Barceló Maya Colonial - All Inclusive

Not perfect, but what is? Pretty dang great. This was a beautiful hotel. I saw some reviews stating that it was dated. I did not find it to be dated. It was lovely. Check in is a bit of a mess and not at all efficient. We brought our 3 adult children and a son-in-law. We had to check in each room seperately, which made the process take extremely long. And it also left my daughter and son in law having to pay for some fees that weren't collected at reservation (which is only 8.50USD, but we wanted to pay 100% of the trip). After waiting in line, the check in seemed to take about 30 minutes to check into 3 rooms. Exhausting after a long day of traveling!! We also requested that 1 room have 2 beds. My son and daughter were not thrilled with having a king bed to share and were pleased to find a sofa in the room. Snorkling is a blast, but an hour a day per room is not enough. We ended up purchasing our own stuff at the plaza. So if you are hoping to do lots of snorkling, make sure you bring your own stuff with you. Food is kind of meh. I'm not a great lover of buffets, and this was no exception. They did provide a lot of variety every night and everything was good (for a buffet). We went to the seafood (I forgot the name) and the sante fe steakhouse. The seafood a HUGE disappointment due to high expecations!! I mean, come on, landlocked Colorado should not have better seafood than a coastal resort!! The steakhouse was also not great. We only spent 2 full days at the resort, as we did 2 days of excursions away. Those 2 days were wonderful. Very relaxing, the beach is wonderful and not overly crowded because most of the guests are insane and more interested in the swimming pools! All in all, a great time. I would definitely consider this resort in the future, although I think I will try to find a place with better food which might not be all inclusive. For large families, this place is perfect. Luxury and excess while not being completely unaffordable.

Family Trip 2024 This was our second time to this Barcelo and we were not as impressed with the stay this time. The rooms in the Colonial our outdated. They are in dire need of repairs and updates. Our key card didn't work half the time. The knobs and hinges were all loose on the cabinets. The beds were broke down and we rolled to the middle. We could never get the room AC regulated so it was always muggy and damp. One of our rooms flooded from the plumbing under the sink. It flooded the entire room and soaked everything we had on the floor. The telephones didn't work half the time and one had a speaker phone that would turn on loudly in the middle of the night so we unplugged it. There are hardly any plugs to use to charge devices. It would be nice to see more access to plugs or plugs with usb ports. I will say we still enjoyed the food, pool, beach, activities, entertainment and spa. I would like to see some major updates to the rooms soon.

Good resort, poor pool service and drink options Overall, the pools were very hot and we expected that since it was august. The pools were enormous, lots of room to play around. The Bars were conveniently located, but the pool bars had terrible service, and very minimal drink options. We paid money for the premium, and because we didn't use the spot or room service, we thought the premium would get us better drinks, but we would have to show our bracelets every time and it would be a hit or miss if the bartender would on our request to get top shelf liquor. And to be honest, I think everyone got the same liquor. I don't feel we received anything better so I would not go for the premium unless you have to use the spot every day and you feel you will be using room service a lot. We had teens with us, ages 13, 14, 15 and 16. The ocean was amazing, lots of snorkeling, but I would suggest to bring your own snorkeling equipment because they're snorkeling equipment could only be rented 1 hour per day for free. Great snorkeling on both sides, near the palace and near the pier. We saw turtles, and a lot of variety of fish. The pool water was just as warm as the ocean, overall I would say the pool was pretty clean, except had some sand in it which is to be expected. Maintenance was horrific, if you have anything to be fixed, forget about it. You will not get it fixed. That part was very unfortunate, so if you get a room make sure the air conditioning works, make sure the safe works, make sure the water pressure is good. I will say when we called for extra sheets they did come quickly, when we called for extra Waters they did come quickly. Waters were available everywhere, none of us got sick, the food was decent but if you have any type of allergy, I would not pick this resort. I asked for gluten-free options, and it was very hard to come by. Very little selection and the waiters often looked at me funny. As for the drinks, the kids were definitely not as happy as other resorts. Limited options with what you can get, it was essentially virgin strawberry daiquiris, Pina coladas, hurricanes, Shirley temples and virgin mudslides. Wasted at the Barcelo colonial, and there was one air conditioned Lobby Lounge that we sat in at play cards at night, otherwise you would have to be outdoors and it is pretty hot in august. Men must wear pants to dinner which the guys we are with were not thrilled about because it was so hot even with the air conditioning at times. We got a decent deal on the resort, but will not be back

Worst Resort Experience Ever Nothing good to say about this place. I spend half my vacation walking from my room to the lobby and back getting the key card re-keyed because it would stop working 9-12 times a day. The staff is very very unfriendly, the food is not good at the buffets, I asked to speak to a manager multiple times, promised they would call me, and never heard back. Please do not take your family here.

Barcelo Maya Our main attraction was the water park. Unfortunatly it was closed during our whole stay. which was very dissapointing.