Excellent 7 days

This was our third stay at the Grand Palladium palace resort spa and casino. My wife and I were extremely satisfied with all aspects of the resort. The renovated junior suite we stayed in was very clean everything worked well and the bed was very comfortable. Our suite was approx. a one minute walk to the beach(that's about the same time for all suites ),The beach is clean and tidy with ample places to get a nice refreshing drink. We found the beach nice and quiet which is what we look [... read more] forward to, There are vendors walking the beach trying to get you to buy things, We found that if you didn't look at them they would continue walking on. The ala carte dining was nice however, if you wish to go to the steak house we suggest you arrive shortly after it opens for dinner or you will have to wait a considerable length of time. The buffets were good .A nice selection ,Any person who is( for lack of a better term) a picky eater should have no problem. Customer service we received was excellent,.in fact we spoke to other visitors who felt the same way. Front line staff were professional, knowledgeable,friendly and always very pleasant to deal with . Looking forward to going back next year to the Grand Palladium Palace Resort spa and casino

Gorgeous surroundings!

We really enjoyed Punta Cana. The beach was spectacular! You could take long walks and swim in clear water, free of rocks. The pool was refreshing and shady spots to sit and relax were plentiful. Massages at the spa were great! We would go back!

Amazing staff

Although we had a great time at this resort, it isn't one that I would go back to and cannot really give a reason why, spoiled I guess! The beach is great (mind you there is a lot of seaweed that is picked up daily, but they cannot keep on top of it), the pools fabulous (amazing bar staff....best we have ever had!) and the food was consistent good (not great). The rooms were large and well laid out, however if you have any mobility issues, the tub is extremely hazardous to get in. They hav [... read more]e a wooden step to assist you getting into the tub, but it is very deep (which is great if you want to jacuzzi it!). They have provided a grab bar, but I was always very careful getting in and out of it. The tub is surrounded by about a 4 inch strip of marble, which the shower cannot help but spray on. The opaque glass to the living area, may be opened, however, that has left a way for the water to run onto the floor in the living area. Easily fixed by putting a towel on the floor, however if you don't know it does that, it could cause a slip and slide moment. My husband likes more than one pillow and the jacuzzi would not turn on, so I went to the public relations desk to see if these could be fixed. They must have been done within a couple of hours and it was great to get a call to confirm that everything was now to our liking. This is a huge resort, however there are trains that go every 20 minutes, or you can hail one of the many shuttles that are around. The sports bar was on the complete other side of the resort and we went there a couple of times. We never waited more than 5 minutes for transportation. We went to 2 of the A la Cartes. The food was fine, as I said not great, and the portions were small. They have multitudes of different kinds of liqueur, so you can basically get what ever you want and the bartenders are more than pleased to mix it. Ask for each ones specialty.....they have some pretty good ones. I have read numerous comments on the lack of English. Don't believe it. We never ran into one staff that was unable to understand us. Great vacation.

Amazing resort, could be way better managed

The resort is amazing - well maintained spacious rooms, beautiful grounds, wide and probably 500 m long very nice sandy beach. The staff cleaned the beach from seaweeds daily and it was a pleasure relaxing or walking on the beach. Pools were nice and clean, all beach and pool bars offered a good variety of drinks and cocktails. Bar tenders were always happy to help and served customers with a big smile. Now about the things, which could be easily improved by better managing the resort: Our  [... read more]main complaint was the quality and variety of food in the buffets and restaurants. We already have grounds for comparison with other 4 and 5 stars resorts in the Punta Cana area and we never had similar experience there. The variety of food at lunch and dinner was almost non existent. There is always something to fill up, but we never experienced a pleasure or real enjoyment of the culinary. Food presentation in the buffets was non existent. I would suggest managers to sneak pick how this could be done in a near-by Iberostar or Grand Bahia resorts. Better yet - go to Riviera Maya to get some ideas how to make a really good food presentation without extra spending. The food preparation was not done well not only in the buffets, but also in the numerous restaurants, We visited Indian restaurant and only one of the purchased meals had a flavor of India. The Argentinian was not bad, we enjoyed the food in the Mexican, however the Asian was a disaster. With very few tables and a lot of waiters, we had to wait for 40 minutes to be served the entries and a soup, which were already listed in the menu. Some other visitors, who came at the same time with us, simply left the restaurant after waiting for over 30 minutes. I had to call for the manager to express my opinion on the level of service, after which we were promptly served the food. I can talk a lot about the big disappointment we experienced every time we tried a new food or place. Even the Japanese tepanyaki experience was not in pair with similar restaurants in other resorts. The second big disappointment was the entertainment. In other places the entertainment team keeps guests busy and happy with different activities , games, dance lessons, competitions etc. This time our stay was more like in a retirement home. The only activity was the aqua fitness for 30 minutes a day. That's was it! During the rest of the day so called entertainment team relaxed on the beach and around the pool, since no one was pushing them to do their job. Looks like they were on vacation, not the guests of the resort - This happened at the Grand Palladium Palace hotel, could be different in other resort hotels. The third disappointment was almost missing Christmas decoration at the hotel grounds, lobby and everywhere. Other resorts were glowing in Christmas lights, but almost none in Grand Palladium. For the last 10 years we took a vacation during the first week of December and the Christmas spirit was very high at all resorts we visited. That's why it was shocking to see a total opposite at Grand Palladium Palace. Overall our experience was not very positive and we will never return or recommend this resort to our friends.

A nice resort but:

We are retired pensioners and found the shower very hard ( and dangerous ) to get in and out of as it is located in the Jacuzzi and it was also very slippery. The food was o.k. The staff were excellent and most speak passable English although we were constantly pestered by some staff trying to sell massages, parasailing, etc. Staff were very attentive and bar service was excellent. I would not recommend this place for older people because of the showers.

Awesome resort!

Everything is close so it is perfect for anyone with mobility issues. It’s wonderful to not have to pre-book restaurants also. The beach is amazing! We have been there 4 times and don’t even bother looking for a different resort.

Great Vacation

All-in-all our vacation was amazing. (: The resort and it's staff are beyond our expectations and we'll definitely be going back again! Lisa was very helpful when it came time for us to confirm and book our vacation. The only thing that I would suggest is that if you've been to a resort before and have a request for the resort itself (example: requested room/villa) call the resort directly to confirm the request has been received. Our request for a specific villa was not received by th [... read more]e hotel and was not listed on any of our paperwork- so we got upgraded to VIP as our requested villa was not available. Clara (palace pool bar tender) is amazing and Jose Torres (our butler at TRS) was fantastic! They both went above and beyond for us! Even surprising us with a few special treats for my boyfriends birthday! (:

Worst Resort Ever!

Very bad service Loud, disruptive, not relaxing environment as a lot of renovations and construction is happening. Couldn't take nap with toddlers as they were fixing the roof of my room First night the tub leaked on our new, unworn clothing in the bedroom floor Toddlers were extremely thirsty when we picked them up from the mini club One of our toddlers fell off a 7" deep curb while playing and hurt himself Got scheduled for a 'Travel Club' breakfast, waited until 9am with toddlers (who i [... read more]s awake usually at 7am) only to be turned away from the breakfast Had to ask for bottled water refills every day, one day we were told we had to wait until the cleaner arrives which was 4 hours later Got told we couldn't take food out of the buffet to our room as we had a sick child who couldn't come to dinner therefore went to bed unfed Japanese reservation was made on the wrong night The hostess and servers at the El a Cartes were sooo rude. I asked one lady what is the average wait time (at the Oriental restaurant) and she said she cannot rush people to eat. Like really? Did I ask you this?? I just needed a range of wait time as I have two little kids who have a hard bed time!! The buffet chefs were so miserable I feel like we were bothering them when we asked for grilled meat The list goes on and on... Worst place to go with two 3 year old toddlers.

Great Resort

The resort is beautiful. The staff are incredible. The rooms at the Palace and the Punta Cana sections are all recently renovated. The only bad part to the place is the constant sales pitch for joining"the travel club". After a few days we figured out how to get around to without running into them. They were having a big celebration for Travel Club members when we were there and it was annoying as they kept closing off sections to the rest of us for their private affairs. I don't think I would [... read more] like to be there during their next celebration but I would definitely like to go back. They have several new restaurants from when we were there last year. The casino is gone now but I never used it anyway.

Great time!

Very well maintained .... staff great... nice pools and good food and beautiful beach. The only real negative are the time share people and the vendors ... theyre relentless. Same with the excursion guys too. Definately need to tip well to get good service too.

Had a wonderful holiday!

Our bed was the most comfortable that we have ever had on a holiday and the room was clean and spacious. We loved being close enough to the beach to walk their easily. The resort was very clean and easy to access the many bars and restaurants. The staff were very friendly and provided excellent customer service. Thanks so much!

Friendly staff and very clean

The grounds are in immaculate condition. The rooms are spotless they are so clean. I wouldn't call them an "upgraded room though" there were some holes in the ceiling and one nite a vent fell from the air conditioning unit. Some of the marble around the outside wall of the tub enclosure was damaged. The food in the buffet area wasn't always hot. I would recommend a guide on the tv converters in the rooms.

Grand Palladium Palace- wonderful hotel

The hotel is beautiful. The grounds keepers maintained everything exceptioning well. Very pretty to the eye! Bavaria beach is awesome. We walked on the beach for miles. The sand is fine and white. The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The Dominicans were very accommodating and friendly. They all aimed to please. This was our fourth time to this same resort and was not disappointed!

Hard to get service

Language barrier was a huge issue throughout the whole stay. Went for a friends wedding. There wasn't enough chairs at the reception. At the restaurant after the wedding there wasn't enough chairs as well. Very hard to communicate due to very little English of the staff to get anything fixed. It was hard to get a coffee in the morning at breakfast. When the rooms were cleaned it really varied for what they restocked you with. One day they refilled the facecloths, the next they would replace the  [... read more]bath towels, but they would take away all of the dirty linen so you would be left without face towels until whenever they decided to put them in your room next. Knowing French will help you at this location as you get further with French then with English.

Good resort

Its a good resort - the beaches are great and pools are nice and clean. Its a big resort so one has to take golf carts to move around in the resort. The service for the golf cars is good. The room service is also very good. We had no issues. However, the food is not so good. We had good food in only 2 restaurants. Others were poor; some very poor. We did not try the steakhouse which had some good reviews.

Disappointing!!

For starters, this was our 4Th time at this resort - I was very disappointed to learn that two of the top restaurants (Brazilian & Japanese) were under construction - With that being said, this is a stay at one and play at three resort, however both the Punta Cana and Bavaro lobbies were closed and under construction as well... There was a lot of construction throughout the resort from beach work to grounds work - Our room was on the ground floor facing the beach - The second day a crew start [... read more]ed digging a trench right outside of our room and this went on the entire stay so needless to say there was not much privacy or enjoyment sitting outside on the little room patio.. Restaurants - The first come, first serve was very frustrating with the above two restaurants being closed - The Royal Turquesa guests have the privilege to make reservations in advance - This made for extremely long waiting times for those staying at any of the other three properties. I had asked our travel agency (Trip Central) about any resort construction, damage, etc due to the recent hurricane or other and were told all was fine - I am disappointed with TC for not being more informed and letting us know of the resort conditions...I have been booking trips through TC for many years and now a little skeptical moving forward..

Fantastic Trip

Before I start my review, I want to thank Diane Wick at Tripcentral. With her help, our trip was amazing with only one small hiccup (see below under rooms) but overall it was a great vacation. As for the resort, it was gorgeous. The grounds are beautiful and carefully tended to by the Staff. I like the layout of the Resort in general although I would like to see more sidewalks as pedestrians and vehicles have to share the road at times. Don't get me wrong, the drivers are accustomed to th [... read more]is and do move aside. It's just a bit uncomfortable. We enjoyed the sports area but wished very much for some overhead shade for the chess and ping pong tables. We really liked the signs naming the vegetation. Stay off the grass to avoid being hit by falling coconuts which you will see on the ground from time to time. The rooms are modern and always very clean. I love how the USB ports are built into the outlets (makes phone/tablet charging so easy!). I also really liked the free minibar (restocked daily with 4 flavours of pop/soda, 2 large bottles of water and sometimes a small bag of peanuts). The sole hiccup during the trip was with the room. Despite emailing prior to our trip to request a room with two beds my daughter and me, we ended-up with a room with only one bed. Since they apparently had no rooms available in our category with two beds, we had to pay to upgrade to a loft style room which, in the end, was even better since it gave us both a little space to relax and maybe have a siesta. As for the food, of the 17 restaurants on site, my daughter only ever wanted to eat at the buffet nearest the Palace. I didn't mind since the food overall was good (the Mexican items were made particularly well) and the Servers were nice. It's a large buffet with good variety which they change through the week. I really enjoyed sampling local dishes and the tropical fruit. We did order room service once which wasn't great. They only got half the order correct, the portions were small and you cannot order additional drinks or snacks. On the plus side, the service was prompt, the presentation was nice and the Server was very pleasant. The Resort is right on the beach, which is great. The beach has Security and Lifeguards during the day and we found our time at the beach to be enjoyable (and cooler) although we spent most of our swimming hours in the pool. For those who do not wish to venture into town to shop, they allow a few vendors to set-up small tables near the beach (and one near the casino). The vendors are friendly (and persistent). Haggling is expected which I think is fun but I can understand why some do not enjoy it. The Resort itself has shops which have some essentials and decent souvenirs but you will pay for the convenience. Transfers from/to the airport were included and easy to figure out. I went to the Front Desk on our last night to pay any outstanding amount which made checkout the next morning very easy. Upon checkout, you get a card which you must give the driver or he will not take you from the Resort. I took only U.S. dollars which worked out fine. I do recommend taking at least $40 in small bills for tipping although the Front Desk will break larger bills into smaller denominations for you.

Awesome Resort

We had an amazing time at the resort. Our first trip to the Dominican Republic. I would definitely recommend this resort to others. The staff was great. The rooms were nice and very clean. The food was so good too

Our first Punta Cana trip

Hotel grounds were beautiful! The rooms were stunning....we got a loft close by the beach...not ocean view but we could see the ocean slightly. We had another room for my sons and the bathtub leaked incredibly with a terrible odour...so we asked to be moved which they did easily....the rooms were kept clean....the food was ok.....good but not great.....the drinks were really strong and fairly good...the options were good...the staff were friendly but did not speak much english so ordering a me [... read more]al was a challenge. Always could find seats on the beach and pool...down fall is the breakfast closed at 10 am which is too early...11 am seems more appropriate. ..finally we all got severly sick! Stomach nausea and diarrhea ...my friend for two days and in bed and my son in bed and my other son severly sick on the plane ride home.....severe dehydration and they nearly held us back for his safety.....we did not drink the water but stopped having ice in our drinks thinking the tap water was used and perhaps the water is not filtered as claimed. With speaking with a number of guests ...they too had suffered from this as well. But....the beach is gorgeous the gym was awesome! I will not return to this resort . But we still had fun... ..

Par

The grounds were incredible, always clean and beautiful. The buffets were okay, a huge selection of food. Not always cooked to perfection but the variety was there so always able to find something to eat. The restaurants on the other hand were absolutely perfect! With the exception of the Brazilian one. All our servers (buffet and restaurants) were great! The rooms (for being deluxe renovated) not bad. Whenever you showered the water would always flow into the bedroom thru the glass doors o [... read more]n the other side. The air conditioning needs to be fixed. The safe in the room didn't work. The fridge was restocked daily and the rooms were cleaned daily - no complaints as far as that goes. The pool was always clean and the beach was spectacular.