My husband and I stayed at Excellence Punta Cana July 16-21 with a couple of friends. Now, I don't want to be completely negetive, but we were very disappointed. First off, just to let you know.... my husband and I are not very picky AT ALL. Some of the bad reviews I read before sounded like people just wanting to complain... or nit-pick. So I tried not to read into them too much.

Okay, so let's start with the positives.....
The grounds are gorgeous! Very impressive. They kept them in tip top shape, very clean, and even breathtaking.
The beach was very clean and kept up. Plenty of chairs and beds for everyone.
We stayed in the Junior Sweet and it was quite spacious and clean.
The pool was awesome. Very long and it is just as nice as all the pictures. It was a bit warm for my liking, it was so hot I was hoping for it to be refreshing.... but it was more like bath water. But all in all very nice! We spent about half of the time in the pool and the other on the beach.

Now for the negetives.....
The food is HORRIFIC! Like I mentioned before.... we are not picky people. My husband especially when it comes to food. The man will eat ANYTHING. There were a few dishes we couldn't stomach to take more than one bite. Whatever you do: DO NOT order room service. You will wait over an hour and the food will be cold and disgusting. We only enjoyed one meal and this was when they set up a huge buffet style dinner on the grounds right off the beach on a Friday night.
Although it is "all-inclusive" and they say gratuity is included just expect that the majority of the help will sit there akwardly after performing a task and all but stick out there hand for a tip.
There service isn't good. I can't stress the fact at how easy we are and not complainers... but seriously.... you would wait outside a restaurant and the hostesses would just give you a rude look like "I'll be there when I am not busy." I seriously wanted to pop one at lunch after she snapped at my husband for being a bit wet and refused service. (which he wasn't! we hadn't been in the water for hours!)
They can't mix drinks. Stick with "Presidente's" (their beer) and tropical drinks... that's all that is good. We tried ordering bloody mary's, long island iced teas, and mojitos... big mistake. But the beer is good, and they make one mean "bananamama."
THERE IS NO INTERNET, though they claim they have wireless. We have a son and we set up a webcam at my parents so that we could talk to him while we were gone. We tried in our room and a few restaurants and we couldn't connect at all. We would have to walk all around the grounds just trying to receive text messages on our phone.... and we carry AT&T. I believe there were a few that had service, they had Verizon... but god only knows how much those calls cost. They have an internet cafe.... which our friends went to and said they still couldn't connect, it was worse than dial-up.
You can't snorkel off the beach. There is nothing to look at.... you are only allowed a certain ways out before they booey off the ocean b/c it is too rough. And within those limits it is so shallow that with every wave it brings so much sand you can't see anything. Plus there isn't any colorful fish or coral reefs.
The ride to and from the resort was rough like everyone said, they can't drive over there at all. But that wasn't even worth complaining about. We didn't mind it at all... we rode with a couple who we made friends with instantly and just had the driver stop and get us beers.... so we didn't mind the pot holes at all.
Now, I know it sounds like more negetive than positives... don't get me wrong. It was very relaxing and my husband and I just had a great time just being together and being on the beach or in the pool. Like I said, the grounds are beautiful. Just make sure you keep all of the negetives into consideration before booking here.....

Excellence Punta Cana is by far Excellente. Everything about the resort is beautiful. Outside of th resort however leaves something to be desired. The Dominican people live in small huts with garbage everywhere. It is for sure a third world country The roads have potholes the size of the vehicles and it takes about an hour and twenty minutes to go from the airport to the hotel. Once you arrive at the hotel it is just the opposite. You arrive to a beautiful open air building with a glass of champagne and damp cloth to greet you. Check in is very quick and you are off to your room. A bellman brings your bags directly there. From the moment you arrive to the moment you leave you are pampered. Our room was a Jr Suite swim out. Swim out is the way to go...just feet to the pool. The room is pretty nicely decorated and had a 2 person juccuzi. The mini bar and coffee was restocked daily and maid service was top notch, there was not a detail overlooked by the maids. Between each building was beautiful gardens with elegant walk ways. as far as the rest of the resort goes you can definately tell that they have put time and thought into every aspect of it. The restuarants where excellent. We went to the Chez Isabelle, The Grill, The Toscana, The Barcelona, and the Lobster house. Chez Isablle has the best Rib steak by far. As for the Lobster house...we were not impressed. limited choice of dishes and the lobster was not what we expected. Aside from that breakfast, lunch, and dinner at any resaurant was perfect. The premises of the resort are well maintained and EVERY single worker was extremely friendly. The beach was beautiful with carribean color but atlantic waves give you the best of both worlds...to the right of the resort there were pools formed from coral and the water was so calm, so clear and just a perfect place to relax. Everything about our honeymoon was great at the Excellence. The only bad thing about it was a hard bed and pillows. We feel ike they could do better with them. Also vendors come everyother day and try and sell you the same thing at all of them. you are better buying from the giftshop at the hotel. Vendors harass you until you give in. overall 5 star resort but i will not return due to the conditions outside the resort. makes for a scarey ride to and from the airport

My husband and I took our honeymoon to Excellence, July 14 - 20th. After reading some of the previous reviews, we were a little skeptical of what we would think of the resort and the amenities.... but after experiencing it for ourselves we have to say it was above and beyond fabulous!!! We are very easy going, easy to please people, but definitely enjoy the finer things in life. The resort was gorgeous, the room was perfect, the staff went out of their way to make us happy, the food was good (not fabulous, but definitely good), there was plenty to do if you wanted activities (we spent all of our time in or by the pool or on the beach)... all in all it truly was a wonderful, relaxing, fun honeymoon and vacation!

To address some of the negative reviews we read, the ride from the airport is a little bumpy, but it is not that bad. There are just roads with potholes, but the drivers do a great job of avoiding them. In the hour it takes to drive from the airport to the resort, there was maybe a total of 2 minutes where the road was really bad. The bugs - yes, mosquitoes come out, but only at night from our experience, and they are not terrible...with a coat of bug spray (mainly on your ankles and feet) before going outside for the evening, you are fine. The food.... we will agree you are not eating at 5 star restaurants there, but there are 8 places to eat and definitely something for everyone's taste between them. Our favorites (in order) were the Chez Isabelle (French), Agave (Mexican), Tuscana - for breakfast and lunch, The Grill (lunch and dinner).... we did not try The Lobster House or Barcelona because we heard so-so reviews for them both... we were not able to try Spice (Asian) but heard it was very good. Also, there is a pizza place, which is fabulous! There is a guy that walks around the pool and beach during the day with a blue bag full of individual pizzas... we took full advantage of that several days. And, the pizza place is open late (until 2:00 am) so it is great for the late nights after the disco! Service - we had nothing but top of the line service! The staff was so friendly and quick to accommodate any request we had. We did stay at the Excellence Club (which I would definitely recommend spending a little more money to upgrade to) and loved the amenities that came with it. Robert, one of our private concierge persons at the Club, was amazing! He knew each club resident by name and just went out of his way to please his guests. Carlos was also a great staff employee that helped us with our bags. He was always wearing a smile and quick to help us with anything we needed. The event coordinators were so much fun! We loved all of them, but the 2 that stood out to us were Alexandra and Franklin. They were so much fun and did a great job with all the activities! If you go to Excellence and see the, be sure to tell them that Sammy Sosa said to tell them hi! (My husband was introducing himself as Sammy Sosa to everyone that worked there.... they thought he was too funny, but never forgot his name!) The shows at night were a little cheesy (especially the magician) but all are entertaining to watch. The Circus show (which was more like a Cirque show) was fun and the Michael Jackson show was really great! The young Michael was amazing! The Disco (dance club) was a lot of fun and never so crowded you couldn't dance. Definitely do the Dominican cookout on the beach! They serve Dominican food, set up tables on the beach, have live music with an area to dance.... it was great fun and neat to try the food.

I would say that 80% of the guests there were on there honeymoon, but there were several anniversary couples there as well.... definitely a perfect place for couples! Bottom line, I would definitely recommend Excellence to anyone - especially honeymooners. We cannot wait to go back for our 5 year anniversary!

My wife and I just returned from our trip to Punta Cana where we stayed at the Excellence Resort. This is a couples resort so no children. Many honeymooners. Upon arrival on the island, a bus will take you to the resort. Be prepared for an hour+ ride as this resort is the further distance from the airport. The roads near the airport are fine, but they get narrow and bumpy as you get closer to the resort. When you check-in at the resort, they may offer you a room upgrade to their 'Excellence Club'. They promised services that they failed to deliver on such as daily fresh towels for poolside, daily newspaper, and some other services. We did receive massages as part of the upgrade and these were very good, but again briefly hassled at the spa. The spa is nice although the jets were not working in the spa tub. Overall I think this upgrade was a ripoff for what one pays for it. I suggest you think twice if they offer it to you. We experienced that the electricity in the room would go off daily for no apparent reason usually in the late afternoon lasting a few minutes to up to 20 minutes. The room AC stopped working and we were without it for one day. Trying to get it fixed was a hassle. We tried room service on our first morning where we called up and order coffee, assortment of fruits, and pastries. They said it would take 55 minutes to arrive. We waited and waited. Three calls and close to two hours later, it was finally delivered. They call that 'Carribean time'. This is totally unacceptable for what was ordered. After that we gave up on using room service again. There are 8 restuarants. The food is plentiful and decent. However, you will find the meats are heavily salted as I believe they use alot of salt as a means of preserving the meat in the warm climate in the absence of decent refrigeration. Along this line, my wife got severe food poisoning on the trip. We discovered that she was NOT alone. About 30% of percent of the folks we spoke with said that they also experienced some sort of food related illness. This is way too high! I suggest you bring stomach meds just a precaution. The booze at the bars is fine although I found all mixed tropical drinks are very, very sweet. Most are premixed and not blended at the time of order. Many times communications is very difficult especially if you don't speak spanish. Take this into serious consideration and be prepared for this. The evening entertainment is decent if you like to watch mainly dancing and lip sync. We most enjoyed the jazz-saxophone music played most nights on the plaza and at the Martini Bar.

The main pool is expansive. It is nice, clean, and warm. Be aware that it is only 3-4 feet deep. Great for cooling off and floating in. They have no deep typical swimming pool. The beach is nice with plenty of loungers and huts for shade. However, if you like to swim or wade in the ocean forget it as the ocean is too rough. On all days there were warning flags telling people to stay out of the water other than in one small section.

There are scheduled program activities daily and you can take excursion trips. We took one excursion out to an island that was decent. The island is poor and there is really no place to wander or go on your own.

In summary, we had a nice R&R type of vacation. We made the best of their service and resort activities. However, given the very hit and miss service, difficulty with communication, and the clencher being that my wife got severe food poisoning (like no other time on any other carribean trip), this is not a resort or island destination that we'd consider returning to.