Waldorf Astoria Cancun

We had a wonderful stay at this hotel, made even better by the truly helpful and kind staff. A special thank you to Cinthia and Esperanza, who run the crafts by the pool each day. They were incredibly patient, warm, and engaging with our kids, and our children absolutely loved participating in the activities. It was so nice that the crafts were available poolside, allowing our kids to stay outside with us rather than having to go indoors to the kids’ club. This was a huge plus for our family and made the experience more relaxing and enjoyable for everyone.

Overall we had a great stay. It's a great place if you want to simply relax by a beautiful pool for a few days. If I could give it a 4.5 or 4.75. I would give this score to reflect that the food was "meh" (consistently bland) and the shower had some pressure and heat issues (possibly due to capacity crowd as it got better our final day). Additionally the lounge chair situation was unnecessarily annoying because of their policy of allowing guests to grab chairs early morning and hold chairs for the full day. The gym had sufficient machines but no view so if you like a serene setting for the gym, this isn't it. The spa was beautiful. One day housekeeping hadn't cleaned one of the rooms even at 5pm and another day at 3:30 they still hadn't gotten to our room. As I mentioned, they were at peak capacity. The property is beautiful but be aware that there is nothing much to do on site except sit by the (very beatiful) pool. The beach by the hotel is relatively small. It is pretty to overlook the water but other hotels near us had much wider, more inviting sandy beaches. Also to note, the hotel is a long drive (about 30 minutes) from the main area with hotels and tourist restaurants so if you want to eat off site, the recommended restaurants are a good distance away. Rooms are generously sized and I appreciate that there is room to unpack. The dressers are in the bathroom space, which works well if you have an earlier riser and don't want to wake the other inhabitant. Overall the staff was very warm and they were well staffed, even with peak crowds. We were there for peak winter travel days between Christmas and NYE. We were not happy when we arrived and learned that everybody reserves their lounge chairs starting around 7am and even though people are gone for hours, the chairs stay reserved. I would urge the hotel to reconsider this policy. Many chairs were empty for hours on end while other guests had to make do with locations that were shady by afternoon. To their credit, they remedied the situation after our first day by finding maybe 100 extra lounges (not as nice as their usual ones) which they added to the set up to ensure there were sufficient lounges for all guests. The pool areas are beautiful and the two pools are very large so even with a lot of people in the pool, there is plenty of room. One of the pools was heated. It was also nice that there were 4 large hot tubs adjacent to the pool. The pools have a large ledge that is shallow which works well for little kids and parents so the parents aren't stuck at a kiddie pool. The food was a little disappointing, overall bland.

We’ve loved our stay over NYE 2025. We traveled with our 5.5 yo and have especially loved the children’s programming to break up our day. Specifically, Esperanza and Cinthia led crafts and other activities for our son, including painting, candy cane macrame ornament making, and cupcake decorating. I especially appreciated the attention and patience shown by Esperanza when helping my son learn how to make bracelets - he stuck with it to completion thanks to her kindness and willingness to spend extra time with him. Esperanza and Cinthia are both rockstars and absolutely made our stay even more special!

I hope this review comes out fair. I'll try to give information that I like to know when researching a vacation spot. WA used for Waldorf Astoria. TLDR version. Very nice facility with nice staff, but isolated and the food is way too expensive for what you're getting. It's a four star review, but I wouldn't stay there again. Other Riviera Maya areas (like Mayakoba) have more options. Facility: The rooms were very nice. Clean, nice furniture, wonderful shower (although hot water was spotty at certain times). The same can be said for the common areas. Nice fitness center and the spa looks nice (we didn't use it). The facility lives up to the Waldorf image and expectations. Beach / Pool: Beach is not great. Super tiny, with some seaweed and rough waves. A walk on the beach brings you through some garbage-filled spots with chains sort-of blocking your walk (but you can go through them). Expect to spend your time at the pool. The pools were nice. The patio/boardwalk down by the beach needs maintenance, but otherwise very nice. But, I thought I remember WA bragging that they don't have the 7am sprint to the pool area to reserve seats. That's not true. This is like every other resort where people are throwing their stuff down before 7am only to show up after 10am. They don't seem to have any process or rules regarding reserving chairs and we saw some people chased away from seats that hadn't been touched in the 4 hours we were in the area. They'd be happy to sell you a bed though. Not a nice cabana, just a bed that comes with some drinks for a couple hundred dollars. Staff: Everyone was super nice and accommodating. The only issue I had with staff is that there isn't enough of them. It was hard to find someone to order food/drinks from and it would then take a long time for stuff to come. Breakfast was very understaffed and I found myself getting my own coffee from the complimentary area and bringing my food to the omelet bar if I needed salt/pepper for other items. That lack of staffing did impact the enjoyment of the visit. But, again, everyone we interacted with was great. Restaurants: The restaurants were a miss for us. It's partially WA's fault, and partially the nature of this type of resort. You're pretty isolated at the WA. There's a couple all-inclusives nearby, but you are pretty stuck eating at WA's restaurants. JA'O (Mexican) was good. It was, of course, overpriced, but we enjoyed it. Malpeque was not good at all. It was oddly empty, extremely overpriced and the food was fancy, but not great. Total miss and we decided not to go a second time. Nobody in our group wanted to go there again. We learned that the hotel has special dinners (nobody had told us) and enjoyed one of them outside right by the water (price fix family style / buffet). That was our best meal. We went in to a nearby town and ate at a restaurant called Buba one night. The food was better, atmosphere of walking around town was nice, and it was half the price of JA'O (and maybe a 3rd of Malpeque). But it was expensive to get cars back and forth. That's not WA's problem... but it's a problem with an isolated resort. Other areas in Riviera Maya have other resorts that can be accessed for meals. For example, Mayakoba has a bunch of hotels that allow you to take a shuttle to access different price and cuisine options. WA doesn't have those options and it is a problem.

Starting from the check in process to the room, to the beach and the experience.. it’s top notch and can’t say MORE ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE, which is above and beyond! I’ve been to hundreds of hotels all across the world and ASTORIA CANCÚN, is TOP NOTCH! Kids activities were beyond expectations. CINTHIA and ESPERANZA were outstanding, they both engaged the kids in daily activities, they both were extremely kind and very very attentive and accommodating! Overall this hotel is beyond 5 stars ⭐️

Our stay at the resort was beautiful! State of the art amenities and a very elevated experience! Few things can be done better like give complimentary specials for our family celebration occasions. We chose to spend our time here for our wedding anniversary but we didn’t get any such thing that made it special except a hand written note. We attended the yoga session by Veronica Estowillo and she was amazing in taking us through the routine!!

We loved our stay at the Waldorf. We have three teens and the connecting rooms were perfect. There is no game room or activities for teens so bring books, cards, footballs, etc. Food was very good but odd limited to two dinner spots. The final day emergencies started late by the pool and ordered late lunch for dinner. Beach and pools are great. Service is wonderful. We went into Puerto Morelos for dinner one night Punto Corcho, which was great and not too far! Best meal ever - that place had a Michelin star got good reason. We used Uber XL because it was so much cheaper - just make sure to give information to the desk so they let your driver in.

Every stay at Waldorf Astoria is elevated by people who truly embody hospitality, and Juan Pacheco is one of those rare individuals we genuinely look forward to seeing. We ask about him every single time we return for breakfast, and it’s always a pleasure when our paths cross again. Juan represents top-tier professionalism paired with genuine warmth. Whether welcoming guests at breakfast, attending to you by the pool at lunch, or assisting wherever he’s needed, his presence is consistently attentive, reassuring, and sincere. Nothing ever feels forced — his service comes from a place of true care and pride in his work. He is, without question, a true ambassador of Waldorf Astoria and of high-end hospitality. Team members like Juan are the reason guests return time and time again. An absolute standout and a credit to the brand.

The service at this resort is impeccable. Every person working here is delightful and ensures than you are the most comfortable you can be. Walking into next door Hilton Cancun All inclusive feels like walking to Mordor 🙈😂. We had our kids stay there so we visited. Luis the server at the pool made sure our stay is more than perfect every minute. He learned our likes and made sure we don’t have to even request anything, before we asked: it was served to us. He got to know us and we can’t wait to be here because of him. Yelena and Carlos provide wonderful service as well. We booked our stay here for next year already. It’s ideal place for vacation if you enjoy impeccable service and perfect, I mean PERFECT vacations. (Shoutout to the front desk managers and bellmen as well🩷)