Paradisus Playa Del Carmen La Esmeralda All Inclusive

Please if u have kids over 6 dont go here. No activities for preteens or teens. They closed game room. Water park is for small kids. And the worst of all, we been here 3 days already. Not one ocean swim. Seaweed is everywhere. Tons and tons. Very sad. Spent so much money and traveled here for pool all day long. Rooms are big, thats a good one. And Hotel looks cool and modern but dont let it sway you.

We have been visiting this resort for over ten years, but our trip at the end of Feb 2023 was our first visit back since Covid. We have always had a 5+ star experience and were shocked when this visit did not live up to our previous visits or expectations. The disappointment started with our check-in experience. After a day of travel with my husband and two girls (6 and 10), we were looking forward to getting to our room and starting to relax in our favorite place. When we got to the desk, Gina started to check us into our room and was preparing some potential upgrade options that we were interested in exploring. We had booked a room with two double beds-- important for our family as we need one bed for my husband and me and one for my children to share. Gina informed us that the room that they gave us had one King sized bed. I explained that this would not work for our situation and that we needed to have two beds. Gina started to look into options and called her boss, coming back to tell us that 'there was nothing'. Now this left us very confused because just moments before, Gina had a list of rooms that we were going to be able to updgrade to-- what had changed? I asked to speak to her manager, Andres Granillo, and he came to the desk and proceeded to speak to Gina, again informing us that there was absolutely 'nothing they could do'. I asked him about the rooms that Gina had presented as upgrades and he said she had 'made a mistake'. Andres was extremely unhelpful and did not resolve the issue in any way. Our only option, aside from leaving the resort, was to accept our King size room. The staff had said they would roll in a double bed for our kids, so we were cautiously optimistic about at least being able to sleep. Two hours later, a single roll-in bed arrived, and was jammed into the room next to a vinyl couch. Our first night in a luxury hotel was spent with one daughter in a roll-in bed, and the other sleeping on top of a non pull-out vinyl couch. After three days of back-and-forth with the customer service team, we eventually got a second roll-away bed and the couch removed. While this configuration worked. the stress, distraction and discomfort it created during the first half of our week was very frustrating. Mid-week the hotel did offer that we could move to another room, but as many people know, once you've unpacked everything, moving is very difficult. When you pay this amount for an experience, you don't expect to have to have so much trouble during your stay. There were a few other major differences in this stay vs. previous pre-Covid visits. Many days we were not given any towels after our room was cleaned. We actually had to bring pool towels to our room so that we could shower. This was despite calling the desk and telling them the situation-- towels never showed up. I don't consider myself a picky traveler, but I do need a bed and towels! We were also surprised to see that the kids shows/activities that we previously loved seemed to have reduced significantly as well as the big evening performances. There were none. I do have to stay that the staff by the pool is extremely friendly and helpful. We really love the food at this resort, and it was still fantastic. The restaurant by the Reserve area was a really nice option for breakfast. My kids were also finally at the age to enjoy the water park and this is a great feature. We still managed to have a nice visit, but we did feel very sad that this may have to be our last year at this resort. We think of it as our 'place' and after the trouble we had with our room, I'm not sure we'll be back. It appears that the management team has changed and the resort also seems to be hosting a lot more corporate events, which I definitely don't remember from years ago.

Amazing stay. Incredible staff, led by Nestor our unbelievable concierge. Nestor was amazing to our kids - brought them gifts and set up a scavenger hunt game for them in our room. When our flight home was delayed he arranged a late stay for us with zero fuss. He truly made the stay special. Great food options, fabulous kids pools and water park. Amazing suite on the Nikte side.