I want to start my review with saying that I have spent the last 8-10 months on this sight reading reviews of the Paradisus Punta Cana. Some days I was scared and other days I was happy. I decided in August to plan a wedding at this resort. It came highly recommended by 2 different travel agents. With that being said- THEY WERE RIght!! The Wedding People, the resort , and royal service was TOP notch!!!

The Wedding coordinator was fantastic- every detail I emailed her was done. Everything I brought down was decorated as if I did it myself. They were perfect!!! The restaurant for our reception was great & the DJ and firedancers- perfect!!!

All our guests booked royal service but 2- Royal service restaurant for breakfest is the way to go. Its inside and quiet- the buffet was a mess!!! Two thumbs up for the royal service restaurant- we ate breakfest everyday and sometimes lunch.
The restaurants that required reservations we had no problems. I booked for 24 people for 3 nights with not a single problem. Food and service was better than any of the 4 other allinclusive resorts we stayed before in Mexico and jamica.
Royal service pool and beach- people ere asked to leave my entire stay. I saw the patriot cheerleaders asked to leave because they werent royal service.

The grounds are great- my wedding pictures are unbelievable. This is one of the nicest places. I did get bite from mosquitos my first 2 days but out of 8 people. They only bite me!!! Crazy- but always went running outside along the eco park.

This resort or should I say any resort that is an all-inclusive is not the Ritz carlton in the USA- We have stayed in many all incusive and this is one of the nicest. Also out of 24 people- not 1 person is sick..

I found the Hotel inside and outside beautiful.check in took 15 min. theres no question that the workers work very hard and deserve tips.I strongly recomend tipping.From bell boy to check in to maid and if not to drunk bartender,just kidding .I found I was put in bungalow 10,which has to be prime location.Room was beautiful .the food was good.there was never any crowds and even though you should book some of your dinner reservations in advance ,still had to book a couple and found I had to wait 20 min on a line .some rest dont require reservations.there is also room service and you could order any time .thats a bit slow in the evenings.all in all I had a great time.I would recomend this.the beach is so beautiful .I find it better than the bahamas and beach in cancun.you will find no rocks or broken shells .sand is so smooth on bavaro beach.of course there are people taking advantage of all inclusive .you do see people ordering room service with loads of bottles of beer ,or people checking out with 2 or even 3 bottles of beer in their hand . one guy came up to the lobby bar and asked for a 6 pack.theres nothing wrong with that .I only saw one man at the pool get carried by the bartender ,and the wife following him up to their room .that happens .this is such a great family place to relax and rest ,no one bothers you .they keep every thing clean and maintained

I'm seeing all these positive reviews on this site and I'm seriously wondering if I stayed at the same place as these people posting positive reviews.

Issue #1: Only about 20% of the service staff spoke english. The list of people who couldn't communicate with us included our housekeeper, all room service staff that delivered food to our room, waiters and waitresses in the buffet and hostesses in the buffet. The list goes on... If you go be prepard to speak spanish.

Issue #2: Many of the service personal were just plain unfriendly. I think this is probably in some ways related to the afore mentioned communication gap. That being said, the last night of our stay I did encounter a particualrly rude front desk attendant. I phoned the desk at 9 p.m. to report that our remote control stopped working (you cant use the TV without a remote) and I was informed that I would have to wait until tomorrow. On the night stand next to the bed is a peice of litterature that GAURANTEES all defects in room equipment will be remedied within 15 minutes... So I pointed this out to the unfriendly attendant and a new remote was promptly delieved to my room.

Issue #3: Beach towels were difficult to impossible to get after 1p.m.

Issue #4: The food... Lets start with the buffet and the Market Grill...It was nothing to write home about and at times it was watery and picked over (gross). Aside from the food the buffet was horribly understaffed. Most of the time I would be done with my meal before the beverage I ordered arrived. Also, it was difficult to get a seat due to the high number of tables that hadn't been cleared from the previous diners. The premium resturants required 24 hours advance reservations even if tables were open if you didn't have "24 hours advance reservations" it was "impossible" to get a seat. Unfortunatly, I can't write anything about the premium resturants because I didn't make "24 hour advance reservations", therfore I had to settle for watery and picked over.

Issue #5: The water sports staff... In the sales propaganda there is a list of "free" or "included" watersports. Like kite surfing, kayaking, sailing, paddleboats, ect... Ok...so you walk down to the water sports area and ALL...I MEAN ALL the equipment is stacked up on the beach and you say..."Hey, I wanna go kite sailing" and immediately the guy starts trying to sell me a premium service...like parasailing or fishing. Which I had to say "NO" to at least 12 times before he stopped baggering me. Then he proceeds to tell me that I need to make a "24 hour advance reservation" for watersports. Remember me saying that the equipment was stacked on the beach not being used? I pointed that out, and he ddin't budge. So, i made a reservation for the next day and when I arrived the "wind was wrong for kite sailing"...so I made a reservation for the next day and when I arrived I guess the guy saw that I wasn't going to quit so they decided to allow to kite sail. See a pattern here? Lazy and unintersted, that's the best way to describe them.

I could go on, but you get the point...service was just horrible.

Ok..so what was good. The beach was NEVER crowded when we were there. Alcohol flowed very very freely, although I don't drink. The resort was very well manicured. The rooms were very nice, lots of stonework, a big bathtub and a separate shower. Flat panel TV's, free minibar in the room. The pools were very nice, lots of places to find sun or shade, whichever you prefer.

I was amazed that they'd spent so much money on the resorts construction and totally fumbled on service. I mean just failed miserably. I suppose that's why the beach was empty...

Best wishes...


TC

I've used this website as a reference many times before travelling, and I never felt compelled to write a review until now. Consider this review a warning to anyone pondering a "vacation" at this destination. Our family of 4 vacations every year. What we seek are nice accomodations, beautiful beach, good food, and no hassles. We are not snobs and would have no problem staying at a Marriott on the beach as long as it was quiet, comfortable, and clean. When we book at what is deemed a 4-star hotel we come with high expectations. This was our first mistake. Here is my laundry list:

1) The Royal Service is a waste of money. My husband and I paid for a RS room which was identical to our children's regular room with the exception of the ocean view. Actually, our kids' room was nicer. Our room did not even have a door to the bathroom. it was a 'corral' style swing door affording no privacy whatsoever. They claim to reserve a part of the beach and pool for RS, but they never checked. Anyone could use their beach and pool. We downgraded to a regular room after seeing this, which was half the price.

2) We moved rooms 3 times. And not one of the rooms had a bed that was remotely comfortable. The first room would not cool down sufficiently. The next room had 2 double beds, which were so rickety that whenever my husband rolled over in bed it creaked so loudly that it woke me up. The next room they gave us had such a musty smell and so many flies in the room. We finally settled on a room in a building that bordered an adjacent property that must have had a working farm, and every morning at 5:45 we were woken up by roosters. The water pressure in the shower was almost non-existent. And bring your own conditioner, they only have shampoo. And bring bug spray with DEET. You'll need it every night.

3) The food. And i use that term loosely. Firstly, eat a huge breakfast. This is the only passable meal of the day. if you want a decent dinner, you need to make reservations which you cannot do until you actually arrive at the resort, at which time they have nothing available. you cannot do it by phone, you have to walk down to the clubhouse at the beach and wait in line with everyone else for 1 employee at a computer to search every restaurant for every day you are there. only to tell you you can eat at 9:30. When we finally did get a rservation (and it was only because someone was nice enough to give us theirs that they were not using) it was at the french restaurant that was awful. The steak restaurant too was bad, Chinese was worse, and the italian was basically stouffers entrees with elio's pizza. The only good restaurant we ate at was the Japanese one. My husband walked in there on our last night and tipped the hostess to let us eat at 6:45 without a reservation. The best move we made was the night we got in a cab and went to the Hard Rock Cafe and Tony Roma's 15 minutes away from the resort.

4) The beach. If you are used to Caribbean beaches where the water is turquoise glass, and you can walk in and see your feet, this is not the beach for you. The surf had crashing waves and an undertow. We went snorkling one day and couldn't imagine that a 15 minute boat ride would take us to a reef that had calm waters. Of course, it did not. And the snorkling trip they provide is mediocre, at best. The equipment is passed on from one group to another without even cleaning the snorkles! Gross. My husband is an early riser, but even he wasn't early enough because by 7:30 am all the shaded bali beds were taken. We realized that people were putting towels on chairs the night before, and thus we had to do the same in order to have chairs on the beach. This is way too much of a hassle when you're on vacation. There is no one serving drinks on the beach. Every time you want a drink (and at an all inclusive, there are plenty of drinks being served) you have to get up and go to a bar and get it yourself. The help is kind and friendly but speak very little English. Some of the most basic requests were not understood. (i.e.'where is the bathroom?')

5) The Casino is tiny. Don't come for the nightlife.

If you must come here, there is only one place on the property I would stay. The RESERVE. It is a beautiful brand new complex with decent restaurants and a beautiful pool The rooms are brand new and very chic. However, if you are beach people and want to go back to your room during the day, it's a hike. They provide jitneys that take you back and forth.
There was one thing that lingered with us. As we unzipped our bags back at home, the musty smell from our room was right back with us. Every article of clothing needed to be washed and fumigated. The memento of one HUGE disappointment in Punta Cana.