This was our second visit to PlayaDel Carmen, and this trip definitely exceeded our expectations.
The Riu Palace is a beautiful resort. The grounds were in wonderful shape, the staff was very friendly and always went above and beyond to ensure that my family was having an enjoyable stay.
The rooms were very clean but the mattresses were a bit too hard!) The meals were amazing. Not only were the alternative restaurants excellent, but the main buffet was always different and enjoyable. The buffet dining room was quite elegant and had choices that every age group enjoyed.
The staff was very helpful at recommending a few great excursions for our family. The childrens progam was geared a little too much to the 5 and younger crowd, so my 10 & 12 year old were not too excited about the activity choices.
After comparing this trip with our last visit at another resort in Playa, we will definitely choose to visit this location again!

We were @ the RPRM from 10/12-10/20. I was a little fearful of the forecast because all the internet showed was rain. Fortunately it rained sporadically the first 2 days but not enough to run you into your room. It mainly clouded up in late afternoon & showered a little almost everynight but it didn't ruin a thing.
I had read a lot of reviews prior to visiting this Riu & yes the rooms tend to be moldy smelling-probably a lot to do with the humudity. I took a recommendation of bringing a candle & Febreeze & it did the trick. You ignored it after a couple of days until you get your belongings home & they all need to be washed & aired out!! We did have to change rooms the first day. We were given a smoking room when we requested a non-smoking room and also it was 2 double beds pushed together not a king. They were very nice accomadating our request & were moved quickly. This is definitely a hotel for those wanting to relax with no kids & no partying @ night. I would say 35+ age group. Everyone is very nice there & remember you day to day. Daytime is great. Relax by the pool or on the beach & have drinks served to you all day long. Great pool bar! Oh & nacho bar for the munchies! There basically is 2 beach areas. One above the water behind a retaining wall with plenty of chairs & hammocks. Down @ the beach is ok. A lot has been eroded by the hurricanes but they are trying to pump sand up on the beach to rebuild & there is a lot of sand bags out to minimize the breaking of the waves & more erosion. This is not the only resort suffering from this, it has happened all along the coast line. It is not as rocky as others have claimed. The buffet was great all day. The only restuarants we tryed was the Mexican & Steak House. Mexican was good! The shows were every night @ 9:40pm. They were just ok. Michael Jackson show & Crazy Night were the best. Nightlife dies @ 10:45 unless you just want to relax by the bar or play pool in the sports bar. We're young & were ready for bed by 11:00 after doing excursions & being in the sun all day! We did go to the disco @ Riu Tequila one night. It doesn't open until 11:00. It was very small & crowded & the drinks weren't all that great! If you go to this area of Mexico to find a deal shopping it isn't here. There is the Plaza 5 min. from the resort but they don't barter much. Oh & if you need anything for the weather (bathing suit, shorts, flip flops, sunscreen) your going to pay for it!! Sunscreen is $15-$20 there unlike our $4-$8 price in the states. We checked many locations & it was the same everywhere. 5th Ave. shopping was a joke! $5 cab ride to an outdoor mall that is outrageous & not real friendly people. Just on the outskirts is bartering shopping but you really have to stand ground to them. They can be very pushy & rude & if you go to one vender all the ones down the road won't leave you alone. We also went about 5:30pm to the area & it didn't feel real secure/safe. Another thing I didn't find out until our last day is whatever a cab driver quotes you it includes their tip. Excursions to try: Tulum Extreme, Mayan Adventure, ATV excursion! Fun! Bring tip money for your driver/guide. Also, most excursions take photos of you to buy @ the end so if you want them then have an extra $20-25 dollars on hand in cash only! Don't waste your time on dinner cruise in Cancun!! Long drive & small overcrowded boat w/ok food. Bring lots of $1's & $5's for cabs & tipping those you feel deserve it even though it's all inclusive. They rarely would exchange USD for USD. Mainly pesos only!

I stayed at the RPRM Oct 7-12. It was a special treat for a special Occasion and I spent 3 months in deciding where to stay. I read every review, every forum and every little detail. I want to share my honest opinion. After reading all these posts, I was expecting something very extraordinary. That does not exist. I did have a good time, but it was not a unique, one of a kind experience to be catered to and lavished in luxury that I expected.
RPRM was a beautiful property. I give the the front desk staff and housekeeping an average rating, the F&B attendants and food preparation 5 stars! I tipped and tipped and tipped, but the service and lack of service from the front desk and housekeeping is not there. This, however, did not ruin my trip. Just that everyone notes on these posts about the welcome drink, towel art, special upgrades, special surprise cakes if it is your birthday,etc etc etc. and I am telling you, this was just not happening.

The rooms were sterile feeling and I determined the cause of this to be the marble floors, no softgoods and very unattractive beds. The beds were hard but they did not affect my sleep because I slept good, as I was tired. They are just not the nice, fluffy mattresses that we are use to in the USA. The bed coverings were old and hard and should have also been a nice fluffy alternative. It just wasn't very attractive and pleasing to the eye. The softgoods in the room were just non exsistant.

I saw one post where someone complained about falling and twisting her ankle. It rained on us in the evenings and when it rains, the outside corridors are slicker than ice. They do put signs up and try to mop it up, but hey, it's marble.

The Pool scene was nice. Lot's of action in the pool, especially the volleyball games. Did the intro scuba in the pool, that was fun, but only lasts about 20 minutes. I wish I had time for the pay dive service that takes you out in the ocean, but you make sure you have at least 24 hours before you are to depart property because of the oxygen(I suppose). I waited until the last day of stay which would have put me less than 24 hours, so this wasnt an option. Tried the snorkeling but they were suctioning sand off the ocean floor to use in thier sandbags, so the water was extremely cloudy. We tried to use the beach at one of the other RIU's (Yucatan) only to be told by the towel attendant that she could not give us towels even though we showed her our towel card. She said we had to use the towel service at our RIU. I knew this was wrong and just a "lazy" employee, but what do you do...we all have them!

The entertainment was good. At least is was something to do.
I did not use the Spa. I thought they had advertised a steam room, but when I got there, they did not have a steam, only sauna.

I thought the Buffet to be above average. There is something for everyone. I am a dessert eater and the dessert was the same everyday/night and not that great. I did not feel like the variety was different each day at the buffets, however, that did not keep me away..it was still good! The buffet is your only option for breakfast and lunch. I was not aware of this until arrival and don't remember anyone posting about this.

THere was no high speed internet that you could use with your laptop in the room. You had to pay $8 for 44 minutes in the bar area. It took the computer 5 minutes to load and get online with my email, so I ended up spending about $24 on internet usage. The phone service is non existant, unless you want to pay $4 to dial an 800 number. We bought cards($10 for 60 minutes) and would have to go down to the shopping center to use them.

I did rent a car. If you plan to do this, don't do it at the airport. I think it is cheaper from your hotel or snag one of those books from the girl as you are exiting from the airport, it has coupons in it. I rented from AVIS and paid $40 per day. The car is only $15 but the insurance is $35. The driving was very easy and I don't read spanish. The RPRM is very convenient to park and retrieve the car.

At the end of the stay, I cannot say that I had a lousy time because of the RPRM and thier lack of inconsistencies. The F&B attentants work very hard and are so pleasant. Should I return, I would probably chose another location, but I was not uncomfortable at the RIU.

My friend and I stayed at the RPRM from Oct. 6th - Oct. 13. Our stay was wonderful, and I would agree with most of the 5 star reviews on this board.

Check in - completely smooth. I had emailed the hotel a week prior to arrival to request a certain room. When we arrived, that particular room was not available, so they gave us an upgrade to a better room. (For free)

Room: Absolutely wonderful. Very clean, nice and cool. Balcony was wonderful. We had a fabulous ocean view, and I spent a lot of time on the balcony just relaxing and having drinks. Always had extra towels and nightly turndown service.

Staff: The staff exceded our expectations with thier generous personalities and eagerness to make our stay wonderful. The entertainment staff, bartenders, and front desk staff all spoke English, so there was no problem with language barriers. Our favorite bartender was Antonio at the swim up bar. He made rainy days so much fun.

Pool: The pool is huge. Much bigger than those of the other RIU properties in Playacar. We enjoyed the infinity pool, as well as the swim up bar. There were plenty of loungers. No towel games were necessary at the pool, or the beach.

Beach: Nice upper level beach with palm trees/loungers. Lower level beach was no doing great due to erosion, but you were still able to walk a little ways, and get in to swim. And NO, the beach is no rocky as others have indicated. I brought water shoes thinking I would need to wear them to swim after reading reviews here, but didn't need to use them at all. You were not able to walk very far to the left. Only to the next resort. To the right, you could walk down 3 resorts or so, but not all the way to the other Palace resort. We walked the road one day to go to the other Palace, and their beach was in much better condition.

Dining: The food was great. The buffets had a million choices, and I had something different each morning. Lunch at the buffet was delicious as well. As far as specialty restaurants, my favorite was the steakhouse. The gourmet was also good. The Brazilian was good, but omigod! I have never eaten that much meat at one time! The Japanese was okay. We didn't eat at the Mexican restaurant.

Nightlife: As some reviews on this board suggest: the hotel is very quiet past 10 or 11. They do have shows in the theatre each night at around 9:30. The other end of the resort closer to the ocean is pretty much like a graveyard at this time of the night. Very dark, and nothing going on. This didn't bother us at all. We were there to relax, and we had a lot of cocktails during the day, so we were ready for bed by 11:00 or so anyway. The lobby bar was fun. Also, the sports bar is open 24/7. So you could go in there to drink, play games, eat snacks at any time of the day.

Playa nightlife: If you are looking to party, it is definitely worth it to take a cab into playa for $5.00. You can walk, but it takes about 25 minutes. There is a ton of shopping, cute bars, live music at some of them, and various dance clubs. We went to Playa one night and had a blast.

Summary: This hotel is beautiful, and definitely worth the cost. It lives up to it's 5 star rating and reviews. Although the Palace Mexico has a better beach, this is a much nicer hotel. You can walk 4 minutes down the road and go to the other beach for the day if you need to. We didn't even find that necessary. The beach was fine in my opinion. If you stay here, you won't regret it.

I have a ton of pictures, so if anyone is interested, send me a message and I will email you a link to them.