A lot of people feel guilt in using their butler, but the reality is that if no one uses them, they lose their jobs, so use them and keep them employed. You missed out in not using your butler more. We use them to pack and unpack, allowing us to start our vacation immediately. They organize your things in a much better than you can because they understand the room and its storage better than you, and are professional organizers. You mentioned that your mini bar was not restocked … your butler would have taken care of it had you called her. That happened to us at Secrets the Vine … they stocked it with stuff we didn’t want so our butler removed it and stocked it with what we wanted. My shirts were wrinkled … butler had them ironed … my shirts were never so flat. At the TRS Coral out butler got us the best seats in the house at the dinner show … much better seats than we could have scored ourselves. I spend a little time getting to know and chatting with our butlers to learn more about them. They will reward you with more attention because they know you took an interest in them personally and will come say goodbye when you leave. If you ignore them, they will ignore you … simple human nature.
Thank you very much for commenting as it is great to hear from someone who has previous experience with a butler. I'll definitely be taking your advice for a better experience, if I am ever lucky enough to upgrade again 😀 I may have misspoke regarding the mini bar as there was no issue with it being restocked, except for one mini bottle of alcohol. I'm presuming they ran out. Overall it was a great mini bar that I took advantage of. Great resort overall, and worth checking out.
@@KnockOneOutYT thank you ... we've been to Mexico before but I have traveled 20times to Jamaica 10 times to Cuba 3 to Punta cana Mexico has almost become our new destination.. after watching all your videos of there I'm even more excited!
Fantastic review. Thank you, I think I will make the upgrade to Privilege and use the butler like someone else suggested below. (Also the alcohol, I like that too)😊
Please comment about your butler experience after as I would love to hear about it. If alcohol is your thing, keep an eye on my channel as I have one more video planned all about the bars.
Hmmm maybe the speeds were the same but they separate privilege from non privilege so that there’s less traffic on the network which can help with speed ?.. idk maybe I’m overthinking ahahaha great video
You are absolutely correct that there are many variables that would affect the speed. I mentioned it, but I doubt anyone will choose privilege specifically for the internet speed. Choosing Privilege for the lounge and what it offers is smarter.
Thanks fot the great reviews! 2 questions: 1) I've never tipped in local currency before, always in USD. How much would you recommend for tipping in pesos at each meal, and each round of drinks? 2) I heard there's a wine tasting evening in the privilage lounge (booking required). Does this still exist?
1) Whenever I go to a resort in Mexico, I tip in USD and Pesos. $1 US is 20 pesos. That is how I look at it. I try to bring small bills, so $1, $5, 20 pesos, or 50 peso bills. Drinks I'll tip $1 or 20 pesos, but don't usually tip every drink. It's kind of awkward to always carry money in a bathing suit. Sometimes, I don't tip and then tip a few dollars later in the day. Also there have have been days I don't tip a bartender. If someone is bringing me a drink by the pool, I always tip. Also, it depends on how many drinks I'm ordering. Personally, I hate tipping at an all-inclusive resort, only because I don't like to carry money. But I do tip. Breakfast is usually $1 or 20 pesos per person. If I'm with 3 people, we'll leave $4. Lunch is usually the same amount, but dinner, I tend to leave a bit more. 2) No wine tasting at the privilege lounge that I saw, but it could be an extra charge event or something they added this year.
Thanks for your review on the Ocean Riviera Paradise Privilege. However, you seemed quite serious delivering your content… maybe you should have cracked that bottle of wine open! 😂 In all seriousness though, what were your thoughts on the food quality and taste? I’m looking at a solo trip in January (I’m a mid 40’s male) and I can book 10-nights Privilege Junior Suite for $3603 CDN / $2608 USD. Most other hotels are in the $4309+CDN range. I’m a bit of a foodie so I’m worried. I’m not a fine dining kind of guy but I do like quality/fresh food (tacos, good burgers, quesadillas, pizza, chicken and fish). Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you 🙏.
How is the food? That's always the first question I have when looking at a resort. I prefer many food options as not all restaurants will be a hit with me. For example, I'm usually disappointed with the Teppanyaki experiences that are always so popular. Ocean Riviera Paradise has plenty of food options. Watch my food review video if you haven't as that hopefully will answer your question and includes menus. I will say that dinner options are much more vast than breakfast and lunch. If you do go with the Privilege upgrade, you will get access to privilege for breakfast and lunch. The biggest food disappointment for me was lack of Mexican food (e.g., taco stand) and buffet was so busy, especially at breakfast, that popular food would go quickly. The problem can be rectified by going early or eating at Privilege breakfast. Overall, I would recommend the food at the resort. Especially the desserts at the coffee shop. After your trip, I would love to hear what you thought.
@@KnockOneOutYT Thanks for getting back to me. I hadn’t realized you made another video all on food. I watched that as well. I keep going down a rabbit hole reading TA reviews. One reviewer reports “cockroach infestation at the steakhouse”, “dirty bedding”, and “you can only make 1 reservation in a 7-day period for the 2 good restaurants”. Any idea if that is true? There’s a restaurant called Margarita which is Mexican. Did that not have any decent tacos? One thing I’m noticing in different video reviews is the guacamole. It looks like green paste and is most likely processed and commercial and not made at the resort. That’s disappointing. And I agree with you about the Asian type restaurants. I live in the Vancouver area and we are spoiled with Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai places.
I read a lot of TA reviews to help decide which resort to stay at and to get info before arriving. In all my stays at any resort, I have never experienced what people who leave 1 star reviews experienced. They seem fake to me. 5 star reviews also seem fake as no resort is ever perfect. Mexican restaurant was good with tacos but it's just the one restaurant at dinner time. I was hoping for more and I didn't like the tacos during the mexican street festival night. One of my last resorts was Sandos Caracol that had a mexican buffet restaurant. All the food was very authentic, especially the fresh tacos. Reservations were done for me by the ORP butler so I had no problems except for what I mentioned in the video. I thought I read that reservations were no longer needed at ORP. Guacamole at buffets is likely some mass produced fake substance that tastes ok. It does always seem like a fake neon green. If my recollection is correct, the mexican restaurant (Margarita) did serve real guacamole.
Great videos! Debating on booking the el beso room as you have access to the pool and breakfast. Would you say it is worth the extra $200? Based on reviews, I'm seeing that the el beso pool gets quite rowdy, however, if the privilege pool is accessible to everyone on the resort, would we be better suited hanging out there? The swim up bar is also included for non privilege guests? Is the breakfast at the blue moon restaurant that much better than the regular buffet? Are the rooms in el beso any nicer than the ones at daisy and eden? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I suppose it really depends on how much you care about breakfast. Some people love breakfast buffets and some people want to be served. As I didn't stay in the El Beso section, I wasn't allowed in the El Beso breakfast but did eat at the Privilege breakfast and it is a nicer experience. If it's $200 for the week and you want to avoid kids as much as possible, it's worth it. When I visited there were zero signs restricting use of any of the pools. Except for the adults only El beso pool. I preferred the Privilege pool but check oceans website just to make sure there have been no usage changes. From what I have seen, the rooms are the same no matter the building. But the type of room of course matters (e.g. swim out, ocean view, rooftop, etc.). As I didn't stay in El Beso I don't have too many specifics to that experience I can provide.
During my initial booking, I purchased a room that included the Privilege experience. You can likely upgrade at the resort if available, but I have no idea what the cost would be.
I like your feedback, but there are a few things that hotel crew has no control of, changing reservation last minute and not having time available, guy getting in to your "private pool"
Technically I gave the butler a days notice so she should have been able to give me a time closer to what I asked if what she told me was true which was that they book the reservation the day of. The private pool situation was certainly uncontrollable and really is more of a heads up that unless you book a resort with true private pools, you do have to share.
I used every pool on property at least once. There were no signs restricting anyone from using any pool (Privilege or not). The only people who couldn't use the adults only pool were, of course, kids.
You absolutely have to be Privilege level to use the Privilege restaurant. When I was there, everyone used every pool as there were no signs to say only Privilege level can use this pool. Even the Privilege area of the beach was used by everyone. I looked for Privilege wristbands.
@@KnockOneOutYT oh yes, sorry beach and pool was what I meant. Thank you. Thank you for the video. What was your experience at this resort of people reserving pool chairs early in the morning and not sitting in them until later in the day?
That definitely happens here, but I found that only to be an issue at the Eden pool. All other pools were either not busy enough or had lots of space. Really wish people wouldn't do this or staff removed the towels. Happened even more at the Hilton Cancun.
@@KnockOneOutYTHow long ago was your visit. I've seen some really horrible (recent) videos that show the water going all the way up to the sandbags, the water full of floating seaweed and mention that it was the worst beach they had ever been to! What was your beach experience?
December 2022 What beach? I wouldn't even call it a beach. A very thin strip of sand. To help with this, Ocean Riviera has an area around the beach pool where there is volleyball and other activities. I wouldn't go to Ocean Riviera if a good beach is a necessity. Pools are much better.
I was caught doing the time share presentation and they held me up a full 3 hours. It was the most annoying thing and so long. I feel that should be mention that when you book privilege! My butler didn’t offer any of the other services other than dinner reservations. She did get me some electrolyte beverages at some point when we were sick. Also they promote late check out at 2pm but they don’t actually offer that because they say “upon availability”. It’s false advertising Also they make reservations for you but if you cut in line for the restaurant the other guests get really upset and yell at you. No lineup separate and no one comes and gets you. So you end up looking like an ass. Never again
![[DRIP] ‘Love, Maybe’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7hwHp95m1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Great in-depth and honest review! Definitely gave a more realistic expectation of the Privilege Experience
It is a lot of information but I think it's information needed for people to make an informed decision.
A lot of people feel guilt in using their butler, but the reality is that if no one uses them, they lose their jobs, so use them and keep them employed.
You missed out in not using your butler more. We use them to pack and unpack, allowing us to start our vacation immediately. They organize your things in a much better than you can because they understand the room and its storage better than you, and are professional organizers. You mentioned that your mini bar was not restocked … your butler would have taken care of it had you called her. That happened to us at Secrets the Vine … they stocked it with stuff we didn’t want so our butler removed it and stocked it with what we wanted. My shirts were wrinkled … butler had them ironed … my shirts were never so flat. At the TRS Coral out butler got us the best seats in the house at the dinner show … much better seats than we could have scored ourselves. I spend a little time getting to know and chatting with our butlers to learn more about them. They will reward you with more attention because they know you took an interest in them personally and will come say goodbye when you leave. If you ignore them, they will ignore you … simple human nature.
Thank you very much for commenting as it is great to hear from someone who has previous experience with a butler. I'll definitely be taking your advice for a better experience, if I am ever lucky enough to upgrade again 😀
I may have misspoke regarding the mini bar as there was no issue with it being restocked, except for one mini bottle of alcohol. I'm presuming they ran out. Overall it was a great mini bar that I took advantage of.
Great resort overall, and worth checking out.
Thanks for an honest review!! We are headed there in April staying privileged.. glad we didn't make a mistake thanks again
You'll have a great time. Enjoy
@@KnockOneOutYT thank you ... we've been to Mexico before but I have traveled 20times to Jamaica 10 times to Cuba 3 to Punta cana Mexico has almost become our new destination.. after watching all your videos of there I'm even more excited!
I want your review of every resort I'm researching!! I'm so disappointed when I watch a video and it's not nearly as indepth. Great job.
Me too, regarding reviewing more resorts and watching a video that's too fluffy.
Thanks for your feedback. This was a marvelous take on your experience that has truly helped me for my next trip🎉💕
I'm glad it helped. I like to get as much information as I can before booking, hoped sharing my experience would be useful.
Great review! Although long i watched until the end. Thanks
Appreciate it.
Fantastic review. Thank you, I think I will make the upgrade to Privilege and use the butler like someone else suggested below. (Also the alcohol, I like that too)😊
Please comment about your butler experience after as I would love to hear about it.
If alcohol is your thing, keep an eye on my channel as I have one more video planned all about the bars.
I laughed when he said you think you’re getting lobster nope you’re getting two pieces of shrimp.
Not even jumbo shrimps.
Thank you for your thorough review 👍 Can you tell me are the contents in the fridge included or are they an additional charge?
The contents in the fridge are included at no additional charge.
Hmmm maybe the speeds were the same but they separate privilege from non privilege so that there’s less traffic on the network which can help with speed ?.. idk maybe I’m overthinking ahahaha great video
You are absolutely correct that there are many variables that would affect the speed.
I mentioned it, but I doubt anyone will choose privilege specifically for the internet speed.
Choosing Privilege for the lounge and what it offers is smarter.
Thanks fot the great reviews! 2 questions: 1) I've never tipped in local currency before, always in USD. How much would you recommend for tipping in pesos at each meal, and each round of drinks? 2) I heard there's a wine tasting evening in the privilage lounge (booking required). Does this still exist?
1) Whenever I go to a resort in Mexico, I tip in USD and Pesos. $1 US is 20 pesos. That is how I look at it. I try to bring small bills, so $1, $5, 20 pesos, or 50 peso bills.
Drinks I'll tip $1 or 20 pesos, but don't usually tip every drink. It's kind of awkward to always carry money in a bathing suit. Sometimes, I don't tip and then tip a few dollars later in the day. Also there have have been days I don't tip a bartender. If someone is bringing me a drink by the pool, I always tip. Also, it depends on how many drinks I'm ordering.
Personally, I hate tipping at an all-inclusive resort, only because I don't like to carry money. But I do tip.
Breakfast is usually $1 or 20 pesos per person. If I'm with 3 people, we'll leave $4.
Lunch is usually the same amount, but dinner, I tend to leave a bit more.
2) No wine tasting at the privilege lounge that I saw, but it could be an extra charge event or something they added this year.
Thanks for your review on the Ocean Riviera Paradise Privilege. However, you seemed quite serious delivering your content… maybe you should have cracked that bottle of wine open! 😂
In all seriousness though, what were your thoughts on the food quality and taste? I’m looking at a solo trip in January (I’m a mid 40’s male) and I can book 10-nights Privilege Junior Suite for $3603 CDN / $2608
USD. Most other hotels are in the $4309+CDN range.
I’m a bit of a foodie so I’m worried. I’m not a fine dining kind of guy but I do like quality/fresh food (tacos, good burgers, quesadillas, pizza, chicken and fish). Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you 🙏.
How is the food? That's always the first question I have when looking at a resort. I prefer many food options as not all restaurants will be a hit with me. For example, I'm usually disappointed with the Teppanyaki experiences that are always so popular.
Ocean Riviera Paradise has plenty of food options. Watch my food review video if you haven't as that hopefully will answer your question and includes menus.
I will say that dinner options are much more vast than breakfast and lunch. If you do go with the Privilege upgrade, you will get access to privilege for breakfast and lunch.
The biggest food disappointment for me was lack of Mexican food (e.g., taco stand) and buffet was so busy, especially at breakfast, that popular food would go quickly. The problem can be rectified by going early or eating at Privilege breakfast.
Overall, I would recommend the food at the resort. Especially the desserts at the coffee shop.
After your trip, I would love to hear what you thought.
@@KnockOneOutYT Thanks for getting back to me. I hadn’t realized you made another video all on food. I watched that as well.
I keep going down a rabbit hole reading TA reviews. One reviewer reports “cockroach infestation at the steakhouse”, “dirty bedding”, and “you can only make 1 reservation in a 7-day period for the 2 good restaurants”. Any idea if that is true?
There’s a restaurant called Margarita which is Mexican. Did that not have any decent tacos?
One thing I’m noticing in different video reviews is the guacamole. It looks like green paste and is most likely processed and commercial and not made at the resort. That’s disappointing.
And I agree with you about the Asian type restaurants. I live in the Vancouver area and we are spoiled with Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai places.
I read a lot of TA reviews to help decide which resort to stay at and to get info before arriving.
In all my stays at any resort, I have never experienced what people who leave 1 star reviews experienced. They seem fake to me. 5 star reviews also seem fake as no resort is ever perfect.
Mexican restaurant was good with tacos but it's just the one restaurant at dinner time. I was hoping for more and I didn't like the tacos during the mexican street festival night. One of my last resorts was Sandos Caracol that had a mexican buffet restaurant. All the food was very authentic, especially the fresh tacos.
Reservations were done for me by the ORP butler so I had no problems except for what I mentioned in the video. I thought I read that reservations were no longer needed at ORP.
Guacamole at buffets is likely some mass produced fake substance that tastes ok. It does always seem like a fake neon green. If my recollection is correct, the mexican restaurant (Margarita) did serve real guacamole.
Great videos! Debating on booking the el beso room as you have access to the pool and breakfast. Would you say it is worth the extra $200? Based on reviews, I'm seeing that the el beso pool gets quite rowdy, however, if the privilege pool is accessible to everyone on the resort, would we be better suited hanging out there? The swim up bar is also included for non privilege guests? Is the breakfast at the blue moon restaurant that much better than the regular buffet? Are the rooms in el beso any nicer than the ones at daisy and eden? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
I suppose it really depends on how much you care about breakfast. Some people love breakfast buffets and some people want to be served. As I didn't stay in the El Beso section, I wasn't allowed in the El Beso breakfast but did eat at the Privilege breakfast and it is a nicer experience. If it's $200 for the week and you want to avoid kids as much as possible, it's worth it.
When I visited there were zero signs restricting use of any of the pools. Except for the adults only El beso pool. I preferred the Privilege pool but check oceans website just to make sure there have been no usage changes.
From what I have seen, the rooms are the same no matter the building. But the type of room of course matters (e.g. swim out, ocean view, rooftop, etc.).
As I didn't stay in El Beso I don't have too many specifics to that experience I can provide.
How did you upgrade to privilege? Was this done prior to your arrival or did you do it when you first arrived at the resort? Thanks : )
During my initial booking, I purchased a room that included the Privilege experience.
You can likely upgrade at the resort if available, but I have no idea what the cost would be.
I like your feedback, but there are a few things that hotel crew has no control of, changing reservation last minute and not having time available, guy getting in to your "private pool"
Technically I gave the butler a days notice so she should have been able to give me a time closer to what I asked if what she told me was true which was that they book the reservation the day of.
The private pool situation was certainly uncontrollable and really is more of a heads up that unless you book a resort with true private pools, you do have to share.
If you are in Privilege can you use the adults only pool?
I used every pool on property at least once. There were no signs restricting anyone from using any pool (Privilege or not). The only people who couldn't use the adults only pool were, of course, kids.
Is this in Cancun or Playa Del Carmen?
Playa del Carmen
Did I hear correctly that you don't have to be "privilege" to use the privilege pool or restaurant?
You absolutely have to be Privilege level to use the Privilege restaurant.
When I was there, everyone used every pool as there were no signs to say only Privilege level can use this pool. Even the Privilege area of the beach was used by everyone. I looked for Privilege wristbands.
@@KnockOneOutYT oh yes, sorry beach and pool was what I meant. Thank you. Thank you for the video. What was your experience at this resort of people reserving pool chairs early in the morning and not sitting in them until later in the day?
That definitely happens here, but I found that only to be an issue at the Eden pool. All other pools were either not busy enough or had lots of space.
Really wish people wouldn't do this or staff removed the towels. Happened even more at the Hilton Cancun.
@@KnockOneOutYTHow long ago was your visit. I've seen some really horrible (recent) videos that show the water going all the way up to the sandbags, the water full of floating seaweed and mention that it was the worst beach they had ever been to! What was your beach experience?
December 2022
What beach? I wouldn't even call it a beach. A very thin strip of sand. To help with this, Ocean Riviera has an area around the beach pool where there is volleyball and other activities. I wouldn't go to Ocean Riviera if a good beach is a necessity. Pools are much better.
I was caught doing the time share presentation and they held me up a full 3 hours. It was the most annoying thing and so long.
I feel that should be mention that when you book privilege!
My butler didn’t offer any of the other services other than dinner reservations. She did get me some electrolyte beverages at some point when we were sick.
Also they promote late check out at 2pm but they don’t actually offer that because they say “upon availability”. It’s false advertising
Also they make reservations for you but if you cut in line for the restaurant the other guests get really upset and yell at you. No lineup separate and no one comes and gets you. So you end up looking like an ass.
Never again
Did you at least get something for sitting through the presentation?