We returned from 8 days/7 nights at the Catalonia Rivera Maya on May 7, 2008 and had a blast! I had stayed at several other resorts in Mexico with a higher star rating but this place was nice. I especially liked that you weren't far from anything. I'll break down this review.

The resort: One thing I couldn't tell from the website was where the Catalonia Yucatan was located (you have resort privileges there). It is right next to the Catalonia Rivera Maya. They do have separate entrances right next to each other but the resort was all together and if you walked the place you could not tell which was which resort. For this reason I will refer to both as one resort. It was a well landscaped place- the photos on the websites do not do it justice. There were several pools to choose from and none of them seemed overcrowded. It was very clean. An added bonus was the fact that it was in the gated community of Puerto Adventuras. It's a small community that had several attractions. You can walk from the resort (or ride a bike) and see a place that has dolphins, sea lions and manatees or if you want you can pay to swim or ride them! But looking at them is free!! We took some great video footage of them. Plus there are numerous stores and places to eat around the marina.

The rooms: The rooms were spacious and well-kept. We had the standard room but the view was awesome. The air conditioner was TOP NOTCHED! Better than some of the higher star places I have stayed! Not alot of noise from other rooms either. I did meet a couple from Texas who were staying in the Suites and I did visit them. The suites are wonderful! Hot tubs outside all of them. The showers in the rooms are wonderful- huge waterhead that is like a wonderful rainfall. The beds weren't too hard like several had complained. The maid service was very accommodating to when you wanted to sleep in and got your room cleaned within about 30 minutes of you leaving the room. We had placed a call for laundry service and a call when our remote control to the TV wasn't working and someone was at our room within minutes! The only thing I had wished we had was a mini-fridge but that was not a big deal. Oh and there's not a coffee maker in the rooms- you have to go to the buffet to get your coffee. They also give you an ice bucket but there are no ice makers on the resort so be sure and go to the bar or restaurant to get ice for the evening if you want to cool your bottled water (they give you 2 in your room when you check in and you can refill them).

The restaurants: The buffet wasn't bad but I did get a bit bored with the same food for breakfast and lunch and wished there was a bit more seafood but all in all it wasn't bad. The service was great. The Chinese restaurant was off the hook!! Awesome food! The Steak house was great too. I wasn't wild about the Italian place but it wasn't bad. The Crepery was awesome!! Wished I'd visited there more.

The bars: I liked the Lookie bar the best. It's the bar closest the the beach. The view there is amazing! Probably the best at the resort and the breeze there cools you off while having drinks. The pool bars were OK as were the other bars. The drinks were OK. Some bars had a better selection of top liquors than others (depending on what you like). If you tip well you get better service and stronger drinks (like any other place).

The entertainment: The A team is awesome! Lots of activities going on and they were all very friendly and try to include everyone. There is alot going on everyday and evening. Many good shows and there is a disco and sports bar. On certain nights the vendors set up by the pool and offered great prices (you could haggle with them and get the price down). It's nice to get your souvenirs from them if you don't want to go shop elsewhere and the prices are just as good.

I know this review is long but I have a couple of side notes to add. We are adventuresome so instead of doing the tour we rented a car and drove to see the sights. We rented the compact cars. They are small and have small tires but get great gas mileage. They do not have power steering but the ac was good. We decided to drive to Chichen Itza and work our way back. The drive takes about 2 1/2 hours so leave early. We worked our way back through Valladolid (cute town) and Coba. We did get lost in Coba and ended up at a dead end where small children run to your car (actually surround your car) and ask for money so watch out for that. If you don't get lost you can also do Tulum that day. Go see Playa Del Carmen. I know when you drive through it on the way to the resort it's not impressive (plus the 7-11's and Sam's clublike stores don't scream Mexico) but go down to 5th Avenue and walk it. It's pretty cool and the water there is great. Also if you agree to go see a time share presentation (which last about an hour) you can get a jeep rental ( or admission to several tours) for free.

One more thing ( this will seem crazy) at night at the resort visit the lagoon. If you walk in it (past your knees) quickly you will see a blue glow around your legs! It has something to do with the phosphorous I think but it's still pretty cool!

My husband and our 2 daughters (ages 2 and 5) spent a week at the Catalonia. Overall I think it was a great Experience.
We never got bored....The Beach was great the pools were wonderful and there were plenty of baby/kids pools for the girls. Towards the end of the week we took advantage of some of the kids activities which we were not aware of in the beginning of the week. So ask about them in the beginning so not to miss anything. The Staff really took to the girls and were so sweet to them. The Party they had on our last night was the most fun for the girls w/ the breaking of the Pinata! One staff member, Desiree even went so far as to bring the girls these huge lollipops on the beach one day. It was so nice of her. My 5 year old enjoyed doing the Water aerobics in the pool in the morning and they all got a kick out of that.
We walked to the Marina a couple times. Which is about a ten minute walk. very hot...not alot of shade, so bring a hat and some Water if you walk it. The Dolphins at the marina were so cool. You could watch them for hours. My husband went back on our last day and did a swim with them. It was a really neat experience.
The food was good. The buffets were adequate and had a great selection. The specialty restaurants that required a reservation were Outstanding! We were very pleased w/ them. The Creperie had the best Chocolate Milk Shakes and Cappucino ever! And the staff was very friendly and always very accomodating. I also liked that there was cold water available at each bar. All the time.
The beach was nice, the water was beautiful....you could snorkel just feet off the shore. We spotted many fish just walking in the water.
If I had to name something I thought could use improvement....
I'd say ...the rooms. Our room seemed a little dated. the furniture was mismatched and swapped and moved half way through our visit. and the bathroom...had little black bugs all over the sink....I chalked it up to being "in mexico" on a beach but it was still creepy. That being said, We were hardly in the room anyhow, except for to change for dinner and sleep.
We have many great memories...and I'm sure there was so much we missed due to having young kids who we religiously had in bed at 8:30 each night.
The Staff esp. in the main dining area ...were wonderful and funny and very friendly.

we LOVED this place. i'll give you as short of a review as i can, but it will be hard as there's so much to say.

only bad part about our trip was our check-in, and this was only because it was a mexican holiday during the weekend of May 3, so it was "bring your family to the resort for the day" weekend or something, and there were about 40 kids running around the lobby and it took us an hour to check in, where we were already hot, tired and hungry :) so anyways, after that, we checked in to a standard king room. it is very basic, a bed, nice balcony and kind of outdated bathroom (original room was 254). we figured, hey, we're on vacation and so we payed the extra $25/night for the upgraded room which was a PALACE compared to our original room. huge, walk-in shower, jacuzzi tub on our balcony, marble everywhere, 4-poster bed, stocked fridge daily. very nice, worth the upgrade!
so let's see. the resort is gorgeous, the guys are constantly cleaning the grounds and beach and it's really nice. yes, the beach is a bit rocky in places but we read on trip advisor before we went and brought our crocs with us and we were fine. and there are places where you can walk in on the sandy spots and dont even need to worry about wearing shoes. the lagoon offers a nice place away from the rocky area if its rough, but the waters were pretty still for the most part of our trip.
ok, so the restaurants are great. my boyfriend really loved the steak place but i wasn't too big of a fan, but then again, i'm not a huge steak person anyways so don't count my vote. the mexican was great and we went twice, as with the italian! the japanese was a fun experience but we've done that before in other all-inclusives and didn't feel like it. don't worry about only getting 3 meal tickets. all you have to do is ask the girls when you're signing up for your reservations and they'll just give you more. if they don't, just show up at the restaurant and ask them and they're more than happy. then again, i think we were there during a slow time so i can't speak for peak timing.
the marina is a 5-minute walk down the street, and it is a very safe area (security guards the entrance, taxi drivers can't even come in unless they have ID). we went to a nice mexican restaurant and a cool outdoor bar down at the marina one night and it was really nice.
one last thing - if you're not into little kids (sorry guys, i'm not there yet in my life!), get a room at the yucatan side, it's much quieter and the pools are more adult-friendly.
so, bring crocs, small bubba kegs, snorkel gear (you can get it at cosco or bjs for cheap) and you should be good. it's a great vacation, tops some of the 5-star resorts i've stayed at both in service and location. make sure to tip!
any questions, ask me. i can also give you the link to our pics!

My wife and I flew from NY to Cancun. Upon arrival you must do Mexican Customs first. The line was unbelievable. The large room has a ziz zag line to get to the windows. The room had just a hint of A/C. There had to be at least three plane loads of folks waiting to get their entry papers. It took about an hour to get thru there. Shortly, another load of arrivals came into the room. It was a shame, the waiting time spent in that warm room. Then we were trapped unknowingly by hawkers just before the outside area of where the transportaion vans are waiting. We were approached by a pretty young lady who asked us "Are you looking for the vans?" She then steered us over to a group of stools with a fellow behind them. He greeted us and asked a few questions , "What is the transportation van you have?", "Where are you going?" "Let me tell you a few things you should know about Mexico and places of interest you might like to see and how much it should cost you!" We both thought this was a Mexican Welcome Reception. That is until he started to go into his spieal about some new hotel. The benefits of going there and all the great free things we could get, massargers, free drinks and dinner etc etc. I then 'saw the light' and relised , this was a sales pitch for a time share. We both said 'Adios' and moved outside where the vans were waiting. I have to admit, this kid from th BIG Apple ,got suckered in ,with a very smooth approach. Catanlonia R V is another hour drive.
Check in was swift. We had pre -reserved a Suite. I highly recommend the suite for your stay. Plush room, soft King size beds,a safe and stocked refridge of sodas, beer and 4 bottles of water. You can't get any better than that.
We talked to folks that had standard rooms and they all complained about the hard beds. I showed them pics of our room and most were going to upgrade.
The hotel is spotless. Grounds were very well maintained. The buffet was OK. Breakfest, lunch & dinner was a typical buffet style setup. It was decent for an All Inclusive arrangement.
We found that using the Yucatan side buffet, (El Mercadio) was more subdued in noise. The CRM buffet is in an opened air building. The Yucatan buffet is inside a glass enclosed dining room that's A/C'd. Both serve the same menue from the same kitchen. Both had excellent service.
We had no problem getting reservations for two resturants, the BAMBOLEO which is actually the Snack Bar during the day time. I had T-Bone and my wife had Rib-eye steaks. It was again, OK , tender and grilled the way we ordered them. But it was not like a NY steak. BUT!! When in Rome, I do as the Romans do!! So it was OK.
The other was the Japanese. That's located right next to Bldg 12. There were no signs on the wall to indicate it. The map given to us at arrival also did not indicate the location. It is also located in a weird place, most people had difficulty finding it.
It's off to the side of stairs , coming down from the theater.
The food selection there was , in my opinion, the best. But there was not enough of it. The portions were small.
As a side note, these reservation places are listed A-la-Carte.
Actually, there is no charges for these places. Everything at CRM is ALL INCLUSIVE.
For the time we were there, getting beach recliners under thatched umbrellas , was no problem. We did the 7:30 AM buffet, but picked up towels and grabbed two recliners first then went to eat. The hotel did not seem to be totally full. BUT!! Saturday, I think the entire local population of Mexico arrived and took over the joint. Kids EVERYwhere. The pools were packed with all of them. The buffets & snack bar , could not keep up with the eating frenzy. The cooks could not keep the hambergers or hot dogs in the trays. They were grabbed before they hit the tray.
We expected Sunday moring would be the same thing, so we got up earlier and made a point of getting towels and breakfest. I still don't understand, but the place was again back to what it was before Saturday's raid. I guess it was a one day event for the locals to come there and feed their kids and use the pools.
The nightly entertainment was good. The kids danced and sang their hearts out. Not Broadway, but never the less, I found it entertaining. They sure worked hard on that stage. My compliments to their efforts.
It was nice, after dinner to walk the grounds, pick a recliner and sit , listening to the waves. There is lots of entertainment going on somewhere, if you're into that.
A side trip to TULUM was interesting. We booked thru the hotel with a guide. $38.00 US. a person. Decent guide , with good information and a book of pictures showing what the ruins looked like their day. It did stop at additional hotels on the way, eating up some time. But once at Tulum, two hours is plenty. You're tere for three before the bus leaves. Good spot to pick up Souveniers also. Just walk around the entire group of stores. There are gifts shops all around on the other side from where you get dropped off from the buses. You can pick up a shuttel to get to the ruins for $2.00 US round trip. I'd suggest you avail yourself of this luxury. It's a long dusty walk.
As a word of warning, I spotted a full grown LEPOARD cat roaming in some srubs by these ruins. Later I spoke to the guide and mentioned my sighting. He did ackowledge that they do have these big cats come onto the site. So!! Travelers, BE AWARE! They are WILD animals.
We booked the 1/2 day tour , Leaves @ 7:50AM back at 1:30PM. It was just right. You could continue to an additional location for a 'nature tour and swim down a stream for additional costs for the rest of the day.
All in all, I'd recommend CRM any time. It's resonably priced, if you like ALL Inclusive places.