BlueBay Grand Esmeralda - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

17674 reviews

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  Excellent! Amazing Staff!

  We are at the tail end of our muy excelente honeymoon vacation in Cancun Mexico staying at BlueBay Grand Esmeralda. It had been an absolute 100% wonderful time - except for all the rain this week - but we are making the most of it. The food is fantastic here in Mexico - especially the amazingly delicious El Fogon downtown Playa del Carmen - and the staff at BlueBay are the nicest, best staff at any resort we've stayed at! We have, what we feel, is the best swim up suite at the resort. With a view of the main pool and the ocean and sun all day long! The room is large and in excellent condition. Pool and room is cleaned daily and always fully stocked with whatever we need. We are spending time with a family members Circle One membership and it has made things even better. Andrea, our Concierge, has been phenomenal with her customer service going above and beyond to make our stay fantastic - muchas gracias, Andrea! Our Circle One bartender / beach area security, Israel has been awesome as well. Super friendly, always willing to help and doing whatever he can to make you comfortable AND makes great drinks. His coworker Samuel has also been good. Shout out to the VIP cart driver Gerry or "Speedy González" as we call him as he has been our ever reliable, fun personality driver to get around with. Always smiling and waving. As we have a swim up suite we haven't been at the main pool every day but when we are there we enjoy the entertainment staff especially Alondra, Kaci, Gus and Lalo. Shout out to the rest of the staff too as they do a great job! Night time entertainment has also been good. Whereas we only saw a couple shows - they were fantastic especially the aerial artist night and the (Mayan? African?) men who did all the acrobatics...sorry not sure what to call them but I'll include a photo - they were increíble!!!! I also want to mention the excursion crew at Xcaret.com - they are fantastic! Highly recommend using their services as they are thorough, prepared, and their guides are knowledgeable, happy, friendly and helpful. We used them for the deluxe tours to Chichen Itza and Isla Mujeres tours. Everything was excelent! I left reviews on their page. We had joined the Facebook page for this resort and there are a lot of bitter people saying a lot of mean things that I hope staff don't see. Whereas, yes, they need more pool/beach loungers and some updates (not our room it's amazing). All I can say is if you have high standards go somewhere that costs more. Don't take all the bad reviews too seriously.

  Jan 23, 2025
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  Exquisite Dining Experience

  We booked a dinner at BBGE that is held only once a week and must have 30 people booked. The menu and cuisine change each week and are a surprise to the guests. It was 8 courses of beautifully presented Mexican cuisine! Octopus, gazpacho, salmon and tuna lox, steak (A+), sea bass, chicken, sorbet, and dessert spectacular! Guacamole ice cream etc. Juan, the chef, is artistic and creative. Eduardo greeted us in a welcoming manner while Alberto and Jose did a superb job with service. It seemed like a real team effort, with everyone happy to give their all. It was a totally spectacular evening in a lovely venue in the L’Atelier restaurant. I recommend you eat very little during the day in order to enjoy this experience!

  Jan 23, 2025
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  Don't stay here... you have been warned.

  Check in process at this hotel is awful. Understaffed to the extreme. The room we got was in disrepair.... safe ripped off from wall, main door handle on floor. So we go back to ask far a different room. No dice, we would have to downgrade our paid for ocean view to a back 40 garden view. The said would send maintenance guy to fix issues.... but we would have to wait in room for him up to 3 hours. Yeesh. Sooo maintenance guy finally shows up, with NO tools.... he looked and said would be back in a couple of more hours and we need to wait in room for him. I gave up and fixed the door handle myself, safe out of commission for whole trip. Very, very poor customer treatment, lost the whole first day of a 7 day vaction dealing with this, but Bluebay doesn't care. Whole facility is poor maintenance, water leaks in every building, thatch roofing missing is spots... this place needs some serious maintenance. For the price, there are far better resorts. Stay away from this one.

  Jan 23, 2025
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  Put expectations aside and be your kind ,real true, self! The staff, your experience of Mexico will be amazing!

  Our first Experience to Mexico arriving Jan 31st for 2 weeks with my 2 boys (12 and 16)! We wanted a more real experience as we are not royalty and what we got was absolutely perfect for our expectations! Not perfect Not overly waited on! Treated like average respected individuals that treat others with kindness.. and that was what we wanted! I intentionally don't present well and my children follow suit! Being kind and naturally friendly to staff and other vacationers helped us find our place! The room was lovely, the staff were very friendly ( no... not buying into time share) and they may try! The rear pool was exactly what we wanted.. kind of away from the main holiday party vacation ideology but overall there wasn't that much of that either. Mostly normal Canadians, northern Usa'ers with a peppering of many other ethnic travelers but most were North Americans attempting to evade the snow and cold which would have to say 99% of them were alright! Food was great, beach was pretty/ well kept but Meh for snorkeling! A short walk north along the beach you find a cenote river which is splendid and pristine! A swim up the current under the bridge and the mangrove overgrowth canopy river is well worth the effortless lazy return to the ocean! Well worth the effort Are there draw backs? Yes if you think you are a queen or a king!... likely not the place! If you hear water in the bottom of the elevator when it goes down....its probably water and wouldn't recommend using that elevator...Take the stairs! The back of the resort is built on a swampy area...if you are not fond of that smell... recommend against asking for a room in the back area. A few element of accommodations were not up to what I thought was acceptable and with a simple inquiry, those elements were immediately addressed by the staff! Reasonable...all good in this budget zone! We had a back area room that overlooked the rear secluded pool ,bar and lunch venue! It was incredible! The people in this area were laid back, staff were amazing, and we had freedom and seclusion! Met many of great people and plenty of local wildlife that call the resort there home in this zone! I felt blessed every time I woke up and walked to the patio! The resort was a great launch off to explore elements of Mexico. every other day we had excursions to climb a pyramid/ explore ruins, swam with turtles, ziplined through the jungle, cenote swimming, pet some baby jaguars, shopped, snorkeling, visit more ruins and pyramids (we were not allowed to climb this one) a few more cenote swimming, diving, repelling! Got a personal tour into the city/other ruins and experienced some authentic Mexico, Mexican people's way of life and there authentic dishes. Moments you cant replace with anything! Overall was exactly what we wanted but many have expectations that are not ours! Was honored we got to experience Mexico the way that we did with its amazing people, extraordinary culture and wisdom of there wonderful guides!

  Jan 21, 2025
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  Lovely evening by Circleone at Bluebay in Mayan Riviera

  The best service, and the food has been into perfection with great presentation, and live music. Chef Juan has been great, the steak, the octopus, The desert, the wine pairing, and Alberto Central has been so friendly and so professional. We would love to have the experience again.

  Jan 21, 2025