We stayed 4/8 to 4/15 at the Grand Mayan. The perk's from the Owner were great, the golf was limited to the Nicklaus course, but only cost the caddy fee.
The units are clean and a little dated, but very nice for 4 adults and two children (ages 8 and 5). The children loved the place and enjoyed the swimming pools and Lazy River.
We were offered a better view, a breakfast and a 10% discount on food and beverage if we went to a "timeshare presentation" for one hour, secured by $20 refundable deposit. After breakfast and a little over an hour, we told the salesperson we were not interested. The salesperson (Luis) told us we would not get our deposit back because we had not stayed for the whole presentation. We did not want to waste any more vacation time, figured the deposit covered the breakfast, and left.
The shuttle system takes some getting used to and we found that walking was just about as convenient. There are raised walkways throughout, no cars to worry about.
The beach is nice and we had no problem getting a palapa and service was very good.
The resort is huge and there are numerous restaurants, all a bit pricier than the local ones. The biggest problem is getting off site! You need to take a shuttle to the taxi stand, then a cab takes you almost into Puerto Vallarta (shortcut by the Mazda Dealership) to get to the Riviera Nayarit, because the did not make a ramp going West, only East. It's not expensive, usually 120 or 140 peso for the 6 of us, but it takes about 20 minutes. We found it easier to walk down the beach to Sea Garden, about a 10 minute walk, go through their lobby and get a Taxi or go to Eddie's Place or the Barracuda for dinner.
You may see negative reviews about the Grand Mayan, but most of those came from people that bought into timeshares. As a rental, it was quite nice - just avoid the salespeople. The hotel staff could not be nicer.