Anyone been to Grand Velas or Dreams Riviera Maya?

[chicago]

I've read a ton of reviews on Trip Advisor and looked at photos on Oyster, but I would love to hear from anyone here who has visited either.  Considering both for our first trip with our daughter (March 2015). 

[changedname]

Grand Velas yes. I feel like it was more couply than family orientated. It is a very very beautiful resort and the rooms are amazing.

[aak0517]

I haven't been to that Dreams personally but a good friend and her husband go almost every year and have always had a great exp. I know they specifically call out how yummy the food was every time they have gone.

[chicago]

changedname, do you remember what section you stayed in? I keep reading that Zen or Ambassador are great for families, which is obviously important to us now.

My things with GV are that it's probably about $1k more for six nights so I don't know if it's "that much better" in terms of room, service, food, and ambience. The other thing I don't think I like is that you have to make reservations for the restaurants. Before the baby we always stayed at adults only all inclusives where we didn't need reservations. I feel even less inclined to be on a timeline when we'll have a one year old.

[lemon360]

We went to Grand Velas and it was amazing, well worth the added cost compared to other resorts. The rooms were amazing and the food and service were exquisite. Every restaurant is a 5-star, some of the best food we've ever eaten. Everything there was top shelf and every detail was taken care of. They would come by while we were laying at the pool and clean our sunglasses (they offered, we never would have thought to ask). It was mostly couples and parents with young children. Not a big party scene at night, which we liked. We hope to go back someday.

Re the reservations, we made a reservation every morning for that evening.  We sometimes didn't get the exact time we wanted but it was usually within 30 minutes.  We could have made the reservations further in advance.  We were there when it was a little slow so they only had 2 or 3 restaurants open each night but we had a chance to try them all because they rotated.  They also had more causal restaurants that didn't require reservations and those were great too. I think we did that a few nights since we didn't want anything dressy some nights.

[chicago]

Thanks, lemon360! Any "weirdness" with little kids at the restaurants? I know some of them are closed to kids, but I'm wondering if we will get weird looks if we are there with our 1year old, but if I'm going to pay to go there I don't want to just do room service or the super casual places. I definitely don't mind eating an early dinner, but that's where the reservation system kind of freaks me out.

[lemon360]

Jun 23, 2014 18:18:56 GMT -5 chicago said:

Thanks, lemon360! Any "weirdness" with little kids at the restaurants? I know some of them are closed to kids, but I'm wondering if we will get weird looks if we are there with our 1year old, but if I'm going to pay to go there I don't want to just do room service or the super casual places. I definitely don't mind eating an early dinner, but that's where the reservation system kind of freaks me out.

I think the people with kids mostly ate earlier because I'd see them walking out as we were walking in.  This was before we had a kid so I think we were less aware but didn't think it was weird.  the casual places were great and they had lots of ice cream.

the room service for breakfast was awesome.  You just filled out a card and left it handing on your door knob with the time you wanted it and it was always amazing and on time.  This was a few years ago but they had this dish called "divorced eggs" and it was half red sauce and half green sauce and I loved it so much I had it every morning.