Ocean Maya Royale

On our first visit to Mexico we chose OMR resort for it's beachfront location and for the the style of accommodation. Overall, we had a great time here, however it wasn't perfect. I will break down each aspect so you can make your own minds up: Rooms - Blocks of 8 rooms (4 up, 4 down). Large, bright rooms with huge comfortable bed. Sheets changed daily. Mini bar restocked daily. Huge shower. Some signs of wear and tear throughout, but I believe they are due refurbishment this year. Location - On a private drive, about a mile off Canun highway. Nothing directly outside of hotel complex to walk to. Taxi to Playa de Carmen 500 Peso's each way. Grounds - Immaculately kept, with lush vegitation everywhere. Wildlife - Coatis and iguanas roam freely. Coatis aren't afraid to get close to humans! Food - Several locations to experience a wide variety of top notch food. Blue Moon (French) was our favourite, with the fillet steak highly recommended. Dolce Vita (Italian) was a let down as food not very good; atmosphere was too hot; and the smell of rotting sargassum filled the air. Yookso was OK, but nothing special. La Hacienda provided a wide choice at the buffet. Sports Bar surprisingly provided decent quality, cooked to order 'bar food'. Mike's coffee shop was fine, but old grumpy guts behind the counter needs to smile! Drinks - Wide choice of branded drinks freely available. Draught beer smelt of sulphur/eggs and was weak. Great choice of freshly made cocktails. The house wine was surprisingly good. All bar staff were pleasant enough and worked hard.
Pools - One 'lazy pool ' and one ' crazy pool' as the Animation team called them! Crazy pool was quite noisy due to music and loud Americans. Plenty of sunbeds around both pools. Big shout out to ADRIAN for bringing drinks to our sunbeds. Beach - Manmade beach with lots of sunbeds. Lovely soft white sand. 20 minute walk down the beach gets you to a cold water lagoon. Sea - Could not enter the sea at all due to overwhelming sargassum seaweed. Water was brown and stank of sulphur! Red flags flying at all times. Entertainment - Some excellent professional acts, but some nights had to rely on karaoke. Spa and sports facilities - didn't use them

Overall - Hotel was only half full as many staying away due to unpresedented amounts of sargassum seaweed in the water and on the beahes. This produced a terrible stink! On the plus side. this meant the facilities weren't overcrowded. Lots of loud American's there for short 'party' breaks, but found more refined people to talk to also. We found that some guests were tipping for every drink, but , being British, we only tipped at the end of our stay without finding any drop in service standards.

Staying at Ocean Maya Royale at Playa del Carmen and it is a very nice hotel that is for adults only and has a very laid-back friendly atmosphere. Restaurant hacienda is great breakfast and dinner buffet. Miguel was gracious enough to talk with us. 2nd time coming to this hotel! Would definitely recommend!

Fantastic 6 days at this resort. Second time here, was here 2 years ago and this time even better. A few shout outs to some of the staff. Edith is the lobby bar was fabulous and Ilsa in the Privilege restaurant started our mornings off at breakfast in the best way possible. They definitely could work on their evening entertainment a bit, but luckily we met some excellent people that made the evenings still fun. All in all an excellent trip!