Grand Palladium White Sand Resort & Spa - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

7395 reviews

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  Travel with friends

  Great stay. Fabulous rooms. No pool entertainment which was disappointing. No evening shows at this resort. Always had to walk to other resorts which was disappointing. Overall was good. Would come back

  Feb 09, 2025
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  Resort was great and we would go back for vacation, wedding department and customer service not so much.

  Wedding and Resort Review Resort Review - 8/10 Weddings Dept Review - 5/10 Customer Service Review - 0/10 We got married Nov 27, 2024. Planning: Our wedding coordinator was Eli. Her communication was very poor, very delayed, and she often didn’t actually answer my questions in her email responses and I had to ask the same questions multiple times. At one point she said I would get a quicker response if I CC’d her on the emails even though they were sent directly to her email address to begin with. Arrival/resort: We really liked the resort. It’s very big but there are lots of carts to get you around and we ended up with a what’s app number for one of the cart drivers and we would text him and he’d come pick us up anytime for a tip. Food was great, lots of variety, lots of restaurants to choose from. The white sands pool was under construction but the other main pool was plenty large enough that we didn’t feel crowded, plus there were other pools if you didn’t want to be at the main pool or the beach. Our room was nice, but we were told we would be upgraded with our wedding package but our room wasn’t upgraded. We were moved closer to the beach but other guests from our wedding were in the same building and our room didn’t have a view so we didn’t really feel like we got an upgrade. We were also supposed to have a welcome gift in our room on arrival which was a charcuterie tray, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries but it was delivered to one of our guests instead. Both of these things we didn’t think were that big of a deal on their own and we weren’t going to complain about them, however these in addition to the things that occurred on our wedding day have created a larger complaint, that’s why they’re included. We were told we would receive spa credits to spend during our trip as part of the wedding package but instead we got a coupon book, and each coupon had a minimum spend so it was not at all what we expected and we didn’t end up using any of them, which I’m sure was the point of doing the coupon books instead of credits. We also requested a welcome dinner for our 50 guests on the day of our arrival to the resort. Eli had emailed asking which restaurant and time, I told her just one of the buffets at 7pm if possible, just a couple tables set aside not an a la cart or anything fancy. I never received confirmation of where it would be and no one at the front desk of the resort knew about it. I attempted to reach Eli several times that day but wasn’t able to and we did not have a welcome dinner. Ceremony: We got hair and makeup done at the resort spa. Eli didn’t confirm our appointment times until the day before the wedding at lunch time when we had already been drinking quite a bit so that was fun to make sure everyone knew when their appointments were. My hair and makeup turned out great, I loved it. And the hair my mom and mother in law had done by the same girl were great. My maid of honor and step mother in law had hair done by another girl and it was sub-par and my maid of honor re-did her own hair back in her room. I hired a photographer from where I’m from in Canada. She stayed at the resort 3 nights and they waived the vendor fee. We chose to have our ceremony at the beach pergola and it was beautiful. The flowers were exactly like my inspo photos and my bouquet was beautiful. We did photos before the ceremony and my maid of honors bouquet was not delivered with mine, and we had to request it twice during our photos before we got it. We had almost finished photos before it was brought to us. It POURED rain during our ceremony, but we took a pause, hid under a beach gazebo, and walked back to the pergola after about 10 minutes. My hair and makeup didn’t move an inch with the exception of my false lashes, I was very impressed! The rain also scared off anyone else that was at the beach so that awarded us some extra privacy. It was a little noisy with the waves at the beach but otherwise the ceremony was lovely. Cocktail hour: We added on a cocktail hour and had the tapas and sangria package but we swapped sangria for margaritas and it was perfect, food was amazing. Our cocktail hour took place at the same space as our reception and it was perfect, I would recommend it. Reception: We upgraded and had our reception at Los Olas beach restaurant. It’s beautiful and I loved that space. It was also less than 2 minutes to walk from our ceremony spot so it was very convenient. I provided my own table decor apart from a very minimal table centerpiece but what they provided was exactly my vision, I was happy with that. We did a buffet dinner. We chose SALADS – Waldorf salad, Caprese salad, Mixed leaves salad with vegetables RICE – Rice with vegetables SOUP – Minestrone PASTA – Spaghetti frutti di mare VEGETABLES – Tempura cauliflower, Steamed mixed vegetables MAIN – Florentine chicken breast, Roast beef roll with rosemary and garlic, Asian friend fish fillets DESSERT – Apple strudel, Cheesecake, Creme brule Food was great! I tried a little of everything and we loved it. Our chocolate wedding cake was also moist and delicious. Music - we chose to play our own music instead of hiring a DJ. I made a playlist for each special occasion so songs were easy to find for Eli. For example “wedding party processional”, “bridal processional”, and even “recessional - start at 34 seconds” and she did exactly that. It worked out great. We intended to play a reception entrance song, enter on an upbeat song and then go into our first dance when we reached the dance floor. She missed our reception entrance song and just started our first dance song, not a huge deal. However, the Bluetooth plug in they had for their speaker wasn’t charged and died part way into the dance portion of our reception. They did have a back up cord to connect my iPhone but it didn’t work. After about 30 minutes of not having music and being told someone was “on the way to check it out” one of my guests went back to their room to get the same cord that they had brought with them - thank god. So we went about 45 minutes without music and I never did see this other person that was apparently on their way. We weren’t offered any additional time at the end of our reception to make up for this and it put a big damper on the party. They didn’t cut or serve our cake until 15 minutes before the end of the reception so almost no one had any. I was pretty upset about the music issue, so in the following days I went to the front desk to speak to a manager to see if there was anything they could do for us. At this point we would have taken a free massage, just anything to feel like they were making up for it. I was told I couldn’t speak with a manager. I was then told I needed to speak to the weddings manager, Eli’s manager, they would be the only one that could assist me. The person I was speaking to couldn’t tell me their name or where I could find them, just that I wouldn’t find them in the weddings department office so don’t bother going there. She said she would send a message to the manager with my phone number, they would reach out via WhatsApp and let me know what time to go to the weddings office and meet them to discuss my complaint. To no one’s surprise, I never heard from them. I messaged Eli to ask her managers name and contact information but didn’t hear back from her until after we had left Mexico. I did email her manager but never heard back. I then emailed Palladium Group customer service and heard back right away. They put me in touch with the weddings department who was supposed to address my concerns but I never heard back from them either. Two months later and I’ve not received any response to my two follow up emails either. I had sort of figured that once we left Mexico that they wouldn’t do anything for us, but we were supposed to get a couple free nights for a “honeymoon stay” in our package and we really liked the resort itself, and were even hoping they’d add a couple nights for us and we would definitely go back. But we heard nothing, and that’s super disappointing.

  Feb 09, 2025
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  Thank you Gloria Correa

  The staff was wonderful and warm lots to see and discover we really enjoyed our stay. Thank you so much, Gloria at the Laguna pool for all the wonderful drinks she created our favourite bartender. stay vigilant for all the little iguanas everywhere sunning themselves.

  Feb 08, 2025
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  Great tequila tasting

  Tequila tasting event with Francisco was really great. You feel how he loves to teach about the different flavors and with a nice sense of humor. Amazingly different tastes of all the tequilas and mezcals. 👍😊 But last but not least an important warning. Follow carefully! Because if you fail the test at the end you’ll have to repeat! And I can tell you it won’t get easier the second time! 😜😂

  Feb 08, 2025
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  Kids Club activities

  Great kids animation and activities of the kids club - from area exploring to beach parties with staffed animals and „big Publikum shows“ - our daughters (both 6 yo) love them! Big thanks to kids animation and especially Brian & Lore to the great experience!

  Feb 08, 2025