The short version:

Family of 4, went between May 6 - 16, loved the food, the resort, the gorgeous rooms, the staff, and especially the animation team. Would go back without a doubt.


The more detailed version:

My family (parents both in their late forties along with two girls of 23 and 18 years) went to this resort between May 6 - May 16, 2008.
First of all, I would like to say that I was very skeptical coming to this resort, seeing as I normally like to go to 5-star resorts I know well, and my usual country of preference was Mexico.
Little did I know that Blue Bay Villas Doradas received their fifth star about a month ago. Not that it is a surprise, now that I have been there. The thing is, with Blue Bay Villas WE PAID four-star prices for blue ribbon treatment.
THE FOOD was simply amazing. The buffet offered plenty of variety at any meal of the day that was very very delicious (think high quality restaurant food) with healthy choices available. The desserts were simply to die for - it was difficult to choose my tip 5 of the day. The a la carte restaurants were great, the Chinese a little over air-conditioned and it took about 15 minutes to order, but the food was definitely worth the wait (Lemon chicken, fried ice-cream, espresso.... wow!). The bars always had what you wanted, plus great bartenders. Make sure to ask for the Blue Bay drink!
THE BEACH was clean, with normally clear water (if you bring bread you might even get to feed some fish!) and a safe atmosphere.
THE POOLS very mostly clean (the day after the storm it was a little murky). The bar pool has most of the people in it. The main pool has volleyball and other aquatic sports going on quite often, so join in the fun! The spa pool is a non-smoking, very quiet, and relaxed environment - shhhh. :)
THE ROOMS looked stunning. We got a standard double room - two queen sized beds, two beautiful arm chairs, a large window facing the spa pool and one smaller one facing the side, a large closet which was great for two people. Just remember that your minibar is only stocked free for the FIRST NIGHT, afterwards you need to request for it to be restocked for extra charge. The only complaint we had about the room was that the toiled plugged up at times, but it was fixed very quickly for us. Flowers in the sink and toilet every day by the cleaning staff. WOW! Best five-star room I have ever been in! (We had room 5212)
THE ENTERTAINMENT. This is a very big part of what made my stay at this resort the best time I have ever had on vacation. There are always activities put on by the animacion team which are sure to please. Anything from the spanish lessons to the yoga classes to the water aerobics (what a workout!) to the bike tour to water OR beach volleyball to dance or cooking classes... In addition, every night there was a different show beginning at 9:30PM, which were often a treat. After the show things such as the beach party, the in-hotel disco, or the disco tour also happened and were EXTREMELY FUN! They are definitely worth missing sleep over! Super Tino, The Cat, Machelo, James Bond, Lorenzo, DJ Rock, Tony Montana Anaconda, Mosquito and the rest made these 10 short days simply wonderful, and I would go back just to spend time with them again!!!
THE STAFF is very friendly, kind, understanding, hard-working, and fun. They always have merengue in their step, even when they are at their busiest! They try to do the best they can with the English and that is all anybody can ask of them.

All in all this resort most definitely EXCEEDED all of my expectations and turned me completely around, seeing as I was very doubtful about liking it.


If you are planning on going on any sort of tours outside the hotel (eg Jeep Safari), bring your waterproof shoes with hard soles. Bring water bottles and a camera with many shots to take! Paradise Island was also a great experience, if you don't mind the 2 hour (comfy) bus ride.

Meeting the Managers and workers of Blue Bay was also wonderful, since we got to see who made our stay what it was. The General Manager Oscar is a rare gem when it comes to hotel managers. He is the kind of person who is kind to his guests but also, more importantly, his workers. Oscar give me a call! I am always willing to come work for your wonderful resort! :)



Please feel free to contact me for more information on the resort or the Jeep Safari/Paradise Island tours. I hope this helped!

3 of my friends and myself spent a week at the BlueBay from May 9th-16th! All I have to say is excellent, excellent, and excellent!
This was my 3rd trip to Puerta Plata (first stay at BlueBay). The BlueBay far exceeded my expectations.

First off the staff were remarkably professional and accomadating. They allowed us to change rooms with no questions asked (so that we could have rooms beside our friends) and helped us whenever we asked. The entertainment staff were also great! They included everyone in their activities and tried really hard to ensure that everyone enjoyed their stay. They put so much work into everything they did! The shows, the daytime entertainment everything!
The waiters at the pool and on the beach waited on us all day and kept smiles on their faces.

The food and the a la carte restaurants were excellent! The food was some of the best I have ever had!
Every night they had different kinds of pastas, meat, salads, (pretty much everything) and the food was really good. The same was the case for breakfast! It was also nice that the buffets had different foods everyday, so that you had a variety and looked forward to the meals.
The beach also had a selection of snack food that you could get anytime of the day!
In all of the restaurants they waited on us hand and foot and got us anything we wanted or needed in seconds
The drinks I was completely 100% impressed! They made anything you wanted mojitos, pina colada, banana mama, daquiri, wine, spanish coffee etc. You name it they would make it for you with a smile! I was particularly impressed by this because my past experience at all inclusive resorts was that they had a few drinks premade in a blender and they were all the same. This place not the case! Any drink you want they made, and they tasted amazing!

The music was also great! If you love salsa and merenge music they often played it live in the evenings!

The whole resort was very clean! The staff cleaned all day and the maids even came to the room twice a day!
The main lobby was gorgeous and very modern!
The beach was also great it had nice sun huts to sit under and if you were lucky enough to get one they even had beautiful beds you could lie in on the beach and at the pools!
They had 3 pools one at the spa (which was quiet non smoking area, a pool to play volleyball and games in and a swimup bar pool(my favorite)!
The other nice thing about this resort was because it was small you were always able to get a seat by the pool or on the beach! (my experience with other resorts was that if you didnt get a seat before 8am you wouldnt get one because there were too many people!)
Another great thing was that it was adults only! This really made a difference in my experience!

The only small recommendation I would have to improve the resort would be for them to update the rooms. They were very clean however they were very old and worn. It was obvious that the rooms had not been updated since the 70's or 80's (with the exception of the bathrooms which were brand new, beautiful granite.
If this resort had new updated rooms it would instantly become a 5 star + resort!

Overall I would recommend this resort to anyone! The staff was amazing and made us feel like we had celebrity treatment all week!

First off we booked this holiday on mytravel.com and paid £700 each for it flying from Newcastle. Also this is not a swingers resort like the other blue bay resorts and that is why some people are giving this place bad reviews on here. All I can say is thank God it wasn't!!!!

The holiday was fantastic. The hotel is spotless and our room was massive with 2 double beds in it which came in handy so we could have a nap in one when we were just grabbing an hour in the afternoon and keep the other clean. Maids come in twice a day, once to clean and give new towels and again on a night to turn down your bed and change the towels again. Pool towels are provided and are changed regularly.

The food was great with plenty of choice, wasn't to keen on the seafood restaurant but thats just personal taste cos my boyfriend loved it, def worth upgrading to lobster. 24 hour food at the beach is similar each day, chips, burgers, fried chicken etc but it is covered up all day unlike what has been written in some other reviews. Also if you are polite to the chef and try a bit of Spanish he will make you other things, we had roast chicken and English breakfast made for us. Remember the saying shy bairns get nowt. Food in the main buffet was always different with plenty of choice, always a pasta station where you decide what goes in your meal. If people struggled to find something to eat they seriously need to get some help!!!

Drinks are fine, you can order as many as you want and waiters come to tables and sunbeds. Glasses are small a good idea is to by one of those large thermos type things to take with you. Lots of the regulars had them and were a bit smug, however we stole some 3pint beer glasses from hemmingways in the plaza and used them at the pool bar which was a good laugh and shut up the smug ones!!!

The entertainment team were brilliant, a really good laugh and kept you entertained throughout the day with their antics. Yes I can understand why some people complain about the entertainment as it is mostly dancing and miming each night but what else can you do to entertain people of all different languages. This is the same sort of entertainment I have seen at all multicultural resorts and if you join in during the day and get to know the entertainment team it makes it a lot better. You must catch the magician who is on during the afternoon, he also tight rope walks and is far better than the evening fella.

The beach isn't the white sands you expect when you arrive but it is clean. The water isn't dirty its just not carribean blue, if you walk around the beach to the left it does get bluer.

The spa area of the hotel looked lovely but a bit cramped so didn't spend to much time there, think this area is far those who are looking for peace and quiet whereas we prefer a bit of life.

Can't actually fault the hotel but please read this next bit

OK here's some stuff that will come in handy

1. Don't book your trips from your rep they are ridiculously over priced. If you are worried about health and safety and stuff there is a hut at the hotel that offers trips far cheaper but still haggle. We did a self drive jeep wrangler trip and it was brilliant you are not taken anywhere to buy things and get hassled like on other trips, its all about having fun with the jeeps and seeing the area, you go to a plantation and learn a little bit then on a boat as well, everything provided, we paid $75 each and was totally worth it.

2. DO NOT USE THE SHOP... on the right hand side at the very beginning of the plaza. The stuff is overpriced and past best before dates. Also if you pay in dollars you get doubly ripped off as you only get 27 pessos to the dollar instead of 33. ALSO the owner got security and threatened to call the police when my boyfriend tried to explain that the paper he had bought 2 minutes ago and paid $10 for was a week old!!!!

3. When you have to pay pessos for something always find out how much money you need and change your dollars to pessos at the hotel before going to pay elsewhere otherwise you get ripped off on exchange rates. When you are given a price in dollars pay in dollars cos when they change it to pessos you get ripped off again.

4. If you need to get more money while you are away only use the cash machines at the front of the hotel they give you pessos, do not use any others and ignore all the guys that try and get you to change money with them. If the cash machines are not working take your passport and cash machine into the bank. Also do this if you need dollars.

Hope this helps and ignore the bad reviews on here, we got far more than we expected for what we paid and that is something that doesn't happen very often!!!

My partner & I stayed at this amazing hotel for 7 days from 5th May & it was brilliant.
We arrived in the afternoon & were greeted by lots of very warm smiles, a cocktail, a cold hand towel & hot weather. We were told all about the facilities in the hotel & that our suitcases would be bought to our room shortly, which they were & within an hour of arriving, we were poolside drinking the hotel’s signature cocktail, a BlueBay which is very, very nice !!

The main buffet restaurant has a lot of choice for each meal sitting, which was good as I’m a very very fussy eater. The Oriental restaurant is absolutely gorgeous food, even if you’re not into Chinese food, you’ll find the Spring Rolls & Lemon Chicken very scrumptious !! I’m not a seafood fan so we used 2 vouchers for the Chinese & the remaining for the Steakhouse ….. this was appalling, if you love your steaks, stay away otherwise you’ll be very disappointed !! I had the Fillet & my partner had Rib Eye, both steaks were mainly fat & veins. Unfortunately, we weren’t the only people who had a bad experience with the steaks.

The entertainment staff are very funny, but for the evening entertainment, they’re not comedians so it might not always be of fabulous laughs, but they do try. During the day, they have activities such as volleyball, dancing, cooking & Spanish lessons, darts & other things to keep you from getting drunk quickly from the strong cocktails !! All the other staff are lovely & are always smiling …. smile back & give a Hola !!

The rooms are spread out around the 3 pools, one of which is a non-smoking (by the spa). Our room was a Superior Double, the bed is very hard, but I slept excellent. 40 channels on the TV, most in Spanish, but as another reviewer stated, they have the Playboy channel free of charge !!

We went on the Jungle Outback Safari trip which is excellent, plenty of beer, water, coke & sprite to keep you going in the heat. Take a hat, suncream & spare clothes for after the boogie boarding. You visit a school which I strongly advise you to take some pencils for the kids.

There is a shopping centre 5 mins walk from the hotel which is full of souvenir shops, bargain with the shop assistants who say, I’ll give you a good price for that. They prefer Dominican Peso’s as payment if you’re going to get it cheaper.

Basically, it’s a fab holiday & it’ll be strange when you get home & go for a drink where you have to pay !!

HINTS:

Book the Al-a-Carte meals at least 1 day before you want to eat, as they get booked up very quickly.

Get some $1 bills for tips.

Get reception to give you a 2nd room card to keep in the air-con devise all day, that way your room is cool when you get there.

Wear a full swimsuit if you go boogie boarding, otherwise your bikini might come off !!

Be prepared to eat with the birds in the main buffet, once you get there, you’ll know what I mean !! But DO NOT let you be put off by this, it’s not worth the worry !!