Punta Cana

This was our first sun destination this year. We've heard good things about this hotel so we thought we should give it a try. We are experienced travelers and our expectations were probably a little high for this one. Our dissapointment came right off the bat, when we entered the room. The concept/design intention is great. However, I've never seen a hotel room finishes more poorly executed in my entire 30 years experience. Right as you enter it, the linoleum floors (first time I see linoleum in a hotel room) look moldy, stained and deformed from all the humidity. The walls are patched and painted over without any attention to finishing/sanding. The paint job also very badly done. A 3 year old could do it better. The grout in the shower tiles were moldy as well, not cleaned properly. The toilet was not cleaned, there were blood marks/splashes on the wall beside it as well. The shelves were dirty with sticky liquids of some sort.The fan in the room makes a bad noise as it will fall off. The phone does not work in the room. Apart from that, the bed sheets were clean, the towels were clean. We did mention the condition of the room to a few employees around but we never got any response back. The hotel staff was polite. The waiters in the buffet were attentive and nice. We particularly liked Wilton so we went there every night for a little desert or chese plate after dinner to be on his station, to say hello to him. Out off all the a la carte restaurants, we tried the Bordeaux, Portofino, the mexican and the beach Grill. The beach grill had a great steak, and the French one had a very good duck confit and lamb shank. The entertainment was very good compared with other all-inclusive resorts we've been at. The entertainers work hard all day trying to make the customers feel welcomed and not bored. The spa was nice, but felt a little rushed through the water treatments and some of the massage therapists lacked proper training, were inexperienced. One would expect a minimal professional massage for the "premium" price they charge. The bathrooms at the pool and on the beach were not clean and often missing soap and paper. The floors and sink area were not tended to often enough as well. The bar staff on the beach were always around if you needed a drink. We did not like the constant harassing of the beach vendors. Another inconvenient thing is that you need to pay around $1000 CAD extra for the "Preferred" status upgrade to get a better room and have access to other amenities of the hotel, like sections on beach, pool, bars. restaurants, lounge, etc. Everywhere you turned, there were signs with privileged area where you would not have access to. This makes you feel a little off, unapreciated as a guest. We were offered that upgrade at the beginning but we refused it because they said that there is no room available for us to upgrade to. Therefore, considering the "spare room" we got stuck with for the whole stay, it made no sense to pay that enormous amount. Overall, not the best place we've stayed at, but the people are nice. I don't think we will revisit this resort. P.S. we did tip all the employees that serviced us, all around the resort, regardless of the service quality provided. We come from a lifetime of services ourselves...

Great Hotel. Staff was extremely friendly and there was someone always around to answer any questions. Pools were clean and beautiful to look at. Food was great, even at the buffet. My agent, Melissa Shah, knew I wanted to relax but my partner might want to party. Her recommending staying at Dreams but having access to Breathless was the perfect solution.

The resort was beautiful but the downfall was nobody spoke English at all or very little which made communication difficult and costly. We went to the meats restaurant and made to believe the meal we ordering was included in the all inclusive and when we checked out we were charged $186.00 US for it. Not impressed. All in all we had a great time but would never go back.

We stayed for 10 days and were 2 couples. We enjoyed our vacation. The hotel was very nice and clean. The food was pretty good and there was a decent choice. It's a smaller complex so great for those who have difficulty walking. We had a swim out room and loved the privacy of being able to cool down without going to the bigger pool. We had some minor issues, mix up at check in ect but they were handled without too much trouble. I would recommend this hotel if you're looking for a quiet getaway to soak up the sun and relax.

Bahia Principe Esmeralda.

Firstly, I found the rooms to be very outdated and in need of renovation. The decor and amenities are not up to modern standards, which detracted from the comfort of my stay. Additionally, there was no air conditioning in the restaurants, making it extremely difficult to enjoy dinner without sweating profusely. This significantly impacted the overall dining experience. The buffet restaurant was another major disappointment. The food quality was subpar, and the area itself was quite dirty, which was unpleasant and unappetizing. Oceanside and ZEN restaurant food quality was another let down. Hunters steakhouse and Rio restaurants were amazing and together with lazy river the highlight of our trip. Furthermore, the customer service throughout the hotel was poor; staff seemed disinterested and unhelpful when approached with concerns.With exceptions at the diamond club pool bar. Regarding the Diamond Club, I found it to be not worth the extra cost. The lobby had no air conditioning, making it uncomfortable to spend time there, and other hotel guests (not Diamond club) were using the Diamond Club pool and beach area, leading to confusion and a lack of exclusivity. Lots of locals on weekends making the pool, beach and bar area very noisy and crowded. We will definitely not recommend this hotel. This hotel is at most a 3 star.

Last time we were at this resort was 3 years ago and we stayed at premium level oceanfront. Staff seem to take preference if you speak Spanish and seemed bothered that we did not speak Spanish. I would say ratio would be 50/50. Was the first time we saw cockroaches at Barcelo Bavaro.

Our location was amazing at the beach. The 2 palm grill should not be club restaurant for breakfast & lunch as it's the only place to eat at the beach. The beach grill has no where to sit and eat it unless in your beach chair. . Beach way nicer at dreams flora and further up. Therefore itself is beautiful, gardens ect. The restaurants are nice & have great food, especially Mexican and Asian. The pools are very nice and nicely lit at night. But we did not go in as we are beach people. It does have a pool swim up bar. The resort is quite small so if mobility issues would be great, but for exploring found it a little small, but beautiful. We booked snorkeling from the beach which was fun. Did not do anything with vibes as they are more expensive. Checkin was great, lady we had was fantastic. Checkout not so much. Bunch of men working. We were waiting for the complimentary rom to change and seemed very disorganized, and didn't seem to care we had a bus to catch. I found the lobby bartenders much friendlier than the morning pool bartenders. Afternoon guy at the pool was alot happier. The coffee spot was fantastic! Enjoyed the air conditioning and cold coffee in the afternoon. Was so muggy. Lol I had one night our air conditioning did not work well. It got very hot. They did fix it the next day. Thank God.

Overall the resort was great. The grounds are beautiful and the staff is friendly. It was actually very reminiscent of another Dreams property that we were at. Check in was a bit slow, but that's a one-time thing so it's not a big deal. The beach was cleaned up fairly quickly after hurricane Erin and was kept pristine after that despite loads of seaweed every day. We could see the difference in the beach at other resorts to the left and right of Dreams - if you want to be on the beach, you need to be at a resort that devotes a lot of effort to keeping the seaweed at bay. Dreams did this very well.

My husband and I just returned from a 7-day stay at Ocean El Faro for our honeymoon. We stayed on the El Beso side and had a pretty good time. However, there were lots of inconsistencies throughout the entire stay that did put a sour taste in our mouths. First, our room. We had a junior sweet garndenview that looked right onto one of the pools. The room itself was very clean, super comfortable bed and the AC worked fantastic. The main issue was with room service. One day, we wanted extra water in our room. We called FOUR times before someone came, and it was a completely different person that just randomly walked by with water. His name was Juan Carlos and he was amazing! I explained to him what had happened and he told us any time you see me you tell me what you want, he was fantastic the whole trip. I was very excited for the food as we had went to Cuba last year and I was okay with the food there. Let me tell you I was actually super disappointed with the food! There was never a time, wether at the buffet or even at an a la carte, was the food ever actually got. It was lukewarm to cold. The only time you got hot food was if you went to one of the stations (omelette, stir fry, etc). That really annoyed me that nothing was ever hot. We tried a few restaurants (Dolce Vita, Steakhouse, Bluemoon, Route 66) all the places, except for Route 66 was meh at best. Dolce Vita has a great waiter named Frendy! Very attentive and a great staff member! Speaking of staff, they were not very good at being attentive during meals. One piece of advice I can give, avoid the “not time share but it is in fact a time share” people at all cost. They usually get you on day 2 to come listen to a “presentation” and will offer you a “gift”. If you do happen to go, cut the guy off after an hour max! We had a couple that was stuck there for FOUR HOURS. A waste of a day! Oh and their “gift”, a certificate for a couples massage which sounds really nice, but come to find out when we went to book it's only a head and neck massage so we ghosted our appointment. Also, if you fly Sunwing/westjet, the rep is a bit slimy. You have to go see him to book your transfer back to the airport and he told us we could either wait at the el Beso lobby or come to the main lobby. We decided to go to the main lobby. Our pickup time was scheduled for 11:50am, we did not get picked up until 12:30! My husband went to speak to that rep asking him if he knew anything, he said oh they might've gone to the other lobby to pick you up. When my husband said you specifically told us we could come to this lobby to be picked up, he said oh well I don't know you might've missed your transfer and I'd you did you'll have to taxi it. Thankfully the transfer was just super late, but that was again super frustrating! They are currently at 50% capacity as it's considered their down time, so maybe if we go back, we will go during their busier season. We give the whole trip a 3.5-4/5 due to the issues but the pools were beautiful and the drinks were good!