The resort itself is beautiful and quite large. Good variety of activities happening throughout the day. Great place to come with a family. The beach is pretty much impossible to use with the issue of people saving chairs however the multiple pools make up for it. Food at buffet is okay, a la cartes are great.
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Majestic Elegance Punta Cana: Excellent Resort
We had upgraded our room to the Elegance Club. We were disappointed in our room when we first checked in. It was on the ground floor facing a road, not very private, room 4121. More importantly, the room smelled of cigarette smoke and felt unclean. The pillows had a used smell and there was a greasy hand print on one of the bathroom glasses. When we complained about our room we were told that our butler, Osiris, would look after us.
After a few hours, Osiris found us a beautiful room, #3411. [... read more]After that, things were good. The a la cartes were good, but we felt that the buffets were lacking in food choices. We had stayed at the Colonial Majestic a few years earlier and the selection at the buffets there was amazing!
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Majestic Mirage Punta Cana All Suite Resort: Amazing Resort but Had One BIG Problem.
I had one problem at the Majestic Mirage and that was when I first arrived. I had asked for a Mirage Club Swim-up Room on the INSIDE and I had booked way back in June 2018 so thought I would and should get what I asked for. They put me in a Swim-Up room on the outside which was totally different from the rooms on the inside. My cousins were staying in one of the rooms on the inside so I knew exactly what the difference was. They did finally move me on the Monday to a room on the inside but[... read more] only after a big battle with them which was very upsetting and not a good way to start a vacation. I felt like I had lost a day and was pretty depressed when I woke up on the Monday morning. We had arrived on Sunday, March 3rd.
After I finally got unpacked on the Monday things started to improve and I had a great week. I would hesitate to go back in case this happened again.
The food was wonderful and so was the beach.
Wendy Smith
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Marta -
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Royalton Bavaro Resort and Spa: Great Family Holiday
We just returned from a one week holiday at the Royalton Bavaro and it was an awesome time. Everything about our trip was great from the accommodations, to the staff, to the activities...there was always plenty to do and despite being a large resort, it didn't feel crowded. We've been to Punta Cana in the past and this is thus far the best resort we have stayed in. Thanks to tripcentral for the great service.
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Riu Palace Macao: Smaller than a typical RIU but packs a punch!
Having been to a number of RIU properties in the past we decided to try a more intimate site. Great decision! Perfect size for a relaxing holiday with all the RIU amenities we love. The staff were great and welcoming.
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Bahia Principe Explore Turquesa: Not worth it.....
First of all, before I went I read the reviews and saw the same complaint, but I thought you just cant please everyone. We travelled march 21th to 28th. Two adults and one child 1 1/2 age old. When we arrived at the hotel, we were told that when our room is ready at 3pm, our luggage will be dropped off at our room. At 3:47pm I had to go to the front desk, and that's when they called someone to drop it off. The room that we were assigned to was so bad. The room was very outdated. The tv channel[... read more]s was not working properly. The beds were so hard like a board, and every time you sit or lie down the spring of the bed makes noise as if the bed is falling apart. The room had a moldy smell, and Lots of dust bunny. We called the front desk to complain and they told us that they're no rooms available until tomorrow at 3pm. Which is March 22nd. They transfer us to another room at villa 48. The other room was alot better but there was cock roaches inside. I noticed the first one on March 24th. We didn't fuss because it was only one. On March 26 we start seeing more, and at that point we got fed up. I just want to fly back to Toronto.
The food selection was the same every day and we are talking about breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food was cold. When you get tea or hot coco the water is warm not hot. We will never go back to this resort / hotel even if the trip is free.
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LadySo -
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Excellence El Carmen: Great resort; ok experience
Upon arrival, we upgraded to an Excellence Club swim out pool. The room was nice, well maintained, and clean. The balcony, pool, proximity to beach was great. Both the hotel and beach concierges were great and helpful. The service in the "not club level areas" was so-so; most staff were speaking very limited English, which was a communication barrier.
The beach was the most amazing I've seen.
Food and drinks was ok; some restaurant/bar better than others.
Unfortunately, the plane was[... read more] delayed 7 hours on our first day because of a mechanical issue; which means we lost most of our first day (arrived at 5 pm instead of 10 am). And we had heavy rain 4 out of the 6 remaining days. With the humidity came A LOT of sand flies; I am covered with very itchy little bites on my legs, arms and back, still present and very painful even 5 days after our return. Upon our return, the food was limited in the airplane and we only had a few snack options since we were sitting in the back. First time with AirTransat and most likely our last time.
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CosInf -
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Royalton Splash Punta Cana: Great Family Resort
Punta Cana - Grand Memories Splash Resort is a great place for families with kids. I was pleasantly surprised how everything was organized. Nothing was missed or forgotten. All activities were well planned - date changes, pickup location, activities, and returning back.
We were Diamond Club Members and, from this perspective, everything was taken care with extra attention but, in all honesty, I cannot tell I saw big differences between us and regular members. A cheap bottle of liquor or wine a[... read more]s welcome, a butler that couldn't be reached on the phone (but he was available every morning at the buffet), the Diamond Club upgraded room looked pretty regular for us, and some extra benefit we didn't took advantages, couldn't convince us worth the price. Maybe is us as we are moderate people when is about drinks and food. After all how much can you drink and eat? However, we saw some people...
Anyway, the resort looks really nice with its lush green tropical vegetation and palm trees. Wild birds and peacocks all over. It is really nice to see the birds walking in the vegetation. The resort is great for walks and can be covered in 20 minutes from one side to the other. Extra 10 minutes to walk to the adjacent resort - Majestic where is the beach assigned to Memories Splash Resort. Maybe the big difference between Regular and Diamond members is here. The Diamond Club beach is bigger, the open bar is great for drinks and snacks. In opposite, the Regular beach is smaller even the Regular clients are more numerous. When we visited it was packed with no more empty long chairs to be used. I would be concerned as Regular member about beach spots availability in the morning, especially if you want to go every day on the beach. But in evenings there is plenty of room and we found after 5pm is the best to go there as the sun is not strong.
Here, the beach is fabulous with clear water and light yellow sand. What can I say- use the photo studio from Majestic to take professional pictures back home. If you negotiate hard the price with them you can go back home with great pictures from the beach.
Back to the resort, you have 2 big pools and 2 smaller ones - in surface, and a few more whirlpools. They are beautiful shaped with blue tiles and both they have wet bars. For kids, these pools are the way to enjoy the water as in the ocean you cannot swim. We used the pools more than the beach. Another fun you can have is on the fabulous Water Park. You can enjoy the great slides, the wave pool, and other mini pools. In the evening, you can go to the Social Plaza where you can enjoy drinks from the social bar, watch kids / family movies or see live shows. We saw Lion King live show and we enjoyed it. Our 7 years old kid enjoyed the time spent in the evening there. The show hours are daily displayed there, at the entrance, with the upcoming events - dance, karaoke, movies, shows... a great idea and place to spend the evenings before going to sleep.
Other activities can be done- jogging, tennis, ping pong, basketball .. so a bit for every taste.
The food is fabulous. I have read some reviews complaining about food but let me tell you from a pretentious European fancy food guy, the food is absolute great. The international buffet was much better than a-la-carte restaurants. What I have eaten in the Mexican restaurant, I found here as well. Only the Italian restaurant serves great pizza and pastas that you cannot find at the buffet, I didn't tried the Sea food restaurant, but I saw amazing choices of sea food here at the international buffet. The choices were amazing. Every day you can eat something different. They prepared daily amazing well known recipes, I didn't see something I didn't recognized. Everything was fresh, divers, and delicious. Fruits and cakes fresh and in excess. Just great for an all inclusive resort.
The service was great as well. Only the butler wasn't useful for us as we couldn't reach him by the phone. What's the logic to go and look for him if you need something? The same needs were fulfilled by people from reception or our Sunwing resort agent. We noticed from his notebook, he had many tourists in care so simple we didn't use his services. Other than this, people are polite and thankful for appreciative words and …tips.. a dollar here and there do wonders and makes you feel better. These people are hard workers. I saw same faces daily from 7AM to 10PM serving you and still with a smile on their faces. Learn a few Spanish words to make them lighten up their faces. They deserve it for sure. Angel- a restaurant server was our favorite. You'll find your room daily cleaned and sheet beds fresh. The lady that cleaned our room (I am sorry I didn't get her name) was very sweet and she did every day amazing origami figurines using the towels and putting fresh flowers. Our Sunwing resort agent - Danelly Anty was really helpful and ready to help us booking activities, with schedule change, or any questions we have had. She was available every day, approachable and very friendly. We got great information from her. Look for her by the side of the pool to book activities or ask anything.
Everybody is there for you to help with any request you may have. Very professional, simple a great service.
As a side note and complain, avoid resort workers that will lure you into free meals on Majestic , it's just a sale trap, either a time share or become Sunwing member. Just refuse politely when you hear about free meals at a 5 star hotel (all meals are free anyway in your resort) . This is a minimal hassle that should not be permitted (pushy souvenirs vendors as well) on the ground. But this doesn't change my mind to give a 4.5 starts out of 5. It's just a great family resort with everything you need for one week relaxation.
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Impressive Punta Cana: Felt like trapped in sheep herd
Pros:
New hotel, good beds, room service, check-in, facilities
Cons:
Absolutely horrid food/dried food, food takes a lot of time to be refilled, lack of choices in food, bad customer service elsewhere from servers, to bellboys. Lack of entertainment in hotel (same group slow dances everyday) and around the hotel. Downtown is 30 minutes walk/inconvenient location. Just all around 'I don't care attitude' - maybe due to the # of people admitted here. Felt like trapped in a heard.
Overall v[... read more]ery poor experience for the buck paid
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Gabby -
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Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: LOVE The GRAND BAHIA PRINCIPE PUNTA CANA
This was our second year at the Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana and we love this resort. The grounds are immaculate, the rooms spacious and clean, the pools are beautiful and the beach is our favourite of anywhere we have been. The food is great at both the buffet and the ala cartes and the drinks are good. The staff work very hard and are friendly.
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Energia -
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Ocean El Faro: 5* Ambience with 3* SERVICE
This resort has a lot of appeal just based on decor alone. It’s very glam and chic, and pictures are telling the truth, but what you do not see are the serious issues with the staff, their ability to provide service people are accustomed to at other resorts that are qualified to be 5*. I do not blame the staff, I blame management, both upper and middle. There are managers walking around observing, but they have no impact on the quality or lack thereof of the actual service. There is NOONE pers[... read more]on greeting you when you arrive at the resort, for a 5 star there should be someone with a friendly smile either providing you with a cocktail or water or a cold cloth as most other resorts do.
When you checkout and leave there is NOONE offering you a farewell, asking how your stay was or just a simple, goodbye.
At the main buffet where you spend most breakfasts and lunches there are ZERO servers, no one person coming to your table specifically to ask what beverages you would like to drink with your meal, coffee service is one of two men with coffee jugs walking around serving the entire Buffett of hundreds of people, and you will be lucky to receive a coffee, not to mention water. They only have people collecting your plates(busboys) and even that doesn’t happen often throughout your meal.
The pool bar has 2 bartenders serving hundreds of people that are overly anxious to re robe their cocktail to consume under the hot sun. There is one waitress also serving drinks around the pool, but imagine one waitress attempting to service hundreds of people, with one tray carrying 8-10 drinks at the most.
The beverage staff that fills refreshments in your room forgot to attend our room for two nights, so no water bottles in the room for the kids. Water is a necessity. I should not have to holler and argue to have this service at a five star resort.
At Mikes coffee, while a great idea to have a cafe onsite- there were two staff on at all times to service a resort that has approx 450 rooms.
The bowling alley closed down for maintenance all day and two evenings.
One restaurant closed for maintenance for 4 days, it’s not a necessity, so I’m not complaining, however my issue is that I can go as far as to call this misrepresentation. The Ice Cream hut that was supposed to open everyday at 3:30pm, did not, the girl serving chose to open when it was convenient for her, and she really didn’t give a crap whether you were mad or not.
The Buffet ran out of mango and passiofruit for 2 days. This is not a necessity but when you arrive in a country when they have farms of these fruit and this resort “runs out†you can clearly see how much they want “pleased†guests. Tables are not prepared for guests when you are seated, they are dirty, no napkins, no cups, mugs and cutlery. I have experienced service like this in Cuba,
My mother had a leak in her bathroom in one of her sinks that she called maintenance to fix 3 times, as she slipped in the water in the bathroom, no one showed up, all services to call by phone after 10pm are constantly busy, my guess is they took phones off the hook.
Who was really great and always ready to speak to you and follow you and chat you up... the timeshare staff... very eager to get you to attend a breakfast meeting to show you around the hotel... with service like we experienced I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, and those timeshare staff will definitely have a very difficult time.
We stayed at the Esmeralda, part of this resort 3 years ago, and thought we had such a good experience we would go again. Well a lot has changed.
Not the quaint, amazing 4.5 star resort that we knew.
Now it is a huge unorganized, impersonable money grab and a 3star at best. Liquor is sub par, and any upgraded brands come at a charge, so much for all inclusive.
Rooms in the Aquamarine are dated, but clean. Our bar fridge was not stocked everyday fully, and unless we left a tip, not would any[... read more] requests be filled, and a call to desk needed to be done.
The buffet for breakfast is not stellar, you can get the eggs, omelets, fruit etc. The lunch is the same, and choices are the same everyday.
There are many rules what you can access depending on where you stay. A bbq cart right by beach is not for you unless you have a Ambar bracelet, you have to walk to the dirty buffet, by the beach, and eat the same food, but it bbq but meat swimming in broth,and you cannot access the pool right by the beach, again only for the Ambar guests.
It is a 10 min walk, from aquamarine buildings, or a trolley ride. Not a big deal, but if you have mobility issues could b a challenge. There is a pool for aquamarine, but we like to start at beach and sit by pool at end of day, but first have to walk back to our pool and in the rain or heat was not fun.
No butler or anyone to offer any extras, like at the Esmeralda.
We never went to any of shows at main theatre, just sat in our lobby for after dinner entertainment, bar service stops at 11 pm.
The French, MEAT al la Cartes were good, the Dominican aweful. We ate there and before we were done our meal, they started dismantling the tables and cleaning around us, we had the only available sitting for 915pm, but it was empty when we arrived, no dessert as they took it away, and we felt like we didn’t even receive the proper service. We did voice our concerns to the waiter but all he said was thank you, he didn’t understand how rude it was.
We won’t go back, it has become a big resort with little service and I really don’t think they care if you come or not.
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VanessaB -
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Riu Republica: Great resort!
Very large resort with lots to do! The staff was amazing, very friendly and helpful. I can't say enough good things about every staff member from the wait staff at the restaurants to the entertainment team they were all great! The evening shows were a little repetitive with the dancing during the week but the weekend shows were much better and there was always a party happening at the other bar. Beautiful beach, great food. Even the buffet was great. The room was spacious and very clean. It was [... read more]our first sunny vacation and definitely won't be our last. Highly recommend Riu Republica. You won't be disappointed!!
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Private -
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Punta Cana Princess: Relaxing resort!
Punta Cana Princess is a small resort, adults only which is the perfect place to relax and go for long walks on the beach. The staff work very hard to make sure the guests are happy and comfortable. It was our 6th visit and we will visit again next year.
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Royalton CHIC Punta Cana: Good choice
Nice resort, good food, nice people. Unfortunately we had rain 6 days out of 7, and not just mist, but showers all day. But we still had an amazing time. I would still recommend to friends. Steak house and Italian are the best. They should think of changing the Tagine restaurant for something else. Not good and always empty
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M and T -
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Ocean El Faro: Very Impressed!
This is a great resort. Love that u can go to all restaurants except Japanese without reservations. Food was excellent in all, was impressed! Also a extra ice cream booth and great coffee shop(Mikes) to go too. Big place but never had problems to find a lounger at pools or beach. Lots of room in pools, not overcrowded. Love the lazy river, no shortage of tubes. Rooms are spacious bed very comfy, and seemed sound proof. Bathroom big with both separate shower and jet tub. Used tub worked great, sh[... read more]ower drain is slope wrong would leak on floor, but used rolled up towels by door and was fine. Only set back is people trying to sell you timeshares, we would tell them already went to seminar and would leave us alone. Beach is okay, a lot of waves, not much shade but were working on putting up more sunhuts.
Overall were very impressed!
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William#1 -
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Riu Naiboa: Not recommended
I dont know where to start. I had seen reviews saying this resort had a theft ring and thought it may have been a exaggeration, it wasn't. There was 3 thefts there that I had actually spoke with the guests, these thefts were from there room and the items that were taken range from passports, money and jewelry. I seen drugs openly use and the disco "Pacha" has open prostitution. The beds in the rooms are terrible and the towels stink. I really have nothing good to say about the RIU Naiboa so I'm[... read more] gonna stop there. Do not book this resort.
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Amy1437 -
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Impressive Punta Cana: Good resort
Impressive was a good resort. The only complaint I would have is the lack of beach chairs, but if your up bright and early there's no problem getting one. The food was good and both the buffet and restaurants. Its a great family resort
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Maddy -
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Majestic Mirage Punta Cana All Suite Resort: Well worth the money spent!
Grounds were very well kept, the rooms were beautiful and fridge was well stocked. The food was good for the most part, Steak house served their steaks barely at room temp but food there was very tasty. Overall we loved our week away!
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Private -
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Ocean Blue and Sand: Lovely Stay !
We were there 22-29th of March. As a prestige guest we had an easy and quick check-in in a separate area which was nice. We had a "butler" in prestige to help you out ... nice touch but if not it would have been good just the same. The prestige lounge is nice. Nice and cool with alcohol there available with ice and snacks. Also bathroom available in the lounge. We ate breakfast by the beach each day as a privilege guest and ordered from a menu.
The beach restaurant was open to everyon[... read more]e at lunch and was good. We did buffet for dinner a few times and I have no complaints. We have travelled to Cuba quite a bit and the food her is a definite step up. The steak restaurant, italian and Japanese were also good. I had no problem with tummy issues anywhere.
The gym is open 24 hours incase you want to keep up workout while away.
One thing to know is Coffee is available in the foyer of the buffet on the entrance across from the gym/spa at 6am. We are early risers and were searching for coffee the first day.
Mike's cafe should open earlier but it opens at 7:30.
If you are a beach lover then you may be disappointed as the beach has some issues with eroding. They are doing their best to stop it. The beach to the left and right at the next hotels is fine and much deeper but because they are on a point for some reason they are having issues. Still lovely though but some may not be happy with that.
Our room was great.. lots of pillows and comfy. Room was a bit cold and hard to regulate so maybe that could be looked after.
I don't know if i would go back as there are just so many places to go in the carribean. We did like the fact that it was not too big. We prefer smaller resorts.
Hope this helps.