Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa

My husband and I recently stayed and got married at the Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort and Spa on 18 June 2017. I can honestly say the resort and our wedding exceeded our expectations. The arrival: traveling to the resort was a bit of a nightmare due to weather, airport construction and airline delays and to say we were a bit stressed and overwhelmed when we we arrived would be an understatement. As soon as we walked into the resort we were greeted with champagne and a welcoming staff and all our stresses drifted away. We did book a Preferred Overview room and were escorted to the Preferred (air conditioned) Club to continue our check in - where we were upgraded to an Ocean Front View room. Meeting with the wedding coordinator: We worked with Natalia who was quite lovely and alleviated any concerns I had prior to the arriving to the resort. It is important to note that during the email correspondence leading up to the arrival at the resort, there was a full 3 day delay in all email returns. There was no up-selling during our meeting, which we both appreciated. We did decide to add an enhanced photo package, which I would strongly encourage, as the package only includes photos during the ceremony. If you have the option Heber was FANTASTIC!! The photos came out incredible and we received the USB of our photos and the completed photo album by Wednesday night (before we left). This hotel does definitely caters to events and weddings. During our stay Herbalife was hosting an event for their top salespeople (so we were told) and the entire hotel was branded by herbalife with signs (scattered throughout the resort) and holograms (in the lobby) which in our opinion was a “bit much�. The hotel hosts 2 weddings a day, which typically take place in the early evening. The one thing I would mention is if you select to have your ceremony in the hoopa on the pool deck or on the south beach, there will be spectators. We opted to have our ceremony on the north beach and it was tucked away from the crowds. In case it rains…. Which every bride hopes will not happen on their wedding day (especially for an outside wedding), the resort does have a backup plan. We got married on the beach and it started to rain immediately after our ceremony was completed (and we had planned to have an outside, beachside cocktail hour) and Jorge (who was coordinating the entire wedding) jumped into action moving our entire cocktail hour inside without a blink of an eye. The only negatives I think are worth mentioning are: I had scheduled to have my bridesmaids and the mothers of the bride and groom to have their hair done together, which the salon said that they could accommodate. However, it appeared they over committed themselves and left to do 2 pedicures after they had completed 2 of the bridesmaid’s hair, leaving the mother of the groom waiting an additional hour to start her hair. I will say after we made a small complaint, we did receive a partial refund, as the delay only allowed us an hour until the the start ceremony. The spa was a bit pricey and although we received a few complimentary services (massages and an exfoliation) and although they were good, they would not have been worth the exorbitant prices. The nightly entertainment is held in the lobby, which is as big as it looks in the pictures on their website. I would also mention, although the ambiance is pretty, it does get hot and buggy in the evening. They have a few different “ballrooms� which would serve as a perfect place for nightly entertainment and would be able to accommodate larger crowds of people. Positives :) The food exceeded expectations both at the wedding and restaurants scattered throughout the resort. The staff was extremely friendly and spoke really good English Anytime we made a request to the hotel for a repair (i.e. our shower light burnt out), or needed more ice for our complimentary champagne from our wedding night, someone was there to assist within 5-10 minutes). Finally a shout out to Deysi in the lobby - she was a stellar waitress, Sebastian and Irene in the Preferred Club, Jorge the Event Coordinator, Pedro in the World Cafe (the buffet), The magician in the Italian restaurant, and Antonio the bellhop.

My beautiful new wife and I have traveled extensively. We’ve slowed a little recently with the addition of our daughter 2 years ago, but we’ve seen the world, we’ve seen a number of islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Long story short, we’ve seen a number of resorts (as well as the AirBnB route) and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good benchmark for what a great vacation is. We started planning our wedding about 9 months ago and with family coming from both coasts of the U.S., Mexico was an economical option for everyone. Our requirements were as follows: All-inclusive, kid friendly, not obscenely priced but still nice, and had to have a good track-record with weddings. We did our own research, reading the reviews for countless places and Dreams Riviera was on our radar. We then worked with a travel agent who immediately recommended Dreams Riviera as well. Dreams it is. They delivered our wish list and more. I’ll break this into 2 sections: The Resort and The Wedding. The Resort: First thing that stuck out is that the resort was only about 20-30 minutes from the airport. Nothing worse than sitting in a plane for 5 hours and then hopping right into a van for another 2. From check-in to check-out, we received nothing but super attentive service from every staff member at the resort. Just professionals all-around. The resort is beautiful and extremely well kept. I’ve heard some horror stories from friends who’ve stayed at the cheap-o resorts. No horror stories here. Our room was perfect… nicely appointed, large shower, jetted tub, comfortable bed, etc. We splurged a little on the upgraded plunge pool room (it wasn’t that much more) and would definitely do that again if/when we return. The resort pools are great, but having your own little spot to relax is a nice reprieve and inevitably served as a gathering place with all of our friends and family. The plunge pool has a shallow shelf (figure 5’ x 5’) that was perfect for our 2 year old, plus a larger 4ft deep section. Multiple restaurants. Some were great. Others served their purpose. Overall, I’d give the food an 8-out-of-10 for All-Inclusive Resort food. The veal at the Italian restaurant and the Grouper at the Seaside were definite standouts. I wish I had discovered their café a couple days earlier. The resort’s brewed coffee was okay, but the ladies at the café pulled some solid espresso drinks. Considering the number of rooms at this resort, the wait times for the restaurants were reasonable. During prime dinner hours, plan on going about an hour early, grabbing a buzzer and coming back when your table is ready. In our experience, if they said an hour, it was more like 30-45 minutes. The beachside bar, with its swings for barstools, was definitely the favorite watering hole of the group and we did a LOT of “watering�. They’ve got a bunch of beach lounge chairs setup with Tiki-ish umbrellas and tables as well. Shout out to Antonio, who was just on it with keeping our group well “hydrated� and keeping the atmosphere fun. Just a fun dude to talk with and one of the most attentive wait staff I’ve ever seen. Seriously impressed. Long story short, we spent 8 days here. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. We’ve been to the intimate, boutique resorts and while those places have their own strengths, Dreams was perfect for our group of 30 with a mix of kids, single adults and older folks as well. The wedding: Planning a wedding is stressful. Did Dreams take ALL of the stress out of that equation? No, of course not. But they did deliver an amazing wedding that wowed a very detail oriented bride. We worked with Delia and I’m not sure we realized how good she actually was until the day of our wedding. Dreams’ process for sorting out the details of a wedding (all of the décor, food, music, etc) could probably be improved. It was a long series of PDF, Word and Excel files, paired with a long string of emails. Delia was great with managing that, but again, it wasn’t until we actually met her in person our first day at the resort that we truly realized how good she actually is at what she does. It was easy to be cynical as the groom, to see various suggestions for décor upgrades as just an attempt to raise the overall ticket price, especially because you go into an all-inclusive resort a little bit jaded that it’s going to cost you “X� amount more for food and beverage at a wedding. In hindsight however, the suggestions Delia made were well thought out. Our wedding was literally perfect. There’s absolutely nothing I would’ve added or taken away. And when an insanely detail-oriented bride agrees with that statement, it says something. While it wasn’t “cheap�, we easily spent a less than a 3rd of what we would’ve spent in the states for something even close to comparable. And it wouldn’t have been comparable. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful… ocean backdrop under a beautifully decorated gazebo. I had no less than 20 of our guests tell us the appetizers at our cocktail hour were the best they’ve had at any wedding. What Delia did with our table setting was magazine worthy. Seriously… magazine worthy. The wait staff team running our reception was incredible – Discreetly ensuring they knew everyone’s name, where they were sitting (without a seating chart) and my drink never got below half empty. Cool breeze off the gulf, beautiful sunset, dinner on the deck next to the beach and hours of dancing. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate. Delia – If you read this, THANK YOU!!! We know you went above and beyond and it was recognized and appreciated. To wrap this novel up: Dream Riviera delivered exactly what we were hoping for. Upscale and beautiful without being completely overpriced or pretentious. The kids loved it. The adults loved it. The rooms were great (do the plunge pool!!!). Staff were all super friendly and went out of their way to help us enjoy ourselves. The food was 80% great, 20% serviceable. Our wedding was seriously better than we could’ve ever imagined. Our wedding coordinator was amazing, even if the resorts process could be streamlined. Great experience all-around. Would book again, no questions asked.

So I decided to get away to Mexico for a little R&R. Mexico is my go to for a quick getaway. Ive previously stayed at an AM Resort so I was sure my experience at the Dreams would be the same. I hate to say it wasnt. When I arrived it was raining so my plan was to check in and just chill out in my room. When I actually did check in and looked at the view I was appaled! My "Garden View" was dirt, shrubs and a truck because they were doing construction. The room was dirty and there was a yellow ring around the hot tub. I was super annoyed and called the front desk. I complained and they did tell me my room would be changed in the AM. So the next morning the plan was to get breakfast, go on a tour and check my new room. The staff suggested for me to go on my tour and my bag would be in my room. I arrive back at the hotel, get my new key and the door is jammed! I patiently walk back to the front desk, explain what happened and they give me a new key. I walk back to the room and again cannot get in. I patiently walk back to the desk and this time someone walks back with me. And guess what, he cant open the door either after 2 tries. He finally opened the door, showed me I would have to play with the door a bit to open it. I was still patient until I entered my room and there was no bag! Ugghh!! I was super annoyed! I had to wait for my bag for about an hour. The resort is nice, the staff is amazing, the food is average. I will need to let AM resorts know they need to check all their resorts.

I recently went to visit this resort with my mother who was on business for FitBodies. I've never been to Mexico or an all inclusive resort and let me just say it was amazing! From the resort conditions to the staff to the food to the shows, every day was an adventure! I like it's family friendly because there isn't loud ruckus going on at 1AM. Miguel at the gym was so friendly, knowledgeable and welcoming. Christian and Lizzie with the entertainment staff were so much fun and so personable! Javier was great and our server outside, Antonio was awesome! Everyone and everything was amazing and I created so many great memories with the staff! Keep it up y'all rock!

I can't speak highly enough of this hotel. The staff are all amazing and the customer service is the best I've ever had from a hotel. We stayed 24th may for two weeks. We got checked in straight away which was great as my son was very sick from the long flight. We got to our room which was lovely and clean. We had champagne and fruit waiting for us with it being our anniversary. We only had a king size bed but after contacting reception that we needed a bed for my son they had one sent within 10 minutes. We had to order room service as our son wasn't well enough to go out. It arrived very quickly and everything was hot and very tasty. Everything in the hotel was in easy reach and we found out quite quickly where everything was. We tried all the restaurants apart from the adults only. We could not find fault with any meal we had. Our favourite was definitely the Asian, every member of staff showed excellent customer service and the food was delicious. I have to mention Javier the head guy there! He went out of his way to look after my little boy who suffers with a peanut allergy. He remembered us each time we visited and notified the chef and staff and took his order so it was specially made. So a big thank you to him. Also a mention for Alfonso at the Oceana he is also a credit to your hotel. He was so friendly and Gigia who worked there always remembered our name which was a lovely touch. The Mexican was also great, the guy who likes pouring tequila down your neck (didn't get his name) was great fun. We tried lots of different food here to what we are use to eating and always enjoyed it. We ate at the World cafe mostly for breakfast. It had lots of choice and everything was really fresh. We stayed around the pool most days and we found the entertainment team very good and hard working. They all really looked after my little boy especially Andres, there wasn't many kids around his age there and they always had time to play with him or let him join in the dances and dress up! We did some of the activities through the day and my son loved playing bingo the most! We watched the entertainment of a night time and always enjoyed it. The Brazilian and fire show was great. The pool and beach waiters where always around so you never had to wait long for a drink. The guys who work behind the bars do the best cocktails! You have to try a mudslide these are the best! We would definitely visit again but probably as a couple as my son who is 6 did get a bit bored towards the second week. It's a shame the hotel doesn't have a splash park or a kids play area that's not in the kids club. If it did have these facilities we would no doubt be booking to come back. Special mentions for Great customer service Asian restaurant- Javier and team Oceana - Alfonso and Gigia. World cafe - Pedro Entertainment team- Andres, Lizzie and Chrystian. Both cleaners to our room 1318.