Nickelodeon Hotels and Resorts Riviera Maya

I have never written a TripAdvisor review while still on vacation, but this experience has been bad enough that I felt compelled to. For context, we are paying more than $1,000 per night, so my expectations are not unreasonable. Unfortunately, this resort has fallen dramatically short of what I would expect at this price point.

First, our assigned “concierge,” Arturo/Arthur, seemed primarily interested in selling us things. From the beginning, nearly every interaction was about upgrades, additional purchases, or getting us to attend a timeshare breakfast. At $1,000+ a night, the constant upselling was particularly frustrating. Once we made it clear that we weren’t interested in buying anything else, he essentially stopped communicating with us for the remaining three and a half days of our stay. I even messaged him with important questions about the resort and received no response.

As for the rest of the experience:

The food is genuinely terrible. I am not a particularly picky eater, and I don’t use the word “inedible” lightly, but the food has been so consistently bad that members of our family are barely eating at the resort. Getting around is miserable. The property requires vans to travel between many areas. We have repeatedly waited outside in roughly 90-degree heat for hot, crowded vans that often smell unpleasant. At a luxury resort, transportation should not feel like an ordeal every time you leave your room. This resort is extremely difficult for guests who do not speak Spanish. Shows and character meet-and-greets during our stay have been conducted almost exclusively in Spanish, and we have encountered many staff members who speak little or no English. We are visiting Mexico and absolutely do not expect everyone to speak English. However, this resort heavily markets itself to international and American tourists, and at this price point I expected major guest programming and services to be accessible to non-Spanish-speaking guests as well. The air conditioning in our room was broken. In this climate, that is a significant issue. The pool bar is frequently left completely unstaffed, sometimes for extended periods in the middle of the day. Several restaurants are not air-conditioned, which makes meals extremely uncomfortable in the August heat. There have been two bright spots, and they are the reason I’m giving two stars instead of one: the spa was fantastic, and we really enjoyed having a swim-up room. The spa experience in particular was excellent.

But those positives cannot make up for the overall experience. For what this resort charges, I expected good food, reliable service, comfortable transportation, functioning air conditioning, and a concierge who actually assists guests rather than treating them as sales opportunities.

I understand that we are traveling in Mexico, and I would never expect or demand that everything cater to American visitors. But this property actively markets itself as a high-end international family resort, and the actual experience does not match that positioning. Based on our stay, I would not recommend this resort to American or other English-speaking travelers, particularly at this price point.

Two stars for the wonderful spa and swim-up room. Everything else has been an enormous disappointment.

As an adult, not impressed with the experience at all. There is no ‘premium’ feel anywhere. For the money, you can buy a much more luxury experience somewhere else.

It’s a different story for my kids, they had a blast there and somehow thinks it’s better than the 5-star hotels we stayed elsewhere in the region. The loved everything from the water park, to the semi private pools and the food too. So I guess it’s doing a great job targeting younger audiences.

The gift shop are a bloody rip off. Expect paying 3-5x mark-ups for everything. We paid $50 for a sunscreen spray.

The booking experience was stressful. We booked via the official Mexican website. The confirmation email was sketchy, and Karisma helpline can’t verify if the booking was successful. Their agent even suspected that I got scammed at one time.

I think it’s good for a short excursion. But if you are looking to stay for a week plus, look elsewhere.