Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun – Activities and Amenities Review

A review of an all-inclusive resort, like the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, isn’t complete without looking at the activities and amenities offered. While some people will choose to venture outside the bounds of the all-inclusive resort to see what else is in the region, many won’t. When paying for an all-inclusive, there is something nice about enjoying on-property activities at the resort. For one, it’s easy. You don’t have to go anywhere, and the activities are brought to you. Second, it’s generally included in the price you paid to come to the resort.

With that introduction, this will be a review of the activities and amenities offered at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun during my visit in October 2021.

Beach

If you are coming to this resort, you are probably coming (at least in part) for the tropical location. With that tropical location, you have to have a good beach.

My first impression of the beach at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun is that it is adequate. However, it’s nowhere close to the nicest beaches out there. The beach is fairly narrow. It’s wide enough for about two rows of chairs and umbrellas. This does limit the number of people at the beach making it feel a little more private. However, this could be a negative if the resort is more full. It could be difficult to get a chair at the beach in this situation. I didn’t have any difficulties getting a chair as the pools tended to be much more popular with the guests. The resort was also fairly empty during my visit because it just opened.

Second, the beach was sloped in the areas where the fixed palapa umbrellas were located. This meant that when you were laying on the chairs you felt like you were going to fall off the front of them. You could pull your chair towards the water where the beach became flatter. However, because the palapas aren’t movable, you would be in the full sun in this position.

Finally, the beach can have an issue with seaweed (as many beaches do in the Caribbean). During our stay, the seaweed was pretty bad as shown above. The beach did have crews coming in to clean up the seaweed once or twice a day. After the crews came through the beaches looked really nice; however, the seaweed was rolling in so fast that it was difficult for them to keep up with it.

Pool

If you didn’t come for the beach, then maybe you came for the pools. This resort has nine pools spread around the property. While there is one main pool, the numerous other pools give groups the ability to hang out in other areas away from the main crowd.

The main pool sits in the middle of the resort. It wraps around two restaurants set just above the pool deck. If you want to be in the middle of the action and the activities, the main pool is where you will want to be. One side of the main pool has a swim-up bar. This side of the pool sees the most activity. Events like water polo, water aerobics, and pool deck dance classes are held here. If you want to be at the main pool (but not in the middle of the action), stay on the La Parilla restaurant side. The main pool only gets 4.5 feet deep. Therefore, this pool is definitely made as a hangout pool and not much of a swimming or exercise pool.

The main pool is centrally located and served by wait staff throughout the day. You are able to get drinks and food from The Corner pool bar. The food and drink from Habaneros can also be ordered while on the pool deck. It makes lunch and snack time fairly easy because there is no need to go back to your room to change.

The other smaller pools around the resort run between and in front of many of the guest room buildings. At first glance, you might think these are pools for the swim-up rooms, but they are not. These pools only have lounge chairs (no cabanas). Depending on the pool, wait service will be somewhat decreased over what you would get at the main pool. However, for groups or families with children, these smaller pools are great to keep the group together and to give yourself some space.

Cabanas

After talking about the pool, the next thing many people will ask about is the cabanas. The Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun has several cabanas around the main pool. There aren’t any cabanas at the beach at this time. Cabanas come included with several of the higher-end room types. You can also reserve a cabana if you aren’t staying in a higher-priced room for an additional fee (if they have them available on your day). A cabana is nice and comes with its own butler. However, I don’t see it as much of an improvement over the lounge chairs. I personally wouldn’t pay much extra for them.

Gym

The Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun has a fairly nice gym with new equipment. The gym included both cardio and weight training equipment. The cardio equipment included four treadmills, a couple of exercise bikes, a stair stepper, an elliptical, and a rowing machine. The weight training equipment included dumbbells up to 50 lbs., several adjustable benches, a smith machine, a cable tower, and a couple of specialized machines targeting muscles like abs or glutes. They had all the basics covered for a cardio workout. The weight equipment was a little more sparse for a regular gym-goer.

One notable omission for the gym was their lack of classes and space to conduct a class. Several of these types of resorts will offer classes like yoga, stretching, HIIT, cycling, etc… Classes are not offered in the gym. The resort staff does lead a couple of classes on the pool deck (like yoga) or aqua aerobics in the main pool. Unfortunately, the offerings are limited.

All in all, the gym was nice, but it was nothing compared to the gym at the Hyatt Ziva/Zilara Cap Cana. This gym will get you by in a pinch, but it likely won’t completely replace everything you have at your home gym.

Spa

Unfortunately, the spa was still under construction during my visit, so I am unable to provide much of a review for it. The area under construction did look nice. It had its own pool area and what appears to be several outdoor pavilions suitable for massages and relaxation. Some of these pavilions were close to a walkway, so I could see how this could bring you out of relaxation mode if a noisy group went by. We will have to wait for the spa to be fully open to get a complete review.

Water Park

The resort possesses a water park on the property. However, as with many other amenities, it is limited. The water park consists of only two large slides. While it may be entertaining for kids, it is unlikely to keep them occupied for more than an afternoon.

Having recently been to the newly constructed water park at the Hyatt Ziva & Zilara Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic, the water park at this resort is clearly an afterthought.

Nightly Entertainment

Each night the resort puts on a show or activity. Most nights it is a dance show, musician, or something similar. The outdoor theater area between the Infusions and Breeze bars host these shows for most nights. The shows typically begin between 8 and 9 PM.

The outdoor theater is fairly small for a resort of this size. Its located near the restaurants and main bars which means it can be nice to hang out nearby before dinner while waiting for a table or after dinner to wind down for the night. After the main nightly entertainment was over, many times a DJ would be playing music in bar area to provide some ambiance for those staying up later.

The acts that they bring in are nothing to write home about. Having watched portions of a couple of acts while I was there, I can say they are mildly entertaining. My suggestion is to at least check out the entertainment offered each night. They are already included in your price after all. If the act isn’t for you, the nearby seating areas at Breeze or Infusions make a great place to hang out.

Food and Beverage Activities

In addition to the nightly show mentioned above, there is often what the Hyatt Ziva staff calendar calls a food and beverage activity. While we were there, the vast majority of these activities took the form of an alcoholic beverage offering. Although, I did see one food offering on the calendar after our check out date.

Some examples of the food and beverage activities were a mezcal tasting, tequila tasting, gin and jazz cocktail making, martini night, tiki cocktails class, and Mexican mixology. I had the fortune of attending the mezcal tasting and the Mexican mixology class during my stay. These were led by the lead mixologist for the resort, Jose. He put a lot of effort into these classes. It was also evident that he knew his craft.

I would highly recommend that you partake in some of these activities/classes while you are at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun. The bar staff offers the classes (especially the tastings) between 6 PM and 7 PM. These classes take place at a separate table near the Infusions bar. The tasting consisted of three different local Mexican mezcals. You were led through the tasting by the mixologist with techniques, history, and tasting notes. This provided an opportunity to learn about the local traditional beverages and ask questions of someone versed in their history.

Many of the other cocktail-making activities were offered anytime between 6 PM and 10 PM at Infusions bar. To participate in these events, you just needed to get a seat at the bar and request the specific cocktail-making activity from a bartender. The bartender would make one of the specialty cocktails for the night. In addition to making a more complicated cocktail, the bartender explained the ingredients that went into the drink, where the ingredients originated from, and how the flavors complemented each other within the drink. These were much less involved and interactive than the tastings, but they still were a nice change-up. It also had the added benefit of trying something you would have probably never had otherwise.

These events around Infusions were probably one of the activity highlights of the trip. If you enjoy sampling different alcoholic beverages, you won’t be disappointed.

Daily Activities

Finally, there were daily activities about every hour that occurred in or around the main pool of the resort. The resort had an energetic entertainment team that put on all of these activities. Some examples of the activities include yoga, bocce ball, horseshoes, cornhole, Zumba, aqua aerobics, aqua-biking, water polo, and water basketball. The entertainment team executed these well and they attracted a number of people. The staff would go around the main pool areas to recruit people and get the potential participants excited about joining a game. The location of where they were hosting some of the activities changed by the day, so this is generally how you found out where to meet.

In addition to the regularly scheduled activities, there was generally a “surprise” activity. These activities included things like falconry shows and Mexican toy painting (both shown above). Obviously, you can get some unique things during the surprise activities. Some will appeal to the younger age groups while others will skew more towards the older population. It’s a grab bag, but the surprise activities are a nice way to change it up when you are going to be at the resort for a few days.

Activities Calendar

The final thing that I want to mention is the activities calendar (or lack of an easily accessible one). Many activities/amenities such as nightly entertainment, food and beverage activities, and daily activities operate on a rotation based on the day. Unfortunately, the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun fails to publish this activities calendar.

Other all-inclusive resorts will publish the daily calendar on the in-room TV or have it posted throughout the resort. The Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun did not do this. I was able to go to the front desk and ask for a calendar a few times to understand what was occurring. However, this request wasn’t easy. There weren’t calendars readily available at the front desk, and it often took several minutes for the staff to print out a calendar when I went in. Although, about three days into the stay, I was able to get a multiday activities calendar covering the rest of my stay.

If you are going to the resort, see if you can get a multiday activities calendar when you first check-in. Hopefully, this will improve, and guests will be able to get the calendar daily with little effort. Until then, spend a little time at the beginning of your trip to ask. You will be glad you did so you know what is going on and can plan your time accordingly.

Wrap-Up

The Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun has some good activities and amenities on property including beaches, pools, and various daily events. They have enough to keep you busy for up to a weeks stay at the resort. While they do have a lot of amenities available, I felt some of them don’t live up to the Hyatt Ziva and Zilara standards. I am hopeful that some of these will improve in the future. However, I am somewhat skeptical given the construction required to accomplish some of them.

If you’re thinking about staying at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun and have any questions about the activities or amenities, leave your questions below. I will respond if I know the answer.