Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa

The best vacation ever. We chose Dreams Cancun for a family reunion. 63 people/ 8 families from different parts of the world, ages 1-80. Hard to believe but everyone had an amazing time! Dreams somehow manages to cater to all ages and all tastes. We are now planning to make it an annual event! See you in August 2018

My wife and I are both teachers and we were traveling with a two year old and a two month old. Since we're both teachers, we decided to do this review like a report card, so here are the grades for what we considered to be the most important aspects of the trip. Beach D There is an unruly amount of sea weed that never ceased to wash ashore during our 5 day stay. The staff does their best to clear it every hour, but that only helps the shore. There were a few days that the sea weed in the ocean was so overwhelming that it was kind of disgusting to even walk/swim in the ocean. Now this is no fault of the resort but definitely something to be aware of. Room/hotel A We had one of the rooms with a plunge pool and if you have young kids this is absolutely a must. It was the perfect thing for our two year old to do when we had a little extra time. The staff did a great job keeping the room clean, which is saying something with a two year old and a two month old! We were worried the room might be too small but it turned out to be fine. The rest of the hotel was clean and a nice size as well. This is a smaller resort and felt more like a cruise in that you see some of the same people throughout your stay as it is not one of the giant resorts. Our room was one room away from the suites/ocean, which the beach is where the hotel hosts there weddings. The music was loud when we went to bed but we brought a noise making machine for the little ones and we all slept fine. If you have kiddos I would recommend a noise machine or download a white noise app or something on your phone and you could use the stereo in the room as well as it had Bluetooth and aux cord. Either way the wedding noise is certainly something to consider. There was even a wedding on the Wednesday night of our stay so I assume they crank them out Wed-Sun. Staff A+ I wish we would have done a better job of keeping track of the names of all the people we interacted with but overall we LOVED the staff. Everyone was so accommodating and friendly to us and to our little ones. One friend we did make was Gabriel who brought us drinks to our plunge pool, which was amazing as parents with their hands full. Drinks A The drinks we had were all good and definitely not watered down. I had a personal pet theory that if you tipped the drink might have been stronger but who knows. Either way, the drinks were in abundance and were quite good. We were in the preferred club, which we got upgraded to for free through our airline, and if we hadn't I would say save your money cos I was unclear as to the purpose? There is a preferred club section that did have more premium alcohol but twice the bar tender didn't know how to or didn't have olives to make a martini which seemed laughable, so that would be the only reason I wouldn't give it an A+. Food A World Cafe - was hit or miss. We ate there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The lunch was far and away the best we had. There is a taco bar which was truly great. The breakfast was just ok, and the dinner subpar. As was the case with all the restaurants, the staff was exceptionally friendly and accompanying. Mexican - this was our least favorite dinner in terms of food. Maybe we didn't order right? Our waiter was SO NICE, and I wish I could remember his name, he was tall and told us he had a twelve day old baby - he was so nice. The environment here was really fun for our two year old, she had a blast with the mariachi band! Italian - we were impressed with the food and the creativity of the dishes here. I feel like Italian can get pretty "Olive Garden-y" in a place like this but the food really was quite good here. We asked our waiter what was the best thing and ordered the shrimp and sea food lasagnia and both were great. For our two year old, thank goodness, the environment lighting changes every five minutes cos that helped keep her happy! Again, I wish I would have noted our waiters name cos he was great. Hibachi - they have two traditional hibachi grills where they cook in front of you, and you need a reservation for those tables. I went right at four when they start taking reservations and there was still good times available, but that was on a Tuesday so maybe on a busier day it would be harder. Regardless, we had an amazing dinner here, again the staff was exceptional and we made good friends with the family that sat with us at the grill. This was the best food we had the entire trip; everything from the salad to the desert was fantastic. There are other tables I'm the restaurant that I don't think need a reservation but really if you're not at the grill haha what's the point? Sea food - there is a very beautiful ocean view restaurant that we ate at for both breakfast and dinner. For breakfast, we weren't overly impressed. We ordered bloody Marys and yikes! We took two sips and switched over to mimosas. I love a good bloody mary so maybe I'm a harsh critic but it was basically tomato juice with vodka that wasn't mixed. I guess one positive would be that there was quite a bit of vodka! I took my first sip and about spit it out cos it was straight vodka. But I digress haha the dinner was a close second to the hibachi. We again really liked our waiter and asked him for a recommendation and we ordered the mahi mahi and samon and both were very good. Snacks - there is a cafe which was great for the kids and for parents who are dragging a bit and need a coffee! They have Bailey's which was nice in the morning. Our two year old loved the ice cream there too. The pool has a snack bar which again was perfecf for the kids. The selection of food was simple burgers and chips and casadillas but they were all servicable and served the purpose of a nice little snack. Our guy gabriell brought us snacks to plunge pool which was perfect! Again, the preferred club was a mystery to me haha they have snacks during the day but they were these little fruit things, which were good, but really not what we needed with kids. Environment A This place is one part family resort and another part wedding resorts. I guess for the most part those two things mix well together! Again, I can emphasize enough how much like a cruise this resort feels; everything is contained to a small area, there is entertainment through the day at the pool and again at night in the lobby, not to mention the weddings. It has a nice and cozy feeling to it. Bonuses A+ We didn't do the spa, didn't do any extras like snorkeling, but we did have beach pictures taken by the photo people provided through the resort. Iran took our picture and she was fantastic. Our two year old is in a phase of not smiling and she worked wonders with her. Our pictures turned out great and were relatively reasonable. All our friends back home have been blown away by the quality of the pictures and how well they turned out.

Overall, we really enjoyed our stay for our Anniversary. We'd return with our children. Food: We really likes the food at each restaurant. The buffet had a good variety of food for breakfast and lunch. We really liked the French and Japanese Restaurants too. Get there early (3:30-3:45p) to get in line for a reservation at Hibachi grill. There are only two grills for the entire resort. Beach: Beautiful white sand beaches. Unfortunately, a storm had brought in a lot of seaweed, which prevented ocean swimming and torquise waters. I was impressed how quick they were to remove seaweed from beaches. Room: We were on top floor at the end in an "ocean front" room. Views were beautiful. Unfortunately, our A/C went out our first night there. It was miserable and I couldn't sleep. But it was repaired the next morning. We also had some issues with water pressure. Preferred: Biggest advantage was ability to check-in while in A/C. They were also ver accommodating in helping us get a room with best ocean view for our Anniversary. Activities: We enjoyed the beach soccer and beach volleyball. The pools were also very nice. Evening entertainment was also good. Staff: Everyone was very friendly. We had a few communication issues because our Spanish was not very good, but majority spoke good English. Location: Its in a secluded location and away from the hustle and bustle of Cancun.

great hotel, we preferred the slightly quieter location outside cancun but not as far down as tulum. Only a 25min transfer from the airport and all the tours/trips you might want to do come and collect you from the hotel. The food and drink are great, staff all very friendly and helpful, everywhere nice and clean and plenty of sun loungers/cabanas so you don't need to get up early and reserve them (although if you want a cabana they go a bit earlier). Good choice of restaurants as well as the international buffet, we particularly liked the japanese. Branded drinks good, only negative i could find was that they only had one hobi-cat for sailing so you needed to book that early.

We had an excellent time at Dreams Riviera. This resort is in a great location and the staff is amazing. We were here for my daughter wedding and it was absolutely amazing. So beautifully done by the resort.