Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun

Excellent at every aspect of hospitality. The very best asset of the resort are the people that work there to make your stay as comfortable as possible. Everyone, and I mean everyone , is pleasant, polite, kind and respectful to the point that makes you feel guilty. My very best wishes to all of them and hope to see you soon again. To comment on cleanness and room set up and the pool and entertainment and so on, it is completely unnecessary.

My honest review: My first and probably my last time visiting an All-Inclusive... (Spoiler - I had an overall good experience but Secrets found many ways to take what was supposed to feel like a worry free experience and turn the vibes into 'stepping on pins and needles') My wife and I, after 15 years of marriage, decided to finally take our Honeymoon and go visit Chichen Itza. We used a travel agent the was recommended to us, picked Secrects Maroma from dozens of different resorts due to the pictures and reviews and started making payments for the "All inclusive" experience. For 7 Nights in a Jr King w/ Ocean "partial" view we paid about $5,800. After Airfare and 2 excursions, which we later learned was booked through a hotel afilliate, we spent about $8,000 or $1,500/day and for us, thats a lot. We watched a ton of YouTube videos in preparation of visiting Mexico and navigated the Airport just fine. We used Amstar to get to the hotel which was good but if your like me 6'1" try to sit in the front of the van if you want any leg room at all. All the other seats offer way less leg room then you'll get on a plane and the transit was about an hour. As per the many YT videos we were mentally prepared to "Tip eveyone" so we tipped the driver. (There were very common suggestions on YT that I would go back and ignore if I did this again like converting your $ before travel... every place we went took card and USD. Everyone but us tipped in USD... we paid a HUGE rate to convert USD to MXN and I would say just bring lots of USD $ingles.) We arrived at the hotel and greeted with "Welcome home" they took our bags and set them aside and escorted us to a desk for check-in where we signed in and were then directed handed off to someone to welcome us, offer us a drink and sell us on "not a Timeshare". WTH? He was very friendly and offered that if we agreed to meet with him for 90min the next morning we would earn more perks at the "all inclusive" A free Romantic dinner and $60 off a $300 50min massage. I was frazzled looking to avoid all sales pitches at the airport and out in town but was not expecting this at the hotel and I wish I had just said no but I figured the hotel should have been a safe area right? We meet with the guy at 0830 the next morning and he immediately hands us off. We go to a place to get handed off again then were escorted to breakfast. We're interviewed then we tour the campus. We're shown a room we "should have got with a real ocean view and its pointed out that the ocean view we picked was "partial ocean view"... We then sit down in their sales lab and hear the pitch. He promises not to pressure and makes everything sound awesome including rubbing in our face that we spent $8,000 on an experience that should only have cost $4,000. That was upsetting. After all was said and done he says he's gonna get us on our way but then proceeds to bring us 2 additional people who try to sweeten the deal, change the prices/packages and after 3 hours (not 90min) we finally walk out feeling like the scum of the earth for not buying into their program. Welcome to your all inclusive. I wont take you through the rest of this review day by day but here's the highlights. **Nice** -Our room door had a banner across it that said Happy Anniversary. -We had a couple pre formatted letters inside our room to welcome us. -All the staff will greet you everywhere you go -All the restaurants are free except Tips. Some spirits cost extra but that wasn't an issue for us. -Lots of activities through each day including different themed dinner events on the campus *MVP's!! - Employees that we could tell legitimately love what they do and care about people* -MVP#1: We ate at El Patio. I was told on day 1 by the timeshare guy that the rivers flowed with Horchata here. Nobody has Horchata. Didn't find it anywhere. I asked about it at the Mexican themed restaurant and they hooked it up!! They asked me to return for dinner the following night and said, though it takes a day to make, they would make some just for me and they delivered!! They even offered to serve it to me at any restaurant if I didn't want to eat at El Patio the next day but I did. I wish I remembered his name but the nicest Host ever. -MVP #2: They offered a Guacamole class for 12. It was so popular they needed to double the seats and supplies for 30 people. The main hostess Alejandra was high energy. She also ran the pool activities and was just overall fun, funny, and very personable. -MVP #3: During our romantic dinner our waiter slipped me a Rose to give my wife. This was probably common practice but unexpected so it makes the list. **Not nice** here's the rest of the "pins and needles" -We never ate a salad we enjoyed, each salad write up sounds awesome but I think they have an actual vendetta here against a good salad. The greens they use are not good, the dressing tries to make up for it but can't and the toppings look awesome but taste way off... There was a specific occasion when a chef and manager were going table to table asking how the food was and asking us to critique the chef to his face. At this occasion (Sea food grill) we had the steak and the flavor was just...off but I am not confrontational especially with the person handling my food so I said it was great (I know this makes me part of the problem but come on.) -We ordered room service. They messed up the order and the app follows up each request with a survey. I filled it out and mentioned the mistake. The next day a waiter and his boss came and delivered an apology plate of cookies. Nice gesture but it felt forced and uncomfortable. -They came by the room to give us a bottle of sparkling wine after we told them we dont drink alcohol (they asked several times but I guess it was irrelevant since it never made a difference. What if I had been a recovering alcoholic.. also I was at least impressed by their generosity until I remembered it was included in the room anyways) -When you order room service you can opt to switch on a light outside the door for privacy. They'll place the food in a cubby you can access from inside the room but then immediately call your room to tell you its been delivered. I get the idea behind the call but if I want privacy I probably dont want the phone room going off and I probably dont want to talk on the phone... if I ordered through the app perhaps just notify me through the app... but room service was always fast! -Our room. We had to get the blow dryer replaced, the shower and toilet doors swing open and wont stay closed, the partician door between room and tub are stuck, the TV has 4 burned in LED lights ruining the screen, the curtain to the outside wont fully close and we had to pin it shut with my wife's hair clip to sleep through the sunrise, the toilet paper holder was broken, some drawers soft close and others don't so some get unintentionally slammed. Having two room visits per day was interesting. One of them insisted on unplugging and coiling up my phone charging cord everyday which honestly upset me -One day it took us a couple hours to get a pool side lounge chair but we managed. After about an hour we were forced to vacate the area so they could set up for the evening event. All I wanted to do was relax in the pool near my spot. -nit picking but We never ate a desert that tasted great. The cheese cake was always warm, the ice cream is served in a tiny sample cup, Cocos jar'd items were lack luster... The Spa gets mixed reviews from me Check in was nice, the hosts were nice enough, the waiting area was a bit weird. Nice waiting area but there lounge couches and im shirtless in a swimsuit, just felt weird to sit on with little clothing... the water therapy was an interesting experience. In order, Sauna, shower, steam room, cold plunge, warm dip, cold plunge, warm dip, free roam the pool and hot tub. The massage was as expected but started with her whispering in my ear as im face down. Her attempt to get me to disconect and let loose. I almost started laughing, just wasn't expecting that. -Tipping I mentioned that tipping was always pushed in every YouTube video I watched preparing to come out so I tipped after every meal, sometimes during different interactions with the room cleaners, room service, pool waiters that would come by every 10min (not every time), bar tenders (we don't drink but the non-alcoholic drinks were fire (Maria-Maria and the NoJito), drivers to and from excursions/airport) Amstar rep on location (they work on commission so work with them directly for the hook up instead of booking online or through a travel agent. They have their own desk at the check-in area of the hotel) So why "pins and needles"? This is by far the most lengthy review I have ever written but with the amount of planning and spending that went into this I felt like this experience should have been way better. This place strives to please but it felt forced, some of the staff seemed inconvenienced at times, the staff have a lot to do and I always felt rude for asking anything, our concierge hours were 9-5 but she might have only been there 9-11 it seemed, you could just feel that the staff were under a lot of pressure and perhaps over tasked. Mix that with the food being blah, the timeshare experience being awful, stuff in our room is broken, tipping will bleed me dry, many times the staff asked the patrons to leave a good review and to keep the negative ones to ourselves which was interesting. I really came to Mexico for the excursions and to relax. Was it the most relaxing? No. Did I feel like I over paid? Yes. Would I do this again? Probably not. But then again, who am I?

Great vacation. Very relaxing which was the goal. Angel Lopez, our concierge, was awesome addressing all of our needs.

I’m so glad that I chose this resort for my honeymoon and did all the research here on Travelzoo. The property and service exceeded every expectation my wife and I had. From the moment we checked in, we were treated like royalty and felt that we were truly valued. Everything was at our fingertips: from food, to facilities, to any necessities for our room. We were truly depressed when we had to leave on check-out day lol. Special shout-out to our concierge Bramdon in building 27! He accommodated us at every turn and truly made us feel like family:) We can’t wait to go back!

I had a excellent stay at Secrets Maroma. The level of service and quality of food were some of the best that I have experienced. Our building concierge, Bramdon, went above and beyond to make our stay even better. The pool attendants, especially Dario, were very attentive, as were the pool concierges. The room was modern and very clean. The a/c worked well and kept us comfortable the whole week. The resort has a modern feel and is one of the cleanest resorts I have ever visited. The entertainment staff was amazing starting at the pool till the night time show.