Colin: Would you happen to have a map of the resort?

Comparing all Four Maya Riviera Hyatts
 

We just returned from 3 nights each in Playa and Mayakoba and I will start there.
Grand Hyatt PDC - Positives: I like the design with a closed courtyard with all rooms facing the only opening which is to the sea. You are in the middle of town but you would never know it until you step out onto the beach or the street. One of the most gorgeously designed spas I have ever been to in the world. Good Services. No resort fee. No service charge. Club is very nice with micro-cuisine and very helpful staff. Not huge but very comfortable well designed rooms including plunge pool suites. Hotel food is good at relatively reasonable resort prices. Many options off property for fun and fun from elegant to low brow at much lower cost. $$ Negatives: it is busy and you share space at the pools and restaurants with everyone. Party crowd or families.
Andaz Mayakoba - Positives: gorgeous natural setting, serene. Unusual design, service and ambience, not cookie cutter. Ocean Front Kings are literally 30 feet from a pristine deserted beach. Spread out which forces you to feel nature all around you. Nice to be able to go to the other resorts for dining. Negatives: $$$$, 15% resort fee and service charge. Spotty service. Rooms are design centric; cool chairs but not a single comfortable one to sit in except the couch on the balcony (which the plunge pools don't have). Neutrals: I am not sure I get the Andaz brand here, higher end; friendly staff but not stellar attentive service in general. Minimalist in both design and service. Some will love that others will not.
Quickly Zilara - I found much more frenetic than Hyatt PDC and at a higher price point. No privacy in your rooms, you can look left and right and see your neighbors. Good food though. Ziva - in the thick of Cancun but you may never know it if you stay on property. Many excellent restaurants to chose from and an Adults only building and pool so it is semi-serene. Rooms pretty standard. At a point so you have three beaches and sun all day.

Thanks for a very helpful comparison.

Thanks for the really helpful comparison. I'm torn between the Andaz and Grand PDC next year. I could use the club upgrade at PDC which sounds lovely, and the proximity to the restaurants and buzz of PDC is appealing for this single gay guy. But, the Andaz looks beautiful, and for the same points, the value is much greater at the Andaz as it is more costly. Thoughts for a single person on how to compare?

Does anyone have the email for the reservations manager? Thanks.

Trying to book a suite, shows available with cash but not with points. Anyone know why? I called Hyatt and the reservations person was also perplexed

Terrific Stay
 

I just returned from an AMAZING 4-night stay! I HIGHLY recommend this hotel to anyone that is looking to vacation in the Caribbean.

Transportation: Prior to arriving I secured prices for transportation to and from the Cancun airport. The hotel quoted me USD 157.20 each way. I decided to rent a car from National (even with the insurance it was a great price) since they had free valet parking at the resort. Transportation at the resort was pretty good, the most we ever waited was about 10 minutes at the beachside for a golf cart. Granted we were right next to the sanctuary, but we pretty regularly saw golf carts zipping by. Bicycles were difficult to find (we noticed 8 of them in the repair shop in the Back of House tour) but they are ordering more. We were told that most people kept them in their room once they found one.

Check-in: The check-in experience was fantastic and very similar to other Andaz resorts. The cenote design of the lobby was impressive and the welcome drink was fantastic. Our bags were quickly taken out of our car and brought to our room which was not yet ready because we arrived at about 1:00 PM. I was thanked for being a Globalist member and they confirmed my TSU into the Lagoon View Suite. The host gave us a tour of the property and then we asked to be brought to Olla Taco for lunch.

Olla Taco: Really great lunch! We only ate here once for lunch, but everything was terrific that we had including the Guacamole (which costs 220 Pesos here as opposed to 90 Pesos on the lagoon side). We ate a specialty brisket taco, steak taco, and chicken taco. It was a bit warm inside during the middle of the day, but we really enjoyed everything that we had here. We ate here once for breakfast which was a la carte or they had a small cold buffet. The waiter informed us that because of my Globalist status that I could pretty much get as much as we wanted off the menu. We (my wife and I) had 3 entree's (one as an appetizer) and a sweet bread basket. All of this was good, but definitely had a Mexican flavor as opposed to Cocina.

Cocina Milagro We ate here once for supper and 3 times for breakfast. For supper I had snapper and my wife had a mixed seafood type soup. We had a tres leche's cake for dessert. All of this was great and the service was fantastic. We also dined here for breakfast and they had a very large breakfast buffet with a combination of hot and cold items. We also appreciated how they had both American options and local favorites as well. What was even better was that our waiter offered us a a box to take some of the breakfast back to our room. This was perfect because we would eat a large breakfast (they served until 11:00 AM) around 10:30 then get a box to eat for a light lunch. This definitely helped to save us money since we were really only paying for supper each night.

Casa Amate: We ate here twice and both times were excellent. This is definitely the priciest restaurant at the Andaz. We got a tour of the house which was really neat before we sat down. We also had a trio of dedicated waitstaff (perhaps because of the low occupancy) who waited on us. We were the only people in the restaurant when we arrived at 6:00 PM each night, but it got busier as time went on. Terrific dishes and great atmosphere. They also had a happy hour from 5:00-7:00 PM with half off certain cocktails (about 6) and reduced pricing on appetizers (again certain appetizers; about 5). On our last night we just did this and had about 4 cocktails and 4 appetizers; treated it kind of like a tapas restaurant. I recommend sitting in the library or outside as it is really beautiful to watch the sun go down. My favorite cocktail was the Pink Paloma and my wife loved the Wake Me up at Andaz.

Olla Ceviche: We only ate here once for supper and I was not a huge fan. Granted I don’t like Ceviche so that was the main reason. If you are a fan then everything here would probably be great. We had the black octopus.

Gym: We did absolutely ZERO working out here, but it was a nice facility. Never saw more than two people in there at a time. We mainly used it to restock on waters since they had a fridge. So much cheaper than buying the bottled water at the restaurant.

Spa: We were offered a 20% discount as Globalist members, but did not partake since it was still about $400 for a couples’ massage and that did not include the service charge or tax. However, the hydrotherapy here was AMAZING! It is completely free (for now; the spa menu they emailed me showed prices for access) and we made a point of going here every day. Not many people know about it (I asked one of the attendants and he said there was only about 3 people total that would go through a day) so it was nice and relaxing. They had a hot tub, wet heat room, sauna, ice shower type thing, and full showers. After you finished you could go up in the relaxation room and drink cucumber water and eat some nuts.

Beach: The beach here was great! We didn’t mind the large sandbags and did not notice any issue with the seaweed while we were down there. Great and quick service from all the beach boys! It was extremely windy and the ocean was a yellow flag each day we were there so it wasn’t that great to actually get in the water. Unfortunately on our last day it was too windy to have the umbrellas out. I usually kept singles with me instead of tipping on the receipt.

Lagoon Pool: We came up here one day while it was too windy at the beach. Good service and fun to swim around. They had several cabanas which were open and you could have a staff member put a giant umbrella over them as well if you burn as quickly as I do.

The Room: We stayed in a Lagoon View Suite in building 17. It was truly fantastic! Since it was our honeymoon they had the room decorated with heart shaped balloons which was a nice touch. The room is really large with 2 outside balconies (one of which had the plunge pool) and an impressive bathroom. We never used the shower though since we would always go the spa for the hydrotherapy instead. Our balcony was extremely private and I would recommend (if your going for privacy) to ask for a suite in room 15-22. Some of the buildings had second floor lagoon suites which were not ideal as you could look down in them from the path above. The only issue that we had was that we were told that the plunge pool could not be heated. This is not correct. I verified with Colin (who had posted earlier in this thread) and could visibly see the two white heating elements in the pool itself. Once I told them that my friend had stayed here and had the pool heated did they then send engineering to flip on the heater. I think they may be trying to save cost since every person that we asked told us that it was not possible to heat up any plunge pool (I think only beach suites can't have their plunge pools heated). This was really the only issue though over the course of our entire stay.

Activities: There were a lot of different activities occurring throughout our stay. Unfortunately we did not get to partake in a lot of them, but the ones we did were a lot of fun. My favorite was the Back of House tour. They did this every day and our guide was super friendly. Her name was Annaia and she usually worked in Kimbo (kid’s club). We got to tour the back of house areas including the sales & marketing dept, housekeeping, engineering, kitchen, and more. It was really cool getting to see all the different things and how they worked. My wife’s favorite activity was the couples massage workshop (probably because she was the one who got the massage ha!). We also did the shaved ice at Olla Taco one afternoon and it was delicious.


Misc:
-Be careful to ask if some of the cocktails are spicy.
-I asked multiple people of the occupancy while we were at the resort and received varying responses from 25-32%. Frequently we felt like we were the only people there.
-No issues at all at check-out with breakfast charges for Globalist. They covered everything (including service charge) except additional gratuity.
-Each restaurant we ate at had a “Chef’s Choice” plate that was brought out to us with just a taste of one thing on the menu. This was really nice and allowed us to try different things.

Overall I was extremely impressed with our stay here. We will probably come back later this year we liked it so much. I snagged a great opening rate where we got the third night free; I also used my Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit as well. Let me know if anyone has any questions!

Would anyone be able to add this to the wiki? I think it could be helpful!

Question - any success stories of Diamonds/Globalists doing better than the Lagoon View suite (i.e., beachfront suite?) Heading there next week, used a DSU and booked into a Lagoon view, but want to know my odds of doing better.

I posted the upgrade rates in post #91.

They were at 25% occupancy and the rate sheet was presented immediately at the suggestion of an upgrade.

Glad I declined the upgrade. As mentioned in post #62, the beach location suites have 1/3 less space and a small, cold plunge pool awkwardly taking up half the balcony/patio with zero privacy.

Just returned from a 5 night stay. CreditCardGeek, I suspect we were there at the same time. A bunch of observations (this is going to be long and detailed):

- I'm really torn on this resort. I loved a lot of things about it, but also had some minor qualms. The other guests I spoke with were divided. Some loved it, some were actively seeking to move hotels.

Food & Drink:

- I think they need to overhaul some of their food options. Nachos were good, but fajitas were extremely underwhelming. I can get better fajitas at dozens of restaurants in any major US city. Tacos were good, and huge, but not nearly as "fancy" as most street tacos you'll find at upscale US Mexican restaurants (I'm talking fresh cilantro, maybe queso fresco, lime wedges, a couple of other vegetarian toppings, etc). The guac was fine, but I make better. If they are going to charge $12+, they could / should do like fancy US Mexican restaurants and put fruit in it, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, etc. Maybe have a couple of different options.

- Unfortunately, halfway through my stay, they dramatically raised prices at the lagoon pool, eliminating the good deals they had. The 90 peso guac mentioned by CreditCardGeek went up to 220 pesos. Chicken fajitas more than doubled in price. A raw tuna tostada went up 400%!

- There were food "specials" by the pool each day, with a big grill and lots of condiment toppings. They were expensive ($20+), and all American dishes like ribs, hamburgers, sausages, hot dogs, etc. Ribs or burgers do not interest me at an upscale resort in Riviera Maya. Where's the carne asada? Carnitas?

- Cocktails were "meh". Sort of what I'd expect at a mid-tier resort (ie. Sheraton) or a chain mexican restaurant, but with NYC or Four Seasons pricing ($17+ with included tax and tip). For the same price, the cocktails I got at the other resorts (Rosewood and Banyan Tree) were on a whole different planet quality-wise, including the margarita.

- If you're not getting free breakfast, Olla Taco has great options for very reasonable prices down by the beach. We ate here every morning, and unlimited coffee (including express drinks) and fresh juice is included in the price.

- We ate mostly at the other restaurants in Mayakoba, and enjoyed each of our meals, especially liking Safron. It's very expensive, but to me was a noticeable step up from any Thai food I've had outside Thailand, and rivaling some of the better Thai food I've had in Thailand. My wife thought her Pad Thai was underwhelming, but I really loved my $40 beef curry, which came with a huge amount of beef that was so tender I could have cut it with my spoon.

- We ate at Casa Amate one night, and I dug the vibe, and the food was quite good. We never did go to Cocina Milagro.

- It has been mentioned before in this thread, but bottled water easily throws $12 or $14 on your bill at every meal. My wife kept doing it because she was sketched out by the tap water in the pitchers, but I drank it all week long, and never got sick. I resorted to bringing bottled water from the room with us to restaurants.

- Per my note above, the general consensus from other guests I spoke to was that the food and drink quality needs to be higher for the price point they are charging.

Service:

- Service, generally, was very good. Most of the time, golf carts came in 90 seconds or less. The resort was not very busy, so that may have helped. The restaurant managers were fantastic, and all the guys driving the golf carts were super friendly. Drink/food staff at the pools and restaurants were ok, some better than others.

- We arrived around 11am, and I did the online check in the day before. Our room wasn't ready at 11, but it was by 1pm, which is pretty good for a resort and before the normal check in time. This is in contrast to the GH Playa, where last year my room wasn't ready until 6pm (and I wasn't happy about it).

- The hotel provides SUV service to the other hotels on property, and we never had to wait more than 2 minutes in the lobby.

- My experience with the concierge was more mixed. They did ultimately get me a reservation at Saffron, but a couple of times they forgot to call me back on that, and other reservations, and I kept having to check in with them. Others had far worse experiences, and one couple was sent on a snorkeling trip to a boat outfit that had closed months ago (they didn't find out until they got there). They wasted a half day, plus $$$ on ground transfers.

- Generally, other than a few issues with the concierge not being responsive, I think their staff is well selected and trained, and they seem to really care about giving great service.

Room:

- We stayed in a Lagoon View Suite in building 11. My wife was "wowed" by the suite, which I was very pleased with, given we have stayed in suites at Park Hyatt Mallorca, St Regis Princeville, lots of ski resorts, lots of nice city hotels, GH Playa, luxury safaris in South Africa, etc. Anyway, we really liked it, and other than the lack of a bathtub, I would say it is a big step up from the suites at GH Playa. The plunge pool was shaded much of the day, which kept it a little colder, but also was nice to get out of the sun. The decks were huge, with plenty of space for hanging out.

- The suite has two doors: an outer door to get to a small area near the plunge pool, then the inner door to the actual suite. There is a third door just past the first one that goes to another hotel room. This is obviously set up to turn the whole thing into a two bedroom suite, which would be great for larger families. You get interior access without sharing an adjoining wall (the plunge pool sits between the main suite and the hotel room next to it).

- I'm really annoyed to see CreditCardGeek's comment about heating the plunge pool. I had small children with me (6 and 2), and we would have used this more if we could have gotten it warmer. Pretty big miss from the hotel's perspective, IMO.

- I really liked our location in building 11. CreditCardGeek's photo of the resort map is helpful. I actually think building 10 might be optimal for the Lagoon, as it has the best views of the lagoon and the Rosewood residences, plus is very close to the spa, gym, lagoon pool, dock, and restaurants. Buildings 10 and 11 bracket the pool area, but we never heard noise from anything during the day or night. Our building, building 11, still looks out at a good bit of water, plus both restaurants (Cocina Milagra and Casa Amate), and is close to everything (especially the Kids Club). It seems to me that some of the other buildings will have views looking onto each other, and you might need golf cart rides to go pretty much anywhere (or at least have a much longer walk to the lagoon pool area). I'd be curious to see the views from the higher #'s suites in terms of privacy; for our view, you can look earlier in the post for JKJetSetter's picture from building 12 (we were next door). My recommendation: the lower #'d Lagoon suites are optimal.

- AC was powerful.

- Our two small children were able to sleep on the couch without issue. With the cushions removed, and sheets / blanked on it, it's almost the size of a full bed. I actually preferred this to the pull-out sofa in the GH Playa suite, which I found very mushy.

Resort Amenities:

- Let's start with Kimbo, the kid's club. You can't beat free, and there are no charges. It's heavily used; even with the hotel not crowded, there were always kids there, which was a plus for my 6 y/o. The nice young women who work there seem to work hard, and there was always some kind of art project or game going on. They also often have some kind of food thing (one day it was make your own pizza, another day they made cupcakes, another it was ice cones). Lastly, they take the kids to the beach / pool each day, so your kid is not getting stuck inside. Our daughter loved it there, and probably went 3 of the 5 days for about 3 hours each.

- Spa - I forgot about the free hydrotherapy, and am kicking myself for not figuring out a way to take advantage, or send my wife. Other than that, I thought it was overpriced. With tax and tip, a 1 hour massage would have approached $300. If I felt like paying that kind of money for a spa, I would have opted for the Banyan Tree or Rosewood's spa. Even with the 20% discount, we skipped the services. $400 a day in food felt like plenty of spending as it was.

- Beach - The beach was ok. It might be nice if they could have used white sandbags instead of black; it would make them stand out less. They definitely are fighting erosion. The water was decently choppy most of the 5 days we were here, which took away from the crystal blue color we saw last year in Playa del Carmen. That said, it is large, and not crowded at all. You won't be fighting over beach chairs or umbrellas, which is a huge plus. There was a lot of seaweed, but they had a small army raking it up each day.

- Pools - As has been mentioned, the beach pool is moderately sized, and fairly cold. The Lagoon pool is 3-4x the size, with multiple pools, two hot tubs, and 2 of the pools are like bath water. This was fantastic for parents of small kids, who get cold easily. The only problem is, everyone is competing for that warm water. Our kids are well behaved, and never splashed anyone, but I saw some conflicts between drunk adults making out in the hot tubs or the pool right next to them, and kids playing on the pool toys. Each pool had multiple free treats per day, generally stuff like fruit, juice, gello, etc. Very popular with the kids.

- Cenote and El Pueblita - These are worth a quick visit. The Pueblita actually had a lot of events (stuff like cooking schools and markets) that were not advertised at the hotel anywhere I could find. I found this a bit of a miss, as we might have visited some of them.

- Boat ride / ecotour - We did this a couple of times and really enjoyed it. The guides are quite good, and you can/will see a lot of wildlife, including small crocodiles, birds, iguanas, etc. The canals are quite pretty, and the boats are both covered, and electric (ie. quiet).

- Golf - I really wanted to play, but opted against it to spend time with the spouse and kids. The course looked ok, but mainly looked like a jungle course. Twilight rate is $129, and starts at 1pm. Club rental is $50. They do not rent shoes (unlike Papagayo), so bring your own or wear tennis shoes.

- Gym - Beautiful, and well stocked. Lots of machines, free weights, fresh fruit, good air conditioning, and completely glass with nice views. I worked out a couple of times, and each time there were two other people in there. My wife said a couple of times she went it was somewhat crowded. They get an A+ here, one of the nicest resort gyms I've used.

General / Logistical:

- We used USA Transfers/Entertainment Plus for ground transfers from CUN, which were $105 (+tip) RT for 4 people in a van. They are reliable, friendly, and very quick to respond. I found that recommendation last year in the GH Playa thread.

- There were a decent amount of mosquitos. All restaurants have spray, but we were bitten (even with spray) every time we sat outside at a restaurant that wasn't at a beach at night, including Casa Amate and Saffron. Beach restaurants were windy enough it wasn't an issue. There were also mosquitos in the lobby / sanctuary area. It makes sense given the jungle / mangrove environment. If you're worried about Zika, this might be a factor. I never saw a mosquito last year at GH Playa.

- They need more bikes. I think I saw on TripAdvisor they claim they are on order, but the other resorts constantly had plenty of bikes at each of their locations. Andaz needs to get with the program. Biking around the resort is a great way to get around.

- Get out and see the other resorts. Rosewood and Banyan Tree are gorgeous. We walked around the lobby and had drinks at their bars, as well as ate at their restaurants. Cello (at Banyan Tree) is new, and seems to be getting poor reviews. BT had a movie night showing "Trolls" and popcorn / ice cream for the kids. We ate at Saffron first, then drank at the bar and got some couple time while the rugrats sat, enthralled. It was great.

- Like many other resorts I've been to, there were a lot of kids. I think we need to face that fact that the people that can afford to stay here are often in their 30's, 40's, or 50's with families. With the kids club and warm pools, I would classify this as a very family-friendly resort. I would guess more families with kids than single couples.

- Layout - I think the distance from the lagoon to the beach has been overstated. I ran it in 8 minutes, so I would guess it is about a mile. The path is concrete, well lit, and has multiple crossing with roads going to the Rosewood.

Very detailed write up, thank you. Now, give it a ranking out of five stars...

Maybe a little bit easier to rank each of the categories, because they vary considerably:

- Amenities (pool, gym, spa, kids club): 5 stars, easily.

- Lagoon View Suite: 5 stars, easily. One of my favorite hotel suites we've stayed in.

- Service: 4 stars, but that was with the resort half empty. I might be nervous it would fall if they were at full capacity.

- Food & Drink: 2 stars, given I have high expectations when paying $17 for a margarita. The good news, though, is the other resorts have great offerings and you can just head there.

One other thing I neglected to mention is that I think the resort will get much prettier as the plants grow in. It was really dry while we were there (never rained). There was a lot of recently planted sod that hadn't been properly watered (and was dying), but they are still getting their sprinkler systems set up. Eventually all the plants will be established and I think that will make the views look even better. Right now, it sometimes looks a little "scrubby" (ie. like they cut down a jungle to build a hotel, which is pretty much what happened).

Can Globalists take the diamond breakfast in the room here?

We were told no

Quick review of this property (stayed here for four days this past weekend using a DSU).

Summary: FT readers have this place dead on. The hard product is fantastic. The soft product is not fantastic.

What I liked:

Suite/room: used a DSU for a Lagoon-View suite. Beautiful, spacious suite, two balconys, and I used the plunge pool much more than I expected. Gorgeous suite, no complaints.

Grounds: Beautiful. Vegetation is still growing in, but the architecture and eco-focus were both awesome. Also, very easy to get beach chairs. Beach staff is also very good. Stunning resort.

Restaurants: food was very good, if a little on the pricey side for Mexico. Diamond Breakfast is much better in Casa Milagro than Olla Taco (although we had both a lunch and a dinner at Ollie Taco and loved it). Had a dinner at Casa Amate that was also quite good. Design and layout of Casa Amate are very quirky and interesting. Generally found restaurant staff to be very friendly and attentive.

Crowds: Rather, the complete lack thereof. Not joking, it felt like about 20 people were staying at this resort, although we were told they were at 70% capacity over the weekend. Routinely, there would be no more than 3 or 4 other people at the pools and restaurants. Mind you this is over a weekend in April. Just bizarre, although I loved it. It felt like I was at an extremely secluded resort.

What I didn't like:

Front Desk/Concierge: Oh boy. Just a mess. Couple of examples I'll highlight: (i) at check-in, I got out of the cab and was told to wait on one of the benches in the sanctuary. 10 minutes went by, no one came for us, spoke to us, or offered us a drink. They were absolutely NOT busy at that time. If that is how they treat Globalists, would hate to see how non-elites fare at check in. (2) Concierge is awful. Before we arrived, my wife called to organize a snorkeling excursion at the underwater museum in Cancun. Concierge said that was only accessible by scuba...which was just flatly wrong and could be determined by a two-minute browsing of the website. Even worse, we asked for reservations on a Sunday night at Saffron, the Thai restaurant in Banyon Tree. The concierge said nothing was available. Given that it was a Sunday night, my ........ detector went up. I called myself...and secured a reservation for 2 at 8 pm. Also, expect to have to make multiple requests to get routine tasks completed (arranging golf carts, printing out tickets, etc). I'll chalk this up to this being a new resort (and not just plain laziness or incompetence), but just know that the front desk/concierge staff will not be helpful.

Golf cart situation: there are plenty of them, but it gets a bit annoying to constantly need golf carts to get anywhere. Granted, we were staying in a building close to the sanctuary and I knew this going in, but the total reliance on golf carts annoyed me more than I anticipated.

Overall, I did enjoy my stay and the property is beautiful. It's also very easy to use DSUs here (and the Lagoon View Suite is fantastic). But I would only come back on a cash/points or points stay (assuming it remains Category 5). No way I'm paying full freight for this place at $500/night, the service level here just doesn't warrant that kind of price.

Sorry to hear you had such a bad check in experience. Ours was outstanding. We were greeted right away, brought welcome drinks (alcoholic, btw), and then brought refills. Room was ready several hours early, in contrast to GH Playa last year where it was several hours late. They also brought my children little jewel things to throw into the cent and make a wish; my wife thought that was cute.

I hope you let someone know; they really should throw you some points, given how important first impressions are.

That said, 100% agree with your view of the concierge. I can't remember if I mentioned this in my review, but the BT restaurants charge you something like $60 if you no-show. The concierge did a horrible job explaining this, and I had to make an extra trip over there to fill out some form and sign it agreeing to the terms. This was before they could even tell me if they could get a dinner reservation at Saffron!

Good point - I should ask for some points as a result of the horrific check in experience. Also, the concierge gave me the same spiel about needing to sign forms and give a CC for Saffron. Interestingly, when I called myself, they did not ask for a CC.

All these reviews are very appreciated thanks! One question, are any of the pools comfortable for swimming laps i.e. not bath temperature not too cold but 83° to 86°

i am an excellent, avid swimmer. i did laps late or early in the day at the "higher" lagoon pool several times. gets a little wavy, but temp and length (approx 25y) were good for laps, given you're at a resort.

during the day people were in the pool and then not good for laps. its the pool nearest the gym.

I felt like the beach pool was the coolest of all the pools at the Andaz. I prefer cool pools when swimming laps (since I'm exerting myself), and it was never crowded (it was empty before 10 or 11am, and after maybe 4pm). I wound up running and using the gym, but had I opted for laps, i would have swam there. I didn't feel like it was overly cold.

What's the tipping situation like? Is it expected to tip each member of the staff for any transportation at all, and if so, how much? (e.g. taking a golf cart, getting on a boat from the lagoon to the beach, taking a car to one of the other mayakoba resorts)

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We never tipped on transportation via golf cart and did not feel pressured at all. I would not tip since it is kind of a given since the resort is so spread out.

I highly highly recommend this hotel especially in comparison to the Ziva. We disliked the Ziva so much that we left after only 1 night. It might have been because it was our first all-inclusive or that we were so used to the service at the Andaz, but regardless I would definitely stay here instead. Granted the service charge does make it more expensive, it is much much more luxurious and isolated.

There is the variable 15% resort fee which goes to the hotel staff and helps cover the cost of the amenities they are providing. With that said, we did tip a couple of golf cart drivers who we ended up with repeatedly BUT we never felt there was any such expectation. We only did it as a mere thanks, usually at night after coming back from dinner because it was usually the same driver who dropped us off at the restaurant. Although I will say there is no expectation of tips on the golf cart as that is their primary mode of transportation for purposely building such a spread-out resort...if they don't make moving around convenient then people won't visit them. We did tip the boat captain during our private eco lagoon tours, because we felt it was a nice gesture as they were doing something extra to applease us. We didn't tip when we used the boat as a mere form of transportation between the lagoon and beach side once.

Impressed
 

Just finished a 9 night stay using 2 DSU last week (Lagoon View Suite). Had a great rate of every 3rd night free and using my Prestige got the 4th night also.

I was very impressed with the service. Concierge and all did a fantastic job. Called by my last name throughout the property. The food was good. Expensive a bit but I think your getting what you pay for. Went to visit a different resort (Vedanta) where the food was cheaper but it was bland as hell.

*Resort fee was waived for Globalist.
*In room Breakfast was ok'd with no issue
*Parking and Valet is Free
*No issues with Buggy wait times

The resort looked empty, but during the holiday weekend they where 100% full and service was still there without any problems, but it was busy.

15% service charge is added to everything, so tip is not necessary but I tipped extra couple of bucks here and there.

Baby sitting services is available at $20 per hour for 1 or $30 per hour for 2 kids. 2 hour minimum. These are subbed out to a company outside of Mayakoba, we tried it 3 times and was great! Note that they charge extra $15 transportation fee after 19:00 to be paid directly to the sitter for taxi ride

Ate at Banyan tree twice. Tomahawk and Saffron. Also ate at the asian restaurant at the Fairmont, forgot the name, but that was good too! I love how they transfer you within the Mayakoba on Cadillac escalades for free, nice touch in my opinion.

I think this resort is fantastic! The only thing I think they need to work on is the Beach area. Maybe they can clean up the beach every morning by removing the plants (or whatever the green stuff is) that washes ashore. This way its more appealing to the eyes.

Ill definitely hit this hotel again.

Do youby chance have any contact info for hotel manager?

I need to know about the ceviche... is it decent? (a good trip to Mexico relies on good ceviche)

My overall impression was that it was at least a step or two above average, but not "out of this world" exceptional (as a disclaimer, I only ate at Olla Ceviche once during my 1.5 week stay). They definitely had quite the selection of different types of ceviche as well. However, in my opinion, Olla Taco had the better food of the two beach restaurants.

6K/n suite upgrade awards now confirm into either Lagoon Suite or Beach Suite. not bad with the current $220/n standard rates.

Shouldn't an Exolorist or globalist be entitled to the Oceanfront Studio at this property without using a DSU? This room also has plunge pool and is higher in price than the Lagoon and Beach suites.

We just booked this hotel using a 6k upgrade, and the concierge was nice enough to send me floorpans of each of the room types. I'm confused in this thread that the lagoon suites are described as being bigger than the beach suites, as they seem identical in the layouts? Does anyone know?

lagoon suite has three balconies, one of which contains a private, heated pool 3x the size of the beach suite. due to being on the third floor and placement of the pool six feet back from the railing, the pool enjoys full privacy.

beach suite has two balconies, one of which contains a private, unheated pool 1/3 the size of the lagoon suite.

the interior space of the beach suite & lagoon suite are identical.

while my initial thoughts were that the lagoon suite was preferable for these reasons, having now stayed at the beach on a return visit, I do believe I would choose the beach location in the future if available for the same price.
pretty nice to be steps from the sand.

[QUOTE=Colin;28886513]lagoon suite has three balconies, one of which contains a private, heated pool 3x the size of the beach suite. due to being on the third floor and placement of the pool six feet back from the railing, the pool enjoys full privacy.

beach suite has two balconies, one of which contains a private, unheated pool 1/3 the size of the lagoon suite.

the interior space of the beach suite & lagoon suite are identical.

while my initial thoughts were that the lagoon suite was preferable for these reasons, having now stayed at the beach on a return visit, I do believe I would choose the beach location in the future if available for the same price.
pretty nice to be steps from the sand.

Whoops. I don't know how to post images. Oh well! The floorplan he sent me has all of them with three balconies...Thank you though!

http://img4.imagetitan.com/img4/smal...t8.58.19pm.pnghttp://img4.imagetitan.com/img4/smal...t8.58.44pm.png

[QUOTE=Becky2010;28886531]

yeah, that beach suite is just wrong. i have corrected it:
https://image.ibb.co/hndVvb/temp.jpg

Thanks, Colin! Ok. I think we will stick with the beach anyway. The concierge did say that we could get a beach double that adjoined. We need two rooms as we are a family of five. Right now we actually have two suites booked using the 6k a night upgrade, which is pretty amazing value. We are excited to try out the property!

the beach suite is on floor1 or floor2

only the beach suite on floor2 offers a true connecting room option where the outdoors hallway between bedrooms is behind lockable doors

ok! That’s helpful. Hopefully that’s what we will be able to get. I wish that there was some way to use the upgrade to a beach front room, but you can’t have everything! With the ocean and the pools everywhere, I’m not sure how much we’d use that little plunge pool. Especially if it’s freezing!