1. Giving me the appearance that I’m being treated as a special guest when checking-in, when in fact nothing gets done, I had to wait about 3 hours to get my room after my initial contact with the front desk.
2. Deceitful advertising about room upgrade available upon arrival using your $1,500 resort credit, when in fact no such rooms are available.
3. Disingenuous advertising about the actual cost of the Spa treatment. Nothing is mentioned on the Adventura Palace Spa web page that you must pay a 11% service fee with real dollars. We ended up with a $299.25 bill after using our $1,500 credit for spa treatments.
4. Scheming advertising about the two free tickets for a trip to XCaret Natural Park when booking your trip. We booked our trip on Nov 4, 2012, with arrival on Dec 8, 2012. The booking agent never offered the two free tickets. Once we got there the only way we could get the tickets was by sitting thru a membership sales pitch. The sales team wanted $12,000 to join their membership, the session lasted over two hours. Only then were we allowed to get the two tickets at a reduced rate, we had to pay $30 for the tickets.
5. Illusionary customer service practice, one day our room was not cleaned by 5PM. We called housekeeping, we were told that someone would be there immediately. By 5:30PM no one was there to clean the room, we called housekeeping, again we were told that someone would be there immediately. No one was there by 6PM, we called housekeeping, and again we were told that someone would be there immediately. The maid showed up at 6:30PM, her normal time to turn-down the beds. Housekeeping never had any intention of sending someone before the normal bed turn-down time.
6. Disingenuous customer service practice, we had to wait a half hour to get a table at the italian restaurant “La Tratoria”, when we could see that at least 2 tables were vacant on the outside, and 6 tables were also vacant on the inside.
7. Poor set-up for the nightly shows. The lobby of the Adventura Cove Palace in not conducive to a good viewing of the shows. If you don’t get there there at least 15 minutes before show time you end-up watching the show behind the fountain in the middle of the lobby,
8. Crafty scheme to make you believe that you’re getting a good deal on professional photos by the pool, with snakes or exotics birds by using your $1,500 resort credit. A five photos sets cost $400 resort credit, but you must pay 11% service fee, which is $44, making each picture cost $8.80, a bit much for one picture.
9. Cunning extra charge for the Romantic Lobster Dinner, you can use your $1,500 resort credit to pay for the dinner but you must pay the 11% service fee, which amounts to $38.50 for the dinner. Since this is an all inclusive resort where all your meals are free, the 11% service fee should not be applied.
10. Lack of staff at some restaurants, notably at “La Tratoria” the night we were there only two waiters were in attendance, maybe that’s the reason we waited for a half hour for our table.

Just got back yesterday from a week stay (12/16-23). I am a member and I've been here before a couple times and have to admit I really don't know where the negative reviews come from. The resort was pretty full and yes, we were given a garden view room to start. We asked nicely at the desk if they could move us and the next day we were moved to a great ocean view room. The service was excellent all the way around. Food was very good and the wait staff wonderful. They have hired a lot of new staff, but they fall over themselves to help you. Playacar was blacked out because it was full and if a few hundred from Adventura dropped in they would be overwhelmed. Perfectly understandable. I don't understand how anyone could get a watered down drink, they make them to order with any top shelf liquor you ask for. Was my wife's birthday and they delivered a chocolate cake and bottle of champagne without me asking. All in all a nearly perfect week. The only thing that was mildly annoying was the chair situation at the pool. You really had to get there by 7:30am to secure primo chairs.

I tried contacting The Spa Palace before my trip to request a type of room and to state this was a birthday for my wife. I was ignored for about two weeks and finally received a response from their customer service apologizing for the lack of response and that their website had an error so that they were not receiving my e-mails and that they would do something special for my wife.
We booked a trip through United Vacations for a Sup Ocean View room with tickets to Xcaret. When we arrived we were given a good room but declined to give us the tickets to Xcaret saying that we would have to get them from somewhere else... we were sent from place to place and never got our tickets even though it was clearly written on our United Vacations Itinirary that it was included. We decided to forget about it and recoup our money from United Vacations. Two days into our vacation we were called and asked to stop by their service desk. They told me that they had contacted United Vacations but had not heard from them yet and for me to pick a restaurant so that they could make a special dinner for my wife's birthday...to not tell her because it was to be a surprise...well I didn't tell her and it was a surprise to me because there was no reservation when we arrived at the chosen restaurant!
We usually stay in resorts in Puerto Adventuras or Akumal and we'll continue to stay in these areas but we won't be back to the Ad Spa Palace because too many others in the area
- have a beach (the spa lagoons don't have sand but rather a white mud that oozes between your toes :(,
- have a lot more palapas and chairs... all are reserved by 8:00am at the Spa...
- have better selection of food
- have real theaters for the shows... the Spa packs people into their Disco, into a meeting room or outside with the good seats reserved for members
- have more activities
- have less of a member population... the spa seemed to be more than half for members…

By the way if you are talked into buying a membership because of their hard sell techniques, by Mexican law you have 5 days to back out no matter what you signed and what their contracts say...

We just got back from a week at the Aventura Spa. First off, let me start by saying that 80% of the negative comments are coming from "Palace Members". They really should have a seperate forum to vent their issues... aside from the constant moaning and complaining at the hotel, their somewhat skewed reviews can really taint the average travellers opinion of this place! There were a few occasions I almost told a member to stuff it as they attacked and belittled the staff over the most ridiculous things; sorry but just because you bought into a vacation club doesn't mean you get to act like you're William & Kate and you've just graced the resort and its occupants with your presence. On to the real review!

Check in couldn't have been more pleasant; very quick, and they were very accomodating with our room requests, a fruity drink was in hand within minutes. Our room was gorgeous, the standard rooms are a great size, the in room jacuzzi is an amazing perk! Bed was incredibly comfortable. We had room service the first night and it was delicious.

This resort is MASSIVE; if you have a mobility problem it might not be the best spot for you. A lot of walking to get anywhere, and a lot of stairs. We tried all of the restaurants both on the Spa and Cove side. Italian and Japanese (Spa) were amazing, really didn't enjoy our meal at the Gourmet Mexican (Spa), chicken was so overcooked and appetizer and dessert selections were terrible. Mundaca Steakhouse (Cove) was ok, had a long wait every night so don't go starving! All of the restaurants will do take out which was nice, on our last night we got back from Playa del Carmen really late and took a very large bag of sushi to our room. Buffets had a lot of variety, lots of fresh fruit, we preferred to have breakfast at the Japanese restaurant as it was open until 11. Fresh juices and smoothies were wonderful - try the juice bar at the indoor pool! Tuna at the Italian is to die for.

We knew about the beach situation, but didn't realize how much we missed it until we actually got there. The cove was ok, but not the same. Take advantage of the resort privelleges at the other Palace hotels/Hard Rock. Service was wonderful, all the staff were so nice, we can't say enough good things about how we were treated, it made it twice as annoying to watch the members acting like spoiled children towards them. We used all of our credits at the Spa, TO DIE FOR. Our first massage was teh couples massage and it was ok. Our second treatment were individual aromatherapy massages and the treatment itself was 10x better, plus slightly cheaper than a couples massage, we ended up having 3 each! Also used the credits to buy sunglasses, definitely a nice bonus.

Overall food was good, service and rooms were great. If you were a pool person you'd rate this a 5*; if the other restaurants had been as good as the Italian and Japenese I'd have rated this a 4.5. I would definitely recommend it!