The Grand Bliss Riviera Maya Timeshare

Compared to the other Vidanta resorts, this one was very disappointing. The prices of food were ridiculously high, e.g. Charging six dollars for shredded cheese on tacos, $16 hamburgers w/o cheese. Also, the room smelled extremely bad of mould and mildew.

It was hard to find a concierge at their station when needed. The walkways are not lit in the early morning hours when you need to go find a tram, so it is hard to navigate the grounds. The trams do not have any kind of a display on them that shows where they are going.

Also, the tram stations are poorly marked, and some are not navigated unless you first contact someone to have the tram sent to that station. It was impossible to make a long distance call on the phone in the rooms, even though there were instructions and how to do so. Internet connection is also nearly impossible in the rooms. Restaurant hours are not what was posted in the in the room book.

Also, when making a reservation, they need to have a person answering the phone that also speaks English. Restaurant hours are not what was posted in the in the room book. Also, when making a reservation, they need to have a person answering the phone that also speaks English

From the moment I arrived in time, I left this was a very bad experience!! Trying to check in after a long day of travel took over an hour and a half.

Was hassled every day to attend sells promotions.

The exchange rate was lower than banks, required to charge to resort account everything and pay them at their exchange rate.

The main restaurant was a 45 minute to an hour wait to get seated for breakfast.

Went to a restaurant that said no reservations need, almost empty and told no seats available (all reserved) waited 45 minutes no one came in but still would not seat us. Had two sets of golfs, the exit resort shuttle was a two thousand foot walk carrying everything needed to play.

WOULD NEVER GO THERE AGAIN!!

The staff at the Vidanta resort is amazing. They’re very polite, super helpful. However, the sales people harassed us all week to attend their presentation. When they saw us leaving the resort, they would always ask where we were going and did we consider booking our activities through them? We paid for all our activities prior to our vacation and had plans all week. So we didn’t have time to attend their sales presentation, nor did we want to waste half a day getting pressured into purchasing into their resort.

They don’t have an all-inclusive package, but when all was paid for at the end, it was comparable to other resorts with all-inclusive.

The food is good but expensive.

Overall, the salespeople need to learn from their service staff.

We visited this resort a few years back and loved it, it was smaller with around half the rooms available now. Unfortunately on returning the resort was a huge disappointment.

They have invested, though not wisely. A new Beach Club that is probably great if you are under 25 love loud music and tight spaces with no room to actually swim.
Next to this is Salum, what the developers claim to be a traditional Mexican village but really just a seating area with a lot of bars and a couple of restaurants – it was dead every time we went over there – a massive waste of members/owners money.

The major positive for the resort are some great swimming pools, plenty of choices but on the downside, the resort now charges for Cabana’s whereas they used to be first-come-first-served. The staff are friendly and always offer a greeting, but it is now rather impersonal and matter-of-fact rather than heartfelt – it used to be that you were addressed by name, the staff saw you daily and got to know you – now that there are over 3,500 staff on-site, it is very much business first.

The major gripe we had was that staying in the Grand Bliss there is only one transportation option – a shuttle to Salum. Useless if you want to go to the main pool or the store or most of the restaurants on-site – unless you fancy a walk along a jungle path. This is ok during the day but we heard from a lot of people. particularly young women or those with small children, that walking in the dark back from a restaurant or the pool was terrifying for some (there are many iguanas, coatis and other animals/insects living along the jungle paths which are not very well lit.

There are plenty of food options, Italian, French, Asian as well as Mexican and the food quality is generally ok, but we would recommend going into Playa del Carmen where there is a wealth of much better dining options – our favourite was La Famiglia, an Italian restaurant owned by two Italian guys who make their own pasta and pizza dough and the food is delicious – on 10th avenue.

Rooms are very comfortable, though be aware that if you take a suite at the Grand Bliss in building 3 or 4 you will not have the same facilities as in buildings 1 and 2 -specifically no jacuzzi bath. also to note is that they will charge you 30 USD per person per day surcharge (so 420 USD for 2 people for a week) – can be offset by 50% if you are willing to give up 4 to 5 hours for a sales presentation, which ultimately makes no economical sense to anyone as they grossly over-inflate the value of the properties.

All-in-all this is a good resort, avoid the sales presentation and enjoy the pools. You will be comfortable and are in a very good location to explore beyond the resort, but the lack of soul it now portrays means you may well be happier in a smaller resort that does not aim to squeeze every cent out of you