We returned from a 2 week holiday here on 9th July and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The check-in was quick and though initially unhappy with our room (faulty shower and moving WC seat) we were moved to a new room lunchtime the following day. Our room was spacious, clean and overlooked the beach. The buffet meals were plentiful and lots of choice. The 3 a la carte restaurants were nice but not much choice in the Italian, the Mexican was our favourite. we also went to the 3 a la carte restaurants in the sister hotel , The Azteca, and again enjoyed the meals, though the Oriental was a little disappointing.
The staff were friendly , all services were efficient. The dive centre run by Scuba Caribe was particularly good, with the main dive school on the beach, 50 metres from the hotel and boat dives went from our beach, so allowing more time for diving and less time travelling. Again the staff were helpful and very efficient.
We did attend a Viva Wyndham holiday club session, supposed to be an hour but took 2hrs and unless you have a spare 8,000 pound its not worth attending!
The trips from the hotel and First Choice were quite pricey. We went over the road to a small and very pleasant shopping area and booked a trip to Chitchen Itza for half the price. (55$ instead of 99$). We had an excellent Mayan guide and though it was a long day it was worth it.
Overall we would recommend this hotel, its not 5 star but is pleasant, with all facilities easy to access and free. We would definitely return.

Hotel was very clean,staff very friendly.Room we booked was a superior room,room given was like a room from a holiday chalet at bognor,air conditioning is dated and very loud.Got a better room after two attempts(up by adult pool),more like a superior room.beach was lovely despite the sandbags.weather was superb,had a great time once we got settled into room.Pool nearest the beach needs to be cleaned on surface more regularly(lots of scum first thing in morning on surface)

My sister and I headed to the Viva in Playa Del Carmen for a relaxing week-long getaway from it all. Our first impression of the hotel was "okay". On our way to the room, we noticed the beautfiul grounds and the unique animals roaming about. The staff were helpful, but we found some staff not to be overly friendly at first. After the first day, most warmed up to us. We found that if you were nice and spoke to them, they were nice to you. Neither of us spoke spanish, which would be very helpful here.

The first thing we noticed when we got to our room were the fanned towels on our beds. The air-conditioning was already running, and it was very cold. Yes, it is true, there are no dressers in the room. No big deal, we didn't go there to spend our time in our room. Yes, the air conditioner was loud, but it helped at night, as our room was right outside the stage where the nightly entertainment was and the stairway to the second level (we were on the first floor). We never heard a thing. The staff did a great job at cleaning the room. The beds were hard, but we found them extremely comfortable. We both slept like babies.

The food was exceptional! We ate at the buffet every day for breakfast and lunch...always something different to please your appetite. There was a daily pasta station at the buffet..you could add what you wanted to it. Also, at breakfast, they had awesome omelets, again adding whatever you wanted to them. We especially liked the italian restaurant, which is right above the bar overlooking the pool and the ocean. The mediteranian restaurant food was also excellent. We did not eat at a mexican restaurant, because my sister does not like mexican food. They were kind enough to let us eat at the italian restaurant twice. They also had pizza, hamburgers and hot dogs right by the pool with some fruit, nachos, etc. This was also good. We recommend you book your restaurant choices as soon as possible.

The bar had many choices...I recommend if you like shots to try a tequila boom-boom. The choices were unlimited!

We took a trip to Fifth Avenue....very interesting. If you don't want to be bothered by all the locals, stay at the top of the hill. We also took the ferry over to Cozumel...definitely worth seeing! We went to the smallest Hard Rock Cafe for lunch...really cool.

As for the towels on the chairs, we never had an issue, but we usually went out around 7 am and got the same chairs all week.

Overall, we had an excellent stay and would recommend it.

So it should be noted that I'm not the pickiest of travelers. In fact i'm very laid back and don't bother to nitpick all the little things like leaky faucets or a static TV that never worked properly. (Didn't bother to report it either.)

HOTEL:
Beautiful and clean. The maintenance staff were very thorough and were constantly cleaning the grounds and rooms.
The layout of the hotel is nice too. Plush greenery everywhere. It was like walking through the rain forest everyday. Quite romantic!

ROOMS:
We had a DELUXE Room which was pretty basic. The bathrooms are nice and roomy and you get Bath towels & slippers to use for the week. The slippers are so comfy!
The TV is the tiniest little thing and it didn't even work the whole week so it didn't matter how big it was. Wish it could have at least shown local channels.

FOOD:
Ok, in this i'm a VERY picky eater so perhaps my review of the food may not be shared by others, but I was not impressed with the food, particularly at the buffet! I didn't think there was much variety and I found the food to be VERY bland! The only good thing of the buffet was Breakfast. French toast and pancakes were delish! HOWEVER, they kept switching the HONEY & SYRUP canisters and I ended up with French toast with Honey a few times which was not pleasant! :(
The food at the restaurants was much better although prepare to be there for 2 hours. The service is very slow, although very friendly! Tips are certainly accepted though not expected.
I always left at least $2-3 for the servers because they were just so polite and always had a smile on their face!

ENTERTAINMENT:
The entertainment staff were fantastic! They did a great job of getting people off their bums and join the action and they really interacted with guests. Every day there was something going on on the beach or the pool or the stage area.

BEACH:
This particular beach area was hit very hard by the hurricanes a few years ago and has experienced much corrosion. However, the hotel has worked hard to preserve the beach as much as possible and in doing so, they placed these LARGE sand banks that kind of look like beached whales. It can be a bit of an eye sore but if you can get past that, it makes for great swimming! I wasn't bothered by it but I know many people were disappointed.

POOL:
The main (and only) pool is pretty small. It's a good thing we didn't go during high season or else it would have been chaos. In my opinion that pool is too small for the size of the hotel.
The kids pool is also connected to the main pool by a fence and if you’re planning on taking your children, this is the only kid friendly area other than the beach. There is nothing else for them to do! So be warned.

ACTIVITIES:
Now this is where I have an issue with.
It rained 4 days straight during the week I was there (I went in June which is rainy reason.) The hotel does NOT have any activities to do for rainy days! There are no pool tables, or cards or a games room. Nothing! We were virtually stuck in our rooms still in stopped raining, or hanging out in the lounge bar which was too small to accommodate everyone anyway.
For a 4* hotel, I would have expected much more activities to do on these kinds of days. So that was very disappointing.

Also, since you're in the middle of a residential area, there isn't really anywhere to go outside of the hotel. 5th Ave has a Starbucks (which is right across the street) and some shopping to do for souvenirs (cheaper than at the hotel). Remember, be savvy with them or else they'll charge you an arm and a leg! But there isn’t anywhere else that is walk able. You’ll have to take a cab to the nearest town which is about 15 mins away.

OVERALL:
It was a very relaxing trip but I don't think I'd go back. Not that I had a bad experience, but this hotel just wasn't my style. The lack of activities was just too disappointing. I’m not the kind of person to just roast on the beach for a week.
We also did the Chichen Itza trip and that was great! 3 hour drive to and from, but it was a good experience.