Occidental at Xcaret Destination Timeshare

Took my family on our first ever “family vacation” and it was a complete and total disappointment. I paid for the royal level experience and for us it was anything but royal. We were supposed to get a VIP check-in but stood around the main lobby for nearly 30 minutes before anyone realized that we were supposed to get VIP check-in.

Once realizing that they had a bellhop walk us all the way across the property to the royal level vice having our entire party put on one of the VIP carts and taken to our check-in location like we later seen other guests receive. There was supposed to be champagne offered to us at check-in which didn’t happen, hell they didn’t even offer us a bottle of water.

The concierge desk representatives were less than hospitable taking numerous phone calls while trying to check us in which ultimately extended our check-in process by about an hour. After being on a plane all day the last thing anyone wants to do is have to stand around and wait twice. We finally get taken to our room which is supposed to have a minibar and two beds to find there there is no minibar and a single king bed. When the trip was booked it was clearly stated there was going to be 3 adults in each room.

Having disk issues in my back a pull out just isn’t royal let alone comfortable. Talking to the concierge office about the lack of beds and that the sleeping arrangements we not what we booked we were told sorry they were fully booked and we’d basically have to deal with it. This being a large resort there was no tour of the resort until over half way through the second day, thanks Moses. I should mention that other guests got this tour immediately after checking in along with champagne and a VIP cart ride from the lobby.

The food and restaurants were the best parts of this trip and there was a great variety of food to please all tastes. The bars were on point and the bartenders knew how to make everything you could ask for and they were friendly. The waitresses and wait staff were also exceptional.

The Xcaret park is a waste of money. Once into the park they want to charge you extra to do everything inside the park. Wasted money!

I would definitely recommend a prepaid transportation to and from the airport. While we got a great price ($65) for a van ride to the resort (6 people) the return trip left no options other than to pay a set price of $120 (1 van or 2 cars)

All in all it was a good time but the ball was definitely dropped by the resort staff and I personally will never visit another resort owned by Barcelo Hotel Group.

The title says it all. This hotel has a great location if you’re going to Xcaret but outside of that there are better options.

Don’t forget to bring pants or else you’ll be eating dinner in your room.

My wife and I stayed at the Xcaret Hotel on March 6th to March 16, 2019. On the first day of stay (Building 22 room 105)

We were robbed of my wallet $800 dollars and $3700 Mexican pesos. After reporting the incident and inquiries the director of the Hotel Lorenzo Chan through his staff offered 2 free tickets to enter the Xcaret park in exchange for our silence and not continue the process of research and recovery of my money .

Of Course we do not accept and until this date I have not returned my money.

We stayed at the Occidental at Xcaret Destination from March 3-10 for a wedding. Throughout the week we had several complaints including;
1. Upon arrival at the resort (approx. 3pm) our room was not ready. The resort guarantees that your room will be ready by 3pm. We were travelling with our 9month old son who had been up since 2am that day. I tried to express to the front desk staff how desperate we were for a room, but they did not care. I asked if there was anything they could do for us, but they passed me along from person to person. We received no help. We were finally placed into our room by 430pm. We were told to check back with the front desk every 15min it was extremely frustrating, not to mention the front desk staff did not speak very good english and continually spoke Spanish in front of us.
2. The day of the wedding (March 6) the resort had major water issues. The water was turned off in our room without warning. I was unable to wash my sons dirty bum prior to the wedding as the water was not turned back on for 24 hours. I again called the front desk and was told that I would have an answer in 15 min. I never received any response for why the water was turned off.
3. Throughout the week, the water at the resort had a strong smell of gasoline. Disgusting. Can you imagine bathing your child in water that smelt so awful? It was also yellow in color. In addition, the water pressure was extremely weak. We could barely wash the soap out of my sons hair.
4. The customer service at the resort was pitiful. Very few of the staff were actually willing to help.
5. During every meal, we had to wait for a highchair for over 10 min. We often had to hold our son while he ate, or we had to wait for another family to finish their meal. I was so disappointed with this.
6. Wifi – very poor. The rates to purchase the wifi are outrageous. We opted to pay for the wifi for one day in order to check in with family at home. The wifi connection was extremely poor and would constantly disconnect. In addition, you pay for a network that is not secure.
7. Overall, trying to get assistance from staff at the resort was very frustrating. We asked on several occasions to speak to a manager, but there never seemed to be one available. There was no air Canada representative on site (I have never experienced this at other resorts) which was very disappointing.

I do not recommend this resort to anyone, especially given that this resort claims to be a 5 star

We have been to Mexico 6 times and I must say this hotel is at the very bottom of my list. The grounds are beautiful surrounded by the jungle and Wilde life. You can feed monkeys, see iguanas and other animals, walk through the jungle and walk to Xcaret.

There is no real beach.

Unfortunately during our stay ( last week) there was a lot of seaweed on the very small laguna beach. It smelled so bad that we couldn’t even sit there. Other parts by the water are rocky and you can’t really swim there. Pools were large but of course there was an issue with getting a chair .

Some people would leave their towels and never show up. We had to get up at 7 am to get the decent chair . A lot of activities: aquarobic, valley ball, chess, even the foam party at the pool ( not very safe especially for kids).

Girls working at the kids club were not very nice , they had an attitude and simply looked like they hate their jobs and the kids.

Very disappointed with that . Food – here it goes down the hill. Buffets were ok ( you won’t starve but don’t expect great quality) but we could never get a good service .

I had to make my own coffe from the coffee machine because the waiters were nowhere to be found. Same with water. They never gave us water!

Unless you chased them around the room . Never experienced that with any other hotel in riviera maya. Oriental restaurant was terrible. All the sushi was made with cream cheese, I got tuna with oriental salad ( and I got tuna and one green leaf on my plate ). When I asked where is my salad they said that was it. Italian restaurant was ok but very different to what we eat in at the Italian restaurant in NYC. I got pasta with white clam sauce. The sauce was very thick and creamy .

Not bad but not great. Steak restaurant- my steak was not eatable not even chewable .

It was so tough . Another disappointment.

Seafood restaurant was the best out of all of them and actually their steak was pretty tasty and tender .

I picked this hotel only because of its location and easy access to Xcaret.

We will definitely not go back there especially that there are hundreds of other beautiful hotels with much better service in Mayan riviera.