BookIt.com Verified Traveler Patty West from Cochrane, Alberta

"Arrival to Mexico was late in the evening and the Best Day Rep was there to meet us - this was very reassuring . The Barcelo was a very beautiful place, very clean and the staff very helpful, great food - lots of variety for every palate. Entertainment was good. We booked a Tulum tour with the Best Day rep. The ground tour company used was excellent. They were always on time, polite and knowledgeable of their tour product. All transfers to and from airport were exactly on time and conducted with experienced safe drivers and also for the tour to Tulum. We felt we were safe driving on the roads in reliable modern clean vehicles with experienced drivers. Can't wait to go again!!"

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Michelle Burk from Pasadena, Texas

"Over all every thing was A , MY ONLY COMPLAINT was the Food(buffet) the food was never hot, the selection wasn't that good, but the speciality resturants were great except the seafood, was nasty. The indoor lobby buffet was the best. Besides this, it was a perfect vacation, and would return again, even with so so food"

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Paul from Philadelphia, PA

"Overall it was a good stay. It rained for 3 of the 5 days (it was sunny the day we arrived and the day we left). Although this was by no fault of the Barcelo Maya Colonial, to say the rain affected our level of enjoyment would be an understatement.

Positives:
-Nice beach and pool, especially when sunny.
-Large resort; easy to get a change of scenery if you want.
-Clean and well manicured hotel and premises.
-Friendly staff.
-Delicious margaritas and drinks; plenty of bars to choose from.
-Breakfast was great everyday; excellent omelets.
-Japanese restaurant had good food and an entertaining hibachi grill (although we couldn't get reservations before 10pm).
-Not to far from Playa del Carmen. We took at $20 cab ride one night to experience the shops/restaurants there.

Negatives:
-Food was OK. The buffet seamed to have the same options every meal. Aside from the great omelets and quesadillas, the food was mass produced, cafeteria-style, and it showed. However, there was a wide variety of choices at any given time. (**this is why I rated Quality a 3, everything else was good quality)
-The 'reservation only' restaurants seemed to have the same food as the buffet. We went to the Seafood, Mexican, and Japanese restaurants. The Japanese place was great but at the Seafood and Mexican, the food seamed dry and overcooked.
-We made reservations the day we arrived and could only get a table for 4 at 10pm (one day we could have gotten a 5pm spot).
-The rooms were a little humid; the bed always seemed just a little bit damp when under the covers. The tile hallways all around the resort were very slippery when wet; i saw people slip and fall to the ground a few times (these may have something to do with the rain, but they were still not fun to deal with).
-The service was a little slow, but that can be attributed from going from city to 'island' speed. (remember to bring some money for tips. A few bucks for the servers/bartenders can really increase the attentiveness.)
-Beach was pretty rocky. I don't know if this is an issue everywhere in Riviera Maya, but it definitely made swimming less enjoyable.
-Watersports were closed most of the time due to rain, so we did not get a chance to do any of that.

Overall it was a good trip, although I'll have to imagine in my mind what a sunny warm week in Mexico would be like."

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"When we first arrived in the hotel Barcelo Tropical and Colonial for 9 days in March-April 2013, we were supposed to be in Tropical , instead we were at Colonial because the front desk put us there. We drove there and left there from Tropical, the front desk staff member told us Colonial and Tropical were the same place and structure.
When we arrived in the room, the phone was not working, we had no remote for the TV, also our luggage was not arrived in the room because the stupid doorbell took all the arriving people and left us with no luggage. WE had to get by ourselves the luggage to the hotel.
The food was good, we had many variation to pick from. The best part was the breakfast buffet.
The beach, was not so great. On the Colonial side, the beach was rocky and had strong waves. There was winds that blew off everything. When you go to the Maya Beach , there was a calm beach , not that much rocks, and very sunny.
Every single day we asked the cleaning lady to clean our room before 4pm. We asked the front desk people,but it was so useless. We asked the cleaning ladies and men, rarely they did what was told. You had to tell them reaptly.
Also, in the beach ... there were not alot of chairs, we had to wake up at 7am to get chairs, but sometimes there wasnt.

The restuarnt people took more care of us and had fast services then the people in the front desk. You would always hear the people who were there in before kept on SCREAMING AND YELLING at the front desk people. It's supposed to be reverse. When you first come in to the hotel, your first eye is the front desk people, if they are nice and neat then the hotel is the same. INSTEAD they are careless people. The resturants people have more care on the people.When we first came to the hotel, the restuarnt staff gave us left over food because they were closed and we were starving.

we saw a RACOON IN THE HALLWAY HE ATE THE FOOD THAT WAS LEFT OVER THE ROOM SERVICE!!

The hotel is very big!!! TOO BIG!! If the hotel is big ,then there should be more staff not less staff."

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"I hope that the bad experience I had qe was only because it was new year and were at the top of their availability for the reality is that the service we received was very bad, there were no waiters in the area of the pools, one had to go to the other end where the bars are where the service was very slow, poor quality drinks, they just beer on several occasions, the soft drinks and hot that the ice are also finished in the restaurants food was also very bad, too greasy, oil oozed everywhere, terrible taste, the chef should run in our room had no TV control which we call 4 times and never brought us the room smell too moisture and sofa cushions and more flat reeked of throwing should be washed and changed with new ones.

The good are the facilities, gardens, ponds and theater with shows"

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