Just returned from our second family trip to the Barcelo complex on the Riviera Maya. We had booked a return trip to Barcelo Maya Colonial as that is where we spent Thanksgiving 2011 & had a great time. When we arrived, we were told that they had upgraded us to the Palace. The oceans views from the lobby are beautiful. The restaurants are also right on the ocean & have great views. The room was great - it was nicer than the one at the Colonial (nicer finish out & better bathroom). It also had barely any musty smell (the room we had at the Colonial last year was super musty). I brought some "Dry-Out" this year & it took care of the very minor odor quickly. It is certainly more lively at the Palace than the Colonial. Some days we went back to the pool at the Colonial because it was quiet (no DJ & loud music). My 9 year old son liked the Colonial better because there are 2 pool tables & the balls/sticks can be picked up just a few steps away. For the pool table, ping pong, etc at the Palace, you have to walk a bit & go back inside to pick up the balls & sticks - no big deal to me, but it was to my 9 year old! The beach is a bit rocky, so I would recommend water shoes if you have sensitive feet. There was some good snorkeling there but it is better down by the dock closer to the Colonial. My husband & I both thought the food was a little better at the Palace than the Colonial as there are more choices. I loved that waitresses will come around & ask for your drink order while lying at the pools at the Palace. The drink service by the pools, the food & room are why I would return to the Palace next time. Also - ate at the Caribe (Seafood), Brazilian & Mexican restaurants. Mexican was awful (nothing was hot, food was bland). Caribe was good - coconut shrimp was excellent! The family favorite was the Brazilian. I don't eat meat....but they recently changed the menu & it is now billed as a steak & pasta restaurant. I had the ravioli (which was way better than anything our family had at the Italian restaurant last year) & my husband & son both had the short rib. All in all, I think we will be back as a family (I would pick somewhere else if we were traveling without my son).

We stayed at the Barcelo Maya Palace on November 9th, 2012. Having been to Mexico many times, I can say without a doubt this is a great hotel.
The pros: Excellent service from the time we checked in to the time we left, I only have praises for all the employees who helped make our stay a great one.
The beach. For the Mayan Riviera, the beach is very nice (nothing like Cuba but still very nice). We managed to snorkel just in front of the hotel and we were able to follow a few turttles everytime we went out. We also had a great time feeding the fish in just about 4 feet of water.
The rooms are very clean, yet we can tell this hotel is starting to age.
The pools, especially the kids pool, were fantastic, although the water was cold (they don't seem to heat the pools). The water was always very clear.
There was always plenty of chairs around the pools and at the beach for us to choose from, either in the shade or in the sun. No need to drop your towels in the morning to save a nice place...
The cons:
I only have one negative comment about our stay. We were somewhat dissapointed with the A La Carte restaurants. We went to the Brazilian, the French (Brasserie) twice, the Caribe and the Santa Fe. We got our best meal at the Caribe but the other ones were just acceptable and the Brazilian was horrible the night we went. All the meats were overcooked and tasteless. However, the service was always perfect. I can only hope we were there on an off night and that the food is somewhat better in general. We have no complaints about the buffet restaurants as the food was quite good and the choice always adequate for our 1 week stay.
We would definitely go back to this hotel in the future.

My last review for the BMP was back in 2010 when we had our 2 and a half year old in tow, now she is 4 and a half so thats more where i'm coming from with this review, that and one other thing, that I'll get to. So the kids club, forget it, the Barcy Club, is sooooooo under par that i only left my daughter there once and didn't feel good about it the whole time, so that was the end of that. First and foremost, if you decide to leave your child at the Barcy Club to participate in a "fun" activity you might wonder how you will be contacted if there is an emergency or something, well they won't be able to contact you, when i asked this question, i was told, "well we will call your room" of course you won't be in your room, so already i'm thinking to myself i wouldn't leave my child anywhere at home where i couldn't be contacted, so why is it okay here, it isn't!! There are excursions to the pier to feed the fish, to play in the pool and collect shells on the beach, all with no way to contact the parents should something arise!!The Barcy Club, is an open empty room with a tv in one corner, and computers, some tables and chairs and bathroom area, the toys, i am assuming they have some somewhere are all away, if you are expecting some fun filled preschool type area with play kitchen, quiet area with books, a little tikes slide, dump trucks & cars, you get the picture well, it just doesn't exist. The staff do speak english and seem sweet enough, but if you are thinking along the lines of the bubbly outgoing types you find at My Gym, Gymboree or The Little Gym, you might be disappointed. So if leaving your child at the "kids club" for an hour or two each day is def part of what makes your vacation relaxing, rethink the BMP. The two hours that my daughter spent there, i hovered for a while and came back to "check in" after an hour, the 8 or 9 or so kids were busy painting weren't saying a word to each other and all looked rather serious, it was the same scene later with making a beaded necklace, so obviously not impressed with that, and needless to say didn't bother with Barcy again!
So moving on, here is the biggest tip i can give you for your stay at the BMP take with you a plug in air freshner and some kind of non plug in air freshner, one for the bathroom and the other for the toilet area, there is absolutely no ventilation in the bathrooms at the BMP, don't think this tip is all a bit overkill, no no, just do it, you'll have a fresher more pleasant bathroom :)
That was our last trip to the BMP, it was fun and we enjoyed but its time for something new.

I should say upfront, I really liked this resort last year. I have stayed there twice – this year, and last year. We returned for the food, and the exceptional beach. What follows is a litany of errors during our stay. There is no excuse for a resorts that claims to “deluxe premium” or whatever name they give themselves to have these errors occur.


I am hoping my writing this review that someone from Barcelo management will actually do something about the poor front desk service at the Barcelo Palace.


About me: my native Mexican husband and I travel to the Riviera May 1-2 times per year. Between us we have been lucky to stay at : Iberostar Grand (3X); Secrets Maroma Beach, Excellence Riviera Cancun, Royal Hideaway Playacar, Grand Velas, Secrets Silversands, and Le Blanc. Last year, we stayed at the Barcelo Palace with family and we were very impressed with the resort; we felt you got a lot for your money, in a beautiful setting with excellent food.


It takes a lot for me to get angry – I can take a lot of ridiculous things that come my way, but the way this hotel is managed is beyond a joke. It needs a serious intervention. The hotel sits on one of best beaches in the Riviera Maya. The food is good to excellent. The pool is beautiful. Liquors are top shelf. The grounds and buildings are beautiful and well kept. Yet, the management of this place is by far the worst hotel management I have ever seen. I have experienced better service and management at a Motel 6. No exaggeration.


THE UGLY
We arrived early on a Saturday. Our room was not ready but we were not expecting it to be ready. Via phone the prior week, we had requested a non-smoking room in the Michoacan building, close to the pool. The resort has two very large buildings – Michoacan and Oaxaca. Oaxaca is closer to beach access. Michoacan is closer to the restaurants. Each building has ~375 rooms – these are large, long buildings that run from the beach out toward the main entrance of the hotel, toward the highway.


Checking in was a comedy of errors. If you read my review from my stay last year here, you’ll see I was scathing in my review of the front desk staff. I didn’t think it could possibly get any worse. I don’t know if it was worse this year, or just different. Judge for yourself in this review.


By the way, there is no language barrier. We speak fluent Spanish.


Upon arrival at the hotel, it took 15 minutes for the desk attendant to tell us the room number we’d have. I asked him to show me on a map where is our room, and the number. He pointed to the Barcelo Palace map in general and said “here.” He refused to tell us where the room was located – in which leg of the building. He flat out wouldn’t do it. The reason why? They assigned us a room in Michoacan the farthest possible from the lobby and I guess he didn’t want us to know at that point so we would not ask for room closer to the pool. When we finally realized that they had put us in the farthest room possible, we requested a room closer, and we are told that none were available. We said we would even take two double beds. We were told that none were available. We were put on a waiting list for when occupancy dropped on Monday we were told. Later we found out we were not on any such list.


We stood in line again for 30 minutes at 4 pm and received our room key. We again asked for a closer room and we were told none were available.


We took our bags ourselves from the luggage room and walked the full length of the Michoacan building (this is a very long distance) but we could not find our room. It turns out that our room was not in MICHOACAN, but in Oaxaca. The front desk had written down the incorrect building on our guest papers.


Tired, hot and grumpy, we finally got to our room, and found it to be damp, musty, and with sluggish A/C. The “Welcome to the Barcelo” letter actually shredded in my hand, the room was so damp. My husband picked up the phone and spoke with a manager, and told him the entire saga. Within five minutes someone from guest services was at our door, giving us the choice of two other rooms, poolside, much closer to the beach. Miraculous how they found not one but two rooms when no fewer than two people had told us that none were available. Kudos to Ivan the manager for making a bad situation right.


We were vacationing with another couple, who arrived later in the day. They were told that they owned $1500 even though their invoice clearly showed they had paid in full and had a zero balance. After 10 minutes of arguing, and the desk attendant said yes, OK, we see we made a mistake. The next morning our friend went to the reception desk to get a second room key because they had refused to give her two keys the night before when she checked in, for whatever reason. She got the key, only to have the desk attendant tell her, “Oh, it is great that you came by here today because you owe us $1500 and we need your credit card to charge it….”


It should be noted that the reason I am peeved about all of this is the amount of time it takes away from my vacation. And it is so senseless. The front desk staff is clueless and powerless to make any changes or decisions. Each question (Is there another room available? How much does it cost to upgrade?) required the front desk attendant to go in the back and consult, for as long as 5 minutes, with a supervisor. Like Oz himself was sitting behind the curtain. They take copies of the passports – five minutes. Go back to find your room and information packet – 5 minutes. Everything they need to do, they disappear behind the Oz-like wall for 5 minutes. It is ridiculous to have a check in process take 45 minutes to an hour (this includes standing in line) for a PREPAID VACATION. Everyone – check ins, check outs, questions, etc… stand in the same line at the front desk. The wait time can be very long – up to an hour. This is, for a resort, really unacceptable.


Since your room is not ready if you arrive early, they tag your bags. Except they wanted to tag our bags with tags that say, “OUT” because they were out of “IN” tags. Bags are kept outside all day long, unguarded at the entrance to the hotel where everyone goes in and out. Incoming bags are mixed with outgoing bags, and the only thing that differentiates them is the “IN” or “OUT” tag. No way were we leaving our bags with an “OUT” tag all day long at the entrance. We asked to have our bag locked up. They balked and said, “no.” Finally, they did take care of that and it turns out there is a room to lock up luggage, so ask if you want your bags secured.


Getting access to the internet the next day required my standing in line at the front desk, only to be told to go to the internet lounge to get a ticket. I got the ticket, and stood in line again at the front desk to pay for 15 minutes. I needed a copy of my passport to buy 24 hours of wifi. And had to sign 3 documents. There was a special document for the conversion of US dollars to pesos. I also had to sign that. All for wifi. Which at most hotels, is free.


The front desk manager should be retrained, or fired. The desk is a mess, staffed with unprofessional people who are miserable and could care less about their jobs or guests. BARCELO MANAGERS: IF YOU ARE READING THIS REVIEW, BE ASHAMED THAT YOU ALLOW THIS FRONT DESK TO BE RUN LIKE THE TOTAL MESS THAT IT IS.


The concierges and the concierge system are worthless and rule bound. You can only make reservations at the desk, in person. If you want to make a change, they demand the paper receipt or they will not make a change. The only way they can make a change is to cancel your existing dinner reservation. They would not make any reservations until the party we were traveling with had been assigned a room. The party was not arriving until 10 pm. We had to wait in line to make reservations for my husband and I. The next day, we had to wait in line again to cancel those, and make all new reservations to include the other couple. After waiting in line and gave the concierge our room number, the concierge said that we were wrong, and that is not our room number. She refused to believe that we had given her the correct room number. She wanted us to stand in line again at the front desk to confirm our room number! Are you KIDDING? There was another concierge at the desk reading a novel, while a line formed at the concierge desk. Turns out , guess what? We did have the correct room number and no way did I stand in that line again to confirm what I already knew.


The saga of the telephone was another matter. The zero button on our room phone did not work. Almost all resort extensions end in zero. The telephone was useless to make calls. My husband’s corporate iPhone didn’t work in Mexico (Verizon) and he had to make a business call from the room phone. Without zero, there are not a lot of calls that can be made. I called an extension that didn’t have a zero and asked to speak with guest services: call #1 – rang and no one picked up; call #2 – someone picked up and hung up; call #3 – I explained what was happening. The person who answered transferred me to the front desk. Who then hung up the phone. I called again and asked to speak with guest services. This time, the person understood and laughed and said, “Oh, isn’t it terrible? – Yes, that is a real problem, you need a different phone. Let me transfer you to someone who can help you.”


She transferred me to the Lobby Bar.


At this point I went out into the hall where the concierge desk was located. No concierge in sight. I used the concierge phone to call guest services. I explained why I was using that phone. She said she would send someone.


When we got back from dinner there was a note on the phone, “Phone is OK.” It wasn’t. It was still broken.


I tell this story to illustrate how the Barcelo Palace handles questions and issues, not to complain per se; it was more funny than anything, how incompetent they are.


If you stay at the Barcelo, I would pay extra for Club Premium (even though I don’t think it is worth the price for goods in kind) just to not deal with the front desk (you have your own private check in area). Otherwise, a sedative would be in order. Or maybe two.


This resort doesn’t practice hospitality – it practices containment. I have never heard “no” more often than at the Barcelo. It is like the staff are trained to say “no” first, and only say yes on pain of suffering. For really dumb stuff. But enough to make your blood boil when added up. Who needs that hassle on vacation?


Other negatives? The pillows are hard as rocks – flat rocks. The beds have mattresses that are encased in a plastic sheet so you end up sweating when you sleep. The mattresses are not great. There are only three on site a la carte restaurants – a seafood place, Brazilian grill, and a molecular fusion place (more on that, below), although you do have access to restaurants at the other hotels in the complex. Rules abound – getting a ping pong paddle requires a hike across the complex (although the ball is on the table), “no” abounds, and the animation team can be loud. No beach service for drinks or food. Room service is extra ($9 per plate) if you are not a Club Premium guest. There is food available at the pool bar, for $9 per item. A basket of fries are $9. Beach chairs are showing their age, and need a good cleaning. Distances are great, as this is a large resort and spread out. The resort appears to be handicap-accessible, but the distance might be an impediment.


Midway through our vacation, the French restaurant menu changed from classic French to (get this) “Molecular Fusion.” The food was so disgusting I don’t know if I can properly describe it. One appetizer: "Prawns Two Firings: shrimp tails bleached head forming a very smooth and crispy crunchy accompanied by a sauce made from the same juice on crispy spring." Got that? Another appetizer: fish skin on a cracker spiced with honey. Dessert? How about "Hare with Strawberry Juice - Strawberries flamed with reduced rabbit juice and a touch of algae." I am DEAD serious. The waiters begged us to fill out a comment card, as they hate the menu, too. It was without a doubt, the worst meal I have ever had at any resort, and possibly in my life. Hopefully if you go to the Barcelo Palace, by the time you get there, they will have gotten rid of this science experiment of a menu.


THE GREAT
The beach, oh my Zeus the beach. The beach at the Palace is probably the least attractive of all the resorts in the complex, and even then, it is the nicest beach I have experienced in the entire Riviera Maya. Slap on a snorkel or even swim goggles and swim with the turtles, see manta rays, coral and a bunch of fish. It is like a nautical Garden of Eden at your fingertips. There are tons of palms that provide lots of shade. Walk the beach all the way down to the point and you’ll feel like you are in Bora Bora, with the palms, and the crystal clear water. There is a pier where you can dive in with the fish who swarm around you. The water is gentle, with little to no waves. There are few hidden rocks to stub your toes. The sand in some places is very soft and in others a bit course, but it is a glorious beach walk, with breathtaking vistas.


The pool is large, and amazing in design. The adult pool area is very pretty, and has a bar. You do need to pay $10 per day if you want to use a Bali bed.


Our guest room was modern, and very clean. A/C is cold. The bathroom is large and private. The shower is open and large and shares space with regular size bathtub.


The breakfast and lunch offers are buffet with multiple cooking stations. Food was fresh, tasty, and abundant in the offerings. We also enjoyed the dinner buffet a couple of evenings.


The Caribe restaurant is excellent, and offers lobster and not just the rock lobster. This was the best restaurant at the Palace, for us. The Brazilian one is not my favorite, but if you like the whole meat-on-a-stick thing, then I would try it; the meats are liberally spiced.


CONCLUSION
If I had paid the going rate ($300 per night) for a room, I would not think it is worth it. We paid almost half that from an auction site, so for what we paid, it is a very good deal. The beach is really superb, and swimming with the turtles is sublime, but after this latest customer service fiasco, I don’t think I will return to the Barcelo Palace. It pains me to rate this hotel average, but until they do something about the front desk and the service attitude, it deserves no greater.