Sunscape Dominicus La Romana

The google review for this place says it's 5 star. While nice, it is NOT 5 star. 3.5-4.0 at best. We booked our spot for Feb in November. It cost us ~$1500 per person. I feel that this was a fair value for what we paid. The gripes below are mostly minor annoyances and didn't really hurt our trip. I checked those last minute sites the week before we left and the price was $3500 per person. I would be LIVID if I had paid that much, thinking it was 5 star. Use the information as you see fit. Apparently they are not "fully open" yet, (Feb 2024) as they are renovating since the sale. Perhaps that impacted the efficiency, but it could also mean more shortages if they were full.

In short: for the right price, I would go back.

The Good:

-Place is lovely
-Beach is great to sit, stroll, and look at
-a few small shops and restaurants just west of the beach selling things at a better value - bring your haggling skills
-Pool - big and has water slides, and a separate kids area
-CLEAN
-mostly great selection of food
- many restaurants to pic from
- Margaritas at the Tiki Taco restaurant
- Alvin at the burger stand

The Decent:

Beach: Bring aqua socks, as there are lots of stabby things in the water for bare feet
Shows: There is a large theatre showing something most nights
Food: Lots to pick from, *mostly good portion sizes
There is one small shop open 24 hours that has sandwiches and snacks for the after bar munchies. Grab mustard and mayo packets from the other restaurants during the day, or they will be very dry munchies
lots and lots and lots of HAM

The Bad:

- Most of the staff seemed annoyed all of the time. In Cuba the staff all seemed genuinely happy to have you there.
- local coke and sprite taste odd compared to US/Canada version
- The english skills of most of the staff were poor making it frustrating to order food, drinks, or ask for help. Simple requests like "rum & coke" or "pina colada" would often result in mystery drinks showing up
- Outside of a couple of bottles, it's all generic alcohol
- not enough chairs at poolside
- after about 08:00, there were no towels available. Every once in a while a few towels would show up, resulting in a mad rush to go and hoard them
- everything is slow and inefficient. I don't mean "island time", I mean chaotic and disorganized. Especially in the restaurants. If you are the kind of person that like to park next to the pool, give one person a big tip to keep you drinks full without asking, you might have a bad time
- no mojitos anywhere for the 1st half of the week
- vanilla ice cream always had raisins in it
- in room fridges would not get re-stocked without putting a couple extra dollars under the empties
- you could get orange fanta in your room, but nowhere else.
- there is no way to get any real food before 07:00. If you book early morning excursions, I suggest getting pizza from the buffet at roughly 22:00 and putting in your room fridge. The do not offer packed lunches at all. You can get some paper plates from the hot dog bus to "wrap" them.
- all the restaurants close at 23:00 [Details]

Beautiful see and surrounding nature, but old hotel in desperate need for major renovation.
2-3 stars at the most. [Details]

As much as we enjoyed the VIP pool, beach and restaurant/food, we were disappointed with our room . We booked adult only and the fact that there were multiple families with young kids booked in the same block was wrong. That's not fair to the people who worked hard for the money for the upgrade. When we asked to be moved (we didn't unpack for 3 days because we kept being told to go back) we were told there was nothing available which we know what a lie. Also, our room was not what we booked as we did but get what was described on site. No tub, slippers, refills of beverages etc.
So disappointed. [Details]

I used the premium Internet because free Internet service was so poor. 10 usd per 24hrs but they charged by machine not by room therefore I used my laptop and cellphone, they charged me 20 usd per day. No where was written so no logical mindset is working.

I was travelling alone they gave me two twin beds. I asked to change one queen bed but they refused. Electricity plug didn't work but only in the bathroom. Switch was broken my room half lamps were not working.

They have oy high stiff pillow, if you expect a beach and a pool and a simple vacay, it is ok but do not expect more then that. Service was so poor.

Always no beach towel.. [Details]

They had a little trouble finding our reservation , not sure why, Hydro in the whole area was out when we arrived, we were early so got checked in then went for some lunch, Resort grounds are beautiful lots of palm trees & greenery ,lots of duck, geese turkeys & birds, our room was in the 300 building which is very central to everything. Room could use some updating but bed was comfortable & it was clean. Lots of variety on the buffet but most food was cool as it is at most resorts. we did 3 al a cartes, Brazilian,Mexican & Japanese , all were excellent, Drinks are great, pool was cool but refreshing, Nice beach but most of it has vanished due to high water level, ocean water was warm but kinda rocky so wear water shoes. entertainment crew was fantastic, nightly shows good especially the Michael Jackson show. every night there is entertainment & dancing in the central Plaza, where there is also a coffee bar BUT we found no, no smoking areas & the smoke chocked us out many nights, lots & lots of smokers, Many many french, russians, chechz, & Spanish people, not much english, overall it was a great vacation & I would recommend it [Details]

My experience at this hotel was abysmal. I would never return, nor recommend it to anyone. I reached the character limit in the weak points section, but I was no where near finished. During our stay, we changed rooms twice. The first time we switched rooms was before the first night. Our old room had two double beds instead of a king bed, the room was littered with mosquitoes, and the walls were scuffed and stained. In our new room, we had the king bed we requested, and no mosquitoes. However, the AC wasn't working, the shower had used soap bars from the previous guest, and the TV had static and horizontal lines. We decided to stay in the room for the night despite the AC not working. We went through a lot in the first 3 nights, from staff being sarcastic and disrespectful, food being barely edible, unsanitary plates and cutlery, having sand in my pizza, getting an upset stomach, water not running in the room, toilet not flushing in the room, our room being cleaned without having towels for 3 hours because the hotel ran out or shower towels, the list goes on and on. After 3 nights, we've had quite enough and we wanted to go home. There was nothing enjoyable about our trip. Long story short, we eventually got an upgraded room (with it's own set of issues) and a VIP bracelet (which they initially wanted to sell to us for a discounted $20USD per night per person, but we didn't fall for that sales pitch). The new room had paper thin walls and large gaps in the doors, so we were able to hear a whisper from outside, the hallway, or the rooms next to us/over us. The TV also didn't work well in the new room. The VIP bracelet entitled us to better food, premium liquor, room service, premium wifi, and a separate pool. That was the highlight of the trip. Despite the upgrade, I would not recommend it, especially for the price! [Details]

First time at a Be Live. Wonderful location and immaculate grounds. Obvious that renovations were ongoing but not distracting to guests. Staff are all curtious and try to be helpful but tend to blow you off instead of getting help if language barrier gets difficult. Disappointed that al a cartes were not options despite try to book when the service desk opened. Most frustrating that despite claiming all inclusive it isn't and feel the chains website should indicate that the resort is super smoker friendly. Instead of dedicated areas for smoking a person had to search out non smoking areas. Very impressed with presence of security 24/7 would return to another Be Live but would need to be much cheaper. [Details]

A hotel which puts policy first before the customer experience, will never get my $ again. I travelled there with my husband and 5year old son. First room we were in was the Deluxe with king. It's really a standard room that's been remodelled. Fine except for the 2 inch cockroach and broken balcony door.
Most concerning was the lack of customer service and empathy once reported to the hotel. We paid for the upgrade and moved two times before being happy with the room. Overall, don't recommend this hotel unless you're looking for a budget vacation, arn't picky with service (eg. waiters not offering coffee when you sit for breakfast or a small percentage of the staff speaking English, slightly below average quality of food) [Details]

Overall the stay was pretty good, however I did have a few concerns. The hotel is about 2 hours away from the airport and although the ride there was ALRIGHT, going back was TERRIBLE. I have never been so scared (and carsick) in a vehicle in my life. Another concern was some of staff (most were fabulous), but the man in charge of the towels and beach balls kept trying to tease us and not give us our things (two young women) and one time when my friend just grabbed the ball as he was tossing it in the air and teasing us, he reacted by grabbing my arm and wouldnt let me go, no matter how much I pleased. I had a giant red mark the rest of the day! Another issue we had was with regards to the water sports. There were no lifejackets in one of the boats and they advertise on the website that you can jetskii (which happened to swing our vote to this particular resort) and it turns out it is ILLEGAL there and we couldn't do it. Oh yes, and they also advertised about snorkling at a ship wreck and then the man who was leading the tour had no idea about any ship wreck, needless to day we didn't see one. Oh and finally, when you buy a bottle of wine at an a la carte, they won't allow you to pay for it at the time, but only when you check out. When I checked out nothing was charged to me (and I assumed it had been) so I had a phonecall at 12 30am in Canada waking up my family the following day saying that they need to fix up my bill. [Details]

The resort was everything we expected.
The Vera Club is something that people not belonging to it should be made aware of before they book or at least upon arrival. This is some sort of Italian club that all others are shunned from. They have their own section of beach, their own buffet and evening entertainment and their own animation staff. Because this is never explained to you we saw a lot of embarassing situations occur when non Vera Club members tried to eat at their buffett or participate in their activities. The Vera Club guests on the other hand have access to everything the resort has to offer. This is not a good way to run an all inclusive resort. It's either all inclusive or it isn't. Be Live Canoa is not! If you wander to their section or even their side of the beach you will feel the cold, unfriendly stares even from the staff. Please make potential guests aware of this segregation so they can decide whether it's acceptable or not before booking. [Details]

I can understand that some people had lots of fun there and they liked the food. We did not. It is not a nightmare or anything like that, but the music was too loud everywhere. There was a phone rining all the time! Nice infraestructure, but missing lots of maintenance and needed upgrades pretty much everywhere. Beach was nice, but small and crowded. We had a good time regardless, because we lower as much as get could our expectections, but we are not coming back .... ever. It is not worth the money we saved. [Details]

The resort was beautiful and the beach was nice, but the staff and the food left us disappointed. The locals take over the resort on the weekends, so forget getting service from the staff. There was only 2 restaurants to choose from, as the Vera Club is only for Italian guests and the other ones were closed. The buffett got boring after eating the same thing for 3 meals everyday. No one speaks english, and even with a tip, the maids will only pull the sheets up on your bed and forget to bring you fresh towels. We made the best of our trip, but were itching to get home by day 5. This was anything but relaxing and has left a poor taste in our mouths for all Be Live resorts. The price is cheap, and the resort shows it. Please don't waste your money...spend the couple extra bucks and get a real vacation. We disregarded the reviews and regret is terrible. [Details]

We had a wonderful time at Oasis Canoa. The location is awesome and the staff works hard to give you a great experience. The pool and beach are amazing. The food was plentiful and varied so you didn't get bored. This will certainly be a new favourite for our family. [Details]

Hotel and grounds are kept in good shape. Little to choose from in the way of restaurants. [Details]

Great food. Great pool and beach. Lots of mosquitos. AC in room did not work very well, very hot. Staff was extremely friendly! Great time, would definitely go back! [Details]