We stayed at the Catalonia Playa Maroma hotel from Nov 25th to Dec 2nd, 2012 with our 2 kids, family and friends for our wedding. The wedding was amazing! And our wedding planner was the best!! The set up on the beach was just WOW!! If you think on getting married down south, I suggest you don't get married at 4pm because the sun goes down around 5pm so the sunlight is not the best for pictures. We hired the photograph from the resort for our wedding pictures but they didn't want my uncle to take pictures too so I wasn't happy about that. They did take good pictures which we bought but family should be able to take pictures too because you get married once and want to have as much pictures as possible of this moment in your life!

Overall, the resort is good. It was our 5th time in Riviera Maya and not the best hotel but the beach was the nicest one in the area. You can take long walks on the beach which we love to do. The upgrade to the superior room was an excellent choice. Some people travelling with us had taken the regular room and didn't have beer in their mini fridge, pool towels in their room, the extra restaurant the privilege room has and other little extras. Rooms were clean and mini fridge always full of water, soft drink and beer. However, we had to ask for face cloths all weeks and although we were 2 adults and 2 kids, the maid would only give us 2 face cloth if she had any left...The a la carte restaurant were very good but the buffet did not have much variety for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were shows almost every night and daily entertainment on the beach and pool every day. The hotel is close to Playa Del Carmen which is nice for shopping and an hour and a half from Tulum if you want to go on excursions there. It is true that the hotel is mostly Europeans but didn't make much of difference.

We will not necessarily go back to this hotel but will be back in Mexico for sure!!

We stayed Dec5th thru Dec13th 2012 for 8 nights and 9 days. We booked the trip in late Sept early Oct. thru AARP/Expedia. We stayed at the Privileged which when booking online you stay at a comfort room. For the price difference I would next time upgrade online. If you try to upgrade at the hotel it will cost you a lot$$$$. The all inclusive Resort is actullay two resorts in one. If you like smaller resorts this would be your choice for the price. There were 4 of us two senoirs over 65 and my wife and I 60's. This resort was built in the jubgle each building there are 7 tottal has it own part in the jungle. We stayed in building 4 which was close to the beach and had excellent internet service. The user name and password is your room number. Build 6 was the closest to the beach and had views from the second and thrid floors.
I would recommend the second floor because we like to sleep with the windows open. On the first floor anyone can walk up or by and inscect have a easy acess. Though I did not see any. Some advice try to get your room numbers before you confirm. By calling your travel or the resort.
Service to the rooms was excellent especially if you leave a tip. Sometimes the maid does refill the fridge because she might not have what you want a call to the front desk helps. Usually at 6:30 pm a server goes room to room knocking doors to see if you need refills a tip would having him come every day. The people at the resort are mostly from Europe Itlain the most Than French, German, Usa And Cannada the least. The employees try very hard you can see them sweating trying to please you.
One little problem is the buffet place, there is one that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. the other by the beach lunch snack bar. The buffet does not employee enough waiters or table cleaners I made a fact to right a complaint. The problem was when you left a tip at the table the bosses you will see them don't allow the bus boys ar waiter to recieve the tip it goes to a general fund. If you recieve good service give the tip personally to the waiter he splits it with the bartender and bus boy.
The food was differnt every day you can get a list of what style food is serve every day in the main buffet and the hours people will be served. Drinks what kind are in a pamplet usually by the bar. If you taste noachol ask for double shot of whatever you llike its that simple. by buying privillged you get to eat lunch by the beach at sit down and order what ever you like from a menu and it is made to order. Ask your waiter for a drink called the special if the same bartender is there you walk out tipsy. Make sure you tip and they will remember you.
When you order a privilleged room your beach towels will be in your room and when you leave you get to leave them in your room. You also get to eat lunch at the topas room and you also get one dinner at the topas, you allso recieve a discount at the spa and if not croweded you can use the pools free, also a discount for lobster dinner. the lunch buffet by the beach is usually the same every day. You get 4 dinners at the speciall resturaunts privileged or regular. The Italian and the Mexican Was my favorite the steak house was good also. Yopu can order soup salad appetizer and main entry then dessert.
The beach was the best part of the visit. Crystal clear water and not one sea shell or rock in the water or on the beach. When in the water waust deep if you tap your fingers in the water you will see angel fish 6inches to a foot wide.Please do not feed the fish there is a life gaurd and he warn several people feeding the fish bread its a great feeling but the feeding frenzy that make noise attarcts other fish you don not want to be swiming next to. (barracuda) There are plenty of chairs which should be replaced, and the beach is not segerated for privilleged or regualar rooms. The only is the suites which has it own beach, and pools.

This is my 5th time to the Maya Riviera and what I say going forward is my non bias viewpoint.
We flew Air Transat Nolitours and everything in regards to them was fine. Our rep Hugo at the hotel was great, he helped us out with tours etc and was very funny and easy to talk to.
The drive to the resort was bumpy but very minor, call it a "Mayan massage".
The hotel and grounds were very nice and well manicured it appears the staff put in alot of work and care.

Service: It was exceptional, the "Mexican" staff were always pleasant and the only ones to say "Hola" or hello to you. To be honest the most attentive staff I have encountered.
One point that I thought could be improved was when we arrived around 7PM it was pouring rain and we were told to head out down the dark narrow pathway to find our room on our own getting soaked .Days later during the trip a bus load of Italians showed up and you'd think the President showed up the way the animacion staff fawned over them. If they could piggy back every person to their room I think they would. It kind of left me with the feeling that I was a second class guest, but more about that later.

Value: We got a deal to this resort and we were very happy with the value.

Sleep Quality: We did not stay in the privileged section I stayed with the "pork and beaners"
The bed was hard as a rock and I had to take a Tylenol every morning for my
back.

Cleanliness: Resort was well kept and very clean.

Location: The resort is between Cancun and Playa Del Carmen, and right on the beach.
It was a $25.00 cab ride to Playa Del Carmen one way.
Beach is second to none,beautiful, lots of beach chairs.Enrico will bring you drinks two at a time!

Rooms: The rooms were nothing special and the beds were as I said rock hard. The t.v. was a
19 inch 1980's model with poor reception.Washrooms were shower only no tub with no curtain.
Rooms could use upgrading but were clean and functional and A.C. worked fine.
Bar fridge was stocked daily with water and soda, no beer.

Beverage section: Premium alcohol and great coffees

Food: Al a Cartes were good and service great, buffet was good, I noticed lots of breads and
buns, which I don't eat but the rest was good. They should put out the bacon more than
twice a week and cut out the weiner casserole. I noticied nobody but Canadians tipping
C'mon people, I know everyone has their hand out as soon as the plane lands but the
staff here are running off their feet serving you.

Summary: Would I return?? No.

The Ugly:
This resort caters to Italians and French and everything revolves around them
The Animacion staff look at you and if your not wearing a certain color wristband (our week it was red for French, purple for Italians, and clear for "others" meaning U.K. Canada, USA,) they'll walk right by and ignore you and say hello to the person beside you. They're so phoney the only time they attempt to engage you is when they need an audience for their junior high talent show, because its so lame.The only one of the Animacion staff to talk to us all week was Brenda and she was very nice and had a big smile everyday.She took the time to talk to everyone and makes me think why does management import staff from abroad when your best ambassadors to your hotel are the Mexican staff.
Management should take note of the deserted resorts further up the beach and know that they had better keep bringing in the French and Italians because if they treat the Canadians,Swedes.Americans,Brits,Russians and Germans like they treated us we'll vote with our feet and go to other places in the Mayan where our business is appreciated.
Management, you need us more than we need you.

Shout out to the best of Catalonia Playa Maroma... thanks for saving this trip!
Maria, Jacob, Benjamin, Fedian,Ana,Martha,Balazaar,Brenda, Sergio, Enrico,Jasmine,Victor #1 and#2
Daniela the photographer, all bartenders, maids, cooks and groundskeepers.

Please bring anything Canadian to the guy selling trinkets by the pool. He loves Canadians and wanted a flag or something to help draw more people over to him.Great deals for Canadians!

That is the real story my friends.

Catalonia Playa Maroma
M&K - Nov 18- 25th 2012

Had a good relaxing week!

First, the hotel is just 35- 40 minutes from the airport, which is pretty close compared to others we have been to (Catalonia Yucatan and Bahia Principe Tulum). It is true that the hotel is at the end of a long gravel road, but it really did not seem as long as some people made out. I guess it’s because we are Canadian and lived in Northern Canada where there are a lot of REALLY bad long gravel roads, they are awful compared to this. It appears they are starting to brick the road near the resort and construction was ongoing during our time there.

Ok, first off yes this is a primarily European resort, lots of French from France and Italians. We met a few Americans and English/French Canadians but we were definitely in the minority - did it matter? No. There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to having so many Europeans, the disadvantages are obvious, language and fewer English speakers. My wife does not speak any language other than English and said to me she ended up tuning out of events because there was little English spoken - they did speak it, but not as much as the French, or Italian, or Spanish. I understand some French and Spanish so understood most of it. Did we care, no. The advantages of having a large European contingent was that the wine was pretty good at any restaurant, but the Bar Lobby and the Buffet’s red wine was quickly named "plonk", because it was awful.
We did not hang out there very much as it was also where the smokers hung out. The other advantage of having many Europeans was food quality, it was good. Not 3 star Michelin, but good. Best meal we had was at the Tapas for dinner.

We know what we want in a resort, we like a nice beach (OMG what a beach! #2 in world by Travel Channel, # 7 or 8 on some other list). We want a decent room, which we got - they upgraded our room to Privileged upon arrival and we decided to pay for the upgraded services, half of what we would have paid from home.

So, we were in building 4 top floor and with the worst view for a 3rd floor room you could imagine! Our deck had a wall, blocking any view directly from the room, but railings on the sides, which gave no privacy from our one neighbor - odd design but it is an older hotel. The room was fine, flat screen TV, plenty of channels to choose from. My wife suffered through two cold showers while there, but once she changed the time to take a shower - all showers were warm from then on. I guess when the sun starting going down people hit the showers en mass and all the hot water was used up.

I want to echo what many have said; Esther at the front desk was great. Her English was fantastic and she "got it" when we asked for anything or asked about anything. We also want to thank Erika, she was of great help assisting us to call Air Transat when our transport failed to arrive on time. Actually many staff had very good English, and seemed to want to speak it when they discovered we spoke English, they sure get their practice with French and Italian! Activities were primarily conducted by the animation staff - and it took me about two days to realize that the animation staff were wearing red and white uniforms with the Lookea logos - I thought at first these folks were dedicated to the French and Italian tourists as they were there when they arrived and greeted them and escorted them about. The French and Italian tourists seem to have them as a part of their tour, have much more contact with the animation teams and get much more direction from them. It’s like they purposefully cater to these groups as a part of their tour - not a good or a bad thing, just that the set up is unusual for me. They spoke excellent English and actively recruited English speakers for activities. So, not that they ignored English speakers but seemed to have a different role with the French and Italian tour groups than they had with us. Again not complaining just trying to outline what was different.

So we found out that this part of Mexico adopted Daylight Savings time just this year - basically shortened the day by 1 hour of sun. Sun up at 6:05am and down at 5:05pm. Actually the birds were starting at 5:30 am. We were here for the sun and beach so we made a conscious decision to get up early and catch as much sun as possible, which meant we never saw a night show at all as we were up by 6 am most mornings.

The towel game is in full force at this resort, by 7am many seats were already taken. Our first day there after our orientation we went to the beach at about 11 am and had a hard time finding a spot. The other days we were up early enough so finding a place was not a problem. The weather was a bit of a disappointment as it was mostly cloudy with some sun and we had a full rainy day, on the rainy day the animation staff set up all kinds of activities in the lobby - that's where we hung out that day, they kept us occupied. It was interesting to people watch and they put on a ceviche cooking demonstration, games were being played, aerobics, that sort of thing....
We went on one excursion via Alltournative Tours, we had a great guide Paco for the Jungle Maya Tour, we had a great day zip lining, swimming in cenotes and learning how to rappel ... great lunch too! I would recommend this tour.

We knew what we were going into when we went here, so it matched the kind of vacation we wanted, and not surprisingly we had a great time and were not disappointed.
I have read reviews where people did not like the food, or felt isolated ... have to say can't agree about the negative food reports at all. I can see how if you were expecting a lot of English speaking interaction you might be disappointed. Also the written information in the rooms is sparse on English, for example the title of a page might be in English but the text is all in Spanish! My wife said she could have figured it out but was glad I could read Spanish. Also the information was not up to date – for example, it says the Tapas Restaurant opened at 8 pm, when actually it opened at 6:30 pm (we figured that was why it was almost empty when we went at 7pm). We have been around the block a few times when it comes to resorts so we checked at 6:40pm or so and sure enough it was open when the other restaurants were – at 6:30pm!

All of the a la cartes were good, the Tapas the best for us. The buffet was good too, no complaints and did not even get a twinge of stomach issues.

Our idea of a great vacation is a stack of books, a beautiful beach, good food and drink and an excursion or two. We got that here and the staff were wonderfully helpful and friendly!