The hotel was absolutely beutiful as well as the beach. The food was excellent but the customer service was awful. We checked into a room with no AC and got a hard time exchanging it. Then my wife gets her Versace glasses stolen from our room. The manager never accomodated us in any way other than "sorry". By the way the beach is topless and we did not know that until we got to the beach.

We just returned late last night from a wonderful week at the Macao Palace......all positive reviews are absolutely on point..the beach is by far the most beautiful beach we have ever been on...and we have travelled to most of the caribbean islands as well as hawaii.

The property is beautiful; the grounds are very well maintained. We upgraded to a ground floor suite (we were only charged $25/night extra so it was a "no brainer" to do the upgrade). Our room had a living room and dining area with a balcony with a step up bedroom with a large bathroom and another balcony overlooking the pool with a limited ocean view.

We knew from reading the reviews to stick to the buffet for dinner; we were not disappointed. The service was impeccable; the staff is constantly clearing your plate or bringing you a beverage....the food trays are replenished regularly so that at no time did we see an empty platter. While it is not gourmet cuisine by any stretch of the imagination, we were always able to find something we enjoyed. We did not find the food to be underseasoned at all....there was always a few fish, meat or chicken choices as well as countless salad and vegetable choices...in addition make your own pasta was available nightly. I don't remember seeing anyone mention the freshly made donuts every morning at breakfast...delicious!! We usually ate lunch at the poolside buffet...again, always pizza, burgers, dogs and pasta available as well as salads, fruit and dessert. there were daily special entrees as well. one day they made poolside paella, which was delicious, accompanied by sangria, requila sunrises and rum in fresh coconuts. The one thing you need to know is that the food is geared to european palates. there were a lot of "strange" looking dishes that we are not used to seeing, but they were very good...just have an open mind and you won't be disappointed.

I cannot honestly understand how anyone could be disappointed with this hotel. I guess if you are dead set on looking for things to criticize, then you are always going to find something to complain about; however, in all honesty we were so pleased that we are definitely planning on returning soon.

Let me start by saying that I love to travel and I am very particular about the hotels I stay in. This hotel happens to be one of my favorites out of many. The rooms were nice a but I was only in the room for about 2 hours out the day anyway. The bathroom's were nice tight tub but it was managable and I love the stocked fridge. I didn't get into the pool not one time I am a beach person. The water, the beach were perfect. The food was pretty good I enjoyed the variety. Stick to the buffets at night you get more choices than going to the a la carte restaurants. Once we made reservations for Kabuki the Japanese restaurants and they told us that they get the food from the buffet so we cancelled. The hotel staff was pretty nice, although the day before we checked out the front desk called to see if we needed anything and we were there for almost a week. The drinks were not the best I must say. We walked to Carribbean street and brought the kind of alcohol that were drink here in the states. Nice entertainment, very small casino I don't think they have air contioning in there either it got really hot at times especially at night. We booked through Apple Vacations and the Rep Lisa was so nice she helped us get cash instead of going to the ATM which is far away, she helped us with the excursions which were awesome Saona Island it's an all day thing but it was so much fun. Also, try the party boat Kontiki the guys on the boat really know how to party. One thing that we frowned upon "No jetskis". I wanted to die. I love to jetski and there were none on the beach front. The trip itself was great access to all pools and restaurants in the RIU resorts except RIU Punta Cana which was alright. We walked the whole lenght of the beach to the flea market and let me tell you it is about a good 20 to 30 minute walk in the heat I do not recommend it. Overall, the RIU Macao happens to be one of the better hotels in that area. I will definently return.

We were supposed to be headed to Cancun (Riu Cancun) on Aug 20, but with Hurricane Dean on the way and a very small window of possible travel dates, we rebooked at the last minute at Riu Palace Macao. Let me say at the outset that the vacation allowed me to accomplish what I wanted to achieve - a week away from a very stress-filled work environment and the opportunity for my family to spend a week together before our oldest left for college. That being said, while we loved the absolutely gorgeous beach and grounds, we were not totally pleased with the property.
We had booked the lowest priced rooms ("garden view"), and after a real "dog and pony show," were given complimentary upgrades. While we really did appreciate this, after a day of travel, it would have been nicer just to have been given the pool-view rooms at the outset, instead of being paraded to several rooms and being asked how much we would be willing to pay for the "deluxe" rooms. At any rate, the upgrades WERE appreciated.
The rooms, while a bit dated in decor, were nonetheless very nice and spacious - no complaints whatsoever (well...except the door on the minibar in our sons' room falling off due to rust!!).
Here are the positives of our stay:
1 - beach - absolutely gorgeous - as nice as any we have been to. The water was absolutely crystal clear and debris free.
2 - Staff. I cannot say enough about the staff - everybody from the front desk personnel to the pool attendants. All of them seem to "get it" - tourism is their only industry and we were unfailingly and enthusiastically polite and helpful. My wife and I have stayed at very high end all-inclusives (Royal Hideaway, Secrets Capri) and have not been treated any nicer. The "animacion" staff (entertainment staff) worked like crazy - seemingly 24 hrs a day - to keep things interesting!
Unfortunately, for us, the negatives outweighed the positives:
1 - Food - really unappealing. While we are unabashedly "foodies," we have also done a lot of traveling to places that are not known for fine cuisine, including a number of cruises, and I can state, unequivocally, that we found the food to be the least appetizing of any place we have been. The buffets, while certainly lavish in assortment and quantity, were unfailingly repetitive and bland. Virtually all of the meats and fish dishes were very overcooked and underseasoned. Pastas were generally the highlights, but how often could you really eat a dish of pasta - certainly not twice a day, every day! BTW....we heard similar comments about the food from a significant number of guests.
We were very surprised by the lack of any variety of lettuce for salads and the complete absence of fresh fruit juices. All of the juices we had were very, very sweet and artificial tasting. The sit down restaurants were, at best, okay, but still nothing to rave about - very limited menus with little opportunity for substitutions.
2 - Lack of air conditioning. As is the case with many hotels in "the tropics," a lot of the public spaces are open-air and lack air conditioning. Here, the ONLY air conditioned public spaces were the main buffet restaurant, the Japanese restaurant, and the La Boheme room (where the shows were presented). Dining at the three other "sit-down" restaurants was HOT, as well as the main lobby bar. Remember, this WAS the end of August, and even at night, the temperatures were in the high 80's.
3 -Gym -Truly a major disappointment. Located in a couple of open-air buildings on Caribbean St., there was some very antiquated equipment in another non-airconditioned facility. A huge disappointment for a "Palace" level resort.

Another thing to note. While we were there, North Americans represented only about 20% of the guests, with the majority coming from Spain, UK, and Germany. For us, that was certainly not a problem, but I make note of this only to state that if you are an American or Canadian traveler that enjoys vacationing with fellow countrymen (or those for whom English is their "first" language), this is not the place for you.

So, in the end, the trip accomplished for us what we sought, especially given the difficult conditions we had to deal with at the last minute. Would we return? Probably not, as the deficiencies noted above really did detract from the overall experience.