Hotel Review: Paradisus Playa Del Carmen

My second work trip to Cancun gave me the opportunity to stay at the Paradisus Playa Del Carmen.  The resort is split into 2 sections – La Esmeralda (family) and Las Perlas (adults only).  I stayed on the Las Perlas side, but the resort is not as big as I had expected, and you can easily walk around the entire resort within 10-15 minutes.

The Las Perlas had one of the most extravagant lobby areas I’ve ever seen.  In fact, I was quite surprised to find out later on that the resort seemed very small, in comparison to how big and grand its lobby is.  There is a big open area as soon as you step into the hotel, but the lobby is off to the side, behind closed doors.  Once you step through those doors, it was almost like you were in a restaurant, instead of a hotel lobby.  There were different sections with tables and comfortable looking chairs, along with a bar at the back.

After checking in, I entered the room and I was immediately confused as I was expecting to see a normal room with a bed or two and perhaps a jacuzzi.  Little did I know that a one bedroom suite was waiting for me on the other side of the door.  

It honestly took me about 3 minutes to figure out where the toilet was located!  There were so many rooms within the suite – aside from the dining room, there was a living area, bedroom, jacuzzi room, bathroom and balcony.  The balcony had a 2^nd outdoor jacuzzi and could probably have fit 15 people comfortably. 

The week that I was there was overcast and cloudy, and it had rained quite a bit the day I arrived.  This caused a great deal of seaweed to wash up onto the beach and the staff were kept busy trying to clean up the seaweed at all hours of the day.  I only made my way down to the beach once it was all cleaned up, but other guests had commented on the horrific smell that the seaweed brought.

The service at this resort was outstanding, as expected from a Paradisus.  I was also surprised to see a large parking lot with chargeable pumps.  I guess I assumed most hotel guests wouldn’t have cars, but you never know. 

Although the resort was great, there were actually quite a few things I didn’t like about it, which surprised me, as it is a great brand and considered a 5 star resort.  The room I was in had a kitchen area, with an enormous dining room table, and numerous kitchen drawers.  However, all of the drawers were empty.  There were no utensils, napkins, plates, and the strangest thing of all is that there wasn’t even coffee.  Why bother having a coffee making in the room when you’re not going to supply coffee?

Something else that wasn’t supplied was bath salts, bubble bath or bath foam.  There are 2 jacuzzis in the room but yet, they didn’t provide any bath foam at all.  Someone told me later that it’s likely they don’t want to have to clean it up but again, why have two jacuzzis in the room then?  They put all this money into making sure the room is top notch, but then it just feels like they cheap out on the extras.  Even when it came to the shampoo and conditioner.  Each room was only supplied with a tiny bottle that was never replenished.

But ultimately, the thing that bugged me the most was the fact that room service cost $5.  I didn’t quite understand how it could be called an all-inclusive resort when room service is not included.  There was one night where I wasn’t feeling great, and just wanted to take a little bit of food and some fruit back to my room, but the buffet restaurant didn’t offer that option and I was told that I would need to call for room service.  This left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and perhaps it is because I was able to compare this with the Moon Palace, where I stayed a year earlier.  The Moon Palace not only let you take food to your room, they let you take food off of the property to eat later, so this experience really paled compared to that.

Overall, I’m not sure that I would stay at a Paradisus again, only because many of the negatives outweighed the positives.