Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa

I want to share my recent family vacation to Dreams Riviera. There are mixed feelings about this property and will be completely truthful. The Good: The staff throughout the property including the restaurants and activities were fantastic. They were friendly and helpful, and my kids had fun at the Kids Club. The evening entertainment was also fun. The resort itself is clean and well maintained. It is also a smaller property, so it is easily accessible and there are several dining options. The Bad: I realized after my second night that money was stolen from my pants pocket. I filed a report, and it was investigated. Unfortunately, the hotel took a week to let me know that they are not responsible because there is supposedly a note in the room that states that any valuables must be placed in a safe. They basically accuse me of making up a story and they refuse to compensate me. I have to be 100% certain to make a complaint like that as these are hard workers. Also, the restaurants could be very backed up. On our last night, we had to wait over two hours with starving kids to be seated. Regarding the beach, it is a fact that this area has murky water (supposedly from the Mangroves). If you are looking for that beautiful green water, this is not the beach. I must have seen two people swimming the entire trip. What surprised me the most is that there was garbage floating up to the shore. The debris consisted of plastic bags, plastic bottles, combs, toothbrushes, etc, etc. You would think that the staff would be cleaning this up. In fact, some guests had large garbage bags and handling it themselves. I walked next door to the Excellence and did not find much debris. Finally, the drinks were very weak, and I questioned whether there was even alcohol in it. Unless you pay extra for Preferred Level at the property, you will not get top shelf liquor. I didn't know this until I was onsite. All in all, I had mixed feelings. With so many other options, my next vacation will be someplace new. Good luck and be aware......

Great family vacation to celebrate Christmas, fun activities, restaurants were all amazing, great service from all staff. enjoyed our time in Mexico. we went on several excursions. would do this again.

So so glad we chose this place for our Christmas vacation with our adult children! The beach is amazing and the water is crystal clear. The only downside is the usual people who come down at 6am, reserve some prime beach chairs and barely use them throughout the day, however this the fault of the guests and not the resort and there were always chairs available for our group of six regardless of when we came down. I highly recommend the Preferred Club for the beach and lounge as we took advantage of both nearly every day. The whole crew enjoyed the food, especially El Patio and the breakfast buffet. But what really sets this resort apart besides the beach was the staff. In particular, Laura took care of us in the Preferred Club lounge daily and was a pure joy! Always happy, friendly, and welcoming. Additionally, Vanessa from the Preferred Club treated us like family and Michelle pulled together a super fun game of water volleyball out in the water. Great time all around and would definitely recommend coming here if you’re visiting Cancun.

Really poor quality hotel experience. More like a 2 star hotel! Avoid at all costs! Fellow parents this is not a great place for your children. Food is just awful. Terrible food left out for hours, food hygiene procedures not followed. Buffet food not labelled for allergies or even to tell you what it is. Really low quality often stale - a number of people becoming unwell from food. Preferred club lounge food is just a few bits of food left out all day. Main buffet area world cafe is like a 1970s school dinner hall with unhappy waiters desperate for tips. We aren’t fussy eaters and I was so surprised to see they don’t do vegetarian (I’m not a vegetarian) the meat looked awful so I was looking for alternatives - if you are vegetarian/vegan or have any allergies you won’t have a chance! The fruit from breakfast is left out until dinner not refreshed! One evening resorted to a box of cereal because the meals were so awful but then found out the milk had been left out and had gone off! Burgers by the pool cooked in advance elsewhere and reheated incorrectly rock solid outside raw in the middle, sausages were in brine, pizza had flies on it and was congealed - soggy chips. No other options to junk food. Outside seaside grill fish kept stacked in storage containers with a bit of cling film on not refrigerated at all! Right next to the toilet block lovely No restaurant bookings you show up to a 1 to 2 hour wait which doesn’t work with children. Accommodation Emailed and called in advance asking for rooms to be located near to each other so elderly disabled guest could be cared for. Had to undertake 3 room moves over 48 hours to try get into the same building and floor! No excuse just poor management - booked preferred rooms, same type so easy to locate together! Final room we accepted the ceiling was coming in see photo! Also outdoor Jacuzzi was old dirty mouldy Rooms are old and in need of renovation roof literally crumbling. These are preferred club rooms! Not enough sun loungers to guests - so if you’re not part of the 7am crew forget about getting one. Old brown stained towels disgusting. Metal loungers damaged and uncomfortable. They have installed “paid for”beds which hardly anyone was using as nobody wants to pay the extra for the stained mattresses. Also these were in need of repair so whilst trying to relax on a sun lounger the maintenance team were painting them inches from your head! Nothing like the smell of toxic paint whilst you’re trying to relax and kids are running around getting wet paint on them. Please note this is a party hotel with endless weddings so every evening a party takes place until the early hours of the morning so no chance of sleep if your trying to get children to sleep forget it (even in the preferred club more expensive rooms located in the nice area are constantly disturbed ). When you complain they say call concierge after midnight not before and they will send out security to end the party. Must be nice way to end your wedding party. Then at 4am the staff start cleaning around the pool area - dragging the uncomfortable metal sun loungers around making loads of noise screaming at each other waking everyone up! Setting up for next day. Whilst they rearrange furniture they don’t clean the floors so food debris is left out and birds constantly flock to try and eat the remains. Dirty party hotels are fine when your a drunk 18 year old but not alleged luxury family resort when your moving your child around piles of spilt drinks and food debris. They have also started resurfacing areas near the pool so look forward to the sound of grinders! The only decent thing about this place is the entertainment team who entertain the kids were lovely - Uzzy and Vivienne were exceptional lovely people but unfortunately we will never see them again as we would never stay in this awful place again. We stayed here 10 years ago and it was incredible and now it really is awful and a completely different place - no wonder it was downgraded from 5 star to 4 - I would say 2 star is a more accurate description! Finally the pools 1 toddler pool, 1 childrens activity pool busy with kids activities then an adults only over 18 pool so if you have teenagers they have nowhere to go. Honestly the most awful stay - we tried to engage with the preferred club team but you can’t resolve all these issues. Genuinely felt sorry for the staff who tried but seemed under relentless pressure. Awful pick somewhere else.

Haven’t done all inclusive for years, but I was just too lazy to plan a trip and wanted to go somewhere warm, so here we were at Dreams. Stayed there for a week. Room: small, non drawers and the closet was very small, so we literally lived out of our suitcases. The bathroom was big, with 2 sinks, separate shower and tub and toilet. The ocean view rooms have the ocean view side ways, not direct. Property: very clean, the staff worked hard to keep it clean. The size was small comparing with other resorts, so it was easy to get to beach and restaurants. Pools: the swimming up infinity pool was usually quiet, you need to get up early to secure chairs by the pools, before 7:30. The waiters were friendly and present all the time to serve drinks. The beach: a lot of seaweeds, the hotel stuff worked really hard to clean them, but they simply couldn’t keep up with it. Hardly saw any people in the ocean at all, I only dipped my toes in it. The foods: in general were better than resort foods. We liked Italian restaurant, Mexican restaurant. Had lunch at either seaside grill or Oceania seafoods, they were decent. The speciality restaurants did not need reservations, sounded good, but it actually didn’t work very well, because you always had to wait after you checked in to the restaurant, average waiting was 45 mins. I personally prefer to reserve a time ahead and show up at my time. Activities and evening entertainment: average at the best. They don’t have a proper big theatre, they set a stage up outside by the lobby everyday , and take it down after the show. Bottom line, will I return? Probably not. I have been to liberators multiple times, and wanted to try a different brand, if I have to choose between these two, I think I will have to go back to Iberostar, the rooms were better and bigger. The ground was prettier and activities were better. Beach was better. But I think food at dreams were better.