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excellence playa mujeres vs excellence riveria cancun vs royal riveria maya
hi!
So I am stuck. My DH and I are planning our 1 year anniversary trip. We went to Playa del carmen for our honeymoon and stayed at Secrets Maroma. We really loved it, and so we want to go back to mexico (its hte most affordable at that time of year, though we looked into jamica and the DR at that time and puerto rico--RM seems to give us the most bang for our buck) we are trying to stay under $2500 (originalyl 2k but that didint seem doable).
Our travel agenct suggested teh Royal and it has GREAT reviews, but you have to wear bracelets, and i don't think the rooms compare the secrets.
my coworker went to Secrets last month and didn't like it at all she said it didn't compare to Excellence playa mujeres. To be honest the excellence looks amazing there and it has great reviews ,but some people said the beaches aren't that great. She told me she felt it was the same as Maroma (I tend to disagree but I havent seen both)
I emailed my agent and she said the excellence riveria cancun is the way to go if I want to do an excellence that its a lot "nicer" than playa mujeres. She said the beach is so much nicer.
She keeps pushing the Royal because its through liberty and they are a my time property, but i don't want to go there just because of that.
Also, Royal is in teh center of Playa del carmen, so we could walk into town... but I am not sure that is of interest to us, we only want to go for 5 nights, and day 1 is basically a wash because we get in at 1...
so I want to spend the rest of my 4 days, on the beach with a drink in my hand.
Has anyone been to any of these properties? Or multiple and can tell me what they prefer?
Re: excellence playa mujeres vs excellence riveria cancun vs royal riveria maya
You're talking about The Royal Playa del Carmen, right?
I've been to The Royal Cancun, Excellence Playa Mujeres, and The Royal Playa del Carmen.
I would NOT recommend The Royal PDC compared to the other two. Having been to They Royal Cancun, I had high expectations, but RPDC can't hold a candle to TRC. I was really disappointed with RPDC - lots of spotty service issues, food and beverage were not up to par, beach wasn't great...it was a huge letdown. The only saving grace for me was its proximity to downtown PDC, which isn't something you're interested in anyway.
That said, H and I just spent a week at EPM over New Years. It's also a My Time Property (I know because I work for an agency and have booked this for multiple clients) so that shouldn't make a difference. As much as we loved The Royal Cancun, H and I slightly preferred EPM.
The rooms at EPM are huge and the balconies, jetted tub, and bathroom are all lovely. Food is very good for an AI. Pool area is very nice, as is the beach, though there is some sea grass that you just have to live with. Water is more the color of PDC - various shades of blue, as compared to the turquoise of Cancun. Service was excellent.
The only thing we really liked more about The Royal Cancun was that all rooms have excellent ocean views. We loved falling asleep to the sounds of the waves. IMO, Excellence Club isn't worth it at either ERC or EPM - the oceanfront rooms aren't really oceanfront, as the buildings are set back from the beach. Unless you want upgraded alcohol, I can't really advocate for EC. Service is good regardless and we found the drinks to be good for an all-inclusive - definitely strong. We didn't love the martini bar at EPM, as I felt like the martinis weren't the "real thing" like we would get at home, but I found drinks to be best at EPM as compared to The Royal Cancun and RPDC. I was NOT a fan of the drinks at RPDC at ALL.
I just posted my review on Trip Advisor yesterday for EPM, so it hasn't posted yet. If you want the link to my reviews for the other two, just let me know! I also have a photo share site with pics from EPM, though I didn't take too many. We just wanted to relax.
I didn't take any pictures at RPDC...I wasn't a fan and won't recommend it to friends or clients.
If you want to lay around with a drink in your hand for four days, EPM wins for me, hands down.
ETA - A few more comments:
EPM's beach doesn't compare to Maroma, period. However, having been to beaches all over the world, I wasn't disappointed by EPM's beach.
Between ERC and EPM, ERC will have a better beach, but EPM is nicer in all other areas. EPM will have a newer, more modern feel as compared to ERC.
PM me if you have any other questions!
thank you So much for this!! I am glad you posted this, I also found someone that did a comparison on tripadvisor.
The travel agent (liberty) is really pushing ERC on us, like so much and I want to be like "listen I really want to go to EPM" i think I overall prefer the "look" of the modern rooms etc at EPM.
Do you have a building preference at EPM.
A lot of people say building 7 if you aren't excellence club is great.
But some people say it is loud.
Also, do you think 5 nights is enough at EPM. I know its all relative to what you want to do but I do want to do isla mujeres one day-so I am not sure if tis is enough time to spend and get to do a lot of the restaurants etc.
But adding an additional day raises our price by about $500
You're welcome! Happy to help.
We stayed in building 7 and had requested 7 or 8. Our room faced Cafe Kafe where they had live music and the shows every night. Noise wasn't an issue for us, but it wasn't super peaceful and quiet. If you wanted to avoid the noise, I'd ask for a room facing The Beloved on a high floor. One thing I found - Excellence Resorts is very quick to respond to FB messages. If you send them a request for your stay, they will note it on your reservation.
As for number of days, 6 nights is my sweet spot. A week can sometimes be just outside of the budget we've set for a trip. I've found that our 5 night trips always seem to fly, but the 6 day are juuuuuuust right. We intended to go to Isla Mujeres one day, but we had such a great time relaxing by the pool with mojitos that we wound up skipping it! If you can fit it in your budget, I think you'd definitely enjoy the extra night. Not a must but really nice. With 6 nights, we didn't get to try all the restaurants, but we tried all the top ones on our list.
One thing I'd say - if you don't get a good vibe from your TA and you feel they're pushing you a certain way, try someone else! A good TA will work with you and what YOU want, not push a particular property on you with his/her own agenda. If you want to go EPM, you shouldn't have to worry about saying so! If it were me, I'd talk to another agent and/or try the Excellence website to see what it would cost to book directly with them.