We stayed at a the Barcelo Maya Beach for a friend's wedding in February.
The hotel is very large -- with increasing pricing for services and areas down the beach. The end resort was the Palace. I would recommend to anybody to upgrade and stay at the Palace.
Positives: The beach was amazing at Maya Beach area. This resort is very family oriented, very family friendly, kids everywhere (if that's what you're looking for). The rooms are absolutely clean and comfortable enough for what little time you spend in them. Staff is very sparse, but friendly enough. The beach bar and grill is fantastic!
Negatives: There is no real bar area other than the lobby bar, which is hot, stuffy and has a lobby feel to it. There should be a view of the beach or even a pool when you're in a tropical setting. Only one bar too -- it would be nice to have any kind of option other than the same old tired lobby bar every night. The food -- food was absolutely terrible -- nothing but poor quality buffet food, meal after meal after meal. The a la carte restaurants were no better, just longer wait time, dress code and the ridiculous practice of making reservations (I know this is common, but there are resorts without it) when you first arrive. The a la carte restaurant's weren't air conditioned, so you just sweated out your 2 hour mediocre meal. My friends and I did pay extra to go to a restaurant on the high end resort at the end of the complex -- and what a difference that made. It was fantastic. The booze was plentiful, but the bartenders didn't know how to make anything other than strawberry daquiris and pina coladas -- all out of a bottled mix. It really got tired after the first day. Also -- depending what you're looking for -- the resort is very family friendly, kids everywhere. The pool on the Maya Beach resort is just straight poured concrete, nothing spectacular, but once you start moving down the complex, the pools become beautiful with gorgeous tile, running water, pool showers and in pool loungers and huts. ALSO -- absolutely no room service other than really, really basic stuff for an outrageous price (think pasta with butter for $20) .

My fiancé and I just returned from the Barcelo Maya Beach resort and have nothing but good things to say! We especially loved the layout of the resort with the pools so close to the beach. There are 3 or 4 different pool areas you can go to swim, drink and have lunch. Lots of chairs to sit in the sun or read in the shade ...plus lots of hammocks for an afternoon nap! The beach was beautiful and clean. We snorkeled everyday!

The food was excellent both at the buffets and a la cartes. Best a la carte we had was Spanish, but also enjoyed Steak and Mexican. Based on our experience we would not recommend the Seafood a la carte. Do book early!

Rooms were clean and comfortable. Staff was happy and friendly to everyone! Drinks in the bars were not watered down and bartenders were more than willing to try new things.

We took a half day trip to Tulum.... which I would recommend...it was just 20 minutes from the hotel. There are representatives available on site everyday to help you with excursions.

We would love to return again next year!

We stayed from 24 Feb to 3 March 2013 in the Maya Beach Premium side of resort. I think that Barcelo complex has the most beautiful beach in Riviera Maya with white sand, clean turquoise water and great snorkeling spots. I saw a lot of fishes and even a turtle while snorkeling 100 m from the shore.
I enjoyed the fresh fruits and vegetables, good food, nice and fast service at the tables, clean room and pools. The personel is smiling and try to make your stay as good as possible.
Loved the Mayan coffee witch is served flambée (in flames ) very spectacular !!!!
There are so many things to see and do in the resort and outside that you'll never get bored and will regret that you have to leave !

Me and my new wife were in the Maya Beach hotel in the Barcelo resort (total of 5 hotels). We loved this hotel and this resort. We could go everywhere in the resort (Maya Beach, Caribe, Tropical and Colonial), except in the Palace hotel and some other buffets. We were a group of 16 people for our wedding and we all loved this place.

WEDDING:
Wow, wow, perfect! Our guests were all impressed! I had emails communication with my wedding planner Jacqueline before coming and when I came to the resort, we had a 2-3 hours briefing with her 2 days before the wedding and everything was clear, no other briefing, so perfect!! All was well organised, that was stressless!! To press the wedding dress, that was just 150 pesos (around 13$US). So we took the "Mint Breeze" package (with saxophone) and the ceremony was done on the beach. That was done in paradise!! The reception was done in the Banquet room, it's a big room. We choosed one table for all of us (16 people) and there were an open bar, great! For the music, there were a speaker and a commercial system with a 3.5mm plug, so you can use an mp3 player, whatever you want who has a 3.5mm input.

*The only negative thing is "the prices for the photographer are expensive" (for all of us, we found that expensive). Because it's a wedding photographer. The photographer was amazing, professionnal and the pictures are amazing, really amazing!!! I placed some pictures. But the minimum price is 700$ US. We took the package for 1250$ US, with 3 hours, that comes with a beautiful big book with 31 pictures, 60 big prints and 2 enlargements. That comes with a CD with up to 100 pictures (pictures you choosed for the prints, book and enlargements). The CD cost 200$, but if you want all pictures, it's 400$!?!?! So we took the CD with max 100 pictures, but it's okay, a lot of pictures were similar.

FOOD:
We loved our buffets, because it's in a open area and there is a lot of wind in Mexico, so it's great. There is 2 buffets in the lobby and 1 buffet (Snack bar) in front of the beach, beautiful! The food was really good, a lot of choice. If you want to go in the Restaurant à la carte in the Tropical and Colonial hotel when you are at the Maya Beach or Caribe hotel, you need to pay 15$ or it's free with unlimited reservations if you take Club Premium like us (that come with the Oceanview front room). We went sometimes to the Premium Club Lounge, there were a lot of alcoholic beverages that you can mix yourself, food, internet, etc. That was great. We loved the Japanese restaurant, were the twice (in front of the cooker who did a show, not just in a table) and the Steak house (both Steak houses are great, same steaks), but more service at the Tropical Steak house. We took Rib-Eye, New York and tenderloin steaks, the best was the Rib-Eye, for us. So we ate 3 days Rib-Eye, miam miam (including in the Japanese). We enjoyed the Italian restaurant, the beef was so great, but the pizza was the same like in the buffets, not so great for us, depending of your tastes.

PLACE:
The gardens are just amazing, that was the best gardens we saw in 4 resorts in total, another guy told me the same, he went 5 times in Mexico!! There is a lot of birds, iguanas, etc. That takes about 4-5 minutes from the Beach to the Lobby (it's great). And about 15 minutes to go from Maya Beach to Palace beach (where you can go, but the best beaches are in Maya Beach and Caribe). There is a lot of activities : tennis, volley-ball in the water, basketball, mini-pot, golf, etc. The animation staff was great, a lot of energy and nice people. The Discotheque was big, good music, wow, that was great!! The gym was so beautiful, there is the musculation stuff in a open area and exercice stuff in a closed area, beautiful place. The is sauna, jaccuzi just beside, great too.

What we liked in this place, the resort was full (8000 clients with 3000 employees), but that was not crowded!! We could find chairs on the beach even in the afternoon and we had place to walk, to swim (there is a lot of pools). Imagine, you can go in all 4 hotels' pools, beached, etc. The place was clean, you see staff everyday working on gardens, some picking up the garbages and glasses. We appreciate that they are using normal plastic glasses, so there is no disposable glasses as some other resorts.

STAFF:
The staff was friendly and nice, we all had good experience with the staff. If there is something wrong, they fix it right away. We felt to be like VIP. A lot of them say you hello when walking.