Mayan Palace Vallarta

Loved it, and plan a return trip

My husband, myself and our 9 year old daughter stayed at the Mayan for from Feb 16 to the 23rd. We were anticipating a few problems from reading previous reviews, but we actually had none! We are timeshare owners through the Mayan group and so we exchanged our time to stay at the Mayan Palace this year. We took advantage of the free transportation offered from Mayan from the airport to the hotel and were pleasantly surprised with this as well. We arrived after 10pm and had absolutley no wait for check in. We were directed to go and get our wrist bands (although these are not necessary). We got our bands, got to our room, called the bell boys for our luggage and it was brought to the room in no more than 5 minutes.

We requested an ocean view room, and we had it. Our accomodations were a 2 bedroom unit, we had 2 bathrooms, 3 balconies, a kitchen are, dining area and living space. 3 TVs in all and the air conditioning definetly worked! It ws cool enough in the room, we actually shut it off for a while. The beds are slightly hard, but not so hard that you can’t adjust. The rooms are extremly clean and comfortable. We were in the “blue” building and after looking around decided it was the BEST place to be and although the red and yellow are closer to the pool, the blue was by far superior to be in. Our view included the ocean, the grounds and the pool! It was wonderful.

As I said the wristbands are not necessary, I took mine off the first night and never put it back on! I think these are only so they can stop one from using the pools at the Grand Mayan, which after touring on our own, we decided it wasn’t so “grand” after all. The pool area at the grand is much more crowded than at the Mayan Palace, they (the Grand) have sand around part of the pool, and the lazy river closes early each day, and the chairs are so close to one another you probably could read whatever book the person next to you was reading. The pool at the Mayan Palace is so HUGE, always a chair available and never crowded. The water was warm, almost like bathwater warm at times, but not complaining at all! We enjoyed ourselves so much!

The waitstaff around the pool was wonderful, always giving you their name and asking if you need anything. Very attentive and caring! The pool activities are good, we played bingo a few times and tried to play their other trivia games also. They have books and magazines to borrow while there and also have a ceramics painting area if youw ish to paint some of your own pottery ( we did and they touch up your pieces so it looks as though they were professionally done) definetly try it!

The waitstaff at the restraunts also very attentive and caring. Be sure to ask for your check as they won’t just bring it out to you (as they do here in the states) nothing is rushed at the Mayan, very relaxing and easy going.

Our flight to go home was not leaving until 9PM they day we left, so we requested a late check out, no problem here either. No unpleasant surprises at all.

We were asked 3 times in total if we wanted to partake in the “owners breakfast” once by the wristband lady, and 2 times by phone in the room. We declined and that was the end of that. No high pressure tactics on this at all. Although I have heard they do pressure you if you partake, so that is something everyone needs to decide on their own. Is “free breakfast” worth it or not!!!

The only 3 down sides we had, was YES, it is VERY expensive to eat there ($9.50 for a hamburger by the pool) and $32 a person for dinner, so look elsewhere to eat. We found at the Paradise Plaza (the shopping mall) a very good Mexican rest, and very cheap! There is a grocery store there as well, however we went to Walmart and got everything we needed.

2nd downside is the Grand Mayan…NOT too “grand” at all and if they really want it to stand out, we thought maybe they should make it an all inclusive and then it would stand to reason why they get the “perks” like, using the Mayan Palace pool (obviously they get tired of being crowded). If the Grand was all inclusive we could understand why others are not welcome until dinner time!!!

3rd downer, the Mexican Fiesta, it was $45 a person, which includes all you can drink (drinks are VERY strong for the Fiesta) but they ran out of food before everyone got through the line! When I asked about this, the manager told me to go back through the line, they have more food, this was right after sitting down, Isaid no and asked for refund, he said he would and took name and room number (when we checked out, bo refund, had to ask and then they had to verify, but we DID get the refund in the end.). We would just suggest skipping it and if you really want to see the show you can hang by the pool and see it, but we also felt it wasn’t worth the $45. The fireworks at the end of the Fiesta are wonderful(again youcan see these from anywhere on the grounds so save your $45).

All in all was a fantastic time and will be going back again someday, but will eat out. Don’t be afraid to take a taxi ride somewhere. And exchange most of your money at the bank when you get there or at the money exchange, a much better rate than the hotel offers.