Viva Dominicus Beach By Wyndham

First of all, I got debilitating food poisoning after eating at a seafood restaurant here, so that's that. Also, we had asked for honeymoon accommodation, which included a bottle of wine, appetizer platter, fresh fruit, early check in, etc. But we had to wait around for hours for our rooms. And when we finally got to the room, it had none of the honeymoon items, and had two beds. We were promised a new room with honeymoon items with a king bed the day after. Next day arrived, we did get a new room. And instead of the honeymoon goodies that was promised, we got: two plastic cups of orange juice, two plastic cups of what tasted like gogurt, three store bought croissants, and a plate - a PLATE of jam with a cling wrap. It was a shoddiest hodgepodge of things, what a joke. So honeymooners, beware. Front staff seem lazy, determined not to help the customers. The crew are friendly enough and working hard to restore the damages to the ground after the hurricane. It's loud at all hours of day and night with booming music and loud group activities by the pool. [Details]

Generally, this resort was okay.
The rooms were very clean and nice. Water pressure and toilets were never good. The cleaning ladies were great though.
Drinks from the bar were hit or miss. They are very understaffed so we often had to wait about 5-15 mins for a drink. The taste (and sometimes ingredients) of the drinks varied from each bartender heavily. As well, the sweetener in their coconut milk (for example, this coconut milk is used in pina coladas) is a laxative. There was one day I had 2 pina coladas and I suffered for about 3 days with stomach aches and having to use the bathroom often. I heard other guests having this issue as well (there was always a line for the ladies restrooms).
The buffet food was hit or miss as well. Some foods were great and others were not good at all.
The snack bars had very bland food.
In general, the resort was always clean. They kept the beach and sidewalks very clean.
The beach was absolutely gorgeous. Very clear water and that beautiful turquoise colour of the healthy ocean. Very salty, however, which was to be expected of course.
There were lots of crabs and hermit crabs which were fun to see (most of my pictures from the vacation were of crabs). There were a few geckos.
Quest services were awful. For reservations for the restaurants, you had to make them through guest services. There was only ever 2 staff working and they were slow. We always had to wait about 20 mins just to make a reservation. Front desk usually had 1 or 2 staff who were slow as well.
There was very few staff that spoke English.
We did 2 excursions. One to scape park and one to Casa de Campo/Catalina Island.
We were very excited for scape park as me and my boyfriend are very into nature/animals. To start off, the hotel staff that we booked the excursion with was unclear about where got picked up. He told us to wait in the lobby. But after waiting a while we saw the bus just outside the resort (near security) and it passed right by. We went out of the resort and talked to the security guard. He said the bus will come back but you have to wait here. So turns out we don't get picked up in the lobby but outside the resort. We arrived at scape park and it seemed very small and mostly zip lining (which we told the staff we booked with that my boyfriend is afraid of heights). We were disappointed for about half of the day. Then we met up with a fellow Canadian group of 3. One of them wanted to do zip lining and the other 2 didn't. So I went zip lining with the guy who wanted to zip line and my boyfriend went the other 2. They discovered a whole other area of the park! Turned out it is a lot bigger but the map is misleading and unclear. So by the time we finished zip lining and the other 3 discovered the other side of the park it was time to leave. So it turned into a great day but we wished we understood the layout of the park better. As well the staff we booked the excursion told us to bring runners. Most of the park is water/swimming related. He should have told us to bring water shoes...
The second excursion was Catalina Island. To start off, we went outside of the resort to security and they told us our ride came 15 minutes ago (8:10) but our ticket said our pick up time was at 8:25. So we decided to hope and wait. Our ride didn't come after waiting 30 mins. We contacted the staff we booked with and he was very confused and decided to call us a cab. We later learned that everyone else for this excursion was messed up because the company decided to change the meeting point last minute. After that huge issue the whole excursion was great! The sights and the staff were great! There was also a private photographer that basically did a photoshoot with me and my boyfriend so we decided to purchase the pictures. We paid 60USD for pictures of snorkeling and everything else. Turned out to be about 200 pictures that he sent us and they were all great! Pricey, but worth it.
Rides to and from the airport went very smoothly. [Details]

Towels were removed at 8am and returned at approx 4pm. bedding not changed once in a week. Service not included. No water or beverages given at meals. There were only two bars and only two bartenders which meant that there were long lineups. Employee said that Canadians were too much trouble shortly after arrival. Listen to many people complain when waiting to leave to go home. Sounded like the staff deal with the same complaints again and again. Beautiful beach. Great gym staff. [Details]

Pleasantly surprised with this resort, having been to la romana before we knew what to expect beach wise. Food was good, variety and tasty. No beach bar, depending on what part of the beach you are at, it could be a bit of a walk to get a drink of any kind. The resort is wide, lots of walking, but also accessible for people with disabilities. Great hard working staff. Told that the rock climbing wall was for adults or kids club children only, therefore our kids couldn't use it and were extremely disappointed. Tried a specialty restaurant and walked out, food not so great at the specialty, stuck to buffet after that. Workers always cleaning and maintaining public areas of resort. [Details]

Very relaxing, great beach & food. [Details]

we have been to Viva, we were not expecting 'quality' it is what it is, it is a great place for us as we go off the resort a lot to see family and the
bus vans are right there for 60 pesos!
so we like the resort for that reason
also enjoy it as we can finds folks that speak creole/they are usually friendlier/we have in the past had folks stay for a day/last time they cheated us charging us $100 U.S.This year there was a girl named Gladys at the front desl found out cost was 42.00/day ..so there are a number of dishonest people there/perhaps no longer there. Also not a drop of coffee in the room!!!!!!!!ugh this is minor but no salt/pepper on the tables/ a cental pepper grinder but no pepper in it usually..petty i suppose..but [Details]

Have always been very happy with the hotle service [Details]

The grounds are very tropical and there are flamingos, turtles, ducks and iguanas around the pond. You will need insect repellent as I don't think the spray the grounds.
The rooms are a good size but have very basic amenities.
In the dinning room there is not a big selection of food but it is very good. It would be nice if they would have the smoothies and freshly squeezed juices at breakfast.
The pool is nothing special and small but it over
looks the ocean. The beach is very hard to walk on and if you have bad knees it is hard to get into and out of the water. There are lots of chairs on the beach and we never had a problem getting towels. The lobby area is very smoky and not very comfortable to sit and have a drink in. Over all we enjoyed our vacation. [Details]

Our first time in the Dominican, we will be returning and most likely to this resort. [Details]

experienced room confusion at check in assigned room was occupied given another room but a few minutes later was asked not to sleep there and asigned another room which was not set up for occupation one day later we got a room for which we paid for after speaking to hotel manager on several occations [Details]

Overall recommmended... [Details]

Très beau site, la chambre correct mais un peu petite. Nourriture pas beaucoup de variété mais on se nourrit quand même bien. Très belle plage!!!! le personnel... super! disco à la belle étoile...capottant. Pizzéria pour une fringale après la disco...fantastique et délicieuses. Saona en catamaran...magnifique et le rum coke était excellent. ;-) Nous y retournerons au Viva Dominicus Beach c'est certain. [Details]

When we arrived we were taken to our room which was strangely located outside the walls of the resort. It also had no running water at the time of our arrival and was pretty run down. We figured this is because we bought our tickets last minute on sale and we anticipated this may happen. We spoke to our agent however, and were luckily relocated into the resort in a much nicer room with a better view. The resort itself is beautiful, great gardens and hut/villas along the beach. The nights were lovely as all of the resort was decorated for the nightly dinners and dances. Colourful lights and lots of music. The staff were friendly and the entertainers were fantastic! Plenty to do, make sure you check the schedules for daily activities as there is no shortage of entertainment and things to see and do. Unfortunately the flight we took landed in Punta Cana so we had to take a long bus ride to La Romana (1hr45mins) but it was very scenic as it went through the towns so we were able to see the local life in Dominican. Be advised that this resort caters mainly to Italians and French. There are very few English speakers. But everybody there was very friendly and approachable. I definitely recommend this resort to those who appreciate Italian food and can speak either Italian, French or better yet, Spanish. It makes thins much more comfortable. When booking a room, speak to your agent about ensuring that you receive the room you desire. Apparently if you go to the Wyndham website there is an option to join a membership program where you get really good deals on the extras that are not in the all incl. package, I believe you also get priority in choosing your room (So we learned from other visitors on the resort). Do NOT drink the tap water. You may experience some stomach upset during your stay because of the tap water used in preparing the foods, so I would recommend taking something to prevent any kind of diarrhea, it seemed to be a common problem. For anyone traveling with money that is anything but American, I suggest converting it BEFORE arriving in Dominican, because their conversion rates are absurd and you will end up losing about 1/4 of your cash upon arrival just in conversion fees. Everything is first converted to American dollars, then to Dom. Rep. pesos. When we went it was avg. 32Dom.pesos per $1US. We tried to convert $200 Canadian and were told it was equivalent to $150 US even though the Canadian is at par with the US$ and then they charged extra to convert the US to Dom. pesos. They do not accept Canadian $ anywhere except the conversion booth. [Details]

will not stay at wyndham again [Details]

didnt like all the time shares I was being offered and badgered with. [Details]

Beach, pools and ambience was very good.
The room that I stayed in the 700's was aacross the street from the resort, there was a entrance way with security to get into the resort. The morning we left I had to walk through the street with my young daugther because the doorway into the resort was closed.
The room left lots to be desired outdated, and no joke 1 lightbulb hanging from the ceiling,very dark room no water pressure, lack of towels. [Details]

A part of the resort is called "Viva Village", originally they put us in a room there - it was not good, outside of the compound and with no visible security, and the room would be rated less than a one star, after complaining to our rep from Sunwing, Enrique was able to move us to a nicer room within the compound and nearer to the beach and all the facilities. So once moved we were pleased and enjoyed our stay. [Details]

This resort was beautiful and the food was great...but that's it. We are canadian and we were the minority. None of the staff spoke / understood english. They catered to the Italian's and the French and spoke very fluent in those languages.
When we arrived at 5pm, we waited 3 hours for 2 rooms. The hotel or Sunquest - overbooked us.The staff did not offer anything to eat or drink - we weren't even allowed on the grounds until we had rooms. The rooms were ok, bathrooms very small. Our room had no balcony and we were a long way from everything. The next morning we met with our Sunquest rep and he made promises to us to help rectify the overbooking situation which never happened. We never saw him again for the rest of the week. No coffee makers in the rooms - only 2 towels in the bathroom ( I always stole more from the maids cart since there was 4 of us in a room) We were promised better / cleaner rooms after the weekend - after the locals left the resort Sunday night. This never happened either. The bartenders never paid attention to the customers who spoke english unless you tipped. We were alway the last to be served. 2 days the hotel had no hot water for showers, and on the last day, the Sunquest rep was not there again and the bus did not come to pick us up from the hotel for the airport. They eventually sent 2 taxis and we arrived 45 min before departure.
The grounds, beaches, entertainment and food were all fantastic, but the language barrier and front desk issues were enough for me not to go back. [Details]

Travelled with small children to this resort and found the experience enjoyable. I asked for a crib and promptly received one in our room. We were in a bungalow which faced very lush gardens and was located seconds from the beach, infinity pool and open air restaurant named La Roca restaurant which was perfect for lunch as it was not as crowded as the main buffet restaurant. The bungalow rooms are great for families since they are very private as they only share one wall. The balcony had lots of shade and privacy.
We ate at the main buffet for breakfast and dinner and always had a lot to choose from. Pancakes, bacon, an omlette station, lots of fresh fruit, great pastries and homemade donuts the kids loved. The La Roca restaurant was great for fresh fish dishes, grilled beef, lots of
vegetable dishes, oven baked pizza and ice cream.
The kids loved the pools but they were a bit cold and the ocean was warmer. There are reefs right off the beach and they provided some great snorkeling.
If you forget inflatable toys for the kids, the Viva store had great prices for items such as beach balls, goggles and vests.
All in all we enjoyed our stay and loved the food options for the kids. The brick oven pizza restaurant was open all night and went well with a glass of beer from the self serve tap. [Details]

I'd like to address some of the reviews about this place that I've been reading.
The guests were all European. This is true. My friend and I went for Reading Week (middle of February) and about 95% of the guests were from Italy, France, Switzerland, etc. This being the case, knowledge of Spanish, Italian or French is a highly valued asset (luckily I know all three).
That being said, a lot of the guests understood English so if there ever was a time where my friend or I couldn't communicate with the staff/guests, our English passed us.
The shows were amazing. Comedy at its finest. The dancing was excellently choreographed and the shows well planned. There was no sense of humor problem (the case with many Euro-dominated resorts), my friend and I found ourselves dying of laughter at the comedy acts.
TIP EVERYONE. This is essential to speedy and quality service on your trip. The bar and restaurant staff don't change very often, so if you tip and make yourself familiar with them, you'll get your drinks first and your food quickly (otherwise you'll be standing at the bar waiting for your drink for upwards of 15 minutes during peak times).
The resort is nicely laid out with washrooms, bars and security prominent throughout. My friend and I are cigarette smokers (like 80% of the guests) so ashtrays were everywhere too. If you don't smoke, I urge you to become tolerant of second hand smoke because unless you're in a place where it's prohibited (the theater, restaurants) you'll be breathing it in.
Housekeeping came every morning, which was a blessing at times but a problem at others because even if we put the "don't disturb" sign on our door, many days we'd wake up to a maid trying to get into our room to clean. They do an excellent job though, and actually do more than what's expected (straightening our shoes, leaving a heart made of towels on our bed, etc).
The food was above average, definitely not what a North American would be accustomed to, but that being said, it was still good. The a-la-carte restaurants were staffed by friendly waiters and the food was almost expertly plated and prepared. The buffet was another story though...I'll put it into perspective for you. Say you like pasta. You go to the buffet for pasta, and surely enough, there are three different types available. The only strange thing about the pasta is that one ingredient is prominent and unusual, but the dish is still great. Think of peas in pasta, or figs on pizza, or pears on baked ham, or other unusual culinary combinations like that. In other words, the buffet food is still good, just unusual.
The staff are very friendly and courteous, as long as you work with them. Their English isn't very good, so be patient and take your time with them and surely enough they'll satisfy your requests.
The animation team is great! They are fun, young and full of energy. They make friends with all of the guests and know how to party.
The shops just outside of the resort offer great souvenirs at very cheap prices (you can bargain), I ended up with two shotglasses, a CD, cigars, Mama Juana and a carton of Marlboros for under $60 US. If you're from North America, bring US money, they don't take Canadian. If you're not interested in buying anything, then be friendly, perhaps take a walk through the stores (the staff will insist you come take a look) and politely decline. My friend and I became popular on the resort because we kept our word and bought something from every store. You don't have to do this, but it's good to know a few locals, you'll never know when it comes in handy.
The pizza in the pizzeria is actually pretty good, and if you want to partake in true Euro culture, then go to the disco (La Locura is the one on resort) and after last call, head to the Pizzeria for pizza and unlimited beers until about 3 AM. This is when you'll meet others. Many nights, my friend and I would sit at a table with 10 youth from France or Italy or elsewhere, just talking about culture differences and other things. There are plenty of Presidente taps around the resort so you'll never be short of a drink (Presidente is the beer on tap, it's the local beer, it's VERY good and readily available. I'd compare it to Miller Genuine Draft).
If you smoke and don't have a strict brand preference, you can get Marlboro reds, Lucky Strikes, Camels and others at VERY cheap prices. It's a steal. If not, then bring your own.
Since my friend and I are university students, we found that the disco was great and the drinks were properly made. We're kids though...the middle age crowd may take this review with a grain of salt because a 40 year old would have a different experience than a 19 year old.
The Europeans are NOT pushy, they're just different. Embrace it, don't ridicule it. Never did I experience rudeness in the buffet, or at the bar, or anywhere. I never got shoved out of line for anything, or treated rudely, or anything. Actually, my friend and I found ourselves making friends with European youth and young adults on the trip (great people!). As I said before though, it's definitely an asset if you can speak another language.
The sports, activities and excursions were very well structured and fun. The sand is bright, the water clear, and the sea life beautiful, so I definitely recommend shelling out the $60 extra to go snorkeling off of Isla Saona.
Our room was...quaint. It was somewhat outdated but outside of sleeping and showering, we didn't really mind it. It was located across the street with the shops on it, just on the edge of the resort. If you end up here and it bothers you, it's safe, there's a 24 hour security guard out front, and it's very well lit so you're not totally alone. I actually didn't feel a need for security most of the time though; the resort, locals and guests behaved and there were never any incidents.
Bring a thermos or similar washable, portable large mug or travel cup for your beer because the cups at the bars are rather small and you'll find yourself filling up three times to equal a pint.
To the people who gave this place a bad review: suck it up. It's a nice, quaint resort on a beautiful beach (YOU DON'T NEED TO GET TO THE BEACH EARLY TO GET A CHAIR, THERE'S PLENTY) with a whole other culture than a five star resort, where wealthy North Americans go for a vacation. At Viva Wyndham, you feel the culture. You become friends with the Dominicanos. You meet Europeans. You get a sense of life outside of North America, and that's what a vacation is after all, isn't it? To escape? It's nice meeting others from Canada or the US (we met other Canadians on the trip within the first day) but at the same time, it's an experience all its own to meet, party and enjoy yourself with people other than Canadians and Americans.
Book with confidence, enjoy your trip and leave a good review. This place deserves it. [Details]

Actually we stayed at the Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace. The grounds were great with ponds, fish, flamingos and peakcocks running around. The beach beautiful and sandy. The room had a free electronic safe, iron, ironing board, fridge with coke, sprite and water, refilled everyday. There were two queen beds very comfortable, the pillows were a bit hard to sleep on but you get used to them.
Great, nicely stocked shops inside the resorts and just outside the gates. Being at the Palace we were able to use the facility of both the Wyndham Beach and Wyndham Palace. The nightly entertainment was very well presented, with a different show every night, guaranteed you wont see the same show for 14 days. Various activities for everyone.
The flight with Air Transat was great with a free champagne drink, hot meal, free movies and all around good service [Details]

If you are Italian you do not need to read this review, you will be well taken care of. For everybody else in the world, the resort is beautiful and the beach is amazing and if that's all you need you will be fine because the service in restaurants is practically not existant to not Italians, you have to get your own coffee and clean and set up your own table. At the front desk take what you get and forget about making any changes and don't even hope to see any of your request. The answer is the same for everyone: the hotel is fully booked.
So overall we had an amazing time because we went there to relax and did not let any of these things get to us, if you are like that and don't care about geting you own coffe and such you will be fine.
Food selection is good, there is something for everyone but the taste is so so. Some of us came back with a diarrhea.
The animation team is graet and fun, the shows are lots of fun, and the cleaning staff is wonderful,but take some of you own toilet paper from home because they are not allowed to give you more if you still have some and then if you run out you have to chase them to get some but its not their fault so make sure you tip them, they work very hard.

Overall great vacation if you are relaxed kind of person. [Details]

We had read reviews and generally take with a grain of salt. When we go away for a holiday, we want to relax and enjoy the surroundings. The grounds were beautiful and that is where the holiday ends. We booked through Sunwing(they should re-evaluate offering this resort). The staff at this resort were very rude and inconsiderate, the Sunwing rep was unavailable and stated to get better quality of amenities-buy the Viva timeshare option. You received smiles and small talk only when going off the resort to shop. On the resort they never greeted or talked to you. The only people that were interested in you were the reps to sell time shares. They were all over the place, constantly asking you to come with them. If Viva took the number of sales reps and added servers, housekeepers, ancillary staff the resort might be nicer. The staff at Viva told us to get a better room we should consider not booking through a travel agent, but rather through them. The bungalow we had needed Mike Holmes. None of the doors worked on the bureau, the walls had dirt and mold, the taps barely worked, no fridge, clock, coffee maker. The poor maid worked so hard to make the best of it, but she was so over worked. We were lucky our air conditioner worked, 3 other couples(Canadians) had much worse rooms than us and nothing was ever done. Try and get a drink, either liquor of coffee, you would always wait upwards of 5/10 minutes. Main resort beach bar had 2 servers, the other bars had 1. That is a good way to conserve on liquor but poor if you come out of the water and want a beer. We did meet 4 other couples that spoke English. English was never used by staff. This was a problem frequently and you would here snide remarks from staff AMERICANOS!!. This resort was well below our expectations. We understand there are different standards of service in each country but this was unacceptable. We can and have had fun every where else we have traveled. This resort is on the bottom of our list. [Details]

Overall beautiful resort with stunning views of the ocean. Food was plentiful and tasty. Oriental and La Roca dinners memorable. The "Viva Village" rooms are substandard and located outside the compound. Large resort so be prepared for alot of walking. Most visitors Italian and French. Most services did not have alot of English speaking employees. Weather was phenominal. Had an enjoyable vacation overall [Details]

The beach is great for both swimming and snorkeling. The food was plentiful and varied...could always find something good to eat. The only downfall was not getting our room by 3pm (as advertised). Another couple rented the room for a few hours longer leaving us to wait for our room for 2 hrs. The room time should not be extended if booked by another couple!! 95% of the people staying at the resort speak Italian and as the resort is owned by Italians they are catered to first. [Details]

Stayed at the Catalonia Dominicus last year, prefered Wyndham Beach. Would go back in a heart beat, if, we could communicate with more people, we love to socialize and party. [Details]

Overall, it was not bad, but for less money you can do better in Cuba.

Room was nicely finished, and furnished. Bathroom was clean, and except for one day had good water pressure and warm water. Sand is nice as is the water in many places, but there are places where the corals make it impossible to bathe in the sea.

The safe did not work with the magnetic room key. The TV was also in very poor condition. The remote control was a generic one that had only volume up working and channel down. If I wanted to turn down the volume, or change the channel up, I had to get up and use the buttons on the TV (which often sent the TV to programming mode). I called reception and tried to get that fixed. “Someone will be there in 5 minutes” 45 minutes later still no one showed up. This happened twice after which I gave up and didn’t call about anything else. The electricity in the room was out 2 mornings in a row. The first day I complained they fixed it, but it failed again the next day. The second time they fixed it for good. I suspect it was the battery in the motion sensors. The AC leaves room for improvement. When I walked into the room it was quite warm and humid. Only after turning on the AC did it get a little better, but it took a long time. Unfortunately, when you leave the room, the AC goes off to conserve energy. This means your room is never really cool especially when you most need it most.

The rooms are nice but very bare. The room had a safe, a bathroom with a hair dryer, and a TV that barely worked. Supposedly the rooms are to have Coffee / Tea maker, Iron & Ironing board and a balcony but they were no where to be found in my room.

The housekeepers are supposed to give you a bottle of water each day if you finished the bottle you received the day before. I would say that at best you get a bottle every other day. The linens were far from spotless and one of the pillows looked like it had someone’s puke on it. I threw it on the ground with the stain facing up, only to find it on the bed the next day. They should do a much better job washing the linens.

Check in checkout was extremely sluggish, even when arriving at 9PM with only about 4 guests checking in. The multiple check in / check out lines make it very difficult to know where to line up, and regardless of where you stand, the staff will serve the locals first, maybe because locals just don’t care and walk right up to the counter and shove in front of you.

The staff is quite friendly and for the most part try to make you feel welcome and appreciated. Of course if you complain something is not working in your room then they just don’t care.

One of the days, I was walking around the resort and one of the sales people on the resort property offered to sell me Marijuana.

When I was there, during early May, I estimate that over 95% the population did not speak English. IT seems that most of the people at the resort were from Italy, Germany, South America or Dominican. On the weekends the resort got very busy as Dominicans drop in for a long weekend. During the weekend the lineup at the buffet become chaotic and finding a table can be difficult. I had a situation where I left to get dessert and by the time I got back my table was taken by people that knew I was coming back – rude.

I can’t complain about the food. It was good, however given that people claim Dominican food to be so much better than Cuba, I expected more. I would compare the food here to a 4 or 4.5 star resort in Cuba. Ok, I've never saw sushi in Cuba.

The activities were good but in my opinion the way the beach is, makes it difficult to windsurf, sail or Catamaran. Without proper wind it’s really difficult to make it back in the narrow passage available for boat use. I wanted to take a bike out to tour the outside of the resort but never found where the bikes were. I doubt they even have any bikes. One thing that I overlooked is snorkeling. I wish they had it in the resort, but they don’t. I guess it’s more profitable if you pay $44 USD to go with them by boat. Probably the coolest activity though, has to be the trapeze. If you go, you have to try it, just make sure you listen to the instructions.

The hotel is not 24 hour All Inclusive like stated in the hotel description I saw. Sure you can have some pizza at 4:30 in the morning, but if you are looking for an alcoholic drink, good luck finding anything more than self serve beer. In my books 24 hour AI, means at least one bar is open 24 hours a day.

I hope I am not sounding too negative with this review. Overall, it’s a good resort, and I’m sure you’ll come back with good memories, but don’t expect too much. It’s not bad or anything, but I think in the future I will save myself some money and stick to Cuba. [Details]

We were a little upset about the check in, we had to wait a couple hours before we got into our room, and they didn't want to give us a two bed room at first, but shortly things were cleared up!.. I suppose better to mention the bad stuff first-> there were lots of mosquitoes, came into your room if you left the door open, but a little mosquito repellent and burning wick would help that problem. BUT no bugs in the bed!:) Air conditioner in the room worked but no temperature control so we'd have sweat and freeze intervals at night, probably why i got sick toward the end. The sand part of the beach and the resort was absolutely beautiful, but part of the waterfront of the beach had many rocky parts, coral reefs, but for most there is enough room to swim comfortably. The whole place was very clean except main buffet restaurant after a couple hours of the meal started. They kept up with maintenance well it seemed. The theater entertainment staff were great, very wonderful shows! there was plenty recreational things to do and a lot of space on the beach to relax. maybe that's cause i went in the low season! Only 1 sometimes 2 buffets open, for meals, and only 2 a la carte restaurants unless you want to pay extra for the going to the other side (the palace). Better restaurants there. The food was not all that great for the most part, but it was okay, others didn't mind, but ahh i didn't gain any weight so better for me if the foods isn't too tasty! Some staff were very friendly, i very much liked the tennis coach there!, BUT it seems things are changing from before, barely anybody said hello as i passed them, more cell phones, the workers just don't seem to keen on pleasing this time around, more concerned about themselves! turning more capitalistic I'd say! The place was huge if you count the other side(palace) you can walk around in both. Overall its hard to say the rating, anywhere from 3.5-4.5, But I'll go on the lower just because I didn't have the best experience with customer service there, plus the Beach side rooms seemed a little out of date, like the air conditioner! My recommendation is to stay at the palace and hope over to beach after dinner, cause thats where the party is!! Overall it was good, lots of people love it, and come back SEVERAL times, I like going to a different place every time, so i probably won't come back, unless it was really cheap! [Details]

not bad for $1045. nice beaches. good food [Details]

Excellent resort, clean, great food excellent weather etc etc, will definitely return. Only issue is lack of entertainment/activities for "tweens". [Details]