Sea Garden – Mayan \ Vida Resorts

The Mayan Palace is very nice. On the good side the grounds are beautiful and the staff is kind and professional. The restaurants are good and prices are fair. The beach can be rough but looks sweet. On the down side, like most other Vida properties, the room Wi-​Fi is overpriced and barely works, while the beds are hard.

At the time of my visit, I had been a member of Mayan /​Vida for almost ten years. I purchased in Cancun but had never visited a resort property since then because I have mostly traveled in the US (trading with RCI and SFX) or by cruise ship since my purchase. I was really looking forward to staying at the resort and had really high expectations. The problems started with me being told over the phone that I would have a ocean view room after explaining that this trip was a special occasion for me and my wife — our 25^th wedding anniversary.
I later learned that the person on the phone should not have stated that because room requests are not guaranteed. According to what I was told at the resort, rooms are filled upon arrival and are solely based on availability. Customer service stated that it doesn’t matter whether you are a member, nor does it matter what level of membership you have. No rooms are reserved during booking. I was told that no room request will ever be guaranteed until you show up at the resort to check in. I guess it was foolish of me to think that membership has its privileges. After a couple of days of requesting, an ocean view room became available and we were moved. I am grateful for that, however I’ll never forget that disappointed feeling I had from having been misinformed.
So what was good about the resort? Although I had bad encounters with the staff, they were very pleasant and attentive. The rooms were very clean and decorated nicely. They seemed smaller than the rooms we initially saw in Cancun, but they were still very nice. The A/​C is quiet and very efficient. The kitchen has everything you’ll need to cook with except food. The refrigerator is not full-​sized but large enough to store food for a few small meals leftovers and ice. Ice has to be retrieved from another building near the little convenience store but no big deal. By the way, the store is very small but has enough to get you by in a pinch. We went to Walmart for things like steaks, veggies and large quantities of alcohol, but I digress. The showers are large with adequate temperature and pressure (except for that one day, but I’ll get to that later). They supply Bio soaps and body wash which I really grew to love. At first I thought the minty feel of the soap was too strong, but it’s actually very refreshing. Nice touch. When I was in the room (ocean view or not) I felt at home rather than at a hotel. This was a promise kept. It was extremely quiet and relaxing for me. I tipped the housekeepers and bellboys very nicely for their service and attitudes.