Ocean Riviera Paradise - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

16613 reviews

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  Relaxing stay

  Here's my review of staying at this hotel January 16-23. Myself, my husband and my 10 year old in a Privilege Junior Suite booked via Air Canada Vacations. We booked this trip to relax and do nothing. No cleaning no cooking NOTHING. Check in - We arrived around 6 pm EST time, having been awake since about 3 am PST. Privilege check in was smooth. We paid ~$80 CAD in environmental fees. We were then told to wait for out butler to get us. I will speak to this at the end of the review. Room - we had a second floor garden view. Perfect for the three of us. The pull out bed worked great for our son and he had no complaints (and he's been in some bad pullouts before). Didn't notice any musty/mold smell and felt the rooms were very nice, well maintained and clean. They were actively doing maintenance on the building throughout our stay (painting, repairs) that was not intrusive at all. We had a great view of the back of the cenote and got to witness the evening battle between house keeping and the coatis from our balcony. Loved it! Pool - we only used the privilege pool since it was right in front of us. The privilege section could definitely be bigger but we had no problems getting loungers outside of that area. We still received drink service so no complaints from us! It also had a raccoon that raided the trash can at the same spot every night that I enjoyed watching 😃 Beach - again we only used the privilege area at the beach. This was harder to get a spot but we managed both times we went. Did feel that the beach (and pool really) could use more servers. There was a big dump of sargassum the day we got there but it was handled and cleaned up by the time we got to the beach. Yes there is not a ton of beach area and there are some rocks in the water to navigate. I didn't need water shoes but my son did. I found having my polarized sunglasses on allowed me to see the rocks in the water and avoid them. Son enjoyed just getting rocked by waves and rolling in the water near shore but he's easy to please that way. Food - Due to our son, we often had to pick where to eat in the moment. We had breakfast in the privilege lounge most mornings. Service there varied but was over all good. We did the buffet breakfast once and it was meh. The last day we ordered room service breakfast and wished we had done that all week! Lunches were buffet and beach one time. We didn't have big lunches so this was fine. We did two a la carte dinners, La Locanda and the steak house. Loved La Locanda. It was the best meal and service any of us had the whole trip. Skip the steak house, service and food were not good. I used my "special meal" to get the prime rib and it was awful. It was also my birthday and not acknowledged at all despite mentioning in the reservation. The rest of the dinners were at the buffet. We all really enjoyed the buffet as there was something we all liked. There was almost too much food and sometime hard to find the condiment/sauce/etc. you were looking for. It was like one of those detective mobile games were you have to find the hidden items. There would sometimes be a wait for the more popular items. I enjoyed everything I ate. We did grab ice cream a few times and it's okay. We'd grab random coffees from the privilege lounge was well. Were grateful for Route 66 when we had to leave at 4 am departure day. Nothing like cheese sticks first thing in the morning! Drinks were definitely watered down, especially if you didn't see them pour. I don't really drink, and when I do I'm lucky if I finish a drink it hits me so hard. I drank 1-3 drinks a day here and barely got buzzed. Recommend ordering drinks direct from a bartender with a good tip if you care about that. Hotel grounds and facilities - Be prepared to walk quite a bit or wait for the train to take you where you need to go. The grounds are well maintained and beautiful! Enjoyed seeing monkey, coatis, raccoons and lots of birds. For the love of god don't try to pet the wildlife. I saw two different people get bit. We played pool once in the family lounge and went bowling. Bowling was fun as long as you have no expectations of it being a top notch facility. It was well used and it showed. Butler service - After check in it took almost half an hour to get a cart and start heading to the room. Our butler insisted on taking our small carry ons, including my husband's CPAP machine. We start to take off on a tour of the resort and then out behind the tennis courts we all hear a thumping noise. The CPAP bag had been stored beside the driver, unsecured and fell off the train where it got run over. My husband was, rightfully so, very upset about this. Here we are on our first all inclusive vacation in over 15 years and he's worried he's not going to be able to sleep the entire trip. We asked to just go straight to the room, checked the machine and thankfully only the water reservoir was cracked but usable. We just wanted to get food and sleep but our butler kept trying to show us stuff in the room. It was a bad start to a good vacation! I have not named our butler because it was just an awkward mess for everyone and they did go out of their way to look for a replacement piece and when one wasn't found, they gave us canadian money from their own pocket to pay for it. We probably should have asked for a new butler the next day but didn't want to spend our vacation dealing with it and didn't end up using the service much. It was easier and faster to book our own dinners. I did get a surprise birthday cake in my room...two days before my birthday. Would we come here again? Absolutely! It was exactly what we needed. Would we book privilege again? Maybe if we had a different butler. We did really enjoy daily room service to keep our son fed, the privilege pool and beach areas, premium alcohol, and not worrying about beach towels.

  Jan 26, 2026
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  There are far better resorts than this place for similar pricing.

  Pros: 1. spacious rooms, but dated looking (reno was mediocre) 3. lush, green grounds 4. Tasty food 5. Ocean was warm 6. Great water park for kids (but water is freezing) 7. Nice playground for kids to enjoy in the evenings 8. well lit surroundings at night 9. Beautiful sunrises Cons: 1. useless customer service and guest services for any issue 2. Terrible mixed drinks (not sure why but they were always bitter tasting) 3. Ineffective online a la carte restaurant booking platform (we only managed to get one reservation for our party of 6 during the entire week) 4. Freezing pools - especially not worth paying the extra $ for the swim up pool suites. We saw one person swimming in those pools all week and spoke with a couple who paid extra for this "luxury" but never used it because the water was too cold. They regretted their upgrade immediately upon arrival. 5. Long line ups at the cafe, beach bar and in person restaurant reservations 6. Rocky beach with a small clear section to swim 7. Insufficient beach loungers for the size of the resort. If you want to secure a palapa on the beach, be prepared to get up by 7:15 am to go reserve some chairs. 8. No consideration for people with disabilities (eg, no designated area on the beach or at a restaurant to accommodate a wheelchair). We were expected to wheel my elderly mother between a half dozen tables and chairs three times a day when it would have made more sense to reserve 1-2 tables near the entrance of the buffet for seniors with disabilities. In summary, if you find a fantastic deal for this resort, I wouldn't hesitate. For what we paid, it was definitely not worth it ($3K pp x 6). For a similar price, we have stayed at far better resorts in the Cancun/Mayan/Costa Mujeres area during this same time every year. I tried to get assistance with a few issues but received no help. When I asked if someone could book a dinner for our family of 6 since I was not successful online, I was told it was not possible and that if I wanted to eat together, I could order room service. Seriously. 😐 The excuses were always the same: the hotel is almost at capacity, it's a busy time, it's new year's, etc. I heard it all but I will tell you that I always travel at this peak time of year, so comparing apples to apples, they simply couldn't keep up with the demand, unlike other resorts. I was given the manager's email, sent an email and have not yet heard a reply. We returned 3 weeks ago from our trip.

  Jan 26, 2026
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  Experience

  Everything here at the resort is so good, the restaurant margaritas is very nicer here food is so delicious and the drinks so nice, the entertainment with Arturo is the best thing in the resort

  Jan 25, 2026
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  NOT An adults only resort. Food 2-3stars max.

  This is a lower class resort with only 1 building 1 pool for adults, children and families are able to walk by your "adult only extra $ rooms" and cry loudly. If I am paying for adult only or on a honeymoon I would not expect to see families everywhere. I paid extra to have a break for my family. You cannot plan your week of restaurants ahead, it's a scramble at 8:30am everyday. Poorly run, don't plan on sleeping in or you will miss any decent n reservations. Route 66- absolute horrible overcooked brisket, chicken. Don't arrive hungry because there will be nothing decent to eat. The grounds are bare minimum foliage and not beautiful like other resorts. My sisters room had no phone or air conditioning. They asked repeatedly to fix the phone - no one came. The beach is a rocky hazard- bring water shoes on you will leave with cuts on your feet or worse a gash in your head from falling. I brought my two adult sons because I had told them so much about Mexico and the one son could not get home to real food fast enough. I hope I can just save one person from the disappointment of hard earned money wasted. If you have a young family this may be ok for you the play area looked nice, it was a small resort and easy to get around for kids. Adults- stay away. You can do better. Also the staff doesn't care for serving you drinks on the beach, or pool. Stand in line or don't drink are your options.

  Jan 25, 2026
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  Luxury Resort or Elaborate Scam? Still Not Sure.

  This was hands down the worst experience I’ve ever had at an all-inclusive resort, and I would strongly urge anyone considering this place to save their money and go literally anywhere else. We arrived as part of a large wedding group, with all rooms booked together well in advance. Despite this, at check-in the front desk claimed they “couldn’t find” our specific reservation within the group booking. Rather than fixing their mistake, they forced us to pay a $200 cash deposit just to be given a room. On top of that, we were required to hand over our passports as collateral. This resulted in over $50 in ATM fees, all because of an issue they admitted is “common” for them. Completely unacceptable for a so-called luxury resort. It didn’t stop there. Each person in our group was charged a different amount for the environmental tax (ranging from 20USD to 120USD per room for the exact same room type and duration of stay), with no receipts provided. When we later questioned this and asked for refunds, we were told—without irony—that the employee who collected the money had stolen it, and therefore the hotel could not refund us. Let that sink in: we were told we were out hundreds of dollars because of their internal theft problem. Throughout the stay, it felt like the resort was actively trying to scam or upcharge us at every opportunity. One particularly outrageous example: our entire group woke up early to be first in line to book a Teppanyaki reservation. Even though we followed their process exactly, we were told we could only get a table for our group if we purchased two bottles of wine. At an all-inclusive resort. That we had already paid for. While I will say that most of the servers were kind and hardworking, the front-desk reception staff were shockingly rude, dismissive, and unaccommodating. Any issue we raised was met with attitude, excuses, or outright refusal to help. The rooms themselves were equally disappointing. They were dirty, damp, and smelled strongly of mold. Our room lock did not work properly, which is a serious safety concern. To make matters worse, on two separate occasions—after housekeeping had cleaned the room—I found a total of three moth larvae underneath my pillow. These were discovered beneath three layers of pillows that housekeeping had placed, and since the larvae cannot move on their own, it raises deeply unsettling questions about cleanliness and hygiene. Between the disorganization, cash grabs, stolen money, unsafe rooms, and overall lack of accountability, this resort failed on every level. This is not luxury. This is not all-inclusive. This is a nightmare wrapped in a pretty brochure. Save your money. Save your sanity. Go somewhere else.

  Jan 25, 2026