TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This is my favorite Hotel in Mexico! My wife & I have been back 7 times already, & we just booked another trip. The staff are always so helpful, friendly, & they keep everything tidy, as well as pristine. We made a lot of friends when it comes to staff, & one person that stands out is Jenifer Núnez. She was such a treat to work with. We were absolutely pleased with her expertise and commitment to her job & our satisfaction. We hope to see Jenifer & all of our friends soon enough. Thank you Barcelo Maya Palace for the exquisite food, extraordinary views, & the most amazing & relaxing vacation stays hands-down.

Was the best resort. We cannot wait to go back! Jenifer N. was so helpful from the resort, we cannot wait to go back and see her. The beach and the pools were great and family friendly, would recommend this resort to others. Going back again this month & we are excited.

I travelled here in February with my family and Father In Law. We greatly enjoyed our stay here. There is a great deal of care put into maintaining the buildings and grounds and it was absolutely spotless. Never felt safer anywhere else I have travelled. There is so much to do and no reason to leave the resort if you don't want to! The mall has almost anything you could want; in addition to shopping there's bowling, an arcade, a huge screen where you can play video games, a small climbing wall, a carousel, a haunted house, a fake ice pond, probably more that I missed. There's go-carts and a dive shop on site. My 8 year old and I did a bubblemaker course and he got to dive in the ocean for the first time, at 8 years old! As a seasoned diver, I was pretty unimpressed with the cost of the dive for he and I (350$CAD!!!), however he had a wonderful experience and saw quite a bit of sealife. We chose Barcelo for its location and reputed snorkelling. We did some snorkelling and saw turtles almost every time. Across the highway there are 2 cenotes that are worth the effort of getting to if you're brave enough. There are more than 2 actually but the others are slightly farther off the highway. Tulum ruins are a short drive and worth visiting. The location of the resort for us was perfect. While we ventured out a few times, my father in law stayed on the resort and he was quite happy to. There is a bus that shuttles you between all of the connecting resorts if you're not up for walking. Each resort is very large, it can be quite a bit of walking still; 5 minutes from our room to the buffet. And the buffets were astounding. So much food! We didn't eat at any of the a la carte's because my Father In Law was so impressed with the buffets. We stayed at the palace for the most part and the staff there was beyond accomodating. I have celiac disease and need to eat gluten free. I am uncomfortable with buffets because of the high risk of cross contamination but I was willing to risk it for this trip because well what else are you supposed to do? But upon arrival, I informed the waiter about my "allergy", he immediately got his supervisor and she said she didn't think the buffets were a good idea for me and they would happily prepare my meals separately. I hadn't realized how apprehensive I was to eat at the buffets until I felt the flood of relief upon hearing that. In Mirador Buffet Chef Charlie made quite a few of my breakfast omelettes, Blanca Barradas greeted us almost every morning and made sure I had what I needed, and our waiter Eduardo was so helpful and friendly. In Mirador Buffet in the evenings Emmanual Herrera looked after me and my family and made sure everything went smoothly and our waiters Jesus Meneses and Jorge Rodriguez were there whenever you needed anything. In Hacienda Buffet Bethzayda Romero went above and beyond to make my experience a pleasant one and Alex Alfaro was our waiter most nights and we were very well taken care of. The only hiccup being with ordering my meals separately, the rest of my family was done eating before mine would even arrive. Eventually we got this straightened out and it was seamless. I didn't react once and no-one in our family got sick at all. Our first vacation out of country as a family and since my celiac diagnoses and it went better than I expected it to! I am so grateful to all the staff members who helped me and my family throughout our stay! The friendly and helpful staff are what make this beautiful resort extra special!

The resort itself is very beautiful and the rooms and hotel are very clean. Front desk customer service is awful as everyone else has already noted. We requested rooms with 2 beds as it was friends travelling together and we were all given 1 king bed in the room. We sent 2 emails ahead requesting 2 beds in our rooms. We complained at check in but were told there were none left with 2 beds. It took 3 days and help from West Jet to get us 2 beds in each room as we had requested all along. the front desk is so slow and unorganized. They really need new front desk management and staff that are fluent in English. Every lounge chair by the pool and the ocean was occupied by a towel by 9 am so you have to get up at 7 am to find a chair. If you want to book a cabana at the adult only pool you have to do it at 7am...not sure why at 7 am but that was how it worked. $15 to book the cabana. Cleanliness was excellent. Housekeeping was very well done. Entertainment was very good. The dinning room service was not as good as at other resorts. They seemed short staffed. We often had to get our own coffee and drinks as there wasn't enough staff to go around. Long waits at the bars as well. Likely just needed more staff. The a la cart restaurants were disappointing. We booked on the first day of the trip and the Japanese restaurant was never available. The French restaurant was very good. We went to the Mexican and the Italian but both had awful meals. Very disappointing. Overall I found the Grand Bahia Principe much better overall.

The cost to stay at the Palace is absolutely not worth it. We were given a single bed room when we booked a double, told it couldn't be changed because there wasn't another room open. However, the room directly beside us was open for almost our entire stay and was the exact kind of room we booked. I asked to be moved twice and was told there were no rooms. The check in process took us over an hour, not including the long wait in line, and staff were having personal conversations that stalled the check in process while a long line was waiting. Nothing at all was explained to us about how things work, where restaurants are located, where pools were, or even what the towel cards were for. The lack of hospitality and quality service from the reception desk throughout our stay was very disappointing. The safe didn't work. Electrical outlets fell out of the wall while in use. There was significantly less shaded options around the pool at the Palace than there were at the other areas of the resort. And other pools had more than one bar around them as well, the Palace did not. The only options for late night food is to pay extra for room service (even though it is all marketed as all inclusive), or to walk for 20 to 30 minutes to the clear opposite end of the property for some kind of crappy bar food. The overall service, quality of stay, and amenities were significantly better at other midrange resorts than they were at the Palace. Which is supposed to be the high end part of the resort (it's certainly priced that way!) The restaurants were fine, but really should be better considering the costs, again. And the "specialty" restaurants were okay too, but nothing to write home about. Housekeeping staff were AMAZING. They checked the room more than once most days and respected our request to make sure the ceiling fan stayed on in the room when they finished cleaning. The entertainment staff try hard and work well with what they have! But the over all options for entertainment are quite disappointing. The cost of things on the resort was absolutely outrageous too. The Tiendas down by the Maya Mall were lovely, and it would have been nice to see more of that, as opposed to overly marked up, very amercanized items in the gift shops. You are much better off to stay at a Lower priced resort with more to offer!