My husband and I spent May 13-19 at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya. The last time we were at this property, it was Aventura Spa Palace, one of The Palace Resorts, and it was spectacular, our favorite. As a Hard Rock, not so much.
As Aventura, it had a beautiful, elegant Mexican hacienda feel. Most of the buildings now seem to be in a state of disrepair, especially around the tops of the buildings, which are crumbling. Many of the room doors appear to be rotting with large gaps at the top. The buildings are labeled Hacienda Roja (red) and Hacienda Azul (blue). If you look at the current on-line pictures, the buildings had been painted garish red and blue. Someone apparently realized their mistake, and the buildings have been repainted to their original beige – a definite step in the right direction in rectifying the tackiness.
There are two main buildings, an adults-only side and a family side. There were huge iron chandeliers in a courtyard area on both sides. On the adult side, these fixtures have had a “lampshade” affixed to them which is a huge silver metal ring that looks like it was beaten with a sledgehammer. Tacky, ugly. There is a large fountain in the center of the courtyard. It was dry. There is also now a huge fake tree of a variety foreign to the Yucatan.
As we are Palace members and our membership rolled over to include the properties that were turned into Hard Rocks, we expected the benefits of membership. Instead, we were given a room in Building 1 that had a view of a concrete parking area and a large dead tree. Its location was as far from everything as it was possible to get. The room was missing its traditional terrycloth slippers, the makeup towelettes provided were completely dried up, the fixture for the coffee pods holds six pods but there were only two and they were decaf. The room itself was just plain tacky. The walls were navy blue here, beige over there, painted white wood here, fake stone over there. In all, there were six different textures/colors on the walls, just chaotic. The headboard looked like it belonged in a dungeon with chains attached. The floor was gritty, and the whole room just felt not quite clean.
The shower is very large and nice with an exceptional showerhead. My husband enjoys soaking in the jacuzzi tub. He filled it up and sat to soak. A few minutes later, he asked me if I thought the water looked dirty. Yep. He drained the tub and when the water was gone, the entire tub was encrusted with dirt and grit. It was fairly nauseating to see what he had been sitting in. That’s when we went to Member Services and demanded a different room.
We were moved to Building 2 with a much better view (there are no actual “oceanfront” rooms unless you are in a Presidential Suite) and closer to the pool, restaurants and lobby building. We also now had slippers, six coffee pods, usable makeup removers, a security lock on the door, a light in the closet, two hooks over a drain in the bathroom for wet bathing suits, and the jacuzzi tub did not fill up with dirt. The colors were toned down, and there were not as many of them. The headboard was replaced with something more normal. It did appear that they were making these changes in all the rooms in Building 2. Interestingly, when we went back to Building 1 to get our things to move to Building 2, the maid had already cleaned the room, not knowing we were moving. Yet, the jacuzzi tub was STILL filthy. We reported it to Member Services and received a shrug.
In the past it was so nice to comes back to the room after dinner and the show to find the bed turned down, house-made chocolates on the pillow, low lights, soft music playing on the TV and fresh towels. Nope – all gone. And no more adorable towel animals.
There are many positives. The spa is just as nice as when it was Aventura for the most part. The services were exceptional. We both had three massages and a facial as they were running a fantastic special. We were unable to make use of the hydro facilities due to a recent surgery, but they looked very nice and clean.
The nightly shows were good. At the “Queen” show, the impersonator had Freddie’s mannerisms down pat, if not the voice. But then no one sang like Freddie. The Michael Jackson impersonator was one heck of a dancer, as were all of them. The Circus show was nice. The theater could use some A/C, though, as it was extremely warm. The fire show is the one show held outside at the pool. We have seen fire shows many times, but this one was exceptional as they have added costumes, makeup and drama.
We ate at Toro (steak house), which was my favorite. Also, La Petit Cochon (French), Caio (Italian) and Wai (Thai) were nice, although I am somewhat of a picky eater and often struggled with my order. (Grasshoppers? Nope.) Zen (Asian) was fun. We did not have the set menu at the Teppanyaki tables, which were quite lively, but ordered off the extensive regular menu. Our waiter went above and beyond the menu to set fire to our dessert (fresh pineapple with brandy over coconut ice cream) and give us a nice show. We also had Mayan coffee at Toro, which was another good fire show.
The buffets - The Market, Faro Gastro Market and La Isla - were a huge disappointment. I always love the Mexican resort buffets. Not this time. The pastries were very dry and bland. The breakfast choices were strange. At lunchtime, three different times we entered the restaurant the very second they opened. And all three times, the French fries, onion rings and pizza were stone cold right from the start. The pizza comes from brick wood-fired ovens and looks delicious, but always cold. One day I had sushi, but had to beg for soy sauce and could not get wasabi or ginger. The next day, all three were available, but there was no sushi. The best thing at the buffets is the ice cream.
Even if you are staying on the adults-only side (Heaven), there are children everywhere. There is one pool, one bar and two restaurants (Le Petit Cochon and Faro) that are child-free.
You must call for a golf cart to take you around the property or be prepared for a very long walk if you are staying on one side and eating on the other. LONG walk. The property is very confusing, and it was time to go home before we started to get our bearings.
The adult pool was nice and had great live rock music on the weekend. It was impossible, however, to get a chair unless you staked it out at dawn.
The glass cases containing the performance costumes of various rockers were interesting. There are spider monkeys on the property, as well as coati mundis, raccoons, sereques and iguanas, and we saw them all. The raccoons roam the hallways looking for a snack from room service trays left outside the door. Very adorable, but messy.
Did we have a terrible time at HRRM? No, there were positives. Would we go back to HRRM? Absolutely not. And ONLY adults-only from now on. We “re-learned” that lesson.
