We stayed at the Iberostar for 3 nights (not long enough!) for a wedding Nov. 2nd.

This was my first 'all inclusive' experience. As far as value goes, well, I'd say in regards to all the free drinks (read: alcohol...or in my case, Mojitos) it was a good deal. The food however...

Food:

~Breakfast buffet: very good. Can't go wrong with breakfast food at most places
~Lunch/Dinner: not good. Very bland, dry.
~Room service: The worst! Do not, I repeat, do not order room service. The 'pizza' and the rest of our order was so bad we started laughing about it. And I left all of it. And I LOVE pizza.

We spent all day Sunday at Xel-Ha and ate there. Now THAT lunch/dinner buffet was great! Highly recommend you sign up in the lobby for that excursion.

Moving on...

The rooms were beautiful. Huge. But also really really loud. Did not sleep well as you can hear everything outside room and beds are hard and bedding is not comfortable.

The grounds and pool and beach were beautiful.

The employees were all very friendly, HOWEVER...

Do NOT misplace a towel card or room key or it's your @$$!

I live in the good ole USofA where when you leave a hotel you can leave your room key in the room and head on out. Not here. You MUST bring them to the front desk upon checkout. We didn't. So we had to trolley back to our room (a good mile away it seemed) to get them. Then, we had misplaced one of the 2 towel cards they give you (you exchange them for towels on the beach/pool). It's a BEACH vacation..one 'may' pop out of your shorts or bag and get lost. No big deal right? WRONG!

I couldn't find one of the towel cards upon checking out. It's a huge resort. I figured it fell out somewhere. I told this to the front desk person (it was a male and it was early Monday morning 11/5/12 if mgmnt is reading this) and we were chastised like children for misplacing it! I heard my boyfriend being scolded. My boyfriend said he'd pay to replace it and the man said "that's not the point." What?? So I walked right up and told the guy we didn't have it. He said "my question to you is where is it?" I said flat out and angry at this point "We have paid to be here on a VACATION, there is a beach and a pool and a lot of VACATIONING about and things happen. It must have fallen out and is gone." He was silent. And then our taxi came.


Bottom line:

Lovely hotel.
Eat breakfast there and rest of meals elsewhere.
Tip for drinks so they make em good (at the beach bar).
And DO NOT LOSE A TOWEL CARD lest you receive a verbal spanking upon checkout!

We travelled to the Iberstar Maya on the 6th Oct for 2 weeks
The Flight – We went as always with first choice. We paid the extra for prem class, for the extra leg room etc. but the seat were very uncomfortable plus the couple who was sat in front of us on the way out had their seats right back from take off to landing the full 11hrs….. so please if you’re thinking of putting you seat back even in prem seats think about the people behind….!!!!! there’s not only you on the plane…... Some people just think of them self’s….get a grip ….on the way back they were two seats in front of us…I would of paid for them to be behind us…and they did the same too the poor old couple behind them again….The poor woman couldn’t move when the plane landed in Manchester….selfish ******’s
The Hotel is beautiful. The rooms were lovely. We were in block 63, its about half way between the beach and lobby, close to the pool but remember this place is huge so it a longish walk were ever you are. We’ve been to different places and Hotels in the Caribbean for the last 5 years but the Maya is the best we’ve been to but its the newest as well saying that…!!. The private pools are a lovely touch….This is the 3rd Iberostar hotel we’ve been to and I must say they take some beating they’re so very well run ….
The Maya and Lindo are basically the same hotel but with different lobby bars and receptions in fact I think we spent more time in the Lindo side then the Maya because the theatre and main buffet are on the Lindo side…
We did all the restaurants. Steak house lovely try the ribs on the buffet starter delightful - Cajon lovely. We’re not lovers of Sea food but tried it and it was ok .Japanese restaurant – lovely. Didn’t like the gourmet / French but again we tried it. A good tip don’t order you mains meals until you’ve had your buffet starter else they come half through your starter and it ends in a bit of a rush. We like taking our time between courses but that’s us…Buffet – there’s was always something to eat. There is a main meat or fish dish every night were the chef cuts you a slice off. Please please try the beef oh my god it melts in your mouth. The bar and the bar staff are all first class. They'll make you anythng you ask for plus in the main bar they got all the top named drinks
The hotel and grounds are beautifully kept. The workers are first class they never stop and always have time to smile and say hello. The lobby bar at the Maya is absolutely stunning; the attention to detail is unreal. The star friend’s shows at night were very good. They put so much effort in.
This is the first time we’ve been so late in the year due to work but we couldn’t have picked a better time to go. Like I've already said this Hotel is huge but it was at best only a quarter full, it got a bit busier at the weekends but not much and it was heaven…no getting up at stupid times just to get sunbeds….We’d roll out of bed at 10ish have a later breakfast walk down to the beach till mid-afternoon then go round the pool and have our pick of sunbeds it was heaven but on the same point I wouldn’t like to be there when its full… it would be a different holiday totally I bet.

Had stayed at Barcelo Maya Palace three prior trips and was skeptical about trying anything else.
Barcelo does have a nicer sea front--no mangrove jungle to walk through to get to it.
But after staying at the IPMaya, I would have no qualms about going there again.

We rented a Hertz car and used it to go to Coba(I made it to the top of the 126 step pyramid) and Playa del Carmen to shop, get massages,and see the Nasty Ba$tards at the Wah Wah beach bar. JJ and his boys are a lot of fun.
The resort is relatively close to the airport and PDC which makes it nice to drive--we saved transfer fees,Coba trip fees, and shuttle or collectivo fees to PDC.

Checkin was a breeze. We arrived 7:30 pm and headed to the snake bar after checking in our rooms. We had made all of our restaurant reservations two weeks prior and had the Steakhouse the first night at nine. Very good seafood and steak. We ate at the Japanese Geisha three times, the Marina seafood twice and the gourmet once. Every thing was very good, especially the stone crab and king crab appetizers at the seafood. Had lobster, steak and shrimp at the Japanese--excellent.
The morning and lunch buffets were very good and offered many choices.The bars all served good drinks and we had a huge variety --Mexican flags to Dos equi beer. Enrique at the snake bar is a jewel, though all the bartenders were very good.
Service was very, very good and helpful throughout the complexes.

We used the hobie cats three different days and had nice sails--staff very nice at the divers shop.
Went to the special halloween party at the shopping center--they did a tremendous job with the "scare tunnel". The regular shows were not Vegas, but with a few timely drinks they were doable.
We had great weather the whole week(Oct 28-Nov4).
Didn't mind the walks--needed them after the meals.Golf carts were always at the lobby areas if you did want a ride somewhere.
Grounds were spotless with much vegetation to care for.
Again, the employees made things extra special and we wouldn't hesitate to return.

We returned to the Maya for the 3rd time and could not have had more fun. The rooms and food are good, but even better this time was the entertainment staff! The Star Friends work so hard and make the trip so much fun! We had such a great time thanks to Sandy, Juan Carlos, April, Marilyn, Carlos, Jonathon, Tracy, and team! Jorge in the Theater Bar was awesome!

Hope to see you guys soon!

<3 Vensors! (aka Miss Iberostar, Mr. Dancing with the Stars, Ashley from Colorado and Reese - Star Friends in Training!)