Grand Sunset Princess All Suites & Spa Resort - AIl Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

13210 reviews

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  My daughter's birthday vacation trip March 2025

  This was my 14th visit to this resort since 2020. As always, the staff was friendly and helpful whenever I had a question. All the ala carte restaurants are overseen by Enrique. Enrique's attention to details and the quality of the food that comes out of the 5 separate kitchens is spot on. The kitchen staff along with the wait staff and all of the other people that work in the restaurants do a wonderful job. They make sure that you feel at home and that your meal is the way that you wanted it. At my daughter's birthday dinner, the staff brought a small cake and sang happy birthday at the table. I found this to be an especially nice touch. All of the staff that I encounter were friendly and very pleasant. Since I have been to this resort so many times, I know many of the staff. For me it is like coming home to family on each visit. The showers are hot, the rooms are clean, and the beds are comfortable.

  Apr 02, 2025
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  First trip to Mexico ever, and first trip to this hotel....

  We have recently come back from a fab 10-day holiday to this hotel, and our first ever visit to Mexico from the UK. I was initially anxious about staying in such a big hotel, but the wonderful layout and look of this hotel is amazing and beautiful (no accommodation block is higher than 3 storeys in amongst tropical gardens): you feel like you are not surrounded constantly by lots of people, but enough not to make it interesting to people-watch lol. We loved the wildlife – an endless supply of coatis which are fab, cute, funny creatures I have never seen before, parrots, capybara, deer – and thankfully not one big ugly insect lol. The Plaza area is great with shops and entertainment. The walk through the complex – the Walk of the Gods – is truly amazing and breath-taking and quite enjoyable once you get used to the length of it lol. ACCOMMODATION: Our room was amazingly big (Junior Suite Deluxe Room 6131 - fab quite block) with an amazing bathroom (I love the toilet and showers being two separate rooms), and we loved the quietness but, for such a huge room, but there was no proper storage outside of the wardrobe, e.g. sets of drawers to put our clothes in. There is a small table and chairs and a sofa in the room which we had to use, as well as out closed suitcases, as places to empty our suitcases and put our clean but unworn clothes onto, so all our clothes were just placed around the room making it really scruffy looking and annoying….please get more sets of drawers put in the rooms. I had issues trying to plug in hair straighteners, other electrical appliances, and even the kettle and coffee machine behind the TV as the furniture that the TV is sitting in is right in front of all electrical plugs – so every time I used the kettle, I had to keep walking around the room with a hot kettle trying to find a spare plug to plug it in – not good from a health and safety point of view. FOOD OPTIONS: You will never go hungry in this hotel……. the buffets are not something we have encountered in the UK (absolutely awesome), so they were interesting and exciting and had a huge amount of choice each day throughout each day – all fresh and regularly replenished. We did find, however and surprisingly, that a lot of the food did not really have much spice or taste that you would assume with Mexican food. We have eaten Mexican food here in the UK and its Spicy all the time! The food is definitely NOT 5*, more a 4*. There were ridiculous queueing systems which, without any notices of what you were queuing for, got confusing, caused arguments with people jumping queues without realising etc. You can end up queuing for the wrong thing, at the wrong end of a queue, etc – this needs to be sorted out with signage and a better system put in. SPECIALIST RESTAURANTS: we had difficulty for the first few days in the hotel in getting a table at any of these restaurants. The bookings are done on the app with only 2 days availability : I don’t think during the whole 10 days, we managed to actually get a table at the time we would have liked – we had to always make do with whatever was left for us to take. They have a ridiculous system too where you book a table for a time, go to the restaurant front desk, check in, and then are asked to wait anywhere between 5-15 minutes (even when you are there early or on time) for them to escort each party into the restaurant, only to find that there are lots of empty tables (which were not on the app as available) – weird, crap, inefficient system, as you can end up, like us, waiting in “reception” there with about 15 other people, all hot and bothered and waiting to sit at your allocated timeslot – this needs to be more streamlined and a better system put in especially if you wanting to have dinner before a show in the theatre or to watch the life act, and especially when this hotel is full to capacity with potentially 3,000 guests! ENTERTAINMENT: The entertainment on the whole was good and the theatre is great with amazing hotel dancers and entertainers putting on a show each night (they are pretty amazing), but we felt that the shows are more child-orientated and the theatre could be left open longer than 9.30 pm but with more adult-themed shows as the kids get lots of entertainment throughout the day and early evening anyway. The Michael Jackson evening was the best show of the whole holiday, so they should try and put on more tribute acts. What is the purpose of the silent disco – lots of adults looking stupid and better entertainment should be put on if you want this hotel to be a proper 5* (it is currently a very good 4*). There was a repeat of the same entertainment acts in the Plaza so, if like us staying for 10 or 14 days, you see the same ole acts twice during your holiday doing the same routine with the same songs too ! There is definitely NOT enough seating in the Plaza area for the nightly entertainment – it is such a big space with limited seating which needs to be increased with the potential 2,000 – 3,000 guests staying at this big hotel. POOLS & BEACH: The pools are awesome and great sizes for good quality swims. As usual, we would have had to go down to the pool at about 6.30/7.00 am to bag the chairs in the shade – so annoying – we could not be bothered to be pathetic and do this; we also had the same issue with the one time we went to the beach – no chairs available under any umbrellas at 9.00 am!! I feel very sorry for those with young children. We found the sea smelt of sewage which was off-putting. We also found the sea bed so rocky (big rocks and wood), that is was very hard getting into the sea and getting out of the sea without my partner lifting me out. Something needs to be done about that before an accident happens. I would not rate this hotel as a 5 star, but a very good 4* for sure. I would recommend this hotel and hope to be back in the future.

  Apr 02, 2025
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  Es un hotel fabuloso, comida deliciosa y servicios magníficos, he ido 2 veces y las 2 veces han sido estupendas

  El hotel es fabuloso, las instalaciones son muy bonitas y los servicios son muy buenos, la comida es muy rica, y la playa está muy bonita, lo recomiendo totalmente, tiene muchas albercas y todas están muy padres, he ido 2 veces y las 2 veces me han gustado

  Mar 31, 2025
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  Excellent resort, had fun trip with family

  We had a most amazing family vacation at the Rivera Princess, Playa del Carmen. The facility is very beautiful and well maintained. The rooms were nice and clean and the beds comfortable. The resort is huge so get ready for a lot of walking through beautiful tree lined pathways. We enjoyed the walking as the weather in March was gorgeous – hot with cool breeze from the sea. The resort has multiple pools, most of them with there own swim up bars. The bars have a wide selection of cocktails to make everyone happy. I enjoyed beer while the missus loved mojitos and margaritas. The kids liked the non alcoholic mocktails and soft drinks. The staff is mostly very helpful and cheerful. There is no dearth of towels, there are places to get fresh towels for the beach and pools everywhere. The resort has its own private beach. It is small but beautiful, there was sea-weed on the beach but the resort cleans it up daily (no smell). We didn’t have an issue and enjoyed the beach. There are enough lounging chairs at the beach for everyone. There is a bar at the beach too that you can walk up to and get your drinks (no service to get you your drinks). If you intend to walk into the sea do get suitable sandals as the surface under water is slightly rocky. Food: We liked the buffets. The selection was amazing. Fresh fruits, salads, desserts were amazing. The main course selection was wide and diverse but usually so so. The meat was chewy and almost always overcooked (beef and pork). I liked the chicken and grilled fish. My wife is vegetarian and there was slim pickings for vegetarian main course. That having said there was good soup, salads, fruits, appys (onion rings, fries, grilled veggies) which were adequate. Restaurants: You can book dinner at multiple restaurants on site. You can only book for the 3rd day of your visit onwards. We liked the Italian restaurant, we had high hopes for the Mexican restaurant (Haciende) but were disappointed. We kinda liked the flexibility of the buffets and didn’t regularly go to the restaurants. The sports bar was nice with pool tables and snacks. Entertainment: This was the best part of our stay for us. The kids simply loved the shows which were very high quality. We met some of the dancers at the buffet (Joel the main dancer was so sweet). They had a different themed dance performance everyday at the theater and another event at the main plaza. While we were there the dance themes were – Pirates, Michael Jackson, Disco, Mexican ethnic dances, Neon dancers. The main plaza events were – fire performers, Tenor singers, Mariachi, Silent dance (whish was the best). There was also two quiz shows while we were there which the kids loved. The resort also has a lot of activities: pool tables (8 ball), tennis courts which offers beginners and advanced lessons, Beach volleyball, pickle ball, basketball, beach soccer, court soccer, archery etc. We used some of these facilities but it was a bit hot to be playing outside so didn’t use all of these. Some of these facilities were for platinum or 18+. We didn’t get the upgrade to platinum and didn’t really think we needed to. There were travel desks all around the resort but we stayed at the resort other than one day trip to Playa town. The resort does run a shuttle to the town ($5 per person one way). All in all we loved the resort. Thank you guys for making our vacation memorable.

  Mar 30, 2025
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  Good times over St Patricks Day

  I don't know what several of the negative reviews I read were talking about. About the only things that I could make up to complain about would be the buffet wasn't incredible but didn't care much as the drinks kept a flowing without being on an empty stomach. Enjoyed the steak house and Italian a la carte restaurants. And after a little too much to drink on St Paddy's Day your security staff were professional and helpful in getting me back to my room through the maze in the dark (which was still difficult to figure out while sober might I add) Did find it confusing when some folks and I had wandered a little too far and our wristbands were not eligible for the same drinking benefits across the resorts. Sports bar was cool too but missed having the casino to play in. But overall had a great time and enjoyed my week there

  Mar 29, 2025