Grand Palladium Riviera Pictures

We woke up at 9:30 am since we had a “meeting” with these timeshare people (we didn't know) at 10:30am where they came to pick us up from our room and drove us to their office in the White Sand lobby. First there was a lady who got some information about us re: our jobs, where we were from, etc. Then there was the guy who brought us to Royal Suits by a small boat far where we ate breakfast with him and he gave us some information about their membership packages. He showed one of the royal suites right after our breakfast with him, then we went on the boat again to ride back to their main office. He then continued to explain the membership options but we said that we would think about it, then he called for his manager to talk with us who continued trying to have us buy the membership (this guy was especially pushy). We however still once again told them that we'd like to have more time to do some research about their company before we spend thousands of dollars and commitment on buying the membership. Then this manager guy called his boss who once again continued to try to talk us into purchasing the timeshare – they kept giving us all these different offers. We ended up not falling into any of their “deals”/traps. We were actually deceived into this whole waste of time meeting. We did get a $50 certificate for gift shop, but for 2 ½ hours of headache wasn't worth it. 

We then went to the paella party on the beach which started at 12pm and we were there around 1.  The paellas weren't good- too salty.  There was one with rice and the other with pasta. When we finished our lunch we went to look for a nice area to settle down and relax on the beach. 

After we chilled out for a bit, I went down to the water. Even though it was kind windy today, the water was nice and warm. When I was there were some people feeding the fish and there.  Small fish were everywhere. I thought it was neat so I went to the Beach Bar to get a hotdog to feed the fish and sure enough, there were about 50+ of them aggressively swimming around me to get the food. I decided to get my hubby join and woke him up from his nap on the beach chair.  At first he wasn't too excited about it but once he experienced the fish around him, he was happy that I had him join. 

We went to the spa about an hour later and stayed there until 6ish pm. We then went for dinner at the Brazilian restaurant and it was so good. They had a salad bar and after we finished the salad we put up the green sign that was on the table to let them know that we were ready for their special, which was 8 different types of BBQ meat. It was such a fun and great experience – there was prime rib, turkey, chicken wings, pork, lamb, other kind of beef that I do not quite remember, rabbit (which was kind of tough) and sausage (too salty). 

We went shopping after our first dinner and then stayed at our Kantenah lobby for awhile before we went to the Italian restaurant at the White Sand. We had to wait for about an hour so we stayed at the lobby to use our laptops in the meantime. We got into the restaurant at around 10:20pm (they closed at 10:30pm). We started about with salad and then started our three main dishes with a pizza (tasted like frozen pizza), Ravioli with spicy sauce, and pasta with pesto sauce.  They were all not really good – pasta was undercooked. We shared a tiramisu dessert and left the restaurant was about 11 pm, and returned to our room.

by J.Y.

I woke up at 4 am due the baby kicking me and the restroom trips, but I was able to fall asleep again about 2 hours later. We woke up at 10am and got ready for the beach. We first wanted to eat some breakfast but the buffet restaurant was closed for breakfast at 10 and lunch wasn't served until noon so we had to get some food at the Beach Bar (the restaurant/bar has fast food style available for 24 hours). 

We got some beef tacos and pork sandwiches and were not great – the pork was dry and they for sure used the BBQ leftovers from the night before when from the BBQ party. Then we walked on the beach to find a shady place to settle. We stayed at the beach for about a little bit over an hour and headed over to the spa where we stayed there for about 3 hours.

Afterward we went to the fitness area to join the tennis tournament but there wasn't anybody there, so we just practiced a little bit for about an hour. We then headed back to our room to get ready for early dinner.  We went to the Mare Nostrum where they served Mediterranean food – both the service and dishes were great, and the restaurant was nicely decorated. They had a salad bar with about 10 different types of veggies. We then got a cream bread soup with mushroom (it had a creamy and smoky flavor) and hubby got a couscous tomatoes soup- that was good too with a fresh taste. And for the main course, hubby got the special of the day dish with seafood combo (very good with nice size shrimps and tender fish). I got a Mediterranean dish with grilled salmon which was really good with crispy skin + the fish was cooked perfectly. 

After dinner we went to the Sports Bar to use our laptops – we liked it because it's a non-smoking area and there didn't seem to be any mosquitoes. We went to the Mexican restaurant to try it out at around 9 pm. I got the pastor traditional dish and hubby the Magarita Prawns dish.  My dish was good.  We also tried their two types of creamy soup (Pumpkin flower & spinach cream) which weren't that great since due to saltiness. Here they also offered a salad bar and it was pretty tasty, they had this chipotle sauce that was really good. 

After this second dinner, we went to back to the Colonial lobby for hubby to check his stuff on the internet and then we returned to our room at around 11 pm.

by J.Y.

I felt better so I decided to go on our Chichen Itza tour. We woke up at around 5 am and got ready to be picked up at 6am at the  lobby. There was about 3 hours driving (80 miles away) from our resort to the destination.

We started out with checking out a Cenote, and then went for lunch  buffet style – they served this really good pork tacos and lemon chicken soup. 

After that we went to check out the Chichen Itza with all these amazing ancient buildings, but it was extremely hot and there were too many people trying to sell souvenirs, etc.– they were very aggressive. We were there until 5pm and since our resort was outside the Cancun, we didn't go with the rest of the group on our way home. We went on a van with another couple and got a really good driver, returning to our hotel 2 hours after. 

We were able to make our BBQ restaurant reservation at 7:30pm at the Beach Restaurant – they only have this special outdoor BBQ once a week at beachside and you have to make a reservation the night before.  We left the restaurant at 9 pm there were still a lot of people lining up to eat there. The setting with white clothes on the tables and right on the beach was really romantic and festive. We had a very nice view to the beach and the weather was mild. The food was pretty good with typical BBQ stuff- all meat were tender and smoky. 

We then went to the Colonial sport bar to get internet for our laptops. We stayed there for about 2 hours and decided to go back to our room since we woke up very early thus were quite tired.

by J.Y.

We woke up at 11 am and got ready for lunch. We went to the El Gran Azul buffet restaurant next to the main pool that is located between the Kantenah and the Colonial lobbies. The pool is HUGE and the beach is actually right next it.

After our lunch we went from the main pool area to the other end of the other two resort (White Sand and Riviera) – the Grand Palladium resorts have total of four hotels. We took a lot of pictures of the main pools, the beach, all four lobbies, the fitness center (tennis, basketball, soccer, miniature golf etc.) and the spa. We pretty much went through the entire Palladium resort, except for the Royal Suits area. 

We then returned to our room and got our beach stuff and went to the beach (the water was still warm even though the sun was gone). We then decided to swim a little bit at the main pool and then we went to the Punta Emilia seafood restaurant on the beach (we had to make reservation the night before to get a table for this restaurant). 

The setup at the restaurant was very nice and romantic and the food was great (I got Black Rice Rice with Squid Ink; hubby got grilled squid which was really good and tender).  Mine was a bit salty and the rice was undercooked. Since the Puna Emilia restaurant was close by the Riviera lobby we went to check out their show at 10:30pm.

Unfortunately I got really sick and had to get medical care from their doctor at the resorts. He checked if I have fever and my blood pressure which was pretty low (91/50), but the doctor could not give me any medication for my stomach since I was pregnant. He wanted me to go to the hospital but I thought I was doing better, and decided not to. I then told to drink a lot of water and ate simple food with dairy. I rested a bit at their clinic office and they drove us back to our room. I was feeling better and my stomach was still bothering me.

by J.Y.

We woke up at 8:45am and got ready for our Coba and Tulum tours which started at 10am. We went to the Tikal buffet restaurant for breakfast and the food wasn't good. 

After we took a few bites we went to the security gate to be picked up. There were about 45 people on the tour and it was pretty cool. We walked a lot and it was very hot with the strong sun. We ate lunch on our tour at Mexican restaurant where they served us authentic Mexican food buffet style- it was delicious. 

We got back to our hotel about 6ish pm and we both took a shower before we went out for dinner. We went to the Japanese restaurant for dinner at our lobby area. The food was actually pretty good. After the dinner we went to the Colonial lobby (right next to our Kantenah lobby) to checked the internet.

We then went to theater at the lobby area to watch the live show.  It was the Palladium people/workers who performed the show. It was quite funny and very silly. We then got back to our room at 11 pm or so.

by J.Y.

We got picked up by the super shuttle at 10am and we flew from Austin to Huston then to Cancun.



We arrived at Cancun at 4ish pm and on our way out the from the air port there were many of these timeshares guys standing and blocking the exit.  At first, we thought they were tourist advisers because they seemed so professional, and once we realized that they were selling timeshares (they denied so when we asked them) we walked away.  Hubby read warnings about those timeshares at the airport.


We arrived at the Grand Palladium Kantenah resort at 5pm and there was one guy who told us a bit about the it. Then we got our room which was pretty big with balcony with view to the jungle. We rested a bit then we to the La Laguna buffet restaurants and they had French food today and it wasn't good. We went back to our room after dinner and I took a nap while hubby went to the Colonial lobby to go online to check his work. He got back at around 11ish pm and we watched some tennis then went to bed. I however couldn't fall asleep until 3ish am (maybe due to the nap I took earlier).

by J.Y.