Stayed June 27 through July 2, 2008.
We were married here on July 1 and had a wonderful wedding! I booked the wedding and communicated w/ the hotel online without any problems. We picked the middle wedding option because it fit our needs. Including us, there was only 13 in the wedding party, so we wanted a simple laid back (stress free) wedding. Our room was upgraded to a big wonderful suite and was very quite and odor free! It was located in the middle of the hotel and we thought we wouldn't like being on the first floor, but we loved it!
When we arrived on the afternoon of the 27, we made reservations for 11 the next night at the mexican restaurant (good) and for 13 the following night for the brazilian steak house (awesome). Both reservations at 6:30. No problem making reservations. Buffet had a huge selection and most of it was pretty good.
The day after we arrived we met w/ the wedding coordinator and finalized the details....everything went very smooth and we added a few extras. One extra we loved was live music by the trio! We were just going to use the recorded music but the trio played at our table the first night at the hotel and really enjoy the music! Wedding went smoothly but was very hot at 4pm on July 1. We hired the photographer for extra photos and he was wonderful, Carlos. We stayed at a different hotel for the honeymoon (The Royal) and Carlos brought the photos to us!
We had the reception dinner at Chilis and we were given our own personal dinning area, everyone seemed to really enjoy their meals! Overall, this was a perfect hotel for our wedding and all our guests seemed to really enjoy themselves. In fact, some are already talking about going back next year! Staff was friendly, food good, and great drinks!
***If you want to go out for an awesome dinner, try Hotel Fusion! You sit at small tables on the beach and enjoy good food and cold beer! So good, we went back to back nights!
The only bad part of the vacation was that one of our guests stepped on some type of critter in the ocean and his foot was swollen for about 24 hours.
My other advice is that once you book the trip, stop reading reviews because the good ones make you feel good, the bad ones will add unnecessary stress to your vacation!
You will not go wrong w/ this hotel.

We stayed at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya from June 27-July 5, 2008. The food was outstanding in the buffet area and in the restaurants. All meals were well done with many choices! Breakfast offered eggs 3 ways, omelets, waffles, pancakes, muffins, rolls, toast and cereals. They also had the European cold meat and cheese choices. Fresh juice and fruit were plentiful! The evening theme buffets were outstanding. We had some of our best meals there. We booked into 3 of the restaurants and they were very good. The only thing we hope they modify is the Krystal menu at Sir Oliver. The original menu there was far more impressive and tastier! Go back to it!

The Mexican restaurant was outstanding! Their choices on the menu were outstanding and the appetizer and salad buffet was incredible! I recommend their Sweet Potato Pie for dessert! The Shrimp main course was so good, we went back to that restaurant twice.

The wait staff was extremely accommodating! We felt like we were valued guests. In certain resorts, the customer can be "just another customer," but not at this resort. I appreciated the care and attention we received.

The rooms were spacious and the balconies were great! We enjoyed the couch area for reading and room service. All in all, this place deserves top marks! It was like a palace!

I would highly recommend staying here for older guests, couples, and couples with children. I would especially like to suggest it for older couples. Everything is fairly close so you are not jumping on golf carts or walking blocks to the restaurants or pools. The layout is very efficient! We also like the bands in the evening! They were rock bands that played easy listening music. Couples danced! It was nice!

The pools had enough loungers so we never had to circle the pool without finding a place to sit. We enjoyed our time there immensely! We felt refreshed when we returned home! Thank you, Riu!

Overall very good experience but needed to use the advice previously seen in other reviews, as mentioned there the staff was absolutely amazing, especially the restaurant and bar waitstaff who took it upon themselves to learn our names and greet us when walking around the resort.
Don't expect 5 star food but there was plenty of variety so you could always find something you did like.
Not to repeat old reviews, but here were the highlights that were useful to us:
- Request a room not on the ground floor, it'll be much more quiet, also ask for one not facing the main courtyard if you want to sleep before 11PM otherwise you'll hear the entertainment. Ask for the mattress topper for your bed, expect you'll have to ask 2x to get someone to actually come put it on.
- Take along scented candles in case your room has a mildewy smell, ours didn't but several people we spoke to did just from all the humidity there.
- You can only make restaurant reservations between noon-3PM in the main lobby, if you go a little after noon there's no line. There's 2 sittings for each restaurant, one around 6:30 and another around 8:45. One alternative we found was that you can ask the maitre d around 6:30 if they have any unfilled reservations for the late sitting, they probably won't but will tell you to check back around 9PM and if there's no show's you can be seated, this worked 2 out of 3 times for us so we only ate at the buffet 2x and all other nights at a restaurant. Oliver's is probably the nicest one. The Japanese was ok, Mexican was good but don't expect Taco Bell type choices it's not Tex-Mex like most americans are used to, Chilis steak house was ok although again not a 5 star steakhouse, I'd compare it to Texas Roadhouse restaurant quality. We didn't do the brazilian place.
- The night entertainment was nothing to write home about but was sufficient to serve as background music/commotion while out drinking in the outdoor lobby bar area
- Speaking with other guests who were coming from other Riu properties the consensus definitely was the Riviera Palace Maya property is the best Riu one with second place being the Riu Palace Mexico. You're allowed to go to the other Riu properties although you can't eat dinner there
- The beach was fine, we never had problems finding chairs out there (although if you want pool side ones you might have to get there before 10). The sandbags are just like big rocks, they are not appealing to the eye but they're along the whole coast from the hurricane so you can't really blame the hotel, there's plenty of room to swim regardless. The water is NOT clear like across the way in Cozumel so don't bother bringing snorkel gear

We just returned from a 4 night stay at the Riu Place in Riviera Maya. We had stayed at two Riu's in Cancun before, and let me tell you, Riviera Maya blows Cancun out of the water. We'll never stay in Cancun again. The Palace was very pretty. We were waited on very well, as you would expect from a hotel of this magnitude. Like others said, there is minimal night life, this is definitely a quieter resort, but we made friends in the sports bar and had a great time. Chano is the best bartender ever!! Same as with all all inclusive places, the more tips you leave, the better drinks you get. We left a dollar on top of the fridge the first day and got lots of beer and sodas stocked. We also tipped the pool bartenders and would get much better drinks. A taxi ride to 5th avenue is only 5 dollars, and is worth it to go shopping or to Senor Frogs. You must go down there at least once...great atmosphere. The beach at the Palace is great. Lots of hammocks and chairs, and was never very crowded. Very peaceful if you want to get away from the noise at the pool. We were very pleased with our stay...the negative reviews I've read are just from people who are never happy with anything. Go to the Palace ready to relax, eat, and enjoy the beautiful scenery, and you'll be very happy!!