Finally doing my review of our latest vacation to El Dorado Royale in Riviera Maya, Mexico!!! We travelered from February 19-25, 2017. It was suggested by my travel agent, Lesley Hock from Travel Leaders (http://www.travel-agent-boston.com/specialty-travel/gluten-free-travel.aspx), that we try one of the Karisma Resorts because of their knowledge of gluten free diets so we finally gave one a try.
We arrived around noon at El Dorado Royale and we had to wait for 4 hours to get our room in building 9. The guys had muscle shirts on so we walked from restaurant to restaurant trying to find a place to allow the muscle shirts in, finally the 3rd one we went to allowed them in. I have never had to wait that long for a room before and it sucked lugging all of bags around the resort, not able to do anything really. I was also told I would be able to meet with a chef for my gluten free diet and I was never able to meet with a chef at any of the restaurants we went to so I was really disappointed. Many of the servers didn't seem to understand what Celiac Disease really meant. There was times we were given desserts all on one plate and they would point out the gluten free one, which I really couldn't have from being near the other gluten containing items. I was really hopeful that since the resort was supposed to specialize in these diets that the experience with the food would have been better. Instead, I was sick many days, and was so painfully bloated at times, my husband thought I looked 8 months pregnant. My husband had to stop ordering the same menu items as me because they would forget who's plate was who's when they brought them out.
They had a variety of different restaurants to chose from with various different types of foods!
Fuentes was a great experience. This one really seemed like the gourmet food we had wanted to get on vacation. The server was amazing and brought out my items and specifically told me each plate was gluten free rather than me having to wonder each time if they remembered. It was a lot of fun to see the chef making the food. We made reservations upon arrival but were only able to eat there the one night.
Cocotal my husband loved for the buffet. Unfortunately for me, the Gluten Free sign was not placed by the gluten free items until the last day we were there so I never got items from that area. I was also told they would have gluten free waffles and pancakes but each time I asked, they said they did not have any. I ordered the egg items off the menu here.
D'Italia on the Royale side had a great pasta dish for me. They also had more of a selection for desserts so we decided to try out the one on the Casitas side one night. This was my worst restaurant experience of my life. The hostess was extremely rude from the moment we walked in. She stood staring at us like I was supposed to say something but we had no idea what she wanted us to tell her. It was not busy there but when we were seated and said we were only ordering desserts, they turned this into a big deal. She grabbed all of our menus from us without saying a word. She told our waiter this and when he came to our table, instead of introducing himself like they usually did, he proceeded to take everything off of our table: plates, water glasses, wine glasses, napkins....all of it....without saying a word to us. It made a scene in the restaurant and it was really embarrassing. We did not go back for food there again.
Kampai had excellent Spicy Tuna Sushi! We went here for dinner on the first and the last night. The first night, the waiter didn't understand the gluten free aspect of the menu but the last night I was able to explain taking the gluten free noodles and using them instead of the gluten noodles in a recipe and they were able to do that. They also offered gluten free soy sauce the second time we went.
Rincon had a decent dessert for me, creme brule, but nothing memorable for the meal. Santa Fe was a beautiful spot to sit. The menu was good but they only had gluten free sorbet here for dessert like many of them.
Jo Jo's the first time for lunch they said I could only choose between the two salads like the menu stated. The next time we went, the waitress came over and corrected our waiter and said they could make a burger gluten free and it was fantastic. Everyone really enjoyed this restaurant and really loved the burgers here. It would have been nice to be able to eat the fries though as well as I was told they were not gluten free. One day they did bring me plantains though that were amazing!
La Cabana Pizzeria had a decent gluten free pizza but I was originally told the first day that the nachos were not gluten free. The last day I was told they were. This back and forth with items being gluten free one day and not the next was really confusing and I think that's why I was sick so often.
La Isla we had for breakfast twice. One day I had ordered an item that said gluten free on the menu and 2 days later the waiter told me that item is not gluten free and has "a little bit of flour in it." Another explanation for being sick.
Room Service food was great. Arrived in usually about 30 minutes and my husband and I both liked the options on the menus. Kind of wish the minibar had more gluten free drinks than just the water as it was full of beer.
I think the gluten free options really left something to be desired for me. I was really hoping to be able to have something a little different than the usual, like pancakes or something fun! I was never really offered any options and had to ask if they could substitute on menus. I was really hopeful about finding a great vacation spot to frequent and write about on my blog for other gluten free travelers but was left a little disappointed although the resort was beautiful. We had perfect weather and the water was as clear as crystals when you go down the beach a little further. The big pool was a lot of fun for lounging and swimming up to the bar for drinks.
The Spa was incredible. We did the Sky Massages for an hour and it my favorite spa experience of my life, seriously amazing. My husband and I were left with big smiles on our faces from the amazing massages and perfect beach location to listen to the waves. So relaxing!!!!!
The drinks here were excellent!
We didn't really get to experience much for the nightlife shows since I was a lot of times too sick to want to stay to enjoy it all. It would be great if they had more authentic Mexican music and shows rather than things you would see and listen to in the United States. We went to Dolphin Discovery to swim with the manatees and sea lions. This was incredible to see and be around the animals but it's really based around the photos they are taking of you rather than the experience itself. To buy the photos at the end, on a disk, it was a few hundred dollars!! I loved the experience though since manatees have been my favorite for as long as I can remember. The trip included a buffet type meal rather than just a "snack" as we had thought. I just think the mood of it all was ruined with the prices of the photos. They also do not allow you to bring your own camera with you to see the animals so you kind of have to purchase photos to remember the experience.
My favorite part of the vacation would have to be swimming with the manatees and at the resort, the Sky Massages and feeding the fish in the ocean! It was amazing how the fish would swim all around you, we had to take a video of it to show the kids. So cool! The worst parts, which made me not want to come back, was the service at some of the places and lack of gluten free knowledge so I ended up sick a lot. Beautiful location though!
