Great resort - still a few bugs to work on

The resort is beautiful. The main lobby is stunning. The food in the buffet, the snack bar and the beach restaurant is amazing! So much variety and great quality. The food in the restaurants was disappointing. For example I had the eggplant parmesan at the Italian restaurant and it didn't have parmesan on it! Despite the fact that the buffet had a full parmesan wheel! The pools are great and the lazy river is awesome. The staff are all friendly and helpful. The only negative is the hard sell to  [... read more]buy some stupid hotel pass or go on an off resort excursion. They don't take no for an answer until you get irritated or just walk away. We had a problem with our room, we reserved 2 beds and only got one. They moved us to a bigger room but the bathroom ceiling was leaking and smelled so we had to move again. They were really good about accommodating us but it did take a long time. All the rooms are really nice and we'll furnished. We had the only room in the whole resort that didn't have a swinging basket chair. The beach was not great but mostly because low tide was basically from 11am to 3pm so prime time. The beach itself was nice but for swimming there were lots of rocks in the water that you couldn't see because there was a constant wind and rough surf. There was also a lot of weeds washing up on shore but they were working all day every day trying to clean it up. By the end of the week they had got most of it but it was and endless battle. At high tide the swimming was great and the surf was fun. There is a lagoon to swim in that is sheltered and super calm and beautiful. Unfortunately it isn't set up yet so there are no chairs or umbrellas and no services. It was a bit of a walk so not lots of people which was nice. The snorkeling was ok but nothing too special. I was disappointed that they didn't have any masks and snorkels available even though they said they would. The lagoon was beautiful but looks onto all the construction. Overall we had a great vacation. Just need to fix a few things

Great Resort

We were there Apr 7-14/19 , we knew it was a new resort so we expected growing pains. The rooms were a good size and clean. Restocking the fridge was spotty at best. The restaurants were busy and the food was good. We walked the beach as there was a lot of seaweed so we spent most of the time at the pool and the lazy river. The resort was short staff for the amount of people staying at the resort. The service was slow but very friendly. The staff were doing their best. I would blame this [... read more] on management not having enough staff. Management should also look at what I call the vultures trying to sell you travel packages (another name for time share) they are very annoying.. I know it sounds like we did not have a good time but we did as we ignored everything. Would I come back yea but pricing would be a key factor

Beautiful Resort

Overall the resort was excellent. All the staff that we encountered spoke very good English.Check In was smooth with no problems. Lobby was simply amazing. We stayed in the 2000 block 3rd floor with a pool view. Room was very spacious, clean and modern with a King Bed. Food was very good, no reservations is nice, pick and choose where to go. Never had to wait to get into the Restaurants. They don't try and rush you out the door when you are done. Pools are very nice with no shortage of chairs a [... read more]nd umbrellas. Lazy River was fun, we brought our own floaties but never used them as they had lots. The beach is work in progress as it is a new resort. Lots of huts to lie under. It was windy with lots of waves. Kids water park was very nice. Grounds were immaculate. Only thing we didn't like is the aggressiveness of the H10 Time share agents. Way to pushy.

Beautiful resort

Although there are still growing g pains with this new resort we had a wonderful week. Food was good, rooms were spacious and modern, lazy river was an extra treat! Would go back to this resort is a few years to see how far it has come along.

Enjoyed our stay

My husband and I were at Ocean El Faro from March 29-April 5th and had a wonderful stay. The main lobby is breathtaking, the room was beautiful as well, bed was super comfy, I would trade with my own bed in a heart beat. We had large patio with a jacuzzi tub facing the privileged pool. I had a great view looking at the lighthouse. We did the buffet, blue moon, Japanese, Italian, steakhouse and Privileged Restaurant for breakfast. The steakhouse was definitely our favorite, ate there 3 t [... read more]imes. The flank steak was absolutely delicious! The beach was nice and small, but the water was very choppy. We hung out mostly at the privileged pool which was fine with us. Met some wonderful people there. Everywhere we went we were greeted with a smile, staff was friendly. Only thing we did not enjoy was the H10 people who was constantly trying to get you to go to those timeshare meetings. Overall it was a great experience for us, we relaxed the whole week and this resort will be beautiful once all the construction is complete.

Beautiful resort

This was an amazing well designed resort. The food was outstanding many options from Italian to steakhouse even the buffet had unlimited options. The grounds were beautiful, clean large rooms, the pools wonderful, lazy river was fun, staff very friendly and so many drinks options with brand name alcohol. We travel twice a year and this was one of the nicest hotels we have visited.

Ocean El Faro

This is a beautiful resort built on a not so beautiful beach! Our room was beautiful, probably one of the nicest we have stayed in. We had a balcony on the third floor overlooking the pools. There are three pools and a children’s water slide play area. All are very well kept and very clean. There is also a lazy river which was fun. There is work in progress and everyone is trying very hard to please. The casino is a disappointment, 6 or 7 very old machines, visited only once. The lobby [... read more] and decor throughout the resort is spectacular. The food was okay, nothing to brag @bout, but lots of choices and we didn’t go hungry.

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.

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!

Ocean El Faro Resort

The resort was okay. I wouldn't say great or exceptional as the resort only opened about 3 months ago when I vacationed there. Highlights of the resort was the lazy river, the pool and entertainment area. Pool had a swim up bar, friendly staff and a ton of games and entertainment to enjoy. The food at the buffet was wonderful and contained a ton of options. You would never go hungry. The restaurants were also good. My favorite was the Blue Moon and Sakura. Amazing food and service all around. So [... read more]me downfalls of the resort was that it was new and so there was construction right beside the resort. They are building an adult section to Ocean El Faro so there was quite a bit of noise (not too bad though). Our backyard to our hotel faced the adult edition (under construction of course) so most of the time I didn't feel comfortable enjoying the hammock swing that was in the backyard. I found the services at some of the restaurants very poor. Customer service and interpersonal skills were lacking in the hosts/hostesses and waiters/waitresses. Once we were seated at our table at the Margarita restaurant for example, it took 25 minutes for the waiter to say hi and greet us; another 30 minutes for someone else to take our order; and then another hour for our food to arrive. Other tables around me who were seated after I had been, had been served bread, water and wine before my table. I also don't particularly like being bombarded and constantly asked by H10 associates if I'm interested in time shares. The beach was small and I think still under construction so it lacked. Water was very rough and so I didn't spend much time at the beach. Overall, I enjoyed my time there.

Disappointing experience

The hotel and ground designs are magnificent but as we started to look around the grounds, it is far from being finished. I knew this was a new resort and they had a soft launch in November 2018 but I was hoping that by march break it would be completed but I was wrong. We had a great experience in H10 Ocean resort in Mexico so we thought this would be almost as good. I was disappointed, not only was construction still going on but the beach was full of garbage (construction & litter) and it  [... read more]does not look like the picture posted. When you look around the room you can tell it was quickly slapped together as tiles were falling off, door stopper for the shower was missing as were some of the cupboard hinges and bedside lightbulbs They were understaffed and their training was minimal. Many of them did not speak or understand English and all expected a tip. I do not mind tipping as I know wages are low but I do expect a certain amount of service. It did no matter if we tipped, service only had one speed, their speed. Internet was not working gin our room for 7 of the 10 days we were there and the resort had many power outages which lasted a few minutes. We also experienced loss of water pressure and hot water but was resolved within a few hours. Another annoying thing were the salesmen selling you timeshare, they were relentless and do try to trick you to come to a "VIP breakfast" etc... We did enjoy our holiday though as the weather was great and did make the best of it. Maybe in a year or so when they're full up and running they will figure it out.

Polishing Needed

This Resort needs lots of polishing. Staff needs proper training. Bell Boys we found out don't get tips, with good reason as they do little to help guests. We had to unload our bags, ask for someone to help to get them to our room and waited quite a while for someone to finally take us to our room. Doors to patio wouldn't lock, we were on the ground floor. Lock was installed upside down once someone finally came to fix it after numerous requests. Mini bar wasn't stocked daily unless we went to [... read more] find the person who does it. When we asked the person usually forgot. Wasn't able to get into a restaurant that didn't require a reservation, tables inside were empty and we were told they were full. Not impressed. Food in Italian restaurant didn't have any pasta, they told us it wasn't available, we had to settle for fish and steak. Steak restaurant delivered our dinners not as we ordered, and plastic wrap was in my husbands neal. We complained to guest services. Thankfully Ivin took care of the situation. Food wasn't all that great. Lobby bar had the best staff and was a pleasure to go there in the evening. When checking out we had to bring our own luggage without any Bell Boys help. The pools were beautiful, lazy river lots of fun. Beach was very small, rocky and sand very hard. Next time we will go to a resort that has been around for a while, this resort only opened in December, needs lots of polishing. H10 staff was soliciting daily until you told them that you had the sermon they wanted you to attend for 20 minutes. It was annoying. Not impressed. Rooms were beautiful.

Top notch resort

This place was top notch room we had an ocean view room and it was amazing. Although this is a brand new resort and still under construction it was clean and fun. The food was really good I would recommend this to anyone

Resort is amazing!!!

Hotel was amazing! Brand new everything. However, there is still some construction going on, and some things aren't complete/open. Since it is a new resort, there weren't that many people there either. Place is immaculate though! Rooms are nice, and big. Theres a casino, bowling alley, huge kids water park, lazy river, pool bar, beach, all amazing. Lots of options to eat, and food was really good! I definitely do not have any bad things to say about the resort. When its fully complete, and the a [... read more]dults only side is up and running, this place will be beyond amazing! Just try to ignore the people trying to get you to buy into the "timeshare". Was a good price for March break, but only because place is new and incomplete.

Will be amazing resort when finished

Very impressive so far as it is not finished. The grounds so far are very well kept. Rooms comfortable, well kept by cleaning staff who were very polite as were the dining staff employees. Hard workers. Buffet meals were a good variety & well prepared.We enjoyed the pools and lazy river, bowling, massages and evening entertainment. More gift shops would have been appreciated.

Ocean el faro

This hotel was beautiful. Staff was amazing and good was delicious. Although it is still not complete you were not aware of the interruption. The landscape was beautiful. The casino was still not opened but the rest of the entertainment was.

Ocean El Faro

Although they are still building and not fully functioning we really had a great time. We loved Carlos and Sandy as our bartenders for the week! They made it so much fun! We also loved Lidia who was our hostess most of the time!! The only complaint I have is that the H10 people, the spa people and the excursion people were bugging us way too much. This was very annoying for us all. All and all we had a fantastic time!!

I would classify the resort as "GOOD"

The resort was beautiful and the pool were fun. BUT the service was absolutely terrible. The people at the front desk were beyond slow and never seemed to be able to answer general questions. The service at the restaurants was very very slow, and the food was OK but definately not great. The Sunwing represenative for the hotel was extremely rude. Did not have the pages in the book for departures and could not confirm our pickup time for departure until a few hours before the pickup. The [... read more] weather was great which was the reason for going to Dominican.

Resort still in progress

check in requires someone that can speak english they seemed overwhelmed and they was only 8 people from our bus checking in and we had to come back at 3 which we expected but the other couple we traveled with their room wasn't ready @ 3 but no explanation took a few clerks to figure out what to do and they didn't advise us just all of a sudden produced a key card the bell boy that took us to room had excellent english & personality no beach to walk on except in front of complex and still [... read more] has construction debris in the sand water not clear like bavaro beach a lot of pestering from privilege reps they said they get $10 if you give good review mild pestering from spa reps casino not finished bowling alley not finished lazy river very nice glad I brought my own float( after reading a review before we left) as there were only 2 flutter boards when we arrived later in week they had about 6 actual tubes pool bar staff friendly pool waitress always polite and friendly, lobby bar staff rude ( asked for water the reply was bar not open!! yet serving coffee and another evening i asked for bottle of sparkling water to take with me since none in my room would only give me a glass of it yet that they poured out of plastic single serve bottle) rooms very nice & new modern a lot of usb outlets very quiet, swinging chair on balcony nice took few days to get water & soda in our fridge had to chase down the man with cart that was filling some other rooms a lot of different tile work in resort but also a lot of groat on walls & floors not cleaned up a shame for brand new place seen a lot of bad workmanship beautiful lobby stone floors with smashed sections in stone right in main walkway decor very different loved all the different lighting and chairs throughout resort

Nice resort, poor service

This hotel was beautiful and nice and new however the service was very poor. We brought American money to tip and wanted to break it into smaller bills and no one would do it for us. We finally found Manuel at the lobby bar and he was great. He treated us like kings and queens and gave excellent customer service. He really seemed like he loved his job. We also had a hard time getting into the restaurants at night. We would make a reservation and come back for it and they would make us wait for 1 [... read more]0-15 mins longer multiple times. The first night we waited for an hour and a half till 9:45 and then finally walked into the restaurant and forced ourselves in because they closed at 10pm and we were afraid we wouldn’t get dinner. Pools were amazing and lots of them. Lazy river would have been nice except you have to supply your own tubes. Not sure if I would go back.