Grand Palladium Kantenah Resort & Spa

I booked this trip for Spring Break 2020, based on the ratings and reviews. Let me add my 2 cents. First of all, the resort is very large. Plan on doing LOTS of walking. I knew this going in, but what I did not appreciate were all of the cats on the property! My daughter is severely allergic, and if I had read one review mentioning all the cats, we would never have stayed here. Thank goodness we had brought her epipens! Some other things to note: 1. The property needs more signage and clarification to get where you want to go. It all can get pretty confusing. 2. Our 2 rooms were on the 3rd floor. There are NO elevators on the Kantenah property, so be aware of that if you don't want to walk up and down stairs. 3. The electricity would randomly turn off in our rooms. We guessed there must be a timer or motion sensor?? Never could figure that one out. 4. The resort has a wonderful photo lab on site. Unfortunately, we had no knowledge of it until our last night there. It would have been great to get some family portraits on the beach! No one really explains all the available amenities to you. You have to investigate and figure them out for yourselves. 6. The staff are very kind when you need to request something. 7. The "trains" that run "every 10 minutes"??? Not so much! We were lucky to see one every 15 minutes and unless you threw your body in front of it, the driver would drive right by you without a glance. Maybe the resort could put up some dedicated train stops where people have a good chance of actually getting picked up. 8. The mini-golf course is terrible! Basically the same hole repeated 18 times. It was challenging for my 3 teens who regularly golf, can't imagine a younger child not getting incredibly frustrated. Needs to be redesigned and redone to modernize it and make it more family friendly. 9. The food was interesting. Our family is not used to seeing a lot of foreign food, so a majority of the dishes offered on the buffet were not appealing to us personally, but the food always looked well prepared and there was plenty of it! 10. The teen activity center, the Black and White Club, was empty every time my kids ventured there. "Pretty lame" was their opinion. This feature was a big selling point for this resort when I booked, so pretty disappointing!

Resort is big and beautifull - very clean - most frendly personel- service is great - rooms/bathroom is a little bit old. Restaurants are very gold. Roomservice and the food grom here were outstanding of quality and taste.

Returned from 2 weeks away, chosen because my 24 year old daughter who travelled with us had previously been to the Grand Palladium in Jamaica. We travelled as a 3 and stayed in the same room. Standard rooms just as pictures, ours had 2 double beds. However, the room was only set for 2 and took several phone calls to housekeeping and visits to get the required extra cups, glasses towels etc. Have to say the service levels here are disappointing in all areas, especially service in the restaurants. Beds comfy enough, pillows bulky. We were on middle floor. One thing that would really help for better nights sleep would be to NOT put families on the top floor.... I appreciate kids make noise but the running around does not help for a morning lie in. Rooms quite dark, badly placed lights , may be because we were on middle floor and we were positioned right by trees. Shampoo conditioner and body lotion freely provided.. towels old and hard. Bath and shower fine with plenty of hot water. What wasn’t proVided were dressing gowns, slippers or umbrellas which have always been available in other hotels of this level. Iron and ironing board in room. Blankets provided and air con worked fine. Plenty of detail in other reviews regarding beach.... don’t forget beach shoes as rocks and old coral are sharp. We took snorkelling masks but in all honesty, not needed at beach as not enough fish to warrant weight in suitcase. My advice would be to eat and use facility at the White Sands. Pool better and quieter, and also buffet far superior in quality of food, service and airiness. We always select hotels on activities provided, and these were disappointing. Archery and shooting was a long wait for a couple of goes. Aqua wasn’t very inspired but better at white sands. Cooking lesson was making guacamole. So there in principle but the reality wasn’t great. If you go to playa del carmen, take a shuttle bus as at 50 pesos each way - half hour ride- compared to return taxi trip of 1150 for up to 4 people when booked at lobby. If buying cigarettes, do it in town as although price is very slightly cheaper than airport, the selection is much wider. And of course town is much better value than shopping in hotel.. For the number of staff employed here, it wasn’t in best condition, and gardens could do with much more attention especially removing yellow and old branches off trees. Only other thing I would mention is that the American and Canadians far out number everyone else, and they are LOUD. And usually come with a boom box. On several days they took over large areas of the pools, and even when we asked the lifeguard to ask them to turn the music down, he laughed and joined in. They took over the pool bars and when we asked to have a drink they had been served as we had never heard of it, we were told no. ....... shame when you were having a nice relax. Restaurant's..... ate in all except Poseidon which was on a windy beach and strong smell of seaweed. Italian super, Lolas tapas very enjoyable, el dorado steak disappointing as 2 of the 3 were very under cooked so sent back so I ate alone. Mexican AWFUL so give this a miss as you can get everything in main buffet. Thai nice taste but cold. Tepanaki also very disappointing. Went here for birthday. But in all restaurants after an initial wait of anything between 10 mins to an hour, service was dire with no exception. And be prepared for waiters to push expensive wine at every mealtime but house does the job fine. So would I recommend. Although we had a relaxed and pleasant holiday, no I wouldn’t.