Riviera Resort & Spa

I was extremely pleased with this visit. I was upgraded to a suite & able to check in early (thank you, Cameron!). The room was spotless (thank you, Maria!). The pool was clean and a nice temperature, & chairs were readily available. We did not eat at the restaurants, as we chose to eat downtown. The decor was fun and we were able to get plenty of photos. Would I stay there again? Absolutely, and I probably will. Read less

I had pretty low expectations, as I had heard some nightmare stories from others that had stayed there, but I was pleasantly surprised. The rooms were big and clean and the beds were really comfortable. The staff was friendly and helpful as well. My only complaint would be the pool area, the water is really cloudy and hot and it was impossible to get a lounge chair unless you snagged one really early. The main restaurant was also not open yet. The location couldn't have been better though, we were close to everything, some things were even walkable. I would say if you need a nice, comfy place to sleep and keep your stuff while you explore all Palm Spring and Palm Dessert has to offer, it's perfect. If you're looking for a resort feel to chill at the pool your whole visit, this might not be that place. Read less

Unfortunately, if you're a Jimmy Buffett fan, you should definitely not stay here (because if you do, you probably won't be a fan after your stay)! The hotel is just so old, the windows are single payne and don't close very well, so there's no peace or quiet. The walls are paper thin. The parking is difficult. There was one ice machine for the entire building (3 floors)...one ice machine! At a Margaritaville resort! What? There was booze in the blender but no ice! The pool was disappointing; they didn't even play Jimmy Buffett songs...again...it's Margaritaville! Come on! I think my friends and I were the only people at the entire hotel (including employees) that even knew who Jimmy Buffett is. It was just really depressing. I mean, get some Buffett-style games at the pool (the hook & ring game, corn hole...something). As Buffett fans, we were pretty excited to stay there, but now I can hardly listen to Buffett w/out thinking of that nightmare. We passed a Motel 6 on our way to a golf course and I found myself dreaming of escaping to it instead of staying at Margaritaville. In fact, I'd describle this "resort" as a very large Motel 6 from 1986. Bummed it was so bad. Read less

This year we spent our birthday and anniversary week at the new Palm Springs Margaritaville Resort. Both of our birthdays and anniversary are within the same week, so we like to go somewhere special. This was our 3rd time staying at a Margaritaville Resort. We were very excited when we found out this was the first West Coast Margaritaville Resort. We were even more excited to stay there when we found out that the resort used to be the Riviera Resort in Palm Springs. The Riviera resort was rich with history. Back in the day this is where the Rat Pack, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis hung out. So we were very intrigued to see what kind of great things Margaritaville did to this incredible resort. The Margaritaville resort was a short 15-minute ride from the Palm Springs airport. Once we arrived at our home for the week, Mitchell came right over and got our bags. Tyrone and Robert greeted us when we entered the lobby and quickly worked on getting us checked in. Since we arrived early, our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so they suggested we drop our bags and grab something to drink at the bar. That sounded like the perfect plan to us so we did a little exploring around the resort. We went out and grabbed a margarita at the 5 O’clock Somewhere Bar where Heather took great care of us. She was very personable and genuinely was happy that we were there. While we were at the bar, Robert called to let us know our room was ready. We swung back by the front desk, grabbed our keys, Mitchell grabbed our bags and we headed to our room, the Paradise Suite! It was so much more than we could even imagine! The suite overlooks the 5 O’clock Somewhere Pool, and has a fireplace, hot tub, soaker tub, bar, and so much more! We immediately knew we picked the perfect place to stay this week. After our day of travel, we were ready to eat. The resort has 2 restaurants, the Come Monday Café and the JWB Grill. Unfortunately, the JWB Grill was undergoing some updates and was closed for a couple of weeks. We got our swimsuits on and headed down for some lunch at the Come Monday Café. We sat outside in the beautiful courtyard area. Maria waited on us and told us she has worked at the resort for 10 years, which meant she was there when it was still the Riviera Resort. Pretty cool considering all of the resort history! She gave us incredible service. You can tell she really loves her job and enjoys getting to know her guests. Her happiness was infectious. We had a great lunch of ceviche and wedge salads. Throughout the week we had outstanding service at the Come Monday Café from Vanessa, Ana, Fabio and Shane. The food the entire week at the Come Monday Café was great. The resort has a couple of fantastic pools. The 5 O’clock Somewhere Pool and the Lone Palm Pool. Both are very nice pools and very secluded. The Lone Palm Pool seems to be a much quieter pool and the 5 O’clock Somewhere Pool is definitely where all of the action is. They play great music and have plenty of attendants around the pool to take your drink or meal orders. The entire area around the pool has lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas. There are multiple cabanas you can rent if you are looking for something a little extra. While we were there this week, we enjoyed top notch service around the pool from Aleks. He was extremely personable and made sure he came by often enough to take care of our needs. It was an absolute pleasure getting to know him and receiving the 5-star service he gave us. He really knows how to make his guests feel special. After a fun afternoon at the pool, we headed back to our room. We decided we would have room service deliver dinner since it had been such a long day. It was a beautiful evening to sit out on our patio. They had the pool lights on and music playing. We enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and a great dinner outside. Then we wrapped up the evening with a good soak in the private hot tub on our patio. The next day, since we wanted to check out downtown Palm Springs, we decided to walk there from our resort. We stopped at the front desk and Kiki gave us some recommendations of good breakfast places downtown. She was extremely helpful. It was about a mile and a half walk to downtown from the resort, so that was perfect! It was a beautiful day out. What they say about it being a dry heat is true. Based on Kiki’s recommendation, we went to a French restaurant called Farm for breakfast and it was outstanding. We headed back to the resort and stopped off at the front desk to thank Kiki for her breakfast recommendation and asked if she had any recommendations for dinner. Since she knocked it out of the park on her breakfast recommendation, we felt confident that she would do the same for dinner. She did and made us a reservation at the Tropicale. She definitely made sure we were being taken care of in all our interactions with her. The next night, Tyrone at the front desk was also super helpful when it came to dinner recommendations. He gave us his top 3 choices for Italian food and for steaks, and pulled out a map to show us where each was located. He was spot on with his recommendations! Not only that, every evening that we went out we would get a photo taken of us down in the lobby while we were waiting for our Lyft. I can tell you that Tyrone also has another special talent and that is he is a world class iPhone photographer. Everyone at the front desk we met during the week was extremely helpful. Tyrone, Kiki, Robert, Manny, Ramon and Rafael all made sure we were taken care of any time we had a question or need. We had the pleasure of meeting Marc, one of the resort managers, the second day we were there. He was very welcoming and wanted to make sure we were having a great time. We were very interested in getting some history on the resort from back when it was the Riviera Resort. He said that he would see what he could do to find some history for us. The following day my cell phone rang and it was Suzette, Sr. Group Sales Manager at the resort. She said that Marc asked her to contact us since she knew a lot of history on the resort. The following day we met with Suzette over lunch. Let me tell you, Suzette was awesome! She was an absolute pleasure to get to know! She started with the Riviera back in the 80’s. She had so many great stories about the resort and the celebrities who would frequent it back in the days. We had lots of really great cocktails throughout the week. Sandra, David, Tre and Heather did a wonderful job mixing us up some great drinks during our stay. Every morning for breakfast we would have a Bloody Mary. The bacon in the Bloody Mary was candied bacon. I think we could have had a meal of just that bacon. It was so delicious. The License to Chill Bar was open in the evenings on the weekend. We stopped in for a nightcap one night and David fixed us a couple of dirty martinis that we thoroughly enjoyed. Nychole, who is another one of the managers, stopped by and chatted with us for a while to see how things were so far on our vacation. I have to say guest satisfaction is very high on everyone’s list at the resort. Anytime we were out and someone from the resort saw us, we were always greeted and asked how things were going. One example was Arlien, from housekeeping. She saw us coming out of our room one day and asked us if we needed anything. There were a couple of items we were getting low on and when we got back to the room everything was there ready for us. On my wife’s birthday a couple of things happened that really demonstrate how customer service-oriented the team at Margaritaville are when it comes to their guests. First, the phone rang in our room and it was Suzette, who we had lunch with the previous day, calling to wish my wife a happy birthday! Then while we were getting ready for our night out, there was a knock at the door and Ana and Karen from the Come Monday Café were standing there with a bottle of champagne and a piece of birthday cheesecake! Once again, so amazing that the resort went above and beyond! On our anniversary, we had an appointment at the St. Somewhere Spa for massages. Carlo was very helpful getting our massages booked. When we arrived, Emily gave us a tour of the facility. The spa is absolutely beautiful! Our massage therapists, Catherine and Mireya, did a wonderful job! After we finished our massages, we spent another hour in the waterfall pool and hot tub room. What is really amazing is back in the day the Spa is where the showroom was where many of the big name entertainers played. Overall, we had a 5-star vacation at the Palm Springs Margaritaville Resort and will definitely be back!! The service was outstanding and definitely what we have come to expect at Margaritaville Resorts! Everyone at the resort made our stay very personable and memorable, especially Maria, Aleks, Tyrone, Kiki and Suzette. Cheers! Read less