BlueBay Grand Esmeralda - 77710 Playa del Carmen

This hotel is a dump! Smell of sewer in a lot of places. Wholes in walls, showers broken with no hot water, door handles falling off, dirty windows and floors, fridge is missing most of the items. Paint peeling all over this failing properly with dirty fountain. Room’s cleanliness is left to be desired. The chairs in buffet area are dirty as well , so are the napkins and utensils. Over all the hotel is In dire state of repair and cleaning- outdated and absolutely is not 5 stars. …maybe 1 ! Asked to change the room but out of 1000 rooms they couldn’t find 2 rooms in a good w condition. Found one …just one degree better Wanted to upgrade the room to make expensive and they had no rooms available or In working condition. I do want to say one nice thing about an employee named Aldo. He was very professional and tried to rectify the situation. First day here and vacation is ruined. However, I’m still waiting for the fridge to be restocked

We stayed at the Grand Esmeralda for a week this month. The grounds were nice and the staff was friendly. That is about all I can say that is positive. The issues were many and a bit of a deal killer to get me to come back: 1) The room, while acceptable in size and amenities was in poor repair. One of the closet doors latches were broken so the door would always swing open and block the hallway/exit 2) The shower handle would fall off all the time unless you were very careful. It is heavy for it's size and almost broke my son's toe when it fell the first time 3) The tiles in the main area floor were loose. Not a big deal, but it goes to illustrate the lack of maintenance. 4) The biggest issue... and this one is the killer is that the food was just not good. The restaurants that require reservations were decent, but the buffet was just poor quality overall. There were some things in the buffet that were passable and some that were not worth putting on your plate... too many things were in the latter category. The breakfast buffets were decent though. We have stayed in MANY all-inclusive resorts in the area and this one had the worst food. We actually repeatedly left the resort to eat so we could enjoy the experience. We did report the issues but nothing was done to remedy them while we were there. 5) The resort would do nothing to shut down the kids (18-25?) that were partying in the pool areas till 4am several nights. We got very poor sleep because of this. It was just soooo loud.

Excellent customer service! This resort is beautiful and thoughtfully planned. The food was great and did I mention the customer service? So I gave it four stars because the rooms are dated. Like really old. And the property is huge. Although they have staff transporting you around the property, you will have to wait up to 30 or 40 minutes for a ride. Also the times of the restaurants are subject to change without notice. We missed out a few times going to the snack bar. And the sockets in the rooms worked intermittently and we never had hot water. I think that if they perform the proper upgrades, this resort could be top notch.

This is honestly one of the worst vacations I have ever been on. If you see this place advertised and think wow that looks awesome (just like we did) I guarantee you will be disappointed in one way or another. The rooms smell rotten. Our balcony door was broken so we had to fight with it every time we wanted to go sit out there. Our fridge in the room was barely working. We had to ask the staff several times to clean our room, bring us towels, and even toilet paper. The resort is massive, so bring walking shoes. They have shuttles but most of the time turn you away because they only take the VIP members. And to top it off- both my boyfriend and I got food poisoning. Their buffets are absolutely disgusting (breakfast isn’t horrible but lunch and supper are a write off). Everything you see is questionable. We ate chips from the little store there, which was completely over priced but at least you know chips are safe to eat. The pop is flat. Bottled water doesn’t even taste right. The restaurants need like 2 days in advance for a reservation or you may not get in to the one you want. They are mediocre, nothing special either. They also advertise a snack bar- it is closed. No snacks or anything. If you are hoping to walk along the beach or dip your toes in the water, count that out. The water front smells like rotting fish and it is very dirty. The one plus was the weather was beautiful and the bartenders & most staff were very nice. Overall, we did not enjoy our stay at this resort. Quite disappointed to say the least when you spend a fair amount of money to go on a vacation and one we’ve been waiting to go on since the pandemic. Complete let down. Search elsewhere.

Though we had a great time and our overall experience was enjoyable at this resort, it did feel a bit like it had its "glory days" in the past. To be fair, if this is your first time to vacation at an all-inclusive beach resort, you'll probably be thrilled and have an amazing time. BUT.. if you're an experienced resort hopper, you might be let down. The food was mostly mediocre, though there were a few better offerings on occasion. The resort itself felt very spread out - lots of long walk commutes (but there are "golf cart" shuttles making rounds that you can jump on). One big disappointment is the actual view from the beach. At this moment, at least, there are large dark/ugly barriers placed out in the water along the entire resort area, which dash all hopes of gazing out over unbroken crystal clear blue ocean views. You're still at the beach with sunshine, sand, palm trees and water, but frankly it was not the post card view most people will expect to see (I've included a pic) after traveling to Mexico for that big "AMAZING" moment. On the plus side, the staff was very friendly and mostly attentive, the pool areas are nice, and of course, you're still on a beach in Mexico. ? Once is enough for us on this one, however.

All employees were super polite. Food & drinks were great. The rooms were comfortable. A few negatives experienced by guests in our party: one room had a bad handheld sprayer in the shower and water never got hot, no face wash clothes were provided. The resort is large and spread out. There were golf carts for transport but not enough of them. Everyday I was left standing by empty golf carts that were meant only for member guests. Also, nothing to do and no where to go if you need a day out of the sun.

Just returned from our holiday at the Blue Bay. Can't say enough about the wonderful staff. Ruperta and Candido at the Buffet, Eddie at the Black and White and Andres at the beach bar. Service was phenomenal. The food at the specialty restaurants was fantastic - I think our favourite was the Mexican but they were all excellent. Everyone went out of their way to be friendly and helpful. The rooms were very clean and the AC worked well. They are dealing with the stresses and restrictions that the Pandemic has caused and are doing a great job. Some of the restaurants are closed and some of the bars are closing a bit earlier than normal. All of this should be expected in these times and we had no problem with this. There were still lots of food and beverage options. Had an amazing time and can't wait to go back.

Overall, it was a good stay. The staff was always nice and helpful, though they pressed hard on the presentation that was like a timeshare. The beach during this time of year (May) was completely filled with seaweed and we didn’t swim once in the ocean. The food was decent and mostly the same for breakfast and lunch. The resort was older and definitely smelled outside from the grass low lands around the complex. The shows were good but the black and white club had almost no ventilation so it was very crammed and clammy. The rooms were comfortable but outdated and the glass in the bathroom was pretty stained from the sea air. It looked like some places were getting a remodel but it felt like it was more of a band-aid than anything else. So it was a good stay but I wouldn’t recommend the resort unfortunately.