Our stay 5/10/08-5/16/08. My husband, his sister, a friend and I had the suite (two bedrooms/2 bathrooms). We were in the blue building on the ocean side - 2nd floor. We couldn't see the ocean through the Palms - but at least it was a better view than the parking lot! It is a tad bit further to the pool - but it's still a manageable walk. (I have RA and my sister-in-law MS and we were fine - just a little slow!) We recommend the blue building if you like quiet - the yellow and red buildings (which are scheduled for rebuilding) as noisier because of the proximity to the pool.

We are owners of Mayan Palace/Riviera Maya and decided to branch out to a new location this year. This place is beautiful! The grounds are kept very well. Customer service was wonderful and food was great. We ate at the beach restaurant the first night. Food was awesome and waitstaff very attentive. We then found the Lobby Bar - great entertainment and drinks. Pretty much the same cost as a good drink in the states. Check out the happy hours to economize!

We ate at the pool snack bar and found the burgers to be very good! We also ate breakfast at Del Lago the day we left. As expected, food was great. Lots of fresh fruit and other items to choose from. The buffet is a little expensive - but we figured with the plane flight back to Denver, we wouldn't have the opportunity to eat until later that evening. Glad we did that...because we were correct.

There is no swim-up bar at the Mayan pool, although there is one at the Grand Mayan and the Sea Garden. Hopefully with the remodeling, they add this to the pool.

The only negative thing we found is that there are not benches to sit on throughout the property! Even in Riviera Maya there are benches that you can sit on to enjoy your surroundings. It would have been nice to have something here. Because of the lack of benches, we didn't do a lot of walking around the complex because I can't walk that long without resting my knees. They need to install benches!!!

Vallarta-Adventures has some great excursions to choose from. We did Rhythms of the Night and the Jeep Adventure. Recommend both of them highly! Jeep Adventure has a lot of walking - which they don't really tell you...so be prepared. It was awesome though.

We attended the "owner's update." They were polite and did not pressure us into anything. We were also back in our unit within 3 hours (including breakfast)...not like the 5-6 hours we experienced in Riviera Maya two years ago (with a rude bunch of people!). Getting the 10% off our bill was worth it. We did not subject our traveling partners to the sales presentation - which would have given us another $100 off the bill. They weren't going to buy and we made that clear upfront. The sales people paid for their breakfasts and they were cut loose. Nice touch.

We will definitely go back to this resort. We only hope that they will take our suggestion about the benches. That is the only complaint we had,

Great hotel complex in Nuevo Puerto Vallarta. It is located about 20 minutes by car from the Airport by car.
We had an appartment with 2 bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms and the six of us were confortably.
Since you are in the lobby you see it is a different place with plants and birds everywhere. The costumer service attention is great and all the employees were very friendly and helpful.
The hotel grounds were kept very well and there were at least 7 different restaurants inside the complex. Food was great and not expensive, though I would recommend to at least eat out in Puerto Vallarta once or twice to try a different, less "Americanized" falvor.
There is a small but complete gym. If you are a golfer, there is a nice (though not too exciting) course. Nice for families with children since there are lots of services for them.

Lobby and 1 bedroom oceanfront suite was great. Yet with such perfectly manicured and gracious grounds, including birds & iguanas, it was just weird there was NO PLACE to sit a spell and enjoy the surrounds. Not a single bench anywhere on the grounds, not along the loooooong third mile walk to the pool. Not even at the front waiting for the valets to fetch cars and taxis and luggage. Not a bench to wait for the little trains. None! When unable to walk (I have some minor mobility issues) I secured occasional (as available) golf cart rides but carts were blocked from getting very close to pool by permanently installed boulders along the pathways. I guess they figure anyone staying there is a perfect athlete? Pick the Sea Garden if you are not up for long hikes everywhere. Or stay at a much smaller place.
Pool and italian made loungers were very nice. From within the pool it was possible to check out the vendors' wares along the ocean walkway. No deep water in the pool but it was big and well kept. Ocean was marked by red flag so no swimming for the week we were there. We had to drag dining chairs onto our little balcony but it was fabulous to have a kitchenette and twice daily maid service.

We arrived Sat. April 5th to a very cool windy day but these was thelast cool day we had for 2 weeks. The resort grounds are exceptially maintained and look beautiful,but don't walk on the grass. The weather was in the high 80 and low 90's for the two weeks so we could not have asked for better weather. The pool is very cool but very refreshing and kept very clean. The ocean was just to cold to go in and in 2 weeks we only saw a hand ful of people in the water,but it is a great beach for nice long walks and breath taking sunsets.
The food was just ok, and pretty pricey and the drinks were the same some places the drinks were amazing and others not so goood,. We spent most evenings at the Lobby bar dancing and listening to the great live entertainment. Our waiter Yasir was the best waiter we ever had and he knew what we wanted before he had to ask. I wish all the waiters were as nice as him. The waiteres at the pool bar on the other hand were almost invisible and many days we layed there and not once did a waiter come and ask us if we wanted anything. The food at the pool bar leaves much to be desired,we ate there only twice and both time the wait was at least 1/2 hr and the food was horrible,they need to improve this and please take away the paper cups and use plastic drinks in a paper cup just don't cut it. There is not one pool bar and no umberellas and beds around the pool, This we found very strange as alot of older people could not find any shade unless they kept moving around the pool all day long . After being at the Mayan Palace in Cancun where the pool service is amazing this was such a dissapointment. One of the main reasons we will not return to this resort. We spend most of our day around the pool and with such poor service it was not as nice as it could have been.
Our room was great the beds the most comfortable I have ever had in Mexico anywhere. We had a room for one week and a 1 bedroom suite with kitchen for the second, We ate lunch and dinner the second week in our room and was glad we had it as there is really no other place other than the pool to have lunch and I already told you about that.
All in all we had a nice vacation but would never go back as this resort is just to big and spread out. We were never hassled about timeshares or upgrading our own which was very nice.
They have a wonderful restraunt called the Rouge Wine bar this could be a great place they just need to make the patio bigger the tables larger to accomidate there dinner service they use and get rid of Luis who is the rudest waiter I have ever met at any Mayan Palace restort. I can't belive they would keep someone like him working there.