Ocean Coral & Turquesa El Beso, Riviera Maya

Second time here. we again chose the privilege option, we just enjoy someone looking after our needs with nothing to do but enjoy and relax. check in was quick and easy. the bell boy delivered us and our luggage to our room. shortly after our butler Alberto arrived and discussed our needs and booked all of our dinners for the week. He checked in with us regularly to be sure we had everything we needed. We would highly recommend requesting him! Our pool side care givers, Claudia and Enrique, were fun and always helpful, making sure we had shade, full ice buckets and fresh towels. Wilbur, the bistro bartender makes the BEST ceasars in Mexico. The food was always great and the portions on the larger size. all in all a great stay

Jose at the Chill Pool is fantastic! Got us chairs, towels and catered to us. We come here often and always enjoy ourselves. Also shout out to Enrique and Angeles were awesome

We visited this resort in Dec 2018 and enjoyed ourselves, so thought of returning anddid so Dec 2025.The Reason for our return is the resort is not far from the Cancun airport, about a 1/2 hour drive and overall we had a positive experience. Transfer: We flew with Air Transat and the transferfrom airport to resort went smoothly aside from a couple of people that were "no shows" for the shuttle. So, the driver waited quite some time and finally decided to leave without them. The drive time is very reasonable. Check in: We arrived by noon and the check in went quickly. Check in time is 3:00 pm and therefore our room wasn't available until that time. The wristband provided is your key to the room. At this point, you can download the App so ala carte meals can be reserved. When reserving ala cartes, log onto the app before 10 AM and haveyourrestaurant picked out; sometimes you may be able to get your reservation slightly before 10, but by 10 AM the app is active. I believe Privilege guests may have some "perks" with arranging ala cartes ahead of time...I don't know too much about that. Room: Our room was a Daisy Junior Suite Garden View. This is basically on the family side. We were building 15000. We found the location easily accessible to everything. We were on the ground floor and I was happy to see that a proper working lock was on the patio door. Our room had a humidifier, which we turned on a few times and it filled with water quickly. The thermostat for some reason was a bit "wonky" as the first night the temperature dropped to 16 degrees when it was set at 22. We spoke to someone at the front desk in the morning and the thermostat issue was quickly resolved and staff brought an extra blanket that morning. We were typically out of the room by 8 AM and our room was cleaned by 10 AM. So, a very positive review on service. Loungers/Towels: We had no issues getting a lounger, even by 8 AM and there would still be quite a few left. We did not reserve our spot for hours on end without showing up, although there are guests that do this. Typically, we only left our towel while we went for a bite to eat and come back. I did not see any signage stating that reserving lounges wasn't allowed, but it's common senseto be respectful of other guests. However, there was signage stating that smoking/vaping is not permitted. Generally, guests would either smoke at the beach, outside of the front lobby or somewhere more secluded. There are no towel cards, you simply provide your room number when getting a towel and return it by 4:30 PM and if you want a fresh one for the next day. There are 2 shacks to pick up towels between the pools and beach. Pool/Beach: There are 4 pools. There's a kids pirate theme pool that offers a snack bar, bar and kiddy lounge chairs. There's a family pool that is central to bar/restaurants and caters to kids and family; shallow with a deeper end. This area tends to be quieter. Then there's the activity pool, which is geared for fun activity, a foam party, swim up bar and it does tend to be louder with music playing. In the El Beso Adult section, there's an adult pool. No children allowed to my knowledge. The pools I believe are not chlorinated, but salt and are very clean. Some spots are showing their age and small tiles are missing. The beach was cleaned regularly with only a little sargassum washing up to shore. Grounds: The grounds are impeccably maintained. Maintenance crews are out cutting grass, pruning shrubs and cutting down palm leaves/coconuts, picking up garbage, sweeping the grounds around the pool. Bar staff are always picking up empty cups. That said, bar staff do come around for drink orders. There's plenty of wildlife, coatis, iguanas, agoutis, raccoons, lizards, and off behind the buildings there's a fenced area with crocodiles. Plenty of pelicansflying overhead. Restaurants/Bars/Service: There are several restaurants, however, we only went to a few. I want to stressthat IMO, the service in the restaurants we visited was fantastic. The Buffet offers a nice variety of food, but sometimes "hit and miss" depending on your likes and dislikes. One night the roast beef was amazing with the mashed potatoes, etc. and another night the roast beef was really tough. Route 66 is great for a fast food dinner, but again "hit and miss" on meat. We went to the Italian restaurant Ritratto d'Italia 3 times, and each time were pleasantly surprised. Some reviewers have mentioned that the staff is pushy with the wine list, but we didn't find this. We just ordered the house wine. There is also the Blue Moon, Sensai (Japanese), Villa Marina and another Italian (outdoor) restaurant. There's another restaurant for Privilege guests (signage stated only for 14+ and adults). There are bars close to everything and they all offer good service and drinks. The Lobby Bar makes a very decent Caesar. Near the family pool there's the Fresca Bar which offers refreshing smoothies and next to it is an Ice Cream Parlour which is open from 3 PM to 9 PM. Entertainment: The entertainment stage is outdoors. Pre COVID there was a theatre building. As we're not really "nighthawks", we only saw 3 shows all of which were very professionally done. There was no "pre kids show" with musicalchairs, fine by me. The Michael Jackson show, which I thought I'd seen a lifetime of, was very well done. The one thing that we missed was the Lobby Lounge entertainment. They used to have someone playing the baby grand piano with someone singing along. Now the piano sits in the middle of the lobby with no one ever playing it,such a waste. On our last evening, there was a group of school children singing Christmas songs and entertainers dancing. The lobby was beautifully decorated for the season as well. In conclusion, I'd recommend this resort to solos, couples or families. It's a solid value for your money kind of resort.

This was our first stay at the El Beso adults section Ocean Coral. First impression of the resortits nice. The resort is big but not overwhelming. All the restaurants and buffet are centrally located and the walk from our room (el beso adult section) was no more than a couple minutes. Check in was made quick and easy by the staff. . I have to say that the entire resort employs fantastic people. You have 3 pools plus a kids pool and the beach is easily accessible. The sand is soft and walkable in either direction..although heading south towards Puerto Morelos is more scenic. The only downside is the water isnt clear blue like the Playa del Carmen area. The water was dark and murky which wasnt as inviting as previous trips further down the coast. Lets talk about the important stuff. . The food was good but the Buffet was the same pretty much every time we ate there. There was only one station making Mexican dishes, which would only be one type of dish for that day/night. The bad news about the la carte restaurants .is the reservation process. Good luck booking a time. Their booking system is terrible. At 10:00am sharp you go online and pick a restaurant you want (day of only). The time slots appear which are limited and you pick it and wait to see if it gets approved. If you wait 2 minutes past the hour then you will probably see 5:00pm or 9:00pm to choose. Any time we ate at a restaurant there were plenty of empty tables but Im guessing, not enough staff to allow for more reservations. The servers are some of the best Ive encountered in all the trips over decades. The adults only section is nice. The pool is a decent size, with a restaurant just steps away. There isnt a swim up bar but the restaurant has an area to get drinks. Theres only one waiter covering the beach and poolside, so sometimes you may wait for a drink. . His name is Ricardo and Ive never seen an individual hustle so hard, all day. Sun loungers are limited at this pool, so I advise you to wake up early. By 6:00-6:30am most of them are claimed with towels. I was down at 5:45am a few days and more than half of the loungers were taken. . Crazy right? This Hotel is clean and well maintained but would I stay again? Not anytime soon. I believe its rated a 4.5/5 star resort but I wouldnt go over a 4. One thing I can say is that the staff are exceptionally friendly and welcoming. If the price is right, you wont be disappointed.