The Barcelo Maya is a massive hotel on a stunning beach with great snorkeling and water sports, various water slides and swim up bars, huge pool areas and six hotels. We stayed at the Colonial although we booked at the Tropical and nobody explained that to us, a bit confusing.
First off, although it’s an all inclusive, there are many things you have to pay for. Minigolf, bowling, go carts, waterpark etc are all not included but pretty expensive. A bit disappointing.
Second, it was impossible to get a booking in any of the specialty restaurants so we are at the buffet every dinner which was a bit repetitive and mediocre. Drinks were weak and watered down.
Third, although there are a lot of water sport options, they require to stand in line for an hour or more to sign up in the morning and then sometimes the conditions are not suitable when the time comes.
We still had a wonderful time because we brought our own snorkel gear which we used daily for snorkeling around the beach area. We also walked over to the Cenote Azul which was magical. The staff were civil at best but not very friendly. A notable exception was Darinel our bar tender in the show bar who was very friendly and amazing. He made up for the unhelpful reception staff who didn’t explain anything to us upon check in and gave us a QR code which only showed a property map.
Overall, the stay was fine but not as excellent as we had expected.