The Mayan Palace at Neuvo Vallarta is a well-kept property situated in a beautiful area on the Pacific coast. We (5 adults) stayed for 7 days in a 2 bedroom unit with living room/kitchenette and had a great time. The workers, from the bellmen to wait staff to housekeeping staff, were pleasant and helpful without exception. We had a great time in Mexico, seeing the sights and taking some local tours, but we encountered multiple problems related to the time share salespeople.

1. The hotel was reluctant to give the room credit that was promised for our attending the sales presentation. We were promised $200 for attending; we were given $100. It took 2 trips to the front desk and eventually seeing a manager to get this corrected.
2. The 90 minute sales presentation that we had signed up for lasted 5 hours. It was extremely high pressure. If you choose to attend, set your watch for 90 minutes and be prepared to be shuffled to several different salespeople.

There are 3 resorts at the Mayan property, the Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace (MP), and Sea Garden. Guests at the MP are encouraged to use restaurants at all 3 properties but can only use the pool at the MP. Everyone in our party was in good shape and didn’t mind walking, but we did mind the long walks to the pool, beach, and restaurants in the heat. From reading on this forum, I thought the golf carts were used to give guests rides to destinations on property, but this really isn’t the case. We caught a couple of rides on the golf carts, but the bellmen were reluctant to take us, saying they were reserved for seniors and handicapped guests.

Upon check in we learned that non-owners (we rented through RCI) are not given ocean view units. Switching to an ocean view unit was the main reason we agreed to attend the time share presentation. If you are planning to attend the time share presentation, we thought the upgraded unit was a good perk.

The ATV, Rhythm of the Night, and snorkeling tours we booked through the Mexican Travel Office in the MP were all fun, but the agent there would tell you anything you wanted to hear, true or not. I was told we would be able to snorkel for about an hour, go to an island for lunch, hiking, and horseback rides, then go to a different snorkeling location. Actually, we rode the boat for about an hour and a half snorkeled about an hour and a half, had lunch on the boat (which was very good) then we were dumped on a beach for the rest of the afternoon. We could have spent the afternoon on the beach at the hotel. For our ATV tour the Mexican travel agent sent us to the wrong location. Fortunately the tour operator staff there was extremely accommodating and went and got 5 extra ATV’s for our group.

Mexican Travel scheduled ½ price massages for 3 of our group (one of the time share perks). When we scheduled, the massages were billed to the room, but when I went to get my massage, I was unable to receive the service because I didn’t have the receipt. This was very frustrating, but typical of how the place was run. Rules were put in place that the workers had to follow whether the rules made any sense or not. I eventually was able to get the massage, but why was the receipt required when I’d already been billed?

We took a tour at Flamingo Villa del Palmares and traded the 2 time share weeks we owned in on a unit there. From what we saw and heard at the tour, the Flamingo was a nicer, more well-run facility that we’re looking forward to visiting soon.

We traveled to The Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta as assigned by RCI on a special business week during the month of June 2008. I would like to mention the Pros and Cons of my visit there. When we arrived at the Resort, after checking in which took 15 minutes, we were given a bright red bracelet which we had to wear for the duration of our stay and was told to go to another counter. A sales lady at that counter told us that for listening to their 90 minute presentation, we would get 10% off of our room cost and 30% off of their tour costs. We were told that we had to decide right there and would not have another chance. It sounded like a good deal as we have been to other presentations before and did not think that this one would be any different…..It was for the worse, it was the most high pressure sales pitch we ever have been subjected to in our lives. It took a total of 4 ½ hours and 5 sales people to try and convince us to sell our current time share to them and invest in their company which we did not want to do. They would not take no for an answer! We ended up walking away from it; our boys were very tired and hungry. If I knew how that presentation was going to be, I would have refused from the beginning at the front desk! The grounds at the Mayan Palace are very immaculate and well kept. The Maid service was excellent; they made animals out of the towels and were always leaving chocolate kisses. We had a 2 bedroom unit, the rooms were large, the half kitchen left something to be desired, there was not much room to cook and one of our 2 stove top hot plates did not work. The pull out sleeper beds were very thin, only 3 inches thick and were very difficult to replace. The TV had a good choice of channels, about 1/3 of them were in English. I noticed that the walls in the room and doors to the hallway were made of cardboard. I heard constant noise from the hallway and sounds from other rooms. There was no DVD player and no wi-fi access for the internet. We had to go to a special internet café downstairs and pay for internet access. Back outside I felt that this resort was more like a guarded compound than a resort. I was walking down a sidewalk to get food and was confronted by a woman staff member who was very arrogant and told us that we could not walk there and had to go all the way around through the resort to get there! We had walked that route several times as did others! To go to town on a bus, we walked a ½ mile to the front gate where several other time share personnel from other resorts were there to greet you. We immediately brushed them off. Even though the Grand Mayan is connected to the Mayan Palace, You cannot use the Grand Mayan Facilities if you are not an owner. We were told we could not use the pools or water slides and were banned from doing so by the bright red wristbands assigned to us. The restaurants and the buffet were very nice but the cost was very expensive, 25.00 per person minimum. All of the food and drink here was extremely high priced, a hot dog at the pool was 7.50 and a margarita was 8.50. We ended up buying most of our food and cooking ourselves. The large swimming pool at the Mayan Palace was very nice and well built but it was only 3 feet at the deepest point. We ended up having a better time in the ocean which was right next to the pool. I felt that the pool hours were not adequate; the pool closes daily at 8:30 p.m. I have never been at a resort where the pool closed so early. My overall impression of this resort was negative and I will stay away from any of the Mayan Resorts in the future. The negative factors outweighed the good.

We were at the Mayan Palace Nueva Vallarta from June 6-17, 2008. There were 4 of us - My wife and I along with our 11 year old and 8 year old daughter.

We had read and gone through all the reviews on Trip Advisor and that helped us with our expectations. We had very similar experiences that others have shared and some of our own.

We own timeshares in Mexico and the US - so we are pretty savy with the whole presentation thing. We had emailed the conceriege and they had arranged a free shuttle from the airport to the MP - We tipped the drviver $ 5.

As expected when we arrived we were given a choice of a golf course (construction zone) view in the newer blue building or a lagoon view in the Red Building (smaller / older / but closest to the pool and beach). We chose the Red building. We knew the drill that the Ocean view rooms were going only to owners...

We had quite a bit of rain the first few days and one morning we heard a noise on our 6 inch deep balcony - the glass had shattered. They moved us to an Oceanview room down the hall - nice trade off for the hassle of moving.

We endured the timeshare presentation one morning because it was pouring down rain anyways - the only day that it rained all day long. So we sat through the 3 1/2 hours and didn't buy anything - although they let us know that we were "stupid" for not buying.

We got some good advice from the cab drver (shuttle guy) and went to the Mega store - A $ 10 can ride north of MP - a much better bet than the wal-mart - no traffic and you get to skip that insepction station and all that. The prices were as good or better than wal-mart and they had a greater selection and much better produce and soda and water prices and packaging (a six pack of diet coke compared to individual cans)...

We also made several trips to the Paradise Village Plaza - only a $ 3. cab ride from MP and back and we loved a great Mexican Restraunt there - Napolitos - upstairs in the mall. The italian ice cream was awesome too - all very resonable in prices - the grocery store there was much better than the two little stores at the resort - but not near as god as Mega.

We ate the breakfast at the big restaraunt that came with the timeshare presentation and we ate at Taco Break about 5 times. Alot of people seemed to be unaware that Taco Break was a MP restraunt and that they would comke get you and take you back to the MP if you asked for a ride - we would spend about $ 25 a night on diner there for the whole family. Napolitos in the mall was about $ 30 for the 4 of us. (We don't drink - so sodas only) Alot of people complained about the price of the restraunts on the property but seemed unaware that there were several other choices close by.

We at at La Lagunas one night - If you love seafood - good choice. A little pricey for me and my kids aren't crazy for seafood...

We enjoyed the MP resort alot - fantastic pool - my wife and daugter did water arebics everyday at noon except the rainy day. We went to MP to enjoy the pool and read and swim - the pool was a little cold on the rainy, cloudy days but perfect on the sunny o ones. My kids met some great friends and enjoyed the pool, kayaks, boat and train rides and looking at the many Iguanas that roam all over. We didn't do any outside activities like the jungle tours or zip line or jet skis or parasailing - all the people we talked to that went had a great time. That wasn't our focus.

The Grand Mayan had their water park under construction so the disappointment of not being able to go in the wave pool and water slides wasn't a big deal because of our not staying at the Grand... We found that alot of the Grand people were over at the MP anyways because of the beach.

The resort is very spread out and you will do quite a bit of walking. We enjoyed that and used it to counterbalance the italian ice cream.

We would go back to MP again - we got the two weeks through the Great Vacation Club that we bought at the MP in Cabo during a presentation a year and a half ago - now according to the timeshare people - "That was an inferior product and you really need the Holiday package that we are selling now" - no thanks - we have ICE Gallery, Great Vacations Club and another one - all along with RCI, Trading Places and more.

We liked the resort and it helped having our expectations in line with the way that the resort is ran and what policies are there and enforced...

One thing that drove me crazy was the "No coolers at the pool" policy - I assume this to trap you into buying food and drinks from the pool restaraunt and waiters - we brough a small bag and walked right past the two security guards every day - they were searching some of the larger bags and made a path around the pool - It is a timeshare resort with kitchens and a store - people ought to be able to bring food to the pools and beach... We did and so did many other people we saw - we were discreet and went and got cups of ice from the restaraunt - they were really nice - we also bought food, chips and salsa and more from them through the week too...

We will try the other MP resorts too - Thank you to everyone that took the time to write an honest review.

The maid took something that belonged to me from my room and it took almost 2 hours at the front desk to get it back. Our rooms keys stopped working so there was more time at the fron desk. They claimed to have no mgr on duty and were not helpful at all. We asked for a cab or golf cart ride to the front gate to catch the bus and they said they couldn't do that. They could not drop us off there but instead they dropped us off at the Sea Garden which was in the opposite direction so we ended up walking even farther to the bus stop. Although the resort was very beautiful, the staff and distance you had to walk to get to the beach or pool made it a dissappointing experience. We moved halfway through the week to Paradise Village which was located direclty on the beach with larger balconies, more amenities, a shopping mall and the staff was a lot more helpful. Be cautious staying here if customer service and convenience is important at all.