Excellence Riviera Cancun

After ten stays with the Excellence brand, and four at Excellence Riviera Cancun, we’ve developed strong opinions about what makes one property better than another. Excellence Riviera Cancun keeps landing near the top of our list. This trip had more disruptions than some of our previous visits, but it still held its place as one of our favorites.

Service is why we keep coming back. It’s consistently exceptional across the resort, it’s personal and welcoming. You’re treated like someone the staff is glad to see, not a room number.

The grounds are immaculate and beautiful, with constant maintenance and an excellent layout. We especially love the wide beachfront footprint, which gives you room to spread out. And unlike other Excellence resorts, there are no chair games on the beach, so the sand stays relaxing.

The food was very good overall. Our favorite dinners were at Magna, Spice, and Agave (served at Oregano during the renovation). Lunch was a consistent hit. The brick oven pizza was delicious, the new menu at Las Olas was really good, and the beach and pool delivery options were surprisingly good. For drinks, the Martini Bar served excellent cocktails, but the real standout was the Excellence Club Lounge.

While we appreciate the resort’s commitment to upgrading its restaurants and facilities, we were disappointed by how many renovations were happening at once. Flavor Market, a favorite of ours, was temporarily replaced by Chez Isabelle. Agave was closed, with service on certain nights at Oregano. Oregano itself closed at the end of our trip for renovations, moving service to the Grill. Aroma, the coffee shop, is closed and operating out of the Sports Bar. The coffee and service are still very good, but the offerings are limited. Ordering coffee and bar drinks from the same spot is disjointed, especially on Sundays during football games. The Spa is closed for renovations and operating out of rooms in Building 6. The team does its best, and the massages themselves were fantastic, but the surroundings aren’t up to par.

Renovations are a temporary inconvenience, and once they’re finished, this resort should be even stronger. In the meantime, the people, the grounds, the pools, and the food keep Excellence Riviera Cancun among our favorites of the brand.

A few people also deserve special recognition, as they are truly an asset to the resort: Jorge, our Excellence Club beach server, was outstanding. We never wanted for anything, and everything came with

I want to start by saying we have been to several excellence resorts over the past 10 years. As always the staff is amazing and we did not have issues with that. We loved Vanessa, Santiago, Max and Lino. They really made the trip fun for us!

We chose to spend our 10 year wedding anniversary in Mexico, since that was where we went for our honeymoon.

Our main problem with this resort was that the beaches are a no go. We were not able to do any water activities or get in the water. Which is something we love doing and excellence normally offers so much for water stuff. However, the seaweed was so bad that the water and the beach looked like mud and the smell was worse. I didnt even want to sit down by the beach.

We were not warned about this issue prior and I think its awful that the resort doesn't offer a warning. To be clear, after talking to the locals this is not a monthly come and go thing. The seaweed is there all the time now and it is not a manageable thing from what the locals are saying. If you want to spend time in the water and beach this is not the resort for you. We understood it's not anyone's fault, we just wish we knew ahead of time becuase we would have picked a different excellence resort in a different place. The picture attached is after they cleaned the beach the best they could.

It is a good resort of you are okay with going to the pool, bars, and dinner and doing activities that the resorts offer that are dry.

Also know that the smell while outside can be awful from the seaweed basically at all times especially when the wind is blowing.

The rooms were clean and we enjoyed where our room was.

The main other problem that we want everyone to know about was how extremely slippery the entire resort was. My husband slipped going into the pool and busted up his arm and I slipped twice in my room, thankfully I didn't fall. We saw several others slip as well.

The hot tubs were never hot and some were not working. While at the main pool, they were chipping paint in the pool and allowing it to stay there while we were in it.

The shows were good and the drinks were fun. Overall this was not the best excellence I have been too, however, we met several couples that love the resort becuase they like the pools bars and food.

Everything is what you make of it, and we still had fun, ate good, enjoyed each other, and made the best of what the resort could offer, but sadly we won't be back to Mexico or this resort.

Overall great experience. Great service, amenities, cleanliness. The only feedback is like most all inclusive the food starts to all taste the same. They could invest in a better menu.