Excellence Riviera Cancun - Adults Only - All Inclusive

“An Excellent Experience!”

I took this trip on my own to celebrate my 40th birthday and relax after a long fall of teaching Kindergarten. If you are hesitant to go on your own, MAKE YOUR RESERVATION RIGHT NOW! I had a WONDERFUL time. The resort is so spacious and comfortable and the perfect place to relax. Advice: Shoes! Yo… more

I took this trip on my own to celebrate my 40th birthday and relax after a long fall of teaching Kindergarten. If you are hesitant to go on your own, MAKE YOUR RESERVATION RIGHT NOW! I had a WONDERFUL time. The resort is so spacious and comfortable and the perfect place to relax. Advice: Shoes! You need lots of different shoes. Flip-flops for the beach, sneakers for excursions, nice sandals for dinner. Definitely check the dress code for restaurants before you go. Bring the bug spray- lots of mosquitos. Check the activities schedule if you want to; but just relax if you don't feel the need to do anything. If you want to do the Paint n' Sip, get there EARLY! It fills up 25 minutes before start. The breakfast buffet is outstanding. Take a walk around to see your options before you fill up a plate- they have everything! Great lunch salad bar as well. Bring cash for tipping. Room Service portions are small; restaurant portions are just right. Lots of vegetarian/pescatarian options in general, but not so many at the Christmas buffet. Also, if it applies to you, be vigilant about cross-contamination of food serving utensils at all buffets. Get the Excellence app on your phone and study it before you go, if you are a planner. Explore everywhere! There are all sorts of hidden relaxing spots to sit. Below, I gave the cleanliness a 4 because my porch and outdoor hot tub were covered in mosquitoes, however, I never requested it to be cleaned up, so that's on me. Everything is gorgeous there is wonderful, quiet, sweet, spa music all day. Helpful Staff: Salma, concierge, helped me observe Hanukkah, so kind and helpful. Alex at the desk was very friendly and also helped with my Hanukkah and my check-out process. Ricardo was wonderful and helpful at check-in; his explanation of the Excellence app made my stay much easier. Maite was a great painting instructor and Angelo gave me extra time with my bracelet craft, even though time was up. Because I am a single girl, I find that I often am not noticed or approached for service, but saving the best for last, Santos was the only server who approached me at the beach, but he did so with kindness and just the right frequency to make sure I was comfortable and had what I desired to enjoy my beach time. I had a great time and would definitely come again and recommend to others!

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“Stunningly beautiful hotel with wonderful staff!”

The hotel and grounds are stunningly beautiful, but the star here is the staff. They are genuinely warm and friendly, and extremely well trained. Service was top-notch everywhere we went. An Excellence Club room will give you exclusive access to Magna restaurant and the Excellence Club bar, with ex… more

The hotel and grounds are stunningly beautiful, but the star here is the staff. They are genuinely warm and friendly, and extremely well trained. Service was top-notch everywhere we went. An Excellence Club room will give you exclusive access to Magna restaurant and the Excellence Club bar, with exceptional bartender Yovanny, and Benjamin, the best cocktail waiter I have ever encountered in my life. He will anticipate your wishes before you even realize what they are! Other standouts among the staff: Susana (housekeeping), Lucia (pool waitstaff), David (bellman), William (waiter/Agave), and Rodrigo ( our taxi driver who took us to the shopping district and waited there while we shopped for an hour and a half). Over the course of our stay, it became apparent they are lovely people besides being great employees!

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“Still Excellence”

Another annual ERC Anniversary trip complete. As always, the attention to detail, level of service & quality of food is consistently fantastic is what we look forward to at ERC & what truly what keeps us coming back over & over again. We don't visit all of the restaurants as we have our favorites… more

Another annual ERC Anniversary trip complete. As always, the attention to detail, level of service & quality of food is consistently fantastic is what we look forward to at ERC & what truly what keeps us coming back over & over again. We don't visit all of the restaurants as we have our favorites & never tire of them and I could not provide an honest review without praising the staff that work so tirelessly to make everything right for you. Manager Adrian at Agave/Chez treats us like we are one of the family. Even though he sees thousands of faces each year, he remembers us & always has a smile & a hug for us. The level of service delivered in his restaurants by both Adrian & his staff are superb. He is exactly what one would look for in a manger. Strong leadership, attention to detail, welcoming demeanor - he wants to ensure your dining experience is elegant & memorable. Manager Juan at Magna (Excellence Club Restaurant) is also a favourite of ours. He is professional, welcoming & very attentive. He is often seen helping out clearing plates or assisting with meal service. This is an excellent leadership quality and similar to Adrian making sure your dining experience is one that you will remember. Although all of the servers are fantastic I must mention our favourite waiter Jose who is incredible. Jose goes above & beyond always smiling. His hard work seems almost effortless in how he carries himself & again the attention to detail is so very important to him & so very much appreciated by his guests. My food tip for Magna is to share the Tomahawk & each order a lobster tail. Don't forget a pre or post dinner cocktail with Erika and her contagious smile in the Manga lounge & try the Ferrero Martini. It is a lovely dessert drink. Manager Rodolfo at Spice is another favourite of ours. Demonstrating strong leadership skills & dining perfection we so appreciate his hard work & dedication to the restaurant. We absolutely love the food at Spice. All of it. The tempura dessert is our favourite & sometimes if we have room after eating at another restaurant we'll stop in there just for dessert. The sushi is fresh & delicious. We generally see server Adrian at Chez but we caught a glimpse of him at Spice this trip & if you are lucky enough to have him as your server you won't leave disappointed. While there are so many staff members to recognize, similar to the restaurants we do have our favourties that we keep seeing over the years. Angelo from entertainment (although he is leaving in February to the newly opening Coral resort). He is a hoot & makes each day different & fun. He has such amazing people skills & is so charismatic we are really going to miss him as a staple around the ERC pool. Pool/beach servers Jorge & Antonio are fantastic & are always there to check on your each & every need. We look forward to seeing them each & every year & will hopefully see them again next trip! I cannot say enough about managers Leylan & David. These two are perfect examples of quality management. One thing I really appreciate about these two is that they are actually there & present to assist with the guests when required. They really look after you and are happy to help out. Last years review I mentioned that I had trouble obtaining Baileys and was consistently receiving a lesser brand of Irish Cream. This year, they served nothing but Baileys - thank you for listening! This year my feedback is that there are too many "one time" large groups being booked which are impacting couples & smaller groups. We love this resort for the intimacy of a couples only brand. This year we encountered several large weddings, one of which was approximately 100 people completely monopolized the resort. There were restaurants shut down & bar servers & staff pulled to assist with catering to a group of this size. One day it was nearly impossible to get a drink from the swim up bar due to the large number in this party that took over. This impacted many repeat guests & there was a lot of discussion amongst returning guests that if this is the way the resort is planning on moving forward, some of us many not be returning or returning as often. All in all the name is Excellence for a reason & while some small things can be improved the overall experience is still 5 star. See you in 2025.

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“Overpriced 3-4 star resort, not a 5 star resort for relaxation!”

Resort oriented towards frat drinking people who like to party. Drinks are watered down and a lot of sugary flavoring is used. One good drink a day is all we wanted. Guests very loud partying around the pools yelling screaming ect 1:30am. Next morning clothes phones ect could be seen piled around t… more

Resort oriented towards frat drinking people who like to party. Drinks are watered down and a lot of sugary flavoring is used. One good drink a day is all we wanted. Guests very loud partying around the pools yelling screaming ect 1:30am. Next morning clothes phones ect could be seen piled around the pool area. If the drunks didn’t keep you up the music did. You could stay in your room and hear it loud and clear. Think the two astronauts stuck in space were able to hear the music. Did enjoy the sax music one evening mellow not blasting. Christmas Eve dinner nothing special long lines required to sit with strangers at large circular tables unless you bought a bottle of wine. Music was so loud no one could have a conversation. Other resorts we’ve stayed at have gone all out on the menu, carving stations lobster steak fresh berries great deserts. Save the time do not check in from home scanning passport, ect. All will need to be repeated once you arrive. Much safer to wait not put your info out into space nor waste time doing it twice.. Credit card required check in. Charge hold $600 placed. We've been going to resorts in Mexico for 34 years never ever had to do this. Hearing drunk partiers at night guessing lots of damage was done nightly. Rooms are 1970 fantasy honeymoon suites. Glass door toilet, huge jetted tub open middle of the room that would be impossible to clean enough to want to use. Rooms stink and so will all your items you brought from the mold and mildew in the room. Currently everything is in the garage for a couple weeks attempting to rid the smell. Staff is disengaged and disinterested. Not everyone but many, over the guests. We brought our stack of $1 bills to tip as staff deserves to be thanked as we’ve done elsewhere but didn’t seem to help here. We tipped $6-8 per meal on average but didn’t help. Typically at other resorts I bring $20’s and write a thank you note in appreciation of their work to give to staff who went above and beyond during our stay but no one even attempted to go above and beyond offering great service. Housekeeping on our floor was great, we tipped and wrote thank you’s for their work cleaning our room daily. Food was very hit and miss. French rest. was great! Dress for women and pants required for men. Suggest eating every dinner here. Consistently on point and very good. Mexican Agave was great one time next time menu change no chips no guac.told menu would change in our app shortly, so odd. Morning no lights in hallways or stairwells, hazardous and dangerous. Requested timers be changed to turn lights on but didn’t happen. Iberostar last year kindly did this shortly after I asked. Morning is the best time to get out see the sunrise enjoy the peace and quiet and walk the beach. Impossible to disconnect from your phone. The hotel app is required to be used for everything including menus. Activities show up very early for the painting activities. We arrived 27 min ahead for the sip and paint but seats were either taken or being reserved. Resort overcapacity and unable to accommodate guests, long lines not uncommon. The beach was nice, palapas spaced so you weren’t in top of others. Seaweed removal done daily early am which was nice. Loved unlimited towels for the beach. Resort grounds and pools very nice. Pastries at the coffee shop were also good.Bathrooms kept clean to use during the day when at the beach. Did notice some beach walkers with kids come up leave their kids on the beach while they came up to get food coffee and towels and then walk off down the beach. Special occasions will be acknowledged if it’s an anniversary or honeymoon. Front desk staff asked and when mentioned 70th bday absolutely nothing ..staff member rolled eyes and gave u a look like so! didn’t fit into their two categories of recognition. Definitely not a five star resort nor worth the price we paid. We will not return.

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