El Dorado Seaside Palms, a Spa Resort - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

14102 reviews

• 

  Sewage stench from the drains in the bedroom but a good stay

  I’ll begin with the positives: - Most of the staff were lovely, couldn’t do enough for you and were generally really nice to talk to and have a laugh with - special shout out to Juanita walking up and down the beach front all day with a smile on her face, having a laugh with everyone keeping everyone’s drinks topped up. Also to Luis from entertainment, great ball of energy and brilliantly hosted some great activities and games. And finally Sergio from the bar, a really fun guy and always gave service with a smile. - We stayed in a beachfront suite, room was a great size, nice sofa, had a huge spa bath which was great but we really didn’t use as much as we should have! Great Walk in shower with toilet separate and 2 sinks side by side. Bed was so big and comfortable as well. Our room had air con and a ceiling fan which I thought was great as I am not a fan of sleeping with the air con on so the fan did the job perfectly. - Maids always did a great job, and the fridge was always stocked up with beers and soft drinks (disappointed with the lack of spirits that I have usually had in mini bars in rooms on other holidays around the Caribbean Sea.) - The food was all around great, we tried each restaurant and always found the food to be very enjoyable, although the portions slightly small at times in the al a cartes but we learned to double up or at least get some sides. But honestly the food was fantastic. Special shout out to the fresh pizzas served in the afternoon. - It was my partners birthday, when telling the concierge (can’t remember her name, but she was concierge for block 27 on Thursday 9th Jan) gave us a gift of a couple of shot glasses which was a really nice touch. Also we got a surprise room service delivery on the night of fizzy wine and a cake, then again when we ate at the Japanese on the night received another surprise birthday cake with a sparkler! In my opinion they really did go above and beyond on this day which I am very thankful for. And for the negatives: - This isn’t so much about the hotel but it is to do with Tui, and as we booked it as a Tui holiday package and it is a Tui hotel I guess it is relevant. Our luggage took a while to come out at Cancun airport, not massively long but around an hour which is more than an average wait, so when we finally left the airport we spoke to a Tui rep who told us our transfer coach had left without us, and that we would have to wait 45 minutes for the next coach to depart but had to wait for the passengers from the next flight first. I was really annoyed about this as in the transfer section of the Tui app it says, and I quote “if there are any delays with immigration or collecting your luggage, don’t worry, we will wait for you to come through and you won’t miss your transfer to the hotel”, this was a lie as we missed the transfer. Anyway, we waited 45 minutes for this transfer, then 50 mins, then the tui guide came up to us and said it would be ANOTHER 50 minutes. He said we can either wait or get a taxi which would be reimbursed by Tui, we chose to get a taxi for 4000 pesos, or 200 USD (~£160). Sorted it out with the Tui guide at the hotel, Kyle, who was great to be fair real nice guy. Received £160 in my bank a few days later, however I now needed that cash back in pesos, so took about 200 USD out of the ATM in the Tui hut, this charged me 8 USD to do so, then I went to reception to get it changed to pesos, and this cost me another 22 USD, so really through all this shenanigan, although Tui reimbursed me for the taxi, I’m still down 30 USD. I will raise this to Tui in an email separately. - Booked the Chichen Itza trip through the hotel (not through Tui although I wish we did) we got picked up at 7am so missed breakfast etc, spent 1.5 hours picking people up (people who had time to get their breakfast as they were coming on the coach and eating it when we were absolutely starving) to then go past our hotel again before getting to some bus depot for pick up at 08:30. Why would we get picked up first if we are the last hotel to pass on the way to the depot? - Prepare to Queue for EVERYTHING. Eggs and omelettes with a breakfast? 15 minutes easy so make sure you get the eggs first else your food will be cold - They seem to only do one egg or omlette at a time rather than ask the queue what they want and do them all at once like other hotels would. Pizzas, burgers, burritos at lunch time? Usually stood in a queue for around 40 minutes. Again only seem to do one persons at a time so even if there’s 5 people in the queue it takes forever. If you plan to go for an evening meal for 8pm, make sure you’re down there for 7pm as when you walk in you will always be told there is a 30 minute to an hour wait for a table. In my opinion the amount of people in the hotel is too many for the amount of restaurants or food amenities in place. - Some of the staff were rude, particularly a couple of bar staff who I won’t name. Rushing us with drinks, walking off in the middle of serving us if taking to long to order, telling us they didn’t have certain drinks when I could see it behind them, generally talking to us very rude, they clearly didn’t want to be there and didn’t want to be serving us. - Worst till last, we smelled a sewage smell around our room all holiday, put it down to their drainage system not being the best and didn’t think much of it. Twice we came into the room and noticed it smelled like sewage, but like I said just put it down to a dated sewage system or whatever. On the last full day as we were walking back to our room, we heard a toilet flush and then water spilling out to an open drain, which was directly below our toilets window. I investigated further and when standing above the drain was greeted with a toe curling, stomach curdling rotting sewage stench which was obviously the cause of our smelly problems. Felt absolutely sick at this point to think this smell from other peoples toilets had been in the room, so went straight to reception. They did not say much other than they agreed it was disgusting and will send someone out and report it to management. We left the windows shut (it was our last day so didn’t see the point in changing rooms for not even 24 hrs) and went about our night however didn’t see anyone coming to look at it and also haven’t heard anything back from management so this would be great to hear feedback from this. Just so everyone is aware incase you get put in room 2706 if there is a sewage smell in or around your room then definitely ask for a room swap straight away Although I do have plenty of good to say, I wouldn’t stay again as I think the negatives (in my experience) definitely weigh out the positives.

  Jan 15, 2025
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  Great Experience

  My wife and I went Dec 28 to Jan 4. I honestly do not have anything bad to say about this place. Operating at 95% capacity and over 200 staff members short you would never guess it. The staff are amazing, the resort, rooms, beach etc were all very clean. I really enjoyed the food especially at Mia Casa and Klay Talay. yes portions sizes are small but just order more! will defiantly be back again

  Jan 10, 2025
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  5* resort but not 5* food

  Rooms - Junior Suite Pam’s Side (Tui) - Spacious, dated but clean Drinks - Good variety of premium drinks Food - lots of restaurants but should concentrate on less restaurants with better quality food Activities - Entertainment team nice people but not at Rui standard entertainment team Resort - Huge and very clean Staff - Mostly friendly always get an “ola” Gym - Great but most of the electric equipment not working (bikes, cross trainer) Went over Christmas Day Wouldn’t return as ticked off Riviera Maya 5 star resort just not 5* food

  Jan 07, 2025
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  Great Service

  Quick review of the Goumet Pub. Went night with my family. Arianjurio our waiter was great. He was very friendly and made us feel relaxed. He was also very prompt with his service. He is a credit to the hotel. The food was great, favourite being the ribs and Black Forrest Gateaux.

  Jan 07, 2025
• 

  Stunning Grounds

  Me and my husband visited 4th-14th December for some winter sun. Here's our takeaway. The pros: The room was so spacious and we loved the jacuzzi. This was the perfect addition on one particularly rainly day. The room was also spotless. House keeping did the best job of cleaning and then turning down and decorating the bed each night. We did tip though and this probably helped the level of bed art! The beach is fantastic. We actually walked out of the complex all the way along the beach to the left. We saw stingrays along the shallow waters outside the hotel. But we also noticed that the other reports do not have the selection of amazing ball beds and clear sand and water that El Dorado has. The guys working on the beach do an amazing job. Yes it's shallow but snorkeling around the cobbled path was amazing. Also perfect with a floaty in the sea and a cocktail! In addition the grounds in general are immaculate and we loved spotting wildlife each day! The entertainment was amazing. The best I've experienced at a hotel. We booked vip seats with a bottle of cream tequila for both the Mexican fiesta and the fire show. We took on bottle home with us though so throughout the evening the waiters worked hard to top our glasses up with other drinks. To be at the front row feeling the heat of that fire was well worth the expense. The friendliness of the staff in general is amazing. I've forgotten his name sadly but a man working on room service always said hola Rebecca and checked if me and my husband needed anything. I spoke as much Spanish as I could with my limited Duolingo experience and everyone was so nice helping me out if I needed to understand a new word. But of course everyone spoke English with us too. Shout out to Fernando our concierge who was so helpful and Florencio(?) in Mia Casa, he made the night very special and his knowledge about Maya culture was a great addition to our evening. The Mezcalito bar and the quiet beach bar near reception were our favourites. The mezcal based cocktails are a must try! The cons: Coming from the UK I'm used to the cold but a lot of restaurants has multiple air con units blasting so hard that I had goosebumps. The Mexican restaurant was spoilt by this. With a cardigan on I was getting back ache from shivering even after requesting we were moved. Service in restaurants is hit and miss. Although we had no issue at all getting tables or making reservations, sometimes if felt like staff were too rushed to care. We booked Mia casa a second time after enjoying the service previously but we're not greeted in a friendly manner and left with empty wine glasses. After previously being told that dishes could be altered to be vegetarian I was huffed at for asking for some vegetables to be put in a pasta dish rather than meat. Since these are build your own type dishes anyway I was made to feel like I was being incredibly awkward. Being a vegetarian at the Mexican fiesta was also an issue. Hola, soy vegetariana, tienes algo sin carne o sin pescado was met with raised eyebrows and being pointed to the salad bar. The waiter eventually sorted me something but just feel that overall staff need more training to deal with this. Considering there's an AMAZING vegan restaurant in the day it gives the impression that the resort can cater to dietary needs. But in reality half the staff understand vegan and vegetarian but some have no clue. Meals in general were okay. Nothing that wowed us but nothing bad. You won't go hungry but get used to queuing. There's always a wait in the morning at the buffet bar and huge lines of people waiting for pizza, burgers and burritos at lunch. We tended to opt for the vegan restaurant to avoid this. My husband eats meat but had some of the best dishes here. He also recommended the Mexican meat stews at lunch time. Definitely more authentic than the tex mex food lots are used to! Overall a great hotel, friendly staff, beautiful grounds, the perfect beach holiday. We also did the snorkling and beach day trip at Maroma beach. This was incredible and the food there was amazing. We also did a trip to Chichen Itza through Lomas and would recommend this in a heart beat to anyone!

  Jan 06, 2025