I struggled with the rating to provide this hotel and resort. I'm waffling between 3 and 4 stars - let's say 3.5 for now.
The reason I struggle is because we had a really great time in our weeklong family vacation at the Royalton Riviera Cancun. It wasn't cheap (it's billed as a 5-star resort), but it's clean, friendly, and has amazing food at the buffet. The pools are beautiful, and there is lots of seating around the pools. We went over March break, and it was certainly busy, but we could always find poolside seating together for our family of 5. There are always events and activities going on, and we are within driving distance to Cancun and Playa Del Carmen.
We were a little disappointed by the size of the room. We got a junior suite, which was more of a regular sized hotel room. We fit comfortably in, with 2 in each Queen bed, and one on the pull-out couch (which was very uncomfortable, but fine for a kid). Unfortunately there's no separation between the bathroom and the bedroom (only a curtain between). This led to problems with privacy, and the ability to stay in the room when the kids were still sleeping. The shower was beautiful and large, with two rainshower shower heads. We enjoyed the balcony jacuzzi, although I agree that the jacuzzi heads could be a bit dirty and needed to be run for a while to clean them out. Overall, we were fairly happy with the room.
Now that I've addressed the positives, let's talk about the weaknesses:
1. DON'T order extras on their website. We booked our reservation through the website, and ordered a $100 birthday party for our little one, who was turning 7. We didn't quite know what we were booking, but it sounds like it was a party for 12 people (not really well described on the website). When we arrived, I told the check-in staff about this, and they said no problem. The day of the birthday, we got a banner to put up on the door (they don't even put it up for you), a piece of cake, and a bottle of cheap champagne (very appropriate for a 7 year old). What happened to the party? Nobody in the hotel could figure that out. After NOT providing the party, it took 3 days of arguing (and no fewer than 3-4 hours of return trips to management) to get a refund. They said they couldn't do it because we booked on the website - very frustrating!
2. The sit-down restaurants are hit-and-miss. We had good meals (the Mexican and Japanese restaurants) and terrible meals (the Italian restaurant). If you go for dinner any later than 5:30pm, you're highly likely to wait for 60-90 minutes for a table. Service was slow and very inefficient - they could certainly fit more people in per night if they got their act together.
3. The 'reservation' service for the tapanyaki bar at the Japanese restaurant is stupid. They tell us reservations start at 3pm daily (you can't reserve for another day). People started lining up around 1:30pm, and when enough people are in line, they just open the reservations and book it (even if it's 2:30pm). I got there at 2:15pm, and they only offered me 5pm or 8:30pm, neither of which was convenient for kids. I gently requested earlier times and batted my eyelashes, and then they offered me 7pm. Why didn't they just offer that in the first place?
4. DON'T ORDER A TAXI THROUGH THE HOTEL - you'll pay 3-4x the going rate to get to Cancun. We used Cancun Taxi (https://www.yelp.com/biz/canc%C3%BAn-taxi-canc%C3%BAn-2?osq=taxi) which provides What's App communication, and it was much cheaper.
5. The Kids' Clubs suck. There are two - one for 0-12 year olds and one for 13+ (Teen Club). The 0-12 year club really isn't appropriate for anyone over 5, and the kids all got bored and weren't interested. They wouldn't let the 12 year old into the Teen Club. Even if they had, it had a pool table and a TV, and not much else. Nobody ever seemed to be in there, so I'm guessing it wasn't very good either. Plus, it has the only pool table in the entire resort, so we couldn't play! (we tried - they kicked us out).
6. When you put your stuff down to reserve cabanas or chairs in the morning, the staff will take it away if you don't stay with your stuff (any time before 10am). I did that once, went to the gym, and came back to find my stuff missing. I understand why they do that (to allow more people to get the cabanas, and not reserve them if they're up early), but they could have told us that when we checked in. In fact, a family were met were specifically told by the front desk they could come out early and reserve a place. Imagine their surprise when their stuff was taken away!
7. The wifi sucks. Like, really, really sucks.
Overall, the positives outweighed the negatives, and we had a good time. However, I might try to find a different resort the next time we plan a trip to Cancun. read more