We loved this room. So close to the Ocean with direct views of the Ocean. Roomy enough but in the oldest tower. However these are the closest rooms to the Ocean so you can relax in the swim up pool outside your room and hear the ocean. Private pool so real good place to escape the crowds if you are wanting to. I believe there are only 10 of these rooms. I paid for this room at a great price using Chase Ultimate Rewards site since we wanted to stay in this room half our first trip so we could be close to the ocean and could not purchase this room type with points. (tip pay a nice tip to once of the drink waiters and they will bring you drinks to your private swim up pool)Sky Swim up King (5 nights) - Adults only tower - We loved this room as well. The Sky swim ups also have a hot tub on the balcony leading up to the swim up pool. Very unique and makes for great pictures with amazing views. We paid an upgraded price from our original swim up king of just $60 a night and it was well worth it to access the adults only pool which has better service and better drinks in our opinion. Well worth the extra money if you can afford it. (tip...get the corner swim up for amazing views)Ocean Front Room (7 nights) - Same tower as the Swim up King but from floor 2 - 4. Same exact room as the Swim Ups but just not on the ground level with the swim up pool. So you are very close to the Ocean with great views and this room does not cost much more than the cheapest room and well worth the upgrade. I used 175,000 total points for this room as we got upgraded free based on it being my wifes birthday. This stay was during the peak Spring Break week for Texas (March 2018) so the normal room rates were over $600 a night. So good use of points as everything was top notch including the food which was even better than our first trip about 5 months prior in September 2017. (tip ...we loved the 2nd floor so we were closer to the ocean)Club Ocean Front Room 8 nights - On Reservation for March 2019 (bringing both kids which will be ages 10 and 2. Will update after trip Service Most speak English. Great service all around but please tip. Cannot speak highly enough about the positive attitudes of all the workers here. Really made a huge difference in our experience and it is why we go back time after time. Dining Restaurants:Overall, food quality was great. See belowEl Mercado - main restaurant - buffet style. Large selection of items. Definetely better during our Spring Break trip but both good. They had crab legs, steak, red snapper, grouper, on different days to choose from plus a number of other meat stations (ham, roast beef, chicken, fish, etc.) Plus a smoothie station in the morning and they made fresh whatever smoothie we requested.....even with almond milk. 9/10 star rating.Tradewinds - This is the steakhouse. We ate here for breakfast and dinner. Steaks were good......not great like a US steakhouse but solid considering it is part of the all inclusive. We ate here a lot as it is hard to turn down free steak. Staff were very nice and accomadated our special needs as our son has Crohn's Disease and requires a special diet.Lorenzos - Italian restaurant - pizza good. Everything else is ok nothing to write home about. They do have gluten free crust ...7/10 star ratingChevys - Great milkshakes. That is all we ordered from here as the other restaurants we too hard to pass upMoongate - Asian style food. Probably our favorite. The hibachi was fantastic as was the show they put on while cooking. Arrive early to avoid lines. The steak they use on the hibachi was amazing. 10/10 star rating.Habaneros - beach front mexican restaurant. Great baha and shrimp tacos. Great for a beach-side lunch. Drinks were great here as well 9/10. Casa cafe - Coffee shop with great service and they have a decent smoothie as well. 9/10 star rating. Pasteles - Deserts everywhere you look.....ice cream, treats, donuts, chocolate fondue, cakes, sweet and sour candies. Parent and kid's are all happy. 9/10 star ratingBastilles - French Adults Only - We had the filet and it was US steakhouse quality. Ate it a few times when we did not bring kids. 10/10 star rating Beach Its Cancun so the beaches are amazing. The water is a bit cold during spring break but great during September. As mentioned Hyatt Ziva has 3 beaches. 2 are calm and one not so calm. The beach near Tradewinds is nice but the water is not so calm. The 2 beaches near the water sports are calm and shallow but get deeper as you go out. There is a large floating rock climbing structure which is harder than it looks. They used to have a trampoline out there as well but it wasnt there in the spring. Security will check with you if you go out to the Tradewinds side beach upon your return to make sure you are staying at the hotel which we actually liked (keeps unauthorized people out). Overall Property/Staff:Everything is very well maintained and clean and the staff really go out of their way to make you have an amazing experience. I went to the bank before we left and got $300 worth of $1 bills and I am so glad I did as we left a few dollars at meals and $1 for drink rounds and they really took great care of us for it. Turquis building (Sky Swim Up) was nice and you get a personal butler which is handy in making reservations at the adult only restaurant Bastile as you get preffered service. There are plenty of pools to choose from and they do not feel crowded as this property is huge and is in my opinion the best location in cancun as it has 3 beaches becasue it is at the good side of the figure 7 Cancun Island. During spring break if you want a cabana you need to rise early and put some stuff on it as to unofficially reserve it. They can not be reserved otherwise except for the $450 ones on the beach.Activities: Every night at 8:30pm they have entertainment like magic shows, Mayan cultural shows, breakdancing/acrobat shows, fire shows, neon show, etc. Kid loved most of itKid zone:This was great. Staff very friendly and allowed us to have some alone time. Our son actually preferred to go here than hang out with us. Almost had to force him to spend time with us on the beach.Dolphins:We found a great deal online a few months before our trip so we did the 1 hour dolphine adventrure and it was so worth it. I recommend this highly. It is on site so you don't leave the hotelOverall:This is our place when we go to Cancun. The location and quality of the resort is to good to change. With the Hyatt name we don't have to worry about tainted alchohol and the security on the resort makes you feel safe. You can't even come up the hill to enter the resort without the guard making sure you have a reservation. Don't have to wear the annoying bracelets either. Just give your room number and last name at the restaurants.