Just returned for the Mayan Palace Nuevo Vallarta. We stayed there for a week. I would rate it a 4 out of 10. Heres why:

*$20.00 cab ride into town -$40.00 round trip
*Rooms are 20 years old
*time share presentation took 4 hours and in the end they did not want to give us our $100.
*Frozen drinks by the pool were $12
*You cant use any of the pools at the Grand Mayan.

This is a late review as we stayed here back in Jan. 2007, but I wanted to say that it was wonderful! My brother-in-law and his wife's family own timeshares and invited us to vacation with them. The pools are wonderful, but a little far away from the blue building. But walking is good for you! We stayed in the two bedroom suite with the kitchenette. We even took a cab to Walmart and stocked up on snacks, drinks, and sand and pool toys for the kids. (They won't let you take food or drink to the poolside though). My husband said the golf course was nice, but he had to run up to the room and change into a polo shirt, because a collar shirt is required on the course. No big deal. We were never bothered with any timeshare stuff, but my brother-in-law attended one that took most of the day. He upgraded to the nicer one next door (can't remember the name now), so we had full access to the kids pools, slides and lazy river. That was awesome!! We went to two dinners on the beach. They were both a lot of fun! Poolside food was just okay but the Mongolian BBQ was pretty good. We also had breakfast one morning which was really good. Room service was great too. The staff was always friendly, fun, and helpful. It looks like from some of the pictures posted that they have even updated the rooms since our visit. We would love to come back!

We stayed at the Mayan Palace, Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico for 2 weeks. The check-in went very smoothly and the bell hops are great. They take care of you and getting taxi's. Only got two calls to go to a presentation. Our trip was through RCI so we had red bracelets indicating we were not owners. The grounds are lovely but no benches to sit down. Wear good shoes as there is lots of walking. They do have golf carts for seniors/handicap that can take you to the Sea Garden. The Grand Mayan is off limits until after 7pm. Cannot use the pool there. The train was broken when we first arrived but was fixed by day 4. The pools are clean and taken care of but the depth is only 4 ft. Cannot really swim! I can't say enough about the activitiy staff. Plenty to do and fun variety. They really make an effort for all ages and good activies for the children. My husband loved all the volleyball (water/beach). Nuevo Vallarta means you must take a taxi. $3 to Paradise Village Plaza. The Sun Market is reasonably priced. Mega is a large supermarket via a $10 taxi ride. There is a new free trolly at Paradise Plaza which takes you to the Sea Garden.
Our biggest hassle was having to move rooms after one week. The Mayan Group sold and the Yellow bldg. is under major renovation. We were moved to the Blue bldg., 4th floor with an awesome ocean view. You have to pay for internet even if you have a lap top. $7 for 1 hr. The hotel boutique is extremely expensive but there is a small Sun Market outside the Grand Mayan by the parking garage. You can take a van from the golf restaurant , Green Break, which will take you to the Taco Break outside the ground and they will pick you up. This is a well kept secret!
Three great restaurants outside the property: La Lugana and Los Coras are not to far from the main entrance.(($6 round trip taxi, but worth the price) In Bucerias(($22 taxi), Meson Bay on the water. Great food and music too!
Took a day trip on Vallarta Adventures to Marietas Island. Forget snorkeling. Can't see a thing. The divers said you could not see anything until 35 feet.
My husband enjoyed parasailing, $40.
The sad part of our vacation was the smoke and pollution hanging over the mountains. Fires in the mountains and they burn garbage all the time. Only saw one complete sunset for 13 days. The haze is terrible and the water is dirty with gas and fuel. Obviously there are no controls for dumping.

Our stay 5/10/08-5/16/08. My husband, his sister, a friend and I had the suite (two bedrooms/2 bathrooms). We were in the blue building on the ocean side - 2nd floor. We couldn't see the ocean through the Palms - but at least it was a better view than the parking lot! It is a tad bit further to the pool - but it's still a manageable walk. (I have RA and my sister-in-law MS and we were fine - just a little slow!) We recommend the blue building if you like quiet - the yellow and red buildings (which are scheduled for rebuilding) as noisier because of the proximity to the pool.

We are owners of Mayan Palace/Riviera Maya and decided to branch out to a new location this year. This place is beautiful! The grounds are kept very well. Customer service was wonderful and food was great. We ate at the beach restaurant the first night. Food was awesome and waitstaff very attentive. We then found the Lobby Bar - great entertainment and drinks. Pretty much the same cost as a good drink in the states. Check out the happy hours to economize!

We ate at the pool snack bar and found the burgers to be very good! We also ate breakfast at Del Lago the day we left. As expected, food was great. Lots of fresh fruit and other items to choose from. The buffet is a little expensive - but we figured with the plane flight back to Denver, we wouldn't have the opportunity to eat until later that evening. Glad we did that...because we were correct.

There is no swim-up bar at the Mayan pool, although there is one at the Grand Mayan and the Sea Garden. Hopefully with the remodeling, they add this to the pool.

The only negative thing we found is that there are not benches to sit on throughout the property! Even in Riviera Maya there are benches that you can sit on to enjoy your surroundings. It would have been nice to have something here. Because of the lack of benches, we didn't do a lot of walking around the complex because I can't walk that long without resting my knees. They need to install benches!!!

Vallarta-Adventures has some great excursions to choose from. We did Rhythms of the Night and the Jeep Adventure. Recommend both of them highly! Jeep Adventure has a lot of walking - which they don't really tell you...so be prepared. It was awesome though.

We attended the "owner's update." They were polite and did not pressure us into anything. We were also back in our unit within 3 hours (including breakfast)...not like the 5-6 hours we experienced in Riviera Maya two years ago (with a rude bunch of people!). Getting the 10% off our bill was worth it. We did not subject our traveling partners to the sales presentation - which would have given us another $100 off the bill. They weren't going to buy and we made that clear upfront. The sales people paid for their breakfasts and they were cut loose. Nice touch.

We will definitely go back to this resort. We only hope that they will take our suggestion about the benches. That is the only complaint we had,