Catalonia Riviera Maya, Mexico

submitted by Angie Blue - travel agent Bursch Travel St. Cloud

The hotel was great. The weather helped with that a lot!
There isn't much beach area but it didn't really affect much. They had plenty of pool space, but not enough chairs around them, I don't think.
The restaurants were fantastic. The buffet was different each night and there were 2 different ones, so plenty to eat. The specialty restaurants, we only got to eat at 2 of them, we were given 2 tickets per room, so we didn't have a choice. The Italian one was okay but the service wasn't very good, the steak house was AWESOME though!
The resort isn't that big, so it was easy to walk from end to end. Lots of garden paths though, so a little bit confusing on the first day! The hotel is actually 2-in-2, the Catalonia Yucatan and Catalonia Riviera Maya. You would never know though unless you walked into the lobby part of the Yucatan.
The activities desk signed out the kayaks/snorkel equip/etc by the hour. And each person is only allowed 1hr of each activity a day if you want to participate. The lagoon was calm as ever, so great for families and plenty of fish to see snorkeling.
We walked to the Marina in Puerto Aventuras, about a 10min walk, and watched the free dolphin and seal show. Sat along the side of the dolphin pools and watched people swim with them too. Lot's of little shops and restaurants around here. This is where I did my dolphin swimming a couple of years ago so it was neat to see it again.
You can sign out a bicycle rental from the hotel pretty easily too, it's free, but we didn't want to leave it somewhere and trust it didn't get stolen while we were walking around.
We stayed in a Jr Suite room and it was huge! The balcony is double what anyone else's is and the tub on the balcony/patio (depends which floor you're on) is a sunken bathtub, no jets, so that was a little sad for me, but I knew that before I got there!

Other than that, I think it sums it up. There is a cool new excursion called "Xplor”. It is have 4 activities you can participate in once you get inside.
Ziplines â€" there are 13 of them or so
Underground Cave swimming…about a 1/2hr swim in about 6-7ft of water
Underground Cave lazy river â€" float on a raft and have paddles on your hands!
4-wheeled gators â€" there are 2 paths through the jungle and caves that you get to drive through
Food & drink is included, but no alcoholic beverages.

So all in all â€" it was a BLAST!
Angie's hotel pic pool

Angies pic beach

Angies pic beach and hotel