Barcelo Maya Riviera: Planning
When I decided to book a resort for June this one didn’t even pop into my head. I hadn’t even researched it last time. Planet Hollywood and all of the other resorts I had considered previously, had significantly higher prices this time around.
Instead of just paying an inflated price, I decided to shop around. After doing quite a bit of research, I think I may have come out with an even better resort for the same price I paid for Planet Hollywood.
I booked Barcelo Maya Riviera which is on the Barcelo Maya Grand Resort. Barcelo Maya Riviera is only a year and a half old, having opened in December 2019. It is an adults only resort. But there are five other family friendly resorts on the property as well that we are going to check out.
If you are doing Matt Mitchem’s “Land Cruise” in August, the Riviera is where his luxury rooms are located. The regular rooms for that trip are the two neighboring resorts Beach and Caribe.
Barcelo consists of six resorts. (left to right) Riviera, Beach, Carib, Ocean, Colonial, and Palace. Anyone who books Beach, Carib, Ocean, or Colonial is able to access those four resorts. Anyone who books Palace is able to access those five resorts. Guests of the Riviera are able to access all six resorts.
Guests at the lower four resorts can pay $20 to eat at a Palace restaurant. Adults at the other five resorts can pay a $30 upcharge to eat at a Riviera restaurant.
I did enjoy my experience with the All-Inclusive Outlet booking last time so I stuck with them on this one. I upgraded to an ocean view room with a hot tub for an additional $292. The flight options weren’t ideal. The only option included in the price was a 6am Sun Country flight. I didn’t even know Sun Country was an airline. I thought it was the callsign of a character from the movie Top Gun. Apparently it is an airline. To get Spirit I would’ve had to pay an additional $175 for a 7am flight. The prices just went up from there.
This resort is 30 miles from the airport. Planet Hollywood was 12 miles which was a 30 minute ride. I’m expecting an hour or so ride to the resort and I don’t want to get in late where I lose the entire first day. I ended up booking the 6am Sun Country and I’m just going to have to be a super early riser on Sunday.
I do like the Sun Country upgrades. They appear to be very similar to those of Spirit Airlines. It was $24 each way to upgrade to an exit row aisle seat with extra leg room. Checking a bag was $35 each way. I was hoping they would have the $1 WiFi like Spirit does but it doesn’t look like they have any WiFi at all.
One of the nice things with All-Inclusive Outlet is they have cheap transportation add-ons. For $23 I was able to add my round trip airport transportation. That transportation is with Lomas which is the same company I had for my Planet Hollywood trip.
The Grand Resort area has a mall, a night club, a dolphin show, a casino, a bowling alley, and a thrill park. Each resort has it’s own entertainment so I’m expecting to be able to pick and choose the shows I want to see.
I have heard of people being able to snorkel with sea turtles early in the morning. I’m definitely going to be keeping my eye out for that. Across the street are several cenotes you can swim in. I plan on checking out at least one if not all of them.
I am definitely going to take advantage of only being 30 minutes from Tulum. I have been wanting to check out the Mayan ruins there for years but it’s always a long trip from Cozumel. North of Tulum is another set of Mayan ruins, Coba, which I never see offered as an excursion on cruise ships. This would be a great opportunity to take advantage of that. I would also like to check out Playa Del Carmen as well which is also 30 minutes away from the resort.
It should be fun. There’s definitely a lot going on in and around the resort. Stay tuned. I don’t think it will be boring.
Continue to Barcelo Maya Riviera: Travel Day
