I wrote a review, but when I reviewed it, it was deleted. Ergo, this will be brief. This was the best vacation we've ever had--we've been to the Caribbean 15 times (twice to Puerto Plata, numerous times to Jamaica--Super Clubs, Couples, etc--and once to Sandals in Antigua) and this place beat them all. The food was sensational (except for over-done salmon in the Japanese restuarant). Mimosas every morning for breakfast and, once, they even had caviar on the boiled eggs at breakfast! They also had bowls of red and black caviar on the buffet several times at dinner. The Mediterranean restaurant was our favorite--skewered beef and seafood was excellent. We went to all of the a la carte restaurants, but, as many have said, the buffet is so magnificent, you don't really have to. And, making reservations at them was never a problem, as it has been at other RIUs we've been to.
My only complaints--and they are miniscule--were that the bath tub was too skinny (shower curtain constantly rubbed against you) and no swimp-up pool bar, which would have been nice.
I loved having a bidet in the bathroom (after asking a gal exactly how to use it). What a great European invention!
The pool was smallish, but very nice--there is always an attendant to get you a lounger and mat. And the beach goes forever! It is aqua and wonderful.
We went on no excursions, so I cannot speak for them.
The service is beyond reproach. We, as Americans, tip. But, I don't think it would have mattered; everyone was wonderful.
We truly cannot wait to return.
If anyone has any specific questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me--just put RIU as the subject so I don't delete it as spam. My e-mail is fkt7667@aol.com
Enjoy your trip, you'll have a fantastic time.
Fran

This was my wife and I's first trip to the DR.
The hotel itself was very nice and clean for the most part. Breakfast and dinner was great. There was so much to choose from and everything tasted great. Lunch was OK, not bad, not good. The service was good most of the time. It depends on who you got.
I had some issues with the fact you could only get Presidente (beer) at night in the casino or disco. The alterntive was some so-so, warm draft beer. Also, it took a while to get drinks most of the time. Not to be snotty, but hey I'm on vacation and I want it now.
The beach was very nice, and the pool area always had something fun going on. The gym was terrible, but there where a lot of little shops to visit all with-in the resport.
Over all we had a good time, not a great time. The DR was nice and if we went back we would not stay at the RIU's.

On a side note: Most of the guests were unfrienly and seemed to lack common courtesy. Not to generalize, but most of them seemed to be from a place that sounds like "Your Rope". There is smoking everywhere except at the meals, which was awful. When we went to Aurba every one was friendly and we made several friends which made things more fun.

I'm not a big fan of all-inclusive resorts, but in this instance was outvoted by my fellow travelers. The Riu Palace Macao deserves it's high ratings.........not 5 stars, but 4 1/2 for sure. As some people pointed out, some of the rooms were musty (at least our 2), but that might have been due to their curious decision to decorate in "stodgy New England", rather than "tropical". That's my ONLY complaint about the rooms. Check-in, seamless.......
Weather was 84 degrees, sunny and breezy; if you know of better beach weather, please get back to me. Yeah, you had to get up at the crack of dawn to secure a prime pool or beach chair, but again, where don't you? Heading down to the beach with the
post lunch crowd works, or like some other adventurers, pay for your lack of ambition with a few $$. As for the beach, soft sand and turquoise water as far as the eye could see. My spouse and I consider ourselves to be decent cooks, and for a buffet to be all things to all people is really a test of a good resort; I found it hard to get by the salad bar, there were so many choices.Visitors who found the buffet lacking, I'd be curious to know what and where they usually eat. The fresh fruits were a delight in themselves, mimosas passed at breakfast, great service, lovely setting.....we were more than happy. If you dig American fast food as your cuisine of choice, perhaps this is not the place for you. People complained that the drinks were not cruise quality; the last drink I purchased on a cruise was not cruise quality, and cost me $7.95.
Surely, people at an all inclusive don't expect single malt scotch, and designer vodka; the liquor was decent, and the tropical drinks were delicious. There was a very nice piano bar with live music, before or after dinner.....we never checked out the shows, deciding to hit the casino instead. The staff was just great.............we tried to tip the people who we thought were paid the least, but overall they were efficient, good humored, and ready to merengue at a second's notice. The only thing I would avoid is an extended tour; even to a beautiful place like Sanoa island; it's just too big of a chunk of a day to spend travelling on crappy roads! The 1/2 day Caribbean festival was a fun time, but for the intrepid snorkler or diver, you will be disappointed, the reefs are somewhat beat up. The bottom line is for a person who generally does not like all inclusives, and loves to complain when things are not up to snuff, I had a great time! Don't forget to brush your teeth with the bottled water from the fridge, your tummy will thank you.

We stayed from 3/20 - 3/27 with a party of 9. Last year two of stayed at the Paradisus Palma Real so the bar was set pretty high coming in to this resort.

First glance was alright but not spectacular as I was expecting from the literature as the "palace". You can't see the ocean from the lobby and the while courteous the front desk staff isn't that efficient (more on that later). Everyone in our party speaks Spanish so it wasn't due to a communication issue.

Room was a nice garden view (code word for non-ocean view). It was two queens (seemed larger than doubles) put together as a king, which was perfect for the my spouse and two children. The fan was nice although the air conditioning was not all that cold and really was unaffected by the thermostat. The room was clean but had a bit of a musty odor at times. Our sink drain pipe was broken and leaked all over the floor and our phone didn't work. We alerted the front desk numerous times about both the pipe and the phone but they both took over 48 hours to fix and we had to live with a trash bucket under the sink so that we could use it. Again, our party speaks Spanish so it wasn't a communication issue.

The pool area was very nice. There were plenty of chairs and towels and as long as you tipped early in the day your drinks were constantly refilled (tips didn't hurt the service even though they are "included" according to the literature). There is a second "kids" pool but it's more of a foot pool than anything so it got dirty quick. There was no swim up bar but if you want a drink quick there is a pool bar nearby which also has a self-serve ice-cream machine (big hit with everyone including the children).

The beach is awesome again with plenty of seating and service and there is a bar pretty close to the beach. There didn't seem to be any drink service on the beach which was a little disappointing. The water and beach were perfect with little seaweed as we had experienced with the other resort further east. During our stay we had four red flag days and four yellow flag days so watersports were pretty much out of the question in the beginning. We used the paddleboats, kayaks, and sailboats which were all free on the yellow flag days.

The restaurants are hit and miss. You are assigned a seating much like a cruise at the buffet, either 6:30 or 8:30. The good thing was that the staff accomadated you well if you wanted to change on the spot. Reservations at the other restaurants were made between 7 and 10 AM and were not a problem, especially if you tipped the reservation guy on the busy days.

Steakhouse: The steak was good but nothing that wasn't available at the buffet. The appetizers were a little different and worth the meal. The dessert was a crepe that was a little too sweet but not bad.

Kabuki: We were warned by our travel agent not to go here but did we listen, no. This "Japanese" restauarant had very bad stale sushi which wasn't even close to authentic. The meals were more like Chinese takeout than Japanese. The lighting was flourescent and too bright and not very warm. The redeeming value of the restaurant was the dessert, fried ice cream (Japanese??) although many in the party ordered the lychee exotic dessert only to have cantalope appear as they were out of lychee. Everyone in our party ended up eating room service that night.

Caribe: The view from this restaurant makes dining here 1 or 2 times worth it. The steak and shrimp were both good as was the entire meal. The dessert again was the crepe which again was too sweet. The view...well worth the reservations.

Buffet: Probably the best choice (outside of the view at Caribe). There was a wide assortment of meats, vegetables and sides. The made to order pasta bar rocked with lots of choices. Desserts included all kinds of cakes, ice cream and treats and you couldn't go wrong.

Drinks: The red wines were less than average choices from Spanish and Italian wineries but I didn't try the whites or sparkling. The mixed drinks were very well done.

Breakfast: Probably our favorite meal of the day. Anything that you could imagine was there. The fresh fruit juice smoothies were fantastic.

The entertainment was very good and run by a man by the name of "Johnny Bravo" and his sideckicks "Big-Papi" and "Super Johnny". We saw a show every night including a Michael Jackson imitator who was just like the real thing. The kids had fun dancing at the mini-club and playing bingo. The bar had a piano player every night and had very good singers as well. The shows were tastefully done and you could bring the kids to every show. During the day there were many events held by the pool which were fun for many different age brackets.

The workout facilities were very disappointing and far from the room. They were literally in a "hut-like" open air building with two rooms. There were some free-weights, old treadmills and spinning cycles but the facility was univiting and dated because of that we didn't want to go near them and didn't.

The spa facilities on-site were non-existent and you had to go to the "shopping center" to arrange for any services which were not in the hotel. I enjoy spa services on a trip like this so it was a little disappointing that they were not more integrated into the resort as a "palace" destination.

The guests were an ecletic collection of many nationalities. There were many German, Spanish, French (Canandian/France), and Americans. Everyone was very polite and got along very well. It was easy to strike up a conversation with almost anybody there and our children made many different friends during the trip. Speaking different languages didn't hurt but almost everyone spoke english in some form.

Now to the best part of the whole experience.....THE SERVICE. The service outside of our maintenance needs was outstanding. Every day we had the same breakfast waiter, Winston, who was phenomenal. Winston went out of his way to not only make our breakfast enjoyable he went above and beyond. The lunch waiters were varied but equally attentive as was the drink service. Dinner service was great at the buffet and the restaurants and was consistently good. Bar service by the pool and at night in the club was very good and consistent. The service would make me return again without question.

In conclusion, I was expecting more aesthetically for the resort as they bill it as one of their "Palace" resorts but all in all it was one of our best vacations ever, one that catered to all ages with great service and I would return without reservation (okay I probably would make a reservation).