I travelled to Catalonia Playa Maroma (January 2011) with a group of 9 persons ( 2 middle aged couples, 14 and 16 year old kids and 21, 24 and 22 year old young adults) and we all loved practically everything in this hotel!

The location. We liked the fact that the hotel was a bit off from everything else. it was nice to be surrounded by trees and other plants! And if we wanted to go to Playa del Carmen, Cancun etc. the taxi was easy to get from the boys at the main entrance.

The rooms. All of the 4 rooms our group had we very tidy, lot of space and the cleaning ladies did a great job every day, no complaints! We had our rooms on the 1st floor but still we didn't have to worry about bugs or anything when we kept the terrace door open. Only guests we sometimes got in our terrace were the coatis that live in the hotel area but they went away quite easily if you wanted! The hotel seemed to locate the same nationalities in the same area, and for example we were in the same area with the other finnish and also swedish customers.

Hotel area. Pool area, lobby, beach were all clean and lovely. No complaints. There was so much staff all the time making sure everything was tidy! The beach is AMAZING! The best beach I have ever been to! The water, the sand.. everything! It was lovely to swim in the sea and we also saw starfish and small rays !

Restaurants.We only used the main buffet restaurant (breakfast, dinner) and the Tortuga (lunch, snacks). Oh and the Creperie near the pool! The crepes were delicious, I highly recommend! We found the buffet restaurant more than enough for us since there were different themes on different days and the food was always clean and tasty. We ate everything from seafood and chicken to raw veggies, eggs and dairy products and no-one got stomache ache. Especially the dessert buffet was excellent! I think I ate more desserts than anything else! :D

The staff. The receptionists, consierges, bell boys, cleaners, entertainers and all the others were friendly and helpful during our whole stay. We managed with english just fine. The only difficulties we had during our stay were when 2 of our group members (the 14 and 21 year old)) got sick (ears and throat) and needed antibiotics. The doctor was easy to get from the hotel and he even came to our room to check the boy since he was so sick. The doctor spoke english and we had no communication problems. We got the prescripton for the medicines and we were told to take it to the consierge and they would take care of everything. Well, they couldn't find the other medicine anywhere and it turned into a big mess because they charged us everything and so on... and made us actually pay 2 times and we rude and no apologies were given to us.. We went to Play del Carmen ourselves also and tried to find the missing medicine but they didn't have it anywhere! But the whole case was solved after we gave feedback in the general feedback paper they gave us one night at dinner. And already the next day they contacted us and wanted to talk to me (I gave the feedback) and everything was solved. It was great how fast they reacted to the feedback! Last something about the tips: when we gave our waiter a good tip once, we got such fast and good service and never had to ask for attention again..The service was good before the tip but excellent after!

We originally were staying at the catalonia yucatan. We arrived monday night, on tuesday around 4pm the power went out, at 9 pm the power was still out and there was no way to know when it would come on. After discussing with the manager Jamie at Riviera maya my husband requested that we would like to be transferred somewhere else, Jamie was very helpful. We were sent in a taxi, paid for by the hotel to the Catalonia Play Maroma. When we arrived it was late but we were greeted by Debora at the front desk who was sooo helpful and kind. Because the hotel was fully booked for the regular rooms, we were given the honeymoon suite, talk about being upgraded, it was only supposed to be for 2 days and then we were going to be given a regular room. But again it was fully booked so we got to stay for the whole time in this beautiful room, go online to view how nice it is. I reccommend taking a honeymoon there.

We never did swim in the pool, though it looked very nice. We spent the whole time on the beach.
It is sooo beautiful, Sand so smooth and white, Lots of lounge chairs to choose from, there are shaded area's. When you go out into the water about waist deep these nice white angel fish with black tipped fins may come and swim around you, it definately is a cool experience. There are no rocks or coral pieces to step on just smooth soft sand, the waves come crashing in but are not too big.

There are various free things to do there as well as paid for trips to sites.
I would recommend this place for singles, couples, and even families, many people from around the world were there, and alot of the staff speak 2 - 4 languages.
The jungle surrounding the buildings is real nice to walk through on the many paths winding from the rooms and reastraunts, the lobby is real nice.

We stayed at CPM from nov. 7-17 in the privileged part of the hotel,the check in for the privileged guests was a breeze as you were led to a separate room,a real plus since the last time we were their,3 years ago.Lots of improvements since then the best being the beach bar area with better outdoor seating & canvas shading above.Juan the beach bartender was by far the best we've ever experienced at any resort { spoke very good english and alway's winked when he saw us approaching}The staff couldn't have been better,the only issue we had was our refrigerator went out the second day,it was replaced within a couple of hours no big deal as we were at the beach anyway.As far as the food went the steakhouse was our favorite,the tenderloin was choice angus { I'm sure being formerly in the beef industry }The Mexican was second the pablano cream soup was outstanding. The buffet lacked flavor and was hard to be seated for breakfast 8:00 and no where to sit { the resort was 90% full,which was unusual for early Nov.}We didn't go to the shows as we were on the beach from 9:00-5:30 ,still the best beach around. Secrets Maroma was next door and for the price difference wasn't work it to us.The privileged guests also had their own beach if you preferred ,with a shorter walk to the beach. The drinks were never an issue, you just had to tell them to add more booze.One thing others have commented on was the drive in to the resort { a gravel & dusty road ,I say big deal }however they are putting in pavers which while we were there they made progress of about 20 yards.This paving will take some time to complete but the owners are very concerned about the overall appearance of the resort.Yes it was mostly Italian & French but they were more polite than our last visit.We met a lot of American's and some great people from Germany. The staff was really excited to talk to us as they are used to Europeans and this was actually a plus.The Maroma beach is still the best for beach walking,nice and wide and miles to walk. The specialty restaurants by the way you can wear anything but beach wear.We will be coming back as it was a flawless vacation.

We stayed at the Catalonia Priveleged beach. Our travel dates Nov 4th -16th 2012.
We booked with Expedia with the Catalonia priveleged side and was amazing!

Room:
Bathrobes, slipper, beer, pepsi, sprite, orange, water bottles, plasma t.v. turn down service.
Free Wi-Fi ( great connection)

Pros: Amazing room and maid service. Never out of towels.
Very comfortable double size beds

Buffet: Everything from Sushi to Italian, mexican, french theme food

A La Carte: Italian,(very good) Mexican
Service at a la carte , excellent !

Lobby service: great !

Animators: Carlo, Filippa, Nicole - Amazing hard working, pleasant and try very hard to fill out your day.

Gym: 1 treadmill , weights, (good a/c gym)

Aerobics: Zumba, bachata classes, spanish lessons given in the jacuzzi

Premises: Extremely clean. Coatis to be expected wondering around. Free Wi-fi all over resort.

Cons:
Beach chairs are mostly caved in. Need to be replaced. They added some type of sofa chairs 2 seater couch on the beach which was wasted money where they could have changed the chairs instead.

Bathroom: Poor shower pressure during our stay

Lobby desk: Did not accept american money to pay your bill.
Net should also be put around the lobby area to avoid coatis to jump on your table.

Animators: too many animators for the amount of people on the resort. They were only doing their job but there were days where we were constantly interupted to chat (although they did not know that only a few minutes before there was another animator with us.)

Priveleged desk: Misinformed us that we were offered a no charge upgrade to priveleged room, when we already paid for it.

N.B. If you reserved with Catalonia "Privileged" beach side you are entitled to what I described above.

I would definately recommend this hotel!

Thank you Catalonia for making our stay enjoyable !