Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya - Heaven

My husband and I stayed here January 2024 and I previously reviewed we were not particularly happy about the adult only section reduction. We have weeks left under our Hall of Fame (HOF) membership and decided to stay here 2 weeks as our last trip was decent even with the changes. We are currently here to Jan 30 and I’m frustrated.. so I hoped writing this review would help alleviate some of this. For food: The newer restaurant (Wai) was now being operated out of Umo which is a different restaurant and made it confusing with no signage about this. There appeared to be a health inspector the day we went so it was also unclear if this was standard checks or something was closed down. The food at Wai was burnt, the orders were wrong (you’d get beef instead of chicken, extra orders that we didn’t ask for etc.) The sauce for the curry dish was like water and we ended up leaving without my husband’s entree as we were so disappointed (it was amazing last year). The French restaurant was very slow and very loud- Not worth it. Los Gallos had great food and staff including the manager were friendly, attentive and brought out special dishes for us to try. I highly recommend. Caio was also great! We like the member pool which is chairman/HOF only and pretty much the only quiet pool on this side. We asked to sit here and were accommodated until we were advised chairman wanted our spots and effectively they wanted to move us to a spot beside a garbage can in a corner by a walking path (garbage in excessive heat- really screams Hall of Fame doesn’t it?- no one should have to sit here. We were told via text from our butler (Fernando) at dinner time the night before. Instead of enjoying our meal, we were irritated and again feeling disregarded without warning. Fernando said he didn’t know we were at dinner… but he booked our reservations throughout the week so that’s a bit odd. We had concerns when a new membership level (chairman) was added that we would be negatively impacted and this seems to confirm that sentiment. There’s easily room for more chairs at this pool but instead it appears they would rather have unhappy members and not just make an obvious adjustment to minimize issues. I’d assume as HOF I can at least have a say in where I want to sit or at the very least be considered before moving- perhaps asking us or even helping us pick another spot. Perhaps coming to see us in person to show some level of professionalism or that you somewhat care about our preferences? They need to be clear about expectations etc. with guests and the limitations of reserving seats as every resort seems to differ. We generally don’t have problems as it’s just me and my husband (we aren’t taking up 10 chairs). There was a chairman family we hung out with and they told us 2 chairs were taken from them to give to HOF… so again what are the guidelines? I should add our contracts doesn’t say anything about being bumped for higher members (we get the same benefits for this accordingly to any meeting, info sheet, contract I’ve even seen) or if you stay over a week. It feels disrespectful and inconsiderate and also avoidable if any thought went into supporting members/guests in general… I’m sure people having a preference at the pool isn’t a new thing. The resort itself has some of the most helpful and kind staff. In Faro the ladies at the front are always so friendly and say hello for breakfast and lunch.. the waiters are attentive and work so hard (Elizabeth, Francisco, Mac, Gaby). My issue is specifically the Legendary staff at this location. We were contacted to attend the sales meeting which we generally always go to. The rep(Mayumi) was excessive, calling our room multiple times and waking us up from napping so we unplugged our phone. She then found us at dinner so I assume she looked up our reservation plans and the constant what’s app messages. She commented about the meeting needing to be booked asap otherwise we would keep being contacted. Instead of checking on us, every interaction centered around a sales meeting and it just becomes so disingenuous (they get incentives for us to go which we know). We have had many reps who negotiate a meeting and I fully understand their role however being bothersome has the opposite effect (at least with us) and at this point we want nothing to do with it. I should also mention our room keys stopped working as we entered week 2. We were locked out of our room around 8pm. This has happened before at this location. We walked to the lobby and saw approximately 15 ppl waiting to check in. As members we went to the member check in only to be told we had to go wait in the general line. This same rep went to the check in and disappeared in the back. I found a legendary rep (Jaclyn?) and explained we just needed our bracelets reactivated which is an error from when we checked it. She told me to go to concierge and when I asked her to please show me as I was stressed out she kept pointing and wouldn’t leave her chair even for a few minutes. Concierge was able to find someone in the back rooms at check in to help us. Again where was the legendary helping when that’s all they preach about? On a previous stay a butler physically came to our room to fix it. It’s not the same level of care or kindness that it once was. I don’t even know why they have staff in the legendary area at this time in the evening if they can’t help members. Even a warm transfer to another department and ensuring we get help. I’m taking this trip as a sign that perhaps the hardrock brand is no longer aligned with us and our investments therefore we need to move elsewhere. Unico is adult only and generally calmer.. I likely wont need to fear getting evicted from the quiet pool where I want to be in favour of guidelines that change without warning. Read less