Hotel Grand Riviera Princess
Grand Riviera Princess is best understood as one hotel inside a three-resort Riviera Maya complex, and as of May 2026 it is essentially a new build inside an old shell. It closed on November 1, 2025 for a complete renovation and reopened the following May, with the hotel's own banner now reading completely renovated since May 16, 2026. Princess's commercial director for the Caribbean told a trade briefing in November 2025 that this was a full top-to-bottom job rather than the cosmetic kind, and the sibling Grand Sunset Princess that went through the same program ahead of it had every guest room gutted while keeping its Mexican hacienda exterior. The practical upshot for a 2026 booking is that the rooms, lobby, buffets and bars are new, and that almost every detailed review you can find online describes the hotel that no longer exists.
Traveler Insights
Pros
- +Effectively a new hotel: it closed on November 1, 2025 for a full renovation and reopened in May 2026, with the hotel now advertising itself as completely renovated since May 16, 2026. Princess's commercial director for the Caribbean described the program at a November 2025 trade briefing as a gut job rather than new curtains and carpets
- +Right on the seafront with direct access to a white-sand beach, which the hotel lists as a first-line-of-the-sea location rather than a short walk through a road crossing
- +674 rooms with genuinely different categories to choose between: swim-out junior suites that step straight into the pool and whirlpool, Platinum beachfront suites, and the Laguna Villa Suites tucked into tropical vegetation away from the action
- +Seven themed restaurants plus the buffets, and the dining across this complex was rebuilt in the same renovation cycle: an Italian with a wood-burning oven, a Brazilian venue, an Asian restaurant covering teppanyaki, wok and Nikkei, a 24-hour sports bar, a snack bar and an ice cream shop were all added as of late 2025
- +Shared privileges run across three resorts here, so your wristband also works at Grand Sunset Princess and Princess Family Club Riviera, which is a lot of pools, restaurants and shows for one booking
- +The water park was expanded to work for teenagers as well as little kids, and there is a Mini Club for the younger end, which is the combination most large families actually need
- +Plenty of water and courts: the hotel's description counts 12 swimming pools while its own facilities list says eight, and there are five tennis courts and a spa with a hydrothermal circuit for a fee
- +Easy logistics by Riviera Maya standards, 10 minutes from Playa del Carmen and about 40 minutes from Cancun airport per the hotel, which the chain's own briefing rounded to 45
Cons
- −The shared access has a hard edge: Platinum Yucatan Princess is excluded. Guests of Grand Riviera, Grand Sunset and Princess Family Club Riviera share all three, while the adults-only Platinum Yucatan can come to them and not the other way round, which is the single most common booking misunderstanding here
- −The renovated hotel has only been trading since May 2026, so most of the detailed reviews online still describe the property that was gutted, and the pre-closure complaints about food are no longer a reliable guide in either direction
- −This is a mid-tier brand and the renovation does not change that. The pitch from Princess itself is quality for the price rather than luxury, so expect good value and large scale rather than polish
- −At 674 rooms, plus two more resorts sharing the grounds, it is a long walk from some buildings to some restaurants, and the scale can read as impersonal if you want a small resort
- −Sargassum was heavy along this coast in 2026: Quintana Roo had collected 106,848 tons by mid-August, with 52 of 140 monitored beaches recording excessive landings and only five clean. State floating barriers are deployed off Playa del Carmen among four locations, 11 kilometers of the 16 bought as of August 2026, which helps without solving it
- −Several things you might assume are included are charged: the spa and its hydrothermal circuit, the golf course 5 km away, babysitting and the 24-hour medical service, plus Quintana Roo's environmental sanitation fee collected at check-in
- −Princess Family Club Riviera sits physically inside Grand Riviera Princess but is sold as its own resort, which trips people up when comparing prices and room layouts across booking sites
It is a big, beachfront, family-shaped resort: 674 rooms, direct white-sand beach access, seven themed restaurants plus buffets, a water park rebuilt to suit teenagers as well as small children, a Mini Club, five tennis courts and a spa with a hydrothermal circuit. The pool count depends which page of the hotel's site you read, 12 in the description and eight on the facilities list, and either way there is a lot of water. The dining added across these resorts in the same renovation cycle is the part worth knowing about: an Italian with a wood-burning oven, a Brazilian grill, an Asian venue running teppanyaki, wok and Nikkei, a 24-hour sports bar and an ice cream shop. Rooms split into swim-out junior suites with direct pool access, Platinum beachfront categories and the quieter Laguna Villa Suites in the gardens, and the swim-outs are the upgrade most guests say is worth it. On-property nightlife is the shows and the sports bar rather than a club scene, which is fine when Playa del Carmen is 10 minutes away.
This suits families and multi-generational groups who want scale, a new product and three resorts' worth of pools and restaurants on one wristband, at a price well below the Riviera Maya's premium tier. Adults-only couples should book Platinum Yucatan Princess directly instead, since its guests can visit the other resorts while Grand Riviera guests cannot visit it. Families who specifically want a king bed plus three bunks in one room should look at Princess Family Club Riviera, which sits inside this resort, was renovated on the same timetable and reopened in May 2026 with those layouts as standard. Playa del Carmen's Fifth Avenue is a short hop for an evening out, Cancun airport runs about 40 to 45 minutes, and Chichen Itza is a realistic day trip from here.
Common Questions
Was Grand Riviera Princess really renovated, and when?
What does the shared resort access actually cover?
How far is Playa del Carmen and Cancun airport?
What is Princess Family Club Riviera, and should I book it instead?
How bad is the seaweed here?
What costs extra on top of the all-inclusive?
Restaurants (13)
| Type | Restaurants |
|---|---|
| Buffet | Food Market Riviera, Food Market Sunset (at Grand Sunset Princess), Market Maya Buffet Food, Platinum Market |
| Mexican | La Hacienda |
| Italian | La Volta (at Grand Sunset Princess) |
| Japanese & sushi | Hikari Nikkei |
| Teppanyaki / hibachi | Teppanyaki |
| Asian | Wok (at Grand Sunset Princess) |
| Steakhouse | La Vaquería (at Grand Sunset Princess) |
| Brazilian churrascaria | Sumauma (at Grand Sunset Princess) |
| International & fusion | Galerie, Platinum Restaurant |
From the resort's own dining pages. Only restaurants the resort lists are shown. All are covered by the all-inclusive rate, per the resort.
What's nearby
25 min drive · 11 mi
20 min drive · 6.3 mi
Playa Mamitas15 min drive · 5.7 mi
20 min drive · 9.8 mi
Xcalacoco Beach6 min drive · 1.2 mi
El Camaleón Golf Course11 min drive · 2.5 mi
More things to do (16)
- Xenses · adventure park20 min drive · 9.8 mi
- Playa 88 · beach13 min drive · 4.5 mi
- Punta Esmeralda Beach · beach20 min drive · 4.2 mi
- Museo del Chocolate · museum14 min drive · 5.5 mi
- Parque La Ceiba · nature14 min drive · 5.8 mi
- Frida Kahlo Museum Playa del Carmen · museum15 min drive · 5.7 mi
- Playa del Carmen Fifth Avenue · town15 min drive · 5.8 mi
- Voladores de Papantla (Parque Fundadores) · historic site15 min drive · 6.1 mi
- Playa Maroma · beach20 min drive · 8.2 mi
- Xplor · adventure park20 min drive · 10 mi
- Cenote Chaak Tun · cenote25 min drive · 8.0 mi
- Iberostar Playa Paraíso Golf Club · golf25 min drive · 9.9 mi
- Delphinus Riviera Maya · adventure park25 min drive · 11 mi
- Puerto Morelos Botanical Garden · nature30 min drive · 16 mi
- Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marín Botanical Garden · nature30 min drive · 16 mi
- Puerto Morelos Town Square and Malecón · town30 min drive · 18 mi
Amenities
Show 4 more amenitiesShow fewer
Style & Rooms
Room upgrades
Seaweed & sargassum
Playa del Carmen gets sargassum, typically worst May through August.See the month-by-month guide →Google Reviews★ 4.4 · 11,347 reviews
“Five stars for our server at Snack Sunset, Lorenzo Poot, who made our mornings the best part of our trip. Thank you Lorenzo for your genuine kindness and for always keeping our coffee full -- please give your babies a hug for us! Thank you also to Va...”
“This resort is one of the best I ve ever been to, very clean, beautiful scenery, lovely staff that go above and beyond to make sure you are enjoying your time in there. Fantastic foods and restaurants ( I highly recommend the Steak house and La Fleur...”
“We were looking for a place to rest, enjoy, eat and forget all the life stress. This place is perfect. Delicious food, there’re multiple restaurants with different thematics, you can find your favourite one. Also, we were able to enjoy the pool, basi...”
