Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa

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.

This was my second time staying at this resort and I would stay again. This time we brought the kids and it was a great experience for all of us. The facilities and food were great but the staff was the best!

Had a great time. Shows and entertainment team kept it great for the kids. Oliver was great around the kids by the pool and beach.

As someone who relies heavily on reviews, I wanted to take some time to review our recent 6 day stay. We've been to 18 all-inclusives (mostly MX & Punta Cana), some family (with child and also as just a couple), some who offer adult-only areas and some fully adult only properties, ranging from 4-5*, ratings that we've come not to rely on. In consideration of the experience we seek/enjoy I'll mention a few things: We chose a Preferred Tropical Suite, which was a decent size (smaller than most) and had the outdoor and indoor jetted tubs. Clean. Met our needs fine (though toilet required repairs 3 times). Their catch phrase is something like "a resort for couples and a resort for couples with children." To be clear (in comparison to those we've done w/our son) it's not among the best fam resorts we've been too - but I'll let those with little ones review on that end. What I can attest to is that it is NOT a couples resort. There are NO child-free zones that we saw (aside from French restaurant), so if you are looking for an experience not surrounded by children while you eat, swim, walk to the bar, walk to the restroom, this is not the place for you (see my pool notes for further clarification). The pools are beautiful, typical of such a resort. But unlike at other resorts they are side by side, so you share the pool area with EVERYone. This is likely why it seems you're surrounded by children, because their pool and the family pool are all sharing the same small space. You will NOT find a poolside chair if you don't towel one around 7am. Yes, I generally resent those who do this, but you've no choice here. There are NOT enough chairs (and we weren't at capacity). And don't think I've experienced uncomfortable beach chairs - thought they were all "the same," but nope. The poolside view is completely obstructed by gazebos they rent by the day. You see the back of the cabanas - not the pool, not the beach. Horrible set up. The beach is the filthiest we've ever seen - and I don't mean w/seaweed which is expected at times (and yes, was an issue too) but with legit TRASH. Like bottles, plastic, motor oil containers -- just a coastline of trash. We suspect it's their manmade barrier that keeps it in...idk, but it's there and nasty (and sad) when walking the coastline. We're not food snobs. I personally don't like too much temptation - enjoying weight loss and hey, we are all living in swim suits here, and therefore mediocre food was okay for me. But yes, that means it wasn't very good. We had specialty dinners nightly and they were ok. Just ok. I mostly like the apps / soups - we were both disappointed with most entrees. A buffet is usually the safety net in a typical resort when the specialty doesn't live up - they're usually good, but not here. Even my husband who can find a hunk of meat tasty anywhere struggled. Hibachi, always a must-do for us, lived up to expectations - tasty. Oh, shout out to Jessica, who bounced between French and others. Very friendly taking time to explain the schedules and timeframes for the various restaurants. Now, buffet was a small unimpressive space compared to most places we've been, but breakfast was quite good -- have a shout out to our omelet maker (I know I wrote her name somewhere!), who ran four burners at a time daily (tip her!). On the flip, our "Preferred" status included a special breakfast location, so we tried that twice. Awful experience each time. You will wait an hour for your simple breakfast and children will be crying and bouncing about out of boredom. Go to the buffet. IN/out less than 20 min - or stay as long as you like, but yes, this is where EVERYONE dines for breakfast. ChuckECheese meets diner vibe. Bars: we like our drinks, generally mixed or beer. Our Preferred beer was ... wait for it: Heineken. Now I'm fussier with beer than food, so some may not get that I wasn't wowed by that (I was a team drinker when in Amsterdam), but we know this is typical for Mexico (sometimes they offer MGD or Corona - you're not getting any variety and certainly no IPAs here, lol). Both beach bars decent - low key, no fancy drink menus with multiple blenders buzzing and peeps hanging out like some places we've been. More grab and go. Gersom at Preferred beach bar and Wilbur at the indoor Preferred bar always helpful and friendly! As for the area, nice and close to the airport, which I prefer. We did Xcaret Xenotes this time - last to be picked up / first drop off (meaning closest to attraction, which is ideal!). Fun! Earlier this year we did Xcaret Xplor & Xenses. Also fun. Would we come back here? Nope. Though we rarely duplicate. Blame to my husband for not realizing how compact this property was, lol. When I select a property I look pools that are spaced across the property so you can remove yourself from "those" people who can ruin a nice pool day (not always children!). But it was nice to get away from the snow for CHEAP! Kudos to hubby for finding this black Friday steal (if he paid full price he'd be sleeping on the couch, lol).