BlueBay Grand Esmeralda

Neha Vinayak

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda was a great resort for us. The pool is huge and can accommodate everyone. The beach is a bit dirty but there is another beach nearby that is really nice. The buffet restaurants in this resort were not so good but the speciality restraints were amazing. There is lots of bars and also games like arcade games and pool tables in the black and white bar. A short walk away there is a really nice lagoon too. The room was spacious but the toilet got clogged once and we also didn’t get our room cleaned one day, but the beds were very comfortable. This resort is really big and golf carts do come by but you need to be slow to walk to get around. Also, the shows were absolutely stunning. Huge effort by the entertainment team. We saw a variety of shows like a magic show, a fire show, and a special Christmas show and parade. The entertainment crew also worked very hard at the pool and always had activities for guests. Overall this was an amazing resort and I would recommend it to other people.

Brendan Laing

I rarely leave reviews, but I’m sharing this in hopes of finally getting a response. Our stay was below expectations due to multiple issues, including mold in the showers, non-functioning shower water in two rooms, missing furniture, long lines for every meal, and limited dining options compared to similar resorts. While some staff members were kind and the food and entertainment were good, the overall experience felt disorganized and unhelpful. The reason for this review is a specific unresolved issue. My sister accidentally left her fanny pack at the resort just before we departed last week. We can track it and see that it is currently located in the hotel lobby. Despite this, we have been unable to retrieve it. We have called daily and are either disconnected, placed on hold and then hung up on, or not answered at all. We were provided an email address, but that has also gone unanswered. Language is not a barrier—we speak Spanish fluently. There has simply been no follow-through or effort to assist us in recovering an item that we know is on the property. We are not asking for anything unreasonable—only for the resort to respond and assist with returning the item. We would appreciate contact from management so this can be resolved promptly.

Karen Mariano

The resort is not a 5 star, let’s get that addressed right away. Having said that, the food exceeded our expectations when it came to the à la carte restaurants. The main buffet however is your standard all inclusive. Pros: The Good Kids Club is awesome, Pamela and Elizabeth made the everyday activities fun, educational and creative. Our daughter felt safe and comfortable that she went almost everyday to see Pamela and Elizabeth and spent the entire day with them. She didn’t want to leave Kids club, we had to beg her to spend the day with us because thats how much she loved Kids Club. I also want to thank Pablo at reception who was consistently very helpful and provided us with excellent information as well as service. He answered all our questions with a smile. This guy needs to be promoted because he is very competent. Service is amazing, ignore the reviews that if you don’t tip, you get no service because that is not true. I tested that theory the first day, we purposely did not tip and we got amazing service from Victor, Aurelio and Adriana from the buffet. Benjamin our server in the Steakhouse was outstanding too, we really enjoyed our meal and the 2018 French wine (extra charge). Our room (7329) was super clean, the maids work really hard. I give 5 stars the maids and the cleanliness. I reviewed the room below separately as it is not fair to review the condition of the room in the same bucket as the room service or cleanliness. The drinks and water was always refilled each day. The guys work really hard making sure there’s drinks everyday although our mini fridge is broken. LOL Cons: The Bad We stayed in building 7 room 7329. The room is in rough condition. The toilet seat is barely attached, the glass patio door’s rubber seal is coming off, the mini fridge is broken and doesn’t work at all, the shower glass door doesn’t close as it rubs on the floor. This is not a reflection on the maid service, our maid was great. There is no security guard in the beach area, our chair was stolen with our beach towel when we went to get a drink. Came back and saw the trail in the sand and we followed it. The couple who stole our chair said there was no towel on it. We called the lifeguard Alejandro who was super nice and he called Concierge (Alex) to come to the beach. Alex spoke to the Spanish couple and said that there is no evidence that they took our towel but I disagree, the fact that our towel was on the chair and they stole our chair plus there is the fresh trail on the sand that clearly stopped where they placed the chair makes them guilty. Alex from concierge said I needed to make a formal complaint to the lobby so we went. I filled out the paper which was a waste of time because they did nothing. He told me I have to pay for the towel. I can understand if I lost the towel due to neglect or but we went to get a drink for 5 minutes and when we came back our chair was gone with the towel and with a fresh trail. There should be a security guard in the beach area and if a guest’s towel is stolen and reported immediately, the guest should not be penalized because we didn’t lose it, it was stolen from us and Alex believed those thieves that they didn’t take our towel because they all spoke Spanish and he said there is no evidence. The fresh trail on the sand was not enough evidence to make them guilty? The least the hotel could have done is waived the fee for the towel but no, they told me we have to pay for it. The hotel is responsible for the guests safety and if we cannot even leave our towels unattended to get drinks then what do they expect us to do? The point is, there’s no security guard and NOT enough chairs to go around hence people are stealing chairs and removing towels. I hope those two Spanish couples who stole from us get what they deserve!!!! Take your own beach towel from home so you don’t need to use the hotel’s towel because towels get stolen not just from us but we’ve spoken to other guests and they had their towels stolen too.

Adam Flanders

I'll try to be fair, but this was far from my favourite all-inclusive resort. VERY rundown, ranging from the easy to fix (why is my toilet seat flaking? Just get a new one) to the difficult but important (it rained and the roof leaked into several hallways). Paint cracking everywhere. Old/musty everything. Smelly bathroom with broken/rust-stained sink. The best way I heard it described was like a hurricane hit the resort and they haven't fixed everything yet. The outdoor property is 'ok' only. The beach was very hit or miss. Full of seaweed on day 1, brown water with stinging creatures on days 2 and 7, better on days 4-5. Pool was good, especially if you have young kids, but was insanely loud at night so my mother-in-law couldn't sleep. The entire property (but especially certain pockets) smells like sewage. The food is meh. I would place it exactly in the middle of resorts I've gone to with one important note: 5 of 8 members of my family got diarrhea that could only have had its source in the resort. It ranged from 'tolerable' to 'had to stay in bed all day.' So really, no matter how the food tasted, it made most of us sick. Staff were also sort of unimpressive. Nice enough, but just generally unhelpful in the ways I've found other staff at other resorts helpful. We were assured (months before) that we'd have a crib in our room. Arrived and told they were all being used. No attempt at problem-solving was made, so we just had to manage.

Nadine Benny

Pros: very clean, nice pools, friendly service staff, food was decent, lots of fun animals roaming around. Short and convenient shuttle to Playa del Carmen (for extra $). Cons: aggressive upselling upon arrival. Beach is mediocre (though there is a beautiful lagoon area a 10-minute walk away), lots of inconveniences in the room, and seemed every washroom had 1 or 2 clogged toilets at any given time. Stayed for a week with 10 and 12 year old boys, they loved it. We ate only at the buffets except 1 dinner at Mexican à-la-carte - it was good but the food all kind of tasted the same so we opted to stick to the buffets. It was fine; the kids had burgers and fries available at every meal, breakfast buffet always had great fresh fruits. Self-serve bottled water refills at every bar were much appreciated. Wildlife was a big highlight: in addition to the numerous raccons, coatis, and cats, we got to see iguanas, monkeys, beautiful birds, and even an elusive lowland paca. Shows were hit or miss, but the magic show and fire show on the beach were excellent. The biggest con was the insanely aggressive upselling when we arrived. It was our first time in the area - already exiting the airport we were directed to a rep, allegedly about getting to our hotel, hut he just wasted our time with useless information and trying to sell excursions. So when we checked in and were asked to sit with a hotel manager to look at the map and get information, we were extremely annoyed when this quickly turned into an insistent invitation to a 90-minute welcome breakfast the next day to learn about their VIP membership. We had to get upset to get away from him, insisting we were not interested and insisting he not come to our room in the morning in case we might change our minds (!) He tried to get us to take a shuttle to our room even though we had very light luggage and repeated several times we preferred to walk to check out the grounds. Thankfully we were left alone after that but it left us with a sour taste about the place for the rest of the stay, which was really too bad. And to be clear, service staff (cleaning, bars, restaurants) were all very kind and helpful. There were several issues with our room (see notes) but not enough to make it unusable and therefore not enough for us to risk dealing with unpleasant management again. It is true that people reserve pool chairs very early, despite widespread signage that it is not allowed - we were there to rest and were perfectly happy laying our towels on the sand at the beach so that we could sleep in. The beach is definitely not as bad as some reviews described. I guess it depends on your references. We were there over Christmas holidays and the place was packed; given the amount of people, yes there was a wait to get drinks or special dishes at the buffet, but the resort managed things quite well. The NYE party at the beach was lots of fun. Overall it was a get-what-you-pay-for situation. It was not a premium hospitality experience, but it was a nice and relaxing affordable week away from the snow with our kids.