We had a lovely time. We took our two grown children and my son's girlfriend.
When we arrived they said there was a miscommunication with our room. If we would choose a 'lesser' accomdation they would give us points towards all the restaurants.
This was fine, but we found you needed five or six days notice to get into the nicer restaurants. We were there only 4 nights. We sort of felt "scammed."

But we were happy and enjoying ourselves. I bought my first piece of silver jewelry nearby. I tucked it into my suitcase just before checking out. By the time I arrived at the airport the ring was gone. I know it happened within the time we had a bell boy and a cab show up to take us to airport.

We just returned from a one week stay at Barcelo. We had booked the Caribe and were there 4 nights when they moved us (an upgrade) to the Colonial as they were planning to close the Caribe for maintenance.

We had a wonderful time while there. The rooms in both were clean and nicely maintained. The in-room refrigerator was stocked well and when moved to the Colonial (Club Premium) also included some light snacks: peanuts, chips, etc.

The beach was lovely and water was crystal clear-I believe it was better in the Caribe portion. In Colonial it was rather rocky. The small pier between the two hotels had plenty of fish-so check out the free snorkeling equipment (I believe it is 1 hour per day) and can get some good pix. Also rode the water bikes, which was fun, a bit like paddle boats. My husband and kids also took advantage of the pool scuba lesson.

We enjoyed the pool at the Colonial...plenty of activities for everyone...my 14 yr. old daughter and 17 yr old son especiallly enjoyed the water volleyball and the water polo. Swim up bars were great at all the pools.

We ate most of our meals at the Caribe buffet. Service was great----especially Gary and Ezley, they were our favorites. We didn't speak much Spanish, and they didn't speak much English, but that was actually part of the fun. We made it through and everyone was very accomodating. Breakfast was my personal favorite (probably because I don't care for seafood which was offered during the lunch and dinner menus). We ate lunch most times at one of the grills...either Captain Morgan or Mariachi. Even if you are a picky eater, you could definitely get enough to eat. Quantity is not lacking. Our family favorites included the made to order omelets and pasta, guacamole, and the soft serve vanilla ice cream. Just a heads up, the service at the grills was pathetic...we could never get anyone to give us drinks. Wish they would make it a self serve beverage bar (no alcohol) so that wouldn't happen. Inconvenient, but not anything that would ruin our stay. We never used our ala carte resturant certificates as we packed only casual wear and didn't want to make reservations either.

We booked our excursions with Jose from Lomas Travel (he has a desk at the Colonial). We enjoyed snorkeling, ATVs, zip lining, and a shopping trip to Playa del Carmen. Other than that, we enjoyed the amenities that Barcelo offered.

When we booked our trip, it was with hesitation after reading the reviews, but we had a wonderful stay, the resort was beautiful, and we look forward to visiting again.

After round trip through Mexico we ended in this resort for the last five days. We had a very good time - nice people and goof food. We received two vouchers for a-la-carte restaurants but an extra visit only costs 15 dollar per person so we decide to also visit the Japanese restaurant.

My Wife and I went to the Barcelo Maya Caribe on the 1/09/12 for 2 weeks. (Upgraded to Club Premium)

The Beach is stunning and the sea is crystal clear (all though we had a few days where it was cloudy), there are plenty of water-sports Jet ski's, Canoes etc, of which we used and enjoyed.

There are a number of reviews saying the staff are not friendly, well this was not our experience as they were always saying Hello and tried their best to have a conversation with us. I would imagine most of the comments about the staff being rude are from Americans as they don't appear to have a lot of respect for the workers.

The food, well this is mixed. The buffet is generally much better than the restaurants that you have to book. The Mexican should be amazing but it was dreadful, no atmosphere and the food didn't seem fresh, the Steak House food was OK but the service here was not great. The Spanish and Italian were both lovely & the staff were great.

The Beach Bars/Restaurants were lovely and always had a good choice of food, our favourite was in front of the Colonial Beach.

Ask the barman to make you a special cocktail and sit back and enjoy, they made some amazing drinks and it had me asking for more (& I am not a big drinker)

Tipping - We took $100 US Dollars for 2 weeks tipping, we generally left the Maid 1 or 2 Dollars a day, the fridge man comes every other day so we left the same for him. If we had a cocktail from the bar we tipped 1 Dollar, we also tipped the service staff at the Buffets as they work very hard.

We had a lovely massage on the beach for approx 30 minutes, this was a lovely experience.

I would highly recommend upgrading to Club Premium as it allows you to use the Colonial & Tropical Buffets, which we used everyday for Breakfast and Evening Meal, we tried to eat in the Beach/Caribe Buffets but it was to warm as there is no aircon.

A few people have also said there is to much walking in this resort, well , I would imagine these people must be overweight or having walking difficulties as from our room to the Colonial Buffet it did not even take 10 minutes, we really enjoyed the walk. We took a SLOW walk from the Caribe to the furthest point of the Palace and it took MAX 20/22 minutes so please dont listen to these moaners.

If we head back to Mexico and I hope we do then we will most defiantley stay here.

Thanks to all the staff for making our Honeymoon special.

Justin & Amber Rouse